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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Aaron Sartin

Carrying the Cross

Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for this Sabbath day that we can come together and worship you Lord and as we open up your word I just pray that it might be your words that are spoken and your voice that is heard Lord.

Send your Holy Spirit to be with us and may we leave this place changed Lord and may we draw ever closer to you this is our prayer in Christ precious name we pray amen follow me now this is the invitation that we see all around us.

You drive down the freeway, you see all these billboards and signs.

The world is calling us to follow Me, to follow the fashions, to follow the example.

Everywhere we look, self is being tempted and being indulged, and we are being encouraged to conform to the world, to the world's standard.

How different were the words of Christ over 2, 000 years ago to those poor fishermen?

The Bible says that they responded, they left their nets.

But perhaps the disciples didn't know exactly what it would mean to fully follow Christ.

Jesus didn't tell them up front what the cost would be of discipleship, but they followed Him anyway.

But we know that Christ did show us clearly what it means to truly follow Him, and that's where we're going to start this morning.

Luke chapter 9 and we'll start in verse 22.

And give a little background to this text as we pick it up.

Jesus had asked the disciples, whom say you that I am?

He just wanted to see if they could discern who he really was, his true identity as a son of God.

And again, his disciples made the profession as Peter voiced the feelings of the disciples.

Verse 20, Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ of God.

And right after this, Jesus goes in to describe to his disciples his mission, what will happen to him.

Before this, they had their own ambitions of Christ setting up this earthly kingdom and they being a part of that but Christ tells them plainly what his mission is in verse 22 saying the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be slain and be raised the third day.

This is cutting right at the heart of the disciples' ambitions.

Does this make sense to those who are looking for Christ to be this earthly ruler?

After showing the disciples what his mission is, he puts it in their hands.

Verse 23, And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it but whosoever will lose his life for my sake the same shall save it for what is a man advantaged if he gained the whole world and lose himself or be cast away for whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words of him shall the Son of man be ashamed when he shall come in his own glory and in his Father's and of the holy angels." So Christ gives the cost of being a disciple.

It's very plain for us to read and understand, plain for us to read, but what does it really mean to deny ourselves, to take up this cross and to follow Christ?

That's what we're going to look into this morning and allow the Bible to show us what this truly means.

Now when we think of denying ourselves, what is self?

The Bible doesn't give a direct interpretation of what self is, but we can look at it as it says Christ was saying, whosoever shall save his life shall lose it.

And the next verse he says, what is the man advantage if he gain the whole world and lose himself?

Everything that we think we own, that makes up self.

But Christ is saying we have to deny ourselves to follow Him.

I was just looking up the Greek word for deny, and 1 of the definitions means to disown.

So Christ is saying we're to disown ourselves, disown our thoughts and feelings.

To give further illustration in the other Gospels, Jesus also gives this intercourse here and we can see it clearly as we look at Christ talking to the rich young ruler.

The Bible says, Then Jesus beholding him loved him and said unto him, 1 thing thou lackest, go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven.

And come, take up the cross, and follow me." So to this rich young ruler, the thing that was holding on to self and indulging self was his riches.

He was given much possessions that were to be used to the glory of God, to give to those who needed and to advance his cause.

But self was being indulged so much by that that it was a stumbling block to him coming to Christ.

We know the story, He went away sorrowful because he could not give up self.

Another illustration we find in Matthew chapter 10 and verse 37.

Matthew 10 and verse 37, Jesus says, he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me and he that taketh not his cross and followeth After me is not worthy of me So again, we see that the true cost Nothing is to come between us and our love for Christ, our love for God, not even mother or father.

The closest family ties we have in this world are not to come in the way of us following after Christ.

Luke 14, we won't turn there, but Jesus goes so far to say, So it would be that forsaketh not all that he hath is not worthy of me.

And when we look at denying ourselves, we are disowning our ideas of us having a right to our own lives.

We know that God has the right to our service.

So as we look at how we are to deny self, we need to look no further than to the example.

Ephesians 1, we turn to Philippians 2, himself.

The theme is first we turn to Philippians chapter 2 and verse 7.

And we'll actually pick this up in verse 5, very familiar to all of us.

Philippians chapter 2 and verse 5, the Bible says, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.

And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." So we see that Jesus, God the Son, thou didst not rob me to be equal to God.

When He came to this earth, did He take upon Himself the form of a king, a monarch?

The Bible says that He made Himself of no reputation.

And we can read into that that He emptied Himself.

He emptied Himself and became, 1 of us, the form of a servant.

So how are we holding on to our own rights?

We think that we can do what we please, make our own choices, but Christ is saying we cannot do that.

To be his disciple, we have to give all to Him.

Our feelings, our affections, our desires, everything.

And Christ has shown us the way to do that.

Again, we can look at another illustration from the life of Christ.

To come to the point where you deny self, you have to realize 1 thing.

We have to realize our true condition, that we are an unclean thing.

All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.

We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

There's nothing in us that merits any favor to God except our need.

We can look at verse 30, Jesus saying, I cannot of mine own self do nothing.

And my judgment is just because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." So Christ's way of denying self was that He gave His will to the Father.

This wasn't something that was forced upon Him.

And for us as well, Christ, through His sacrifice, has given us the choice.

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Carrying the Cross

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