Untitled Sermon

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1. To follow Christ is to let go of everything else

a. All week we’ve been talking about our mission that God has sent us on, a mission to live for and declare Christ. Really what this mission boils down to, and what this whole week has been building towards, is picking up a cross and following Jesus Christ.

b. So I think its time we ask ourselves, as we have arrived at our final night of this week at camp, what does my life on mission look like? What does it actually look like to follow Jesus Christ when I go home?

i. Let’s look to Scripture to see what God has to say about practically following Jesus. Matthew 16:21-24- “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” 23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. 24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

ii. Jesus makes it pretty clear to his disciples that to come after Christ is to let go of everything else.

1. When I say everything else, I fear that your ears may have just categorized that as a cliché saying; but I mean it and so does Jesus. Anything else that you have a grip on needs to be released. Whether its family, sports, a 5-year plan, social status, money or anything else – you must let it go.

a. That is not to say that you absolutely cannot have any of those things, but what it does mean is that you better not be holding them closed-fisted. Both hands must be clinging to Christ for dear life, and if those other things are given to you by God then that’s great! But also know that he can take them away at any time. The only thing he has promised never to take away from you is Himself if you are clinging to him.

iii. If we look back to that verse in Matthew 16, then we can really see Jesus getting at the heart of this in the way he rebukes Peter.

1. At first glance it may seem like Jesus is coming off a little harsh here, saying something like “get behind me Satan” to one of his disciples. After all, Peter was just trying to say that he would never let someone kill Jesus. But lets look at what was really going on here.

a. Jesus began to teach about how he was going to have to suffer so that he could rise from the dead and defeat death once and for all. Peter wasn’t understanding how important it was to Jesus’s mission that he had to die. He had to suffer in order to be successful.

b. Peter lost sight of the mission. He had become to comfortable and he was holding on more to physical life than he was holding on to the spiritual life. To Peter, this life was everything and he even tried to distract Jesus by making him focus more on this life than on the mission that the Father had sent him on.

i. Are you like Peter in this conversation? Have you become so focused on this life that you no longer care about the mission that God has given you? Do you care more about being safe and comfortable in this life than you care about living for Christ and telling people about him?

c. And so Peter must be rebuked and corrected, because he was now hindering the mission that Jesus was on. We do not do anyone any favors by trying to lull them into thinking that they need to be safe and comfortable in this life. This life isn’t about comfort, this life is about being on mission. This life is about straining for the one that follows it.

c. Paul also speaks to the danger of drawing too much comfort from this physical life in Philippians 3:4-11- “If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

i. You might be thinking to yourself “Woah, is Paul bragging here?” To which Paul would say “No, that list is last weeks trash that’s already been out to the curb and taken to the dump! I count it all as absolutely nothing.”

ii. And maybe he would continue by asking “What is your list?”

1. You might say “what list?” – Oh come on, everyone has a list. A list of things that set them apart, a list of things that make them special.

a. Is it that you’ve been a Christian your whole life?

b. Is it that you’re the best athlete in your area?

c. Is it that almost everyone seems to love you?

d. Do you want to be known as the best at a certain video game?

e. Do you want to be known as the smartest kid anyone knows?

2. Its all rubbish! None of that means anything

3. Any why do we count it as rubbish?

a. In order to be found in Christ.

b. Listen to this, because this serves as a sharp warning to all of us: You cannot try to hold on to Christ in one hand and the world in the other. You cannot find your identity in Christ if you are trying to also find your identity anywhere else.

c. But with that sharp warning comes a comforting truth: You cannot do it by yourself.

i. You might look at me and say “well how on Earth is that comforting?”

2. We can only follow Christ because God has empowered us to do it

a. Philippians 3 continues as Paul writes “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

i. Paul here says that although he is not perfect, he is pressing on to follow Christ and abandon his flesh. How and why does Paul do this?

ii. It is because Jesus Christ has pursued Paul and made him his own.

1. Don’t get this order twisted. 1 John 4:19 says “we love because he first loved us,” and Paul is echoing that exact sentiment here in Philippians.

2. We can’t have the mindset that we are somehow venturing forward to “find Christ.” It’s impossible for us to find Christ. Christ must first find us, and bring us home as his children. It is only after Jesus has made us his own that we are able to venture out and make Christ our own.

iii. With a message like “pick up your cross and follow me,” I fear that we will twist the words of Jesus into making him say something along the lines of “you need to pull yourself up by the bootstraps and make something of yourself.”

1. But we cannot miss the immense size of the grace that accompanies a call like “pick up your cross and follow me.”

2. Jesus doesn’t want you to do this alone. In fact, Jesus is saying quite the opposite. Jesus here is saying that you are going to need to go through some pain and some struggle, but I am going to be with you every step of the way making sure that you get back up every time you fall.

iv. To try and do this alone would be to pull up that list we were talking about earlier and trying to make yourself set apart of special because you have somehow earned your way into a relationship with God. But that is to have reality completely backwards.

b. And speaking of that list that we talked about earlier, I want to clarify something. I said that this list you have of things that make you set apart and unique or special is garbage. That is not to say that you are not special or set apart. In fact, you are set apart, you are special, but its not because of anything on that list of yours. Its only because Jesus Christ has set you apart and made you his own that you are more special and precious and set apart in the eyes of God than any other creature that moves on Earth or in Heaven.

i. You can be sure that although you cannot make yourself special, and even though you have actually done your best to disqualify yourself by sinning against God repeatedly, Christ has given you a seat of honor. Christ has clothed you in his righteousness and the Father now sees an heir to the Kingdom of Heaven.

ii. You can also be sure that you have been gifted with a gift so royal and important as the Holy Spirit because of Jesus Christ making you clean. It is by this Spirit working within you that you are able to strive forward to kill the flesh and trust Christ wholly.

3. Since God has empowered us to follow Christ, we must deny ourselves and the world as we follow him on our mission.

a. Lets go back to Philippians 3 for a moment as we look as how Paul sought to deny himself and live on mission.

i. The Bible isn’t saying here that you have to be perfect, but it is talking about a trend that needs to be occurring. Paul here isn’t claiming perfection, but he claims that he is certainly pressing forward and making that his goal.

ii. What God is calling us to in Philippians 3 is this: An abandonment of all hope that is placed in this world and a striving to trust God more and more every day.

1. I’ve never met someone who has been able to go from basking in sin to perfection overnight, but I have met people who have gone from desiring sin to desiring God overnight.

2. This is more of a question of your allegiances and where they lie. Do you long for this world and the fleeting passions that it can offer you, or are you so focused on the world that is to come that you no longer pay any mind to living in the flesh?

3. Here lies a matter of completely forgetting what lies behind us. Forget your past life and everything you’ve done, it is washed away. Set your eyes forward and strain towards growing up into Christ, into the direction that God is calling you.

b. Speaking of the direction that God is calling you, lets go back to our mission. At the beginning we began to see what it really looks like to be on this mission that we’ve been talking about for a week now. A mission that can ultimately be boiled down to living for and declaring Christ. So lets end where we started: What is it to follow Christ and be on mission for him?

i. It is to abandon any hope that is based on the physical world.

ii. It is to place our complete hope and trust in Christ and to strive forward towards him more and more every day.

iii. It is to take seriously the words of Christ and to spread the good news of Jesus Christ to anyone who will listen.

iv. It is to look to Christ as the source of grace who can make all of this possible. If you are not completely reliant on Christ, then this mission will be a complete failure. But, if you go home after this week and are truly reliant on Christ as you move forward on this mission, then you can have absolute confidence that nobody and nothing can stand in the way of absolute success.

c. So here is my call to you as we wrap up the week: throw away your list of worldly idols that you find comfort in and come to the feet of Jesus with empty hands. Place your whole trust in Christ as you strive to live for him on this mission that he has called you to. May Christ strengthen you on this mission.