Discipleship: A Radical Revolution from Self to Christ
February 16, 2019      |     By: Sam McVay, Jr.      |      Category: Sermons      |      Location: Wichita
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Matthew 16:24-25 (ESV)
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Luke 14:26-27, 33 (ESV)
26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

The call of Jesus to follow Jesus into glorious abundant life is a call to deny and renounce self-centered living.

This is not just a hard call for missionaries, it is a GRACE filled invitation to liberation from the chains of the Adam race.

Self-centered Living was the temptation and resultant plague that fell upon Adam and Eve in the garden.

It transitioned a species living image of God bearers into a race of dying image of self bearers.

They moved from God-centered freedom into Self-centered slaves.

Our salvation and our sanctification are centrally about the Gospel-provided Spirit-empowered revolution back to God centered freedom.

Your Father God is radically committed to this kingdom revolution fully happening in your life - Radically Committed!

The Cross of Christ is the epicenter from which this revolution takes place.

1. The Spirit Empowered Miracle of the Objective Work of the Cross.
Galatians 2:20 (ESV)
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

2. The Spirit Orchestrated Process of the Subjective Work of the Cross
Hebrews 12:5-9 (ESV)
5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.
6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?

Two fold Example in 2 Corinthians 1 that speaks of our trials being about deeper trust in God and so we can minister to others.

2 Corinthians 1:8-9 (ESV)
8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.
9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (ESV)
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.