Untitled Sermon (12)

“I” is the Issue!

Luke 9:23–27 CSB

Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will save it. For what does it benefit someone if he gains the whole world, and yet loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and that of the Father and the holy angels. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”

Christ says, whoever wants to be my disciple must…he doesn’t say should…or if you want to…He says mustdeny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.

What exactly does that mean?

In Jesus’ day the cross stood for pain and suffering, but its main meaning was death. If you were carrying a cross, then you were a dead man walking.

So what Jesus was telling them and us was in order to follow Jesus, and be a man or woman of God, you have to put those old ways to death; you have to crucify your own plans, your own desires, you own wants, your own needs and surrender your life fully to the Lord Jesus Christ and do His will daily because “I” is the issue.

Do you find it interesting that He didn’t say deny the devil or deny drugs, sex, hatred? He said deny yourself daily, pick up your cross and follow me.

He doesn’t simply call us to believe He can save us. He calls on us to commit our whole lives to Him to trust Him alone for our salvation and then become a disciple for Him.

And in order to become a disciple for Him, you have to die to self, because “I” is the issue. One of the biggest things that Jesus did was rise from the grave, but in order for there to be a resurrection, there has to be a death because you have to die to rise.

When you die to self, and seek to be closer to God and you start feeding on the Word of God daily, you’ll start to rise against the devils that are against you. It’s impossible to rise if you haven’t died yet, because “I” is the issue.

We must die to self in order to live for Christ. And in order to live for Christ we must surrender our mind, body, and spirit and quit treating salvation like a get outta hell free cards, because salvation is more than an emotional experience. It’s a shame to give the Lord your heart but keep your life. It’s your life He wants. It’s your life that God changes to show His mercy, grace, love and compassion, but if you don’t renew your mind, grow in righteousness and die to your old ways, you’re missing out on the most rewarding side of being a Christian, which is the transformation Jesus makes on “I”.

Because “I” is the issue.

God never condemns us for our life prior to salvation. If He has forgotten about it, why shouldn’t we? If you have sincerely asked God to forgive you, then the Bible says, “our sins, our past is as far as the East is from the West. They’re gone, so don’t let the devil torment you over things from the past, that’s why we die to not only self but also to our past life.

If we die to self then we no longer walk according to our need, but we walk according to the Spirit’s needs.

To continue to be carnally minded is to continue down the path of death. When we get saved our path must change course. Salvation is the beginning. We then must renew our minds and transform from a carnal mind, a sinful mind, to a Spiritual mind. The Bible says a Spiritual mind leads to life and peace. That’s what the whole world is looking for, but they are missing it because they want to have their cake and eat it too. You can’t serve God and keep your carnal mind, because one gives life and one ends life. One fulfills God’s commandments and one is against them.. One promotes selfish desires and one submits to God’s desires.

Romans, Chapter 8, Verse 8: “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” We have to deny the flesh; flesh meaning ‘I’. Decrease ‘I’ and increase ‘Thy’! Because ‘I’ is the issue. So, to please God we have to live in the Spirit and to live in the Spirit we have to die to self. And to die to self, we have to fully commit and surrender to God and seek His will, study His Word and forget about ‘I’. ‘I’ is a bigger stumbling block than the devil himself. Christ said to deny self, pick up your cross and follow Me! He didn’t say deny Satan and follow me; He said deny self because ‘I’ is the issue.

Less of ‘Me’; more of ‘Thee’.

We have to deny ourselves daily. The Bible says the death He died (He is Christ) He died to sin for all, and the life He lives, He lives to God.

We become slaves to righteousness so what we in the flesh want isn’t important. In order to please God we must make ourselves a living sacrifice to Him. Anything less and people will not want what we have.

People wanted what Jesus had. There was a draw to Jesus and the same Spirit Jesus had now lives in us so there should be a draw to us as Christians (Christ-like ones).

The only way for that to happen is for us to die to self and fully rely on the Spirit to guide us and the only way for that to happen is for us as Christians to seek the Lord, get in His Word and build a personal relationship with God.

If you’re coming to church on Sunday and relying on the pastor to build a personal relationship with Jesus for you, you’re missing it completely. We have to surrender and die to ourselves and live our life being about the Father’s business. Jesus was about the Father’s business. Everything He did was inspired by God and people were drawn to Jesus.

You see, if we are living conformed to this world then we are not different than this world. But, when we fully submit to God and renew our minds, we then are light to the world and that’s what the world of darkness needs is a glimmer of hope and light. Christ in us is the hope of glory!

We have to take the basket off our head and be bold enough to let that light shine bright. This isn’t “this little light of mine”. It’s the light of the world when you decrease “I” and increase “thy”.

When you decrease ‘I’ and increase ‘Thy’ you become hope, a hope that’s a ray of light in a dying world and lost people can recognize there’s something different in you. The difference is that we have to die to self and we die to self for the soul purpose of puttingon the Lord Jesus Christ we must put off self and when we take off self, we won’t make provision for the flesh, to fulfill it’s lust. We won’t make excuses to interact with sin and its lusts. We won’t use grace as a tool to sin and get away with it.

Grace is not a license to sin! As a matter of fact, grace is a license not to sin! So when you’re saved by grace you receive the Spirit of God which knows God. Scripture says the very Spirit that God freely gives us searches all the deep things of God. So, us now having that same Spirit we should be one with God and relying on the Spirit to live and walk and pray and study and witness and die to self.

Crucify me and intensify He!

Scripture says we have the mind of Christ. Since we have the mind of Christ, we cannot afford to think like a mere man! Christ called Peter Satan for thinking like a mere man because ‘I’ is the issue.

Paul said, “How can I start feeding you with solid food when you can’t even get past the first stage of carnal thinking and carnal living?” How can we mature into boldness if we don’t put in the work to build on the Spirit we received from God? The Spirit which builds on the wisdom of the mind we got from God…which allows us to be the fire-filled disciples of Christ we’re supposed to be!

When your luke-warm and the hard times come and you get thrown into the fire, it kills you and your spirit.

It’s sometimes impossible to push through, but when you’re on fire for God and you get thrown into the fire, all of a sudden there’s another person…in the lion’s den with you…another person fighting Goliath with you…another person in the fiery furnace with you…just like Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego.

Three men who were on fire for the Lord and wouldn’t bow to any false god and when they had a test or trial or a tribulation, they weren’t alone because they had the Savior. They trusted in the God of Abraham and they came out of the fire without a single burn because they were about the Lord’s work.

They didn’t worry about “I” because “I” was and is the issue.