Deny and Devote Mark 8

Denying from and Devoting to

In the beginning of the year with many people setting out for new years resolutions i pray that you would resolve to stop doing anything you know you shouldn’t be doing and start doing what you know you should be doing in Christ.

When you begin to think of all things that could befall you this year it could make your mind weary. What will not on your door step? the better or the worse? The sickness or the health? riches or poverty? peace or war? gain the 10 pounds or lose the 10 pounds. Maybe this is the year your greatest fears come to pass? What then?

I pray this morning that you would have a new lense to look through in life against all that may come before you. In the sight of temptation may this be what you see, in the fiery trial may you be grounded looking through this lense. This will give you strength to press on when your flesh and the world tell you not to. We need this truth to be ever so evident in our lives if we are the children of God in order to press on.

In the beginning of the year with many people setting out for new years resolutions i pray that you would resolve to stop doing anything you know you shouldn’t be doing and start doing what you know you should be doing in Christ.Read .

Read .

PRAY.

Recap from the weeks past:

Our context. it is important.

Jesus asks His disciples who do men that say that I am.

John the Baptist

Elijah

Great prophet

Who do you say that I am?

You are the Christ, Son of the Living God.

First time in Mark that the disciples rightly attribute to Jesus his Christ ship. Even Jesus said in Matthew Simon Barjona flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father who is heaven.

Next Jesus brings into light the mission of the Christ now revealed. Not to over throw Rome but rather to be handed over to men to be slain but to raise again the third day.

Peter tells Jesus far be it from Him to do such a thing. And Jesus told him to get behind him and referred to him as satan.

Then Jesus turns to the crowds and teaches...

ANYONE WHO DESIRES TO COME AFTER ME...

He is to deny himself, take up his cross, and follow him.

Deny means: To dissown or disassociate oneself from someone; claim no knowledge or relationship to.

So God is telling me if i want to follow him i must deny, disassociate myself from myself. Why?

Then Jesus takes it to another extreme in not only denying our flesh but picking up a cross, the symbol of capital punishment in Jesus day.

take up an electric chair and follow me.

Why would christ command his followers to pick up an instrument of death and torture. A symbol literally of death. This seems pretty radical of Jesus.

This is not a sure way to draw a crowd.This is not a way to build a large church.

We must understand some fundamental principles.

First Jeremiah tells us like we heard last night that our hearts are

​ NKJV“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?

Our culture tells us to trust our heart do what feels good. Jesus beware of the heart for it is deceitful and desperately wicked. It will lead you astray.

Sin may be pleasurable but only for a season. Till you begin to reap what you have sown.

We are so prone to wander. We are easy deceived, and we do not know all things. nor do we know beginning to end.

Don’t be blinded by fleshly pleasures and your emotions.

These are not that rule of thumb to finding truth but rather in truth these two things will be satisfied.

Which brings me to my next point

We are so prone to wander. We are easy deceived, and we do not know all things. nor do we know beginning to end.

God does. He is the alpha and omega. no wonder why He tells us to Deny.

We were at the church Wednesday night and I told Caroline not to play with a certain bench. well long behold she began to play with it when i was not looking. it ended up falling over and landing on the top of her foot. She refused to deny her fleshly inclination and in so doing got hurt pretty bad. She didn’t know why I was saying what i was saying. Till afterward it made since.

We do this many times with God don’t we?

Its not till after the deception we bought into and found the hurt that accompanied it do we then realize why God demands that we do not trust our flesh. IT WILL LEAD YOU ASTRAY.

If by preaching this truth a marriage is saved this year i praise the Lord.

If by preaching this truth a soul is saved this year praise the Lord

IF by preaching this truth friendships and unity within a church is saved praise the Lord.

God doesn’t call us to know all the details but rather that we would trust in him, at ALL costs. We cannot do this if we refuse to lay everything down at the altar. If we refuse to lay our life down.

This is like saying God i love you with my soul but not my heart. I will trust you for salvation but not for direction.

This is like me telling my wife i love her but then going and cheating on my wife with other woman.

This is not love at all.

Its all or nothing.

Does God get your soul, your dreams, your desires and your passions?

In forsaking my flesh He calls us to pick up our cross. I have a new identity. A symbolic reminder that i was bought with a price and i am no longer my own. I have died to myself and now live unto God.

All of life i now look through the lense of the cross.

We are a people of identity.

Many would find their identity in:

What they wear

What they eat

Where they

What their hobbies are

What we drink

What they drive

where they work

Where they live

In their political stance

In their passions

In pursuits or dreams

I am an entrepreneur

In their past failures and faults

We cling to these things to find our worth. do we not?

We find our life in these things.

The first thing that comes to my mind when someone comes to work for me and says yeah i have done flooring before its easy.

great forget it all.

Im going to teach you the right way

Forget it all. we do not come to Christ needing to feel important or as though we now have something to bring.

My identity is not found in my accomplishments this year.

not found in

gives us insight into what is being talked about here in Matthew.

He says i beseech you brethren by the mercies of God.

First from the basis of the mercy of God.

What great mercy the Lord has shown us.

The God of ALL gave himself that we may have life.

Have you forgotten the price that was shed?

Have you grown dull to the God who has brought you life?

Or have you not heard the Almighty who stood in our place that we may have life?

Our every breath

By the mercy of God we are to present our bodies as living sacrifices.

A place where things go to die and do not return.

So because of what God has done for us and showing us the life we once sought after, and how it was actually death, now with life we are to give everything to God.

We lay everything down on the altar saying God my life is a blank contract. Do with me as you please. Your ways will be my ways. your truth my truth. Your will my will.

My dreams, my desires, my passions…You tell me what they are. For I know i only see in part and i am so prone to wander as the psalmists says.

When we lay our lives down in such way, God looks at this devotion as Radical Christians…NOT

Actually he calls this our reasonable service. What we ought to do, naturally because of what He has done for us. This is christianity 101. The basics. God gave me life now i give him my life.

I serve a new master, I have a new king…who is good and worthy to serve.

My old master satan and my flesh only sought continually to destroy me.

With this new found life of laying it all down the bible tells us that we are not to be CONFORMED to this world but rather BE TRANSFORMED by the renewing of your mind…so that you may prove what is that good, acceptable and perfect will of God.

The answer for growth, clarity of Gods plan, and victory for battle is found in the instruction of the word of God.

The answer for growth, clarity of Gods plan, and victory for battle is found in the instruction of the word of God.

No wonder the wisest man upon earth said that we are to treasure more than fine rubies. We are to cling to its instruction, and wisdom. For it informs our every step.

No wonder the wisest man upon earth said that we are to treasure more than fine rubies. We are to cling to its instruction, and wisdom. For it informs our every step.

We are to pick up our Cross and follow Him.

Don’t be blinded by pleasure and emotions.

We are to pick up our Cross and follow Him.

So WE Deny from and Devote to. These are two principles that go hand in hand. Two conditions we see in following the Lord and are inseparable.

In Christ we are to Deny our flesh and Devote ourselves wholly to HIm.

If we Devote but do not deny we will find ourselves as hypocrites. Yet if we deny but do not devote we will find ourselves as passionate to flee the flesh but void of the power to do so.

For instance let me explain:

WBGL, K-love and all your major Christian music networks. Are always pushing and advocating a positive and uplifting or encouraging message.

Many times are pointed to an inner strength in order to so. This is a Godly attribute in the sense we are called to edify each other but whether this is a positive message is only by the receptive ears.

This is like me saying i am going to become positive this year and longer going to complain…complaining at its root usually finds its source at our pride. A good thing to resist. Is that the end or the goal itself or is it a by product I may ask? If i am void of devotion to Christ I am attempting to overcome my pride by my pride for my pride…this says, “I can do this”. I assure you this will fail.

I would say that this is characteristic is a by product rather than the goal.

The Bible tells us to Rejoice in the Lord Always. Again i say rejoice. let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing but in all things by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known unto God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So in light of the Lord, His faithfulness, and His soon return it begins to put things into right perspective.

explain deny flesh picking up cross and following Him

In light of the cross and my identity in it that this years accomplishments are of no value. If by business rises or falls is not of high concern but rather that i would be faithful to the Lord.

That i would always live in light of the cross. This fuels the man and woman of God to deny the flesh through the power of the holy spirit.

Galatians 2:20

Galatians 2:20 NKJV

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.

Never the less its not i who lives but Christ who lives in me

Paul says I die daily

So where do we start?

Its starts right now.

Example:

IF you have fallen we serve a merciful God when you repent.

Turn away from your sin and turn towards God. Daniel:

Daniel now an orphan.

Parents no longer around to tell him what to do.

Now a slave

Has a new master to answer to

living in a foreign land.

Name was changed to forget the old and embrace the new.

All other kindred that had been captured with him going along with the flow. Yet Daniel is at a crossroads. What gets brought before him was opportunity to sin against God.

​ NKJVBut Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.

Its in the small battles with no body watching that wars are won.

The tests to see where is your heart at?

Do you love me when its just you?

Do you love me when its you and your buddies?

Do you love me no matter who is around?

When you win the small battles it prepares you for the Goliaths.

For when you see the God who is faithul in the areas no one sees you know He will be when the costs are much greater.

David going up against Goliath.

When you go up against the impossible it is only possible when your eyes are not on your abilities but rather on Gods throne. David was reminded of his weaknesses multiple times.

THis is common in our battles.

But this is a great reminder that i cannot do this without God.

Hebrews 11:24–26 NKJV

By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.

Hebrews 11:24–25 NKJV

By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,

Win the small battles through the power of God.

Hebrews 11:24-

Win the small battles.This is what prepares you for the future. future spousesFuture parentsFuture ministry leaders.Learn to the trust the lord now. Starve the grizzley bear that you have been feeding in your back yard. What is the battle on your door step? Maybe its a boyfriend or girlfriendMaybe is pornographyMaybe it is worryMaybe it is drugs or alcoholMaybe it is bad friends that are influencing you to do wrongMaybe it is rebellion against your parents It is time to cut it off. Win the small battle that will prepare you for the future. Deny yourself and pick up your cross Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths.

This is what prepares you for the future.

Its when we look to the Lord and see him as He is are we able to stand in the face of adversity with confidence.

As future spouses

As Future parents

As ministry leaders

.Learn to the trust the lord now.

Starve the grizzley bear that you have been feeding in your back yard.

What is the battle on your door step?

Maybe its a boyfriend or girlfriend pressuring you to do wrong

Maybe you are tempted to throw in the towel on your marriage

Maybe your not being a true parent

Maybe

Maybe is pornography

Maybe it is worry

Maybe it is drugs or alcohol

Maybe it is bad friends that are influencing you to do wrong

Maybe it is rebellion against your parents

Maybe it is a pursuit for riches rather than Christ.

It is time to cut it off.

Deny yourself and pick up your cross

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths.

This is something that no man can fully and perfectly live out this side of heaven. I am thankful this morning that we serve a merciful God who does forgive when i come before him broken for my sins, confessing them. For when i fail and i will. i know restoration can be found at the foot of the cross.

May we flee the flesh for it is deceptive and may we find our identity in the Cross continually. For me to live is Christ and die is gain.

If God has shown you this morning that you are lost the Bible is explicitly clear that you are to repent from the sins and believe in Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins that you may stand right before God.