Introduction:
A Sales Pitch to Die (John 12:20-26):
- Theological Reason: Because Jesus says it's the path to Glory . (John 12 12:24)
- Practical Reason: You find life through your Death . (John 12 12:25)
Matthew 10:39 - Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
- Motivational Reason: God will Honor you. (John 12 12:26)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:55-00:58
Open your Bibles with me please to John chapter 12.
01:02-01:03
You know something else we love?
01:04-01:09
Pets. Who has a pet? Raise your hand if you are a pet lover.
01:09-01:14
Okay, alright. Where are my dog people at? Raise your hand. Dog people.
01:15-01:18
I love this church. Alright, where are my cat people?
01:19-01:20
We'll pray for you.
01:23-01:26
Do you know what pets we had when we were growing up?
01:26-01:27
Do you know what pets we had?
01:30-01:33
The most boring pet of all, right there in hermit crabs.
01:33-01:34
You remember the hermit crabs?
01:35-01:37
How many people had a hermit crab growing up?
01:37-01:38
All right, all right.
01:38-01:39
OK, so you're going to get this.
01:39-01:45
For those of you that don't know, hermit crabs are these little tiny monsters that live in seashells.
01:46-01:49
And they don't really do anything.
01:53-02:03
But the worst part of having a hermit crab is when they die, you don't know they're dead until you go to pick up their shell and plop!
02:04-02:07
They just plop out, and I remember as a kid, oh it was so gross.
02:07-02:20
Well our younger brother, we have a younger brother, he's seven years younger than me, and he had a hermit crab and the hermit crab's name was Spooky, Because he was spooked because he never ever ever came out of his shell.
02:20-02:22
Spooky never came out of his shell.
02:24-02:33
Well, one day when I was tending to the crabs, as was my job, as i was tending to the crabs, I picked up Spooky and he came out of his shell.
02:34-02:34
PLOP!
02:37-02:41
Okay, so family meeting apart from little brother, family, what are we gonna do?
02:41-02:42
What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do?
02:43-02:44
What are we gonna do? Spooky's dead.
02:45-02:46
So, So you know what we did?
02:47-02:49
We took Spooky's shell, remember, Darren?
02:49-02:51
We took Spooky's shell to the pet store.
02:52-02:57
And we were standing outside the aquariums trying to find another hermit crab that looked exactly like Spooky.
02:59-03:00
This one-- no, no, no.
03:00-03:01
That one's too big.
03:01-03:02
He's going to know.
03:02-03:02
He's going to know.
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Not that-- this one.
03:04-03:04
No, no.
03:05-03:06
That one's too active.
03:06-03:06
He'll never buy that.
03:08-03:08
That one.
03:09-03:14
So we got Spooky Part 2.
03:16-03:17
Well, here's the problem.
03:17-03:21
Spooky Part 2 didn't live near as long as Spooky the 1st.
03:23-03:24
Spooky 2 died.
03:25-03:26
So guess what we did?
03:26-03:27
Family meeting, what do we do?
03:27-03:27
What do we do?
03:27-03:28
Back to the pet store.
03:29-03:30
Not this one, that one.
03:30-03:31
No, no, no, not that one.
03:31-03:32
Spooky 3.
03:32-03:33
Do you know how many times that happened?
03:34-03:35
Eight times.
03:39-03:42
And to this day, Darren, I don't think he ever found out, did he?
03:42-03:44
Did he ever find out that he had eight spookies?
03:47-03:51
He thought he just had one hermit crab that lived a really long time.
03:53-03:55
The Methuselah of Hermit Crabs.
03:56-03:56
But why?
03:58-04:05
Why did we go through all of the rigmarole of secretly replacing spooky? Why did we do that?
04:07-04:11
You know why? It was because we didn't want to talk about death.
04:14-04:15
Let's be honest.
04:16-04:19
None of us really like to talk about death, do we?
04:20-04:31
Right now it's like, "Oh, okay, this took a turn." We avoid the conversation.
04:33-04:39
We avoid the topic, but This is exactly where Jesus is taking us today.
04:41-04:42
So look at John 12.
04:42-04:45
We're going to pick up in verse 20.
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It says, "Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks.
04:54-05:12
So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida and Galilee, and asked him, 'Sir, we wish to see Jesus.'" These were Greeks who converted to Judaism, and they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida.
05:12-05:15
Why did they go to Philip for this request?
05:15-05:23
Well, Philip was a Greek name, and they were Greeks, so they're like, "We're Greeks, he's a Greek." And Bethsaida was an area that had a large Gentile population.
05:23-05:26
So they're like, "Okay, we can kind of connect with this guy.
05:26-05:33
He's a good bridge to help us to get to Jesus." Now, when they said, "We want to see Jesus," they meant more than "look at," right?
05:33-05:42
"Look with your eyes, not with your hands." They meant more than just, "Oh, there he is. I see him. Thank you." They wanted to talk to him.
05:42-05:43
They wanted to sort of interview him.
05:43-05:45
Like, "We want to get to know this guy.
05:47-05:50
And can you make that happen?" But look at verse 22.
05:51-05:52
It says, "Philip went and told Andrew.
05:53-06:05
Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus." So these Greeks are like, "We want to see Jesus." And Philip's like, "I'm going to have to put you on hold." Then he goes to Andrew.
06:05-06:08
He's like, "Hey, we've got some Greeks that want to see Jesus.
06:08-06:11
Has this happened before? What do we do about that?" Why did he go to Andrew?
06:12-06:17
Because Andrew's got this track record of bringing people to Jesus, right?
06:17-06:18
That was kind of Andrew's thing.
06:18-06:27
If you look back at 1.42, back in 6.8, Andrew was like the guy that was really good and introducing people to Jesus.
06:30-06:36
But Jesus' response to this is amazing.
06:37-06:38
Look at v. 23.
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It says, "And Jesus answered them, 'The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.'" Jesus said, "The hour has come." So many times in the Gospels, we see mention that His hour has not yet come.
07:03-07:04
We've seen it all through John.
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John 2:4, John 7:30, John 8:20, over and over.
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It wasn't His hour.
07:10-07:10
His hour had not yet come.
07:11-07:22
And now, for some reason, these Greeks coming to want to see Jesus He prompted Jesus to say, "The hour has come.
07:22-07:23
It's finally here.
07:24-07:36
The mission is reaching its climax because up to this point, Israel has been the focus of Jesus' ministry, and now Jesus is like, "Look, the Gentiles are coming to Me.
07:38-07:38
It's time.
07:46-07:48
It's time." Exactly.
07:51-07:53
Jesus explains what it's time for.
07:53-07:53
Look at verse 24.
07:54-08:03
Jesus says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone.
08:05-08:12
But if it dies, it bears much fruit." Jesus said it's time.
08:14-08:15
It's time for me to die.
08:18-08:28
And again, not with our hermit crabs, and certainly not when it comes to our Lord.
08:30-08:32
We don't want to talk about that.
08:34-08:39
And we have this inherent idea that death is bad, and I get why we have that idea.
08:39-08:41
The Bible says death is the enemy.
08:42-08:46
The Bible says death has come into the world as a result of the fall.
08:46-08:53
But, Jesus explains here that death isn't just like a part of the plan.
08:53-08:59
He says that death is the very centerpiece of His plan.
09:01-09:06
So these Greeks wanted to see Jesus.
09:08-09:15
I want to ask you this morning, church, and those watching this stream, are you a Greek?
09:17-09:17
What did you call me?
09:19-09:20
A Greek.
09:21-09:22
Are you a Greek?
09:23-09:24
Do you want to see Jesus?
09:24-09:27
I mean, do you really want to see Jesus?
09:28-09:30
Do you want to see Him for what He's about?
09:31-09:40
Then you have to understand His death, and you need to die." Wait, what?
09:41-09:44
Right now, somebody tuned out of the sermon for a second.
09:46-09:49
And that last phrase kind of snapped you back in.
09:49-09:53
I'm sorry, did he just say I needed to die?
09:56-09:56
Yeah.
09:57-10:05
Not physically, yet, but you do need to die.
10:05-10:13
And even though it's not physical, it's something just as shocking and just as painful.
10:15-10:18
The Bible says you need to die to yourself.
10:20-10:22
And that is quite a sales pitch.
10:24-10:40
"Yeah, I came here for the fish tacos." But I'm going to give you three reasons from God's Word that you need to die to yourself.
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So on your outline, if you're following along, taking notes, and I always encourage that.
10:49-10:51
Knowing His call, this is a sales pitch to die.
10:52-10:56
The first reason, number one, we're going to call this the theological reason.
10:56-11:00
This is the reason that Jesus gives to sort of set the table.
11:01-11:05
The theological reason is because Jesus says it's the path to glory.
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Death is the path to glory according to Jesus.
11:08-11:13
Look at verse 24 again, because you have to get what Jesus is saying here to understand the rest of it.
11:14-11:22
Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you..." Now when Jesus says that phrase, he's like, "Pay attention, edge your seat, Listen up, don't tune out.
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Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone.
11:32-11:34
But if it dies, it bears much fruits.
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So who's the grain here?
11:37-11:38
Who do you think he's talking about?
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Anybody? Any ideas?
11:40-11:41
Who do you think he's talking about?
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Yes, himself! Exactly!
11:46-11:47
He's talking about himself.
11:48-11:55
He's saying that unless He goes to the cross, His whole visit to the earth is wasted.
11:57-12:02
That's why He says it remains alone.
12:02-12:07
If that grain of wheat doesn't die, He said it remains alone.
12:07-12:09
You're like, what does He mean "remains alone"?
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If Jesus doesn't die, heaven is going to be empty.
12:14-12:20
Because there's no life for anyone if Jesus doesn't die.
12:22-12:25
If Jesus doesn't die, we wouldn't be talking about Him.
12:25-12:28
We wouldn't have been worshipping Him today.
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We wouldn't be sharing the good news of Jesus, because we'd all be lost sinners.
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You know that grain?
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That grain goes through a lot.
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It sprouts, and it grows, and it makes more grain, and it multiplies.
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You get that picture in your head?
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All of the things that happen with that grain only happen when it dies.
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But Jesus, as He so often does, gives His people a truth about Himself It becomes a truth about us.
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And here's the truth about Himself.
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And then He says, "You too, the only way to true glory is to die." He says, "That's My path to glory, and that's yours.
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I'm going to die, and you have to die too." We can explain what that means.
13:35-13:41
And that's our second reason, The second sales pitch to die here, you get the theological reason.
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The second reason, we're just going to call this the practical reason.
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You find life through your death.
13:51-13:52
Look at v. 25.
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See, there's a shift here.
13:54-13:59
He's talking about himself as the grain to the earth, dying, bearing fruit.
13:59-14:03
And then look at where he takes this teaching.
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Whoever loves his life loses it.
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And whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
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Stop there.
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Obviously, our death that he's talking about here, it's not like Jesus' death in the sense of sacrifice for sin, There is a principle that carries over.
14:35-14:38
Now you can't miss this or you're going to be lost for the next several minutes.
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There's a principle that carries over.
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We're going to call it the grain principle.
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And here's the grain principle.
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Death leads to life.
14:52-14:56
Another way of saying it, as Jesus put it another way, is this.
14:56-15:00
Loss leads to gain.
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And this is one of the most repeated teachings of Jesus all through the New Testament.
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Matthew 10:39, Jesus said, "Whoever finds his life will lose it.
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And whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." That's what Jesus is saying here.
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That's what Jesus is saying in this passage we're in now.
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And that's what Jesus says in Matthew 16.25, Mark 8.35, Luke 9.24, Luke 14.26, just to name a few, that's what Jesus says over and over and over.
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So much of what the Bible teaches, it's a paradox.
15:48-15:51
God's ways are higher than our ways, and most times they're opposite.
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There are so many of these in the Bible.
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For example, let's talk about a paradox.
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Jesus said if you want to be first, you have to be what?
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Last, right?
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Jesus said if you want to be exalted, what do you have to do?
16:12-16:13
Humble yourself, right?
16:13-16:19
And Jesus said if you want to be great, you want to be great, you want to be great, Jesus said you have to be a what?
16:20-16:20
A servant.
16:22-16:24
It's all these paradoxes.
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And here, Jesus said, if you love your life, you're gonna lose it forever.
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And if you hate your life, you're gonna keep it forever.
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And what does that mean?
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Let's just kind of break it down for a second.
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What does it mean to love your life?
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It means I'm invested in my life on this earth.
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My dreams, my goals, my ambitions, my hopes.
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I am invested, all of my chips are put on my life here on this earth.
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It's all about me maximizing who I am on this earth.
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I'm going to get my best life now.
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Sounds like a terrible title for a book.
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But Jesus said, just move on from there please.
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Jesus said, "If you love your life..." If that's you!
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He says you're going to lose it.
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It's going to end.
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The curtain will close, the credits will roll, and you'll have nothing.
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That sure doesn't go with some of the mottos that we love, right?
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You do you.
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You do you.
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Hey, whatever makes you happy.
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Or, it's my life.
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I have a hard time hearing that phrase without thinking of the Bon Jovi song.
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Anybody else?
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♫ It's my life I don't know any other words except that, but I saw it on a commercial or something.
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Anybody else go to the Bon Jovi with me?
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Okay.
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Okay.
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I was, All right. But Jesus said if that's the way you go, no matter what you think you get, your life will be a fail.
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But on the other hand, he says, "If you hate your life." Now, when Jesus was talking about hating your life, that is not self-abasement.
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That's not what it means to hate your life, to walk around going, "I'm a terrible person.
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I'm so ugly.
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I'm so stupid.
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I'm not good at the piano.
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I'm a terrible person." That's not what it means to hate your life.
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Hating your life also does not mean complaining about your life.
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"I hate my life.
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My life is miserable.
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I hate my life.
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I wish I was never born.
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I wish I was somebody else.
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That's not what it means to hate your life.
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What it means is to take your will and your desires and your ambitions and your pride, and you're like, I don't give a rip about any of those things.
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Because the only thing I care about will for my life.
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Advancing the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
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That's what I care about.
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Compared to that, all the stuff that matters to me, my little hopes and dreams, I hate that stuff.
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Compared to the surpassing greatness of the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
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That's what it means to hate your life.
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And Jesus says when you get there, you keep it for eternal life.
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So I would just encourage you to do the math.
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Do you want a temporary life? Or do you want eternal life?
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Because you have to, using Jesus' analogy here about Himself setting this up, you have to see yourself as a grain.
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And if you see yourself as a grain, it means if you're going to be what God wants you to be, you have to die to yourself.
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Imagine if I had a grain up here.
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and put the grain on the microphone.
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And said, "Grain, would you like to say a few words to the church before we bury you in the ground?" Maybe the grain would say something like this.
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"Bury me in the ground?
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You want me to go into the ground and die?
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I don't want to do that!
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Look, it's my life!
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It's my life!" Do you think there's a chance we can close with that?
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But that grain's like, look, look, look, I wanna be myself.
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As long as that grain has that attitude, that grain is never going to change, right?
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It's never gonna change.
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I don't wanna die, okay.
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Then you'll never change.
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Did you know they found grains in Pharaoh's tomb in Egypt?
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3,000 years old. Did you know this? Mark, I bet you knew that.
21:50-21:51
They found grains in Pharaoh's tomb.
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And they compared them with our grains today, and you know what they discovered?
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They were exactly the same.
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Exactly the same.
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3,000 years old, modern day, exactly the same.
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That grain did not change in 3,000 years.
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And they took some of those grains from Pharaoh's tomb, those 3,000 year old grains, and they put them in the ground.
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Do you know what happened?
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They sprouted, and they grew, and they multiplied.
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The moment it went into the ground, that grain became what it was meant to be.
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And I've got to tell you, church, it's the same thing for you.
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Because when that grain dies, it's over. It's the end.
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And at the same time, it's the beginning.
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That's how it is when you follow Jesus Christ.
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When you consider yourself dead to yourself, That is when life begins.
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That's why in the church, when somebody makes a commitment to come to Jesus Christ, we baptize them.
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Do you know why we baptize?
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It's a picture.
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Underwater.
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It's a tomb.
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I am dead!
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And when you come up out of the water, you say, "Now I am alive in Christ." But you're making that proclamation that I am dead.
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My life means nothing to me.
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The only thing that matters is the life of Jesus Christ.
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And this is the call of Jesus.
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Okay?
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What's the connection between verse 24 and verse 25?
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This.
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The call of Jesus.
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Like He did, will you die for the bigger picture?
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Will you die to self?
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You lay it all down for the bigger picture.
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By the way, this is the high benchmark of faith.
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You want to talk about faith?
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Do you really believe in the promise of heaven?
24:11-24:18
All the stuff that we've talked about, we went through so many passages, we've gone through Revelation, so much teaching about heaven, do you really believe that?
24:23-24:25
Are you willing to forsake this life for that one?
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Are you willing to die to your will so that you may live for God's will?
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Do you believe in Jesus Christ?
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Then will you lay down your life for the bigger picture as He has?
24:47-25:04
And I've got to tell you, whether you're sitting here or watching this online, If you don't believe Jesus' words that the hard path leads to glory, if you don't believe that, then you can go.
25:06-25:08
And you can live the easy life.
25:09-25:11
You can go. I'm not going to judge you.
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Nobody here is going to judge you.
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You can get up and leave if this stuff isn't for you.
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This is what we're going to be talking about.
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Because this is what Jesus said.
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So you can shut off your computer if you're streaming this, you can get up and leave.
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We're not sugarcoating this, okay?
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We're not promoting some vanilla church attendance thing, like, "Oh yeah, God's happy with that." Because Jesus doesn't offer any part-time positions.
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Jesus doesn't have any second string quarterbacks on His team.
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And you're like, "Oh, you know what?
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I'm mighty convicted by this message, Pastor Jeff.
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I'm going to give Jesus 99%." Not enough!
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According to him.
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Jesus doesn't accept anything less than 100%.
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Do you know why?
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Because death is 100%.
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Oh, we use phrases all the time that make no sense whatsoever, like "He was half dead." That doesn't mean anything. Half dead?
26:20-26:30
Or the other side of it, "Oh, he was barely alive." Look, I'm not a doctor, but those aren't real things.
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You're either 100% alive, or you're 100% dead.
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And in Jesus Christ, you are either 100% dead to yourself alive in Christ, or you are 100% not committed to Jesus Christ.
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That's what He calls you to.
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And that's why at Harvest Bible Chapel we talk about a quality of disciples, not a quantity of disciples.
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And I really don't care how many people are sitting here.
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I really don't care how many people are watching this online.
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I care that the people who are here and the people who are watching are 100% in.
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And I don't care if that's four people.
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I'll take four people here that are absolutely committed to following Jesus Christ, laying down their life.
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I will follow Him to the end.
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I'll take those four people.
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Over 10,000 seat warmers.
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Because church, the days are coming.
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And I would say that the days are here when we're going to see who is 100% committed to Jesus Christ and who is not.
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So, turn my back on this life.
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Forsake my desires and dreams "Boy, Jeff, that sounds like foolishness.
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Why in the world would I do something like that?" Well, that gets to our final reason.
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Number three, write this down.
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We're going to call this the motivational reason.
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God will honor you.
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Look at verse 26.
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Jesus said, "If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me.
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and where I am, there will my servant be also.
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If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him." Why would I do that?
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Why would I lay down my life?
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Why would I do that?
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I'll tell you why in one word.
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You ready for this?
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Write this word down.
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I'll tell you why.
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Heaven.
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Because it's not about here and now, about then and there.
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Not sold on that?
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Let me give you a little illustration, okay?
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Just imagine that you are offered a job in England.
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And here's the details of the job.
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They say, six months, we want you to move to England.
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You're gonna work here.
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And for that six months of work, we're going to pay you a million dollars.
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Like, well, don't they pay in pounds?
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I don't know what the conversion rate is.
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It's an illustration.
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They're like, "We'll pay you a million dollars.
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You're going to live in England for six months.
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Now you know when you move there, you're only going to be there for six months.
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So would you take that million dollars and live luxuriously for six months?
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Would you do that?" Meaning during your time in England, would you buy the best of everything?
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You would furnish your apartment.
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You would furnish your flat with expensive paintings and antique furniture.
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Would you do that?
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That would be idiotic!
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The smart play would be to save as much as you can and put it in a bank account back home to use when you get back to the United States in the place where you're going to be spending the rest of your life.
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That would be smart.
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That's the same concept Jesus is laying out here.
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Are you going to invest in your short time here?
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Or invest in where you're going to spend eternity?
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Which is the smart play.
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And Jesus sums up a life laid down for Him in two phrases.
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See in verse 26?
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What does it mean to be a Christian?
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Jesus sums it up in two phrases.
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Serving Him and following Him.
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You see that?
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I serve Him, whatever He's called me to do.
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If it means sacrificing my time, my money, well guess what?
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It's not my time, it's not my money, because I died to that way of thinking.
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It's His time and it's His money.
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Because He's alive in me.
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I'm dead, haven't you heard?
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Serving Him, following Him, wherever He sends me, whatever it costs me.
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I am following Jesus to the end the end, that's where He is.
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And if you need motivation to lay your life down for the sake of the gospel, if you need motivation, there is nothing that I can say to you that is going to have a greater impact than the last five words in verse 26.
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Look at them again.
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There's nothing I can say to you that matches this.
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Jesus said, "The Father will honor him." You're like, "What does that mean, Jeff?" I don't know. I have no idea.
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Why would it be that the God who died for me to give me everything, would honor me.
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I don't know.
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But Christ wants that for me.
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He promised me that, and He provided that, and He prescribed the way for me to receive it.
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So I believe it.
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Even if it's hard for me to conceptualize.
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Jesus said the finish line is, "The Father will honor you." Die to yourself.
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I'm going to ask the worship team to make their way forward.
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Our elders are going to be serving communion here in a minute.
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But as they do, you know, Jesus, when He talked about dying to yourself, hating your life, same concept.
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Almost every time, Jesus illustrated this teaching with this phrase, "Carry your cross." Now in our day, we've made carrying your cross this sort of abstract metaphor, right?
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Like, "My wife's a nag, that's my cross to bear." Or, "My husband's lazy, that's my cross to bear." Or, "I have dry skin, that's my cross to bear." Or whatever.
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But you know, to the people that Jesus was talking to, it wasn't an abstract metaphor.
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Because those people had seen people carrying their cross.
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And they saw the cross for what it was.
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It was a symbol of death.
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It was this abrupt and violent end of life.
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And the people that Jesus said, "Carry your cross," they had seen men carrying their cross through the streets, and they knew what that meant.
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That man is dead.
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That man said his goodbyes.
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And he wasn't off to have his life redirected to become a better you.
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That man was off to have his life ended.
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That's why carrying your cross, dying to self, hating your life, Not only is that a one-time decision, but Jesus said that has to be a daily decision.
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I died.
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I died a self every day.
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Jeff would have indulged in that sin, but Jeff is dead.
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Jeff, he would have put that person in their place, but Jeff is dead.
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Jeff would have lost his temper.
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Jeff is dead.
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Jeff would have insisted on his preferences.
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Jeff doesn't do that because Jeff is dead.
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Jeff had ambitions for his life.
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But Jeff is dead.
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Are you still looking to find your life?
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So you know Jesus called, and you've lost your life.
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Because this is the ultimate paradox of discipleship.
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Following Jesus costs you nothing, but it costs you everything.
Small Group Discussion
Read John 12:20-26
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Explain the connection between John 12:24 and 25. Why did Jesus go from “His death” to the “call to discipleship to hate your life in this world”? What's the connection?
Confession time: in what area do you need to “die to yourself / hate your life” (John 12:25)?
What does it mean that “the Father will honor you” (John 12:26)? What does that look like?
Breakout
Pray for one another to die to self – daily carrying your cross.