Truth Matters

Announcer (Male): Today, on Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis.

Dr. Cheryl Davis: A lot of women make gods out of their own children. They make gods out of motherhood and think this is my only ministry.

Yes, motherhood is your ministry, but motherhood is not our only ministry. Our highest calling above being a wife and a mother is to be obedient and to be a bond servant unto Jesus Christ.

Announcer (Male): There are many ways for us to serve others in obedience to Jesus Christ, including setting aside our own interests and investing ourselves in our children. But putting on the yoke of service involves much more than this. It means daily surrendering ourselves to the will of Christ and his authority over us as God and Savior. It means following his example and sacrificially serving others.

Dr. Cheryl Davis: Day by day, decision by decision, we must continue saying no to the idea that we are Lords over our own lives.

Announcer (Male): Welcome to Truth Matters, empowering men and women in the Christian faith to teach biblical truth in the culture and the marketplace of ideas, using the Bible as a sacred trust of truth in sharing the message of Jesus. Our program host is Dr. Cheryl Davis.

Dr. Davis is a wife, mom, speaker, and Bible teacher. She is a graduate with a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. She is married to Thad Davis, Pastor of Faith Assembly in St. Paul's, North Carolina.

On today's edition of Truth Matters, Dr. Cheryl Davis shares how Jesus calls us daily to die to self, take up our cross and follow him, to honor him with our service to others. Today's message is titled, I Give Myself Away Part One.

Dr. Cheryl Davis: The Washington Post in the year 2019 asked mothers to describe motherhood in 100 words or less. The Post published their 10 favorite ones. A mother named Sharon Holbrook made the cut.

She describes motherhood like this. She is a mother. She is vulnerable. Just hurt her child and you'll see. And she is strong. Just hurt her child and you'll see. She has been elevated. She is mom. And she has been demeaned. She is just a mom.

She is full. Loving a child so completely will do that to you. And she is empty. Loving a child so completely will do that to you. Who says she can't have it all? She has everything.

I want to focus on the last part that Sharon says. She says, "She is full. Loving a child so completely will do that to you. And she is empty. Loving a child so completely will do that to you."

Motherhood is a mountaintop experience when our hearts are full. From learning to walk, to learning their ABCs, to hitting their first home run, to making good grades, to graduating from high school, college, to the birth of grandchildren.

Motherhood is the most rewarding journey through life, aside from salvation and sanctification, that there is, or I think there ever will be. It is in these mountaintop experiences that we are proud of ourselves as mothers. It is our natural tendency that when we see our children as a success, we will just pat ourselves on the back and say, "That child had a great mother."

So when our children do well, we tend to take the credit. But when our children act like heathens, as we can say in the South, we tend to blame their father. Just like motherhood has its mountaintop experiences, it has its valley experiences also.

Just like the mother Sharon Holbrook describes. She said, "She is empty. Loving a child so completely will do that to you." Mothers, we do not hesitate to love our children completely. Mothers, we empty ourselves into our children with no hesitation.

Really, it is an instinct that is innate in us from the time of birth. For example, when the child is born, we stop sleeping through the night just to make sure we will hear the child if they cry. Our entire lives are changed and centered around the care of the child.

Some of us leave our careers to stay home to raise the child. Some of us change jobs just to be able to get to daycare on time in the mornings and to get them home in the evenings. We constantly sacrifice our entire lives for theirs. We put their needs before ours constantly without any hesitation.

And I have a friend who says a number of times, "If I have a dime, my kids have a nickel." And really, this hit me the other day. I was speaking to someone in our church about their son. Their son is moving away to teach English in Spain, and she was talking about having such a short amount of time.

And it hit me as I was talking to her, we do all this work and all this investment for a very short amount of time. We will always be their mother. We will always be their mother until we pass away, but these children may only live in our house for only a short amount of time, and sometimes it's only 18 years, for some of us, it may be 23 years, but they move on and they start their own lives.

But when Jesus tells us in the book of Luke, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me," we hesitate. So I want to go over that scripture for just a moment. We find it in Luke chapter 9, verses 23 through 26.

Then he said to them all, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, and take up their cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. Whatever good is it that someone gained the whole world and yet lose their own soul? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels."

Like I said, Jesus tells us in the book of Luke, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow me." We hesitate. Yes, I said it. We hesitate. We have no problem denying ourselves when it comes to our children. We don't have to pray about committing to feeding our children, clothing our children, or spending hours on homework, sports, or playdates. I don't have to pray about driving the minivan, shuttling my kids from practice to practice, and from activity to activity.

But when it comes to being a disciple of Jesus Christ, we hesitate, we delay, we offer excuses, and quite frankly, some of us choose rebellion. We are living in an age when only a rare minority of individuals desire to spend their lives in pursuit of significance rather than success.

There are only a few, and a precious few at that, who have goals and purposes which they esteem worthy enough to willingly sacrifice themselves, to suffer, and if need be, to die for them. Most people's mindsets are so superficial that their inner preoccupation as we encounter life is, "How will this benefit me, or what can I get out of this?"

In our age, and for most people, when they die, it will be as if they never lived. What I'm talking about is significance. A person that lives a significant life here on Earth, their impact or their life will outlive them beyond the time that they live here. When it comes to our Christian life, most Christians, when thinking about the message of Jesus Christ and why they are following him, probably have thoughts more along the lines of Matthew chapter 11, verses 28 through 30.

A lot of Christians think this. "Come to me all you are who are weary and burdened, for I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

We easily identify with being weary, burdened, or heavy laden, and we yearn to find rest for our souls. This is often largely why many of us have come to Jesus by faith. We needed deliverance from our present situation. And really, you know, there's nothing wrong with that.

However the Spirit draws you, he draws you. Whatever the Lord wills in your life to open your spiritual eyes to him and your need for a Savior, it is what it is. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. But the problem develops when we continue only looking for more rest and tranquility, and fail to begin to take his yoke upon us.

I'm going to say that once more. The problem develops in our pathway of sanctification or us following Christ when we continue only looking for more rest and tranquility and we fail to begin to take his yoke upon us. I want to tell you this one important point. Resorts and spas are for rest. Discipleship is like a boot camp. It's about putting on the yoke of Jesus Christ. Discipleship is not the resort by the pool. It is a boot camp, and it's about putting on the yoke of Jesus Christ.

And I'm, well, really, I don't apologize for being so blunt, because I think we need to be blunt about this, because, you know, the Lord is really pushing me to be very practical about Christianity. We don't have time for a form and a fashion. We need to say what it is and be truthful for what it is. Discipleship is about putting on the yoke of Jesus Christ.

Jesus is telling us that he actually wants us to team up with him, side by side in accomplishing his work. He wants us to co-labor with him in serving and suffering for the advance of his kingdom in the lives of individuals. And notice I said, in the lives of individuals.

Because a lot of us are only concerned with me and who lives in our four walls. Me and my children, for example, or just me and my family. A lot of women make gods out of their own children. They make gods out of motherhood and think this is my only ministry. And I actually saw this on Facebook the other day, "Motherhood is my ministry." Someone sent that to me. "Motherhood is my ministry." Yes, motherhood is your ministry. Because it is our highest calling, above being a wife and being a mother, is to be faithful unto Jesus Christ. Okay? But motherhood is not our only ministry. It may be one of those, but it's not our only ministry.

Our highest calling above being a wife and a mother is to be obedient and to be a bond servant unto Jesus Christ. In a perfect world, you know, the entire family would put on the yoke of Jesus Christ. Like the father would have it on, the mother would have it on, the children would have it on, and you would all serve and suffer together.

But ladies, if no one else is willing to put on the yoke in your family, you got to put on the yoke of service. It's really up to you. And righteousness and generational righteousness and a generational faith can begin in your family, and it can start with you if you're willing to put on the yoke of service of Jesus Christ. And so now that you know that, you're probably asking me, "Well, how do I put on this yoke?"

Luke tells us this in our scripture. "If anyone comes after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." Luke gives us three steps. And I know in these days, we like something simple, and we want something practical, so here's your three-step fix. Okay?

First step is self-denial. Second step, taking up our cross daily. And the third step is following Jesus. All three of these steps, before we get into them, I do want to tell you that all three of these steps are about embracing a new authority for my life, Jesus Christ. It is about embracing a new authority for my life, Jesus Christ.

And here's a news flash, okay? If you are waiting on Jesus to take authority over your life, please don't hold your breath, because you know, you might just pass out and die. Jesus does not take authority in our lives. We must surrender it to him. Okay? So don't sit around and say, "Jesus, I'm waiting on you to tell me what to do. I'm waiting on you to take control."

You know, and Carrie Underwood sang this song, and I told my church about this Sunday. She sings this song about, "Jesus, take the wheel." Jesus is not going to take the wheel until you take your hands off of it and you give it to him. Okay? All three of these steps are about embracing a new authority for my life, Jesus Christ. Okay? So let's get into the three steps. And if you're writing any of this down, this is step one: self-denial.

Self-denial is the decision that from this day forward, with God's help, I am no longer going to operate on the principle of self-centeredness. I want to tell you, this is not going to be easy, because the world operates in self-centeredness. No longer will I do whatever I feel like doing, whenever I feel like doing it.

And to be honest, and I told the women of our church this, to be honest, we all were taught that that's what it means to be grown. You know, I hear my children saying all the time, "I'm so ready to get out of the house. I can do what I want to do, when I feel like doing it." But let me tell you, that is a myth. Self-centeredness will send you to hell.

In reference to doing what you want to do as opposed to what Jesus Christ wants you to do, self-centeredness will send you to hell. What do you think is the root cause of suicide? It is selfishness. People cannot see a way out, so they choose to take the easy way out. It's selfishness. We must deny ourselves.

Self-denial is the commitment to make Jesus Christ, not myself, the Lord of my life. It is the disposal of an old authority, self-interest. And I want to tell you, if the throne of our hearts or the yoke around our neck does not go unoccupied. Either it's the yoke of Jesus Christ on it, or Jesus Christ is sitting on the throne of our hearts. If he's not sitting there, then self-interest and self is sitting there, or the yoke of self-interest is sitting there, or the desires of our own heart, or our flesh is sitting on the throne of our heart.

The throne of our heart is not a vacuum. It is always occupied by either ourselves or Jesus Christ. Two words of caution, though, regarding self-denial. First, self-denial does not mean the suppression or radical altercation of your personality. Many people have taken this to the extreme, and I see this a lot, that they take the Bible out of context, and they turned it into religion to the point that you don't recognize the person anymore.

In this area, in particular, many follow the convictions of others and think holiness is an outward appearance, or holiness is a regimen, or holiness is a formula, or holiness is cookie cutter, and I can recognize it with my eyes, while the entire time on the inside they become increasingly frustrated and unhappy.

And I want to tell you about this. One of the meanest employees that we ever had wore skirts to her ankles every day. She did not wear makeup. She did not wear jewelry. She was as plain Jane poster child as they come. She was smart, and she did her job well, but no one wanted to be around her because she was so angry on the inside. But yet, she said she wanted to make it to heaven.

What I discerned from her is that her righteousness was an outward garment. It was not an inward covering. It was not an inward peace. It was not an inward garment of righteousness from the Holy Spirit. But what I want to tell you is that, really, the Lord created you uniquely. The Lord did not save you to be like so-and-so down the street. Really, the Lord saved you to be like him. The Holy Spirit will make you into a more Jesus-like version of yourself. Saved people can still have a personality and a sense of humor.

Second, self-denial does not mean that every idea that I want to pursue is automatically wrong, or that the will of God is everything that I don't want to do. And that's what I find with my children a lot. Everything I want them to do, they don't want to do it, so they just constantly complain. It's not like that with the Holy Spirit, okay? As our minds are enlightened by the Holy Spirit through our interaction with God and his word, our desires should begin to reflect those of God.

Some of what we want to do may be of God, and some of it may still originate from our old self. Self-denial is the commitment to make Jesus Christ, not myself, the Lord of my life. It is the disposal of an old authority, self-interest. So, let's move on to step two, taking up our cross daily. And please not forget that word daily.

There's a lot of disagreement about what is our cross. But in Jesus's day, I think we should look in context. In Jesus's day, the cross was a cruel instrument used for carrying out capital punishment. It was a sign of great suffering. With this concept in the background, Jesus says that we are able, and that we should, take up our cross daily. So, the initial decision to deny myself must be lived out on a day-to-day basis.

It is not enough to have made a Lordship decision three years ago or even last night. Day by day, decision by decision, we must continue saying no to the idea that we are Lords over our own lives. And I want to tell you this. The world says you are Lord over your own life. Our flesh wakes up every morning sounding just like the Cookie Monster off Sesame Street, "Feed me more, feed me more." Every day your flesh says, "Feed me more." Every day you have to make a decision to keep the lid on the cookie jar.

Every day you must wake up and renew your commitment daily to crucify your flesh and take up your cross. Jesus chose to pour out his own life as a drink offering voluntarily on the cross for our redemption. If he can do that, look all that we received from that: freedom, eternal life, victory over sin. Isn't it the least that we can do? We can take our small will and this whole planet of Earth and submit it to the Lord Jesus?

So, in thinking that way, I want to ask you this very profound question, and I, you know, I ask myself this a number of times and I continue to ask myself this. Is Jesus getting what he died for from you on a daily basis? If he put himself on the cross so that we could have freedom, freedom from a life of sin and eternal life and we got victory over death, is he getting what he died for from us on a daily basis?

And quite honestly, I want to tell you that there are some days my answer to that is no. I'm just going to be quite frank with you. But I think we still have to continue to pursue righteousness and make the decision that I'm going to crucify my flesh daily. I'm going to take up my cross daily. And it does come with a cost. Please don't think it's going to be free. It's going to come with a cost. It's going to come with some loss as well, because not everyone wants to take up their cross. Not everyone wants to seek the Lord and his righteousness.

All right, and last step is step three, following Christ. So, steps one and two are the removal of the old authority. And remember that old authority was self-interest. Step three is about putting myself under the new one, Jesus Christ. I got to remove the old one. Then I got to put myself under the new one.

The Word and the Spirit of God revealed to us what is involved in following Jesus. Some things are clearly spelled out. Others, it will require the use of biblical principles and discernment along with growing maturity. So, we don't understand it all on day one. You know, whenever you're saved, you just, you know, you don't get this instant download of everything. All right? Sanctification is a process. It is a continual pass through the process as well. So you won't understand this all on day one, but as you grow and mature, as you read the Bible, as you spend time with the Lord, as you get to know him personally, he will reveal what his will is for you. He will reveal what his word means for you.

But I do want to say that the Bible does make some things clear. And when the Bible makes it clear, I think we need to clearly understand it. The Bible clearly proves that following Jesus looks like a commitment to the church. I'm going to say that one more time. The Bible clearly proves that following Jesus looks like a commitment to the church. Jesus said, "Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

And I want to tell you this, I'm going to just step aside and say, the average Christian in a lot of churches believes, or even outside of the church, believes that their relationship with Jesus Christ and their commitment to Jesus Christ is mono e mono, one-on-one. That I can have a fervent relationship with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit aside from the church. I don't need the church. The church doesn't need me. All I need is Jesus, and that's enough.

But the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is coming after his bride. He is married to the church. So why are we going to take Jesus and not take his bride? In fact, I want to go so far as to say this. And I read this from Chuck Colson. I wish I could take credit for it, but I can't. I have to give Chuck Colson the credit. He said, "Our commitment to Christ should be indistinguishable from our commitment to the church."

Our commitment to Christ should be indistinguishable from our commitment to the church. The church is the bride of Christ. He's coming back for the church. If you believe you can be a disciple of Jesus Christ without a commitment to his church, you are sadly mistaken.

It is important to realize that 90% of our difficulties in taking up the yoke and service unto Christ are related to acts of the will. 90% of doing what I'm asking you to do is related to the acts of the will, self-denial and cross bearing. If you can get the two steps right, if you're truly willing to do his will, and you can get the first two steps right, knowing what he wants us to do is the easiest part.

And the Word tells us this. Let me tell you where it says this in the Word. "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 13. We also find more about this in Psalm chapter 84, verse 11. "For the Lord God is a sun and a shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly." If we walk uprightly and put on his yoke, and we're obedient unto him, there is no good thing that he will withhold from us. And that's a guarantee.

Okay? That's a guarantee, and I think we can bank on that. There are many things that we're looking for in the Bible, but this is one thing that if we walk uprightly, the Word says, that he will withhold no good thing from us. I have said all these things to say this. You know, I've talked a lot about the three-step process. I've talked a lot about getting rid of self and putting God on the throne of our hearts. But really, I said all that to say this.

Many of us are expending so much energy in our lives chasing success rather than living a life of significance. Some of us are trying to do what we think is right in our own eyes, or we are imitating what others are doing in their lives that seem to make them happy. Remember, if you want to be empowered by the Holy Spirit, if you want to see the great works of the Bible, if you want to see his word manifest in the land of the living, all you need to do is give yourself away.

Surrender yourself unto him today, and he will do exceedingly, abundantly, above all you can ever ask or think. And then some.

Announcer (Male): You've been listening to Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis, and today's message titled, I Give Myself Away Part One. In these changing times, there has been one thing that has never changed, the message in the Bible. The truth in God's word stands stronger than ever. Read it for yourself so that you may know and discern what is true, holy and acceptable in the eyes of God.

Friend, if you're searching or confused in what to believe in this ever-changing modern culture, Dr. Davis would like to help you discover and understand what is true and genuine. You can reach her by email at cheryldavis@projecttruthmatters.com. Cheryl is spelled C-H-E-R-Y-L, Davis at projecttruthmatters.com. You can also write to her at PO Box 159, St. Paul's, North Carolina 28384. Or you can connect on Facebook at Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis.

And lastly, if you'd like to hear more of Dr. Davis's messages, the Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis podcast is available on Spotify, Apple, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Google Podcast, Pandora and Castbox. Our website is projecttruthmatters.com. Truth Matters is made possible thanks to the prayers and financial contributions of friends like you, and is a production of The Truth Project.