Jubilee Church
Glorious Intimacy with God - Pt 2 FINAL
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  • Call Upon The Lord
  • See A Victory
  • What A Beautiful Name
  • Nothing Else

  • Are You In Denial

    Have you ever heard the phrase, “They are just in denial”? What does that even really mean? Well, Webster’s Dictionary defines it as “Refusal to admit the truth or reality of something, refusal to acknowledge something unpleasant; And as a term of Psychology: denial is a defense mechanism in which confrontation with a personal problem or with reality is avoided by denying the existence of the problem or reality.”
    This is a condition that probably many of us have found ourselves in but refused to accept it. Sort of a self-denial of self-denial. This is often a tool that sin uses. Many people who live without the Lordship of Christ are in denial that they even need a Savior. Yet, even many Christians live in the same manner. They assume that Christ wants to be their Savior but deny His requirement to also be their Lord.
    Salvation of Christ void of His Lordship is at it’s core self motivated. I want Jesus to save me from sin, hell and eternal damnation. I want His salvation to delivery me from His wrath and judgement and atone for my sin. I want His salvation to afford me the blessings and benefits of the Christian life and even the eternality of heaven and His presence. But I do not wish the self-denial, self-sacrifice, self- surrender, selfless living required for His Lordship. Even more seasoned Christians take a self-denial position of using their longevity in the church as Jesus justification for their rotten attitudes, use of profanity in King James Version, and holding grudges on some self proclaimed spiritual grounds. Either way, it denies Christ of His Lordship.
    Sin is us putting ourselves above God. Yet, self-denial is to identify yourself with the suffering of another such as the Christ.
    Philippians 3:8 ESV
    Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
    2 Timothy 2:3 ESV
    Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
    Romans 5:2–5 ESV
    Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
    Today churches are filled with professing Christians who are actually in this context of denial. They refuse to see their pitiful state even while professing to be a “follower” of the Christ. But what kind of denial does Christ really want from us to truly know Him intimately for His glories sake?
    Luke 9:23 ESV
    And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
    We can all read and see that these were the words of the Christ. But what was His intent? What was His “thought pattern” behind such words? In my Young Timothy’s group this week my son Joshua responded to a question about “What all is affected in our lives by our worldview and how is it developed?” His response was, “thought patterns”. A single thought that is entertained can lead to subsequent thoughts that attach to themselves emotions. These may be your thoughts or the thoughts of others. These thoughts collectively, through repetition, develop patterns and formulate ideas that develop ideologies that become our worldview that shapes our identity. Thus, from this worldview comes our perceptions, assumptions, choices and actions that affect every area of our lives. This is why it is so important to take command over your thoughts and think on God’s thoughts.
    Isaiah 55:9 ESV
    For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
    Psalm 139:23 ESV
    Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!
    The concept Jesus uses in Luke 9:23 is not self-denial but denying self. It can be understood through two Hebrew words:
    mana’ מָנַע meaning to withhold, restrain, hold back, control or rule over as God told Cain in Genesis 4:7
    Genesis 4:7 ESV
    If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
    2. kaphar כָּפַר meaning to reject or resist. There was an old Jewish idiom from this word that meant “to cover ones face”. Thus, in the Piel form of the word it means to cover, reconcile, or restore to favor.
    So, how can Christ mean both of these concepts when He commands us to “deny self”? In order for Him to be Lord of your life you have to crucify your flesh, your old carnal self, to include every thought taken captive, every emotion surrendered, every idea, your ways, your choices, your appetites, everything crucified so that who you are is no longer you but a reflection of the resurrected Christ Jesus. God desires us to grow to the full and mature stature of Jesus Christ, not remain spiritual adolescents trapped in an old spiritual body and call it church. It is not Christ that needs to grow up, it is us who need to grow up. Christ is no longer a baby, He grew up and bore His cross. The question is, when will the church?
    You must “mana” or withhold, restrain, hold back, control or rule over any inclination, tendency or desire that may seek to find its way back through a thought, idea, emotion or choice that is contradictory to the nature of the mature Christ whose life you are now living.
    Without His Lordship in His resurrection, how will you know, understand and embrace His kaphar or salvation of reconciliation and favor with the Father? It is His redemptive work at the cross that (kaphar) covered your sins and it is His resurrection life and power through the Holy Spirit that helps you stay covered or under His sovereign authority. You cannot live in the favor or in intimate relationship with God short of His Lordship. Otherwise, it is like a pie without a filling, a dog without a bone, or a bride without a groom. It reminds me of when my daughter Tori was younger and we went to IHOP. She ordered cheese sticks and when she received them they had no cheese in them.
    Jesus is not just talking about mere asceticism (abstention from self-indulgence of fleshly desire). Often, this becomes a religious practice from a motive of trying to make oneself holy void of an inward conversion and transformation. Even fasting, if the motive and focus is wrong, can become merely accusative, observatory, or just worthless self-inflicted misery.
    Through the work of Christ, the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit you do not have to live merely trying to abstain from fleshly gravitation to evil inclinations such as self-gratification, evil, shameful and carnal desires. But you can live a renewed, restored, redeemed, resurrected life in Christ Jesus and know, understand, and live in the intimate will of God’s glory.
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Jubilee Church
jubileechurchintl@gmail.com
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