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[TITLE SLIDE]
We are going to be wrapping up our series called Killing Stuff today.
We have been going through some of the major themes of the Old Testament.
Today, in our message called, Killing Self, I want to begin with a pretty familiar passage in the New Testament, in the teaching of Jesus.
And then I want to show you how that teaching is part of the Old Testament as well.
We are going to be wrapping up our series called Killing Stuff today.
We have been going through some of the major themes of the Old Testament.
Today, in our message called, Killing Self, I want, to begin with, a pretty familiar passage in the New Testament, in the teaching of Jesus.
And then I want to show you how that teaching is part of the Old Testament as well.
The passage comes from the Gospel of Luke where Luke records Jesus’s words:
And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?
(, ESV)
Jesus taught that a true disciple was one who denied the interests of the self.
The principle is that you can’t serve God when you’re living for yourself.
So he says to take up your cross daily.
He says to die to yourself, your wants, your, desires, daily so that you will be able to live for God.
[BLANK]
And then Jesus says, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”
According to Jesus, living for the self is never ultimately fulfilling.
It may be nice for a time, but if you think your efforts in life are going to give you a satisfactory standing before God, Jesus says you’re wrong.
When you try to live on your own merits, you inherit death.
But, when you die to yourself and live for God, then you gain life.
And finally, Jesus gives a little application.
He says, ‘What good is it anyway?!’
You work hard and make lots of money in life and get lots of comforts in life and maybe you’re a good upstanding, and a very moral person and others look up to you.
And one day you die you pass from this world, and lots of people show up for your funeral because you were such a great and influential person.
What good is it if you live a life like that and yet don’t earn God’s favor and spend eternity separated from God and His goodness?
What does it profit you if you gain the whole world and still forfeit yourself?
Lot’s of people would argue that those are the kinds of individuals God should fill his Kingdom with—all those hard working, good, upstanding citizens.
God should fill his Kingdom with those people.
But, Jesus taught, you can’t serve God when you’re living for yourself.
The Christian life—to live as a disciple of Jesus—is to die to yourself continually and live for God.
That’s the pattern Jesus taught.
And that’s the pattern of the Old Testament too.
We see it very clearly in the life of King David, the second King of Israel.
And there are tons of places in the story we could go, but I want to go to a story that isn’t dealt with real often.
It shows up in .
In the first part of the story, we see that David is…
Zealous for God
So, if you remember, when Israel came into the Promised Land under Joshua, they didn’t conquer all the land God told them to conquer.
Their sinfulness—really their selfishness—got in the way and they didn’t get everything God told them to get, not even close.
So, David, when he became King, picked up where Joshua left off, and he started taking parts of the Promised Land that were still inhabited by corrupt nations.
So, spring came, and that’s war season apparently so David got his troops together.
And he had a large army and a trusted friend who commanded his armies named Joab.
And David sent Joab and the armies to the country of the Ammonites.
This was a holy war, and David was doing exactly what God had commanded them to do, to take the Promised Land.
And when you’re doing God’s work, God shows up.
So, they completely ravaged the country of the Ammonites.
And then, as soon as they got done taking the land of the Ammonites, war broke out with the Philistines.
And this is a fascinating battle.
Look what happened:
And after this, there arose war with the Philistines at Gezer.
Then Sibbecai the Hushathite struck down Sippai, who was one of the descendants of the giants, and the Philistines were subdued.
And there was again war with the Philistines, and Elhanan the son of Jair struck down Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.
And there was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number, and he also was descended from the giants.
And when he taunted Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea, David’s brother, struck him down.
These were descended from the giants in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.
(, ESV)
Remember this is a holy war.
And whenever giants show up, you know you are dealing with a particular evil.
If you remember the story of David and Goliath, it’s almost like David was finishing unfinished business here, because they finally destroyed the rest of the giants—the Rephaim—that lived among the Philistines.
[BLANK]
The people of God were fighting a spiritual battle to carry out God’s purposes, and in everything they did, they had great success.
And I don’t want you to miss this.
They succeeded because God was with them.
They were fighting on God’s side.
And basically, every Christian would say they live for God, right?
Every Christian would say they are on God’s side.
Who would actually say that they are a Christian, but they don’t worry about living for God?
Who would say that they are a Christian, but they don’t worry about living for God?
No Christian would.
And it’s easy when you’re ‘in the moment.’
It’s easy on like day three of Vacation Bible School to be eager and upbeat.
You’re having lots of fun and kids are learning about the Bible, and it’s great.
It’s easy to be zealous then.
And thinking about the passage in Luke, do you know who Jesus was talking to?
Remember, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
He was talking to disciples.
He was talking to people who were already sacrificing jobs and money and time with their families because they believed there is something important they needed to learn from Jesus.
And they were following him around and doing great works in his name.
They were eager to live for God.
But then Jesus turned to them and said, ‘If you want to be my disciples…’
And he said that because it’s not always going to be easy.
Jesus knew that life was going to get very hard for the disciples.
And when we do VBS, the week is always exciting.
But, then we all go back to our day to day ministries.
It was easy for David to be excited when he was conquering nations for God, but he had to go back to day to day life.
Jesus wanted to make sure that his disciples didn’t lose their zeal when times got tough.
He knew that it’s easier to serve God when it’s exciting and he didn’t want them to lose heart when it got hard.
[SLOW] Listen, that’s why I say; you can’t serve God when you’re living for yourself.
Because, when you are living for yourself your commitment to God is going to ebb and flow with how well you are personally fulfilled.
When times are good, you will want to serve and give.
But, when times are hard you don’t even want to go to church, and you begin to doubt your faith.
When you live for yourself, you might serve God sometimes.
But when you live every moment for God, dying daily to your wants and desires to accomplish His wants and desires, you never lose zeal, never feel unfulfilled, never doubt God.
That’s what happened to David.
He learned the hard way that you don’t experience the blessings of God when you’re…
And that’s what happened to David.
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