I have to admit, after thinking about a theme so long, the words motives for death probably sound a lot more normal to me than they do to the rest of the world. It was theme of last weekend’s youth camp and I continue to see more and more in the Word about learning to die to myself.
Though this theme has been on my mind for more than 5 months, it became very real for me when I spent a week with the MC students. We spent three days in the woods in a cabin talking about what it means to die to ourselves, followed by two days in Inner City Minneapolis, learning on a practical level how to put our feelings aside and reach out to people.
During that week, God showed me three motives for dying to ourselves. I’d like to share those with you.
LEVEL 1 – Dying is worth it for our sake. As we live a life dead to ourselves and alive in Christ, we will experience life at another level. We will have a fresh encounter with the Gospel. Through closer identification with His death through the cross, our intimacy with Him increases, which leads to increased fruit.
LEVEL 2 – Dying is worth it for others’ sake. The world will be reached by “dead” people – selfish people do not make good evangelists! We die so that others can encounter the Gospel. Their eternity – their salvation – is worth the price.
LEVEL 3 – Dying is worth it for Christ’s sake. Ultimately, we are not worthy, nor are other people – but Christ is worthy of our death to self. Do I consider pleasing Him to be worth dying to my own rights and desires?
I could talk and expound on these a lot, but I’ll leave you with the outline and let the Holy Spirit fill in the details. I will also leave you with this question, and perhaps it will help you clarify what it means to “live dead” – “Lord, when you see me ‘dead,’ what do you see?”
I am excited about many opportunities for discipleship and sowing into the lives of the young people here. I’ve already had some great meetings and look forward to many more!