Are You Dying to Live for Christ

Memorial Day

This weekend, we remember those who gave their life for our country. We have loved ones who died in the defense of our country, or died as a result of wounds sustained during times of war. Brother Richard Moore was one of our loved ones who died from cancer onset by Agent Orange exposure during the Vietnam war. He passed away in 2018 and we have missed him, but thank God for his sacrifice - and the sacrifice of all those who gave their life for our freedom.

If you have lost a loved one due to service-related illness or lost a loved one in the service of our Nation, would you stand as we pray.

Lord, we thank you for the freedoms we enjoy in the United States of America. We recognize those freedoms are not free. We thank You for the men and women who have given their life to preserve our liberties, and we ask for your presence over their families and loved ones, those who are in need of Your comfort and peace as they mourn this great loss. Help us to not waste the freedoms we have been granted. Help us to live everyday in a manner worthy of Your Word and will for our lives. We pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

John 15:13 NKJV

13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

Jesus set the standard when He gave His life for you and me - to redeem us to God and bring us liberty from the captivity of our sin.

As we celebrate Memorial day, let us remember the sacrifice of our fallen military members, and the sacrifice of Jesus for our eternal freedom.

The message of the Gospel - The Good news of Jesus - is a call to life, and a call to death.

We are called to receive the life that Jesus gives in exchange for the death of our desires and way of living.

1- To Truly Live, we must Die

Luke 9:23–25 NKJV

23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. 25 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?

Here we see a contrast between our will and God’s will.

A contrast between our understanding and submitting to His.

When we attempt to gain what we believe is going to get us everything “the whole world”, we still are in the end destroyed, or as another translation says, we lose our soul.

If we want to follow after Jesus we are called to

Deny ourselves

Take us our own cross (a symbol of bold death in constant submission to Christ), and

Follow Jesus (Follow His ways, His teachings, His style.

There are athletes who want to be like Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Drew Brees or Tony Romo. (Of course all the folks I listed are old) They watch the footage of these famous athletes. If they are still alive, they dress like them. They want to know their work out routine and how they do business. They emulate everything they can to be just like the athlete.

We are called to follow Jesus like that. Not necessarily His hair style (God wants you to use your hairstyle and clothing, etc.), but we are called to follow His teachings, His leadership style, His approach to situations, His commandments and His ‘tips and tricks’.

Jesus said, Matt 28:19-20

Matthew 28:19–20 NKJV

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

He said we are to teach new Christians to observer, or follow, all the things that Jesus commanded us to do.

The difference between Jesus and all the old athletes of the past,

is Jesus is ALIVE and He promised us in verse 20 that He is with us. You are not alone. You don’t have to do this by yourself. Amen?

Here is a contrast Paul used when talking to the church at Philippi:

Philippians 3:10 NKJV

10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,

Here, he uses - “The power of His resurrection” - Resurrection Power, Yes! We want that! We need that to overcome our flesh and sin.

And He includes, the fellowship of His sufferings. That we would share in the suffering of Christ. Ouch!

But if you want to know Jesus, you must be willing to share in His sufferings and in His resurrection power.

This only happens when we learn what it means to die to our own desires.

2. Dying allows us to Truly Live

Galatians 2:20 NKJV

20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

While Paul is talking about choosing to crucify his evil desires and fleshly sin, we often only focus on the death part.

Please understand we are not talking about physically killing yourself. God has a purpose for you and it will only be completed on this earth as you live FOR Christ.

In order to live for Christ, we must first allow our evil flesh desires to die.

Death takes loss, mourning, grief, and surrender.

The hardest part of killing our evil desires, is that we have the ability to let them resurrect in our life, so we are in a constant state of denying our flesh and living “by faith in the Son of God, who LOVED ME and GAVE HIMSELF for me.

Remember, God loves you so much! He loves you to the point that died in your place and took on your eternal punishment.

Some Christians are willing to die and live a zombie-like life devoid of joy or any indication of the beautiful life we see all around us.

From sunrises to flowers to babies laughing. We see such beauty all around us, and yet for these Christians, they think dying means to become indifferent feelings.

I want you to know Jesus had feelings! He laughed and played. He enjoyed time with people, and in prayer. He came on this earth to die for our sins and enjoyed each moment of His time on earth.

Kids are great at telling fun people and “dead” people. They are not attracted to people who are gloomy. Jesus was not gloomy - all the kids ran up to Him and played with Him.

Are you a gloomy Christian? Do you stay in your home - trying to die to self, and find that you are not truly living either?

3. Choose to Truly LIVE in Christ

Today, we are going to Kirby lake at 3. We are going to pick up some trash, play games, eat food, and worship Jesus. Lord-willing, we will have a chance to share the good news of Jesus with people too.

If you are asked about Jesus, how will you answer?

What is the testimony of how Jesus transformed your life?

Are you the boring type, who is stuck in the middle between death and life?

These are the kind of people who were delivered from Egypt but refused to go in to the promised land

They are not willing to walk in the newness of life - their question is “how much of my desires can I keep and still be saved?”

When we should be asking, “how much of God can I have in my life”?

Have you ever seen the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe?

There is a scene where the witch comes to claim Edmund and says that his life belongs to her because he is a traitor and that the penalty was his death. The Lion (who represents Jesus), gives His life for Edmund.

He gave Edmund his life back in the same way Jesus gives us new life. Not that we would stay in our death, or look like the world, but that we would be transformed by the renewing of our mind and truly LIVE our lives for Christ

Ephesians 4:1–3 NKJV

1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Don’t just walk in freedom from sin, walk worthy of your calling.

To our graduate, you are