GO SOMEWHERE AND DIE… Denying Yourself
Sunday, August 28, 2022 – RECAP/Study Points
Take into consideration my admonishment to enroll in SOFBI. You have no witness, you have zero witnesses, but you need to enroll because I said so. Because your next is wrapped in your now. And there are some things that are going on, that in this attempt to prepare you for your next, you need the bible school.
Pastor Dewayne: When you think about, and when people get a revelation that my next is in my now, what I do today, I will live in tomorrow, it would be a whole lot easier, denying yourself. Because you know, what I do today, I’m going to live in tomorrow, so I would go to the end of the thing and see the end. Paint a picture of the end, and I’ll come back and let my future talk to my present. And I’m telling you, your future will tell you some things that you cannot do now if you want to get to your future.
Your future will come back and tell you there are some things that you’ve got to be doing at this moment to protect that moment. And we all are measured in moments. Unlike God, we mess up moments; we don’t manage moments, we miss moments, and we even mask moments. We pretend.
I want to expound just a little more on my objective. Because until you can experience the empowerment that comes along with denying yourself, I don’t think you’ll ever possess the proper proclivity towards it. I have this outstretched neck, sitting on the edge of my seat, kind of anticipation awaiting the opportunity to always deny me.
Col 3: 1 (NKJV) “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.”
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As a matter of fact, a lot of the motivation in my giving stems from this principle (Matt 16:24). It’s clear He says, those who desire to imitate or follow me. Is anyone interested in following after Jesus, in imitating Him? He says the prerequisite for imitating Him is denying you. And as I observe people and watch them, in their every day, going about routine and affairs of life. Especially believers, because that’s who I observe the most to see what their responses or reactions will be. I want to see if, in fact, they exalt themselves or deny themselves. Even in simple matters such as, even coming from Temple Hills, there was a car that, if it only moved up just a little bit, we could get through. Sometimes, we have a position where we just want to hold a position about who we are despite how many we could advance. Generosity doesn’t just start in your pocket. Generosity stems from your heart. It could be manifested and should be manifested in so many different other ways. In small little common courtesies. Like, “Good Morning”! They didn’t speak to me; I’m not speaking to them—foolish fleshly stuff of Christians. And you will come and lift your hands and sing stuff, like surrendering all to Him. The woman in the car did not want to move up; we just sat there patiently because everything in me wanted to hop over the console, lay on the horn, and “move.” Why can’t you just move up? But that now is the element of denying you.
Most people will never experience the empowerment of it! You’ve been with you longer than you’ve been with Him, Jesus. So, you’re more acquainted with all of these different kind of nuances of your personality. And quite frankly, you kinda like how nasty you are. It brings an element of the defense and how you treat people.
This precipitates out of your flesh. Your personality and the way you represent yourself you got from being wounded so much and not from being loved so much. Then you have the unmitigated gall to say, “this is just me.” You put an identity to this foolishness and connect it to your makeup. Because I’m tired of people just getting away with stuff with me. So, your emotions and feelings are always interested in casting its vote. To chime into the outcome of what you were supposed to present at that time. But you are getting the best of this situation, and God is grieved. Scripture says, “grieve not the Holy Spirit.” Because Holy Spirit is the co- pilot, and you talk about Jesus taking the wheel, and Jesus is at the right hand of the Father. Holy Spirit is not taking the wheel because He’s your helper. He’s not going to drive for you. He’s going to tell you where to turn, how fast you should go, should you go this way, that’s why He’s there, He’s the Parakletos.
In life, because of the evolutions that we have made in life, we’ve become certain things that are diametrically opposed to the Word of God. Holy Spirit doesn’t like your attitude, and you know He doesn’t like your attitude. But you make concessions for it because you like the results you get. You like the feeling of it. Somewhere when the dust settles. Spirit of God tries to get your attention and tells you; you shouldn’t have said that. But the more we ignore what we hear, the more it subsides; it goes away. It doesn’t go away in a sense as Him leaving us because He never leaves us nor forsakes us.
I’m just giving you portions of these principles that have assisted me in understanding this empowerment and walking in it. It has been the most amazing, kind of overwhelming feeling that any believer can ever walk in. But you will never know this until you do this. This is not something you can experience without doing it. You can come into the presence of worship and experience the presence of God’s peace, but you’ll never have the empowerment, the feeling, or the presence of what I’m talking about until you start doing this. And so, for years now, I’ve been like this doormat. And initially, I did not like especially the abrasiveness, it’s enough to be low and be stepped on, but when they kick you when you’re down, that takes it to another level. I’m so acquainted now with the short end of the stick. And be treated like less than. Now, this happened at the very beginning of this principle; I refuse to even think that way now. Because I have the principle, I have the whole stick, not the short end. The floormat that I’ve become and that I like, it doesn’t bother me anymore. I like taking the low way out. As a matter of fact, the more God raises you up, the lower you should go in mind. Ok, shout this, “the way up for me, is down because He exalts the humble.” He gives more grace to the humble, and guess what He does to the proud? Resist them.
Pastor Dewayne: And it’s amazing, Pastor Mike, how when you said, grieve not the Holy Spirit, when you don’t deny yourself, what you’re actually doing is, at the same time hardening your heart. And really, that is what grieves God, grieves the Holy Spirit, because when you do that, it puts you in a state of unbelief. It puts you in a state where you refuse to believe what the Word says. And that’s why flesh now wants to rise up and protect itself, promote itself, and provide for itself because self only thinks about self.
And it’s impossible for you to deny yourself when you allow yourself to run the center of your life. The reason why it’s a struggle for most is because they’re not part of the “I know” club. You’ve got to know something in order for you to really deny yourself. How did Jesus die on the cross? How did he go where there was no stress, strain, or struggle? You know why because He knew something. He didn’t know when He got on the cross; He knew it before He came here. The Bible says He was the lamb slain. He made up His mind that I’m going to deny myself even to the point of death. That’s why it didn’t distract Him. And most people don’t know something. We have to make sure we’re sitting up under this Word. Taking these notes, going back over the notes that Pastor Mike is sending. Don’t miss out on the moments. Because what you do today, you’re going to live in tomorrow. These lessons are designed for you to get you to know something. And when you know something, it’s easier for you to produce what you know. But when you know, the flesh is now going to take over. And when you sow to the flesh, the Bible says at the end of the story; you’re going to reap corruption.
I appealed to you many, many times, or years ago; you have a stop wanting more than you’re willing to become. It is imperative that you become these lessons that I’m teaching. Not just hear them, but endeavor to become them. Now, the success that believers are after, they were designed to be. Selah! The success that believers are running after, you were intended to be. Once you become successful, success will come to you. So, if I can get you in pursuit of what He designed you to be, all other things will be added to you. So stop fighting about how you’ve been hurt and taken advantage of, etc. Stop it with that! Absorb it, enjoy it. Once you process it properly, this empowerment of this principle will reveal some things to you, and you’ll watch God elevate you. I can’t tell you how awesome I am in Him. But I will come down in the presence of those who even think they are bigger than Jesus.
Your fruit bears the fact that you’re not all of that. They want to be big, but little got them. So little won’t allow you to be as big as God wants you to be. But little was designed to make you big. How do we get there?
Col 3: 1 (NKJV) “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.”
So, if you’re raised in Him, you don’t have to raise yourself. The people who have it are the people who talk less about it. It bothers me that I have to fight through my thoughts to show you me. Because you make me so big, I can’t have a decent relationship with you because you think I think I’m bigger than you. And how dare you think that somebody can be bigger than you? Shout this, “the same price that was paid for you was paid for me.” So, I get around people and die. I was taught not to make a big deal out of you, and if you go in under the radar, God will always put you on top.
Col 3: 2-3 (NKJV) “Set your minds on things above, not on things on the earth. v. 3 “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
You’re trying to get ahead and not keeping your mind on Him in the process. But you can easily camouflage your mind being on Him when your mind is on things on the earth. That’s easy to do.
Pastor Dewayne: A lot of times, people, because they don’t know something, are trying to become what they already are. Language always locates people. They talk about they’re going to go witnessing, and the bible never told you to go witness; it says be one. And if you are to be one and know that you are one, when you go, it would automatically be demonstrated. And that’s why, with most people, when you don’t deny yourself, you can tell because you’ll be chasing lifestyle instead of life. Jesus came so that we might have life.
Most people think He said lifestyle, and they’re running after lifestyle first, and the reason why they’re running after lifestyle, they feel like they’re somebody now, like they have arrived. And they don’t even know that they have bypassed life to get to something that God never told them. And if you go after life, life will automatically produce a power that will cause you to have a certain kind of lifestyle.
I’m endeavoring just to use my life when I stand before you all. And let you in on this formula of righteousness. That will accelerate the very same thing you want. It’s like if this lane of denying yourself goes to the same place you want to go in life, why take the road where there’s no guarantee to get there? It looks like the same route, but this denying yourself is a guaranteed route. And the fulfillment that comes along with it makes it even more enjoyable.
Galatians 2: 20 (NKJV) “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life that I now live in the flesh; I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
I do it every morning because there are four types of death:
1. Spiritual
2. Eternal
3. Physical Death
4. Dying Daily. This dying daily is what you’re going to have to do when you get up in the morning, even while brushing your teeth. Let me tell you something; you cut up yesterday. But you are not going to cut up today. You’ve got to constantly lay that flesh down on the altar. It’s no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
There’s a flesh life and a spiritual life. In order to excel, I must take the spiritual of life. The flesh life is death, but the spirit life is life in Christ Jesus. And at the end of that life, you just feel much better.
Pastor Dewayne: I like it when he said, I have been crucified in Christ. If you don’t go somewhere and die, in your mind, you need to go to the end result and die. When you do that, no matter what satan throws at you, you’re able to resist it because your life is no longer important; it’s all about His life.
That’s why I love Revelations 12, and most people quote it wrong and have a whole bunch of doctrine on it. They don’t even know the last part of it. And the last part of it is the key to denying yourself when you’re being attacked by the devil. It says, “they overcame him, by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony,” and this is the part that most people don’t know. “They loved not their life even unto death.” They got to a point where they stood up during the great tribulation, telling these wicked people they could do whatever they wanted. It was easier for them to stand on the Word when they were not trying to protect their own life. And you and I have got to get like the Apostle Paul, “You cannot kill me! I’m already dead.” How do you kill a dead man? That’s why Jesus was so successful with it. He was dead before they killed Him. If you and I don’t die in our minds, we’re going to try to save our finances, we’re going to try to save ourselves, and we’re going to think the lies in very present help in the time of trouble instead of knowing Jesus or the Word is a very present help.
And you and I, all we’ve really got to do is go somewhere and say ashes to ashes, and dust to dust in your mind so we can get this life game on. And we can see the power of God flow through your life like God already planned for us to see.
The more you know Him, the more you’ll choose to die to you. If you’ve never trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you need to do it today.
Scriptures:
Matthew 16:24-25 (NKJV)
Colossians 3:1-3 (NKJV)
Galatians 2: 20 (NKJV)
Revelations 12 (NKJV)