Special Message - Rob Young - Sunday Morning Service 10:30AM

And so when we think of going through experiences with added difficulty, I think a lot of times there's a passage that comes to our mind and that passage is Matthew Chapter 16, verse 24. And that'll be our text for this morning. Matthew chapter 16, verse 24, Jesus, speaking to his disciples, said, Then Jesus said to his disciples, If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. So we know life is hard.

And when we encounter difficult situations, a lot of times we want to reframe them in biblical terms. Maybe it's a chronic illness. Maybe it's a disability, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, diabetes, arthritis, hip replacements, knee replacements. Maybe it's a difficult relationship. Could be with your spouse. Could be with one of your children. Maybe with a coworker or a boss.

Could be a hard economic relationship. Reality, low income, inconsistent income, rising prices on fixed income. Might be a matter of personality or temperament. Maybe you struggle with anxiety or depression, substance abuse or other addictive behavior. A lot of times we look at these situations and in an attempt to invite Jesus in, we put it in biblical terms and we say,

Well, maybe this is just my cross to bear. And I understand. I understand the sentiment and the rationale behind that because these situations are difficult and Jesus wants to meet us in all of these difficult situations and then some. But now more than ever, I think we need to be careful at how we define our terms and how we understand ideas because our definitions are going to shape our understanding and our understanding is going to shape our thinking and our thinking is what's going to determine our response.

Now, a timely example of this in the world today would be sex and gender. For most of human history, these terms have been synonymous, interchangeable. They've meant the same thing. But over the past decade, we've spent a lot of time and energy redefining them. Maybe not us in this room, but culture, society has redefined these terms. And from that, a whole slew of mess and changes has ensued.

Now, that's not necessary. It's not necessarily a rabbit trail I want to run down farther today. And I'm thankful that I believe we're in the midst of a correction on this. But if we don't have the proper understanding of something, our reaction is also going to be inappropriate. We want to have an appropriate biblical definition of what it means to take up our cross.

Because just like with sex and gender, if we have warped definitions, if we have a warped understanding of what that means, then we're going to have a warped understanding. And if we don't have that, then we're going to have a warped understanding of what it means to take up our cross. So let's look again at Matthew chapter 16, verse 24. 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.

So if we look at this piece by piece, the first thing that we encounter is Jesus saying, If anyone desires to come. If anyone desires to come after me, we have to note that this is a choice. It's an invitation. And that invitation is twofold. First, it's a choice to follow Jesus. There are lots of things and people that we can choose to follow. But if we choose to follow Jesus, then he says, take up your cross.

And these are two aspects that can't be separated. And they can't be. They can't be reordered. What do you mean they can't be reordered? Well, if we try and do this out of order, if we try to take up our cross in order to follow Jesus, things are going to look really sideways. If we think that there's some burden, some weight that we can voluntarily put on our lives

in order to construct the intimate relationship that we want with Jesus, we're going to find ourselves in a position of burnout, legalism, and despair. It doesn't matter how many Sundays you serve in children's church. It's not going to make your relationship with Jesus better if that's your goal. But if we start with a desire to follow Jesus because of who he is, because of what he's done, and because of what he has promised to do, then when the Lord tells you that you need to serve in children's church, you'll joyfully raise your hand.

But our desire has to be first and foremost to follow the Lord. That desire has to be based on the work that he already accomplished on the cross. Because if we get it the other way around, it's works-based righteousness. It'll be us standing before Jesus saying, look at all the things I did. Don't you want to be friends with me? Rather than us. Rather than us looking at Jesus and saying,

oh my gosh, look at all you did for me. How can I follow you more? So now let's look at the next part of Matthew 16, 24. It says, deny yourself. So, all right, we have the desire to follow Jesus. Now he says, deny yourself. And I want to make a distinction between denying yourself and self-denial. You see, we regularly pray. We practice self-denial. When, for a good purpose, we give something up in order to benefit something else.

Let me root this in some examples. Every time I see a cupcake, I have an opportunity to practice self-denial. Every time we're watching a TV show and it ends on a cliffhanger, and we know that we have to be at work early in the morning, we have an opportunity to turn the TV off. Get the sleep we need. Practice self-denial. Yourself tomorrow will thank you. Okay, here's one for the guys.

Maybe you're standing in the kitchen and you look out the window and you see that that lawn is awfully overgrown. It bothers you, as it should. But then out of the corner of your eye, you see a pile of dishes that's been neglected. And you know that bothers your spouse. You have an opportunity to practice self-denial. Give up. Give up what you want, and invest in your marriage, in your wife.

So all of these things, they have very real benefit. A person who never practices self-denial is going to be in a tough way. But self-denial is not what Jesus is speaking to his disciples about. Jesus doesn't call us to practice self-denial directly. He calls us to deny ourselves, which is altogether a different thing. To deny yourself. To deny yourself means to yield to Christ's control so completely

that self has no rights whatsoever. When we deny ourself, we surrender ourself to Christ and determine to obey his will even before we know what it is. Denying self means to live as an other-centered individual. Now, Jesus was the only person who ever did that perfectly, but we are called to walk in his footstep. And the reality that this leads us to is the statement that you can't carry what you haven't let go of.

And so when we look at the next piece of Matthew 16, 24, it calls us to carry our cross. Now, over the past two millennia, we have made much of the symbolism of the cross. And rightfully so. It reminds us of our Savior and everything that was purchased for us. But speaking to his disciples, in first century Israel, Jesus, speaking of the cross, there was no confusion by anyone in this conversation

what a cross was and what it was for. The cross was a means of execution. And the only thing that was ever on a cross was a person in the process of dying. And I say that we can't carry what we haven't let go of because the cross that we're called to carry, the thing that's supposed to be, the only thing that's supposed to be on it, is ourself. And so if there are things about our life

that are still clutched close to our chest, they can't be a part of that person that is supposed to be on the cross that Jesus calls us to pick up as a prerequisite to following him. But once we deny ourself, once we let go, once we set that down, then we can fasten that person to the cross, that we're called to put on our back as we follow in Jesus' footsteps. And I like the detail that Luke adds to his account of this same conversation. And there's no need to turn there.

But Luke 9.23 says, Then he, Jesus, said to them all, If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. So this is a daily decision. And now we kind of have an outline built around the letter D. We have to have a desire to follow Jesus. We have to deny ourself. We have to take up our cross in order to die to self.

And we have to do it daily. Now, from a medical perspective, death on a cross was by asphyxiation. Sure, there was a great deal of humbling and beating and wrestling that got a person to a point where they could be fastened to a cross. But when they were put on that cross, they were still very much alive, even though they were a shadow of themselves. But it was over time that their legs would grow weak.

Their legs would lose the strength needed to push up on that nail to relieve the pressure of their whole body, pulling down on their arms in order to get a full breath. And eventually they would suffocate. Sometimes I think this is the difference between denying self and actually dying. This picture of a person struggling to breathe on the cross, where they're so close but not quite there.

And I think this is the reality that Jesus spoke of in John chapter 12, verse 24. Jesus, speaking of himself, said, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain. You see, this was true of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. And it can be true of ours. But we need to be honest.

Death to self is always terrible. If we expect it to be a pleasant or mild experience, you are disillusioned. Death to self is the radical command of the Christian life. I like how David Guzik puts it. He says, To take up your cross meant one thing. You were going to a certain death, and your only hope was in resurrection power. Now, I know Ryan called in a guest teacher

to make everybody feel really good. And so just in case you guys aren't filled with warm, tingly feelings about the idea of participating in your own execution, I have another quote from William MacDonald. Mr. MacDonald says, To take up the cross means to deliberately choose the kind of life Jesus lived. This includes the opposition of loved ones, the reproach of the world,

forsaking family and house and lands and the comforts of this life, complete dependence on God, obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit, proclamation of an unpopular message, a pathway of loneliness, organized attacks from established religious leaders, suffering for righteousness' sake, slander and shame, pouring out one's life for others. Death to self and the world. You see, I think there was a reason William MacDonald was a theologian and not a salesman. It's not exactly a compelling pitch.

Why should I be a Christian? Well, William says, but the quote continues. And he says, but it also involves laying hold of life that is life indeed. It means finding at last the reason for our existence and it means eternal reward. We instinctively recoil from a life of cross-bearing. Our minds are reluctant to believe that this could be God's will for us. Yet, the words of Christ,

if anyone desires to come after me, means that nobody is excused and nobody is accepted. There's no getting around the weight and terror of what Jesus calls us to do in Matthew 16, 24. But the characteristic of this verse and the characteristic of Christianity is that we know the worst at the onset. Once we get over that, the radical call to die to self, and it is a lot to get over, every day.

But once we get over that, the only hidden thing that Christianity and the Bible and a relationship with Jesus has in stores for us fall into the category of treasures and blessings. This is precisely what we need to do. The next words out of Jesus' mouth in Matthew, verses 25 and 26, are for whoever desires to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? I think we all have our own personal definition of what it would mean to gain the whole world. Christ here is specifically pointing at the temptations of self-preservation, comfortability, and prosperity that would lead us away from the cross.

Christianity is not going to be a lucrative decision. Following Jesus is not going to be a comfortable decision. The reality is if you think you can follow Jesus and leave your cross behind, you're mistaken. Because by his words and by his example, he says, this is what it means to follow me. If you think you can have a relationship with Jesus that does not involve

you carrying the cross of your own execution, that relationship has never made it past introductions. And you are so dearly missing out. You're so dearly missing out. You want to know what that would be like? That would be like meeting the person of your dreams. Hopefully you're already married to them. But it would be like meeting someone and falling madly in love.

Just being completely overwhelmed and smitten and just looking for a way forward to the rest of your life with this person in love. And then as the relationship progresses, it comes time to get married. And you find out that weddings are indeed expensive. And you decide to abandon the relationship as a whole because you didn't want to pay for the wedding. That's like looking at the cost

of self-sacrifice. That's like looking at the cost of dying to yourself and saying, it's not worth following Jesus. What cost would be too great? What wedding bill would you refuse to pay if that was the thing that kept you from the person of your dreams? What would you not be willing to take out of yourself and put down and fasten to the cross that Jesus asks you to carry

for a lifetime? No, more than a lifetime. An eternity of love and joy and peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. All that and more. Not just in this lifetime but for eternity. But making that decision to sacrifice yourself, to die on the cross that Jesus calls us to carry, it's not an easy one. And it's in light of that reality

that we need help. We need help and scripture has plenty to say to us. I really like what Paul has to say in the 12th chapter of Romans. You see, Paul uses the language of the Old Testament's sacrificial system to describe this very same New Testament call that we find in Christ's invitation to take up our cross. Romans 12 speaks of living sacrifices. The problem with

a living sacrifice is it can crawl off the altar. And that's what we are. Every day as we follow Jesus, that's the command to daily pick up our cross. We're not called to daily pick up an empty cross. We're called to daily die to ourself, get fastened to that cross, and then follow Jesus. But there's a lot of days I wake up and my idea of a good day does not include

my own execution. That's the problem with being a living sacrifice. That summarizes a lot of the difficulties that we experience as Christians every day. It's hard. It's uncomfortable. Sometimes we don't want to do it. Sometimes we don't think we can. Some days we wake up and we say, Lord, I don't have the strength to drive nails in my own hands. The things that I want

are in such opposition to what you want. Let's try again tomorrow. This is where Paul, in the first two verses of Romans chapter 12, I think has encouragement for us. Romans 12 verses 1 and 2. They read, 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.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. You see there in verse 1 when I read, I beseech you, in my mind, in my ears, I can just hear Paul begging. Just begging. Not that he has anything to gain from our decision, but his passion is so sincere that he can't help but plead with everything that he has.

But when you scratch at the Greek there, that Greek word that's translated beseech, you find it actually has two primary definitions. The first is to exhort. And that's where I naturally gravitate. That's the reading that pops up in my head. A sincere plea, an encouragement to take action, an attempt to win us over to his way of thinking and acting. But the second definition,

while not the way that I've historically read the text, is arguably more compelling. The second definition of that word translated beseech in English means to comfort. And I think that's certainly applicable to us as we seek to spend more time with our crosses loaded and our feet moving in Jesus' wake and less time arguing with ourselves about if we want to or if we can. What if Romans 12, 1 read, I comfort 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.

You see, this reading rightly draws our attention to the source of strength that we need to stay on the crosses that we're meant to carry. The source of the strength that we need to be living sacrifices and not runaway, would-be sacrifices. And that source of strength is the mercies of God. You see, mercy is one of God's attributes. It's the divine quality through which God maintains

His covenant relationship with His children despite their unworthiness or unfaithfulness. You see, God's mercy is a product of His love. And His love freely demonstrates itself through saving acts towards those He is in a covenant relationship with. What do you mean in a covenant relationship? A relationship that's based on a promise. A relationship that's based on a promise

and it's a promise that is dependent on God. You see, God showed His mercy all throughout the Old Testament towards Israel based on the covenant, the promise that God made with Abraham. And as you and I today, God shows His mercy towards us as believers under the covenant of Christ's blood. God's mercy almost always emphasizes forgiveness. God's mercy is almost always

what drives Him to help those in need. I want to look at a couple of examples of God's mercy because it's so big, it's so great. But it's a word we hear so often that sometimes it can just fizzle out into, yeah, God's mercy and God's grace. But let's look at a couple examples that really give life to what God's mercy is. The first one we're going to look at

is Psalm 103. Psalm 103, verses 11 to 14. It says, For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. Continuing to describe God's mercy, He says, As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame.

He remembers that we are dust. So it's God's mercy that makes it like a loving Father looking down on His children, His children which He loves and He knows are quite often not going to do what He would like them to do. A father who looks down at his children and sees maybe not necessarily where they are right now, but what they could be. He has pity. He has love.

All as an expression of His mercy. We see another example in Isaiah chapter 49. Isaiah chapter 49, beginning in verse 19. It says, Yet in your manifold mercies, you did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud did not depart from them by day. We jumped ahead. We're going out of order. I'm in Nehemiah. Jared, you're contagious. We're actually going

to go to Nehemiah. Did it again. We're actually going to go to Isaiah. And then we'll come back to Nehemiah. Isaiah chapter 49, beginning in verse 13. Sing, O heavens. Be joyful, O earth. And break out in singing, O mountains. For the Lord has comforted His people and will have mercy on His afflicted. Then continuing to describe the characteristics of His mercy.

In verse 14, it says, But Zion said, The Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me. In response, he says, Can a woman forget her nursing child and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget. So here God pictures His mercy as greater than the love and care and compassion that a mother has for their still nursing child.

He said that mom will forget about that baby that needs them for comfort, for security, for sustenance, for life. That mother will forget that child before I and my mercy forget you. Now you might be able to guess we're going to go to Nehemiah. Nehemiah chapter 9, beginning in verse 19. Yet in your manifold mercies you did not forsake them in the wilderness.

Speaking of the nation of Israel. The pillar of cloud did not depart from them by day to lead them on the road, nor the pillar of fire by night to show them light and the way they should go. You also gave your good spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst. Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness.

They lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell. So hopefully we're all familiar with how God chastened and loved His people Israel in the wilderness. And here we have so many of the miracles, so much of God's strong hand on the nation of Israel being phrased as a characteristic of His mercy. The manna, God's mercy. The water, God's mercy.

The fact that their clothes did not wear out, that they knew which way to go, whether it was day or whether it was night, God's presence was with them for 40 years. And God says, that was my mercy. Then we go to the New Testament. And in the Gospels, we see that God's mercy is exactly what held Christ to the cross. The cross where the blood was poured out that even made us worthy

of the invitation to carry our own cross. He was held there by His love. He was held there by His mercy. And so then Paul in Romans 12, 1 comes full circle and he says, I know that the radical call to carry your cross, I know that if we understand that, that means everything that you think is important that doesn't start with the name Jesus needs to die. I know that everything

inside of you, everything in your flesh needs to be sacrificed, needs to die. Every day, that's what's supposed to be on the cross that Jesus has called you to carry. I know that is a tremendously difficult and challenging call. But then in Romans 12, verse 1, he says, I comfort you, brethren, for it is by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.

Is it by the strength of your willpower? No. Is it by the amount of time you spend praying each day? No. Is it by the number of times you serve in children's church? Maybe. No. It's by the mercies of God that we can present our bodies a living sacrifice. Every day, putting ourself on the cross that Jesus has called us to carry, for it is our reasonable service.

Matthew 16 really calls us to surrender our hearts. Right? It says, if you desire. That's a heart word. Matthew 16 calls us to surrender our hearts. And the reality is the body will go where the heart has already surrendered. So we surrender our hearts and then we go to surrender our bodies, all the things that our flesh wants to do and not do. But the Holy Spirit,

writing through the Apostle Paul, in the 12th chapter of Romans says, it's by God's mercies that you can do this impossible thing. It's by God's mercy that you can present yourself a living sacrifice. It's by God's mercy that you can die to the person that lived their whole life only showing you your need for a Savior. Praise God, many of you have answered that call, have heard that need, and have cried out to the only one who can fix it.

But then as Jesus says, that's only the starting line, not the finish line. I want to keep going. I'm so happy that I've protected you for eternity. But I have so many plans for you here and now. And those are my plans, not your plans. I need your plans to die on the cross. And I want you to walk with me. It's only by God's mercies that we have the ability to do that.

And as the worship team comes up, we can't leave here thinking that it's our determination, our will, or our resolve or strength, maybe a really good accountability partner, maybe some solid strategies that will make this possible. Keeping up on your daily Bible reading plan, that'll keep me on the cross. Absolutely. Being in God's word is pivotal because what else is going to remind us of the mercies of God?

It's a terribly difficult thing to do. It's also the most important thing we'll do after saying yes to Jesus' sacrifice on the cross because these are prerequisites to following him. He says, do you have the desire? You say, yes, Lord, I have the desire. He said, okay, take up your cross. Implicit in that is the understanding that we're going to die to ourself

because we're not going to carry an empty cross. As believers, we're going to carry a cross with ourself on it. And he says, now that you've done that, as long as you're loaded there on the wood, he goes, you can follow me. And you better believe that that's where we want to go. We want to follow Jesus. We want to be closer. And that's what reminds me of the Olympic Training Center

there in Colorado Springs because all those athletes, they didn't put themselves in the mountains to do what I'm sure was already a workout that maybe Ryan could do half of it, but I definitely couldn't do any of it. But they didn't go up into the thin mountain air to train because they thought it was fun. They didn't go up into the thin mountain air to train because they wanted to make it harder. No, that wasn't their job.

Their job was to compete. Their job was to go out and do their best, to represent their country, themselves. They wanted to go out and they wanted to win. They wanted to be champions. They wanted to pursue gold medals. And they knew that in order to do that, that prior to that opportunity, they had to make things as difficult as possible. And they were joyfully willing to do that.

They considered it a privilege to be there training, doing impossibly hard workouts with less oxygen than their body should need. So then when it was time, when somebody was keeping score, it was like they had a superpower. And that's what Jesus is calling us to do. He says, it's by my mercies that I will give you the strength to die to yourself, which is really hard.

But when you do it, you unlock all of the plans that I have for you. God wants such good things for his children. He keeps us here to worship him and to be a witness to him and for him. He wants that witness to be fantastic. He wants that witness to be world class, whether it's just to the people in your home, whether it's just to yourself and your heart. But he says,

but I can't do that if you're trying to serve me and yourself. He says to do the hard thing. Lay yourself down. Put yourself on the cross. I'll help keep you there by my mercies so that we can walk forward and we can do incredible things. We can live a life that's full of love and peace and richness and blessings and treasure. It's what he made us for. It's the only thing worth doing.

And it's only by his strength that we can do it, that we can walk in all the blessings and the treasures that he has for us. And it's a privilege to be able to do that, saints. Father God, we ask that you would show us your plans. Lord, reveal to us the parts of ourself that we don't want to let go of. Lord, show us where we're clinging to what we think we need.

Father, we want to put it all on the cross. You didn't 95% die for our sins. Lord, three days you were in the tomb. And you resurrected in power. Lord, we want to completely die to ourself that we could have resurrection power in you. And Father, it's so difficult because we have to make that decision every day. Lord, we come before you and we thank you for the salvation that we have,

that we could even have access to come to you in prayer, to ask for help, to do the very thing that you've called us to do. Lord, thank you that you want to do us with it. Thank you that you want to do it with us. And we pray this in your son's name. Amen. Is she going to stand with me?

Praise God. Praise God. Lord God, we just thank you. Thank you for another day. Thank you for allowing us to be here this morning, Lord. Lord, as we leave here, Lord, I just pray that you would continue teaching us what it means to truly deny ourself, to die ourself, to die to ourself. Oh, goodness. Lord, I just pray that you bless us as we leave here today.

We love you and we praise you. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Love you guys. Have a great week.