Dying To Live | Ps Joshua Long

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome to the Newman church podcast. Wherever you are in the world, we are so glad that you've joined us. Our prayer is that this message will reveal more of who our heavenly Father is as we grow deeper in intimacy with Jesus. Enjoy the message. [00:00:14] Speaker B: The greek word Martus, which you would have heard this last week, which means one who testifies to the truth even at the cost of their life. The apostles embodied this. I'm just going to kind of give you a quick rundown of how the apostles died in the Bible. According to eyewitness and theologians and things of that sort, Peter was crucified upside down because he did not feel that he was worthy to be crucified at the same way of Jesus. Andrew was crucified on an x shaped cross in Greece. James, the son of Zebedee, was beheaded in Jerusalem. John was exiled to the island of Patmos. Philip was crucified. Also. Bartholomew was flayed alive with a whip. Thomas was run through with a spear. Matthew was killed by the sword. James, the son of Alpheus, was crucified. Thaddeus was killed by arrows. Simon the zealot was crucified. Matthias, the one who replaced Judas, was stoned and beheaded. You can even add Stephen, who was stoned. Now, you would say, why would you bring up all of these ways of death and how they died? The key to it is that when they left the upper room in acts two, there was a mindset shift that no longer was I am living for myself, but I am living for Christ, and I am willing to die to myself so that you can live in a better way. The thing that I also love is that when Stephen is being killed, he said, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing now. The Bible doesn't recall Stephen being at the cross at the crucifixion of Jesus. But somehow Stephen spoke the same words from the same heart that Christ spoke, which is, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing. But in the death of Christ, it opened up the door for us to have life eternal in the life that Stephen lived, which was the example of Christ even in what we read. It shows us that when we are persecuted, when we are talked about, when we are judged, when we're mistreated, we don't come back with a self inflation of I'm going to stand my ground and do this because I am, I am. I am. But we say, Father, let me die to myself because what I want to do is lay hands on them. And I'm not talking about for prayer. But how is it that you want me to respond to this person that's an example of dying to live? Because how you respond in moments like that, trust me, people are watching and people are listening, and they will say, whoa, whoa, whoa. You're supposed to be a Christian. Is that what Jesus people do? Is that how they respond? And I'm here to encourage us all today that the circumstances that we face in life, there are no surprise to Christ, but how you respond to those circumstances, also no surprise to Christ, but how you respond. Is Christ allowing you to see how your heart is being revealed. I'll repeat that none of these things that happen to us are a surprise to Christ. How we respond is not a surprise to Christ because he knows all. But what Christ is allowing us to do is to see our heart being revealed in the moment. Is your heart for self promotion or is your heart for kingdom promotion? And I can tell you right now, I want a heart for kingdom promotion. Now, how can we make this a practical thing? And, you know, like I've told you before, I try my best to be a spiritual person that lives in a practical world. So the things of God, it's almost like when he downloads it to me, I'm saying, okay, God, now, how can we get that to the people where we can apply it to myself and apply it to everyone that's listening? I'm glad you asked. I'm not asking you to walk around all day, every day saying, I'm a Jesus follower. I'm willing to take a gunshot. I'm willing. No, that's not what I'm asking you to do. That's not what dying to live actually means. That's not even what dying to self means. That's actually promoting self. When you walk around saying, hey, look at me, I'm a Christian. Hey, look at me. I follow Jesus. Hey, look at me. This is what God did. Hey, look at me. This is, this. Is that. Are you pushing and promoting yourself or are you pushing and promoting Christ? Because in my line of work, the majority of people that work in my office are actually not saved. They're of the muslim belief. Just for clarification, I no longer work for the church, so just. I'm not employed vocationally at the church. So I just wanted to make sure you knew that. Yeah, our staff members at Newmar are still saved at the other workplace. But do you know that when I work, when I go to the office every day, I don't step in and say, hey, the Christian's here. Hey, the pastor is here. Hey, have you prayed today? I know you normally pray to Allah, but I don't do that. But what I do is I live the life to where when they speak to me, they say there's something different about Joshua. And when they interact with me, there's something different about Joshua. And then even though I never say the name Jesus, I'm showing the love of Jesus by how I respond. I'll give you a quick example. It was an amazing moment because it happened to be the night that we had Numa discipleship. And we have Numa discipleship on the first Wednesday and the third Wednesday of every month. If you have not been involved in that, please, please, please get involved. More details to come. Just ask us and we'll tell you. But I was there with Kai Chung, which some of you will know Kai, and we were talking about discipleship, being discipled and what that looks like to be discipled, and how when you are discipled, you actually have to say no to your own agenda. And so we're having this conversation openly in the office going, you know, the reality is we're both being discipled by Pastor Glenn, right? So we're going, man, do you know that when Pastor Glenn is asking for a, B, and C, like, sometimes we just have to go, okay, what is he actually asking for? Would we do that that way? Or the way that I would do it is, no, no. That's what Pastor Glenn wants. We trust that he's hearing from God, so therefore we do it. Right? So we're having this conversation, and then we're going, man, it's so awesome that we get to be discipled and we get to do this. And so we're just like two guys, just, like, enjoying our conversation and forgetting that we're actually in our workplace. And then the two co workers that are of the muslim faith, they said, excuse me, what's that word that you guys are talking about? We said, disciple discipleship. And he said, yeah, what is that? Can you explain that? And I said, oh, quickly, holy spirit, please help me explain what discipleship is so that this individual that does not know who you are can quickly understand. And it was amazing. I give all credit to Christ. I looked at her and I said, discipleship is simply this. You watch me, we do together. I watch you, and then you replicate. And she said, what? And I said, here's how it is. I sit under someone and I watch them, and they teach me how to do what they're doing. And then they then activate me, and we do it together. But then they activate me to another level where they watch me do it to make sure that I'm doing it correctly. And then they commissioned me to do it by myself but replicate the equation that I just went through. And I said, and that's discipleship. And they respond and said, that actually is very cool. We don't have that in the muslim faith. We don't have that in like, you guys do that all the time. And I said, yeah, we do. That's a part of our world. And I ended the conversation there because it wasn't a. Now, if you want to know more, stay tuned and come back to, that was a seed that was planted. There was a water that was watering that seed. And I had to die to myself because the self in me, because I'm a preacher teacher type guy, I wanted to be like, now let's bring out the Bible app and let's come here. And let's come here and let's go here. And let's go there. But because I'm dying to myself, I'm dying to my own desires, and I'm dying to my own will of how to do something. And I'm submitting my will to Christ to say, Father, I will follow you in all things. Teach me when and when not to speak. Teach me how and how not to do. That's a part of dying to live. That's a part of dying to yourself. I want to give you some examples here of how you can die to self and how you can walk out the dying to living. Number one is knowing Christ through scripture. You have to know the word of God. You cannot die to self if you don't know who you're actually trying to live for. The scripture says in two Timothy 316 17, if you want to take these scriptures down, they won't be on the screen. But it says, all scripture is breathed out by God, profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. But the man of God, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Not only must you know Christ through scripture, you must know Christ through prayer. Philippians four six, seven says, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication. With thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Now, I may be, as the saying goes, preaching to the choir, but show of hands, how many know what prayer looks like? Okay, show of hands. Does prayer look like Jesus. We love you and we come to you today. And can prayer look like. Father, I need your help today. Can prayer be like, in my head? Father, give me the words to say to this young lady who doesn't know who you are. Before I speak, let your words actually come out of my mouth. We sometimes make things more difficult than what they really should be, and we do that because there's this constant struggle of who do I promote right? Right now, in this moment? Who am I promoting? Am I promoting J. Long, or am I promoting Christ? Second, proclaiming the gospel. You must proclaim the gospel. Jesus came, he lived, he died, he rose again. For not just the Jews, not just the Greek, but for everybody, so that we can have life eternal. Now, however you want to explain that, whether you use the story of the prodigal son or you actually use the story of the life of Jesus going on the cross, you have to proclaim the gospel. And in proclaiming the gospel, what does that do? That takes all the finger pointing from you and puts it on him. Romans 116 17 says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the jew first, and also to the Greek, for in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Number three, demonstrating Christ's love. I love that Jesus displayed the perfect example of loving enemies while being whipped, being beat, being spat on, where his beard is being torn out, where his clothes are being cast, lots where he's being put on the cross. He says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing. Not only, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they they're doing, but it was the fact that he died so that the very people that were killing him could have life. The very individuals that took Jesus to the cross and crucified him, gained access to follow him. If they lived long enough and listened to the gospel as it was preached, they, too could have come to know Christ. But I also love that Jesus demonstrating love to the thief that was on the cross beside him, where this thief looks and says, you actually don't belong here. There is no fault in you where I deserve to be here. But if you could, if you please just remember me when you ascend to your father. The Bible did not say, jesus said, okay, repeat after me. Heavenly Father, I receive you. Forgive me of my sins. No, no. It was the fact that Jesus loved him so much and said this day because Jesus knew that he was dying, and he knew that the thief was dying. You will be with me in heaven. Because there was a heart change. There was a heart change. And the thing about it is sometimes we as christians, we as believers, and I'm telling you, I'm guilty of this myself. I hear what people are saying. I see what they're doing, and I make a judgment. I make a conclusion to say, this person, they're not even worthy of my prayers now because you did that. Yeah, yeah, I'll pray for you. But my prayer is like, jesus help them, jesus give them more wisdom, because they just don't know. But in reality, that's an entryway for us to see that there potentially could be a heart change if we die to ourself and say, holy spirit, how do you want us to respond? Because even though they're persecuting me, even though they are crucifying me, even though they are defaming me, will I take the posture of father, forgive them, for they know not what they're doing. That's the love of Christ, standing firm for truth. Ah, I love that. Timothy two, Timothy four. Just this part, I'm not even gonna read the whole. It just says, preach the word. Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. How many know that no matter what the season is, we need to be prepared and ready and equipped to preach the word. And how do you preach the word? You must read the word. And not just read the word, but you must embody the word. It needs to get in your bloodstream. It needs to get in your brain, your heart, and everything, because you will never know when you will be caught off guard with a question that only you can answer in that moment. And the reality is, you should never be caught off guard because the scripture says, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. And the last point that I want to bring up, we got to make disciples. We have to make disciples. That is one of the biggest things that you can do to die to yourself. When Pastor Glenn is discipling myself and the other individuals that he's discipling, trust me when I tell you. And this is not praising Pastor Glenn. This is actually praising the Holy Spirit in Pastor Glenn, that he has died to himself to allow to operate. That's what we see. That's what we hear. We're not hearing a pastor Glenn agenda. We're hearing a kingdom agenda. What is God saying? What does God want to do? And when I disciple someone, I pray that the people that I'm discipling don't hear a j long agenda that they're hearing a kingdom of gender. How does God see this? How does Jesus view this? And when we're making disciples of all cities and nations, it's not for our castle. We should never have a castle mentality, but a kingdom mentality. Does that make sense to anyone? This is such a confronting thing, because while reading and studying and thinking about this, I'm going, God, am I even worthy to preach this message? Am I even qualified to preach and teach this message? But in reality, he's made me qualified because I've said yes to him, because I'm saying, you know what? This is not about me. This is not about the way I present things. This is not about anything other than your name. Jesus being made famous. And the key point that I want to encourage you with today is that you cannot say being a Christian is a job that you can clock in and clock out. It's who you are. Being a pastor is who I am. Yes. I used to work for the church, but now that I no longer work for the church does not change the fact that I'm a pastor. So the calling of God that is on everyone's life is to be more Christ like. That's what Christian means, to be more christlike. So therefore, if I can just use Jared as an example when he became a Christian, it's not, hey, look at Jared the Christian. It's not, look at Jared the man of God. It's not, look at Jared and the Holy Spirit. It's God is using Jared. The Holy Spirit is operating through Jared. The actual definition of Jared is vessel that Christ has chosen for this time, this season to operate through. But that can only happen with his humility and submission to Christ. The Bible tells us in Matthew 514, as we come to a close, you are the light of the world. Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory, glory to your father in heaven. When we live authentically as witnesses, our lives. Point others to the risen Christ. For we are a letter from Christ, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God. That's two corinthians three. I was having a chat with Pam earlier, and to think about this school massacre at Columbine in the United States, where it sparked this whole rage of, I'm willing to be a martyr. I'm willing to die physically for Christ. And the thing that people actually missed the most was not so much of celebrating to die physically to leave this earth, because that's a quick way out in a sense, in some situations, because some people go, I've been persecuted, I've been beat up. I've been talked about. I've been. I just. This life is just too hard. You know what? It's better if something just happens, and then I can proactively say, yes, I'm a Christ follower. But really, what dying to live is all about is dying to your flesh, dying and declining the desire to promote who you are and promoting Jesus over that. Dying to the reality of things may not go the way that you want them to go. And you need to be okay with that. And not just, you know, throw a fit and just go, you know, what is that impacting my life to the point to where it's going to cause me to go to hell? Not is that going to be a stumbling block for someone else to keep them from going to heaven? Not. So why is there such a righteous rage and frustration? It could be because of pride. But if you filtered it through the Holy Spirit, and if the Holy Spirit says, speak on it, trust me, the words that you speak will bring peace and not rage and not anger. Because it's dying to self and it's dying to pride, and it's dying to selfish ambitions that will actually increase the name of Jesus. We decrease as he increases. And I. I want to read something from what Paul said, and this really hit home to me, because Paul had many opportunities to just say, yeah, I've done a lot. It's time for me to go. I embrace this. But when he wrote to the Philippians, chapter one, he said, yes, and I will rejoice. For I know that through your prayers and the help of the spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed. But that will fool, but with full courage. Now, as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet with which I shall choose, I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. I believe today that we are all here because there's a. A necessary need for people in your world. You are the example of the hands and feet of Jesus Christ. But if you're not dying to yourself, they're going to see you and not see Christ. So today, as we pray, I want to open the altars just for prayer. And it's not a prayer of condemnation, not a prayer of shame, but it's actually a prayer of invitation to say, father, I lay down my will and I lay down my agenda. I lay down my purpose and I want to die to my flesh. Help me choose you over myself. And if that's you today, just come down and we'll pray with you. Because we want to link our faith with yours. And we want to see you be the best version that Jesus has for you. And I'm not telling you that you're going to be perfect, but I'm telling you that if we model the perfect being, which is Christmas, Christ, we will point people to him and those that are lost will be saved. And I'm believing that people within my office will be saved. And it was an amazing message that Pastor Cain spoke a few weeks back when he got a word of knowledge and he said that, man, managers and bosses and CEO's are going to get saved because of you working there. And that happened to be like the first or second week that I started working at this company. And I just threw my hands up and said, yes, Father. Yes, Father. Yes, Father. Let it be so because it's all about your name. Jesus being made famous, being made known. [00:31:27] Speaker C: Thank you for joining us. We hope that you enjoyed today's podcast and we realize that not everyone has had the opportunity to respond to the good news of the gospel. And for this reason, in all of our services and platforms, we want to extend to you the opportunity to follow Jesus. The Bible teaches us that we have been created for a relationship with God. However, sin, which is essentially disobedience, independence and disbelief, or us simply missing the mark, entered the world and separated us from God. Romans 623 says that the wages of sin is death and a debt was owed. And the Bible tells us that he, Jesus, demonstrated his love for us, that while we were still sinners, he died for us. Jesus paid the penalty for our sin. John 316 says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God so loved the world that he gave us Jesus, that whoever believes in him will be saved. All that is required of anyone is that they believe in Jesus. The son of God who came, lived, died and rose again so that we could be forgiven, made right, and given the right to become children of God and to have life forevermore with him. Today you can begin a relationship with Jesus. To believe in him is to simply to respond with faith in our hearts and confess with our mouths that he is Lord and we do that through a simple prayer. Follow along with me dear Jesus, I believe that you are the son of God. I thank you that you love me and came to forgive me of my sin. I repent from my old way of life and I turn to follow you. I receive the free gift of eternal life and I ask that you fill me with the Holy Spirit so that I can live a life of following after you. I thank you that I am born again as a child of God and that I am a new creation in Christ Jesus. Amen. If you prayed this prayer for the first time we would love to connect with you and connect you to your next step and the local church in your area. You can contact us on our website at Numa Church. Thanks for listening.