Hello I'm not a pastor, but I'm a pastor's kid and I am involved very heavily in all aspects of my church and even a small group. My youth pastor has given me the opportunity to preach this next Wednesday at youth group. So I've prepared a sermon, and I though it would be great if I could have some people who are more experienced in the field of preaching to look over it and give suggestions and thoughts
Death to self sermon
Sermon layout,
Participation > attention-getting new life
Galatians 2:20 death to self > Christ thriving in us = us thriving
Galatians 5,6 spirit and flesh> crucifying of the flesh
How? > renewing your mind
Romans 12:1-2 renewing of the mind > how?
Actions are caused by thought
Philippians 4:8-9 what to think > what not to think
Start with group participation:
Raise your hand if you enjoy it when life is good
Raise your hand if you enjoy it when life is bad
Wow that’s kind of what I expected, I think the group consensus is that life is better when it’s good, right? But what if I told you that I know a guy that can fill you with so much Joy and love and peace and goodness that life is always better? But this comes at a very high cost but it’s every bit as worth it as it seems
(Prepare Galatians 2)
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20 NIV
Christ was crucified and gave his life for us so that He could live in us, but for Him to live in us we first need to die to ourselves so that Christ can live in us.
Okay so what does it look like for us to die to ourselves, now I’m not saying that you need to die, it’s more of a figurative death, but before we delve into death to self we need to understand what Christ living in us looks like.
Tons and tons of Christians have Christ living in them but are not experiencing the life of Christ and here’s why. For Christ to live in you he needs to have the right environment, Christ simply cannot thrive in someone if He is not living in the right environment. Okay, then how do make ourselves the proper environment for Christ, to understand that we need to look at the words of the apostle Paul in Galatians 5
“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.”
Galatians 5:16-17 NIV
The spirit which is Christ in us cannot live with the flesh, for Christ to thrive in us we must remove all desires and acts of the flesh. Death to self requires the death of the flesh. So what is the flesh and what is the spirit
“The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Galatians 5:19-21 NIV
The flesh is anything wrong that we desire to do, It’s our nature to sin controlling the desire of our hearts and minds. But if evil and sin can take captivate our hearts and minds so can goodness
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
Galatians 5:22-25 NIV
The spirit is all that is right and walking by the spirit means to live by the ways of the spirit. Walking with the spirit gives Christ the environment he needs to live and thrive in us giving us new life. If we belong to Christ and Christ lives in us then we must crucify the flesh and its passions and desires and we must live by the fruits of the spirits. If we live by the fruits of the spirit then we live in the fruits of the spirit. We will be full of love Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-control.
Now, this would be a pretty terrible sermon if I just told you what to do without actually telling you how to crucify the Flesh and live by the Spirit. SO? How does one crucify the flesh? First, you need to know what the flesh is, and we already looked into this so we know that flesh is your desire to sin. Desire means to want to do something, desire is something that starts in your mind and captivates your heart. So to crucify the flesh we must have a pure mind and a pure heart.
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Romans 12:2 NIV
This verse tells us to not conform to the pattern of this world. This is another way of telling us to not sin. But to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, but what does it look like to be renewed? Psalms 51:10 says 'Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.’ It’s about having a pure heart, your heart could be considered the core of your being. Having a pure heart means being cleansed of all sin and evil. And we do this by having a pure mind, whatever enters your mind enters your heart. So we need to control our thoughts
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”
Philippians 4:8-9 NIV
This verse tells us what to think about, but I think there’s a way to look at this more simply.
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is NOT true, whatever is NOT noble, whatever is NOT right, whatever is NOT pure, whatever is NOT lovely, whatever is NOT admirable—if anything is NOT excellent or NOT praiseworthy—DO NOT think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”
If we want to have Christ truly come into us and truly change us, then our hearts and minds need to be pure. This means we need to crucify ourselves along with the flesh, and we do this by controlling our thoughts. And we control our thoughts and keep our minds pure by removing all evil thoughts. But this isn’t something we do once, this is a lifestyle that we need to live every day. If you’ve been coming here for a while you’ve probably heard our theme verse Luke 9:23
'Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. '
Living for Christ requires that we take up our cross daily. Crucifying ourselves and the Flesh isn’t something we do once. God is calling you to experience something greater, you were made for greater things! You can experience a greater purpose and have a greater passion for the kingdom of God. Christianity is not a religion it’s a relationship, a relationship with God that created you! And when God created you he said that you are just good but that you are very good! God wants to know you and He wants you to know Him. Accepting Christ, Living for Him, and following Him has a very heavy cost but the cost of not following Christ is infinitely more costly than the cost of following Him.
So I have a question for you. What is your next step? How are you going to take what you’ve heard today and what are you going to do with it? If you’ve never accepted Christ before then your next step could be to talk to Pastor Zach or Pastor Aaron or one of the adult leaders about accepting Christ.
Or maybe it's to begin reading God’s Word every day or praying every day or maybe even joining a bible study, Present our bible study LSM MORE.
Death to self sermon
Sermon layout,
Participation > attention-getting new life
Galatians 2:20 death to self > Christ thriving in us = us thriving
Galatians 5,6 spirit and flesh> crucifying of the flesh
How? > renewing your mind
Romans 12:1-2 renewing of the mind > how?
Actions are caused by thought
Philippians 4:8-9 what to think > what not to think
Start with group participation:
Raise your hand if you enjoy it when life is good
Raise your hand if you enjoy it when life is bad
Wow that’s kind of what I expected, I think the group consensus is that life is better when it’s good, right? But what if I told you that I know a guy that can fill you with so much Joy and love and peace and goodness that life is always better? But this comes at a very high cost but it’s every bit as worth it as it seems
(Prepare Galatians 2)
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20 NIV
Christ was crucified and gave his life for us so that He could live in us, but for Him to live in us we first need to die to ourselves so that Christ can live in us.
Okay so what does it look like for us to die to ourselves, now I’m not saying that you need to die, it’s more of a figurative death, but before we delve into death to self we need to understand what Christ living in us looks like.
Tons and tons of Christians have Christ living in them but are not experiencing the life of Christ and here’s why. For Christ to live in you he needs to have the right environment, Christ simply cannot thrive in someone if He is not living in the right environment. Okay, then how do make ourselves the proper environment for Christ, to understand that we need to look at the words of the apostle Paul in Galatians 5
“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.”
Galatians 5:16-17 NIV
The spirit which is Christ in us cannot live with the flesh, for Christ to thrive in us we must remove all desires and acts of the flesh. Death to self requires the death of the flesh. So what is the flesh and what is the spirit
“The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Galatians 5:19-21 NIV
The flesh is anything wrong that we desire to do, It’s our nature to sin controlling the desire of our hearts and minds. But if evil and sin can take captivate our hearts and minds so can goodness
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
Galatians 5:22-25 NIV
The spirit is all that is right and walking by the spirit means to live by the ways of the spirit. Walking with the spirit gives Christ the environment he needs to live and thrive in us giving us new life. If we belong to Christ and Christ lives in us then we must crucify the flesh and its passions and desires and we must live by the fruits of the spirits. If we live by the fruits of the spirit then we live in the fruits of the spirit. We will be full of love Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-control.
Now, this would be a pretty terrible sermon if I just told you what to do without actually telling you how to crucify the Flesh and live by the Spirit. SO? How does one crucify the flesh? First, you need to know what the flesh is, and we already looked into this so we know that flesh is your desire to sin. Desire means to want to do something, desire is something that starts in your mind and captivates your heart. So to crucify the flesh we must have a pure mind and a pure heart.
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Romans 12:2 NIV
This verse tells us to not conform to the pattern of this world. This is another way of telling us to not sin. But to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, but what does it look like to be renewed? Psalms 51:10 says 'Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.’ It’s about having a pure heart, your heart could be considered the core of your being. Having a pure heart means being cleansed of all sin and evil. And we do this by having a pure mind, whatever enters your mind enters your heart. So we need to control our thoughts
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”
Philippians 4:8-9 NIV
This verse tells us what to think about, but I think there’s a way to look at this more simply.
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is NOT true, whatever is NOT noble, whatever is NOT right, whatever is NOT pure, whatever is NOT lovely, whatever is NOT admirable—if anything is NOT excellent or NOT praiseworthy—DO NOT think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”
If we want to have Christ truly come into us and truly change us, then our hearts and minds need to be pure. This means we need to crucify ourselves along with the flesh, and we do this by controlling our thoughts. And we control our thoughts and keep our minds pure by removing all evil thoughts. But this isn’t something we do once, this is a lifestyle that we need to live every day. If you’ve been coming here for a while you’ve probably heard our theme verse Luke 9:23
'Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. '
Living for Christ requires that we take up our cross daily. Crucifying ourselves and the Flesh isn’t something we do once. God is calling you to experience something greater, you were made for greater things! You can experience a greater purpose and have a greater passion for the kingdom of God. Christianity is not a religion it’s a relationship, a relationship with God that created you! And when God created you he said that you are just good but that you are very good! God wants to know you and He wants you to know Him. Accepting Christ, Living for Him, and following Him has a very heavy cost but the cost of not following Christ is infinitely more costly than the cost of following Him.
So I have a question for you. What is your next step? How are you going to take what you’ve heard today and what are you going to do with it? If you’ve never accepted Christ before then your next step could be to talk to Pastor Zach or Pastor Aaron or one of the adult leaders about accepting Christ.
Or maybe it's to begin reading God’s Word every day or praying every day or maybe even joining a bible study, Present our bible study LSM MORE.
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