Someone else must Die!

Psalm 91:15 “He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.”

I wanted to start with this verse this morning as a reminder that He wants to be with us in our struggles… This doesn’t guarantee exclusion from troubles… it does offer His presence throughout the struggle.

But we are so distracted by the pain, by the emotion… guess what, you can’t feel your way out of it with anger or screaming, or blaming someone else.

In this world we will have struggles… there will be pain… there will be people we don’t agree with… but do we want Him with us or not?

Guess what, He already died for you, so you could have the freedom to walk with Him, and He with you.

So, here’s the choice… someone else must die!

Someone else must Die!

Luke 9:23 And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

Dying to self is a profound spiritual concept that involves surrendering one’s own desires and will to follow Christ completely.

Story about a young couple… True story too...

Mark and Susan had been married a few years, when Susan began losing here eyesight… she started falling into a depression. Mark came to her a said, I’m sticking with you through this, and I’m gonna help you learn how to do your job again. SO they worked hard at it for weeks, he would take her to work each morning, help her get started, and leave for his job at the Army base. One day, he told her, that he really needs to start getting to work earlier, so she’ll have to start going on the bus and finding her own way. This terrified her of course, so for 2 more weeks, he helped her get on the bus, get off at work, and he’d be there when she was done to help her get home.

Finally the day came when she had to do it on her own, so she cautiously followed the programmed direction from her memory, and went the whole week without incident. On Fri the Bus driver, mentioned that she’s one lucky lady, and that confused her, she’s blind and struggling to simply go to work. He said every day when he picked her up there a guy in uniform standing on the corner watching her.

That’s how God is… watching and protecting us. We’re not alone, we just have to recognize His presence.

The desire we feel to focus on our fear, our pain, the source of that pain, to choke someone who’s really getting under your skin… but Jesus calls His followers to deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow Him.

Daily… not just on Sunday

This process involves recognizing that our old self was crucified with Christ, freeing us from slavery to sin, and enabling us to be alive to God in Christ Jesus...

Romans 6:6–11 “6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for the one who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all time; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 So you too, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

Denying ourselves can often lead to unexpected victories.

Sometimes we don’t even know the struggle we’re dealing with that’s causing the pain. Just seems natural to get upset if someone has the toilet paper on upside down.

Let it go!

If we are asking healing, are we willing to give up the things that made us sick?

Paradoxically, by losing one’s life for Christ’s sake, one actually finds true life, much like a grain of wheat that dies in order to bear fruit. Those who love their earthly life will lose it, while those who are willing to “die” will gain eternal life.

Ultimately, this means no longer living for oneself, but allowing Christ to live through us, living by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us.

Galatians 2:20 “20 I have been crucified with Christ; and 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 up for me.”

We are just a vessel, but there isn’t room for two, someone has to go.

I said this before, when life bumps into you, what spills out?