INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• Now I belong to Jesus, WHAT NOW?
• In this series we have been examining some the implications in our life because of our relationship with Jesus.
• Today we examine the area of my priorities. How should my faith and my relationship with Jesus impact my priorities?
• I want you to think about a question for a moment. What is the goal for your life? What is the most important aspect of your life?
• Let that one simmer for a minute.
• Now, that you have the goal for your life in the center of mind, what are you doing to achieve that goal?
• Really, I could ask the question about any of the goals you have for your life. Maybe your goal is a good marriage? How are you arranging your life to make that happen?
• In Jr High, I was on the wrestling team, the basketball team, the track team and the football team and played summer baseball. When I was in High School, I narrowed it down to baseball and football.
• My goal was to be the best I could be and to never sit the bench. I went to a fairly large High School for the area and I was not the biggest or fastest guy on the planet.
• For football we had to come to camp in shape, we had to run a mile in a certain amount of time, so all summer I would run in the late evenings to be ready.?
• I spent a great deal of time in the weight room because I knew for me to succeed, I had to work harder than others did so I set my priorities in such a way that I would reach my goal.
• In baseball, I wanted to be a pitcher, so I worked hard and studied pitching, and practiced as much as I could. When others were goofing off, I was working to make sure I did not sit the bench.
• It is great to have goals, but unless you adjust your priorities you will never reach those goals.
• For those who want to follow Jesus, we must have a change of priorities because if we do not, our goals just become unmet dreams along with living an unfulfilled life.
• Jesus has some startling and difficult things to say concerning priorities, and today we look at one of the predominate passages on the subject together.
• Today we will be in Matthew 16:24-26, we will begin with verse 24.
• This passage takes place after Peter proclaims that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of the Living God.
• Then when Jesus talks about His future death and resurrection, Peter said NO WAY, and Jesus looks at Peter and tells Satan to get behind Him!
• Now Jesus is going to explain what it means to follow Him.
• SLIDE #2
• Matthew 16:24 (CSB) Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.
• SLIDE #3
SERMON
My priorities should be centered on…
I. Three actions
• As Jerry and I discussed this passage we agreed we could have developed a message from each verse because each verse is so rich, but we will begin with verse 24.
• As Peter has confessed that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and then Peter tried to tell Jesus how to be the Messiah, Jesus is now going to clue him in as to what it takes to be a follower of Jesus.
• In this verse Jesus lays it on the line.
• “If anyone wants to follow after me
• Jesus then addresses all the disciples and insists that just as he “orients his life around the cross, so the disciples are to orient their lives around the cross.” (NIV College Press Commentary: Matthew)
• Jesus is not going to offer some ambiguous wishy-washy statement, He is going to get right to the point and simply and boldly as possible.
• I love the simplicity of this, it is so simple that not even a religious scholar can mess it up. That is the beauty of simplicity.
• One the other hand, simple does not mean easy! Jesus gives us three actions in verse 24 that are REQUIRED of a follower, a disciple of His!
• This is going to be about one’s priorities as a follower of Jesus!
• First, let him deny himself!
• Does this mean you don’t take a bath? Or that you have no regard for your life?
• In simple terms the statement LET HIM DENY HIMSELF is more about priorities, whose comes first, yours or God’s?
• As a follower of Jesus, He DEMANDS that our priorities do not reflect self-oriented ambitions and personal interests, but that they are oriented toward following and doing God’s will in one’s life!
• I had a fellow student in Bible College that dated a few of the ladies at school, and some very nice ones.
• Some of the students were on him about getting married because many of these young ladies were very desirable; however, when my friend Randy and I talked to him (since we were the old 30ish father figures) this young man said he was going into ministry to serve the Lord and that he would stay single before he married anyone who he felt would inhibit his ability to serve the Lord in the way he had been called.
• I had this young man in my first Jr High Sunday night class I taught in my home church and I always admired his focus and drive. He did eventually find that person God had in store for him!
• Paul understood this concept when he wrote the familiar passage in Galatians.
• SLIDE #4
• Galatians 2:20 (CSB) I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
• Then Jesus continues and says. take up his cross.
• This not mean to put on your Rapper gold and diamond encrusted chain and strut around, this was a much deeper action.
• People did not were cross as jewelry at this time, the cross was a symbol of death.
• A prisoner carried his own cross to the place of execution, signifying submission to Rome’s power. Following Jesus, therefore, meant identifying with Jesus and his followers, facing social and political oppression and ostracism, and no turning back. (Life Application Bible Commentary)
• We make this to be nothing when we proclaim that such and such is our cross to bear. No, it is not, this speaks of being all in, not enduring a difficult person or passing an academic test!
• Jesus calls us to be all in no matter what. We are so committed we do not worry about the consequences of following Jesus in this world! This is how the Apostles lived life after the resurrection!
• The third action Jesus gives to us is, “and follow me!”
• To follow means that we make a moment by moment choice to follow, to follow does not mean to walk behind, but rather to take the same road!
• Am I going to do what God has clearly called me to do, to piggy back off what Jerry spoke of last week, as a husband to my wife, or I am going to allow Satan to drag me down a path I know I should not go for whatever reason?
• Am I going to be a leader and a real person of integrity, or am I going to be a phony and fail in ministering to my own family? How am I going to live?
• Do my priorities reflect the God I am supposed to serve?
• Me doing my own thing, is not following Jesus. Me deciding that contradicting what God has revealed in His word is not me following Jesus.
• You get the idea!
• Three actions by which we should orient our lives to the cross! But now it gets more difficult as we look at verse 25!
• SLIDE #5
• Matthew 16:25 (CSB) For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it.
• SLIDE #6
My priorities should create…
II. A paradox
• As we follow the three actions Jesus plainly lays out for us, we see that those actions will lead to a paradox that because people around us do not understand, can cause us some extra grief, and can be confusing for ourselves.
• A PARADOX is something that seems self-contradictory or even absurd, but in reality, expresses truth.
• Something like eating FAT does not necessarily make you fat.
• Listen to this verse again, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it.”
• What? What is Jesus telling us in this verse?
• This deals with the person whose pursuits in life are all about themselves and also void of risk for Jesus.
• One who desires to save his life is one, because of what following Jesus could do to them, will back down from a situation.
• To be willing to put personal desires and life itself into God’s hands means to understand that nothing that we can gain on our own in our earthly lives can compare to what we gain with Christ. (Life Application Bible Commentary)
• Jesus wants us to trust Him and not just lead a life of sin and self-gratification!
• He wants us to trust our destiny into His hands instead of trying to control it all ourselves!
• That chase that many folks have to fill the hole in their life that can only be filled by God, will never have the life they could have had, they will lose it along with their eternal home with Jesus.
• However, when one finds their life in Christ, they will find their life, both now and for eternity!
• All the things the world offers will leave you empty and void, all the things the world offers that we will sell our soul for will find out both now and in the end when Jesus returns that they were sold a lie.
• Let’s turn to verse 26.
• SLIDE #7
• Matthew 16:26 (CSB) For what will it benefit someone if he gains the whole world yet loses his life? Or what will anyone give in exchange for his life?
• SLIDE #8
My priorities should create…
III. A quandary
• Now it is decision time.
• What is a quandary? A quandary is defined as, “a state of perplexity or uncertainty over what to do in a difficult situation.”
• Here is the quandary, my faith should make it clear which way to go; however, the world can look so good that my faith can cause a quandary for me.
• The question is what is am willing to sell out to gain the world? What am I willing to give up in exchange for my life or soul?
• What am I willing to give up to sacrifice my marriage? What am I willing to give up to gain the world, yet lose my life?
• IF I want Jesus, my priorities should reflect that desire. I can say I want Jesus, yet my priorities will reveal my true intention.
• Jesus had faced this exact temptation in the wilderness: “The devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
• ‘All this I will give you,’ he said, ‘if you will bow down and worship me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Away from me, Satan! For it is written: “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.” ’ ” (4:8–10 niv)
• What would it take for you to bow down to Satan? He will be very covert about it. He will take your struggle and magnify it to make it look like his way is the only way out.
• I see him use this in marriage, he will make the situation look so bad that a person will feel that leaving the marriage is the only way to happiness.
• Our quandary is that we KNOW what God wants for us, we should know WHY He wants it for us, yet we have these worldly desires that we fight.
• My priorities should cause some friction in my life as my spirit fights off the worldly and pursues the heavenly.
CONCLUSION
• Following Jesus NOT easy, we have an adversary who is seeking to kill and destroy.
• I am broken-hearted when I see the damage folks allow Satan to do to them because they are fooled into thinking the only way out is the forsake following the path Jesus laid out for them.
• I see it far too often.
• Jesus offers a simple, yet not easy path becoming a follower of Him.
• The question we all have to ponder is who are we going to serve?
• When we choose Jesus, our priorities in life have to align with the cross or we will be left with wishes and no plan.
