I Have to Deny Myself?

Hey, this is Tim Pratt Jr. and I want to welcome you to the Student of Life podcast. Listen, we're going to get into so many transferable truths throughout the content of these episodes that I believe God is going to use to help you apply, because he's going to reveal what's already been there the entire time. Enjoy. Yo, what's up? So this is season, uh, 6, episode 2. Uh, and we know what season we're in, so I think I'm just gonna drop the episode going forward. Uh, but listen, so this one is like, I gotta deny myself. And the reason why that title sticks with me is because kind of the last message we talked about, Denial. And I'm going to read Matthew 16:24 to kind of unpack that a little bit more, spend a little bit more time with it, uh, in the context of this episode. So I gotta deny myself. All right, so Matthew 16:24 reads, then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. So let's stay right there. That's all, because I know I read the verse in the last one of what is a disciple because we were dealing with it in that context. And these 3 episodes will be very closely related. But hey, listen, uh, one thing I will tell you that has really worked for me is that repetition in the word of God. Uh, we think we know something and we don't, and I'm consistently being challenged with it, even being in seminary school. Like, I'm working on my master's right now and ministry and leadership focus with, you know, pastoral things. But, uh, it's, it, it's so good because it's challenging me and I'm like, wow, you know, I thought I knew something. Then some things I'm like, no, you know, have to reject it. Nothing bad, but just like, I, you know, but nevertheless, uh, this, I would say about 80% of it is like, wow, this is why I have so much grace, uh, with people not knowing. Because it's like, bro, like, you were once there, you didn't know, so don't become so com— pumped up and arrogant to the point where you come into this knowledge. But we come into the knowledge, the right doctrine, to be able to live right, to live a life that's pleasing and acceptable to God through the power of the Holy Spirit. And so in this context, denying self— and, and I'm kind of going to freelance here, and that's what I do with a lot of my episodes, um, you know, a lot of stuff, man, I put structure through the power of God, but just kind of freestyle. And so, uh, with a few bullets and points So, um, with this, what does it mean to really deny ourselves? Like, that, you know, like, man, deny— like, if you think about it, and I like to use a lot of sports analogies, you know, somebody got denied in the paint, meaning that somebody sent they shot back the other way. And you hear, or they say, the minute quarterback, man, he denied the receiver the ball or something like that. So denying is basically stopping something, putting a stop to something, and say, no, I'm not going to allow this to move forward. And Jesus knew that this flesh will battle us to death. Like, this flesh— like, the flesh will never want to come in the righteous order of God. It will never— it will always oppose the will of God. And so don't think of it just in the context of just skin and bone, but more so like a flesh— like living in this world, a fallen world. Like, we're made up and born of this world, so we have this, this fleshly order, this, this fleshly thing going on, meaning that we operating in self, the self-will. You hear now, your truth, what do you want to do, my dreams, I want to follow my dreams, I want to follow my heart, I mean follow my heart, my heart, my heart, when the word of God say the heart is deceitful. And so we have to have the Holy Spirit of God to help us continually deny ourselves, but we first have to make a constant conscious decision to accept him and allow the Holy Spirit to work through us. And so in other words, what Jesus was saying when he was saying deny ourselves, he was like, reject the natural human order or inclination of the human will. Reject what your heart wants because it's deceitful, bro. It's deceitful. See, it's like, it, it's not of God. Like, think about it, you know, we live in a world today, uh, just really coming out the gate with sex. I mean, everybody's sleeping with everybody now. Like, you don't even see on TV shows, bro, like You know how like they used to kind of pause the scene and, you know, people, you know, you can tell they was kind of putting on protection, all of that type of stuff. They don't even do that no more. It's just like, bro, let's jump into it, let's screw. Like, no. And not just even sexual, like the cursing, the, the way we respond to things, it's just so casual. And I'm like, I'm, I'm not— because it's times I've gotten super heated and I have went off and, you know, said some things I shouldn't have, but I'm convicted. I'm like, no, no, no, I let self-dictate in this situation when I should have been allowing the Spirit of God, uh, lead me and guide me. And I gave latitude to self. Uh, anything that I have done— God never makes you sin. Never. Like, when I hear people say, uh, God did this and it has something to do with sin, no matter what happened, no matter what happened, no matter if somebody went off on you, somebody betrayed you, somebody got you hot, and you know, however you operate, and you say, man, well, God— no, no, no, no, no. God does not make us sin. Temptation is really neutral. But when we learn to deny ourselves, then we will operate according to the word of God because we give the Spirit of God latitude. Because we say, no, no, Steph, stay back. I'm allowing the Holy Spirit to have full reign to lead and prompt me to do what's right. So nothing can make you sin, no matter what was done to you in whatever situation. Like I said, with you facing things on your job, you're facing things in your relationship, if you're facing things and, um, just the tension of something God will never put you in a situation where you, where you will sin. Because think about it, even when Jesus— and we, we annihilated him— even when Jesus was facing constant rejection, even when he was facing on the cross, and we've seen his merciful heart, and he's the example. Remember I said to be Christ-like? Now we're not Jesus, but we were called to be Christ-like. So even when he was facing all of these things, when he was dealing with these things, he still was praying, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Now, they still had to come in repentance, but that was just showing a merciful heart. So what I'm saying, and this is hard, you know, this might be hard to really take, but this is once again why we're dealing with the spirit and not your flesh. So the parameters— the enemy just sets the stage, and we're driven by our desires. Because right now, I'm telling you, like, there are days when, like, at work or just out in the day or whatever, I'm dealing with things, different type of relationships, you know, with people and so on and so on, that things will happen. And I say, well, God, they wouldn't have done this, I would have done that. Or God, they would have done it like this. And I'm telling you, and sometimes, like I said, I don't always get it right, but my heart is deceitful when I'm sitting up there yielding to the flesh. But I'm, but I'm quickened through the power of God, and if I don't grieve him, I'm telling you, I will always— basically, I will always always, always yield. Let me say, let me back up. If I'm truly being sensitive to the Spirit, I will always respond the way God wants me to, is what I'm trying to say. And so therefore, we have to reject the natural human inclination of the human will. And then we got to keep in mind that the heart is like this— the devil, he sets the stage to our disorderly desires. Meaning when our heart posture is not truly pointed to Christ, it could be pointing to the wrong thing. And we have to overcome the persistent flesh, the persistency, because like I said, the flesh is always, uh, it always wants to go against the will of God. So we have to overcome that through the denying of self, overcome the persistent fleshly demands of the body. Like, man, like, the body wants what it wants. The body, the mind, like, it wants to do what it wants to do. So the Holy Spirit, we have to bring it under subjection through the power of God, and this comes with denying ourselves. And so therefore, everything— we have to understand that when Paul wrote, everything is permissible but not everything is helpful or built up, sometimes denying self is not watching certain things or listening to certain things or engaging in certain conversations. It might be permissible, but it might not be building you up, and it might not be helpful to your situation, denying yourself. It might be affirming your flesh. Because what happens is we become enslaved to free will. Just because we can do it doesn't mean we should. Because like I said, the flesh will always battle us to death. It will always— like, it will always oppose the spiritual things of God. And so we have to choose through the power of the Holy Spirit to walk in the Spirit of God. So how do we, how do we grow? What is the practical application of this with denying self? Well, one way is fasting. Fasting helps us deny ourselves because we're going to get into that a little bit more in the next one. But this is basically, um, fasting is giving something up, giving something up in the context so we may be able to devote ourselves more towards God. That's what essentially what fasting is, giving something up that we like, that our human will, desires. And it could be a good thing, you know, some things could be good, like it's not in shows, but it could be like, you know, like I could like— like what's something that could be taking me? Like TV in moderation. But it's like I could really like sports, but I'm saying, okay, like I'm not gonna like do this, eat, do these, whatever these things that God puts in more— I'm not going to do these things. So I really, really like them, so it's going to— I'm going to feel it. And I don't want to like get too much in it because like I said, we're going to get into this next episode. But it's fasting, it's okay, because I want to devote more of this time to God. Even in your marriage, if you say, hey, like, you know, we're not going to be on anything sexual, we're married, it's a good thing, but it's like we're gonna sustain from each other, abstain from each other right now and come to the mutual agreement so I can focus on just denying self and my heart posture on God. Then once again, here it goes, this community, being connected to other believers. Why? So we can have accountability. We have the virtual relationship all the time. We have the virtual relationship all the time. So when we have this relationship all the time, then with God is what I'm saying, like when we have this vertical one, like it's like, Lord, forgive me, Lord, forgive me, Lord, forgive me. Okay, God, you know, he forgives. But then when we have the horizontal relationship accountability, like that person say, hey, how are you doing in that area? You have to deal with, you have to confront it. Now it's accountability. I mean, how, how are you really doing? Or late— I mean, you know, man, how are you really doing? And did you watch this? Did you do that? It's accountability. So when Jesus say deny self, like I said, it's not to the extent where you hate yourself, because that's on the other opposite end of the spectrum. It can be just as deadly to us But it's denying ourselves in a way to say, I'm going to yield to the Holy Spirit. I'm not going to allow self to dictate me. This is what, like, truthfully— and we can go very deeper in all these topics, but this is not the platform right now for this. Like, you know, I, I'm not going to get into a lot of theologian concepts and stuff. There's a lot of great podcasts out there, but the audience that I believe I'm called to reaching is, you know, I just want to keep it practical and simple through the power of God. And so therefore, this is in essence of what denying self is, meaning that I just— I'm not going to allow the human will to dictate my behavior. I'm going to deny myself that I may live a life that's pleasing to God so I can be Christlike. Hey, what's up? I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to the Student Life Podcast today. If this content has impacted you in any kind of way, please take some time to share it on your social media feeds. And also, if you want to connect with me or just learn more about me, go over to www.timothypratt.org. Once again, thanks.