Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men. This is the assignment. Rather than thinking all about yourself and nurturing yourself and all this self-self-self, the Lord says deny yourself. It's not about focusing on yourself. It's actually, if you try to gain this life you're going to lose it. If you lose your life for my sake, you're going to gain it. Oh, how important this is.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador and the true source of abundant life.

Guest (Female): Sometimes following God means walking into something you know will be difficult, just as the apostle Paul was warned what suffering awaited him in Jerusalem. Yet Paul didn't change course or compromise but was determined to serve the Lord no matter the cost. Drawing from today's word, Pastor Brett Meador illustrates a heart that is completely surrendered to the Lord.

Brett Meador: The story in front of us in the study of Acts happens with Paul the apostle as he's in Caesarea. Now he's back in the land of Israel from his third missionary journey. We begin in Acts 21, verse 10. It says, "And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judea a certain prophet named Agabus. And when he was come unto us, he took Paul's girdle and bound his own hands and feet, and said, 'Thus saith the Holy Ghost: So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.'"

And when we heard these things, both we and they of that place besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, "What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? For I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, "The will of the Lord be done."

Strange little story. They're just all hanging out, Christians who love Paul. Agabus comes and gives a word of prophecy, and he grabs Paul's—well, the King James says girdle. In your newer translations, it's very accurate, belt is the idea. So Agabus comes in with his hands tied and his feet tied and he says, "The one who owns this belt is going to be tied up when he goes to Jerusalem just like this."

And the people start weeping. "Oh, Paul, don't go to Jerusalem, man. We love you. We don't want you getting tied up and bound up." And Paul said, "Why are you breaking my heart here, you guys? I'm going to go to Jerusalem. And I don't care if they bind me up. I'm ready to die if need be." Paul is not worried about his life. He's willing to die. He's ready to die. "I don't count my life dear to myself," he says in the King James.

Here he's basically saying, "I don't care if I die. I'm willing to die." And he even says, "I want to do that because I want to finish my course with joy." He wasn't afraid of death. Why? Because Paul had such an understanding of life after death and what that actually means. And that's why he says to these people in Caesarea, "Oh, why do you break my heart, you guys? Stop crying. I'm not only willing to be tied up, I'm willing to lay down my life for the cause of Christ."

It begs the question, and I would ask you to consider this personally. What would happen if somebody held a gun to your head and said, "Are you a Christian? If you're a Christian and you say yes, I will pull the trigger." That actually happened to a girl. Remember Cassie Bernall? That poor girl in high school in the Columbine shooting? Remember that years ago? They held the gun up to her and said, "Do you believe in Christ?" And they said, "If you say yes, I'm going to pull the trigger." And she said, "I believe that Jesus is my savior." And they killed her there. There's a modern-day Christian martyr of the faith.

You'll never really know how you would do until you face certain death. There is, however, a litmus test for us. I think there's a little test to say how would you do, because the Bible actually gives us a bunch of things that we are to die to spiritually. And maybe instead of holding the gun to your head saying what would I do, what if today we said, "What does the Bible ask of us as Christians?" We're called to lay down our lives in a different way, and maybe that'll be an indicator of how you'd be willing to do if your life was on the line.

And we start with the story here because Paul in Acts 21 is saying, "I'm willing to die. I'm willing to lay down my life. I don't count my life dear to myself." But what are the things that we are called to lay down? Well, most of us aren't being called to lay down our lives because we're Christians, but the Bible does ask. Let me give you four that might be helpful for us to take a little bit of a test.

Number one: Are you willing to die to sin? As it turns out, the Bible tells us that you and I are to reckon our old sinful self as dead. And that's a behavioral thing. It's something you and I are asked of by God. Romans chapter 6 is where I'd like you to turn in your Bible. And he's going to make an interesting point about dying to sin. Check it out. Romans chapter 6, verse 1. He says, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?"

Paul's saying we shouldn't be saying we're saved by grace so let's just keep sinning. We as Christians should be dead to sin. He's going to argue that there's this part of you that you need to reckon as dead. He calls it your old man. Before you were a Christian, you had this old sin nature, and it wants to whisper in your ear to do these bad things and sin against God. "Should we continue in sin and let grace abound? God forbid," he says.

And then he explains further in verse 3, "Know ye not that so many of us were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Paul's saying, "Don't you guys understand? Baptism is a picture of dying and being put in the ground. That's what baptism's a picture of. And then even as Christ rose from the grave, we too come out of the tomb of death and we are made alive, resurrected, and baptism is a type of that."

In fact, read on. Verse 6 it says, "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin." Now, one thing that Paul would later talk about is this kind of interesting similarity in Romans 12:1. He says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."

And one pastor said it this way: the only problem with a living sacrifice is it tends to squirm off the altar. That's the problem. We're trying to reckon our old sin nature dead, but that old sin nature is still alive and kicking in some ways. But we're to acknowledge it as dead and in faith say, "The Lord has—I've been crucified with Christ, buried my old sin nature. I want to be a new creation in Christ." So you're reckoning the old sin nature dead, hopefully not squirming off the altar as it turns out.

There's another one that the Bible talks about dying—not just dying to sin, reckoning the old man dead, but also dying to self. Number two on our list. Are you willing to die to yourself? Because the Bible, in fact, Jesus, talks about that topic more than most other topics. It's amazing how the world and even Christian books are written about loving yourself. How many times does Jesus say love yourself? Zip. The Bible does not teach love yourself.

Although there's all kinds of psychology and Christian books that talk about how you first before you can love other people, you have to love yourself. That's total hogwash because the Bible says totally the opposite thing. In fact, the scripture I put on this one is Matthew 16. Would you turn over to Matthew 16, verse 24? These are red letters, these are the words of Christ, and it's not just here, it's all throughout the Bible. This idea of what Jesus is going to say about dying or denying one's self.

He says in Matthew 16, verse 24, "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, 'If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his works.'"

Here Jesus says, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself." This is what it means really to die to yourself. The world says pamper yourself. Treat yourself. You deserve a break today. Build your self-esteem. Look out for number one. You can't help others before you help yourself. These are worldly concepts, but the Bible says no. Jesus says no, you're to die to yourself, sacrificially die. Not looking out for yourself.

See, this is an interesting thing because this is an answer to so many problems. People that try to gain this life and really spend a lot of time doing that, are they the happy ones in the world? It's so obvious. We see celebrities and the more successful they are, the more miserable they seem. Like all the most successful people, you look at their lives and are they really happy? You say, "Well, Brett, they're filthy rich." Yeah, but just look at their faces. They're not happy people.

Athletes that have made the top tier of athleticism, but that's not going to make you happy. Oh, success, multi-billionaires. Are they happier? Or do you see people that are in poverty? Some of the people that are middle-class to lower-class and poverty, some of those people seem happier than the wealthiest of people. What's going on there? I think what Jesus was teaching is very clear. The more you try to gain this life, it's actually going to slip through your fingers. But the more you lay down your life and don't worry about yourself and focus on the things of others, the Lord says that's where it's going to lead to the good life, the happy life.

People don't understand what this means. It works for everything. What about marriage? Marriage is something that's really funny because there's millions of books that have been written on how to have a happy marriage and 12 steps to better marriage and all this stuff. The Bible's very simple on this. You know, the Bible, which is where we have invention of marriage, the Bible tells us how to be married. And it's not a 12-step program; it's actually a one-step program. You have to look pretty hard in the Bible to find counsel on marriage, but most of it's in Ephesians chapter 5.

And what does it say? One-step marriage: Jesus. How does it go? It has to do with this old denying of yourself, laying down your life. You show me a husband and wife that puts the other person ahead of themselves, I'll show you a happy marriage. See, because the Bible actually wants the man—I'm sorry to say this, brothers—the man's supposed to lead the way on this one. Lead the way? "Yes, I like that, Brett." What are we supposed to lead in? Dying to yourself.

That's what the husband is called to do. Don't believe me? Ephesians 5:25 says, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it." How did Jesus give himself for the church? He died on the cross. That's how he gave. He literally laid down—literally laid down his life for his bride, the church. And here's the Lord saying in his word, "Husbands, love your wives like that, where you're willing to lay down."

"Well, Brett, I would jump in front of a train and save my wife from certain death." I think any guy with a pulse probably would do that, hopefully. But the dying-to-yourself thing, how you doing with that? Are you willing to give the remote control to your wife? That's the true test. Deny yourself. You show me a husband and a wife who love each other in that kind of sacrificial love. Guys, giving up your selfish desires, the things you think you believe and know, ending stupid arguments. Oh, how many marriages have dumb arguments?

Isn't it shocking how dumb arguments can be within marriage? "I think it's faster if you go on Martinez." "No, I think it's faster over on Avery." "No, you're wrong about that. It's faster than—" and pretty soon we're realizing the whole way we're talking about which way is faster, my way's faster than your way. We were arguing about something that didn't matter. See, this is where, husband, you can win the battle if you die first. Die! Whoever dies first wins. I'm telling you.

Meanwhile, the Bible's as clear as a bell. Marriage counseling 101: Jesus. How did Jesus love his bride? Well, he loved us unconditionally and sacrificially, dying on the cross for the sins of the whole world. That's where this scripture, "He gave himself." That's a good test. Not only are you willing to die if somebody were to challenge you for your faith, but are you willing to lay down your life and deny yourself? This is what Jesus did. Jesus did this so demonstrably. Like we have the perfect example.

If anybody wanted to argue with Jesus, you'd be wrong. Did they try to argue with Jesus? Boy, you better believe it. But when it came down to it, when he was willing to lay down his life, how much time did Jesus spend defending himself against Pontius Pilate? He opened not his mouth, fulfilling the prophet Isaiah who said like a sheep led to the slaughter, Jesus the Messiah would actually go not defending himself. If anybody had a right to defend himself, it was Jesus then. But he gave himself for the church.

Philippians chapter 2 articulates it beautifully. Paul says to the Philippian church, "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves." Do you understand how that's so contrary to what the world taught you? Psychology and education system, the pipe-puffing cardigan sweater professor saying, "We need to learn to build our self-esteem. And you need time for self-care."

Self-care is a funny one because I've studied psychology, I've talked about these things. And by the way, I think there is a good version of self-care. But there's also a really bad version. And some of psychology will argue self-care, thinking about yourself, nurture yourself first. You need to build your self-esteem. No. The Bible says learn to esteem others better than you. The Bible does talk about how you're to be introspective and search your heart and see what's wrong, fixing yourself in the sinful ways.

Jesus talked about this when he said, "Some of you are worried about the speck that's in somebody else's eye when you've got a beam in your own eye. You need to get the beam out of your own eye first." That's self-care right there. That's biblical self-care. Yes, there's a time and a place to say, "I need to fix some stuff in my life and have the right thinking." That's self-care biblically. But when it comes down to it, self-care if it's thinking about yourself, loving yourself, that's just so contrary to the Bible.

Bible says, "Let each esteem other better than himself." It says, "Look not every man on his own things, but every man on also on the things of others." And then verse 5, "Let this mind or attitude be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. But what did he do? He made himself of no reputation." Boy, there's an assignment for you. This is how you know you're denying yourself. You're not worried about what people think about you. You're not freaking out about how many clicks you get on your next Instagram entry. You're not worried about your reputation socially.

Jesus not only did he not worry about it, he purposefully positioned himself to be of no reputation. That's what this is saying. But made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. What kind of attitude are we supposed to have? What kind of mind? Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men.

This is the assignment. Rather than thinking all about yourself and nurturing yourself and all this self-self-self, the Lord says lay down, deny yourself. If you try to gain this life you're going to lose it. If you lose your life for my sake, you're going to gain it. Oh, how important this is. So, Brett, I'm a psychology major and there's people that are depressed. There's real people that have real problems. I would agree with you.

And the Bible gives you the remedy, and it's not to go focus on yourself. The Bible gives us the opposite remedy and so sad. If psychology was so dialed in and if we figured it all out, wouldn't we have less depression today than we did before? Wouldn't we have less anxiety? But the curve is exponential. We have more depression, more anxiety, more suicide than ever. I'm just suggesting maybe we don't know what we're talking about. Maybe the answer's to go back 2,000 years to what God actually says about this.

It's not about fixing and focusing on yourself. It's actually about not esteeming yourself, not loving yourself. But, Brett, there's people that really hate themselves. Nope, Bible says that's not true. Well, I think it's true. Well, you're not arguing with me, just to be clear, you're arguing with God. Ephesians 5:29: "For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth it and cherisheth it." All the ladies like, "Brett said no man ever hated his own flesh. That's true, Amen," the ladies say.

Well, problem. The word man there is the word *oudeis*, which means person. Nobody has ever yet hated his or her own flesh. Well, Brett, I know someone who hated themselves so much they committed suicide. I understand why you think that way, but according to the Bible, even to get to a point where you're suicidal, you're thinking so much about what you should do to yourself. You're thinking, "I need to take myself out of everybody else's problem." Whatever logic or rationale a person goes through, or even insanity sad to say that gets to a point of suicide, it's really technically one of the more self-centered acts a person can ever do. It hurts everyone around them.

And people are trying to make their own problems go away, and suicide's never the answer. Can I just say if you ever get to that point of despair, rather than focusing on yourself, the Bible says this: it's actually about others. Instead of focusing on yourself, think on the things of others. Think about what you're doing and how you're hurting others. And look for ways to build up and encourage others. And in so doing, the Bible says as you not losing your life like killing yourself, but losing your life thinking about yourself and focusing on yourself, but instead saying, "I'm going to take my life as loser and bad as it might be, but I'm going to focus on the things of others." Now you're starting to do something that's going to help.

Because as soon as you take the focus off yourself and you think on the things of others, now you're doing something that's powerful and effective and even biblical. The most miserable people you'll see are focused, even obsessed, about themselves. The people that are most joyful are those that are thinking on the things of others and have learned to deny themselves. You know, when Jesus was asked that most powerful question, what is the greatest commandment, Jesus answered in Matthew 22, verses 36 through 40. "Master, which is the great commandment of the law?" And Jesus said unto them, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment." That's the big one.

But verse 39: "And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." This is something we forget to talk about this. We always say you got to love God and love people, and that's true. But Jesus threw something in there that's kind of a little bit of a like, "Ouch." He says love your neighbor as you love yourself. It's like Jesus is presupposing y'all love yourselves, which is true. No man ever hated his own self. It's like when you hit your thumb with a hammer. And what do you do? Do you just say, "Oh, whatever, forget about my thumb, I didn't need that anyway"? Or do you nourish it and cherish it? "Ow!" and you bring it into yourself and you—"Oh, my poor thumb, ow!" This is the nature of human pain. We pull ourselves inward and we nourish and cherish, and that's just presupposed. That's the way humanity works. So when Jesus says, "Here's the big deal: love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself." The idea is you got to kind of say instead of loving yourself, you love your neighbor.