I Me Myself - The Desires and Denial of the Self [Sermon]

Sandy Cove, Maryland, USA

August 2024

Matthew 16:24 NASB

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.

1. The Identity of the Self

Gen 1:26-27

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27 So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

Heb 1:3

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature…

Gen 2:19

Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.

Gen 1:28

And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Gen 2:5

When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground,

Gen 2:24

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

2. The Elevation of the Self

Gen 3:6

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

Ephesians 2:1-3

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Genesis 9:6

“Whoever sheds the blood of man,

by man shall his blood be shed,

for God made man in his own image.

Gen 3:17

cursed is the ground because of you;

in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

Genesis 3:8

8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

Genesis 3:16 NASB

Yet your desire will be for your husband,

And he shall rule over you.”

3. The Desires of The Self

2 Peter 2:10 (NASB)

10 … those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt passion, and despise authority. Reckless, self-centered, they speak abusively of angelic majesties without trembling…

4. The Denial of the Self

Galatians 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 5:16-17

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

2 Corinthians 3:18

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

1 Cor. 15:31

I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day!

1 Cor 9:27

But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

To deny oneself is to say no to the self and yes to God in every circumstance. It is to dethrone ourselves and enthrone God.