• Honor our veteran's. Those men and women who have sacrificed so much in service of their country.
• Have you ever thought about our military men and women being "living sacrifices"? I have. It's quite ironic that to preserve and protect American freedoms, military men and women daily give up theirs. Friday I went and watched Alyssa and Nicholas try out for basketball. It was a great time and a proud moment for this papa, but I couldn't help but think about the two dads whose kids were trying out while they are on a mission for the military. They didn't have the opportunity to say, "yeah, sorry, my kid's got basketball tryouts, I won't be able to make this deployment."
• However, at the same time, you ask any veteran if the sacrifice was worth it, and they will tell you "absolutely". Military men and women understand that they are part of something that is much bigger than themselves. They understand that they must die to themselves, in a sense.
• When I think about that sacrifice, I can't help but think about another sacrifice. One that is for an even bigger cause than fighting for freedom. Another circumstance where we become "living sacrifices". Each of us here today who have committed our lives to Christ are called to be "living sacrifices". We are called to die to ourselves, and become intricately interwoven in the fabric of Jesus Christ.
• Did you know that everyone here today stands facing two options, and oddly both lead to death! One option is to reject Jesus Christ, some of you here today have done just that, and you continue to do that, by denying him a hold on your life. In this path of rejection your soul dies, this is what the Bible calls the second death and it leads to an eternity separated from God. The other option is to follow Christ, which calls for a death to ourselves. However, it's through dying to ourselves that we find abundant life in Jesus Christ.
• Read Matt. 10:37-42.
• So how do we successfully die to ourselves and find life in Christ?

Maximize Christ

• Our first step to dying to self, is learning how to maximize Christ in our lives.
• How many of you have worked on a computer? Are you familiar with the maximize/minimze feature. When you maximize the window, the image takes up the entire screen, you can't see anything else, you may have 15 different computer applications running, but you can only see the one.
• The problem many of us have is we want to minimize Christ. illustrate a time when you had a bunch of applications running and you kept shrinking the one you needed. When you went to find it it was way up in the corner.
• Look at the passage. We tend to put things far above Christ - Our family, our lives. Yet we are called to love Jesus far more than these. That's maximizing Christ!
• When we maximize Christ he is the only thing we see. Our eyes become fixed on Him! As Heb. 12:2 says, "fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
• When we maximize Christ he is the only thing we think about. Our minds become fixed on Him! As Col. 3:1-2 says, "Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on theh things that are on earth."
• Quite simply, Jesus is our great and glorious Savior who is worthy of worship and worthy of our best attention and affection - maximinzing Christ in our lives begins with looking and thinking about him each day, this sets our feet on the path of dying to ourselves.

Minimize Self

• Let me give you a truism: You can't maximize two things at once. Think about the computer screen. You can't have two programs maximized at the same time. You can only maximize one thing - therefore you can't maximize Christ if you are concerned with maximizing yourself!
• Thus, we must concentrate on minimizing ourselves. To quote Rick Warren in his book, Purpose Driven Life "You discover purpose (genuine life), when you understand it is not about you."
• Look at our passage again vv. 38-39. The language here suggests that we get the insignificant things out of our way for the greater goal of following Christ. "Deny yourself, and pick up your cross."
• Paul knew exactly what this meant when he wrote in Gal 2:20, "I am crucified with Christ so that I no longer live but Christ lives in me."
• Yet we must understand that this is a difficult practice: Why?

we struggle with spiritual perception

• This is not a physical cross. This is a spiritual concept. We are dominated by materialism. So much so, that we can't see things spiritually. Begin to see Christ with a spiritual perception. As the hymn states, "turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace."
• How much time do you spend denying Christ, laying down your cross because you are too concerned with your own worldly matters?

we struggle with selfishness

• I would submit that most of us here spend more time fighting against the lordship of Christ in our lives than any other fight we endeavor in. Even to battle against sin.
• We falsley believe that we can handle our lives better than Christ can. We seek ourselves and our happiness first, thinking that's what's important. Yet look what Christ said, Matt. 6:33, "seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you."

• Only through absolute surrender to Christ, self-sacrifice, can we experience all that Jesus offers.

Maximizing Christ, Minimizing ourself leads to Energized Service

• Following Christ is not a passive lifestyle. Nor is it sanctified resignation. In other words, and write this down, we are not just eliminating desires; following Christ is igniting devotion. Spiritual surrender is not resignation. Don't confuse being a "living sacrifice" with just quitting the bad stuff. Rather, think of it as allowing God to transform your life with new desires, new mercy, new life, and new songs to sing in your new heart.

• look at the last few verses, vv. 40-42. In v. 42 Jesus challenges his discipels to give cups of cold water to the "little ones". Think of it this way, because we die to ourselves, we are no longer seeking man's empty praise. Taking the time to minister to a child was unheard of in the first century. Jesus says, we are not seeking to rub shoulders with the elite, but rather passionate service to even the "little ones".
• I appreciate greatly the dying to self our military does everyday, but it's temporary. But today I want you to see that we are to gain abundant life by dying to ourselves and living through and in Christ. Are you there today? Do you need to accept Him as Savior? Do you need to recommit your life to Jesus?