Hi and welcome to the Via Zion Sermon podcast.
We are a local church based here in Chennai, India.
We are so glad you are with us and hope that this will
encourage, inspire and instill fresh faith in you.
Our theme for the year 2024 is set apart, and today we look at
how God sets us apart to carry our cross.
Jesus was open and honest with his disciples of the kind of
life they would be called to live should they choose to
follow Him. It's not one that's easy, but
one of great fulfillment and eternal rewards.
As you listen in, would you ask God to show you how better to
carry your cross and follow Jesus, his Son, into the spaces
he leads you? Hi church.
It's such a joy and a privilege to be bringing God's word to you
today. Even as we started this Lenten
series and we've titled it as Set Apart to carry Across.
I believe God is ministering through us, and I believe in the
next 40 days there will be areas in our life that he shows.
There'll be spaces in our own lives which are fragmented many
a times, which we really need to submit and take it back to God.
And even as I continue on in the second part, I just wanted to
take some time to go back to some of the key elements that we
saw last week. The assignment that was given to
us is ordinary, yet is powerful. We also saw that the odd
assignment that is given is extraordinary, yet it's
humbling. We are left to these two.
The key themes that Tina left us with.
One was to ask the King for his Kingdom assignment and the
ability to discern and allow the Holy Spirit to show us what are
not the non Kingdom assignments. Because I believe as we look at
this, deny, carry and follow over the next couple of weeks,
there are specific things Jesus wants us to deny ourselves.
There are specific areas which we've chosen all this while
because saying God, this is not mine.
But He might reveal to us. His word will come alive to us
and say, you need to carry this. And we keep following him all
the days of our life. So even as we get into God's
Word, even as you're watching some of you, most of you who are
listening, I just want to pray a quick word of press that God's
Word will fall on the right areas of our heart.
His Holy Spirit will bring about conviction that we'll be able to
do all that He's called us to do.
So can we quickly pray loving Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank
you, Lord, for this time. I pray that Lord, even as I
speak, it will be You speaking through me.
Thank you, Lord, for your Word, which is alive today.
Lord Jesus. We thank you, Lord, your Word,
which lasts throughout generations.
Lord, your Word says that even though the world fails, your
Word will remain, and we thank you for that.
That assurance is enough, Lord, for us.
And I thank you that we all get to follow you as we meditate and
read from your Word. Speak to us, draw us close to
you. Wherever conviction is needed,
may we be convicted. Wherever repentance is needed
may we repent, and wherever we've hesitated all this while
maybe in boldness rise up to follow you a lot most fully,
namely pray. Amen.
The keywords that you're going
to look at is from Matthew. Chapter 16 versus 24 to 26 is
the for the entirety of the series and NIV.
This is what it says. Then Jesus said to his
disciples, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves
and take up their cross and follow me, for whoever wants to
save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for
me will find it. What good will it be for someone
to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul?
Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?
So even as we continue on with the series, the first thing we
need to come to terms is the fact that if we want to be his
disciple, a lot of us want to be Christians, but we really don't
want to follow Jesus every day. A lot of us want to be Jesus
followers, but it's on our terms.
But here it says whoever wants to be my disciple must deny
themselves. There's a definite thing that
has to be done, must deny. And it clearly says that we are.
If you want to be his disciples today, if you want to be an
employee of one of the top five tech companies in the world, you
have to do things they require. You can't just walk in on day
one and say, you know what, I'm a big fan of this.
I've been following you. This is how you have to do it.
No, they have a system in place. They have, but they take time
for you to align with them. They in fact, when they induct
you in as an employee, they have culture, trends and all the
different things that they lay out so that you will come in
alignment to what has to be done for their benefit.
It's the same as follows of Jesus.
We are called to be intentional. There's an intentional ask of us
if you want to be my disciple. If you just want to be a Sunday
Christian, you don't have to really take this.
But if you really want to be a Jesus follower, if you really
want to be a disciple of Jesus, you need to be intentional about
that step that you take, it says.
And today we're going to emphasize heavily on the word
deny in the Passion translation. It says, If you truly want to
follow me, you should at once completely reject and disown
your own life. You should at once completely
reject and disown your own life. The problem with following Jesus
is it's just an action to be for all of us in this generation.
For those of us in the last 20 years, it's just hitting that
button follow, and so the implications of that is not felt
heavily. The button press causes us to
see glimpses of a person's update when and when they post,
or based on when the algorithm decides to show it to us.
But here it's saying if you want to follow him, there is
something you must do. You must deny yourself.
In the message, it says anyone who intends to come with me has
to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat.
I am. Don't run from suffering.
Embrace it. In the Amplified, it says he
must deny himself. Set aside selfish interests.
You know in Greek the word for deny is upper near my I deny, I
disown, I disregard either another person or myself.
And the problem with a lot of us, as I mentioned today, is we
don't understand the gravitas, we don't understand the the cost
because of what cultures created the word follow for us.
But Jesus is asking would you be my disciple?
Would you let go of everything? Would you deny yourself and
follow me? This is countercultural to us
because we're all about denying things, we're all about denying
others, so that we will have things that work for us and will
aid us. So today, if I have to ask you
what are some of the countercultural things that
you've said no to, you've denied, Let's look at it.
Probably you've denied a job offer because the package was
not favourable for you. You probably are in between
jobs. You're jumping ship and you
probably expect a 60% raise and they're just giving you a mere
15%. So you as an individual get the
ability to deny saying this doesn't benefit me.
You make the choice. In our Indian culture we have a
mix of arranged marriage and, you know, love marriage.
And for a lot of times it's the proposals that keep coming and
the bizarre reasons we give when we deny.
Many a times, a lot of a lot has do the physical thing.
Some has to do with spiritual. OK, they have not been baptized.
Oh, they're not spirit filled or they.
But majority of the times are things are you know what they
don't look, you know, there's no spark.
And so eventually we end up going down this road and saying
this is something I'm denying. Probably they don't know.
Well, probably they're not staying abroad.
Probably he's staying with his mum.
Still. It can be a humpty number of
reasons, but we are so in this mode where we get to choose what
we want, what we don't want, and so we are denying certain
things. If you go car shopping or bike
shopping, you go across different brands and different
estimations and quotes and everything and you deny certain
things because some don't work in your favour.
When you apply for a loan, there are certain loans you don't take
because the interest rate is really high.
You deny as long as it's beneficial to me.
I'm denying certain things. I deny certain things.
If the church requires me to do this, I deny this because it
doesn't align with my timetable, it doesn't align with my
calendar. And so we are so in this mode of
always if this meets us and if this propels us, if this helps
me build my network, if this helps me get more clients, if
this helps me to, you know, position myself so that I'll be
known like this, I might take it up, else I'll deny it.
It either serves our interests, helps me achieve my goal, else
I'm wasting my time, causes my career to grow or you know, it
expands my network, You know my people of the same like minded.
Will this help me in the future? You know, I'll, I'll run this
tide and just see if it'll help me.
I'll say like I can deny it in a later stage.
Does it work in favour for me alone?
Or sometimes does it work in favour for my family and then I
might choose it, but Jesus is saying each and every one of us.
And so today, even as I'm speaking this message, it's just
not. It's just not for the husbands.
It's just not for the wives. It's just not for a parent.
It's just not for the children. It's for each and everyone of
you individually who's been uniquely created by God to come
to say Jesus. I want to be a disciple and I
choose to deny myself. A lot of times we make this
decision as a corporate one, but the faith that we exhibit in
Jesus is a personal one. We have to come to a place to
say Jesus. I'm denying myself so I can be
your disciple. And that's how we see marriages
thrive in the center and the plan and purpose of God's will.
That's how we see children who grow up secure knowing that
their parents are living the life that God's called them to
live. So the first call that Paul
encourages us, you're going to be reading from the book of
Philippians. And Paul encourages us and tells
us, keep your eyes on me. I was able to deny myself and
follow Jesus. And so we're going to take some
key themes from this and see what it is for us to deny.
It's the first thing that we're going to look today is we're
going to deny ourselves. So let's read first from
Philippines Chapter 3. And I'm reading from the message
version, verses 12 to 14. I'm not saying that I have this
all together, that I have made it, but I am well on my way
reaching out for Christ, who has so wonderfully reached out for
me. Friends, don't get me wrong.
By no means do I count myself an expert in any of this, but I've
got my eye on the goal where God is beckoning us on word to
Jesus. I'm off and running and I'm not
turning back. The first thing I would like for
us when we have to deny ourselves is so that you and me
can reach out to Christ who first reached out to us until
unless we deny ourselves, we will not understand the extent
in which we can reach out to Christ because he's reaching
out. She came down to earth, in fact
the whole Lenten time for us to reflect on us.
Jesus didn't leave us to figure salvation out by ourselves.
He said I'll come, I'll be 1 amongst you and I'll do what is
required and he did it for us today.
He laid down his life for us. If I cannot come to terms that
God has reached out for me, I will never be able to receive
God love for me. I will never be able to receive
that. And that comes from a place of
denying myself. I look to him and I realize,
God, if I have to follow you, I need to deny myself.
There are things in me which causes me to go the opposite
way. But because you're going
forward, and because I choose to follow you, because your love is
reaching out, I'm giving up certain things, God, so I can
follow you. And today, the importance is
that once we understand that we can reach out to Him because
he's reached out to us. You will be marked.
You and I will be marked. When we are set about by the
Holy Spirit, He marks us. What does He do?
He brands us. He doesn't leave you the same.
There is a marking on you that even in the course of direction,
when you have temptation, when you fall left or right, you
still will be able to stay the course and do what God's calling
you to do because you're marked by Him.
And so as Paul says this to the Philippine Church, he's also
mentioned about being marked to the Ephesian church in Ephesians
chapter 4 verse 30. He says and do not grieve the
Holy Spirit of God but seek to please Him by whom you were
sealed and marked, branded as God's own for the day of
redemption, the final deliverance from the
consequences of sin. When I am marked by the Holy
Spirit once and for all, I am set apart.
I'm set apart. And so this causes me to
constantly be in a mode of denying myself.
It's an everyday act. He must deny himself, carry his
cross daily and follow me. The operative word there is
daily. It's not on a Sunday, it's every
day. Because every day when I wake
up, my selfishness wakes up with me.
Every day when I wake up, the lustful eyes wake up with me.
Every day when I wake up, those urges of addictions wake up with
me. Every day when I wake up, sin
still wakes up with me. I am redeemed, yes, but I need
to deny the power of sin. I need to deny the power of what
Satan had on me in my previous life.
And that will come because I am marked.
Because when I am marked, there's a definite change.
When they are marked, I am making some steps different than
what I did when I was not marked.
So today, as you deny yourself for those of you who have been
struggling to reach out to Christ himself, come to terms
with the fact that he's reaching out to you today, if you're
dwelling in that sin, he wants to reach out to you.
He wants to say I can give you freedom.
You don't need that substance to get you high.
You don't need to watch that to keep and thinking that you know
you need something which you can't even attain.
The struggle is real. A lot of us are struggling with
the call of God on our lives because we fail to deny and we
fail to understand that you're marked.
I meet so many kids, so many youngsters who said, you know
what, My parents dedicated me for ministry and the biggest
struggle that they have is the call of God on their life.
They are unable to deny themselves and do what the call
requires them to do. But they are marked because
somewhere down the line they invited Jesus in and anything
else they do, they know it's not sitting with them.
They are struggling with the call.
They have to make a decision. You and I have to make the
decision. So today, if you are struggling
in an area like that, I want to encourage you.
Can you deny, deny yourself Every day selfishness will kick
in. But no.
God, your love is greater. Your love for your people is
greater. Do with me, Lord Jesus.
God I I my day is ordained by you.
Yes, I have a calendar set out but disrupt it also.
If someone is reaching out for help, help me to help them.
Lord Jesus Paul is an amazing example.
The light which shone on him, the road to Damascus marked him
once and for all. His eyes are set on the goal and
he's running towards that. As we read the worst in
Philippines 3, his eyes are set on the goal he once marked.
He was set on that goal. So today you and I have to come
to a place saying I can reach out for Christ because he
reached out for me. I can reach out for him every
day. I can reach out to him, say,
God, I need help in this area. It's such a struggle.
I wake up with the aftermath of abuse every day.
I know I'm free In Christ. I'm, I'm, I'm set apart.
I know, Lord, I'm a new creation.
I know you. I've been uniquely made.
I know you're working in me. But still the past hurts lot.
And so today, if you're struggling in that area, would
you come to a place of denying yourselves?
What happens when we deny ourselves?
It showcases Jesus in US. It showcases Jesus in us.
We say I'm denying this and I'm taking on Jesus nature in at
this point and a lot of us have misunderstood that We think
sometimes. When we deny, we take on Jesus
and immediately it is a struggle.
God has to change your bloodstream.
It is a purification process. It is a struggle where the old
blood has to go in and the new blood has to come out.
He will work. She will work.
Would you be committed to the cross so that you can deny
yourself on a daily basis and receive Jesus into your heart?
The second thing that we read from Philippines Chapter 3 is
when I deny myself. My blurred vision is cleared for
total commitment. My blurred vision is cleared for
total commitment. Philippians chapter 3, verses 15
to 16. So let's keep focused on that
goal. Those of us who want everything
God has for us. If any of you have something
else in mind, something less than total commitment, God will
clear your verb vision. You'll see it Yet.
Now that you're on the right track, let's stay on it.
Now that we're on the right track, let's stay on it.
When we deny ourselves, When we deny ourselves, we are telling
God. I'm allowing you to clear all
the blurriness that my eyes currently is seeing.
What does that look like? When we start moving closely
into the promises of God and allowing Jesus to go ahead of
us, the pressures of this world will start blurring our eyes.
It will start blurring our eyes every morning when we wake up.
There will be a new pressure that mounts on us and it
requires us to deny so that we can say, God, I don't want my
will, but your will to be done. I don't want this to be done my
way, but your way. Lord Jesus, if we want only what
we want, our vision will be clear.
If you wake up focused, you know what?
I'm going to be mean because that way I can maintain a
boundary wall. That way people don't come in to
hurt me. That way, people you you
automatically wake up knowing what you want.
But when you wake up wanting to be who Christ wants you to be,
it might feel heavy. The cost is heavy.
Even as we saw last week, this call that God's calling us will
be weighty. That's why you have to say God,
please clear Lord Jesus, clear the mist, clear the fog.
You know one thing, when we wake up, for those of us who've been
in Delhi and places like that, you have noticed them right into
way early in the morning by 3:00 AM and stuff.
Fog sets in dense fog. And as the sun comes during the
day, it changes to mist. And then slowly sunlight comes
in. And I believe a lot of us are
stuck with mist and fog in our eyes and are confused as Christ
followers. For some of us who wake up, mist
is there. And so we go back and say, God,
I really need you. And he over the day works in and
through us. But for some of us, the fog
sends in so thick that we just cancel ourselves here.
Like today. I can't be a Christ follower.
Like how the aircrafts can't take off and they cancel the
flight and there's dense fog because visibility is low.
We cancel ourselves today. Can you and I come to an
understanding that when I have to deny myself so that I can
have a clear vision, it will come only when I'm totally
committed to Jesus? When I'm totally committed to
Jesus. I've told this story quite a few
times in different contexts, but one of the things which I failed
to mention I think is a fact of what I personally went through.
So in 2013, Jan 7th on our anniversary is when we're
leaving. From here I'd quit, you know,
being a pastor and a media pastor specifically at at my
local church back then and then heading to go study.
And I've taken my wife and my two kids at that time, and we're
seated on the flight and I still remember.
I know I'm coming back after a year because that's the that's
what I've written on my SOP statement of purpose.
But as I'm sitting there looking out of the window as my son is
sleeping and wife is sleeping and my daughter is in the
bassinet and I'm just looking out of the window, I realized
that my vision was blurry. My vision was blurry, but I was
committed to Jesus. I said, God, I don't know what
I'm doing right now. This is not a midlife crisis.
I know why I'm stepping out right now.
I know why I'm doing this. But I know somewhere you told
you need to step out. I need you to exercise faith.
I need you to trust me with the future.
And so, Lord, even right now, as I step out, and would you go
ahead of me? Would you show me what to do?
God's plan and purpose will reveal to us each and every day.
As I read earlier, he is ahead of us, which means if he's in
that journey, if he's saying give me the driver's seat, let
me drive. I need to take my hands off the
wheel and say Jesus, I deny myself, please go forward.
If we don't, if we fail to take our hands off, if we fail to
deny, we will be stuck and engulfed in a dense fog.
We will start making decisions based on all the other
circumstances outside. We will start making decisions
and blaming things that are not happening, like based on things
that are happening outside of us.
So God's telling would you, would you please do what I'm
asking you to do if you want to be my disciple?
Luke 418 The spirit of the Lord is upon me, for He has anointed
me to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim the captives will be released and
the blind will see that the oppressed will be set free, and
that the time of the Lord's favour has come.
This is a prophecy that Jesus, when he went back into his own
hometown synagogue, he read at that time it was a portion of
Isaiah 61 and as he was reading it, he closed his cronies, said
the scriptures have been fulfilled.
One thing what happens when we deny ourselves to Jesus is the
fact that he opens our spiritual eyes Today.
A lot of us have to take that step of faith in our spiritual
lives for it to be recognized in our physical lives.
If we don't see it with our spiritual eyes, we won't be able
to see it come through in our physical eyes.
Today when Jesus read that he was telling the prophecy has
become fulfilled and then on he goes on to set people free and I
believe he opened blind eyes to see the 12 who came alongside
with him. Their eyes were open, they were
not blinded. Just imagine when Jesus asks
Peter who I am, he says Jesus you are the Messiah.
That is evidence of spiritual eyes being opened.
It was about a spiritual eyes being open.
If it was just a physical eyes, Peter would have ran a marketing
campaign. He would have got a whole bunch
of anonymous donors to say, hey, you know, we need so many things
here to take care of Jesus. He would have built him, He
would have taken him in a Rolls Royce.
Probably spiritual eyes were open.
And because his spiritual eyes were open, Jesus took him to
places to see certain things that only the spiritual eyes
could understand. So today for us to deny
ourselves again means that we should have total commitment to
Jesus so that he can clear out our blurry vision.
The third thing that we read from Philippians chapter 3 is
when we deny ourselves. We keep track of others who are
also running towards the same goal.
We just not are running by ourselves.
But you're also seeing others who are parallely running across
in different phases of our life. Philippines chapter 3, verses 17
to 19, verses 17 to 19. Stick with me, friends.
Keep track of those you see running the same course, headed
for the same goal. There are many out there taking
other paths, choosing other goals and trying to get you to
go along with them. I've warned you of them many
times. Sadly, I'm having to do it
again. All they want is easy street.
They hate Christ's cross. But easy street is a dead end.
St. those who live there make their bellies their gods.
Belches are their praise. All they think of is their
appetites. And I'm living by this, that I'm
not living for my appetite. Lord, I'm not going to come into
church thinking I'm going to be served.
No, God, I'm coming prepared not.
I want to be refreshed by you, but I also want you to use me.
Use. Guard my tongue, Help me speak
life that I won't speak death. That I would know how to invite
people. I would know how to do what
you're calling me to do. And what Paul tells here is keep
track of those who are running the same course.
Because why do we have to keep track?
Because, mate, this journey is going to be hard.
You need to be encouraged, If you and I aren't encouraged on
this journey by fellow other people who are running towards
the same goal. What is the same goal?
The same goal is eternity that we will spend eternity with
Jesus. You need to find encouragement.
Just this week a beautiful thing happened when a couple of us
collaborating towards doing something as a couple of
churches together, we got in a zoom call.
There's no pleasantries that to be exchanged.
There's nothing to be exchanged. Bang on, we hit When can we get
this thing done? Who's doing it?
What are we doing it? Let's go for it.
Amen. Let's go.
We are on mission. We are running the race with
others in track next to us. That's what I love.
I loved even this last week, when a couple of weeks back when
when I had two of my friends lead worship for a conference.
I've observed and watched them closely that even though they're
from different parts of the city, when they came it was like
a dynamite, 2 dynamites coming and causing a severe explosion.
They both brought their hearts together and that's what happens
when we run along with others. We will encourage one another.
We will spur one another. When someone is low, God will
give us the word of encouragement in our mouth.
When someone is scared, we will be able to stand alongside with
them and say don't be afraid. When someone is lost, we will
help them to roll that Jesus is there to journey with them.
That in this season just push through.
When someone is grieving, we will grieve with them.
When someone is joyful we will celebrate with them.
Many of us think that this journey is going to be easy.
No, it's going to be hard, but it's in that squeezing.
What are you pouring out? 2011, I remember we were doing
Live Jam in the city of Chennai. We did three weeks.
We went close to around like 40 schools.
It was a group of 2025 odd kids who my who most of them were
part of the the group, were part of.
You know, Tina's had been doing a mind team and all that and it
was them. They all were dejected
individuals. One had, one didn't have a job,
one was all of them was in some struggle of identity.
Purpose of what God's calling them.
They don't know why they're doing this course in college,
but by the end of three weeks, because they served God
wholeheartedly out of a place of saying God, we're doing this for
you as an offering. God fulfilled.
Today they're all in different places, doing all that God's
called them to do and living their lives to their fullest.
You don't have to have it going right always, but even when it's
not going right, when you choose to still keep running, God will
reward you. So when we deny ourselves, it
gives birth to two things. I've told you 3 instances.
We first deny ourselves because you know Christ is reaching out
to us. We deny ourselves because He
when we are committed to him, he clears our blurry vision.
The third, we keep track of others who are running towards
the same goal so that we are also encouraged.
But for those of you who are struggling still, what I'm
struggling to deny myself is to come to a place to say God.
When I deny myself, what are you going to do to me?
He does 2 distinct things. The first thing that he does is
faith gets activated when you deny yourself.
Faith gets activated when you do not deny yourself.
Faith does not get activated. Faith will only get activated
when you deny yourself. And what does that look like?
Had I mentioned about my 2013 when it was at one moment say,
God, this is purely your will. You told me to go, so I'm going.
I held him to that and he gave me the faith to push through
that whole year to go on a mission and to come back.
I'm not working my way out. A lot of times we forget along
that journey and we figure, you know what, I need to figure this
out. That's why we fail to deny
ourselves every day when we don't fail, I mean when we fail
to deny ourselves every day. Faith is not activated every
day. So there was this couple, friend
who had gone a year or two before us.
They had gone. They had got both gotten an
admission to the seminary, and we didn't realize what their
real intention was a couple of months later.
To be got to know that they were dentists here.
But they felt they wanted to live the American dream, and
they went there and they just ended up doing different courses
just to stay on. And then by the time we were
leaving, they were surprised that we were leaving.
They were surprised that we were coming back here.
The truth was when we 'cause we were denying ourselves everyday
faith kept burning, and that gave us purpose, that gave us a
sense of direction as to what God wants us to do.
And then we saw them and they said, you know what?
We can't at this point because our kids have gotten used here.
We can't do this because it's tough.
And you soon realize you're more than you're denying yourselves.
You're denying the call that God has on your life.
A lot of the following year, even as I was studying, my
entire group was a whole bunch of younger guys.
You know, like 7-8 years younger.
And I saw, especially with different nationalities, they
all were dating, trying to find someone to date who can get them
a visa into their own country. Specifically they all so you can
be in a Christian college and yet have your motives entirely
wrong. You can have your motives
entirely wrong. And so today what I'm telling is
the fact that whatever journey and path that you're in, you
need to realise that when I deny myself, faith will enable will
get activated within me. Faith will get activated within
me to pursue all that God's calling me to do to move ahead
in this journey so that I'll be able to do it.
And for those of us who's struggling, I would say, could
we make it everyday? Practice.
Oh God, I'm dying to myself today.
Lord Jesus, would you resurrect in me your plan the way you want
Geshom to operate today? Would you resurrect that?
The second thing that we see is anonymity.
When we deny ourselves, it gives birth to anonymity.
What is anonymity? You, your titles, everything
goes to zero. You're a nobody.
I still remember in 2013 when we walked into our local church,
The Oaks Church. That time, no one knew us.
I mean, we stood out very obviously because in Texas, in
the redneck Texas church, we were the only brown skin people.
But it's in that anonymity that we drew closer to Jesus.
I didn't. I wasn't known as a musician.
I wasn't known as a pastor. I was just another person here
to worship Jesus for who he is. And we thrived in that
anonymity, anonymity. Many a times we feel being
anonymous. We need to get comfortable when
we become Jesus followers. And because we're denying him,
we need to be comfortable in becoming anonymous.
And what happens when we when we no longer defined by what others
call us, we are no longer defined by what others think
they know of us. No, we are really bothered of
what God is thinking about us. I can do so many other things I
can do. Those are all under my skill
set. But that doesn't define me.
The one who created me is the one who defines me.
So today, for those of you who've been, who've who've been
hesitating to deny and who've been thinking God, what will
happen immediately when I deny? These are the two things that
will happen. You will, faith will get
activated and you will learn to thrive in the anonymity that
God's calling you to do. Because at the end of the day,
you'll be like this is all about him.
If you're all running towards the same goal, it's all about
Jesus. It has nothing to do about me in
Philippines 3 Paul ends it by saying.
But there's a far more to life for us.
We're citizens of high heaven. We're waiting the arrival of the
Saviour, the Master Jesus Christ, who will transform our
earthly bodies into glorious bodies like his horn.
He'll make us beautiful and whole with the same powerful
skill by which he's putting everything as it should be under
and around him. So as we've heard this maybe
come to a place and saying, God, I want to deny myself so I can
follow you wholeheartedly. In the New Testament, in the
life of Jesus, we read two people who denied him Judas.
All of us know from Luke 22 denied him for 30 pieces of
silver, from Luke 20 to one to six, it says.
Now the festival of unleavened bread called the Passover, is
approaching, and the chief priests and the teachers of the
law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were
afraid of the people. Then Satan entered Judas called
Iscariot, one of the 12, and Judas went to the chief priests
and the offices of the temple garden, discussed with them how
he might betray Jesus. They were delighted and agreed
to give him money. He consented and watched for an
opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was
present. Be careful what you allow to
overpower you when you have not denied yourself.
Watch out for what spirit you're operating out of, because many a
times, the spirit that we'll be operating out of will be one of
self preservation. It'll be one where we're trying
to protect our own interests. We'll be one where we like.
We want things done our way where we are thinking, you know
what, this has to be done my way.
Else I just don't think it's happened.
This is not how it has to happen or it's a give and take policy.
Because I'm doing this, you have to do this for me.
Money was his source. At the end of the day, it was
clearly evident that spirit of money was upon him because when
they said that they will remunerate him for him doing
this, he thought that will satisfy him.
After he said, you know, this is the man that guilt and shame
took his own life. He couldn't, he couldn't
understand how he could have done this.
So he decided the best way to live is to kill himself and he
went and hung himself. So today, if you're struggling
today, if you cannot serve 2 masters, your source is really
important. If you're trying to deny Jesus
with having another source, the evidence of that source will
produce guilt, shame. Jesus wants you to live free.
So do you step out today and say I don't want to, you know,
substitute my denial for anything else?
Lord, I'll deny you wholeheartedly.
The second person we sees, Peter, he said, I won't deny
you. But at that moment when three
people are confronting him, saying that we've seen you, you
smell like him, you, you talk like him, you even probably are
wearing clothes that are similar to him.
He denied, denied, denied. But what he did was he wept
bitterly. When he wept bitterly, he was
willing to receive the repentance that Jesus was
offering on the cross. So today if you and I are
struggling, I would ask you, would you come to a place of
saying God might denying? You.
I know I've done some mistake right here but I want to come
and say I'm sorry, Lord. His arms are stretched wide on
the cross of Calgary. To say I'm here to forgive you.
I'm here to forgive you. These things had to happen.
But many a times in the lives that we are living, we get to
choose some of these things. You and I get to choose you and
I get to handle things and say, God, take this, Lord, it's I
don't want this. This is not my cup to bed.
Deny yourself or say, God, I I I want to pursue this.
But is this really what what you want me to pursue?
Can I? I love you to orchestrate
everything. God, you know when we when, when
we have to deny ourselves, we need to deny ourselves wholly.
You know, in filmmaking there's this technique where you'd have
seen where the camera will go when a person is washing their
face, the camera goes ahead in front of them and then as they
get up, it goes right through the mirror into their face.
And filming that kind of a scene requires 2 actors.
One will be on the other side where the face will be seen
within the main actor. But the person here who's in the
foreground is a body double. And who's a body AA body double
is they look like the other person.
They'll have the same skin, shade, same haircut, same
makeup, same clothes, Just that they're inverted.
They're a look alike version. Physically, outwardly, they look
alike. Inwardly they're different.
Behaviorally they're different. And I think are we denying a
version of ourselves and not ourselves?
Are we denying a version of ourselves and not ourselves?
God does not want a version of ourselves.
He doesn't want Geshom 3 point 4.4 No, because that will be
today. Tomorrow it might be 3 point
4.5. He wants me entirely.
When I stand in the front of the mirror, who do I look?
I need to deny myself my name, my accolades, my position, my
bank balance, things that I think I've built.
I need to deny myself to say God, you are the source fair
thing. Not me, I'm yours holy.
When we read that chapter before Jesus gets betrayed by Judas,
he's in the garden of Gethsemane and they say it's a garden where
they press oil. Jesus in his human form had the
same struggle. He had to come to the place.
He knew what it entailed. Yet he fell down there and said,
Lord, let not my will but your will be done.
Let not my will, Lord, but your will be done.
And so today, Church, for those of you listening, I just want
you to lift your hands and say, Lord, I'm here today to deny
myself whatever I've built. My credentials, my profile, my
bio, whatever it says about me. Lord, you know everything inside
out. I've probably embellished it
outside, but I want you, Lord Jesus, entirely.
I want to solely follow you. I want to run after you.
I pray, Lord, that you would work in and through me.
Lord Jesus. I pray especially Lord for those
who've been struggling to deny themselves.
Lord Jesus, would you work in and through their hearts that
you would make it clear. I pray, Lord, if a dense fog is
set in may your light shine through and dismiss every dense
fog. Lord that their blurry we should
be cleared. For those who are beating
themselves up. Lord with guilt and shame, let
them know that your arm is stretching out.
Lord Jesus. For those who've been struggling
thinking that they alone are suffering, that they alone are
going through this hardship. Let them see others who are
running those tracks to realize in their denials they also are
running the race. But maybe be encouraged looking
at them. Lord Jesus, we thank you.
I pay Lord, maybe thrive in our anonymity, Lord Jesus, because
you are watching over us. I pray our faith will arise as a
church go before us. Lord, strengthen us, take
charge. I pray that Lord you would be
with us. Lord.
I pray especially Lord that Lord in the midst of everything we
want to give glory and honor to your name.
Lord, we believe Lord Jesus, you are setting us apart, that even
as we deny ourselves we'll be able to do it every day.
Lord Jesus, to deny ourselves to say Jesus, we need you.
We need you every day be glorified.
Lord be honored. Go before us strengthen us,
Lord, give us strengthen our legs to run this race slot.
So that we'll be forbid we'll we'll be steadfast we'll be
consistent. Lord Jesus, in your most holy
name we pray. Lord, Amen.
Amen. Amen.
So church, even as you step or I pray that God will bless you.
I pray that even as you, you will come to a place of denying
yourself every day to say Jesus, I need you, Jesus.
I cannot do this without you. That you will be able to come
and see Jesus clearly for who He is, don't allow the dense fogs
and mists settle over your life. That he will be able to
breakthrough. He'll be able to encourage you
every step of the way. And for those of us who've been
denying a version of ourselves, I pray His Word will work in and
through you through the week, that you will be able to see him
more clearly than ever before. You will be able to visibly go
to a place and say, God, this is bear it all before him and say
this is who I am. Make that personal commitment.
We are here to pray for. If you need prayers, reach out
to us. But I pray specifically that God
will minister you. This is as heavy as it is.
This is the cost that we need to pay it if you want to be a real
follower of Jesus. And I pray even as you listen to
this word and as you meditate on it, it will start soaking you,
that you will be drenched in it, that you will start dripping off
it in the days to come. Pray that you have a blessing
week. God bless you all.
Thanks for listening to this message.
We hope you were blessed to hear more messages like this.
Make sure to subscribe and check out our podcast channel for past
episodes. If you like what you are
hearing, consider rating US, subscribing, and even sharing it
with friends. That would really help us.
For more content from via Zion and to connect with us, go to
via Zion dot in. Remember, whoever finds Jesus
finds life.