Dying to Ourselves

Dying to Ourselves: Sermon


Point 1: Understanding of the cause and effect/reap and sow of our relationship: obedience and disobedience

-Begin with Story from the past similar to this one. Disobeying my parents. Provide an example in my own life. Think of a time in your lives, when you may have disobeyed your parents, when they told you not to, and you did it anyway.
-How many of you in your life have disobeyed your parents when they told you not to do something, (you knew it was wrong) and you did it anyway?
-What happens when you disobey your parents? You get consequences. What does Matthew 15:4 say? “For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’” So, if you disobey your parents, is that honoring them? No!
-So what happens when we disobey God? We get consequences, right? Yes!
-Romans 6:22-23, “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
-So, if we continue in sin, we will reap death. But if we choose to live according to God’s standards, and devote our life to him, we reap eternal life through him.
-Many people in today’s society try to convince and deceive themselves that even if they do the smallest bit of disobedience, they will get away with it. And they think it’s ok to do, so they continue to keep doing It, and it increases, and try convince themselves they’ll get away with more; to the point they are falling completely away from God and running in the wrong direction.

–Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”





Point 2: Rejecting our old ways!
-Brownie example, putting in 1% of dog poop. If I were to cook of batch of brownies for you, and possibly put in 99% of brownie mix, and 1% of dog poop, then give you one of those brownies, would you still eat it, after I told you what I put in it? It’s the same when getting rid of even the smallest hint of sin in our lives. Song of Songs 2:15, “the little foxes that ruin the vineyards”.
-The example: Small spark leads to a forest fire.
-Romans 12:2, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
-Galatians 5:24, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.”
-Old ways: We must rid ourselves of old habits and old ways: Internet, drugs + alcohol, secular music, unhealthy relationships that we shouldn’t be in, cussing, lust, perverse thoughts, etc., or anything that is in our lives, that we put above God….They should no longer be apart of our lifestyle, or our thoughts. We should have no part in them whatsoever in any area. If we want true new life, if we really have found new life and really have Christ truly in our lives, we would sincerely reject our old ways for good and forever.

-When Lot’s wife looked back when running from Sodom and Gomorrah, she turned into a pillar of salt. (Genesis 19). We must never turn back, or we will fall totally away from God, and our path after turning from God may lead us to death, just like it did to Lot’s wife.
-2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
-We must not become too attached to what is only temporary. A lot of Christians today don’t realize how important It is to put to death every single thing that our flesh rages against us to do. Because if we don’t completely put it to death, we convinced our selves to even hold on to a little bit of it, once we start to mess with it again, if just the smallest bit, the situation or sin will get bigger and bigger, and by the time we know it, we are completely unaware of how far from God we really are. So, we must eliminate any sin completely, 100%.
-2 Timothy 2:19, “Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.”
-Titus 2:11-12, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,”
-So, if we know God’s Word, and know what it says, we should know that It teaches us to avoid any part of this world. And if we even start to touch with sin, and we know the truth to avoid it, then we are not saying no to ungodliness.
-Hebrews 12:1 says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
-Hebrews 12:14-15, “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”
-So, if there’s anything in our lives that is causing us to sin, or is a stumbling block in our walk with God, we must stay away from it and avoid it. Because If we keep messing with it, It will cause us to fall. Without living holy lives, we will not grow closer to the Lord. We must learn to die to ourselves, even in the smallest of areas, and in all areas. We must put to death our complete flesh to live out a true, upright life for the Lord. We must live holy lives, to see the Lord, and to hear from Him.
-Romans 8:13: “For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live,”
This brings me to my next point.







Point 3: Caution: the point to never turn back after being saved!
-Million dollars or empty soda can=Life or death example. When you turn back after being saved, you pick death, rather than life. Say that I was to have a million dollars in the left hand, and an empty, shiny, aluminum can in the right hand. Which would you pick? Of course the million dollars. Well, let’s say the million dollars represented life, and the empty can represented death. When you turn back after you’ve been saved, it’s like you’re picking that empty aluminum can, or basically you are picking death over life.
-Jesus Christ died for our sins on that cross, so that God, the Father would forgive us, as long as we truly repent of our sins, confess them, and never do those things again, so that we can grow closer to God. (It says that in His word.). When Jesus Christ carried His cross to the place of crucifixion, he never looked back or turned back. He expects us to do the same in our Christian walk.
-2 Peter 2:20-22, “If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”
-Use the pudding(or any type of really good food that applies to the audience) example: eating it, throwing it back up, and convincing yourself it looks really good, and then eating it again. It’s the same when you turn back after being saved.
-When we are even considering going back to our old ways, the Lord and our Spirit man inside of us is screaming at us, “Keep Fighting! Never Stop! Don’t give up any more ground! Keep Sprinting after me, no running or jogging, but Sprint will all your heart, mind, soul, and strength! Give me your best! All the way to the end! Don’t ever quit!”
-Another example: Person sinking in quicksand and refuses to grab the only way to be saved, a rope is thrown to him, and he doesn’t take it, when he has a full opportunity to get out of it. He ignores the rope, and chooses to sink in the sand; is the same as choosing to turn away from God’s truth, after being saved.
-In our flesh is no good thing. Our flesh will be that voice in our head, that is Satan himself, telling us that “this sin is ok, it’s not that big of a deal, go ahead and do it, you’ll be fine, who cares if it breaks God’s law, you can always repent again, and again.”
-No! That voice is straight from the pit of hell! It is Satan himself! It’s our flesh raging against us! You can’t just repent again and again. Because, true repentance from sin, is turning completely away from it, and never messing with it again, and truly apologizing to the Lord, with a godly sorrow, and never doing that sin ever again. That’s true repentance. There’s no such thing as constant repentance for the same sin over and over again, constantly. We commit sin everyday, we must have true repentance of our sin everyday, but once we turn from whatever sin we’ve done that day, we must turn from it forever, never doing it again. Sin separates us from God. You can’t tell me you’re a Christian, and that you know the Lord, and continue in sin, which some of them you commit the same ones everyday. Because sin separates us from the Lord. Without Holiness, no one will see the Lord.
-Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things and beyond cure…”
-May we pray to the Lord that we will instill in us a desire to hate sin! May we die to ourselves! And allow Christ to live through us.
-Colossians 3:2-10 (Read it!)
-Vs. 9: Don’t lie to each other. Come to church, and then go home and live a whole completely sinful, different life outside of church. Sets bad example for other Christians, or new Christians, and it gives them the ok to do that stuff. When we live a whole other, sinful lives outside of church, we not only lie to each other, we lie to ourselves, and more importantly, we lie to God.
-If we are truly saved, and we see the actions that these kind of people do outside of church, we must have a desire to hate what they are doing, and not follow their example. But, we must also love them, and in a loving way, confront them about what they are doing. It even says in Jude 23, “snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy , mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.”
-We must not be afraid to confront our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and hold them accountable. It says in James 5:19-20, “My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.”
-If we are truly living our lives for Christ, we should have no desire in us to become like or part of the world and go back to our old ways. We should have the desire to never turn back in our own individual lives, and also have the desire to encourage others to never turn back. And to lift them up.
-If you were to go to any Pastor that is a true follower of Christ, and say to Him, that you are a devoted, sold out Christian, and he looks at your life, your actions, what you say, what you think about, and what you do, and sees that you are no different than the Lord, you are not a true Christian. If the Lord were to examine you’re life right now, would He approve of what you say, what you do, your decisions and actions, what you think? Do those things line up with what His Word says? If not, we are not living our lives for Christ!
-Pastor Brent (My KC Director) once said this in a sermon: “Our claims to know God mean nothing! We must live out what the Bible says!”
-You can stand in an empty garage, and yell “I’m a car, I’m a car!” all you want to. But does that mean you’re a car? No. You can say “I’m a Christian, I’m a Christian” all you want to, but it doesn’t mean you’re a Christian.
-Titus 1:16 says, “They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for doing anything good.”
-Do your actions and the things you do deny the Lord today? Or do they give Him Glory, and show that you are carrying out His Will for your life? Not your own will.


Conclusion:
-1 Thessalonians: 4:7-8, “For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.”
-We must desire to Love what God loves, hate what God hates. And that is to die to ourselves completely, so that the will of God and His work may be portrayed in our lives.



Dying to Self

When you are forgotten, neglected, or purposely ignored yet you do not sting with the insult or oversight but your heart is happy—being counted worthy to suffer for Christ…that is dying to self.

When your good is spoken evil of, when your wishes are crossed, your advice disregarded, your opinions ridiculed yet you refuse to let anger rise in your heart or even defend yourself, but take it all in loving, patient silence…that is dying to self.

When you loving and patiently bear any disorder, any irregularity, any tardiness, or any annoyance. When you can stand face to face with waste, folly, extravagance, spiritual insensibility and endure it as the Savior endured…that is dying to self.

When you are content with any food, any offering, any clothing, any climate, any society, any solitude, or any interruption…that is dying to self.

When you never care to refer to yourself in conversation, record your own good works, or seek recognition but truly love to be unknown…that is dying to self.

When you can see your brother prosper and have his needs met and can honestly rejoice with him in spirit and feel no envy or question God while your own needs are far greater and in desperate circumstances…that is dying to self.

When you can receive correction and reproof from one of less stature than yourself and can humbly submit inwardly as well as outwardly—finding no rebellion or resentment rising up within the heart…that is dying to self.


-So, I challenge every one of you, to examine yourselves and your hearts, and to ask the Lord to show you what areas you need to die to yourselves, so that he may be able to fully use you effectively for His Kingdom, as a True follower of Christ.


-PM