Sermon Tone Analysis

I Owe You: My Life

List of t.v.

& movie sidekicks

Lone Ranger had Tonto

Toy Stories: Woody had Buzz light year

Batman had Robin

Butch Cassidy had the Sundance kid.

Captain Kirk had Spock

Shrek had Donkey

The Green Hornet had Kato - Played by Bruce Lee

Lucy had Ethel

Winnie the Poo had Piglet

Han Solo had Chewbacca - Chewbacca owed a life debt to Han Solo.

Chewbacca's life debt to Han Solo began after Solo, then an officer in the Imperial Navy, saved the Wookiee from slavery.

To summarize, if a person's life was saved by another, the saved person was obligated to pledge their life to protecting and looking after their savior, even to the point of sacrificing their own life, if necessary.

Do we owe God a life debt?

- If you accepted Jesus as you Savior and Lord the answer is yes.

If we do owe God a life debt, what would it look like?

Whoever wants to be my disciple:

It is your choice.

This is not an arranged marriage where both bride and groom don’t get a say.

Did anyone tell you that there is a cost to deciding to become a disciple of Jesus?

Wait what?

I thought if I just said a prayer I would be good to go and I could go back to living the life I chose.

Let’s look at three “Life Debts” to becoming a disciple.

1. Must deny themselves

Paul in Col 3:5 said “Put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature”.

That means trading what I want for what he wants.

Not my will but His will.

No matter what that might be.

Thru the Bible Vol.

35: The Gospels (Matthew 14–28) (Jesus Announces His Death and Resurrection)

Many people interpret this verse, “Let him deny himself ice cream” or “Let him deny himself some luxury down here.”

What this verse says is “Let him deny himself!”

You already know that the hardest person in the world to deny is yourself.

To deny myself dessert is hard enough, but to deny myself is difficult indeed.

To deny myself is to put self out of the picture and to put Christ in the place of self.“And

take up his cross, and follow me.”

We are not to take up Christ’s Cross but our own cross.

There is a cross for you and a cross for me—that is, if we are going to follow Him.

2. Must take up their cross

Roman cross a instrument of death.

Notice it does not say His cross but their cross or our cross.

This is dying to our own selves.

Remember what baptism is a symbol of: Death of old self, raised to new life in Christ.

3. Must follow me

Learn me.

The reason we have to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him is because we are so liable to find pleasure in everything except Him.

I have been a Christian for 34 years.

And every day since I open my heart to Christ I have had to battle my wants and my desires.

Some days I am victorious.

Other days I give in.

Save their life will lose it / Loses their life for me will find it.

Jesus was talking about saving one’s life.

But his focus was on life’s fulfillment in the next world.

His point was profound.

If a disciple spent all his energy focusing on this life here and now, he would lose the entire point of this life, which is investing in the life to come.

If the disciple tries to protect his life for himself in this life, he squanders the opportunity to increase his reward in the life that really matters—the eternal kingdom.

If a person does not accept the challenge of true discipleship, he will forfeit both true quality life now and full reward in eternity.

There are no gains if a person wastes this life on himself.

Matthew 16:27 confirms the subject here to be rewards rather than deliverance from hell.

The Christian life is a paradox: To attempt to keep your life means only to lose it.

A person who “saves” his or her life in order to satisfy desires and goals apart from God ultimately “loses” life.

Not only does that person lose eternal life, but he or she also loses the fullness of earthly life promised to those who believe.

By contrast, those who willingly give up their lives for the sake of Christ actually find true life.

To be willing to put personal desires and life itself into God’s hands means to understand that nothing that we can gain on our own in our earthly lives can compare to what we gain with Christ.

Jesus wants us to choose to follow him rather than to lead a life of sin and self-satisfaction.

He wants us to stop trying to control our own destiny and to let him direct us.

When we give our lives in service to Christ, however, we discover the real purpose of living.

Gain whole world, yer forfeit their soul?

To reinforce his words in 16:25, Jesus asked his listeners a rhetorical question.

What good would it be for a person to gain the whole world (that is, to have power or financial control over the entire world system of which Satan is the head), but lose his or her soul (that is, to lose eternal life with God)?

Every person will die, even those most powerful or most wealthy.

If they have not taken care to “save” their lives for eternity with God, then they gain nothing and lose everything.

Many people spend all their energy seeking pleasure.

Jesus said, however, that a world of pleasure centered on possessions, position, or power is ultimately worthless.

Whatever a person has on earth is only temporary; it cannot be exchanged for his or her soul.

Believers must be willing to make the pursuit of God more important than the selfish pursuit of pleasure.

If we follow Jesus, we will know what it means to live abundantly now and to have eternal life as well.

Then he will reward each person according to what they have done

Jesus, here again using the self-designation of Son of Man, said that he will come again, but at that time he will be in his exalted state as King and Judge.

The judgment referred to here is positive, involving the Son of Man’s loving acceptance of true disciples.

While Jesus called his followers to deny themselves, take up their crosses, and follow, he also promised great reward.

Their self-denial and discipleship would not be wasted.

Their repayment would come in the glorious future Kingdom of God.

He presented the disciples two approaches to life:

Deny yourself: Live for yourself:

Take up your cross Ignore the cross

Follow Christ Follow the world

Lose your life for His sake Save your life for your own sake

Forsake the world Gain the world

Keep your soul Lose your soul

Share His reward and glory Lose His reward and glory

I Owe You: My Life

I owe you a life debt that I am overjoyed and honored to pay.

Columbine shooting: Casey’s story - I will not deny Christ.