- Self-denial
I’ve been a Christian for 28 years and I’ve listened to awful lot of sermons. Easily in the thousands. Even now, I listen to average 4 or 5 sermons a week. But if I had to pick one sermon out of the thousands as the greatest sermon I’ve ever heard, it wouldn’t be a sermon I’ve heard, but it would be a sermon I’ve read. It’s C.S. Lewis’ – “The Weight of Glory” – a sermon he preached that was later transcribed and became a book. It is life-changing! On the very first page, he says:
The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire. If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambitions when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
That paragraph hit me like a ton of bricks when I read it years ago. Up to that point, I thought the whole point of Christianity is to deny ourselves, be as sinless as we can be – see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil – so that God will be pleased with us. I taught the youth that I was a pastor over to be so. If you were my youth, you’ve heard me say, “God doesn’t want you to be happy. He wants you to be holy!” So, “keep yourself pure sexually, no dating until you are 25, don’t listen to secular music, no violent video games, don’t go to the prom because you know what happens on the prom night!” In other words, a bunch of self-denials so that God will be pleased. Why did I teach that? Because that is what I’ve been taught. In order to please God, in order to be accepted by God, I had to be good and do good. Oh, I knew the doctrine of justification by faith. I knew and taught that we are saved by grace alone, faith alone and in Christ alone. But once you are saved, if you want to please God, you had to muster up your will-power to deny yourself. Was I wrong? No. But I was only half-right. I failed to present the other side – what for? What are we denying ourselves for? What are we gaining by abstaining from sin and appearance of evil? What benefit is there for me following Christ? I thought even asking such a question was selfish, but C.S. Lewis has opened my eyes to see that the New Testament is full of promises and rewards that tell us what we will gain if we deny ourselves. Listen to these promises:
– Matthew 11:28, “28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
– John 10:10, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
– John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.”
– John 4:14 “whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
– John 6:35, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
– John 8:31 “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
– Matthew 13:44. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Jesus made promises for our good and benefit! So, denying ourselves is not wrong. But we deny ourselves in order to gain something better is what I failed to communicate sufficiently. What that did for me is open the gate for a new understanding on how we human beings operate. At the highest command center of our mind is not the will-power. It is delight! Our will-power will follow our desire, our delight. “Our will will follow what our heart delights in!” And so, if we try to live our Christian life by a simply will-power to do right and stay away from evil, we will fail, unless what we delight in changes. Or if we succeed in staying away from evil by our will-power, we will become a Pharisee. Over the years, I’ve observed hundreds of youth who tried to live by the Christian moral code. There are two camps. #1: Those who do well in following the code, and stay relatively clean morally, and thus feel self-confident. These kids usually become leaders and almost invariably look down upon and judge other kids who are doing “bad” stuff, who are not as good as them! They’ve become Pharisees. #2: The second camp are those kids who tried early on to be good but failed miserably. And because they have failed even though they tried and knowing that they will never be as good as those “good” kids, they drop out of church and faith all together. And they also become judgmental of those in church and see them as prudish and naïve….
Becoming a Christian is not synonymous with self-denial. Self-denial is definitely a part of it. But it’s not the entirety, nor the most important. It is gaining Christ that’s at the center. In order to have more of Christ, we deny ourselves of other things. We are denying ourselves of the mud pies in a slum so that we can gain holiday at the sea. Now, because many of you who grew up differently than I did, I need to balance this. Some of you grew up denying nothing! But Jesus did say: “If any man would come after me, He must deny himself, take up the cross daily and follow me!” The reason why some of us can’t see Christ clearly is because we have denied ourselves nothing. We’ve filled our stomachs with ho-hos and ding-dongs that we do not want Fillet Mignon when it is presented to us. So, I have said before denying ourselves should be a daily discipline. Some of us need to make more effort. But, we cannot forget that the reason why we deny ourselves is so that we can gain something much better.
ILL: You know this illustration… A little girl got a plastic pearl necklace as a birthday present. She wore it everywhere she went except when she took a bubble bath. Her mom said if they got wet, they might turn her neck green. One day, her loving dad came into the room and asked for the pearl necklace. Little girl was confused. “Daddy, not my pearls. but you can have my barbie.” “It’s alright, baby. Daddy loves you. good night.” About a week later, daddy asked her again for the necklace, “Oh, daddy. not my pearls. but you can have lalaloopsy.” Daddy said, “it’s ok baby. Daddy loves you. Good night.” A few nights late daddy found the girl sitting on her bed crying. “What’s wrong, baby?” The little girl lifted her hand to her daddy and in her hand was the plastic pearl necklace. And she said, “Daddy, it’s for you.” You know the rest of the story. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue velvet case and gave it to his daughter. It was a beautiful strand of real pearls.
When God tells us to give up something, it’s because He has something better to give. “Well, why can’t we have both? The worldly and the heavenly!” you might ask. It’s because we only have one heart. We can only be devoted to one thing. Just like it’s impossible to love two women at the same time, we cannot be devoted to the world and God at the same time. So then, why so many people choose the world over God if God is so much better? Because they cannot see God as He truly is in all His beauty, majesty, and glory. They cannot see in any way how He can give greater delight than cars, houses, and successful children. A miracle has to happen. We have to see the unseeable!
My job, which is impossible unless the Lord is working, is to help you see the unseen. Is to help you see that God is greater than anything in this world. and the reward He gives is better than anything we can amass for ourselves. As good as the pleasures of this world are, they are just a shadow of the pleasures we can have in Christ. My earnest prayer for you is that your eyes will be open and see that what Christ offers is so much better than what the world offers.
- The Reward
Then, what is the reward? What is it that God gives? I’ve already quoted verses that promise rest, abundant life, peace, fulfillment, and freedom. But that is not the main reward I want to talk about today. There is something else, I believe is even better than those rewards. The reward I had in mind, that makes this life endurable or even pleasurable even when things are difficult and definitely meaningful is this: God’s approval on our lives.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 ” Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.”
What is the reward that is so great that we would gladly exchange any level of comfort and success for a chance to have this? He says it is “an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” What we will get is eternal glory – that is the reward we get for being a Christian, being a follower of Christ, giving up everything on earth – the eternal weight of glory. But what is that?
- S. Lewis again helps us with this:
Glory suggests two ideas to me… Either glory means to me fame, or it means luminosity. As for the first, since to be famous means to be better known than other people, the desire for fame appears to me as a competitive passion and therefore of hell rather than heaven. As for the second, who wishes to become a kind of living electric light bulb?
When I began to look into this matter I was shocked to find [many] different Christians … taking heavenly glory quite frankly in the sense of fame or good report. But not fame conferred by our fellow creatures – [but rather] fame with God, approval or “appreciation” by God. And then, when I had thought it over, I saw that this view was scriptural; nothing can eliminate from the parable the divine accolade, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”
When I read that, I suddenly realized that is what I had been looking for all my life! From the time I was a little boy, I had been looking for approval. I had been wanting for my dad to say, “You are my son. I’m proud of you.” I had been looking to validate myself by proving my worth whether in the academics, or athletics, in ministry, I want to be recognized, I want to be validated. I want to be told I’m significant! I matter! It is that approval, that acceptance, that validation, that I had been looking for in different stages of life in different people and through different things, but really I was looking because I was made to look for it in God!
That gave me a brand new perspective on the source of many problems in the world. I suddenly got to see people who are hungry for approval, doing anything to validate their reason for being! And sin is trying to get that validation in anything but ultimately in God. Think about the magnitude of this concept!
– All those men in prison, I wondered, how many of them would still be in prison, if their dads, who are the closest representation of God the Father to them, were around to tell them, “I’m pleased with you, my son. I’m proud of you. You are my son.” Would they still be in prison only if there was that validation and approval that represents the validation of God!
– How many teenage pregnancies could have been prevented if these young women’s daddies were around to tell them, “I love you baby. You are beautiful in my eyes. You are my precious!”
– Businessmen look for their validation in success. Politicians look for their significance in power. Young ladies look for approval in their physical beauty. Young couples looking for their validation in their family. Older people look for their validation in what they’ve accomplished…
Do you see it? Everyone looking for approval from someone. As C.S.Lewis said, it’s most visible in little children. Everyday my girls prance in front of me saying, “daddy look what I can do. Look! Look at me the whole time!” Only when I say, “good job. girls. wonderful!”, a satisfying look on their face comes over. Everyone desires significance, yet struggle without knowing exactly where they can finally find it. Do you see that we had been looking for our Father’s, heavenly Father’s approval all along? And it won’t stop until we find it in Him?
So, just to hear those words from our Maker and Father who knows all things, “Good and faithful Son. well done.” would be our ultimate reward. The way Samuel Rutherford put it:
“Our little inch of time suffering is not worthy of our first night’s welcome home to heaven. When once Christ shall thrust your weary traveler’s head on his breast, you will find just the first one of his kisses will pay for 500 years of sore hearts.
“Good job my son! Well done! Way to go my daughter! Welcome home… God’s approval. God’s praise on us! That is what we have been wanting though we didn’t know it…
The flip side of it: The most crushing and chilling words in this world and in the next world is, “I do not know you.” Matthew 7:22 [Jesus said] “Many will say to me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in you name and in your name drive our demons and perform many miracles?” Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me you evildoers!”
That is God’s disapproval. That is hell. The opposite of his approval which is heaven!
How do we get approved by this God? By trying harder and living cleaner? No. But by delighting ourselves in the Lord. And how do we delight ourselves in Him? To know Him is to love Him. Jesus His Son, has earned that approval for you. He has gone to the ends of the earth, went down to hell, to earn that right for you. He’s the truly significant one. He’s the one whom God the father said, “this is my son, whom I am well pleased.” It is this Christ we need to receive. Repent of your sins. Repent of your self-reliance and self-righteousness. Receive this Jesus into your life. Recognize Him as your greatest treasure. Delight in Him. Do not leave Him until you delight in Him. And He will delight in you. For the next several months, we will be delighting ourselves and sit under Jesus and His greatest sermon – the sermon on the mount. I can’t wait to begin next week God willing!
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