Truth Matters

Dr. Cheryl Davis: When we don't achieve what we think is success, we are empty. But even when we do achieve what we think is success, we are still empty. we are empty either way. If we are outside of the will of God for our lives, we are not going to be fulfilled no matter what we do.

Guest (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 Lord and Savior. It means following his example and sacrificially serving others.

Dr. Cheryl Davis: Just because you are a Christian does not mean that you are a disciple. The only way to become a disciple is to live a life of significance. The only way to live a life of significance is to give yourself away.

Guest (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 Saint Pauls, 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 2."

Guest (Male): 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 gain 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."

Dr. Cheryl Davis: 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. 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. 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.

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?" 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. "Come to me, all you 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. There is 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.

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 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. You're probably asking me, "How do I put on this yoke?"

Luke tells us this in our scripture. Luke gives us three steps. First step is self-denial. Second step, taking up our cross daily. And the third step is following Jesus. Step one, self-denial. 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, 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.

Let's move on to step two: taking up our cross daily. Please do 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. 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.

So steps one and two are the removal of the old authority. Remember that old authority was self-interest. Step three is about putting myself under the new one: Jesus Christ. I've got to remove the old one, then I've got to put myself under the new one. The Word and the Spirit of God reveal 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. 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.

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.

I have said all these things 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. It's easy to look at Facebook and say, "If I just go on a vacation, I'm going to be happy. If my kid gets the superintendent award, I'm going to be happy. If I can get busy in sports and they hit a home run, that's going to solve my problems." No.

And some of us, really, we are getting what we want. Our children are succeeding, we're doing great in our jobs, we are achieving the goals that we set for us. But some of us are not getting what we want. Some of us are failing miserably, we are unhappy, we're not achieving our goals. It feels like when we take two steps forward, we take three steps back. I hear some women say this a lot: "My prayers are not being answered. I feel like I'm praying, but I feel like they're hitting the ceiling and they're not going beyond, they're not reaching heaven." Or, "I take two steps forward and I'm knocked back constantly. I cannot get ahead."

But the truth lies here: when we don't achieve what we think is success, we are empty. But even when we do achieve what we think is success, we are still empty. We are empty either way. We are all born with a God-shaped hole inside of us that only a relationship with the Lord is going to fulfill. I want to tell you this: people are like icebergs. Everything you see on Facebook or in public is what is above the waterline of the iceberg. There is a whole lot more below the waterline of the iceberg that you cannot see. If we are outside of the will of God for our lives, we are not going to be fulfilled no matter what we do.

Some people can play the part really well, and that's what you're seeing. You're seeing actors and actresses walk through society and even in the church playing a part really well, but beneath the waterline, there's a lot going on. We are all born to live a life of significance rather than success. Like I said, we're all born with a God-shaped hole. If you have not taken on the yoke of Jesus Christ and he is not the resident authority of your life, then that is why you're so empty. That is why you say in your mind, "I know that I'm saved," but in your heart, you feel backslidden.

Because the reason that you tell your mind you're saved and in your heart you feel backslidden is because the Bible says you cannot serve two masters. In your mind, you're saying, "I'm taking on the yoke of Christ," but in your heart, you still have self on the throne of your heart. The Bible says you cannot serve two masters. You will either love the one and hate the other. If you have not taken on the yoke of Jesus Christ, then you are wearing your own yoke of self-interest and you have made self the Lord of your life. By making self the Lord of your life, you believe the great lie. This is what the great lie is: that man can improve himself with his own efforts and that he does not need God. And that is the great lie that Satan used to convince Adam and Eve in the garden. That is what led to the fall in the garden.

As I was preparing this and praying, I heard the Lord say, "This is exactly the time that the prophet Haggai lived in." Haggai chapter 1 tells about how the people said at the time that the time really has not come for the Lord's house to be built. But the word of God came to the prophet Haggai and the prophet says, "Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses and my temple to lie in ruin?" So the Lord is telling the people as they've come back out of Babylonian captivity, "It's time to rebuild the temple. It's time to put your identity in the center of the city. It's time to rebuild the fabric of the nation of the Israelites." But the people in their hearts said no, it's not the time.

So who are they following? Themselves. They were not really ready to build the temple. But then Haggai says the word of the Lord came. That's what the Bible says, the word of the Lord came. So we knew that this was the prophet speaking, but the Lord speaking through the prophet Haggai. "Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses and my temple to lie in ruin?" The difference in our time is that we are not building a temple for the Lord to dwell in. After the veil was rent when Jesus was crucified, the Holy Spirit dwells within us. We are called to spread the gospel to individuals to bring the kingdom of God into the hearts of man.

So that is our role. That is our purpose in life. That is the will of God for our lives is to spread the gospel to individuals to bring the kingdom of God into the hearts of man. But because we are not willing to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily in order to become disciples of Jesus Christ, this is what the Lord has to say to us: "Consider your ways. You have sown much and you bring in little. You eat but you do not have enough. You drink but you are still thirsty. You clothe yourselves but not one is warm. And he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes."

Just because you are a Christian does not mean that you are a disciple. The only way to become a disciple is to live a life of significance. The only way to live a life of significance is to give yourself away. Success operates in human effort. Significance operates in the divine power of the Holy Spirit through and by our surrender. The Holy Spirit will empower you to do these three things: self-denial, take up your cross daily, follow Jesus. Just because you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit does not mean that you are empowered by the Holy Spirit.

In many years ago, I went down this pathway myself and I think that's what makes this so personal. That's why I'm so passionate about giving yourself away. I stood in my church about three years ago singing the song, "I Give Myself Away." The Holy Spirit spoke to me and convicted me to the point of tears. I stopped singing and my husband was looking at me from the audience like, "What's your problem? What's going on?" The Holy Spirit said to me, "You need to stop lying. For two years I have asked you to leave your job and you compromised and you are still there."

So we can be doing the work of God and lose God in the process. If you remember in the Bible when Mary and Joseph was at the temple with Jesus and then they go home, and when they get home they realize Jesus is not with them and they have to backtrack and go back to the temple and they find him teaching with the scribes in the temple, but they lost Jesus. We can lose Jesus in the process. I mean at this point, I was teaching Sunday school, I was singing in my praise team and still speaking from time to time and podcasting, and I was out of the will of God.

You see, the will of God had changed for my life two years earlier and I knew the time, I knew when it happened. We all know the voice of God. The Word says, "And my sheep will know my voice and another voice they will not listen." I knew the voice of God and I knew that the purpose and my place in life had changed for me, but I still had not heeded the voice of God. And I justified staying because of the needs of others. I put the needs of others and the needs of a healthcare system in a very traumatic time above the desires of the Lord for my life.

So after that Sunday service, I went straight home and emailed my boss and said, "I need to leave completely." Because I had told him I needed to reduce time and I had done that. I was down to one day a week, but I had not given myself wholly to Jesus Christ. Wholly means w-h-o-l-l-y, wholly. I had only given myself partially over to the call of Jesus Christ and what he told me is that partial obedience is still disobedience. And to be honest, this was the hardest decision I had ever made. And since then, I still make that decision over and over again each day.

There's a lot of people that come up to me from my past or just people that I know and they say, "Don't you miss it? Don't you miss this? Don't you miss that? How's it going?" And every time they ask me, it's almost like a temptation. The enemy whispers in my mind, "You can always go back." So even every time they ask me that, I have to reconvince myself and recommit myself to the will of God. Some days are easy and some days not so much. Remember I said ninety percent of our struggle will be in the will part. Ninety percent of our struggle is on us. If we can do the will part, it's easy. Jesus will reveal himself to what he wants us to do, the Word will, the Holy Spirit will.

You see, because why it was so difficult is that my job meant a whole lot more to me than just a paycheck. I won't get into all that, but there were things that I had been asking the Lord for that I thought success was going to get me. I had good intentions. I wanted to take the success and put it in the kingdom, but you got to know that it's either the Lord's way or the highway and I could not get to the same endpoint on the road that I was on. I thought the end justified the means. No. The end does not justify the means. It's the process that justifies the means.

So I thought that what I was doing was right and I was going to take this success and then lay it at the feet of God and say, "Here." But I was sadly mistaken. You see, I discounted the verse in Matthew chapter 6, verse 33: "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you." You see, only when I surrendered my own self-will and self-interest and put on the yoke of Christ for his kingdom did I begin to possess the life of significance that is exceedingly abundantly above all I could ever ask or think.

Whatever future the Lord had for me, he said was mine two years prior. And honestly, he did not say what it was, but I knew that it was better because the Bible says his ways are better than ours, his thoughts are higher than ours. So I knew it was better because I knew that my righteousness was like filthy rags and I knew that my thoughts were not his, that his thoughts were higher than mine. I knew that what he had for me was better and that it was going to be mine two years prior. Therefore I owned it because he spoke it into my life, but I did not possess it because of disobedience.

There are things that we own in this walk with God, there are things that we own by abiding in the vine, but we don't possess them because we're disobedient. Obedience is the key to the kingdom. And if that's some of the best advice I can give you, it's about surrender and it's about obedience. Obedience is the key to the kingdom. And I'm telling you that there is no respect of persons in the kingdom of God. The only thing that separates us is our choices. If you will only deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow him, he will do exceedingly abundantly above all you can ever ask or think. So what I want to ask you is: will you give yourself away?

There is greater out there for you if you will just surrender. There is peace, there is victory, there are generational curses over your children that will be broken, there is healing, there is financial freedom, there is love. There is a spouse for you that are waiting for a spouse, there is a spouse that God can send. There is an answer to your deepest longings waiting out there for you and it is in a relationship with Jesus Christ. Will you give yourself away? And I'm not saying it's going to be easy because remember I said ninety percent of doing this is in the will part. Ninety percent is what you have to do.

Now will the Holy Spirit empower you to do this? Absolutely. But remember I said, not everyone is empowered by the Holy Spirit. If you're saved, you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but not everyone is empowered by the Holy Spirit, not everyone is controlled by the Holy Spirit. And remember I said, the Lord will not take control of your life. You have to surrender it to him. So remember, ninety percent of this lies within you. Are you willing to give yourself away? You may be asking, "Cheryl, was it worth it for you whenever you gave yourself away three years ago or two years ago? Was it worth it?"

I can tell you without telling you all the details, it really empowered me and put me on a different pathway in service for Jesus Christ. What I did not know is that the Lord had a church for my husband and myself and I wanted to do these things, podcast and do ministry, but the Lord wanted us to do ministry in the church as well. So my podcast ministry was very small. It was on two radio stations and did not have much of a reach. But after surrendering, only three months later, my radio ministry changed for the better. Its reach expanded.

A year later, my husband was asked to be the pastor of our church after our pastor passed away and we've seen the Lord be faithful beyond what we could ever ask or think. I've seen a church who suffered tremendously from grief because our pastor was there fifty-two years and he was more than a pastor for them, he was their father, their grandfather, their best friend. And I've seen what seemed to be wilting on a vine to start budding again and to bring new life. And we are in the spring at Faith Assembly of God in Saint Pauls, North Carolina.

And I can attest that through our faithfulness in the winter season and allowing the Lord to prune us back, we are coming back stronger than we have ever been before. And I can attest to his faithfulness, I can attest to his love and where his Word says that he will hide us in the cleft of the rock and he will shelter us in his wings. Yes, he will do that. And I've seen him take grief away, I've seen him take hopelessness away, and I've seen him take bitterness away and replace it with love in our church and replace it in love for the members and each other.

And I've seen him give us a much brighter outlook than I ever thought we would have, really, in going through what we've gone through in the last three years. I've seen the Lord be faithful and that verse that says, "And I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." I thought the hounds of hell were coming after us after our pastor passed away, but the Lord always has a ram in the thicket. And he had a ram in the thicket in our family and he has worked the works of him because all of us, our entire church, has dedicated ourself and surrendered ourselves unto the will of God and we've seen him manifest himself in ways that we never imagined.

So 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 work 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. It's really good that God is a God of excess. He gives you more than enough because our minds are so small that we think if we get from him just this small amount, we'll be good.

But no, he desires to bless us abundantly. He desires to give us peace. He desires to give us prosperity. He desires to heal us. He desires to bring the balm of Gilead and heal our souls if we will only surrender unto him. I want to ask you this question: will you give yourself away?

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis and today's message titled, "I Give Myself Away Part 2." 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@projecttruthmatters.com. You can also write to her at PO Box 159, Saint Pauls, 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.