Matthew 16:24

Speaker 3: All right. So. Funny story about this. Get back from camp. Which camp was great. Camp was good. Camp was tiring. But get back from camp. Pull out my computer. I have in mind the direction I'm going with a message I'm going to get ready for tonight. Pull out my computer, plug it in like I normally do. And it doesn't start charging. And I'm like, okay, let me try this other. Doesn't work. And God knows exactly how I prepare. I get prepared for message and. Yes, I have my iPad, but my past is not as good as my computer. So I was thinking, our guys are going in different directions. Then what? But. God has different plans. And. God made sure that, you know, I didn't go in a different direction, took my computer in. Literally. The only thing wrong with my computer were the charging ports. They said, Everything else is great about your computer. It works fine. Works perfect. Just recharge. The ports need to be replaced. Oh, okay. Well, I can't do anything with it because it's dead, so go ahead and fix that. And literally, I got my computer back this afternoon, so God just got God knows exactly what he's doing. All right. So Matthew 16, Matthew 16, if you have your Bibles, Matthew, Chapter 16, and we're just going in one verse tonight. Matthew 16 and verse 24. Matthew 16 and verse 24. You found your place if you go ahead and stand. Matthew 16, verse 24, then G then said Jesus onto his disciples. If any man will come after me. Let Him deny himself. Take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life, for my sake shall find it. For what is a man? Profit it. If he shall gain, the whole world loses also. Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? We're going to be focusing on verse 24 where Jesus tells his disciples, if any man will come after me. Let him deny himself. Take up his cross and follow me. So let's pray and we'll get right into it. Dear Lord, I think you just for today. I think you just for your word. And Lord, thank you for Lord just guided me in the direction you want me to go. Lord, I know you have a plan for this. And, Lord, I pray that you just help the people's hearts to be open to your Word. Lord, let it not be anything I say. But, Lord, let it be true. Let it be your words, and Lord, let speak to their hearts and help their hearts to be soft ground for your Word to fall upon and to grow. Be with us tonight, Lord. Just give me the words to say no more pray and then maybe see that the when we think of a follower, we think of a disciple. We think of anybody that's maybe a Christian. We think of anybody that claims to be a Christian. But there is a distinct difference between a disciple and a Christian. A Christian? So one in simple terms that belongs to Christ. Someone that's got to save someone that belongs to Christ. If you want to, a disciple is someone that seeks after Christ. They are constantly aiming to please him, become more like him. Nothing shakes their faith in him, for example, soldiers following their captives or sheep after the shepherds. So these two examples show you what a disciple is. You are. A soldier will follow his captain into battle, no matter the danger, no matter what's going on in front of him. He's following his captain until the end. You are a sheep is following this shepherd no matter what the weather conditions are, because the sheep knows a shepherd is going to protect them, going to be there right with him. So the sheep right there behind. So if we're called to be disciples, got got Jesus here tells his disciples, if any man will come after me, if any man wants to be my disciple, you want to what? There's three trademarks of being a disciple. First, he says, Jesus says here, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself. To deny ourselves is not to give in to the pleasures of our foot, not to give in to the pleasures that the things we want, the things our flesh wants, the things that go against God's Word and to be empty in ourselves. Of ourselves and in ourselves with him. It is a fundamental lesson for disciples of Christ. A commentator puts it this way It is necessary in order for us to learn all the other good lessons that are taught. We must deny ourselves. Absolutely. We must not admire our own shadow, nor gratify our own humor. What was not lead to our own understanding, nor seek our own things, nor be our own end. We must deny ourselves comparatively. We must deny ourselves for Christ and His will and glory in the service of His interests in the world. We must deny ourselves for our brethren, for their good. And we must deny ourselves for ourselves. Deny the appetites of the body for the benefit of the soul. We see Christ was a perfect, perfect example on this earth of what it means to deny yourself. When Christ went well gosh when a part to pray he asked God to be your if it be your will let this passion but not my will but thine be done is not what he wanted, want, what he wanted, what God wanted. He wanted God's will for his life, not his own. He didn't want to seek. He didn't want to do his own thing. But he said, God, if there was another way, let it happen. But the main part of his prayer was not letting his will be done. But God's. So what about you? Are you feeding into your flesh or are you giving in to your desires? Your. What does it say? You want to be a disciple of Christ. If you say you want to be a follower of Christ, you want to be like a soldier following his captain or sheep following their shepherd. Are you denying yourself? Are you emptying yourself every single day, every moment of the day of yourselves, and filling yourself with God? Are you denying those worldly lusts that come across the TV screen on your phone or in billboards or what? Or are you denying yourself those lust? Because if you aren't. Then you're missing. The first part of what Jesus says here is denying yourself. Philippians two, two, five three. It says, Let this mind being you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who be in the form of God thought are not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant. It was made in the likeness of men and being found in the fashion. As a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. So when someone is trying to lose. Are they going to indulge in eating cakes all day? Are they going to indulge himself and go McDonald's every meal of the day? They're not. If they're planning to lose weight, guess what? They're going to cut the cake out. They're going to cut McDonald's out. To be honest, has been MacDonalds out anyway because without discussing what they were going to cut those things out. So. I've been going to the gym. I've been going, trying to go to the gym more and lose weight. That's my goal. And. One thing that if my wife is at home and she decides what I want to make some cookies, preferably, you know, not, you know, just trying to throw this out there, preferably some white chip, my macadamia nut cookies, you know, hopefully she's listening. Some white chocolate chip. Macadamia nut cookies. Well, for when my husband come home, I want to make sure he has something. What if I lose weight? I can't indulge in those things because if she makes those, I'm sorry, but I'm not going to sit there and eat one. It's not just going to be to either. It's probably to be like five or six. She may not even get it, but if I want to lose weight, I have to deny myself those white chocolate chip cookies. Know when I lived that when I was in Michigan, my biological mom would make me peach cobbler. Now. I love peach cobbler. You get peach cobbler with some vanilla ice cream. So Kamal on top. So amazing. What if I lose it? I can't indulge in eating her peach cobbler because sorry is not going to help me. There's no dietary needs. There's no dietary supplement in that peach cobbler. Sorry. Just because there's peaches in it doesn't mean I'm doing all right. But if we're going to be a disciple of God, we're going to follow Christ. We're going to follow Him. We have to get this fundamental lesson of denying ourselves. That means denying the worldly pleasures, delaying the fleshly pleasures. We can't let that come into our life. We have to deny every single day. It's not just a one time thing you have to do and it just magically happens all the time. It's an every day, every moment choice. We have to deny ourselves. As Paul says, we have to die daily. It's a daily thing that happens. So he says you want if you want to follow me. Do you want to be my disciple? First you must do not, he said. Let him deny himself regarding ourselves. But then he says, Take up his cross. We have to be able to take up our cross. Now, that doesn't mean you have to go around to your school or to your job or wherever you go. You go to Wal-Mart, you know? It doesn't mean that you're going around carrying a big cross on your back, telling everybody, Well, I'm here. You're my cross. I'm there. My cross. Because this is what God told me I need to do to be a disciple. That's not what he means. What do you mean? That there's going to be trials, they're going to be suffering, there's going to be hard time. I mean, your life. You've got to be able to bear those with joy. You got to be able to. Those hard times. Come. Run to him. But to know that there's some way you can grow in that in that soft. Know that he thought that these sufferings, these trials, just hard times are coming your life. Is it to make you hate Christianity? It is in your life to bring you to hate. That's not what those are for. Those are to help grow you. Up. You run to him. Because you told me when you were a kid, when you got hurt. Who did you run to? Did you run to your room and put your head in your pillow? Or did you run to mom and dad? Because you knew they had the answer for your pain, your suffering that you're going through. My son is very clumsy. I don't know if it's because he has a big head, but he's clumsy. He runs into door frames that don't move. I don't know why he sees us literally walk through it, but he'll run into it. In the people he runs to when that pain comes along. Normally his mommy, but he runs to mommy and daddy. He runs to us because he knows we're there to help him with. He will come alongside and kisses, little boo boo. That it will tell me. All right, suck it up, your boy. Your man. Let's go. Do you know why he runs to Mom and Dad? You want these sufferings that you're going to have in life. These trials, these hard times, this cross you have to bear. It is to make you hate him. It's to help you run. To help. It's help you grow in your relationship with him. To lean on him. To depend on him. Because too many times in our life and tough times with hard times come. We try to depend on ourselves. We try to. We try to. We have enough strength. We think we have enough strength to get through it. James one, two, says My brother encountered all joy. When you fall into diverse temptations. Second Corinthians 12 910 says he set out to me, my grace is sufficient for the for my strength is made perfect in weakness most gladly. Therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasures, infirmities in reproaches in the subsidies and persecutions or distresses for Christ sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Like I said, hard times come in your life. Trials they come, hardships they come, they're there to help. You run to help because he's the only one that can fill that pain. That can help that pain go. Hard time for me, especially it was when my brother died. It was a hard time for me, I. I didn't know why he was he was actually he actually had just turned 29. I don't know why. I didn't know why God was take why God decided to take his life at that point. I was questioning it. When my wife reminded me, she said, you want it's not your not your place to question him. God made God brought this in your life, brought this cross into your life for a purpose. God brought this to your life. So you others know that when this comes. They know who to run to. They know who to depend on. Because, yes, I depended on my wife. But my wife knows I am a very kind of closed off person, very hard to read. Not very emotional, to be honest. Most of you will not see me cry. Just won't happen. But. In that time. My wife was there. She went to what? I had to depend on God to get me through it because I still had to work. I started to take care of my family. I still had to. I still had to get things done. There was a time when me and my wife were driving after this whole situation. You know, she would I normally I, I would get I get migraines a lot. But there is the time where we're just sitting in the car, we're driving home. So my head really hurts. She just told me, Hey, it's okay. Let it go. It's okay to cry. God knows what you're going through. Just let it out. In my mind, I'm like, Well, I don't. There's nothing going on. But the tears are starting to flow. She actually was driving for an emergency. But I in that time. Had to make sure that I ran to God for my comfort, for my. For my relief from that pain. To be honest. And I told the teenagers, I like to be completely transparent with you. I just like to keep it real. At that time. You know, a lot of pro-life struggles. I think my moment did not end throughout the week. I ran to God. Because I was going through a hard time. I didn't tell. Please take this cross for me. I said, God, thank you for letting me birth. I can help others, others through this situation. Others that lose loved ones that are close to them. Others that go that are going to go through a hard time so that they know when they go through it, Lord, that you're there with them. The cross we're meant to bear. Is it meant to discourage us? Or, like I said, make us hate. It's there for our good. It's there to help grow us. So how are you doing so far? Are you denying yourself? Are you taking up your cross? But then thirdly, that Jesus says he says, let him just take up his cross. And follow me. When we take up our cross, the next thing is to follow him. Suffering disciples must look to Jesus to take from Him both direction and encouragement in suffering. We then follow Christ who bears it before us, bears it for us, and so bears it from us. Christ bore the heavy end of the cross that had the curse on our sin. That. So the other end the end where we're called to carry is like. We must follow Christ in all instances of holiness and obedience, as He did in His life here on Earth. Matthew 1128 330 says come on to me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you learn of me For I am meek and lonely and heart and ye shall find rest until your soul For my yoke is easy My burden is light How many have ever played? Been a part of or have ever seen? Follow the leader. You know what? If you're not, you have hate that the leader does. So if the leader decides he wants to turn this way, you turn that way. If he decides he wants to skip you. Skip. You do everything that the leader does. You don't get to jump on thing. You're not the leader. Christ. It's our leader. And we're following his example. Christ left us an example here on Earth of his life, and he says, Hey, I left it here for you to follow it. Follow my example. Follow my lead. I want to. I want you to follow my lead in all instances. Do exactly as I did. Disciples of Christ must study to imitate their master. They can form themselves in everything by following his example. Those who truly want to be his disciples must seek after him and follow in his footsteps. So are you a disciple? Or through these trademarks of a disciple, you have what you need to answer that question. Jesus came to save the world from their sins. He has called us to be more than just a Christian. He's called us to be disciples. So again. Are you a disciple? That's where. Dear Lord, I think you just for the Lord your word. And Lord, I think you just for the. Just for your leading Lord. I pray that as your word was spoken, Lord, that the hearts were open, Lord, that if you're speaking to someone's heart tonight, Lord, that they will make that decision, Lord, to be a disciple, not just to be a Christian. Lord, we know a Christian belongs to you, the Lord that they will be a disciple, one that imitates and follows after a Lord, if they're seeking to be a disciple, or they see these three trademarks, Lord of denying themselves, denying the fleshly pleasures, Lord just nine the worldly lust. Lord that they will empty themselves of themselves, and Lord be filled with you every single day. And whether they'll take up their cross when suffering and hard times come, or that they won't see those as an inconvenience or a reason to hate the Christian life of that, they will see those as opportunities to run to you to grow closer in their relationship with you. And Lord that they'll follow your example, Lord, that they will look into your word and see those example you left for us. And Lord, they will just follow. Lord, help me to make this decision every single day. To be honest, I. We pray this in your name.

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