Life Dedicated To God!

Mark 8:34-37

Dr. C Roy Angell told a wealthy businessman who had an appointment with a certain man.
The appointment was for 7 PM in the man's home.
The businessman arrived early, and was told that the family was still eating.
As he waited, he looked at his clothes, and wished that he had taken the time
to shave and clean up.

A five-year-old boy came into the room, and looked at the businessman, and said:
"My daddy told me that you are a millionaire. Are you?"

The man answered, "Yes."
The boy continued to say, "Daddy also said that you are a self-made man. Are you?"
Again the man answered, "Yes."

Looking the businessman over from his dusty shoes to his messed-up hair, the boy asked,
"What did you make yourself like that for?"

The boy asked a question which implies a tremendous truth.
We are responsible for our lives.
When God gave us life, He also gave us the power of self-determination.
We decide and determine what we will make of our lives.

Many blame circumstances, situations, and even other people for becoming
what they are.
However, when a person analyzes his situation, he must admit that he is responsible
for what he is.

The Lord Jesus taught that everyone must do something with his life,
and that the choice is up to every person.
Teaching us what should be done in order to experience the best of life,
Jesus calls upon us to dedicate ourselves to Him.

Mark 8:34-37: "And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also,
he said unto them, whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself,
and take up his cross, and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake
and the gospel's the same shall save it.
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"

In calling us to dedication, Jesus Christ said that we can keep life for ourselves and lose it,
or we can give our lives to him and find it.

Keep Life and Lose It.

There are so many who live life with the idea, "My life is mine, and I will do with it what I want;
and it is nobody's business but mine."

This philosophy is expressed in the poem, "Invictus."

"Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud,
Under the bludeonings a chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul."

Perhaps, most people who live selfishly only for themselves, are not brash or bold enough
to say that to God out loud.
But they say it by the way they live.

A man went shopping with his wife one day.
The shopping trip carried them to a large variety store.
The man became tired of following his wife around, so he stood beside a counter
to wait until she was through shopping.
The counter happened to be a candy counter.

As the man waited for his wife, a little boy came into the store,
and walked up to the candy counter.
The boy was filthy and barefooted.
His clothes were old and dirty.
It was obvious that he had no money, but he had come into the store to feast his eyes
on all the candy behind the glass counter.

A man took some money out of his pocket, and gave it to the boy.
Quick as a flash, the boy motioned for the sales clerk, and he spent every cent
buying candy.
When the sales clerk gave the boy the bag of candy, he begin to stuff his mouth
with as much as it would hold.

The man watched the boy for a few seconds, and then asked,
"Son, may I have a piece of your candy?"

The little boy clutched the bag to his body as as if it were the most precious possession
in the world, and said, "No! It's mine; it's mine!"

That is how so many people are with their lives,
The Lord God has given the gift of life, and He knows the best way for it to be used.
When God calls people to dedicate their lives to Him, many cry, "No! It's mine; it's mine!"

Jesus said that to keep life for self is to lose it.
The best illustration of this truth in the Bible is the story that is called
the parable of the prodigal son.
One day that young man went to his father and asked for his share of the family wealth
that would be his when his father would die.
The young man took his wealth, and went to a far country.
In that far country, he foolishly squandered all he had, and he ended up in a pig's pen.

The young man was appropriately called, "the prodigal."
That word means "waster".
In selfishly holding on to what was his, he lost it.

To keep life for self is to lose it because it means keeping our life from God.
We were created to become children of God and members of His family.
When someone holds onto his life for himself, he keeps it from God.
He loses a family inheritance greater than anyone can began to imagine.

Also, when a person keeps his life for himself, he loses it because he lives by the wrong rules.
Everyone must have some rules, some standards, and a value system by which to live.
If he rejects those that God demands in His Word, he must accept those
formulated by others or make up his own.

One reason so many people are bewitched, bothered, and the bewildered is that
they are making up their own rules for the game of life, and they are changing
the rules constantly to suit the times.

John Ehrlichman of Watergate infamy, in an interview with a writer of the New York Magazine, said,
"I'm more and more realizing that I lived 50 years of my life without ever really coming to grips
with the very basic question of what is and what is not right and wrong,
what is and what is not valuable and worthwhile."
This is the dilemma of the person who keeps his life for himself.

Then, to keep life for self is to lose it because that life is wasted.

Even though years are spent, successes are experienced, and a name is made for yourself,
it can all be for nothing.
People lose their lives and live them selflessly to acquire fame and fortune, but to what end?
When they die the fortune is left behind for others to enjoy or waste,
and their fame is soon forgotten and eclipsed by others.
Their life is lost, when it is spent for things which do not last.

Give Your Life and Find It.

Lord Jesus said, "But whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's,
the same shall save it."

By "losing life," the Lord means giving it to Him.
It sounds contradictory to say that one finds something by giving it away,
but this is the way it is with life.
The giving of life is not easy.
I believe the Lord's statement that the giving of life to follow Him is the most difficult thing
that He ever asked us to do.

We speak of this demand so glibly, and many people profess to do this
without any realization of all that is involved in that act.
To deny self means to relinquish all rights to your life by turning it over to the Lord.

Jesus also said that we must die to self.
A cross symbolized death in that time, just as an electric chair or a hangman's noose does today.
This was clearly understood by everyone who heard the Lord say that giving self
means to "take up his cross."

The historian, Josephus, records that in A.D. 6, a zealot named Judas of Galilee
led a band of Jewish nationalists to attack a Roman armory at Stepphoris,
just 4 miles from Nazareth.
The Roman reaction was swift and brutal.

They burned Stepphoris to the ground.
The women and children were sold into slavery.
All the men, including Judas and his nationalists, were crucified.
Some 2,000 men were crucified on crosses which lined the roadways.

All this was in the vicinity of the hometown of Jesus when he was a boy of about 11 or 12.
There is little doubt that Jesus saw all those crosses and the men hanging on them.
Jesus knew that a cross meant death.

When the Lord Jesus said, "Take up his cross," He was calling us to die to self.
These two factors in the giving of life to Christ -- denial of self and death to self
-- stresses the fact that self-giving is not easy.
The easy thing is just to hold on to life, and not deny it or die to self.
But this is what Christ demands in His call for dedication.

It is through the giving of self to Jesus Christ that life is saved.
We are not capable of living apart from a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
In order to survive, we must rely on resources beyond ourselves.

C.S. Lewis told of waking up in the middle of the night, and being unable to go back to sleep.
As he lay there, he reflected on his condition.
It was utterly dark, so there was nothing to see.
Everything was utterly still, so there was nothing to hear.
He was utterly alone, so there was no one with whom he could relate.

He concluded that nothing could be more threatening to his humanness than such isolation.
Then the thought came to him, "What if I had to live on like this forever and forever?"
For him such a prospect was more fearful than a thousand burning hills.
Lewis said that he realized that such an existence was the logical end
of living a totally self-centered life.

In giving our life to Christ, we come into a living relationship with the Lord God.
That is what salvation is.
For this reason, the Lord Jesus said that in giving life, we really find it.
Furthermore, the giving of life results in finding it, for the life dedicated
to Christ is the only life worth living.

A great tragedy of our times is that for many people, life is an intolerable burden.
People used to put up little placards reminding us to smile.

Many are like the young mother who was seen at a circus with her child.
The child was crying, and the mother who was shaking the child could be heard
over the noise of the circus saying,
"You wanted to come, and you are going to have a good time even if it kills you."

It is paradoxical to recognize that more and more time is spent for recreation.
Yet research studies have revealed that 76% of our total leisure time is spent
passively watching others perform.
We do not even know how to entertain ourselves.

When life is dedicated to the Lord Jesus, it takes on a new meaning.
Each day is seen as the day that the Lord has made.
Life really begins when we give ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is a gravestone in a cemetery in Indiana which express is an unusual message:
"John Evans
Born 1850, Died 1916
Age, 2 years.

John Evans lived in this world for over 60 years.
He gave his life to Jesus shortly before he died.
Recognizing that the moment when he gave his life to Jesus was when his life began for him.
He left instructions that his gravestone indicate his age in relation to his discovery of real life.

What can you do with your life?
You can keep it for yourself and lose it.
Or you can give your life to Christ and find it.

Two young men were driving down a highway in their car.
The highway intersected with a railroad crossing .
As they approached the railroad crossing, the young men saw that a train
was also approaching the crossing.

The driver of the car said to his companion,
"If I floorboard it, I can beat the train to the crossing and save 2 minutes."
With that he jammed the accelerator to the floor, and the car shot
across the tracks just seconds ahead of the oncoming train.

This experience scared the second boy almost to death.
When he got his heart out of his throat, he asked,
"Now, what are you going to do with the two minutes you saved?"

God has given the gift of life, and the decision of what you do with it is yours to make.
It is the most important decision that you will ever make.
At this very moment, God calls you to dedicate your life completely to Him.
Then we can not say: "It's mine!"
But we can say, "It's Thine!"

Is Your All On The Altar?

"You have longed for sweet peace,
And for faith to increase,
And have earnestly, fervently prayed;
But you cannot have rest,
Or be perfectly blest,
Until all on the altar is laid.

Would you walk with the Lord,
In the light of His Word,
And have peace and contentment alway?
You must do His sweet will,
To be free from all ill,
On the altar your all you must lay.

O we never can know
What the Lord will bestow
Of the blessings for which we have prayed,
Till our body and soul
He doth fully control,
And our all on the altar is laid.

Who can tell all the love
He will send from above,
And how happy our hearts will be made,
Of the fellowship sweet
We shall share at His feet,
When our all on the altar is laid.

Chorus:
Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid?
Your heart does the Spirit control?
You can only be blest,
And have peace and sweet rest,
As you yield Him your body and soul."

Sermon adapted from several sources by Dr. Harold L. White