Self-Help & Denying Self

I want to say something today, people of God, that we live in a world today that is very big on self, self-reliance, self-forgiveness, self-help, self-love, self-compassion, self-care. And it's just over and over and over. But then we have a Bible that tells us to deny self, that we must deny self. We must mortify and crucify this flesh, taking up our own cross, meaning that we have to nail these fleshly desires to the cross and be obedient to the Spirit. And so it's like a contradiction there. And I want to say something, I'm not taking a shot at self-help books or the self-help category industry because I have learned a lot. One of my favorite self-help books of all time is The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. A book right now that I can pick up and literally every book that I read after that somehow, some way encaptures something that I have read in The Compound Effect. But I also know truthfully that if I'm not careful and I truly commit myself to this industry that I can become so big on fulfilling self that I'm not pleasing God. And society can go say, oh man, he's doing all of these great things, he's a raving success, but I still miss the purpose that God created me to do. And so now, you know, we have knowledge, Google, whatever, all these apps and stuff like that, all these commentaries, and they are good. Like, they really helped me a lot in my studies. But at the same time, if I'm not careful, the enemy is so subtle. Matter of fact, let's go back to when Jesus was led to the wilderness. Notice that the enemy— when we study the text, the enemy came to him at the end of it, and he quoted scripture to him. It was out of context, but he quoted it to him. He quoted the scriptures to Jesus. He quoted the scriptures to the Living Word. He just didn't know the written word. He was the word, and the enemy quoted them to him. And if Jesus flesh. He was talking to Jesus' flesh. And if Jesus' flesh would have agreed with that, because, man, it is the Word of God, so surely I agree with this, you know what I'm saying? I'm gonna take you up on this. Think about where you and I would be right now. But because he was the Word, he was one with it, the thing that he has called us to be. He couldn't be deceived. And so in other words, is that the only way that we're going to truly be able to discern truth in this day and age where everything is out there, everybody knows everything, but this stuff is also— it talks about it in Timothy that people are going to turn away from sound doctrine because they're going to want to itch in ears. It's in the word of God and everything is magnified in these times. And it's people now are turning away, or now they're building altars and stuff to themselves. My church, my people. When Jesus said, I purchased the church with my blood, direct my people. We are starting to put ourselves in a position because we're pumping up self so much to the point where we're not denying it, we're not following scriptures. And this is why I believe Jesus, the cross, the embodiment— when he was laying there on it, when he was— when they put him on the cross, he was fully committed to it in the flesh and his deity, because he had to go down to captivity and take back that authority. In other words, telling the devil, I'm here now. You know why I'm here? I'm here to take back the authority over mankind so you won't have power and dominion over them no more. And when this is finished— he said it on the cross, it is finished. When he said that, it was instantly done. But the enemy is so subtle. He has studied us for years and years. Even the giants back then, the Davids of the world, the Moses, the, the Jacobs, Josephs. Like, he is— all these great people of faith and prophets and things like that, kings. Solomon, he studied them for years and years, and we are no match for the devil in our flesh. But Jesus said that— he told the disciples, and I could just, just as I examine the scriptures, I can see him just saying that no, they can't defeat you by themselves. But by my spirit, my spirit that I'm going to leave, my advocate, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Living God that I'm going to leave and impart in them. And that spirit is going to come and dwell in them. But all I need them— he only needs us to do one thing: stay with my word. Stay with my word. Dedicate yourself to my ways. When I lived on there— no, I'm not Jesus, but the ultimate goal is to always be like him. And so in other words, is that as I dedicate myself to his word, the living word, I become one with it. I truly study and examine the scriptures. Yes, I can bring in commentaries and do additional research, but at the same time, those commentaries are not the infallible word of God. They are maybe God-inspired, what somebody is saying. Tony Evans is one of my favorite people. I choose to truly trust what Tony Evans is saying in his commentary and study Bibles. But at the same time, I truly have to know the word for myself because Tony Evans' words are not God-breathed. They are his study notes. It's his commentary. So the same Holy Spirit that's speaking to Tony Evans, I have access to that same Holy Spirit. But a lot of times we feel like we can't get there because we might not be doing what Tony Evans is doing. Tony Evans is probably laboring and truly talking and communing and praying with God. And digging deep. Yes, he probably has access to a lot of stuff that we don't have, the TD Jakes of the world. But at the end of the day, I truly believe that if we dedicate ourselves as much as we dedicate ourselves to any other thing in this world, the Holy Spirit, the feeling of the Holy Spirit, can illuminate those passages and scriptures with our prayer life. And I believe that he can break things down to us in a way that makes us relevant to culture and rise above all of this stuff and draw the people that we need to draw. But it starts— are you fully committed? Are you fully committed to God, or are you fully committed to self? Because the only way that you can come to an end of yourself is to first— you must deny yourself. And that goes against what the world is telling us. So people of God, I just want to say, commit. Don't be a raven, success by world standards, and you miss the purpose that God created you. Anywhere in the Bible you cut it, it bleeds, because all scriptures point to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So whose voice, whose report are you going to believe? Are you going to believe what the world tells you, or are you going to believe what the Son of the Living God tells you? God himself in the flesh that left us his advocate, his Holy Spirit, to help us navigate and overcome the things of this world. And I want to leave you with this, to really take this serious. In closing, imagine God— the enemy can't— he want it— just imagine being the devil right now. Now, you probably can't think that, and I trust you, but just for this example, imagine being the devil and you want to just destroy God. You want to kill him, but you can't. You know you can't. You're like, man, I can't. And his only weakness is, if I may say, this is just an example, but his only weakness is that people like you and I that he created, that he chose to create, and we can go to scriptures about the angels. Why did you create man? Why did you— why would you do this? And you're the enemy, you're looking at this and say, well, I can't get to God. I can't kill him. I can't do anything to him, but his creation, his creation, the people that he created to worship him, to adore him, to love him, I can get to them one by one. I can take them out of here, snipe them, sniff them out like wheat, and lead them to hell. Lead them to so much stuff that takes them away from what he desires. And so it's this battle, but God is saying, no, no, no, no, I sent myself, I sent myself to teach them. I came in and I did everything by the rules, and I defeated you, and I took back that authority over mankind. So God is saying that I'm not going to allow you to just sniff them out like wheat and leave them to their own defenses, their own devices, to really make this fair. Because you have spent thousands of years studying mankind, the psychology, the social, all this type of stuff. You have studied the human being. Some of the greatest men But yet, not great without the Spirit of God. So to make this thing fair, I'm going to leave my Spirit in them. I'm gonna give them access to my Spirit, but they first must confess that they are sinners, that they need me, that I died for their sins, and was rose from the dead. And that same Spirit can reside in them today if they accept. Not filled with the Holy Ghost, but dwell in them. And the filling will come as they dedicate theirselves to my word, dying to self and being more spirit than they are flesh. Now have at it. What are you doing? Me, what am I doing? So God has given us his spirit and said, all you got to do is study my word. What are we doing? Who are we siding with? Think about it. Just think about it. The enemy, he's coming. He wants you. He wants to destroy you. He wants to do to you what he wants to do to God. Don't give him that power.