DO
NOT SACRIFICE TO THE IDOL OF SELF
BREAD
6 “I
am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
7 You shall have no other gods before me. 8 You
shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or
on the earth beneath or in the waters below.”
Deuteronomy 5:6-8 (NIV)
24 Then
Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come
after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever
loses his life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for a man if he gains
the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for
his soul?” Matthew 16:24-26 (NIV)
34 Then
he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take
up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose
it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit
his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his
soul?” Mark 8:34-37 (NIV)
23 Then
he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he
must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever
loses his life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for a man to gain the whole
world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? 26 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will
be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and
of the holy angels.” Luke 9:23-26 (NIV)
23 Jesus
replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be
glorified. 24 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of
wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it
dies, it produces many seeds. 25 The man who loves his life will lose it,
while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant
also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.” John
12:23-26 (NIV)
6 For
we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might
be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-- 7 because
anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
Romans 6:6-7 (NIV)
20 I
have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me
and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20 (NIV)
1 Therefore,
since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude,
because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. 2 As
a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires,
but rather for the will of God. 1 Peter 4:1-2 (NIV)
14 Do
everything without complaining or arguing, 15 so
that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a
crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe 16 as
you hold out the word of life--in order that I may boast on the day of Christ
that I did not run or labor for nothing. 17 But
even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and
service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. 18 So
you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
Philippians 2:14-18 (NIV)
45 “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to
serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark
10:45 (NIV)
BUTTER
“In his masterful exposition of The Sermon on the Mount, Dr. Martyn
Lloyd-Jones says that Christians become a light to the world to the degree that
they stand out as different from the world. The world does not thirst for a religious
imitation of itself; nor does it thirst for an “us against them” moral turf war
with its zealous religious neighbors. The world thirsts for a different kind of
neighbor—not the kind who deny their fellowman, take up their comforts, and
follow their dreams—but the kind who deny themselves, take up their crosses,
and follow Jesus in his mission of loving a weary world to life. The world also
thirsts for a new vision for being human, for pursuing and entering friendship,
and for leaving things better than we found them. Lloyd-Jones writes: ‘The problem isn’t with Christianity as much as it
is with our flawed approach to and understanding of Christianity. We have let
ourselves become imbalanced, lopsided, and unfocused (much like the rigid,
holier-than-thou Pharisees and the materialistic, secular Sadducees of the New
Testament). To regain our footing, we need to begin following the whole Jesus
and the whole Scripture, into the whole world, the whole time.’” Scott
Sauls
“‘Do not be deceived: God is not mocked,’
the apostle Paul writes, ‘for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For
the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the
one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life’ (Galatians
6:7-8). The trouble is that we fool ourselves into thinking there’s some safe
middle ground — that we can make excuses and put off sowing to the Spirit,
while still denying the flesh. But we always sow to something, very often to
ourselves. And what we sow slowly reveals, and shapes, what we love most in
life.” Marshall Segal
“The fact of the
matter is that when you’re truly taking up your cross, you’re experiencing
life. The objective is not to learn to
love yourself; it is to deny yourself. If you actually want to find yourself,
then lose yourself. And how do you lose yourself? You take up your cross and
follow Him.” Greg Laurie
“Darkness is my point of view, my right to
myself; light is God’s point of view.” Oswald Chambers
“When a man is wrapped up in
himself, he makes a pretty small package.” John
Ruskin
cannot Scott Hubbard
“They
that deny themselves for Christ shall enjoy themselves in Christ.” John
Mason
“The more a man
denies himself, the more he will obtain from God.” Horace Bushnell
“When you lay down self, you find the deepest
rest.” Ann Voskamp
“The dearest idol
I have known, whate’er that idol be; help me to tear it from Thy throne, and
worship only Thee.” William
Cowper
“We
can make idols out of – our work, our
family, our friends, our hobbies, our adoring audiences, our wealth, even our
‘perfect’ children or our wonderful meals or our clean and ordered houses. We can make “Delilah’s” out of anything. Idols are whatever we have a tendency to hold
on to with a grip that we will not let go.
None of these things are bad in and of themselves – it is the priority
we place on them that’s askew. If they
become our ‘god’s’ it is wrong. If
anything or anybody takes Christ’s rightful position on the throne of our lives it is an idol and must
be removed for the King of kings and the Lord of Lords. Live your life with open hands.” BHY
“No
one has ever lost out by excessive devotion to Christ.” H. A.
Ironside
HEART SAVOR
·
Those who claim to
live in Him must walk as Jesus did. He
is our great example of denying self - humbling Himself though God - and taking
the very nature of a servant He became obedient to death even death on the cross. And God exalted Him to His rightful place.
·
No one loses by
excessive devotion to Jesus. We cannot
outgive Him.
·
Beware. it is easy
to make idols out of anything – even ourselves.
He is to be on the throne of our lives not us!
