Finding Freedom From Yourself Series

Finding Freedom From Yourself

One day Jesus left the crowds to pray alone.

AND BTW MGCC - that is a really good thing to do at times.

To leave the noise and the crowd (yeah, they’ll be fine without you) and to get alone with God.

IN FACT – for some in this room that is exactly what you need to do this week… today.

GET AWAY - from all the noise of life and spend some alone time with your Heavenly Father.

GET IT?

Only his disciples were with him, and he asked them, “Who do people say I am?” “Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say you are one of the other ancient prophets risen from the dead.”

Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.” Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone.

BECAUSE – His time had not yet come.

And he said, “ The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple

QUESTION – do you want to be His disciple?

UNDERSTAND MGCC – being His disciple is about so much more than just being saved?

must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.

What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? – Luke 9:18-25

QUESTION – do you hear what Jesus is saying?

HE – is saying you that if you make your life all about you,

THEN it can never be all about Him (Jesus)...

AND NOT ONLY THAT – but you will also miss out on becoming the you God intends you to be

YOU WILL – (as Jesus said) loose and forfeit your very self.

Loose (appollymi) = destroy utterly, abolish, put an end to, render useless, put out of the way entirely

(apollo me)

• Matthew 2 - when Herod wanted to find baby Jesu to kill Him

• Matthew 9 – in the parable Jesus told about new wine being poured into old wineskins, bursting the skins running out and being ruined

• Matthew 27 – when the Jewish leaders wanted to put Jesus to death

Forfeit (zemioo) = to affect with damage, to be cast away,

• 1 Corinthians 3:15 - of a builder who has had his building burnt up

• Philippians 3:8 – of Paul considering all things lose for the sake of gaining Christ.

What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? – Luke 9:18-25

HOWEVER – on the other hand…

IF YOU – deny yourself, find freedom from yourself (loose your life, for HIS sake), you will actually save and find your very self.

Prayer

OKAY MGCC…

Welcome to week 4 of our series finding freedom in a world that seeks to bind you.

AMD LISTEN - this series is about looking such things as - FEAR, WORRY AND ANGER and telling them 'You are not my master, you are not the boss of my life!"

AND MGCC – this week is about you and I looking at ourself in the mirror, and saying to ourself,

“You are not my master!”

OKAY – here’s the deal…

One of the greatest obstacles to you finding freedom in a world that seeks to bind you…. IS YOU!

UNDERSTAND – my goal this morning is very simple, for everyone in this room… to walk out those doors not only (embracing, adopting and accepting)…

BUT – striving with a dogged unrelenting determination to live out the mantra…

“It’s not about Me”

Tell someone near you… “It’s not about me”

Tell someone near you… “It’s not about you”

UNDERSTAND

It’s not… life’s not about you.

About your wants, desires, opinions… etc

NOW THERE ARE – 3 points in our notes this morning.

AND – they all start with the letter ‘R’ - I don’t why, I didn’t plan it – It just worked out this way.

• The Reality

• The Reasons

• The Remedy

I. The Reality…

Max Lucado writes;

There is a sickness that makes the black plague appear as mild as the common cold. Tally the death tolls of all infections, fevers, and epidemics since the beginning of time, and you’ll still fall short of the number claimed by this single infirmity.

And forgive me for being the one to tell you, but you are infected. You suffer from it. You are a victim – a diseased carrier. You have shown the symptoms and manifested the signs.