Denying Yourself

Illustration: Passion Season - Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey. What is He denying himself? Jesus is in the garden of gethsemane. What is He denying himself? What cup does He choose? Jesus is put on the cross. What is He denying himself?

The path is different because it is the path of discipleship, of following Jesus. As we follow Jesus, we start to “look” more and more like him. The transformation that we undergo makes us look more like him, and less like the world.

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24)

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1)

Introduction: How is this new life in Jesus Christ different from our previous life and unlike any other? How is this road diverse from anything that we have ever experienced before? This is the path to discipleship for following Christ. It is our desire to imitate Christ more and look less like the world.

The first great stepping stone to discipleship is to ‘deny yourself.’ To “deny” yourself means to say “No” to yourself and say “Yes” to God. To say it differently, the process of denial is “to humbly submit our will to God.” It is to go through life living out the words that Jesus said the night before He died. When He was praying in the garden, He said to God His Father, “Not My will but Yours be done.” It is what millions of Christians have prayed for centuries when they repeat what we call the “Lord’s Prayer.” “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

(a) What does it mean to deny ourselves?

• It is not to deny ourselves of food, fellowship or any good things just to make us feel miserable.

• It means to put Christ’s claims and commands above our own desires.

• Denying self requires us to give up anything that we would want or seek that would hinder our doing the will of God.

• If what we know Christ wants from us clashes with what we want to do, we say ‘NO’ to ourselves and ‘YES’ to Him. That is the big order. And we’ll be joyful when we do so.

• Remember Peter denied the Lord.

• To deny self is to renounce self-centeredness. To deny it is about me. Deny self-love. Love God!

• Apparently to deny ourselves means to not know myself.

• It is to ignore the very existence of self.

• Usually we treat ourselves to be the most important person on earth and if we follow Christ, we have to completely forget our self-existence.

Matthew 10:38 says, "And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.”

Denying yourself means saying “No” to the flesh and to its wants and desires. It is to strive for divine heavenly things, those that are born of the Holy Spirit and exalt God above everything else in our lives. In order for us to accept Christ as our Savior, we have to deny ourselves and submit to the will of God. Denying yourself entails denying all sinful behavior, ungodliness, lustiness and companions who assist in encouraging your participation in a sinful lifestyle. The ones that promote righteousness, justification and salvation are who we must cling onto and allow God to work through in our lives.

If Christ has died for us, why do we have to deny ourselves? Christ died on the cross and shed His blood for covering our sins and redeeming us from it. Our response to His sacrifice is to deny ourselves so that we are pursuing to be in His likeness. This means to give up our rights and live for His glory so that He is seen through us and not the world in us.

Denying self requires us to give up anything that we would want or seek that would hinder our doing the will of God. This does not mean that, if we want something, it is necessarily wrong. It means we must take our wants, and desires down from the throne and places Jesus and His will as the governing power in our lives. None of our wants, and desires can supersede the importance of Christ and His role in our lives.

Illustration: John the Baptist was a son of a priest who was married to the daughter of a priest. His birth was prophesied. He was raised strictly, with a view to his becoming a priest. He also was raised as a Nazarene, with the view of becoming a prophet. There were already priests in the land, more, in fact, than they needed. Few and far between were the prophets of God who stood out like Elijah. Israel did not need another priest. What they needed was a prophet! In fact, more than ninety five percent of the world’s pastors live in America. Therefore, the desperate need of our nation today is not for more pastors and ministers, but for bold and fearless prophets to step up to the pulpit.