Worth Dying For

It's Thanksgiving week and I have been thinking and thinking about a topic that would sort of set the tone for this holiday that I really do love so much. Given the name of the post, I would love to tell you that this entire post is dedicated to US and just how much Jesus thought WE were worth dying for when He willingly went to that cross. And here's the thing, we were. Clearly we were because He went through with it. He didn't change His mind last second and call down the 12 legions of angels to avenge Him like He said He could have (Matthew 26:53). No, He went of His own accord, stood accused during a bogus trial and ultimately gave up His life so that His purpose would be fulfilled. So, yes, we were worth dying for. Thank you, Jesus!!

But, that's not what this post is about at all. This one is all about HIM being worth dying for. Let me explain with a scripture:

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. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

Matthew 16:24-25

Unlike Jesus', ours isn't a physical death, although it does involve our fleshly desires and motivations. He was telling his disciples that true devotion to Him would require them to die to the tangible things that demand their attention in favor of the intangible things of heaven. He knew that they (and us) would be faced with all sorts of temptations that would lure their (and our) heart's focus away from Him. The solution? A sacrifice. Of what? Our fleshly desires, attitudes and actions. A death must occur within our souls otherwise there is no way they could withstand the allure of all that instant gratification. The immediacy of the effects of our choice sins would just be too great an offering to bear. So as you prepare to celebrate this week and give thanks surrounded by family and friends, I challenge you to dig deep and really ask yourself, "Is Jesus really worth dying for?" and then do an honest survey of the fallout.

Let's circle back and have a candid discussion about why most people won't have a great answer to that question. We’ve normalized the filthy and villainized the wholesome. Immorality seems cool while virtue is boring. Drunkenness seems funny while remaining sober is depressing. Bingeing on whatever your eyes desire seems reasonable while showing restraint is baffling. Is it any wonder why people wear themselves out attempting to make things okay that God's Word makes very clear are NOT okay? So what if he wants to identify as a woman? Who is he harming? Himself. He’s harming himself. His soul is in that dangerous place of wanting to save it's own life (refer to the verse again) instead of being in that Christ-like place of losing it's own life. Or this... So what if she wants a few glasses of wine every night as an escape from her surroundings? Who is she harming? Herself. She's harming herself. Once again, her soul remains in a self-preservation state instead of a self-sacrifice state that's required of one who truly desires to be a follower of Christ. On and on it goes with every decision we ever make, be them tiny or monumental.

We're always going to apply one of two approaches to every choice we're faced with in life. First up is the save-my-own-life strategy. This one says it's okay to do (say, buy, drink, smoke, act out, etc.) the "thing" because it feels good. Feelings are paramount here and should always be listened to as the architects of every good thing. Indulgence is key. This approach utilizes the skills of justifying "smaller, insignificant sins" while employing lots of lots of pointed fingers at others who are waaaaaay worse. Basically, this is the Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory of decision making. If you can dream it, you can have it.

Second up is the lose-my-own-life strategy. This one is decidedly less popular because it often requires an abandonment of those ever present feelings for the adoption of hard truths. Truths that make statements such as:

• "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9), or
• "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple." (Luke 14:27), or 
• "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3), or
• "We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin." (Romans 6:6), or
• "For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." (Romans 8:13), or
• "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me;" (Galatians 2:20), or
• "Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." (Galatians 5:24), or
• "...put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." (Ephesians 4:24).

And believe me, that's not all by a long shot. The lose-my-own-life strategy knows that it's human nature to feel our feelings, but our brand new spiritual nature puts them right in their proper place. Like my good friend always says, "Feelings are liars!" And, as I remind my children constantly, feelings have their place in the back of our buses, but we for sure aren't going to let those things drive.

Let's do a further compare and contrast between these approaches and dive a bit deeper.

"Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

Galatians 5:19-23

This verse is the arch-nemesis of the save-my-own-life strategy because when we are fueled by nothing more than our base emotions, the works of the flesh run rampant. And please, PLEASE, notice what it says about those who craft their lifestyle after these fleshly behaviors. Psychology Today identifies six base emotions that all humans experience. Below I've listed some potential problematic behaviors that might be associated with of few of these emotions if left unchecked.

The emotions of sadness and loneliness may lead to sexual immorality (homosexual OR heterosexual), impurity, sensuality, orgies and things like these.

The emotions of anger and disgust may lead to enmity, strife, jealousy, rivalries, dissensions, divisions or envy.

The emotions of fear and depression may lead to idolatry or drunkenness.

The emotion of happiness interestingly may also lead to any of the above outcomes as well.

While this is certainly not an exhaustive list of emotions that lead to fleshly outcomes, you get my point. Unrestrained human emotion with zero implementation of the fruits of the Spirit often leads down a path of destructive behavior.

In comparison, the lose-my-own-life strategy that does bring to bear the fruit of the Spirit before diving head first into the abyss of temporal gratification might look like this:

Sadness and loneliness can be met with self-control and the seeking out of fellow believers to spend time with.

Anger and disgust can be met with kindness, goodness and gentleness leading to the opportunity to serve someone else or to forgiveness.

Fear and depression can be met with joy and peace leading one to remember that above all else, they are a child of God.
Happiness met with any of the fruits of the Spirit will lead a heart to desire more Christ instead of more world.

Y'all, this is the part of my post where I remind you that getting it perfect every single time is completely unattainable. It's just not going to happen, even for the most seasoned Christian among us. Good grief, my husband and I recently started a new Netflix show and it took us probably 4 episodes before we finally pulled the plug. I mean, the language was horrible, but it didn't have any naked people (see above for the section on justification of the "smaller, insignificant sin"). We were totally using the save-our-own-life strategy because we wanted to watch the dang show. It was entertaining. It was fun and the action was awesome. It was also completely inappropriate for two high school ministry Life Group leaders because how in the world could we talk out of both sides of our mouths like that? How could we advise our junior and senior guys and girls to make the hard choice of self-sacrifice when it comes to the entertainment they choose to invest in while not doing the same thing ourselves? I wouldn't use language like that in my own life, so why would it be okay to purposefully fill my head with other people using it? Short answer, it wasn't. So, while we got around to the lose-my-own-life strategy, we definitely took the long way around. Ugh...

Don't let your feelings drive your bus. If you do, you are recklessly barreling toward a very dangerous, potentially God-less place. A place where, if you stay long enough, it starts to have the appearance of wholesomeness. Isn’t it funny how that phenomenon happens? At first when we're in a place that we sort of know we shouldn’t be, it kinda smells. But, stay there long enough and the nose goes blind. We go completely nose-blind to the sinful behavior that at first gave us that uneasiness and now we’re full speed ahead. Make no mistake, the devil is certainly crafty, but "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." says James 4:7. We have got to suit up for battle every.single.day. The fruits of the Spirit are at our disposal once we receive salvation through Jesus, but let us also consider this final part of the Lord's Prayer:

"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

Matthew 6:13

If this was Jesus' model of the perfect prayer, then we need to be about asking for the spiritual armor of God to resist falling into temptation DAILY! This is not a one and done type of situation here. Morning after morning we are to ask to be filled with the truth and light of Jesus in order to suit up for that day’s battle. And there will be a battle. Don’t be naive and think there won’t be because now you’re right back where you started which is in danger of your bus getting high-jacked by your darn feelings again. In contrast, when you’re fully suited up for battle (meaning you’ve actually spent time with the Lord and asked Him to give you the day’s rations in order to fight the good fight until your head hits the pillow again), you’re ready to put your feelings in their place versus them putting you in yours.

Is Jesus worth dying for? Is He worth the work that you must put in to achieve the fullness of life He promises? Or is the immediacy of the gratification just too great a reward to die to? It's time to get serious about answering this question. I thank God for my future inheritance in His kingdom and I would love to talk to you more about how you can claim yours as well.