Dying to Self
Dying to Self • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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This morning we’re starting a 6 week series for Lent I have titled “Dying to Self.” It will take us up to Easter.
I’m not talking about Physical life and death. I’m talking about the intentional, committed, transformative process of seeking Christ.
There are conditions that we must meet if we are to be called disciples of Christ.
These conditions aren’t what I say they are, and they aren’t what you might say they are. They are the conditions set forth by Jesus Himself.
Three of the Gospels record where Jesus says, “if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23 and Matthew 16:24.
We call ourselves Christians, Jesus calls us Disciples, what’s the difference? We are told in Acts 11:26 that he word “Christian” is first used in Antioch.
It’s only used 3 times in the NT. It’s origins come from an evil secular society who were using it in a derogatory and hostile way toward the Disciples of Christ.
Disciple is used 269 times in the NT and is the word Jesus used to describe anyone who truly follows Him.
Unfortunately the word Christian has become more about a badge than about following Jesus. I think we have a whole lot of Christians in this world, but very few Disciples.
Dallas Willard says it this way:
First, there is absolutely nothing in what Jesus himself or his early followers taught that suggests you can decide just to enjoy forgiveness at Jesus' expense and have nothing more to do with him.
And A. W. Tozer says
feeling that a notable heresy has come into being throughout evangelical Christian circles--the widely-accepted concept that we humans can choose to accept Christ only because we need him as Savior and that we have the right to postpone our obedience to him as Lord as long as we want to!
He goes on to say that this heresy has created a quite reasonable impression of what we might call “vampire Christians.” Where they’re actually saying to Jesus:
I'd like a little of your blood, please. But I don't care to be your student or have your character. In fact, won't you just excuse me while I get on with my life, and I'll see you in heaven.
If we are to truly be Disciples, then we must get to know Jesus.
Knowing Jesus isn’t simply knowing FACTS about Jesus. Rather it’s an experiential relationship. We truly experience and feel a personal relationship with Him.
Think about it. Christians go around telling the world that they can have a “personal” relationship with Jesus.
I want you all to understand and experience the JOY of knowing Jesus Christ.
In Philippians chapter 3 Paul talks about this experiential relationship. He distinguishes the REAL disciples from “vampire Christians” so to speak.
3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh,
To worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus means a complete and total surrender.
Just think about what we mean when we say someone worships some celebrity.
We mean they hang on their every word, they start dressing like them. They get their hair cut like them. They start acting like them.
Why do we not do the same when we claim to worship God? Paul says if you truly worship God then you no longer have confidence in your fleshly abilities or religious understanding.
Paul then uses himself as an example:
4 though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so:
5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee;
6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
He’s saying I don’t care how good you think you are or how much you think you know.
Whatever we might think we have that makes us superior to anyone else only pales in comparison to Paul.
He had and did everything the law expected. His heritage, born a Jew in the tribe of Benjamin.
Remember, Israel split into two kingdoms Israel in the north and Judea in the south. Israel turned from God and was conquered, dispersed and never heard from again.
Judea eventually turned and was conquered. However, Judea didn’t disappear and God chose to preserve Judea.
Benjamin was one of the two tribes in Judea, along with Judah, that God chose to preserve as His people.
He was heads above his contemporaries as a Pharisee scholar.
His ability to follow the Law, by Hebrew standards, made him stand out. He was considered blameless.
I don’t know about you, but that might cause my pride to get in the way.
His zeal is so unmatched that he, in religious faith, persecuted the church.
What Paul is talking about here is what we might call apologetics today. I want you to think about this for a minute.
All the social issues we face today. Abortion, LGBTQ, Transgender, Pronouns, etc…
In every one of those issues they will try to use biblical text to either validate their behavior or claim speaking out against it goes against the Bible.
You ever had anyone tell you “Don’t judge me, the Bible says not to judge people?”
Kind of bristles you up doesn’t it?
We’re like, “oh no you don’t. I’m not going to let you get away with that unscathed. You’re going down.”
We hit them hard and are ready to completely destroy every argument they have in their pocket. We are ready to persecute them and burn them at the stake.
Now, we like to say it’s done in love. It was the Holy Spirit who guided me. We are just being righteous by shining our light into the darkness.
But, Paul turns that on its head in verses 8-11
8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ
9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;
10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Paul says, All those FACTS you have gathered up and stored in your head.
All that understanding you think you have in your head. All that you have that you think makes you perfect and blameless.
Throw it away. Toss it in the trash because it’s completely worthless. He says if you truly are a Disciple, then what you should desire most, is an experientially felt relationship with our Lord and Savior.
It brings to mind a wedding ceremony. We love our soon to be spouse so much that all we want to do is get to know them more intimately.
It’s almost like Paul is telling us to say “I do” to Christ for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health. Only death doesn’t separate us from Christ it brings us nearer to Him.
Paul explains this well in Ro 6:3-6
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
Here’s where the rubber hits the road. The difference between a “vampire Christian” and a Disciple of Christ.
We ALL say we want to know and share in the power of His resurrection, but how many of us are not just willing to but actually want to share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death?
Before we can live in the power of His resurrection, we have to die first. Before we can EXPERIENCE the resurrection, we MUST be united in death with Him.
We’re going to spend the next 6 weeks intentionally dying to self so we CAN live in the power of the resurrection.
We must be intentionally proactive in having an experiential relationship with Jesus. It doesn’t just magically happen on its own.
How well would you know your spouse, your family, or anyone else around you if all you did was pay attention to yourself?
If you didn’t spend any time with them, didn’t talk to them, didn’t seek to be in their presence. How well would you know anyone?
In order to have a relationship with another person we have to give up part of ourselves, we have to give up precious time.
We have to be in their presence and listen to them. Observe them so we understand their wants, desires, and needs.
That takes sacrifice. It takes a little bit of dying to self. It takes being willing to change our worst and most disgusting behaviors.
The Bible says we are supposed to do the same thing for Christ. The NT has many ways we are to die to ourselves or “cast off” certain sins.
13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
25 Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another.
31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.
8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.
21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
And here’s the one I find hits the hardest.
1 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking,
That word hypocrisy is the killer isn’t it?
There’s no doubt we all want to experience the joy and power of the resurrection, but we must first and foremost be busy about dying.
Jesus gives us a prime example of how we are to be intentional about dying to self. He was willing and intentional about heading to the cross.
Look at how He told His Disciples EXACTLY what was going to happen with SPECIFICALLY minute details.
17 Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them,
18 “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death,
19 and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again.”
He KNEW all the horrific details and yet, He was intentional about His actions leading to the cross.
Over the next 5 weeks we are going to examine His actions the week leading up to the cross.
I want to invite you to start proactively and intentionally start dying to self, take up your cross and follow Jesus by getting to know Him with an experientially felt relationship.
Our proactive and intentional dying to self takes time and steps to crucify the flesh.
One of those steps is praying: Seeking God.
From now through Easter let’s begin to form the habit of carving out a specific time for prayer.
A time we can meet with God and prayerfully ask Him to illuminate areas in our lives that need to be pruned.
Another step is Scripture engagement. Notice I didn’t say “reading” or “intake?” I said “engagement.”
Because we should be actively pursuing God as we meditate on His word. Let the word give us strength and illuminate areas in our lives where we need to remove and repent.
An additional and powerful step if you choose to participate is “fasting.”
Abstaining from food is the most powerful method. We abstain for a specific time and confess our need for God alone.
If you have ever fasted before you will understand how much that time brings understanding to your weakness.
If you haven’t fasted much or are brand new to fasting and choose to participate maybe start with every Wednesday abstaining from breakfast.
Take the time you would spend eating and use it to meditate and pray on God’s word.
If food is too much of a stretch for you to give up, many people commit to fast or give up certain things they tend to depend upon instead of Christ.
Could be Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, a certain TV show. Whatever it is replace the time you would spend doing that with time in prayer and meditating on God’s word.
On Sundays let’s come together and feast together. I don’t mean a potluck every Sunday. One Sunday would be nice.
I mean Spiritually feasting on God’s word. Let’s talk about what we’re learning about God and ourselves to each other.
Easter Sunday could be the most amazing Easter you’ve ever experienced if we participate in cleansing ourselves.
Really!! Can you imagine what Easter could be like if you spent from now till Easter Sunday denying yourself and taking up your cross daily?
Does any of this excite you?
Does it cause you to shrink back and have a little doubt?
Are you waiting for God to do or show you something important?
Maybe God’s been WAITING for you to take an opportunity like this.
Maybe God is just waiting for you to focus on Him more intentionally and more intensely.
God knows if you do focus more intentionally and more intently on Him that you will get answers and fall deeper and deeper in love with Him, over and over again.
