This is going to be a pretty in
-depth study, going from scripture to scripture.
We're going to be studying all the basic
facets of denying self.
You can title this study, Self Denial or
Death to Self.
And it's important that you realize we're going
to be going quickly through many scriptures.
You're to write the scriptures down and then
go back at another time and look them
up and study them and pray over them.
Some of these are very good memorization scriptures,
although I don't believe in a lot of
scripture memorization.
I think you can clutter your head up
with too much of the scripture without meditating
on it, without really...
I mean, I've seen people that memorize chapters
and chapters and chapters and they can recite
it to you, but so can a parrot.
It doesn't matter how much of the scripture
you have memorized, it's how much of the
scripture you have digested in your spirit.
I know there's many people that would disagree
with me, but I started memorizing scripture and
I was more into the memorization of it
than the practice and assimilation of it into
my life.
But there's some great scripture here for memorization.
1 Kings chapter 17, verse 12.
Let's start at verse 8.
Then the word of the Lord came to
him, Elijah, saying, Arise, go to Zarephath, which
belongs to Sidon, and stay there.
Behold, I have commanded a widow there to
provide for you.
So he arose and went to Zarephath, and
when he came to the gate of the
city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks,
and he called to her and said, Please,
get me a little water in a jar
that I may drink.
And as she was going to get it,
he called to her and said, Please bring
me a piece of bread in your hand.
But she said, As the Lord your God
lives, I have no bread, only a handful
of flour in the bowl and a little
oil in the jar.
And behold, I am gathering a few sticks
that I may go and prepare for me
and my son, that we may eat it
and die.
Now this is in the middle of a
famine.
It hasn't rained in three years.
At this point, it's probably two years, because
he stays with them for a year or
so.
Maybe it's only one year, but it's an
incredible drought.
No water.
And she's living in a landship.
All she's got left from her stores is
a little bit, enough to make a meal
for her son and her, and then that's
it.
They don't have anything else to eat.
Then Elijah said to her, Do not fear.
Do as you have said, but make me
a little bread cake first from it, and
bring it out to me, and afterward you
may make one for yourself and for your
son.
For thus says the Lord God of Israel,
Nor shall the bowl of flour shall not
be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil
be empty until the day that the Lord
sends rain on the face of the earth.
So she went and did according to the
word of Elijah, and he and her household
ate for many days.
The bowl of flour was not exhausted, nor
did the jar of oil become empty according
to the word of the Lord, which he
spoke through Elijah.
Now, how rude can you get, right?
Now God has already told him, I've commanded
a widow to provide for you, in verse
9.
And he comes to her, and this is
the way God's going to provide for her,
by giving him the first cake from the
last meal that she has.
I find that when we are exhausted, that
when we have nothing left to give, when
we have absolutely the last bottom of the
jar, that's when God will ask us for
peace.
When you're just about to fall asleep, that's
when the counseling call will come in.
That's true.
When you have no more room, then God
sends the people.
When you have no more money, then the
bills come in.
This is the test of the Lord.
We're going to end, this is really interesting,
we're going to end this Bible study with
an Old Testament test, and we're going to
start, I'm sorry, we're going to start it
with an Old Testament test, and we're going
to end it with an Old Testament test,
with a lot of New Testament scripture in
between.
This is an Old Testament test.
You want to be provided for, widow?
She's ready to die.
What's she got to lose?
You want to be provided for?
Now God's going to use you to provide
for me, but I'm going to do miracles
in your midst.
I think it's incredible, God says, I have
commanded a widow to take care of you.
I have commanded a widow to provide for
you.
Dig that, verse 9.
The widow isn't going to provide for him.
He goes there, she's got one bit of
flour left, and he says, all right, you
can provide for me out of a supernatural
bowl of flour and a supernatural jar of
oil that always only has one serving left.
First you must deny yourself and give it
to me.
Then I will eat.
Every day will be a day of faith.
You'll only have enough left for that day.
But he swears to her.
In verse 14.
For thus says the Lord God of Israel,
the bowl of flour shall not be exhausted,
nor shall the jar of oil be empty
until the day that the Lord sends rain
on the face of the earth.
Now there's a lot of New Testament Scripture
on this that we're going to go through.
I think the amazing thing for us in
the Scriptures is that the only way for
us to have anything is to give everything
away.
The only way to be exalted is to
humble yourself.
The only way to increase is to decrease.
The only way to receive love is to
give love.
The only way to grow is to get
smaller.
The only way to be taken care of
is to take care of somebody else.
It's the rule of the kingdom.
Somebody once said that hell was a place
where there was food.
There was a big table.
There was a feast in front of them.
And their arms had no joint at their
elbow.
They couldn't bring it to their thing.
And there was this thing and they could
carve the turkey and everything but they couldn't
get it to their mouth.
And they said heaven was the exact same
scene with people whose arms couldn't bend either
but they were feeding each other.
The same situation.
But they were saying here, you feed me,
I'll feed you.
The only way, the only difference between those
two things is selfishness and giving, sharing.
The situation is exactly the same.
You can have hell in a situation by
having two people who are afraid to love
and give to each other.
By having people who are afraid to give
themselves up.
And that's hell.
That's selfishness.
That's hurt.
That's anguish.
And the same situation with the same amount
of love and need and they give to
each other.
Here is two people who have nothing to
eat at all.
She's got enough to live and he's got
nothing.
She's got just one last meal.
He says the only way you'll be provided
for is if you give me a meal
from that last meal first.
And that's the rule of the kingdom.
Okay, turn to Matthew 10, verse 37.
You have that on the middle speed, right?
Four hour speed, right?
The middle one.
Okay, Matthew 10, verse 37.
He who loves father or mother more than
me is not worthy of me.
He who loves son or daughter more than
me is not worthy of me.
He who does not take his cross and
follow after me is not worthy of me.
He who has found his life shall lose
it.
He who has lost his life for my
sake shall find it.
He who receives me, he who receives you
receives me and he who receives me receives
him who sent me.
Okay, the key there, he who has found
his life shall lose it.
That means he who tries to save his
own life shall lose his life.
Again, back to the widow.
Do you want to be saved?
Give away the last bit of your substance.
Now how this reads into our life is
that we need to be continually laying our
lives down for each other, continually thinking about
how we can make the other person in
our lives life better.
And if we're always worried about what's in
it for me and why, I mean, even
reading it into our life here, whether it
be the schedule or the job, you know,
why is it that I'm always making the
salad?
Why do they have me cutting the onions
all the time?
Well, that might be the nastiest job in
the kitchen.
Be grateful that you're able to do it
so somebody else doesn't have to do it.
You're benefiting somebody else.
If we would think of the body instead
of us, if we would think of the
whole, we would be glad to do the
nasty job.
I'm sure you're glad when the grease is
on your hands instead of your face.
You know, when you're working with something greasy
and all of a sudden somebody says, hey,
you have grease on your nose.
And you look down and you had it
on your hand and you rubbed your nose.
And now you can't see your nose, but
you can see your hand.
I'm sure your whole mind is grateful when
you realize you didn't rub your face and
you see the grease and you catch it
first on your hand.
Now if your hand had a mind of
its own, it wouldn't be grateful.
It wouldn't be grateful that it had grease
on it.
Boy, I'm sure of that.
Well, I'm not.
I've got grease on me.
Well, that's the way the body has to
be acting.
You know, I'm glad I got the grease
instead of the more honorable part of the
body, whatever that is.
They said there's some parts of the body
to honor and some to dishonor.
We walk on our feet.
It gets the brunt of weight.
If we step on something, it gets hurt
first.
Our feet, if they had a mind of
their own, wouldn't be grateful.
They wish that we'd walk on our hands.
So it could be up and you could
shake feet with people.
You could wave to people, you know.
But which part of your body gets more
honor?
Your feet or your hands?
Your hands do.
You cook, you sew, you work with it.
You don't cook, sew, and work with your
feet.
You don't love with your feet.
You don't, you know, go up to somebody
and give them a foot rub with your
foot on their back, you know.
The reason I'm saying this is that there
is parts of the body that are supposedly,
the Bible calls it, parts to dishonor and
parts for honor.
There are parts of your body that are
covered up.
No one ever sees, except your husband or
wife.
And those are for intimacy, those parts of
the body.
There are parts of the Christian body that
no one ever sees.
Only in the bridal love between the body
and the Lord do they get exposed.
Only when God is being worshipped and only
when God is blessing and anointing are those
parts of the body lifted up and shown.
And God sees them only in private.
That's why Jesus said, when you do your
giving, give in private.
For your Father sees thee in secret and
rewards thee openly.
You know, anyone who's married will tell you
that there's intimate moments between a husband and
a wife that they don't share with anybody.
But it beams from their face during the
day when they're doing other things.
That love, that intimate fellowship between a husband
and a wife.
It's not sex that I'm talking about.
It's the intimacy that's a part of it
that makes a man, a husband or a
wife at ease.
That when he's not alarmed, he's thinking of
his beloved or he's thinking of his mate
and he has a peace and a joy
about that person even though he's not with
them.
That is the way it is with Christians.
And you probably, whoever you are, are probably
a part of the body that's not getting
as much honor as Billy Graham or not
getting as much honor as somebody in the
spotlight or an elder or a group leader
or a team leader or whatever it might
be.
And everybody sees them and they're the hand
that's always getting shaken and they're the hand
that's always getting patted on the back and
they're the people that are always getting written
about and talked about and you're just not
noticed at all.
But if you remain intimate with God as
part of the body, then God will honor
you openly at the proper time.
And it has to do with this losing
your life.
It has to do with this...
The only way to find your life is
to lose it.
And I think that there needs to be...
This Bible study is not a rebuke.
This Bible study is a remembrance and it's
more for me than any of you.
As I read through this, as I'm teaching
this, nobody needs to be humbled more than
those that are in the public eye.
Nobody needs to be at the foot of
the cross more than those who are being
given honor or being given esteem or being
given attention.
Those are the people that need to be
the humblest because if they're not, they're doomed
to fall.
And everybody that's depending on them is doomed
to fall with them.
Matthew 13, verse 44.
The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure
hidden in the field which a man found
and hid.
And from joy over it, he goes and
sells all that he has and buys the
field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a
merchant seeking fine pearls.
And upon finding one pearl of great value,
he went and sold all that he had
and bought it.
Now, what is it that you seek from
the Christian life?
Really?
I mean, a lot of people that are
Christians were losers.
In fact, most Christians today were losers in
the world.
And they traded in a losing life for
what they hoped would be a winning life.
That's not salvation.
That might be something that will spark you
to get saved.
That might be something that will put a
desire in your heart to meet the Lord.
But that is, I think, the bulk of
the testimonies you hear.
I had nothing.
I was down and out.
I was this and that.
And my testimony is very much like that,
too.
And that's really not serving the Lord.
That might be meeting the Lord, but it's
not serving the Lord.
I didn't have any happiness.
I was unfulfilled.
And I met Jesus, and since then, things
have been wonderful.
That's the attraction between a man and a
woman.
That is not a marriage.
I was lonely, and I met her, and
my life has changed.
She has just thrilled my heart.
That is not a marriage.
That's attraction.
That's the spark that might bring two people
together.
That is not commitment.
That is not relationship.
People today are so emotional-minded.
People today are so...
They need to be fulfilled.
They need to have all their goodies.
And it's just not like that in a
man-woman relationship, and it's not like that
between Christ and the Church.
You can be attracted to Jesus.
I have nothing.
Now I can have everything.
All right, that's valid.
Then he's going to say, all right, you
really want everything?
Give up everything.
A man found a treasure hidden in the
field.
He sold all that he had so he
could get it.
He gave up everything to have it.
Well, it's easy to give up.
As Winky Prattney says, you know, you say,
I gave up smoking, I gave up drinking,
I gave up fornicating, I gave up drugs.
It's easy to give up your wrongs.
But have you given up your rights?
Giving up your wrongs is easy.
Those things are killing you anyway.
You didn't do God any favors by giving
up things that are sending you to hell.
God is impressed when you give up the
things you love.
It was one thing for Abraham to send
Ishmael away.
It was another thing for him to put
Isaac on the altar.
He had to give up his wrong by
getting rid of Ishmael.
Then he had to give up his right
by getting rid of Isaac.
Put him on the altar.
Offer him as a burnt offering.
There couldn't be anything more distasteful to a
father to do.
Nothing could be worse.
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing could have been worse.
He'd rather cut his own head off with
a machete than to burn his own son.
Giving up the things that are killing you
is a favor to yourself.
Nobody ever did God a favor by getting
saved.
Nobody.
It's when you are saved and you are
beautiful Isaacs that God has given you your
talents, your riches, your future, your images of
what you should have as a human being,
your rights, what I could be.
I could be making such and such.
I could be a so-and-so.
I have the talent to do this and
that.
I could be writing books.
I could be making records.
I could be a great chef.
I could be married by now.
I should have married that guy instead of
coming to this place.
Whatever it was.
I've got four kids.
Do the lot.
I'm better yet.
I'm glad I'm here.
Your rights is what God's interested in.
Your wrongs, you can get rid of those
yourself.
If you're smart enough.
There's people in the world that use self
-hypnosis and Est and Eastern stuff.
They gave up drugs.
They gave up fornication.
They knew those things were killing them.
You can give those things up without the
Lord.
You can't give up yourself without the Lord.
You can't.
It's impossible.
Because all you do is benefit yourself.
Unless you give yourself up for the Lord.
The man found a treasure and he got
rid of everything he had to possess this
treasure.
What is the treasure?
What is it?
What's the treasure?
Jesus is the treasure.
I am the resurrection and the life.
I am the way.
I am the truth.
I am the life.
He is the bridegroom.
Who is the treasure?
Jesus.
You can't have him.
If you have any of yourself.
You can have part of him.
You can be on your way.
You can be growing.
You can be going step by step on
the Christian installment plan.
But you better, you'll always be making payments
until you have that experience where God karate
chops you behind the knees and you're on
your face.
And the best thing to get you there
is to give up the things you love
the most.
Your dreams.
Your ideals.
The things that you always wanted out of
life.
Throw them away.
You know, I always wanted to live in
Colorado.
I don't know why, I just always wanted
to live in Colorado.
And I wanted to have a I wanted
to have a ranch up in Colorado with
a recording studio and a Learjet.
So that I could go up there and
do all my records and I could fly
to LA or fly out and do concerts
and come back.
That would be a little paradise away from
everything else.
Just my family and my friends.
This was in BC days.
Just going up there and partying and so
on.
That was my dream.
And then when I became a Christian all
I had to do was get rid of
the drugs and the party and put the
Bible studies in.
And I could have that.
I could still have the ranch in Colorado
and the recording studio and the Learjet.
And everybody would say how blessed God had
blessed me if I did it.
It would be totally acceptable in the body.
That's the crazy thing.
Today we have a Christianity where you can
have anything you want to and just put
Christian labels on it.
That's not Christianity.
You can have anything you want to and
put Christian labels on it.
You can say I have a burden for
this and I feel led to do this
and whatever.
And it's all, you can still, you can
Christianize your selfishness.
You can stamp a dove and a fish
on it.
And God is not impressed with your dove
and your fish.
He's impressed with nothing more than the heart.
A heart after Him.
A heart that when finds the pearl sells
everything He has.
He sells everything He has to buy it.
That's self-denial.
That is everything.
He doesn't say He sold most of what
He had.
There's a story that I read once about
a guy, I think Winky tells this.
A guy comes into the pearl shop, right?
He's a pearl collector.
And there's a pearl the size of a
globe in the front.
And the guy goes, I've been looking for
a pearl like that all my life.
I've collected pearls.
What does that pearl cost?
Oh, it's very expensive.
Well, how much does it cost?
You probably couldn't afford it.
Well, how much is it?
Everything you've got.
Is that all?
Is that it?
Well, that's great.
What do you got?
Oh, man, I opened up my wallet.
$117.
All right.
What else you got?
Well, I've got a check here in my
bank account.
It looks like there's $40,000, $50,000
I've saved in stocks and bonds.
All right, write a check.
$40,000.
Sign over your stocks and bonds.
Okay.
What else you got?
Well, that's all I've got.
I mean, you know, I don't even have
much left to make my house payment with.
Oh, you have a house?
Yeah, I have a house.
All right.
We'll take that.
Where do you want my wife and I
to live?
In our car?
Oh, you have a car?
Yeah, two of them.
Two cars.
Well, where do you want my wife and
children to go out in the cold?
Oh, you have wife and children.
One wife.
How many children?
Three.
Three children.
Oh, do you expect me to live alone?
Oh, yes, you too.
That's the whole thing.
People, when they think God wants everything, they
stop short.
They think He wants my money.
They think, well, He wants, you know, this
and that, but He wants everything.
It has to be under the blood.
Everything has got to be committed.
You can't think of just money.
You can't think of what I could be
doing.
You can't think of who you could be
or what you hope to be or any
of that thing.
It's got to be everything.
Okay.
Luke 12, 36.
Starting at 35.
Luke 12, 35.
Be dressed in readiness and keep your lamps
alight, and be like men who are waiting
for their master when he returns from the
wedding feast, so that they may immediately open
the door to him when he comes anock.
Blessed are those slaves whom the master shall
find on the alert when he comes.
Truly I say to you that he will
gird himself to serve and have them recline
at table and will come up and wait
on them.
Now, this goes with the scripture in Luke
17.
I just want you to read that first.
It says that when we're with Jesus, it
says that he will gird himself, have them
recline at table, and will come up and
wait on them.
Now, this might just be a parable.
It also might be literal.
At the wedding feast, Jesus might come up
and say, what would you like?
That's incredible.
The king, the master, will gird himself to
serve and have them recline at table and
will come up and wait on them.
Now, this goes with Luke 17.
Turn to Luke 17.
We'll come back to this.
Luke 17, verse 7.
But which of you having a slave, plowing
or tending sheep, will say to him when
he has come in from the field, come
immediately and sit down to eat?
But will he not say to him, prepare
something for me to eat, and properly clothe
yourself and serve me until I have eaten
and drunk, and afterward you will eat and
drink?
He does not thank the slave because he
did the things which were commanded, does he?
So you too, when you do all the
things which are commanded, you say, we are
unworthy slaves.
We have done only that which we ought
to have done.
Now, that is the attitude when you serve
God.
I'm just doing what I'm supposed to do.
Remember Paul said, I don't have any reward
for preaching the gospel.
Woe is me if I don't preach the
gospel.
My reward is that when I preach the
gospel, I offer it without charge.
But think of that.
Think of that.
It's like whether it be Kevin on the
press, or whether it be Julie Lynn in
the track department, or whether it be Carol
up in the office, or Terry in the
art department, or whoever you are in this
ministry.
If that's where God has you, you don't
get a reward for doing those things.
Not at all.
I don't get a reward for playing the
piano and singing.
Woe is me if I don't.
Woe is you if you don't draw pictures.
It's not that that gets us a reward.
It's serving God in everything we do with
a proper heart.
It isn't the deeds.
God isn't going to give art points for
him, and car points for him, and music
points for me.
God isn't impressed with my songs.
He's got better music in heaven.
God isn't impressed with any of us and
what we do.
He's impressed with how we do it.
He isn't impressed that this guy's out tending
sheep.
He isn't impressed.
He isn't impressed that he comes in and
cooks him a meal.
He's impressed that the guy says, I'm doing
all I'm supposed to do.
This is wonderful.
He isn't patting himself on the back.
I'm just an unworthy slave.
That's the best slave there is.
And yet, to tie it into Luke 12
that we just read, I'm sorry, yeah, Luke
12.
It says, he's going to wait on us.
The Son of Man came not to be
served, but to serve and to prove it.
In John 13, turn to John 13, verse
3.
John chapter 13, verse 3.
Jesus knowing that the Father had given all
things into his hands and that he had
come forth from God and was going back
to God, that's an interesting start, rose from
supper, laid aside his garments, and taking a
towel, girded himself about.
Then he poured water into the basin and
began to wash the disciples' feet and to
wipe them with the towel with which he
was girded.
He dressed as a slave.
He took off his clothes and put a
towel on the way a foot slave would
be girded and then used the towel that
was around him.
I mean, it's a pretty big towel to
start wiping your feet with.
Not only did he say he's going to
serve, but he showed his disciples he was
going to serve the night he died.
He says, now the hour has come for
me to be glorified, not until I wash
your feet.
He goes on.
So he came to Simon Peter in verse
6 and Peter says to him, Lord, you
wash my feet.
Jesus said, what I do you do not
realize now, but you shall understand later.
Thank you.
Peter said to him, never shall you wash
my feet.
Jesus answered him, if I don't wash your
feet, you have no part in me.
Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not only
my feet, but my hands and my head.
He's the guy that opened his mouth and
changed feet all the time.
He came to serve.
Yet our attitude, he says, must be, and
when we do what we are commanded, we
are to say we are only unworthy slaves
doing what we're supposed to be doing.
We don't deserve to live with what we
have done against God, with the lives we
have lived for selfishness.
We do not deserve another breath.
We deserve only hell.
It's only God's grace that we're saved.
We did not do anything to get saved.
We did not turn around and go, okay,
God, I promise I'm going to be a
good boy now.
And God says, okay, I'll save you.
It was that God saw that we were
lost in our sins and he made provision
for us and then he offered us a
way out and we said, come and get
me.
And he saved us.
We didn't save ourselves.
He saved us.
And we've got to remember that, that we
are on borrowed time.
It's just like a man, you've heard this
expression before, a guy, he gets healed of
cancer, you know, or he has an operation,
they take out half of his lung and
he says, I'm living on borrowed time.
I should have been dead a year ago.
All the time that I've had since then
is borrowed time.
You all heard that expression, I live on
borrowed time.
Who'd he borrow it from?
From God.
We're all, as they say, as Lenin said,
Lenin, from the communists, said that communists were
dead men on furlough.
They were dead men on furlough.
And I tell you that Christians are to,
already to be living martyrs.
They're already to be dead.
You already were crucified with Christ.
You've already been destroyed.
There shouldn't be anything left in me of,
you know, trying to build Keith's kingdom or
trying to build up Keith Green or in
you trying to build up you.
There's all got to be building up Jesus.
There shouldn't be anything left in John the
Baptist of trying to build up John the
Baptist.
He says, no, I shall decrease and he
shall increase.
There shouldn't be any looking to what we
can gain from being in last days ministries
or we can gain from being in this
department or being the head of this or
the tail of that.
It's a got to be.
We're trying to build up Christ.
We're trying to expand his kingdom.
We are serving him.
I don't care if it's, if it's washing
toilets, I want to be the best toilet
washer in the universe.
I want to clean the parts of the
toilet no one will ever see that God
sees.
I always remember that somebody told me that
they were, he says, I was in a
C.S. Lewis book.
Has he ever thought about the wildflowers that
are in the crags in the hills that
no one ever sees that just bloom, they're
beautiful flowers that no one ever sees?
He says, I meditated on that once and
after that when I had bathroom duties I
used to polish the bottom of the toilet,
the behind the toilet, I'd polish it.
Sounds ridiculous but it's, God sees the bottom
of the toilet.
Who are you polishing the toilet for anyway?
God sees everything, you know.
And I've never forgotten that and when I
make the bed, my wife and I make
the bed together it drives me crazy when
the sheet underneath isn't totally straight.
If there's a wrinkle in it, you know
I still remember well God sees the wrinkle,
you know.
We're not really making the bed right because
these eyes are under the blanket.
Who do we make beds for?
Who do we wash dishes for?
Who do we clean toilets for?
Is it so that people will go, boy
she's a great toilet cleaner.
Well they're never going to look behind the
toilet.
I think Wayne can tell you in the
service they have what's called white glove inspection.
Put on a white glove and go to
the place behind the footlocker and run a
white glove behind it and see if there's
any dust back where nobody can look.
They want everything spick and span.
They do that at McDonald's too I hear.
It's important that we realize that it's God
who sees the back of our minds, the
back of our toilets, the back of everything.
And when we're given a job to do,
we're to do it, that he's the one
we are to impress.
And we are not to try to impress
anyone but him.
And if you can impress God, who else
do you have to impress?
And he, like any loving father, wants you
to impress him.
Not by impressing others, but just by impressing
you.
Okay.
This is getting exciting.
John 12, verse 24.
Just back a chapter.
This is beautiful.
Truly, truly, verse 24, I say to you,
unless a grain of wheat falls into the
earth and dies, it remains by itself alone.
But if it dies, it bears much fruit.
He who loves his life loses it.
He who hates his life in this world
shall keep it to life eternal.
If anyone serves me, let him follow me.
And where I am, there shall my servant
also be.
If anyone serves me, the Father will honor
him.
Now, look at verse 25.
That's a good memorization verse.
We ought to write that up on the
wall.
He who loves his life, loses it.
This is different than he who finds his
life, loses it.
And he who loses it, finds it.
This is he who loves his life, not
just finds it, but loves it, loses it.
He who hates his life in this world
shall find it to life eternal.
That's getting right down to it.
Remember it says, he who loves father and
mother more than me, he who does not
deny father and mother, he who does not
love me more than son, even his own
life.
In another place it says, he who does
not hate his father and mother or his
son and daughter or his wife or husband,
even his own life.
The word hatred there means by comparison to
God's love.
Comparison for your love for God.
What's important to you?
You know we had to go through a
time.
I went through a time when the newsletter
was important to me, believe it or not.
There was a time when opening the mail
was important to me, two and a half,
three years ago.
And now I find that I've got to
keep my interest in the newsletter up.
It's not so much that God is so
important to me, it's just that I have
had my heart and my treasure in so
many things in my life.
I think the hardest thing to give up
my treasure right now is my kids.
I treasure my kids a lot.
First it was music and then it was
fellowship in Bible study.
Anything but God is wrong.
And then it was ministry and concerts and
then it was the community and the newsletter.
And then it was administration and so on.
Now it's the children and I don't even
know, I guess it's the kids and indecision
about what to do in the future.
But after a while you kind of get
the hang of it.
After a while you get something in your
hand and God slaps your hand and you
let it go.
And then you get something else in your
hand and he slaps your hand and you
let it go.
And then you get something else in your
hand before he can slap you and you
let it go.
You get used to letting things go.
It becomes a habit.
You see your heart loving something and you
immediately know there's danger because a hand is
going to come out of the sky and
slap you.
And he slaps you lovingly like you would
if your kid had a scorpion in his
hand.
You'd slap his hand and get rid of
that scorpion and you wouldn't say please let
go of the scorpion.
Why daddy?
Well, you know, here's a book.
Read this book on scorpions.
I can't understand these people, these parents that
have children that are six months old or
eight months old or nine months old and
the kid only understands one thing.
And they pick the kid up and they
start explaining to this nine-month-old why
they can't touch the wall socket.
That can really hurt you.
The kid doesn't understand.
He just understands pain and rebuke and encouragement.
That's about it.
And it's even more the tone of voice
than what you're saying.
The greatest thing was when Josiah hit the
age of reason when I could sit down
and explain to him why he's not supposed
to ask why when I say no.
So it was wonderful.
And it was just wonderful when I realized
I didn't have to keep dealing with, at
that point, when if I said no you
can't do it and he asked why he
got a spanking.
I said, and another time he asked me,
this is really good, he says, can we
go somewhere or something?
And I said yes.
And he turned around and he said, why?
He says, I can say why when you
say yes, right?
But I can say why when you say
no, right?
I said, yeah, you won't get a spanking
if you ask why when I say yes.
And he said, you can ask why about
anything.
You just can't ask why when I say
no.
You can't question me when I say no.
I'll tell you why when I say no.
You can't do that because of that and
that's it.
So it was real.
When they reach the age of reason it's
not any more pain, rebuke, and encouragement.
It's explanation.
And in the Christian walk there's a time
when God doesn't explain because it doesn't make
a lot of sense.
It doesn't make sense to give up something
you love.
It's easy to give up something you hate.
It doesn't make sense to give up something
that is benefiting you.
Except it's competing with God.
God is more jealous than you know because
he's jealous for our good and the best
thing for us is to have God one
and only.
And that's the whole thing.
He's not as jealous in a selfish way.
He's jealous with us the way a husband's
jealous over, a godly husband's jealous over a
wife or a father's jealous over his children
that he doesn't want anybody hurting his children
or deceiving his children or misleading his children.
So he's jealous for their good and God
knows the best for us is to love
him with everything that's in us.
Therefore, whenever we start loving something else, he's
jealous for us because it's harming us.
Not because he ain't getting all the glory.
It's because it's not for our benefit.
It's not for his benefit which is not
for our benefit and when he doesn't get
the glory, it destroys us.
We think it feels good for a while
when we get the glory but it kills
us.
Okay.
Memorize that scripture.
He who loves his life loses it.
He who hates his life in this world
shall keep it to life eternal.
Okay.
Luke 17, verse 7.
Oh, we've already gone there.
Sorry.
Luke 21, verse 2.
Verse 1.
Luke 21, 1.
And he looked up and he saw the
rich putting their gifts into the treasury and
he saw a certain poor widow putting in
two small copper coins and he said, Truly
I say to you this poor widow put
in more than all of them.
Now, can you imagine that here comes you
know, Mayor Sadie's, you know, the mayor of
Jerusalem coming down there and he's writing out
a $40,000 check, you know, putting it
in.
Hi, I have a $40,000 cashier's check.
Oh yeah, the next guy comes and he
writes a $60,000 check, you know.
They're all standing in line.
Yes, yes, I've paid 25% this year.
I pledge it to the temple treasury television
fund.
Okay.
And then here comes, you know, this little
widow.
She's dressed in rags and she's got two
cents.
She puts it in.
Get out of the way!
You know, we've got more important gifts today.
And Jesus turns and says to the disciples,
She's put in more than all of them
combined.
Why?
For they all, out of their surplus, put
into the offering.
But she, out of her poverty, put in
all that she had to live on.
Now, that's self-denial.
They didn't deny anything.
Do you know how...
I do this all the time to Melody.
You know, we go out to eat and
I don't like something, you know, that she
likes.
I'm very generous with it.
Here, you can have this.
You know, I don't like pickles and I
don't like tomatoes, you know, so I'm always
giving her my...
She's grateful.
She likes tomatoes.
She likes extra tomatoes.
It's great.
But it wasn't a gift.
It's garbage to me.
It is.
It's just garbage.
It's cluttered up my plate.
I don't want those little gooey seeds all
over my hamburger.
You know?
Pickle juice on my mayonnaise.
It's just...
To her, it's a gift.
She goes, Thank you.
It's great.
I have more.
And I'm saying, I have more without it.
You know?
Really.
I have more to eat without that stuff
on my plate.
And so many people...
And the other time, this was our first
Mexico outreach that we had in L.A.
We didn't really have a...
We...
Every...
The first Christmas, we were going to put
together clothing to take down to an orphanage.
And we knew this Mexican brother that knew
some people in Mexico and we were going
to take it down.
And Melody had Josiah and...
And...
And when...
When she was pregnant with our first child,
Josiah, she was...
We were very well known around the area
and people started giving her maternity clothes.
And...
We had about four or five pregnant girls
in the ministry.
And so, we put in the newsletter, you
know, we have pregnant girls and if you
could send us work clothes for our guys
and you can send us shoes and you
can send us maternity clothes and baby clothes,
we could appreciate it.
Anything left over, we'll send to Mexico.
Well, she went out and I bought her
some maternity clothes and some people had given
her some really neat maternity clothes.
So she had about five or six really
neat like, you know, maternity blue jeans and
a blue jean skirt and really nice, you
know, maternity plaid vests and then she had
all these goofy maternity stuff and the stuff
that she wouldn't be caught dead in Tijuana
wearing, you know.
And she was going to give that all
away, you know.
And she had all the good stuff put
away for when we had our next child
and she had all the other stuff ready
to go to Mexico and then we had
the revival and, uh, and lo and behold,
the week of the revival, the guy comes
to pick up the stuff from Mexico and
she's in the back going through it, you
know, well, Lord, you know, and she goes
out and she goes, guess what I just
did?
I go, what?
She goes, I gave away, I kept the
bag from Mexico for myself and I gave
all the prize stuff that I was saving
to Mexican orphans, you know, and I knew
it wouldn't matter to them but it really
mattered to God.
I knew that they'd be grateful to get
the big polka dot bow tie maternity pass,
you know.
The stripes with the dots on it.
But, uh, she goes, I knew, and I
knew it really mattered to me that I
wanted those but I knew it mattered to
God that I gave something away that was
really giving that's denying self.
When the person works so the other one
can eat.
It's not, okay, you, you work and I'll
eat and then I'll work and you eat,
you know.
It isn't, that's a trade, that's not giving.
I'm not saying you should not eat and
only work, I'm not trying to, you know,
lay any of those things on you.
I'm just saying that giving is a final,
giving is painful.
Real giving is painful.
That was painful for Melody.
For weeks and weeks after that she kept
kicking herself.
She didn't grumble, she just kept going, how
am I going to wear those clothes, you
know.
And she kept saying, well, you know, I
know it's the right thing and, you know,
she gave it up to the Lord and
finally got through but it was like, it
was painful, it cost her.
Real giving, that widow could have gone out
and I bet you two cents would have
bought a lot in those days.
I bet you she came and followed Jesus.
I mean, it doesn't say she did but
I bet she became one of his disciples
and was there when he split the five
thousand, when he fed the five thousand.
I bet you she, you know, she's probably
one, she's probably one of his followers because
she had a right heart after God.
Okay, um, 1 Peter 4.
1 Peter 4.
Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh,
arm yourselves also with the same purpose because
he who has suffered in the flesh has
sinned from sin so as to live the
rest of the time in the flesh no
longer for the lust of men but for
the will of God.
Self-denial is suffering in the flesh.
Self-denial is putting to deeds the lust
of the flesh.
Self-denial is putting away the appetites of
self.
It's saying God is more important.
You are more important.
Others are more important.
Spiritual things are more important.
And there's nothing wrong with eating and there's
nothing wrong with joking and there's nothing wrong
with playing games and recreation but those are
some of the things that are fun that
are also beneficial for us to give up
in part at least and sometimes like when
we fast in totality for the sake of
arming ourselves with the purpose of suffering in
the flesh because he who has suffered in
the flesh has ceased from sin.
I'm not talking about you know becoming a
sage you know with a long robe on
and living in a cave and so that
then you become spiritual.
I'm talking about putting aside your own selfish
and physical lust and desires and it makes
it conducive for prayer and it makes it
conducive for fellowship because you're a lot easier
to live with when you're not hard to
please.
You can write that down.
That's important.
You're a lot easier to live with when
you're not hard to please.
And somebody who's willing to suffer in the
flesh is very easy to please and they're
very hard to wrong.
You're a lot easier to live with when
you're not hard to please.
Okay.
Revelation 12 verse 11 starting
in verse 10 Revelation 12 verse 10 And
I heard a loud voice in heaven saying,
Now the salvation and the power and the
kingdom of our God and the authority of
his Christ have come.
For the accuser of our brethren has been
thrown down who accuses them before our God
day and night.
And they overcame him because of the blood
of the Lamb and because of the word
of their testimony and they did not love
their life even to death.
Now this is an after this is the
end of the world.
Here's the testimony of God concerning the testimony
of the saints.
They overcame him by these things by the
blood of the Lamb by the word of
their testimony and the fact that they did
not love their life even to death.
That's pretty important for you to understand.
The blood of the Lamb that's the death
of Christ the word of their testimony that
means the explanation of praise to God and
telling of the deeds of God which helped
them overcome and build up their faith and
their hatred of their own life.
Their inconsiderateness of themselves.
You know the great saints we read books
and biographies about.
Hardly ever considered themselves personally.
Okay, finally we're going to end the study
in Jeremiah 35.
Going to read the whole chapter.
Incredible story.
Jeremiah 35 The test of self-denial you
can call this part.
This is an incredible story of God testing
the self-denial of a group of people.
God testing not the devil.
This is I love the parts of the
Bible that don't fit in with our concept
of God.
Those are my favorite parts of the Bible
because I love having my concept of God
expanded twisted stretched that God's much bigger than
I can put him in a box.
I love when parts of the Bible when
God does things says things reacts to things
in ways that are inconsistent with our 1981
church western United States concept of God.
Anything like that in the Bible alerts my
attention flags my view because it shows me
that God is bigger than we have allowed
him to become in reality.
Okay, chapter 35 let's just read it through.
The word which came to Jeremiah from the
Lord in the days of Jehoiakim the son
of Josiah king of Judah saying go to
the house of the Rechabites or the Rechabites
and speak to them and bring them into
the house of the Lord into one of
the chambers and give them wine to drink.
There's the test.
Why is it a test?
You'll find out in a minute.
Then I took Jeazania the son of Jeremiah
son of Habezinia and his brothers and all
his sons and the whole house of Rechabites
and I brought them into the house of
the Lord into the chamber of the sons
of Hanun the son of Igdaliah the man
of God which was near the chamber of
the officials which was above the chamber of
Messiah the son of Shalom the doorkeeper.
Just in case you don't know where it
is.
Then I set before the men of the
house of Rechabites pitchers full of wine and
cups and I said to them drink wine.
But they said we will not drink wine
for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father
commanded us saying you shall not drink wine
you or your sons forever and you shall
not build a house and you shall not
sow seed and you shall not plant a
vineyard or own one but in tents you
shall dwell all your days that you may
live many days in the land where you
sojourn and we have obeyed the voice of
Jonadab the son of Rechab our father in
all that he commanded us not to drink
wine all our days we our wives our
sons and our daughters nor to build ourselves
houses to dwell in and we do not
have vineyard or field or seed we have
only dwelt in tents and have obeyed and
have done according to all that Jonadab our
father commanded us but it came about when
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against the
land that we said come and let us
go to Jerusalem before the army of the
Chaldeans and before the army of the Syrians
that we have dwelt in Jerusalem in other
words the Babylonians came to occupy Israel and
they rushed ahead of the occupying army to
find shelter with the people of Jerusalem then
the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah
saying thus says the Lord of hosts the
God of Israel go and say to the
men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem
will you not receive instruction by listening to
my words declares the Lord the words of
Jonadab the son of Rechab which he commanded
his sons not to drink wine or observe
so they do not drink wine to this
day for they have obeyed their fathers command
but I have spoken to you again and
again and yet you have not listened to
me also I have sent you all my
servants the prophets sending them again and again
saying turn out every man from his evil
way and amend your deeds do not go
after other gods to worship them then you
shall dwell in the land which I have
given to you and to your forefathers but
you have not inclined your ear to listen
or listen to me indeed the sons of
Jonadab the sons of Rechab have observed the
command of their father which he commanded them
but this people have not listened to me
therefore thus says the Lord the God of
hosts the God of Israel behold I am
bringing on Judah and on all the inhabitants
of Jerusalem all the disaster that I have
pronounced against them because I spoke to them
but they did not listen and I have
called them but they did not answer now
as I read this I was hoping that
God would somehow give a nice word to
the poor family that couldn't live in houses
and so on then Jeremiah said to the
house of the Rechabites thus says the Lord
of hosts the God of Israel because you
have obeyed the command of Jonadab your father
kept all his commands and done according to
all that he commanded you therefore thus says
the Lord of hosts the God of Israel
Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not lack
a man to stand before me always test
passed who tested them God now God wanted
to use them as an example he said
he looked all over the land let me
find a righteous family around here he sees
them and before I use them as an
example I better give them one last test
so he has Jeremiah the heaviest righteous man
most righteous man in Israel bring them into
the house of God set wine before him
and command them to drink it in the
church here is a righteous prophet who is
never listed as sinning in the house of
God asking them to drink wine which is
commanded in the law of Moses for people
to drink wine except for the Nazarenes wasn't
against the laws of the land it wasn't
against the laws of the temple they can
drink wine in the temple and he said
uh uh our father said it and we
are not going to do it and you
can see it wasn't would you like to
drink wine it was drink wine there will
come a time like with Balaam when God
will say go ahead and go there will
come a time when God has made it
clear to you not to do something and
God will tell somebody to come to you
and say drink do it there will there
will come a time in your life that
is consistent with the word of God and
you will jump at the chance because it
is something you always wanted to do this
family always wanted to drink wine especially the
kids that weren't around when grandpa said don't
drink it you know all my friends drink
wine the priest drinks wine even Jeremiah probably
drank wine it was part of the culture
it was part of the religion how unreasonable
for our father to make us outcasts and
weirdos there will come a time when God
says to you deny yourself don't raise your
standard of living raise your standard of giving
when God blesses you and some other man
of God will come through and say feed
yourself bless yourself some other man of God
will come through and God will say and
then God will say okay what did I
teach you originally what did I teach you
about not raising yourself up what did I
teach you about not dressing yourself up bringing
attention to yourself don't ever change that God
never changes his principles sometimes he changes his
ways and sometimes as in the case of
you know Paul says I've learned the secret
of abounding and abasing I've learned the secret
of having much and enjoying it having little
and enjoying it some people like that I'm
not talking about money I'm not talking about
anything I'm not talking about there being any
benefit in giving up things I'm talking about
there being a benefit in worshipping God through
putting down everything else but God you must
understand there is no benefit in giving up
food and giving up sex or giving up
money or giving up anything in its proper
place there is only benefit in worshipping God
above all else and denying him nothing and
denying yourself everything so you can have him
okay any questions yes
in the scripture John it says six to
ten we talked about Jesus washing the disciples
feet something is a little confusing to me
about the symbolism of the washing the feet
because Jesus says later on after verse ten
that anyone who needs anyone who has had
a bath needs only to wash his feet
apparently the symbolism the way I read the
symbolism is that Jesus has washed our entire
bodies and we're clean and dim because of
his sacrifice yet our feet have to be
we're touching the ground with our feet you
take a bath and you walk around your
feet get dirty but you don't get dirty
yet you're still clean and he had to
keep washing there's a lot of different interpretation
of that can you no I wouldn't expound
on it all I would say it also
has been explained as just being his reaction
to Peter saying wash my hands and my
head he says no your hands and head
are clean you took a bath earlier your
feet you walk you're walking in the dust
that's what needs to be washed I don't
need to wash I mean it could just
be a practical physical thing that he was
telling Peter you know I'm not saying it
couldn't be spiritual I'm just I wouldn't want
to get into it especially now yes Laura
when you were saying about the coming time
when God told you something and then he'll
send someone or allow someone to come on
an anaphylactic or something that would look like
it's really okay to not do what he
said I thought about that prophet that prophesied
about Josiah and prophesied against the altar and
the other prophets even that's a heavy story
I don't God told him not to go
and the other guy said well God said
you could go you know you could come
into my house and eat God told him