in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Okay we're in John chapter 12 this morning and before I get into the
actual sermon I just want to remind our church that uh and those of us who are visiting that
we are a family integrated church if you're wondering why there's so many children in the
service is this a special thing because it's Easter but we we always have the children in
the service with us and we don't have nurseries or Sunday school classes they stay in the service
with their parents because we want them to hear the preaching of God's word and that's a that's
a huge blessing obviously to the parents it's a blessing to the kids but it obviously comes with
some challenges right you know sometimes little ones can get a little crazy a little out of hand
a little fussy but that's okay it doesn't really distract me um but I will say this is that we do
have what's called mother baby rooms okay and if you go out this door you make a right one of the
ushers can lead you to where it's at those are the rooms that you can utilize in case you feel like
my child is getting too out of hand I need to take them out of the service for just a couple minutes
and then I'll bring them right back that's actually what those rooms are for so if you
see parents you know getting up and they're walking out it's not because I offended them
or anything like that okay it's because they're just taking their kids out just to distract them
for a little bit and it's kind of like a training thing where just kind of helping the kids assimilate
to the service and so just keep that in mind and don't think that if your kids make a little bit
of noise that you know oh man I'm so embarrassed like I can't believe my kids are making don't
worry about that we're used to all kinds of noise here it's only if they're really getting fussy and
you know they're they're screaming bloody murder type of a thing you know maybe you might want to
take them out at that point you know but those rooms are available for you if you need more
information about that once you head out these doors one of these ushers can can help you find
where that's at all right we're in john chapter 12 look down your bibles at verse 23 it says here
and jesus answered them and saying the hour has come that the son of man should be glorified
verily verily I say unto you accept the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth
alone but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit he that loveth his life shall lose it he that
hateth his life and this world shall keep it unto life eternal and the title of the sermon this
morning is something has to die something has to die that's the title of the sermon this morning
here in john chapter 12 we have a variety of different things taking place of course
in six days in the particular chapter is when the passover is going to take place and the
passover is synonymous with the crucifixion of jesus christ six days prior to that five days
prior to that you have jesus christ going into jerusalem and they take out the palm trees and
they're saying hosanna in the highest blessed is he that cometh in the name of the lord they're
praising jesus christ they're they they are accepting the fact that he is the messiah that
he is the king and unfortunately six days later they choose to crucify him kind of shows you how
fickle people can be where at one point they're you know they love the lord and they want to
praise him and have them as their king and then seven days later he's being crucified on a cross
but we see here that uh this is six days prior and the passover is going to take place but a
pretty interesting thing happens here is that you have greeks coming to worship the lord you
said what's so interesting about that well when jesus christ began his ministry he really began
it to reach jews first to reach israel first he says that he was sent unto the lost sheep of the
house of israel it's not to say that he didn't want to reach gentiles it's just that the priority
was that salvation was to come to israel first and then spread out into all nations israel was
supposed to be a light to this world the light of the gospel to this world and therefore he came
unto his own and as the bible goes on to say his own received him not it was at that point that the
gospel began to go on to all nations to preach the gospel to get people saved but we have something
very interesting here is that even prior to that taking place you have greeks from all from
different nations who are not of israel coming to worship the lord okay and look at verse number 20
says and there were certain greeks among them they came up to worship at the feast the same came
therefore to philip which was of bethsaida of galilee and desired him saying sir we would see
jesus so they're coming to worship at the feast and they said we want to see jesus christ of course
the fame of jesus christ had gone abroad you know people had heard about his miracles and healing
the deaf the blind and resurrecting the dead they hear about his preaching and they're like we want
to see jesus okay he says in verse 22 philip cometh and telleth andrew and again andrew and
philip tell jesus verse 23 jesus answered them saying the hours come that the son of man should
be glorified so what's taking place here well jesus is starting to see that gentile believers
are now coming to hear the gospel to hear about jesus christ so this is an indication that his
death is near okay he said why is that well because of the fact that the death of jesus christ
according to the bible marks a new testament okay during this time you have during the old covenant
old testament of course if you have a bible it's divided into those two but in particular the new
testament begins at the death of jesus christ and in fact the bible says in hebrews 9 16
for where a testament is there must also of necessity be the death of a testator
for a testament is a force after men are dead otherwise it is of no strength all the while
the testator liveth and let me explain to you briefly what that means it's like having a last
will someone who's about to die to have a will well that will isn't in force until the person
who created that will dies well a testament is synonymous with that so in order for jesus christ
to bring in this new testament which brings with it making gentiles god's chosen people as long as
they believe in jesus christ he actually has to die so at this point the gospel is going to the
israelites a lot of people are getting saved some are rejecting the gospel but he sees that greeks
or gentiles are coming to worship jesus and he's saying the hour has come it's time for me to die
because now we're we're having this overflow of greeks that are coming to worship us whereas the
gospel is supposed to come to them okay so then he says in verse 24 verily verily i say unto you
accept the corn of wheat fall to the ground and die it abideth alone but if it die it bringeth
forth much fruit what is he saying there he's giving his disciples a reality check
because you know his disciples have been with him for three and a half years they've lived with them
they sleep where he sleeps they eat where he eats they're doing ministry together and then he's
telling he's basically saying this i gotta die because in order for more people to be reached
in order for gentiles to hear the gospel in order for this new testament to come in
to make gentile believers god's chosen people he has to die something has to die
and he's saying there that in order for fruit to be produced in other nations
he has to die salvation is the fruit of christ death and he says there again in verse 24
except the corner we fall into the ground and die it abideth alone
but if it die it brings forth much fruit it's referring to a kernel a kernel once it's
disattached from the leaf there once it's detached from disattached from the ear it's not going to do
anything unless it falls into the ground it's covered by the dirt it's watered and then it can
bring forth much fruit and the principle that we can learn there is that everything that's valuable
comes with a price right anything of value comes with the price and sometimes that sometimes that
price is a life now what's what's something that we can derive from this or what is this
specifically referring to well let's talk about salvation for a minute okay you know the bible
tells us for the wages of sin is death and the bible explains to us that we are all sinners
and the reason we're sinners is because we've broken god's commandments we've broken his law
sin is the transgression of the law and the bible according to the bible for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of god there is none that doeth good no not one as it is written there's
none righteous no not one right so according to the bible every single one of us no matter what
religious background you come from what ethnic background you come from what country you come
from if you're born here a different or somewhere else no matter what type of home you were raised
then you're a sinner just like me that's right because we've all broken god's commandments
we have all and you said well you know i've never murdered anybody though i've never done really
anything really bad though i've never you know never committed adultery or i've never you know
just you think of the worst types of sins you know i've never done those but you know the bible tells
us whosoever keepeth the whole law yet offend in one point he's guilty of all so god's standard
is actually perfection now if we were to go to heaven based upon our own terms we would make it
as easy as we possibly can on us you know it's like oh just don't commit murder or something
just don't do x y and z but god's standard is this you have to keep god's law perfectly
now here's the thing no one has ever kept god's law perfectly that's right no one can say i am
clean from my sin no one you know there's people out there that can say they're a good person but
you know what being a good person doesn't necessarily get you to heaven right right and
being a good person doesn't make you perfect in god's standard of perfection okay and so the
bible tells us we're sinners we've broken god's commandments we're not perfect and anybody who
tells you they're perfect they just committed to sin which is called lying okay no one's perfect
and i think everyone in here could agree with that right we make mistakes don't we we've made
mistakes we're not perfect we mess up the bible says that the thought of foolishness is sin
you know we sin with what we say the things that we do but the bible also tells us that there's
actually a penalty for that and that penalty is death it's for the wages of sin is death
what we deserve according to god is death now we obviously know that all of us are going to die
one day physically but when the bible talks about death it's also referring to a place
because god's standard of perfection is god's standard is perfection and if you violate that
perfection then according to the bible you deserve the greatest of penalties which is actually hell
so the bible tells us for the wages of sin is death and it tells us that whosoever's name was
not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire right and it means that if
you're to die today pay pay close attention to this if you're to die today god forbid if you're
to die at this moment or this day that means your soul would descend into a place called hell
forever and ever and ever that's a harsh reality but it's true and you know a lot of people don't
like that they think you know i don't know if that's how god would do things isn't god loving
he's absolutely loving and that's why he sent his son but he's a god of justice he's a god
of righteousness sin has to be punished somehow so he provides this ultimatum for everyone
you can either die for your own sins and go to hell and never have eternal life and you pay for
your own sins or you could accept the death of jesus christ and have eternal life but here's
the thing though something has to die something has to die now the bible actually says this
god is not willing that any should perish he doesn't want you to die he doesn't want you to
die he doesn't want you to go to hell he doesn't want you to be damned for all of eternity but that
is the byproduct of not getting saved that is the byproduct of your sin if you don't get saved
you will go to hell that is a sad and harsh reality but it's true
and may i say this is that hell is filled with people today who rejected that gift
who are paying for their sin in a place called hell and you think to yourself well i don't
believe that though i don't believe that i have a different belief system
but here's the thing you know your belief doesn't really change reality though right
like if i if i climb this roof today and i say today i choose not to believe in gravity
it's not real and you provide all the science you show me you know uh all the proof that gravity is
real and i say that's not my belief don't impose your belief upon me i'm gonna jump off this roof
and i'm gonna fly
now let me ask you something does my belief change reality no i'm gonna die or you know broken legs
or broken back or something something bad is gonna happen to me because my belief doesn't
change reality the bible is true when it tells us that we deserve hell and look you accept
consequences every single day that's why you drive the speed limit that's why you pay your
bills that's why you don't break the law that's why you try to be a good citizen and a functioning
member of society that's why you don't commit crimes because of the fact that you know that
actions have consequences that's right yeah but the bible's simply telling us that the greatest
consequence to our actions is actually hell and you know what far worse than the police officer
who you're looking at your rear view mirror on the freeway or the the worse than that authority
worse than uh the government worse than the governor worse than the mayor is actually god
himself that's right he is the greatest authority in all of creation and it's for that reason that
he makes the rules he makes the laws and if he says that that's what we deserve then that's what
we deserve now for the most part people already agree with that they believe in hell they they
know that if you sin you deserve to go to hell according to the bible they believe that but
here's the thing they don't want to go there i mean who does no one wants to go to hell anybody
that tells you i'd rather go to hell and party with my friends and they're lying to you one
you know one second in hell they would change their tune very quickly okay
the truth is this is that something has to die so you can either pay for your own sins in hell
and you don't get eternal life you just pay for your sins forever because that's god's punishment
that's his justice being served or you could actually accept the gift of eternal life
and accept the death of jesus christ because the bible says in hebrew 2 9 but we see jesus who is
made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor
that he by the grace of god should taste death for every man
you see a lot of people think oh that's not loving well here's the thing god is loving
because he gave up that which is closest to him which is his only begotten son to pay for your
sins and pay for mine the bible says that he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours
only but also for the sins of the whole world he tasted death for you he was the one that died so
that you wouldn't have to die amen two thousand years ago jesus christ was born of a virgin
he lived a perfect and sinless life he did a lot of miracles he preached the word of god
ultimately he was crucified on a cross they put nails in his hands and in his feet a crown of
thorns upon his head his head they scourged him they beat him they spat upon him and the
bible says that he himself bore our own sins on his own body in the tree every single sin
that you've ever done past present and even future he paid for all of them he paid for the totality
of your sin every single sin you've ever done even the ones that you don't even know about
paid it in full
and he died an innocent man in your place he became our substitute he died he was buried
and the bible says that three days later which is what we recognize today he rose again from
the grave he conquered death amen he conquered death for you and i but you know in order for
him to do that something had to die the bible tells us in john chapter 11 verse 20 then martha
as soon as she had heard that jesus was coming went and met him but mary sat still in the house
then said martha unto jesus lord if thou had been here my brother had not died but i know that even
now who's what's whatsoever that will ask of god god will giveth thee jesus saith unto her thy
brother shall rise again martha saith unto him i know that he shall rise again in the resurrection
at the last day jesus said unto her i am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me
though he were dead yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me
listen to this shall never die believeth thou this right you know god actually wants you to be
immortal he wants you to just live forever that's an awesome gift and no no amount of
money could ever buy it required the death of jesus christ in order to provide that gift
so here's the question for you who's going to die are you going to pay for your own sins
and accept the responsibility or are you going to accept the free gift of eternal life to jesus
christ because he's offering it to you right yeah you know what the great thing about this gift is
you you really don't have to do anything for it right yeah a lot of people tell you gotta stop
a lot of people tell you gotta stop drinking gotta stop smoking you gotta stop you know sinning
and doing all that bad stuff and you gotta make sure you go to church you gotta get baptized you
gotta keep god's commandments you gotta repent of your sins you just gotta be this perfect person
well that defeats the purpose because he's saying they're saying that you have to work for your
salvation whereas what god says jesus already did all the work so that you wouldn't have to do the
work that's why he calls it listen to this a gift now you and i know that if someone gives you
something and claims that it's a gift but wants something in return it's not a gift
a gift is something that's given to you free freely that's right and that's exactly what god
gives to you you say wait hold on a sec are you saying that i just have to believe on jesus christ
and i can have eternal life and and and that's it that's it
now obviously if you want god's blessing on your life if you don't want to suffer the earthly
consequences of your actions you know it'll do you well to serve god to go to church to learn
the bible but even if you don't do those things you never read the bible you never come to church
the bible says salvation is still available to you you can still have it
it's still freely it's still freely offered to you and that's great isn't it
but here here's the scary thing though limited time only
limited time only so when does the gift end when you die
because once you die and if you didn't take the gift it's over there's no more chances
you can't get saved
if you go to hell it's not like uh i'll take that gift it's it's too late right yeah it's no longer
available for you well i want to see the hell exist well these things have to be accepted by
faith limited time only and you know what for some people the the the cutoff date is a little
sooner than others your cutoff date could be today your cutoff date could be tomorrow it could
be this year we don't know but i will say this is that obviously god is trying to get your attention
if you're here today if you're sitting here today and you don't know that you're going to go to
heaven when you die you don't know that you have eternal life you're not sure about that
you're not here by accident you're here because god wants you to be saved
your loved one who's sitting next to you probably wants you to be saved as well but i'll tell you
this there's no one who wants you to be saved more than god himself in fact he wants you to
be saved so much that he orchestrated this entire day for you to be here so you can receive the gift
of eternal life but something has to die and my hope is that it's not you amen my prayer
that is not you right turn with me if you would to first corinthians chapter six
see everything comes with a price salvation comes with the price something has to die and and here's
the thing folks you know at the end of the service you're gonna go eat be with your family but don't
forget this and in fact my encouragement to you is that you don't leave here until you know beyond
a shadow of a doubt that you're saved you said well how can i know well the bible tells us that
if thou shall confess with thy mouth the lord jesus and believe in thine heart that god hath
raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved for whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord
shall be saved one of the most famous verses in the bible for god so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life
you can have everlasting life today well you know i still need to know like how do i do that
though well we have people in our church that can literally show you easy super easy yep it'll take
like 10 minutes after service at the most to show you and you can get saved today amen don't pass up
that gift that free gift before you leave okay but something has to die you know there's a lot
of ways we can apply this this principle and obviously i think the vast majority of people
here are christians they're saved so i'm going to make an application to people who are christians
who are saved and even if you're not this this sort of applies to you of course if you get saved
today but let me say this is that you know following jesus christ means something has to die
and what i mean by following jesus christ i mean you know serving the lord something has to die and
a lot of times people think well you know i already gave my life to god though
you know i got saved a long time ago but i also gave my life to the lord you know i gave my life
to god well let me say this is that that term giving your life to god is actually not a biblical term
let me explain why okay i know it sounds warm and fuzzy and it sounds great but but here's the
problem with that phrase okay is that that one time you gave your life to god you probably took
it back like that day right right because when you start doing your own thing
when you start living your own way you know you basically took it back in your mind but let me
let me show you something look at first corinthians chapter six in verse 19 let me tell you why this
is unbiblical because if you're saved god already owns your life let me just give you a wake-up call
you already belong to god if you're saved okay let me show you look at first corinthians 6 verse 19
what knowing that your body is the temple of the holy ghost which he which is in you which you have
of god look what it says and ye are not your own so a lot of people are like oh i gave my life to
god it's like well that's funny because it's already his right it's like when you're when you
um you take your kids out to eat you know and and you know i asked my my son my two-year-old
can i have a fry and they're just like no
i'm like i bought it i'm thinking to myself like this is actually my fry
this is all my food okay i'm just i'm just trying to be cordial about it by asking you
to give me a fry but you know what they will you know two-year-olds are very selfish you know
i mean we're selfish too we just don't show it as much as the two-year-old we're just better
at like covering it up you know but the two-year-old my tutor will be like
and just like eat it in front of me and i'm just like azaias you know but we think of that it's
just like you know he thinks that the things that he possesses are literally his but i bought them
for him i bought this meal for him the clothes that he has everything it's it's it's i purchased it
and you in like manner you know if you're saved god purchased you
you actually belong to god so it's not a matter of giving your life to god he already owns it
it goes on to say for a year bought with the prize verse 20 therefore glorify god in your body and
in your spirit which are gods now with that being said he wants you to glorify him through your life
he wants you to live a life that's pleasing unto him he wants you to love your wife
he wants you to love your husband to reverence your husband he wants you to be a good employee
he wants you to be a good father and a good mother he wants you to be a faithful servant of the lord
you know he doesn't want you to just kind of do your own thing he wants you to do his thing
now a lot of times people think well that's hard though but not not really
it's not really hard at all because god doesn't expect for us to obey all of god's commandments
like in one day because obviously that's that's that's hard to do in fact he tells us just love
the lord your god with all your heart soul mind and strength love your neighbor as yourself
upon these two hang all the all the commandments all the prophets and therefore you fulfill the law
he just expects for you to love him right
go to matthew 16
now i will say this is that in order for you to follow the lord something has to die
something has to die you say what has to die you now i don't mean it in a literal way okay
we're talking about from a spiritual perspective you have to die to self
right look at matthew chapter 16
and verse 24 this is 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 now notice he said take up his cross
this is before his crucifixion this is before he was even announced that he's going to be
crucified but obviously in his foreknowledge the fact that he knows everything he knows he's going
to die on the cross and he expects his disciples to do the same right not literally because you
know you have a lot of people out there who will literally do that they will literally be crucified
and think that they're doing god's service by being crucified on a cross you don't have to do
that he just expects for you to die to self to be a living sacrifice wholly acceptable into god
which is your reasonable service the bible tells us in first corinthians 15 verse 30
and why stand we in jeopardy every hour i protest by your rejoicing which i have in christ jesus
our lord i die daily go to hebrew chapter number 12 if you would hebrew chapter number 12
in order to glorify god something has to die you say man i want to be a good christian and i want
to be a good husband i want to be a just a good servant well then you're just gonna have to die
to self because naturally our natural tendency is just to be selfish just want to do our own thing
just kind of fulfill our own desires and have our own agenda and don't bother me i rather but in
order to serve god you can't do that the bible says but seek ye first the kingdom of god and
his righteousness and these things shall be added unto you you know a lot of problems can be solved
if we just stop thinking about ourselves think about that a lot of relational issues
a lot of marriages a lot of child rearing can just be fixed if we just stop thinking about
ourselves in other words you have to die don't take that literal we're talking about spiritual
dying which means you are dying to self you're putting your needs second to everyone else
that's what the bible means by that look at hebrews 12 verse 1 wherefore seeing we are also
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin which
doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us
looking unto jesus the author and finisher of our faith listen to this who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross what does that mean as jesus is carrying the cross to gal gotha to be
crucified the bible says he did it with joy the joy that was set before him why did he allow
himself to suffer such beatings and being spit upon and to be buffeted and scourged and crucified
because of the joy that was set before him the fruit of him dying that's what he was looking
forward to that's right so look dying itself is hard but if you can think about what it's going
to produce there'll be joy in that oh man just living for others and being a blessing to my
family and then you know being a good husband a good wife that's so hard yeah but why don't you
think about the joy that is set before you though think about the fruit that that'll produce
something has to die
go to roman chapter 8
and you know as a christian this is very much true we have to die daily
and the reality is this is that yea all that will live godly in christ jesus
shall suffer persecution that's what the bible says you know a lot of churches will teach you
that if you're just a christian that everyone's going to like you everywhere it's going to be a
bed of roses and you're never going to have a problem you know they crucify jesus you know
we're following his example you know they they call jesus the devil and if they call him beelzebub
which means the devil how much more so they call him of his household that's what the bible says
you know they tell you well if you get saved you're everything's just going to be fine and
dandy not necessarily look at the bible says in romans 8 35 who shall separate us from the love
of christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril sword
as it is written for thy sake we are killed all the day long we are accounted as sheep
for the slaughter the bible says your family may not agree with you the world may not agree with
you and it's in a sense it can kill us it's killing us inside sometimes but the bible says
that we're killed all the day long for the sake of christ turn with me if you would you're you're
in romans chapter 8 stay there producing fruit means that something has to die
do you want to produce fruit in your marriage yep something has to die
everyone wants the product but they don't want the process
all right everyone wants to ride off into the sunset live happily ever after but they don't
want to put in the work to get that so what's the work something has to die go to ephesians chapter
5 actually ephesians chapter 5 you know the bible is realistic about marriage it's not like you know
one man and one woman and they're they're happily married forever and no problems ever
marriages come with problems because they're two different people like living together
right and then like they act different they talk different one is a man one is a woman
you know one's a clean freak one is not a clean freak one leaves their their dirty laundry all
over the place one you know leaves the cap off the the toothpaste thing or whatever
one is good with finances one is not
one is introvert one is an extrovert
you know and and there's so many differences in marriage and so you know there can be a lot of
tension a lot of conflict and sometimes when there's tension and when there's conflict they're
like oh maybe maybe this is not for me then but that's not the answer the answer is this
something has to die and no i'm not telling you go murder your spouse or something like pastor
says something has to die this week on forensic files you know it's just like you become like a
story or something like that what i'm saying is if you want a great marriage it there's a price
to pay for that and the price is this you have to die to yourself right and you can't expect
your spouse to fulfill their end of the bargain and and their role and responsibility if you're
not you know we tend to think well she should be on board and she needs to make sure that
she's doing this why don't you make sure first that you are on board that's right why don't
you make sure first that you're loving your wife as christ also loved the church and gave himself
for it why don't you make sure that you're a reverend to your husband you know a lot of problems
just in marriage stem from uh you know the the wife and the and the husband not fulfilling their
own responsibility right you know he's just not loving enough well do you respect him though
or do you put him down do you you know uh put him down in public
do you mock him well you know sometimes you know but it's true what i said though
i'm not lying he needs to hear it you know and vice versa she doesn't respect me yeah but like
when's the last time you guys went on a date though like when's the last time you like did
something special for her though when's the last time you actually were physically
affectionate towards her though well i mean i paid the bills isn't that enough
that's how i show her i love her i told her i loved her when we got married 15 years ago
isn't that enough no you have to die again you got to die to self and and work on your marriage
and work on it and work on it today and guess what work on it tomorrow
and working it the day after the people you see with the great marriages
it's not like they're just so compatible they just never had any problems they're just like
they never fight no it's it's like they've worked on it when you see a person with an amazing lawn
there's one of two things either one is just fake right what do they call that astroturf
it's just astroturf it's just fake you know what i mean that's like their instagram
whatever you see on instagram is just completely fake right it's like that's not how it really is
they're just portraying it to be that way or you know what they've just worked on it
and both spouses have what died to self they have to die they recognize this marriage will not
succeed this marriage will not go forward this marriage will not produce the fruit that i want
unless i put something into it which is my life my death i have to do something
look at ephsians 5 21 submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of god wives submit
yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the lord and all the men said amen
that's like their life verse
they there's one verse that all men memorize
they meditate upon they think about they preach you know when the argument comes out the man is
like ephsians 5 as unto the lord like god he's saying but you know the husbands have a they have
this thing where they just stop at verse 22. Verse 23 says for the husband is the head of the wife
even as christ is the head of the church and he is the savior of the body so think about that
yeah you know he's the boss according to the bible he's the head the husband is the lord of
the house according to the word of god but the bible also says that he is the savior of the body
the term savior sounds familiar now doesn't it you know like jesus christ is the savior
what did jesus christ do for us he died for us yeah so with this great privilege
comes this great responsibility to die to sacrifice yourself for your spouse
and 99 of the time if both people just do their part the marriage would succeed obviously there's
minor complications sometimes there's bumps in the road there's things that need to be fixed
there's things that need to be worked on but let me just say this is that there is no room for
quits though that's right if something doesn't work today just go back to the drawing board
tomorrow it's not like well i tried i gave her roses she still yelled at me
it's like i tried i made him a sandwich he didn't like it
i tried i put my laundry in the laundry basket she's still mad try again try again die again
because you know in the christian life is the same way sometimes we have great days as christians
sometimes we don't right some days we're just like it's like we're on cloud nine
we're reading our bibles we're praying we're filled with the spirit other days we just we're
not that way and it's not like why quit the christian life can't do it no it's like a day
by day thing that you have to do that's why you don't give your life to god every single day you
just live for the lord
you want to produce fruit of raising godly children
something has to die
what do you say well what has to die well your own ambitions and desires for your children have
to die we have to desire what god wants for our kids and not necessarily what we plan for them
to do we want to we just want them to become millionaires and just the richest people and
famous or whatever you know i just want them to do this why don't you just look in the bible
to see what god wants for your family instead that's what you should desire
but it requires for you to die to self go to john 15 if you would john chapter 15
something has to die every day something has to die
to you christians out there who want to do something significant significant for god
you want to produce the fruit of the fruit of the righteous something has to die what i mean by that
if you want to win people to the lord that's a different level right there right when you
actually think about you know what uh i love my wife i love my husband i love my children i love
my church but you know i also love lost people and i want to get people saved i want to get my
cousin saved i want to get my brother saved i want to get my family saved i want them to know about
the gospel i want them to have eternal life well then something has to die right what has to die
well how about your insecurities it's just like i don't know if i could share the gospel with like
just like i don't know if i could share the gospel with like someone they might make fun of me or
something like that something has to die though right yeah but what if if i tell my mom about the
gospel you know they're going to think i'm weird or they're going to think i'm just like been
radicalized or something like that or you know i just i just went off the deep end something has
to die though yep we got to take a risk somehow and when it comes to getting someone saved giving
someone the gospel helping someone to come to the saving knowledge of jesus christ
that's a risk we should be willing to take and it should be it's lights out with me then because i
need to i need to get my family saved i need to get my friend saved i need to get someone
saved look at the bible says in john 15 verse 1 i am the true vine and my father is the husbandman
every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away so what is this telling us it's
telling us that god wants you to be a fruit bearer he's not talking about salvation here at all
just talking about abiding in the vine meaning abiding in christ and by the way when you get
saved christ comes into you we have christ in us the hope of glory that's what the bible says
that christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love the
bible tells us but then we have a choice whether to abide in christ by reading the bible going to
church doing these things but the bible says that if you don't bear fruit then he's just going to
take you away now what does what does that mean i don't know it could just mean that he takes you
home early obviously he's not referring to salvation at all he says every branch in me
that beareth not fruit he taketh away and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it
may bring forth more fruit so in other words if you are a fruitful christian you know what god's
going to do he's going to allow you to go through really bad stuff in life like what that does not
sound very nice well in order for you to bear more fruit though in order for you to become
more successful than the success you're currently experiencing you need to die something you need
to get purged you need to be humbled that's what the bible says in order for us to go to the
different stage of life where we're maturing we're succeeding the bible says you have to be purged
god has to remove things from your life think about in the last six months what's something
that you have lost maybe a possession an amount of money something that you've lost something that
was just taken from you and it just grieved you you're like man why did i have to like lose that
why did i why was that taken away from me maybe it's god just purging your life from that stuff
maybe it's relationships maybe you lost your bff or something like that i don't know
i don't even know if they use that term anymore maybe it was a friend of yours a family member
of yours and it's just like they separated from you you're no longer friends you know maybe
god had to just remove that relationship in your life maybe it was a toxic person in your life
right someone who didn't influence you for the right things for the things of god and god had
to remove that individual from your life you know he did it to purge you so you can be a
better christian sometimes that happens you know what purging hurts my friends it's painful it's
painful but it's necessary if we want to produce fruit in our lives it says in verse number three
now you are clean through the word which i've spoken unto you abide in me and i in you as the
branch cannot bear fruit of itself except that abide in the vine no more can ye accept the
abide in me i am the vine year of the branches he that abided to me and i in him the same bringeth
forth much fruit for without me ye can do nothing the simple reminder this morning
is here is your weekly reminder to make sure that you die
to make sure that you're putting off the old man putting on the new man not being a selfish person
but being a selfless person in your marriage with your children at your job in the church
wherever you are because there is no success without that there is no success without that
but if you're in here this morning and a lot of that stuff just went over your head
you're just like i don't even know what he's talking about the pastor's talking about that
i should die what in the world then pay attention to only the first part of the sermon
which is quite frankly the most important part for those of you who don't know if you have eternal
life or not you're the one that i would say don't die don't die accept the death of jesus christ
an atonement and payment for your sin so that you can have eternal life and here's the thing
is that once we conclude the service there might be someone in here who wants to get saved but they
just don't know exactly how to go about it they're not necessarily bold enough to go and to just talk
to someone about it so this is what you do just hang around for about five minutes and someone
will come to you if you're if you're like an introvert and you're just kind of like i want
to get saved but i don't want to talk to anybody here though like i just i don't want to go out
of my way to go talk to someone you know i'd rather have someone just come talk to me okay
we'll come talk to you just kind of hang out just kind of go get some more food or ham or whatever
it is that we have out there just go use the restroom and and just we'll catch you we'll come
to you we'll make it as easy for you as possible to get saved today that's right amen but don't
leave here until that happens let's pray father we thank you so much for easter we're so thankful
for the resurrection and what it means to us lord so many different applications that we can
apply this to our lives lord and at the end of the day it's just reminding us of some
something and more specifically someone had to die in order to give us eternal life
it's a principle that we can apply all across the board even throughout our christian life that
we have to die to self we have to be a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto you which is
our reasonable service and i pray lord that we'd apply this to our marriage that we would apply
this to our children that we would apply this in our families in our churches help us lord
we fall short we're not perfect and you know that more than anyone
and i just pray you help us to do better today in jesus name amen
song number 36 christ arose is our last song song number 36