A Call to Choose Life

A Call to Choose Life | Summit Camp 2024 (Day 3) | 6/27/2024 | Joshua 24:14-15; Matthew 16:24-26; Acts 1:8-11

Intro

My tattoo with Jamal (show photo)

i’m here this week and speaking today… that your joy may be full!

Imagine The Scene: Deuteronomy 30:19-20

Deuteronomy 30:19–20 CSB

I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, love the Lord your God, obey him, and remain faithful to him. For he is your life, and he will prolong your days as you live in the land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

But why would they choose any other way than the way of life?… Jesus tells us why in The Sermon on The Mount: Matthew 7:13-14

Matthew 7:13–14 CSB

“Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.

TRANSITION: Difficult? Yes! But it is the way that leads to LIFE! Life abundantly! It’s the good life! It’s the life that is NOT wasted!

If you live gladly to make others glad in God, your life will be hard, your risks will be high, and your joy will be full. –John Piper (not in the book)

Pray

Father, what we know not, teach us. What we are not, make us. What we have not, give us.

1. Choose Life: Put Away Your False Gods

[[**SD**]] Read Joshua 24:14-15

Joshua 24:14–15 CSB

“Therefore, fear the Lord and worship him in sincerity and truth. Get rid of the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and worship the Lord. But if it doesn’t please you to worship the Lord, choose for yourselves today: Which will you worship—the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living? As for me and my family, we will worship the Lord.”

>>>Fear the Lord (reverence) = submit your mind, body, and soul (emotions) to the reality, truth, and love of God.

>>>Worship = The service of worship… the offering of your life to God. “Present your bodies to God as a living sacrifice…”

>>>Get rid of The gods of your ancestors = “Have no idols!”

Idolatry is loving anything more than Jesus Christ. Idolatry is treating anything as more important than Jesus Christ for your meaning in life, for your happiness, for your security and hope, or for your self-regard. -Tim Keller

For you to choose life is a call to go all in!

What do you love more than Jesus?

What do you look to for meaning in life, that is not Jesus?

For happiness? Security? Hope?

Peter (the disciple) was pretty raw… and (like me) failed a lot in following Jesus, but He got it right a few times. Here is one. John 6:66-69

John 6:66–69 MSG

After this a lot of his disciples left. They no longer wanted to be associated with him. Then Jesus gave the Twelve their chance: “Do you also want to leave?” Peter replied, “Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We’ve already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God.”

LOVING JESUS MORE THAN LIFE! Is The Cure For Idolatry! Believing that in Him you will find the fulness of life!

If our single, all-embracing passion is to make much of Christ and life and death, and if the life that magnifies him most is the life of costly love, then life is risk, and risk is right. To run from it is to waste your life. –John Piper (page 79)

TRANSITION: So today, ask yourself: ·

What (hobbies, goals, activities, material things, etc) or who (family, friend, girlfriend, boyfriend, influencer, celebrity, etc) do you have a tendency to love more than Jesus?

How can you rightly prioritize Jesus above that person, thing, experience, etc?·

But know that this is not just a call to lay down your idols, but also to take up your cross…

2. Choose Life: Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus

[[**SD**]] Read Matthew 16:24-26

Matthew 16:24–26 CSB

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it. For what will it benefit someone if he gains the whole world yet loses his life? Or what will anyone give in exchange for his life?

deny: completely disown yourself: back to point one

and take up your cross:

To take up one’s cross is simply to be willing to pay any price for Christ’s sake. It is the willingness to endure shame, embarrassment, reproach, rejection, persecution, and even martyrdom for His sake. -John MacArthur

The issue here is not apprenticeship versus atheism. It’s apprenticeship versus a vague, noncommittal, consumeristic faith that wants the benefit of Jesus without the cost. —John Mark Comer

He also talks about “self-denial” in the age of “self-fulfillment”

We want to “find-ourselves” but Jesus says find yourself IN ME!

We want the easy way, but Jesus calls us to the way that is both right and good!

But the long game is this… and this is the overarching point we’ve been making… self denial is the way! The way to life!

And self-fulfillment, self-promotion, self-protection, self-indulgent… these are all ways to death. All ways of self are ways to a wasted life. Or as Jim Elliot said it:

He is no fool who gives up what he can’t keep to gain what he cannot lose. — Jim Elliot

TRANSITION: So When you hear Jesus call you to “deny yourself”, what specific ways do you hear Jesus calling you to respond? Follow Him!

3. Choose Life: Follow Jesus Across The Street and Around The World

[[**SD**]] QUOTE Matthew 28:18-20

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

The great commission is a God’s Sandwich! BTW

By the power of God and with the presence of God we take up our cross and follow Jesus with the message of Jesus to all people!

Acts 1:8: in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Jerusalem: think where you live: some of y’all are future church members and supporters of ministry and teachers and deacons and pastors and non-profit founders in your community! When everyone else leaves, you will stay!

Judea: think regionally or nationally: some of y’all will plant churches in cities where churches are desperately needed… in your state and across the nation. Some of you might run massive companies or make a ton of money creating something and you’ll invest it back into the kingdom!

The Ends of The Earth: think the nations: some of y’all will be called to far off places that you haven’t even heard of yet, where the name of Jesus has rarely if ever been spoken. You’ll leave behind family and opportunity for the sake of the gospel in the furthest and the hardest places!

And so what I would beg you to hear is this plea!

Let me come to the end—whether soon or late—and be able to say to a family, a church, a city, and the unreached peoples of the earth, “For your tomorrow, I gave my today. Not just for your tomorrow on earth, but for countless tomorrows for your ever-increasing gladness in God. –John Piper (page 124)

Transition: This is heavy stuff, by the way, but not too heavy for Jesus!

JESUS!

Jesus carried His cross and then DIED on it

So that you might carry your’s and know LIFE

Jesus was RAISED UP to life in glory

So that you might carry LAY DOWN your idols in faith

And Jesus came into the world on a mission of redemption

So that you might go into the world on His mission in His power and with His presence!

So if you don’t know Jesus! Everything else we just talked about it pointless! PREACH THE GOSPEL! Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.

And Saints

But if you are a Christian, you have been saved by grace alone through faith alone in the finished work of Jesus alone!

And you have been saved for the mission of God alone!

What a tragic waste when people turn away from the Calvary road of love and suffering. All the riches of the glory of God in Christ are on that road. All the sweetest fellowship with Jesus is there. All the treasures of assurance. All the ecstasies of joy. All the clearest sightings of eternity. All the noblest camaraderie. All the humblest affections. All the most tender acts of forgiving kindness. All the deepest discoveries of God’s Word. All the most earnest prayers. They are all on the Calvary road where Jesus walks with his people. Take up your cross and follow Jesus. On this road, and this road alone, life is Christ and death is gain. Life on every other road is wasted. –John Piper (page 76)

Potential Energy > Kinetic Energy

potential energy is stationary, with stored energy to be released;

kinetic energy is energy in motion, actively using energy for movement.

Reflection Questions:

> · What (hobbies, goals, activities, material things, etc) or who (family, friend, girlfriend, boyfriend, influencer, celebrity, etc) do you have a tendency to love more than Jesus? How can you rightly prioritize Jesus above that person, thing, experience, etc?

> · When you hear Jesus call you to “deny yourself”, what specific ways do you hear Jesus calling you to respond? In what ways would it be difficult, for you personally, to take up your cross to follow Jesus?

> · Who in your life needs a relationship with Jesus? How and when will share Jesus with them? Where/who outside of your own hometown (a specific city, state, country, people group, etc), do you feel your heart drawn to? If God called you to go there, would you be willing to go? What makes you afraid to say yes? What makes you confident in saying yes?