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Text: Mark 8:34
Title: Lose to win
* *
*Introduction*: Our world is so health conscience these days that we even have game shows that focus on our physical well being.
The show the Biggest Loser is a game show that the contestants who are all over weight compete in a strict regime of diet and exercise to shed of unhealthy weight for a better quality of life.
The one who loses the most weight not only enjoys the better life of having new body and fit lifestyle but they also win a large sum of money.
They lose to win.
They deny who they have been for years, heavy and unhealthy to become a new person by losing weight and gaining a new life.
The biggest loser wins.
This parallels our life in Christ.
If you lose your life to serve and follow him, we will be the biggest loser because you denounced who you are and what you desire to follow Jesus Him.
However, the more you lose of yourselve, the more you win in Him!
*Consecration v. 34*
In order to become the biggest loser, the contestants of this show had to change their lifestyles to one that was designed for their success in weight loss.
They set them selves apart to take on a regimented daily routine and make a personal commitment for this cause.
In Christendom, we would call this type of behavior consecration.
Here in our text Jesus calls the crowd of people and His disciples to himself and gives instructions on what to do if they really want to follow him.
Up until now they were only following him because of what He did.
They were awestruck on how demonstrated the works of God.
They were a crowd of curious people.
But Jesus wants more than curiosity, He wanted commitment.
And he tells them in this text what it will take to be a true follower of His.
He says to the crowd and the disciples, “/Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me/”.
Notice he called the crowd and the disciples together.
This tells us this commitment is just not for leaders but for all who call on Jesus as Lord.
It takes more than going after his blessings to be one of Jesus’ followers.
What it takes is your *consecration* to his call.
Consecration means to be set apart for God and his service.
From this text, we see what a consecrated life entails.
First, it tells us that it doesn’t matter who you are, how much money you have or who you know, you just have to be willing to come after Jesus.
Other translations of this text use the word /desire/ which tells us that it is an inward burning feeling in your heart to come to Jesus.
Following Jesus is a heart thing.
Not only is this a heart thing but this is a selfless thing.
The text says that in order to come to Jesus you have to /deny yourself/.
To deny yourself means more than just to stop doing certain things that you like to do.
Like stop eating fried chicken or you stop cursing.
To deny yourself means to put others first.
It means to place someone else’s needs above yours.
It is all about self abandonment.
In other words, it means, “it is not about you”.
You must decrease so Jesus can increase.
The next part of this consecration from the text is that you must /take up our cross/.
Mark is writing to Roman Christians in this text.
They knew what it really meant when they heard the word “cross”.
The cross was used for brutal execution of criminals.
Jesus is telling them to pick up and carry that burden that wants to kills you.
He is saying pick up that hard thing that is personal to you and carry it.
What this means to us now is our sacrificial serve.
(Rom.
12:2) It means to carry the burden that only you can do.
It means to carry your issue and not let our issue carry us.
There are some things in our life that we are personally called to do and to serve.
They are so hard and stressful it can feel like it is killing you.
But the bad part is that is for you to deal with.
You have to carry it.
Even through it is heavy, you have to pick it up and not ignore it, not cross over it but endure the pain of it.
Somebody’s cross is your family.
Somebody’s cross is their personal struggle but what ever it is, pick up and don’t put down.
Lastly about consecration, it is that your not just picking up your burden and wandering aimlessly but you have a direction to head in.
You must /follow/ after Jesus.
You have to pursue and mimic his life style of sacrificial service.
This is because He carried your cross as His reasonable service.
Now we are to walk in his footsteps.
But our problem is that we take our cross and go our own direction which leads to more problems.
But we have to remember the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.
His steps lead you right to him so he can take away the pain of your cross.
Following after Jesus is a choice and it has its consequences.
Your choice is connected to you consequence which is our next point.
*Choices & Consequences v. 35*
Consequences are the events that follow a choice you have made.
There are good consequences and bad consequences.
The results of the choice of whether or not you follow Jesus can be consequentially rewarding or remorseful depending on what you decide.
Look at the text.
In verse 35 there are two consequences which are contingent on the choice you make when it comes to following Jesus.
It says that “/whoever desires to save his life will lose or whoever loses his life for the My sake or the gospel’s save will save it/”.
The word of life in the original language of this text is /psyche/ which means the breath of life or soul.
This points to who you are on the inside.
Jesus is tells us that if we try to save our souls (who we are), we will lose it.
We don’t have the power to do this.
But our problem is that we have a God complex we think we have to power to save our self from any and all things pertaining to our life.
If we could save ourselves we would not have got it to that trouble.
Or we would be able to give ourselves peace of mind.
But we couldn’t.
We can not hold on to ourselves and be open to God.
The only way you can open up to God is to let go of who you are and what you desire.
And according to the text, the consequence of losing yourself to Jesus and the gospel, /you win/.
You will save your life.
This is a paradox of what we usually expect.
Normally in sports, the consequence of a loser is that they never make it in to the championship.
However, in Christ, losers are always champions.
Jesus gives us this example when He went to the cross.
He had all power to save himself but He didn’t.
He chose to lose his life.
Ephesians tells us that He humbled himself in obedience to God and died for you and me.
But in His lose, God exalted to be the Risen Savior.
Jesus teaches us that we have to lose ourselves to win in Him.
My brothers and my sisters, you are going to have to make a choice of who you are going to follow because your life is on the line.
Do you want to win or lose?
The Lord is saying you can get this or you can get with that.
The choice is yours!
So who are you going to follow?
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