Selfies, Selfish & Selfless! Matthew 16:24-26

Selfies are not wrong or bad! Hey, look at me! They could be called the poster child of selfishness! Selfish seems to dominate American culture! Every group wants attention! They all get up on their soap box! Sin is about selfishness! No sacrifice required! Satan, Adam and Eve thought they could rise above God! Do not be denied God is holding out on you! Jesus said to seek first the Kingdom of God! Would you lose your life for Jesus? Take up your Cross and follow Him! Deny yourself! When you do that you are following Him! Ditch your selfie! His words seem as foreign to our culture as they did back in the 1st Century! To take up your Cross is to live in self-denial and lay your life down and take up His life! You will be exposed to death! For the first time in American history Christians are being executed for their Faith on our home soil. The executed had to carry their own Cross to the execution site after scourging! When you carry your own cross the popular culture will look at you as a criminal. You will undergo suffering, trial, punishment, disapproval and death! The only way to deny self is die to self! Others are more important! No wonder Jesus had so few disciples! Very few sign up and stay on! It is easier to live for you and not for Him because you have to trust your outcome to Him! Faith is taking your destiny out of your control! To follow Jesus means to walk in the same path! It means to be in union on the same road like military soldiers marching down the same path! To lose your life means to destroy it completely with a new identity! Save my life or lose it. The word life used in this scripture means the Spirit or eternal soul. It is more than just the here and now! Self is about the here and now! Gain the whole world and lose your soul? The word soul used here is the same Greek root word used for life! The world will never be able to save your soul. You were purchased with a price! His blood for your soul! Matthew 6:33 To seek first means in time, place and order of importance! Seek His righteousness! That means to seek His innocence and justification! Can we do the math? Then all these things will be added unto you! II Corinthians 5:15 Do you live for yourself? Live for Him! As He was raised He has promised to raise you up from the dead! Live like it! Look for Him and live for Him! Pastor Cope, Mount Vernon Baptist Church, Fairburn, Georgia.