Dying to Live: Dying to Self

He is worthy, he is worthy He is worthy, he is worthy

He is

Well Father we are very thankful to be here

and God we are especially thankful for your Son Jesus who is worthy

and when it all comes down to it

for every man and woman in this room

that is a question that they have to answer inside their own hearts

and inside their own minds

Is he worthy?

Do I really believe that Jesus is worthy?

Because the answer to that question

will determine

whether or not I even need to hear

the scripture that is going to be read

and the words that are going to be said

And Father this morning I pray that your Holy Spirit

would be in this place

God that you would

you would just be in our hearts and speak

in a powerful and loving

and amazing way that would just help us to see your truth today

Father we need you in our lives

there is not a single person in here

including myself who does not need you more

that you don't want to do more with

that you don't want to use in a powerful way

to build your kingdom

to help others and to glorify you

So Father we ask this morning that

we would open up our hearts to the one who is truly worthy

of being able to change them

and helping us to see what truth really is

Father we pray for Mr. Ralph this morning

pray for Mr. Ted

we thank you for helping them in their procedures this week

and being with them in that

and Father this morning we pray for Zach

and his wife and baby and Lord we just pray that

that she's in labor right now

and about to deliver God that your hand would be with them

and Lord we're yours

we're your people whether we know it or not

so I pray God that you would help us to see

help us to see clearly

help us to know you

help us to love you

we thank you we love you and we ask all this in Jesus precious and holy name

all God's people said

the past couple weeks we've been talking about dying to live

we've talked about the need for us to die to sin

the need for us to die to the world

and today we're talking about the need for us to die to ourselves

more than sin more than the world

you yourself will be your greatest obstacle

in your relationship with Christ

because the sin

we understand like sin is sin

the Lord identifies it the Lord calls us away from it

he calls us to die to the sinful things of the world

in order to pursue him and to follow him

and to dwell with him and have that relationship with him

he calls us to die to things of the world

because even though the world is good and there are a lot of good things in the world

there's a lot of things that we can take in this world and we can abuse it

and manipulate it and use it for sinful things and put above God

and in the aspect of our very own lives

we by nature are self-preserving

we love to make sure that we are taken care of no matter what

it is the original sin

I don't know if you realize that or not the sin in the garden might have been man's original sin

to take of the tree

but Satan's original sin was to try to elevate himself above the Lord

to make himself number one above God

got an Amen already

there we go

our lives

and the need to die to ourselves

will be the greatest obstacle we have to overcome as Christ

or to overcome in Christ

we had to go to Sam's yesterday

I don't know if you've ever been to Sam's on a Saturday at lunchtime

if you're ever afraid of hell, go to Sam's on Saturday

but we were there, we missed our usual time

and we had to go because we were running out of food

so we served our punishment

and it was absolutely amazing because there was plenty of food

they weren't running out of anything

they had stuff stacked in the aisles and the shelves were full

and there were just people

as soon as people would leave, like 10 more people would show up

that's the first time I've ever been there on a Saturday

it was an eye-opening experience

and even though there was plenty of food

and there was plenty of everything to go around

and obviously everything was working as it should

it was amazing to see how unhappy and angry people were

despite nothing being in short supply

everyone was frustrated, everyone was mad

and basically it just came to the point of

that for most people everyone else was an inconvenience for them

like I have my buggies full, I have everything I need

there's no short supply of anything

but we're mad at everybody because they're in the way

and they're taking up too much time

everybody in the parking lot was honking because she wanted by

and everybody was trying to get gas and it was a nightmare

and people were just mad because

they weren't getting what they wanted in that moment

even though they weren't really being robbed of anything

and as people our natural tendency is to take ourselves

and put ourselves above all things

put ourselves above God, put ourselves above others

and that's exactly what Christ has called us not to do

you know we're called to put Him as one

love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength

and then to love your neighbor as yourself

and yet our greatest tendency is to preserve our time

our energy, our resources, our finances, our wants, our desires, our hopes and our dreams

and we will discard most other people in order to achieve those things

even people that we should love and care about the most sometimes

we will push them to a side to chase what it is that we want

when Jesus speaks to people while He's on earth

He does not give easy commands

He does not give love and fuzzy and warm things

to give to people and say it's easy to follow me

yet it's quite the opposite

most of the things He says when you come and follow me

it's going to be hard and you need to understand it's going to be hard

and you need to count the cost

and you need to understand what it truly means to follow Jesus Christ

and so as we talked about dying to ourselves this morning

I want us to look at Luke chapter 9

Luke 9 · chapter mention

we're going to read 4 verses verse 23-26

Jesus is preparing His disciples over and over and over again

He's talking to them about He's going to die

He's telling them and predicting His death

He's calling His shot like we talked about back at Easter

and as He's doing this

there's a crowd of people around Him

and in verse 23 it says

then He said to the crowd

if any of you wants to be my follower

you must give up your own way

take up your cross daily

and follow me

if you try to hang on to your life you will lose it

but if you give up your life for my sake you will save it

and what do you benefit

if you gain the whole world

but are yourself lost or destroyed

if anyone is ashamed of me and my message the Son of Man

will be ashamed of that person when He returns to His glory

and then the glory of the Father and of the holy angels

and what I want to talk about today

is this understanding of

this is a passage of scripture

along with many other passages of scripture

that I'm going to read

that is difficult and it's very hard to swallow

because the American church has done this amazing job

of preaching the gospel and trying to convince people to follow Christ

and give their lives to Christ

and so you have all these people who are saying

if you simply believe

and you ask Jesus in your heart

and you forgive your sins

you pray this prayer after me you will be saved

right?

and that's kind of how it's gone

every service that I've been to

there's been an invitation to the altar

and a salvation message just kind of like

pray this prayer after me do this

and what I want us to see this morning is

Jesus never said that

never once did Jesus say

pray this prayer after me

He talked about belief, He talked about faith

and those things are very important

and this morning as we talk about this

if you've prayed that prayer

and you said you believe

I'm not trying to say that you're not saved

so don't misunderstand that

because there are passages of scripture

like Romans 10, 9 and 10

if you believe in your heart and your mouth

that Jesus is Lord you shall be saved

and those are great verses

they're very encouraging

but then you have to

what do we do with Luke 9 verses 23-26

Luke 9:23–26

where Jesus says

if you want to be my follower

you must take up your cross

daily

what do you do with that?

and there's an understanding that

yes there's a moment where we receive

Christ as Lord and Savior

and we can be welcomed into the family of God

and we can be forgiven of our sins

and there can be great joy in that moment

but following Christ is not a moment

it is a life

it is a calling

it is a calling to not only

follow but to die

and to do it daily

and we're not just dying to sin

and we're not just dying to the world

but Jesus even calls you this morning

and has always called us as believers

to die especially to ourselves

no one will keep you out of heaven

but you

no man, no thing

nobody

nobody can keep you out of heaven

but you

and the refusal to follow Christ

the way that he's called us to

so point number one

all these are questions today

very fitting for the last song that we sing is like

who is worthy?

is he worthy?

and if he's worthy

then the answer is going to be easy

and if he's not worthy

the answer is going to be hard

and you're not going to know what the answer is

so point number one this morning

is who do I follow?

that's a question that every single one of us

have to answer

who do I follow?

and there's going to be some people in this room

that you absolutely 100% you follow yourself

you follow your desires

you follow your wants

you follow your dreams

your hopes, your ambitions

and that's okay because we're people

and we're sinful by nature

we follow what we desire

some people may be a little more willing to follow somebody else

to follow culture

to follow

you know trends and things like that

but a lot of us

are inevitably

self-centered and selfish

whether we want to realize or say that out loud or not

we are

I am

I will be the first one to tell you I am

Hannah can testify to that pretty quickly

but I'll tell you I am too

but we have to ask this question

who do I follow?

in Luke chapter 14 verses 25 through 26

Luke 14:25–26

Jesus addresses the crowd again

and it says a large crowd was following Jesus

he turned around and said to them

if you want to be my disciple

you must by comparison

hate everyone else

and then that's mind-blowing

here's Jesus

who says by comparison

hate everyone else

so understand and look at the verbiage

not hate everyone else

by comparison hate everyone else

love the Lord your God with all your heart

soul, mind and strength

love your neighbor as yourself

the greatest commandments

but by comparison

the next people who fall in that line

it looks like you hate them

compared to how much you love Jesus

and we can't fathom that

because you have these people in your life

your spouse, your children, your parents

your family, your friends

who you can see and you can touch

and they're tangible and they do things for you

and they've sacrificed for you

it's like how do I by comparison

hate that person to love God

whom I can't see, whom I can't touch

who I'm literally by faith

just believing that he's there

and I'm just trusting in this thing

that I'm not really even sure inside my own heart

if he's real and the heavens real

and this is all going to work out

and it goes back to the whole question of

what exactly do you believe?

what do you believe about the God

whom you claim to believe in?

is he worthy?

if he's worthy you will follow him

if he's not worthy you're not going to follow him

that's the question you have to answer

and Jesus lays out these hard teachings

he builds up a crowd

people are following him

he doesn't give them warm fuzzy feelings

he says if you want to follow me

by comparison it must look like you hate everybody else

and that's hard teaching

and being a Christian is believing

and yet the words of Christ are

take up your cross daily and die

and if you want to follow me by comparison

it looks like you hate everyone else

your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters

yes even your own life

otherwise you cannot be my disciple

and Jesus is drawing the line

and he's saying look if you're not willing to do this

here's the line

make the decision to cross the line

and I guarantee you there's some people here this morning who's like man

I don't know I didn't know there was a line

I just always thought I was good

and now there's a line and now I don't know what to do with my life

or my hands

what do you do with that?

and the truth is that we have to take the words of Jesus into consideration

and apply it to our lives

we cannot ignore it

we cannot base our entire theology off of one verse that says one thing

and completely ignore other verses that say and add great value to it in other ways

but one thing that I can tell you as I promise you

if you believe in Jesus Christ and you just believe and you're not dying daily

your relationship with him and your faith with him is probably empty

and unsatisfying at best

and it's probably not very important to you

but I can guarantee you that if you've made the decision to die daily

and you are loving him and putting him as number one in your life

then there's probably an immense amount of joy in your life

and hope and peace and satisfaction in that

that looks really weird to the rest of the world

and they cannot understand it

because you don't know until you know

you don't know if it's worth it

you don't know if it's worth it to follow Jesus

until you step out in faith and you start doing it

and you see the fruit and you feel it in your heart for yourself

in John chapter 8 verse 12

John 8:12

Jesus spoke to the people once more and said

I am the light of the world if you follow me you won't have to walk in darkness

because you will have the light that leads to life

you will not know what it's like to truly live until you die

you will not know what it's like to walk in light until you leave the darkness

and no matter how good this world may be

and no matter how good your life may be

until it's Christ it is dark

so whatever you're putting is number one in your life it is darkness

Perry was praying last night

I think Pastor Nina or somebody did a lesson on the man that built his house upon the rock

and Perry's been infatuated with that here lately

and so the past few weeks he's been praying

Lord help us to build our house upon the rock like the wise man

which is Jesus and then he just kind of threw in this tagline last night

in his prayers like and not to build our house upon the sand which is the devil

and I was like okay so after prayer time I just talked to him about

I was like buddy you know that whenever we talk about building our house upon the sand

it's not necessarily that we're building our house upon Satan

most people you don't have to build your house upon Satan to build it on sand

you know sand can be anything like it can be your toys it can be it can be your hobbies

it can be your career it can be money it could be anything in your life

like anything that you build your life on that's not Christ is sand

and so we talked about that it was kind of kind of fascinating that he was equating that

and when you look at this this idea of our life

anything that we put and build our life on it's all temporary in all faiths

this is what Jesus is trying to teach his followers

this is what Jesus wants Christians to know even now as we're meeting together today

sin is not beneficial sin comes with punishment and consequences

the world although good in many ways can be used for sin

and can distract and take away from our relationship with Christ

and then our own hearts and our own desires will pull us away from the Lord

and keep us from truly committing to him and dying to him the way that he's called us to

the question is who will we follow?

Point two, question number two

will I take up my cross daily?

I will preach this until the day that I die

I will say this over and over and over again

I do not believe that salvation is a moment

I do not believe that in a moment when you say

I love Jesus come into my heart be the Lord in my life

that you're saved and then it's done

I believe salvation is a lifelong thing that Jesus is leading us through

and guiding us through and shaping us and molding us

and it is a lifelong commitment and service to him

I believe that with all my heart

I believe that whenever I was 16 years old and I sent one of them pews right there

that used to be there and I was clinging to the back of that pew

and I did not want to get up and come to this altar

I believe that when I was praying the prayer of salvation

that the Lord came into my life and he saved me from my sins

but the work was not done

I don't know about you

I think it'd be pretty frustrating if I was up here this morning

and I was still on the same physical and spiritual maturity level

that I was at 16 years old when I was clinging to the back of that pew

refusing to go to the altar

I don't know how you feel about that

but it would be really hard for me to follow a person from a spiritual context

who refused to go to the altar

and it's not that I was bad or it's not that the Lord wasn't working in my life

or saving me in that moment from those sins

but there was still a lot of work to be done

and I've said it for the past several weeks

I'm pretty stubborn, I don't die very easily

the Lord has had to speak to me over and over and over again

and a lot of times give me some pretty hard licks

to convince me to die to some things in my life

in order to continue to follow him and be where he's called me to be

and I think that's for all of us

you don't have to be in ministry for that to happen

I believe that God wants to work in moving our lives

throughout the entirety of our life

and so whether you're 15 this morning

or 3 this morning

or whether you're 70 this morning and you're retired

or maybe you've got one foot in the grave

and you feel like your time's done

and you have something for you

and if he didn't you wouldn't be here

but will I take up my cross and follow daily

because it's a decision, Jesus said it

we can't ignore it, Jesus said it, we cannot ignore it

in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 1

Hebrews 2:1

the writer of Hebrews said

so we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard

or we may drift away from it

you look at the entire book of Hebrews

the entire book of Galatians

so many other passages of scripture

that warn us as believers

to focus on the Lord

to listen, to ponder, to carefully think

and devote our lives to that

for the fear of wandering away

and let me remind you that every epistle in the New Testament

that was written by an apostle

or by someone who knew an apostle

was written to a church

Galatians, Ephesians, Corinthians,

Colossians, all those were churches

they're not just fancy names for a book

that was a church that existed

and so they wrote those letters to churches

with people who were in those churches

who professed to be Christians

and all of them constantly warned those people

don't do this, don't just run the race

finish strong

be careful not to fall into temptation

be careful not to wander away

be careful

don't do this

because there's a danger in our lives

that if we don't focus on the Lord

and we don't take up our cross

and we don't die to everything daily

we can drift away from the Lord

and in John chapter 3 verse 3

John 3:3

Jesus is talking to Nicodemus

he says I tell you the truth

unless you are born again

you cannot see the kingdom of God

you cannot be born again

and be the same person that you were before

you've got to die

that has to happen

you have to die to become a new person

and I believe that if you die daily

you can be reborn daily

God can help you be someone brand new today

that you were not yesterday

through the power of his spirit

in 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 23-25

1 Peter 1:23–25

Peter writes

for you have been born again

but not to a life that will quickly end

that's good

I don't think anybody is ready for it to quickly end

but you've been reborn to a life that will not quickly end

your new life will last forever

because it comes from the eternal living word of God

and as the scriptures say

people are like grass

their beauty is like a flower in the field

the grass withers and the flower fades

but the word of the Lord remains forever

God is the good news that was preached to you

it's eternal

it's an eternal thing

God is not in the moment business

God is in the eternal business

and so when he calls us to follow him

it's not a calling to just make this decision

in this one moment

and then you live the rest of your life

just as you did before

and expect to go to heaven and receive rewards and riches

and share in the glory and honor of Jesus Christ

his physical life for you and for myself

but he calls us to die

and he calls us to do it daily

so are you taking up your cross

and will you do it daily

question three last one

this is the question that most people ask

what will I benefit

what's in it for me

give me a reason

to do this

because I need to know

that it's going to be worth what I'm giving up now

to have something better then

and do I believe that what is available then

is going to be better than what I have now

that's what we're talking about

what will I benefit?

so let's just name some very common things

if you cling to your career in this life

what do you benefit if you cling to it?

at best you get retirement

and the sad part is that eventually

once you retire

you'll be forgotten

those businesses, those organizations

those things that you work for they move on

people may remember you for a little while

but eventually

you'll be forgotten

you'll have retirement if it's still there

by the time we get old enough to retire

maybe, maybe not

you cling to your status

status is always forgotten

one of the amazing things that I've noticed here lately

we've done a lot of stuff with the

baseball and softball teams up at school

and you start naming all these players

who are really good from the past

and a lot of times they don't know who they are

which isn't casting shade on them

like they're not

we have a young group of people coming through

who have information overload

they have the ability to like Google anything

and so the necessity to know it isn't as big

whenever I came through

you didn't have that information

so you just like you tried to remember as much as you could

and so like all these old players that we always heard about

we heard our parents and all these other people

we knew who they were

they don't know who they are

I was talking with somebody on the phone

talking about Pastor Mickle

most of you in this room probably don't even know who Pastor Mickle is

I never had the privilege of meeting him

never heard a bad thing about the man

had so many people talk about

he was

the best man they ever met

huge influence on their life

Pastor Deere at this church

I don't even know how many

probably several decades

the kids building was named after him

when it was the fellowship building

and if I said Pastor Mickle

how many of you in here would know who he is?

like six people

a hundred of you don't

and as great of a man as he was

and as much as he did for the Lord

even from a spiritual perspective

from a worldly perspective of knowing who he is

you don't even know who he is

and his ministry

is an enormous part of the reason you get to be here today

and be in the service

and you don't even know who he is

so don't cling to your status

whether it's spiritual or physical

because eventually it'll be forgotten

if you cling to your house at best

one day someone else will live in it

hopefully it won't be tore down

hopefully it won't fall in or be destroyed

the best thing you can hope for

is that somebody else will live in it

when you're gone

cling to your car

it's already junk

as soon as you bought it

it lost value

it'll be wore out

you'll probably go through two or three cars in your lifetime if not more

if you like me and you buy used cars you'll go through more

you cling to your hobby

you'll get pleasure for a season

I get to see a lot of people as they get older

get to the point in life where they just can't do stuff anymore

they just make that transition

where they're just not able

to be physically active

and do the things that they used to do

and the things that they love

I've seen so many people

who had hobbies and love doing stuff

get to the point where they just can't do it

and it's miserable

you're going to have to give it up anyway

even if you do it till the day you die

you're going to die

it's going to be gone

it's temporary

you cling to your relationship

at best till death do its part

you cling to your friendships

at best it may last a lifetime

still going to come to an end

I don't know if you've ever thought about that before

all the things that we want to cling to we lose anyway

Brian and Ashley go to a lot of estate sales

all the things that people cherished and saved

and hoarded up their whole lives

that were important to them

their kids sell it and give it away

we lose everything that we cling to

but what do we gain if we follow Christ?

we can give up a career

there's promise, provisions

and eternal life from the Lord

we can give up status

and the Lord promises that the least

will be the greatest

and the greatest shall be the least

we give up the house

you get a mansion you give up a car

you get to walk on the streets of gold

you give up hope and joy

that surpasses any kind of joy

that you get from your hobby

you give up a relationship

I believe God has a better one

you give up a friendship

I believe God has a more beneficial one

and I've seen it in my own life

I can't tell you like

how you're going to know this

the only thing I can tell you is

in all these things

God has given me more

than I could have ever asked for

for me personally

and the peace of mind

the absence of guilt

the eternal joy, eternal hope, eternal life,

eternal fellowship with others

and eternal relationship with Christ

that's what you're promised

but the question is

is do you believe

that He's worthy

of giving it up

because you're not going to give it up

if you don't believe that He's worthy of it

you're not going to die to it

in Galatians 6 verses 8 and 9

Galatians 6:8

Paul wrote to the church of Galatians

says those who live only to satisfy

their sinful nature

will harvest decay and death

from that sinful nature

but those who live to please the Spirit

will harvest everlasting life

from the Spirit

so let's not get tired of doing what is good

at just the right time

we will reap a harvest of blessing

if we don't give up

Paul wrote that to Christians

he wrote that to people

who profess to believe in Jesus Christ

and Paul acknowledged them as Christians

and if we live to satisfy our sinful nature

we will harvest death and decay

but if we live to please the Spirit

we will harvest everlasting life

don't get tired of doing what is good

some of you in this room

have been following the Lord

and you've started to wonder

maybe you're in this little lull

in your relationship with Him

where you feel like man

I'm just in this little funk right now

and I haven't seen anything good

and I'm just wondering is this really worth it

everything I've given up

everything I've sacrificed

everything I've done for God

is that really worth it?

don't give up

at God's right time

and reap the blessings

of all the things that you give up for Him

and you may receive some of those blessings

in this life

but you can most certainly rest assured

that you will receive those blessings in eternity

which is more important

because they will last there

and all the blessings that you get in this life

will be gone anyway

you with me this morning?

we can't give up

and if you're sitting here today

and you're just like man is it worth it?

is it worth it for me to give this up?

you'll never know until you do it

you'll never know until you step out in faith

and you give it up for the Lord

and you die to it and you follow Him

I believe

that the majority of people in this room this morning

probably don't have some great sin in their life

that they need to be cleansed from

there's probably some things that we're dealing with

some things that we're struggling with

in our relationship with the Lord that

we probably need to deal with and surrender

but I guarantee you almost every single person

in this room

has something in their heart

and in their mind and in their life

that we have just refused to die to

that we have clung because it's ours

it's who we are

it's what we want

it's what we've aspired for

and you've probably already sacrificed

a million other things in this life for that thing

and it feels like to die to it now

would have been a waste for all the other stuff

and the only thing I can tell you is

it's not a waste

if you cling to it

you'll lose it

if you give it up for His sake

you will find it

Jesus promises that

over and over and over again

and the last passage of scripture in John 12 verses 23 through 27

John 12:23–27

Jesus is predicting His death again

and Jesus replied

now the time has come for the Son of Man

to enter into His glory

and I tell you the truth

unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies

it remains alone

you cannot live

you cannot be reborn until you die

but its death will produce many new kernels

a plentiful harvest of new lives

and you will know and have the confidence that Christ

has worked and moved in your lives when your life begins to produce a harvest

because when you die to yourself

the Lord can use you

to produce a harvest for Him in His kingdom

He can use you to witness and minister to other people

He can use you to testify to other people

He can use you to lead other people to the saving knowledge of Christ

but He can't use you to do that until you die

those who love their life in this world will lose it

those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity

and anyone who wants to serve me must follow me

because my servants must be where I am

and the Father will honor anyone who serves me

and the most heartbreaking part is verse 27

where Jesus says, now my soul is deeply troubled

should I pray, Father, save me from this hour

but this is the very reason I came

Jesus is communicating His death

He's communicating His sacrifice

He's letting them know that it's about to come

and He is not excited about it

He doesn't want to do it

He sits in the garden

He bows down and prays, He says, Lord, let this cup pass from me

Please, if it's your, anything's possible with you

If you can, let this cup pass from me

yet not my will but your will be done

Jesus was not excited to go to the cross

He didn't wake up that morning and jump for joy and say, oh boy, today's the day

He knew that it was not something that He was wanting to do

He addressed that several times in Scripture

and He says, yeah, but this is the reason I came

He came to die

He was given life so that He could die

You were not here this morning and you were not called by God

and saved from your sins so that you could continue on in your sins

You were not saved from the world so that you could continue on living in the world

and you were not saved from yourself so that you could go on satisfying and gratifying yourself

You were given new life in Christ so that you could die

That's the reason

And Jesus does not ask us to do one single thing that He has not already done Himself

He died so that you and I could have life

And He wasn't excited about it but it was the very reason that He came

The very reason that we are saved is so that we can die to sin

into the world and we die to ourselves so that you and I can produce a harvest for Christ

10, 50, and even 100 times greater than what we could ever dream be possible

And I truly believe there's people in this room this morning

who you think, man, I can't do that

I'm too far in, too far invested

There's no possible way to get out

Like I'm stuck, I can't do this, you can

In your own strength you can't do it but through Christ anything is possible

What do you believe about the God that you say that you believe in?

Through Christ all things are possible

We can die

It's not easy

It's not desirable

I guarantee there's nobody in this room this morning who's excited about that

I was never not once excited about it

Never not once excited about having to leave something that I wanted to do behind for the Lord

But looking back on it, I'm grateful

I'm so thankful because what He had for me was so much better than anything I could have planned for myself

And when you can see that and experience it just a little bit

It makes it a little easier to die the next time

It's not always easy but it makes it a little easier as you keep going

Because you know and you have a little tangible evidence to it

But we've got to step out in faith and we've got to do it that first time

There's no place for sin in a Christian's life

There's no place for the world and there's no place for our selfishness

Saved people are changed people

Saved people are changed people

Don't lie to yourself this morning

We have to be willing to die

Let's pray

Father, thank you for the opportunity to be here

Thank you for your word

Thank you for your love and mercy and Lord

Even in the midst of our stubbornness and our failures

Lord, I myself have so many

Lord, you are so merciful and gracious in our lives

And so Father, I don't want anyone to feel like there's no hope

There's no way out

But God, I pray that you would speak powerfully and just remind us this morning that

Lord, you died so that we could do this

You died so that we could die

You died so that we could turn away from all these things that are pulling us from you

And turn to you and follow you

And so God, I pray this morning that you would speak and work and move in a powerful way

Lord, every person in this room would know that it was you speaking to their heart

That it's not just words

It's not just a crafty message Lord

It's what your word says, it's what your scripture says

So God, I pray that we would take it and we would apply it to our lives

And live for you the way that you've called us to

Jesus, we love you today

We thank you so much and we ask all this in your precious and holy name

Amen