Like most you, I was raised in a Christian home. My parents took me to church on Sundays and most Wednesday nights. I participated in Vacation Bible School, church choir and youth activities. I was baptized when I was twelve. I do not remember my baptism. I guess I must of felt something special at the time but I just do not remember it. I don’t remember it as a life changing experience. I was just doing what I had always been taught. “Come to me(Jesus Christ) all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest,” Matthew 11:28. I don’t know what could have been burdening my little twelve year old heart that I needed rest from. But what I did know is that I needed to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and be baptized if I wanted to go to heaven to do that. And so I was baptized.
I suspect for many Christians today, Christianity is just that, a ticket to heaven. It is something that takes place on “automatic pilot” because they lived in a Christian home. It is a “one stop” shopping experience where with a brief stop at salvation, one can walk out of the waters with all there is to Christianity. Don’t misunderstand me. I believe in baptism, the life changing kind of baptism. I believe in Jesus Christ is the truth and the way . Jesus Christ came to earth, suffered, died on the cross and rose again to save us. But folks the Bible does not end at Matthew 11:28 with Jesus just saying “Come to me”. Jesus Christ’s teachings continue throughout the New Testament. And in Luke 9:23 He says, not only “Come to me” but“If anyone would come after me, deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” He said “Come after me.” That isn’t suggesting a sedentary lifestyle. Life in Christ is not a spectator sport. God didn’t call us to be Couch Potatoes just sitting there waiting for Him to come back and take us to heaven. He did more than come to earth to bring us salvation in heaven. He saved us to change us. Romans 12:2 “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed ” He wants us to be changed, remade, recreated in his image. Luke 9:23 tells us how it should be changed. “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
What does it mean to deny ourselves? Henry Martyn as a missionary to India to a great example of what it means to deny oneself. Martyn had done more than his share of missionary service when he announced he was going to Persia. Doctors warned him that the heat in India would kill him. The heat in Persia was much worse. And yet Martyn went any ways.
He wanted to take God’s Word to the Persian people. He studied the Persian language and translated the New Testament and Psalms in an amazing nine months. Only to be told that he must have the Shah’s permission to circulate it. He traveled 600 miles over rough terrain to Tehran only to be denied permission to see the Shah. But Martyn wasn’t ready give up. He turned around and made a 400 mile trip to find the British ambassador who gave his credentials and said “This is all I can do. You will have to present them yourself.”
Barely able to stand, Martyn rode at night on the back of a mule. He hid from the sweltering heat of the day in a small canvas tent. When he returned to Tehran he was received by the Shah who gave permission for the Scriptures in Persian to be circulated.
Ten days laterMartyn died in Turkey having willingly denied his own personal safety to take the message to the lost. There are still places in the world Christian persecution abound, where service to God means consequences, torture and even death. There a person must be totalling willing to deny oneself for the purpose of glorifying God.
In America religious tolerance reigns. Sacrifice is naughty word. The individual’s rights and needs come first. Everything from commercials to education pushes in the direction of advancing ourselves. Our individual rights take precedent over the poor, alienated and lost. The world would have us habitually think of ourselves first and foremost.
And yet Christ continues to call us, call us to deny ourselves, our own agendas, plans and dreams to seek God’s will for our live. Denying of self means different things to different people. For parents it means denying one’s self seeking desires to replace them with the desire for what is in the best interest of their child. For a spouse it means denying one’s self in interest of asking how can I first help my partner. For an individual living in an environment with others next door it means denying self to service the needs of the neighbor. To an employee or employer it means denying self concern for advancement and focusing instead on how to be of service and help to colleagues, employers and employees. For a youth it means denying one’s own wants and desires for the wisdom of your parents, for other youth who are lost and hurting, for children who need your guidance and love, and for the older adult who wants to be respected, needed and loved.
Denying one’s self means seeking the spiritual and basic needs of others over your own. It means separating yourself from the world’s values and lifestyle for a life in God. It means your life should be changed. It should be different then the life of one who lives in the world. If no one can the difference between your life as a Christian and the life of others maybe it is because you have not taken the full journey, you have not denied your own personal desires for the Will and glory of God. Denial of self for God is not a sacrifice but a pleasure. Are you ready to receive the blessing of denying yourself and putting God first?
“If anyone is to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily…” The cross is a powerful image of rejection and sacrifice for the love of God. To take up your cross daily means a Christian should be prepared to face rejection and death even as one remains faithful to God’s will. Such rejection and death in our society is rare. Discipleship in America does not come with the automatic sense of cost that it carried in biblical times. And yet in other places the persecution continues.
In the August, 1996 edition of Christianity Today Susan Bergman speak of the modern day cross bearers for God. She recalls stories of persecution; stories of a small village in China where a young girl of only ten was confronted by Communist soldiers and told to “trample the cross” so that she might live. The young girl refused and raised her hands to the sky singing, in her own language, “Jesus Loves Me” as the soldiers opened fire and killed her; stories of crucifixion of Christians in the mountains of Sudan; stories of the young Christian, Salamat Masih who was sentenced to death under the Pakistan penal code for blasphemy against the Holy Prophet Muhammad; stories of seven missionary children in Columbia who watched Marxist guerrillas throw their fathers into a truck and drive off only to be killed themselves by the rebels; stories of Christian persecution in Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Ubekistan and China.
It is hard for American Christians in a land of tolerance and riches to understand the persecution and tortures that await Christians in other countries. We don’t face persecution but that does not mean discipleship is without cost, the cost of giving up the worldly things for a life in Christ. There may be things that you and I need to renounce and bear on our cross because they represent a subtle form of idolatry: things like money, jobs, recreational pleasures, society influence, or sleeping late on Sundays. But we must be reminded that while others are suffering we, Americans, have been richly blessed and God expects a great deal more from us. Just as Ed preached last week from the Parable of the Talents “from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be required.”
What is God requiring of us, he asks that we bearing our cross daily, that we represent Him to the world so that other’s might come to know he. He commands us to walk a life of integrity, purity, faithfulness and humble service, to think in a whole new way and orient ourselves to a new life. He commands us to bear our cross daily by putting our expectations and needs in the back seat to Jesus’ call to follow him.
“If anyone is to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Follow is used seventy seven times in the New Testament Gospels alone. Each time it is used in reference to following the example of Christ. To follow Christ means to constantly grow in the example of His life to become more like him. It requires denying oneself, bearing one’s cross daily and committing oneself to spiritual labor in the search for God’s Will. It means a renewal of mind from what the “I” wants to what would Jesus do.
Charles Sheldon was a young minister in Topeka with a background in social word. In a daring move. Sheldon trampled the streets of Topeka, disguised as an unemployed printer. He was terribly shocked by the indifference and lack of commitment in the Christian community. As a result he wrote, IN HIS STEPS. It is a story about a unemployed printer and the influence his life had upon the life of a rural church pastored by Reverend Henry Maxwell. I would like to share a passage from the text with you. “The sermon had come to a close and Rev. Maxwell was just getting ready to step down from the pulpit when the figure of a man came out of the shadows of the rear of the church and walked down the middle aisle. It was the man who had come by Rev. Maxwell’s house the day before. He was dusty, worn and shabby-looking. He held a faded hat in his two hands. He had not shaved and his hair was rough and tangled. It is doubtful that anyone like this had ever confronted the First Church within its sacred walls.
There was nothing offensive in the man’s manner or tone. He was not excited and he spoke in a low but distinct voice. “I’m not an ordinary tramp, though I don’t know of any teaching of Jesus that makes one kind of a tramp less worth saving than another. Do you? He paused just a moment and coughed painfully. Then he went on.
“I lost my job ten months ago. I am a printer by trade. The new linotype machines are beautiful specimens of invention but I know six men who have killed themselves inside of the year just on account of those machines. Of course I don’t blame the newspapers for getting the machine but what’s a man to do. I know I learned but one trade and that’s all I can do. I’ve tramped all over the country trying to find something. There are a good many others like me. I’m not complaining, am I? I’m just trying to state the facts. But I was wondering as I sat here in your sanctuary, if what you call following Jesus is the same thing as what He taught. What did He mean when He said: Follow me!’ The minister said that it is necessary for the disciple of Jesus to follow His steps and he said the steps are obedience, faith, love and imitation. But I did not hear him tell you just what he meant that to mean, especially the last step. What do you Christians mean by following the steps of Jesus.
I’ve tramped through this city for three days trying to find a job; and in all that time I’ve not had a word of sympathy or comfort except from your minister here, who said he was sorry for me and hoped I would find a job somewhere, I suppose it is because you get so imposed on by the professional tramp that you have lost your interest in any other sort. I’m not blaming anybody, am I? Just stating the facts.
Of course I understand you can’t all go out of your way to hunt up jobs for other people like me. I’m not asking you to; but what I feel puzzled about is, what is meant by following Jesus? What do you mean when you sing “I’ll go with Him, with Him, all the way? Do you mean that you are suffering and denying yourselves and trying to save lost, suffering humanity just as I understand Jesus did? What do you mean by it?
My wife died four months ago. I’m glad she is out of trouble. My little girl is staying with a printer’s family until I find a job. Somehow I get puzzled when I see so many Christians living in luxury and singing, Jesus, I my cross have taken, all to leave and follow thee, and remember how my wife died in a tenement in New York City, gasping for air and asking God to take the little girl too. Of course I don’t expect you people can prevent every one from dying of starvation , lack of proper nourishment and tenement air but what does following Jesus mean?
I heard some people singing at a church prayer meeting the other night, All for Jesus and I kept wondering as I sat on the steps outside just what they meant by it. It seems to me there’s an awful lot of trouble in the world that somehow wouldn’t exist if all the people who sing such songs went and lived them out. I suppose I don’t understand. But what would Jesus do? Is that what you mean by following His steps?
What would Jesus do? What would Jesus do about the tramp living under the bridge? What would Jesus do about the baby hooked on crack? What would Jesus do about the problem you hold in your hand? What would Jesus do if he was living your life? Would he live it same way you are? Are you seeking to come after Jesus, deny yourself, carry your cross daily and follow him? If not I ask you to ask yourself, What would Jesus do? What would Jesus do about the problem or situation you wrote on your bulletin? Stop for a moment and prayerfully consider what Jesus would do and write it down there next to your problem. (Allow time)
As you look at your answer are there changes you need make in your life to do what Jesus would do?. Perhaps this morning one of those changes is to publicly make your commit to Jesus Christ. Or perhaps Jesus is leading to you come and join the church to become a member of the body of Christ here at Leesville Baptist Church. Ed and I will be waiting here to receive you, won’t you come as we stand and sing our invitation Hymn 191.
Please be seated. I have decided to follow Jesus, though none go with me, I still will follow, My cross I’ll carry till I see Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus No turning back, No turning back. What does it mean to you to follow Jesus? Does it mean denying yourself, carrying your cross daily and following him by asking What would Jesus do? My sermon title for today was W.W.J.D., an abbreviation for What would Jesus Do, as inspired by the book, IN HIS STEPS. Bracelets with WWJD are spreading the countryside in a revival as adults and youth alike have come to realize that to follow Jesus means to ask yourself, every day, in every circumstance, in every trial and tribulation, in every decision, What Would Jesus Do? In the children’s edition of IN HIS STEPS found in our church library, the children put the thought of what it means to follow Jesus and in the form of a little verse to help them.
“When I’m faced with a fear or a bad attitude, when I want to be angry or worried or rude, when I don’t want to serve, and don’t want to love when only MYSELF is what I’m thinking of---right from the start I will ask in my heart, What would Jesus Do?”
What a better example of how we should follow Jesus by asking What would Jesus Do? If our Ushers will please come forward. This morning they will be passing the plates to you with WWJD bracelets in them. I beseech you please take one and wear it as a reminder to ask yourself, What would Jesus do? I know they are not made of silver and gold. They may not match what you are wearing but I believe Jesus would wear the bracelet with pride and when someone would ask Him why he is wearing it he would tell them. He would tell them the story of how Jesus lived, died and arose again that they might have eternal life. And then he would take the bracelet off and give to them and ask them to always follow the example of Jesus Christ and ask themselves, What would Jesus Do? Won’t you choose this morning to do the same.
Let us pray (That individuals will take the bracelets and wear them and share the good news of JC, that they will wear the bracelets to remind themselves to ask in every situation What Would Jesus Do? And Lord I pray that if there is someone here today that needs to make a decision that they will come to realize it’s not to late to come forward and express your will for their life. God please let them come. Amen
