You can ascertain the level that the gospel has gripped your heart by taking inventory of the degree that each and every day you're laying your life down on the altar of sacrifice.
Scripture Focus: John 12:25-26; Galatians 2:20
"He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him."
George Mueller was a missionary who started an orphanage. He was asked, "What has been the secret of your life?"
Mueller hung his head and said: "There was a day when I died. Died to George Mueller, his opinions, his preferences, his tastes, and his will. I died to this world, its approval. I died to the approval or blame even of friends. I died to myself."
Once you die to yourself, only then will you live for Christ.
Many of us live in a very affluent culture. There are a million things every single day that attempt to persuade you to love and live for this world. All these things fly in the face of 1 John 2:14: "Do not love the world or the things of the world. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life—it's not from God. It's of this world."
Jesus says, "Don't live for this world. Don't live for self. Don't live for gratification."
Jesus says it's only the people that don't live for this world that inherit the world to come.
What does it mean to deny oneself?
It's a death to our ego. When Jesus says, "He who loves his life," that word for life refers to our inner person. It refers to our plans, our preconceived purposes. The independent will of man must be laid down. It's a life of simple surrender.
What does it mean to pick up your cross?
Romans 12:1 says, "I beseech you by the mercies of Christ to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice."
Jesus paid the sacrifice for sin. And in light of what He's done, we are to lay down our life down on the altar of sacrifice (Rom 12:1-2).
The Christian's motto is:
More of Christ, more of Christ.
Less of me, less of me.
God's glory, not my glory.
God's kingdom, not my kingdom.
Heaven is my home, not this world.
And if you die to self, you know what the promise of God is?
He'll use your life. You'll be the seed that's planted that'll bear fruit. But as long as you're living for yourself, you're like a seed in a mason jar on a shelf.
What's the promise? Verse 26: "If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also."
The promise is God will be with you. You want a sense of God's presence in your life? Don't live for this world.
And secondly, "The Father will honor him."
God amazingly brings honor to those who live for His glory. It's one thing to be honored by men. It's another thing to be honored by God.
1. Has there been a day when you died—to your opinions, your preferences, your tastes, your will? Or are you still calling the shots in your own life?
2. What are you holding onto from this world that Jesus is asking you to let go of?
3. Are you living for the honor of men or the honor of God?
Stay dialed in`