Matthew 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
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Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”
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Mark 8: 34 “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 35 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.
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Second Timothy 2:11 “It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him.”
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Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
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God created us to live our lives focused on Him. His purpose from the very beginning was that we should be “God-conscious,” not “self-conscious.” Self-consciousness is just another way of saying self-centeredness, and self-centeredness really is the root of all grief, sin.
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Self denial is not to deny one’s personality, it is instead the turning away from the idolatry of self centeredness and every attempt to orient one’s life by the dictates of self interest, Narcissism. “Denying ro oneself” is a consequence of true Christian faith, as it is not done not by ones works or legalistic obedience to the law,and the act leads one forward into the full life “in Christ.”
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Galatians 2: 16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. 17 But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. 18 For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. 19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. 20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. 21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
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Matthew 10:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 25 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 27) “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.
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Luke 9:22 Saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day. 23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. 24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. 25 For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?
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Matt 10:38 38 “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.; 39) “He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.;
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Luke 14 :27 “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29) “Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31) “Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32) “Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.
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In the Roman cultural context, “carrying the cross” was tacit admission that the criminal was wrong and that the death sentence was just. Death by crucifixion is what God still demands of you as well.
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The first concern in the full, victorious, Holy Spirit filled life Christian life is dealing with the sin-controlled life as trying to conquer all the many sins in our lives is hopeless without dealing with the root of sin — SELF.We may confess our sin all we like, but if we fail to die to self, that self will continue to produce sin. As our self centered life, unconfessed, continual sin breaks our fellowship with God. Isaiah 59:2 tells us, “your iniquities have separated you from your God… that He will not hear”. God utterly hates sin in any form. To deal with sin, we need to agree with God about it, see it as He sees it, hate it as He hates it, and turn our back on it, Self is no longer to reign. “Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin” (Romans 6:11). Surrender your entire self-life for God to put to death, to crucify it with Jesus, and let the empowerment of the Holy Spirit now rather control it.. Jesus Himself uses the symbol of cross to represent the need of dying to self five times (Matt 10:38; 16:24-26; Mark 8:34-35; Luke 9:23-24; 14:27). It’s as hopeless as trying to kill a weed by cutting off its leaves. As long as even a part of the root is left in the ground, it will produce more leaves. Self is the root and sin is the leaves. Sinful character traits and attitudes are only leaves on the weed root of self. Dying to self is commanded in several Scriptures: “reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin” (Romans 6:11); “put to death your members” (Colossians 3:5); “put off the old man” (Ephesians 4:22 and Colossians 3:9); “they have crucified the flesh” (Galatians 5:24 and 2:20). The uniform message is: “you are dead in Christ; therefore die.” Dying to self does not destroy the real person, but rather it does deals with what pollutes and destroys you the real person in Christ. That selfish, sinful nature contaminates us and prevents Christ’s victorious, Holy Spirit filled life to be evidenced in us, until it is reckoned (counted) as dead. .Thank God for delivering you now from self-centeredness, as an ongoing step of faith. We already do know this deliverance is His will, and “if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us (and) we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” (1 John 5:14-15).
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“ Common Traits of the self-centered life:
A secret spirit of pride – an exalted feeling because of our success, position, training, appearance, natural gifts or abilities; an important, independent spirit; stiffness and preciseness.
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Carnal fear – being afraid of what others may think of us; shrinking from our duty (especially by those of wealth or position); reasoning around our cross; fearfulness that someone will offend and drive away some prominent person; compromising our principles to stay on someone’s good side.
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A jealous disposition – a secret spirit of envy; an unpleasant sensation when another is prosperous or successful; a disposition to speak of the faults and failings of those more talented and appreciated than ourselves, instead of their gifts and virtues, in order to make ourselves look better, more discerning, or sophisticated.
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Love of human praise – a secret desire to be noticed or given credit; enjoyment of praise or flattery; feeling badly when we weren’t thanked; drawing attention to ourselves and our accomplishments in conversation; liking to be at the head of things.
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A dishonest, deceitful disposition – evading the truth; covering up our real faults; leaving a better impression of ourselves than is strictly true; false humility; exaggeration; straining the truth.
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Anger or impatience – (which we justify by calling it righteous indignation or nervousness); a touchy, sensitive spirit; resentment or retaliation when disapproved of or contradicted; a desire to throw sharp, heated, or barbed comments; becoming provoked over people, animals, or objects that will not co-operate with our desires; losing our temper when we’ve run out of arguments, so that our opponent will back off and we’ll still win; unexpressed stirrings of envy, jealousy, revenge, bitterness, or anger.
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Self-will – a stubborn, unteachable spirit; an arguing, talkative spirit; harsh, sarcastic expressions; an unyielding, headstrong disposition; a driving, commanding spirit; criticizing and picking flaws when set aside and not noticed; a peevish, fretful spirit; loving to be coaxed and humoured; becoming miffed when we cannot have our own way, when others do better than us, when taken to task by someone in authority, when not put first, when not appreciated, or when others are advanced over us; sulking when slighted, imposed upon, insulted.
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Stinginess – falling out with others over trifles; giving as little as possible; taking the best and leaving the rest for others; seeking the easiest tasks; love of money; love of ease.
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Self-justification – desiring always to be right, and finding it painful to be proven wrong; feeling sore at losing a contest, game, argument, or election; being embarrassed when others point out our mistakes; being unable to say “I was wrong, please forgive me”; immediately blaming another when we are accused; excusing our own erroneous actions while magnifying the faults of others; rationalizing our failures by pointing to unfavourable circumstances when it was really our fault; believing that no-one can do it as well as we can; desiring the last word.”
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JESUS SAYS COME 