THE SLOGAN AND SYMBOL FOR CHRISTIANITY-

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1 TAKE UP YOUR CROSS LUKE 9:23-26 I. INTRODUCTION- a. Years ago when I worked in radio I had the responsibility of selling commercial time to local businesses. b. In order to be a more effective salesperson and in order to help my clients get the most for their advertising dollars I studied advertising. c. I specifically studied how the big national and international companies developed and conducted their advertising campaigns. d. I believed what was good for the big companies would be also be good for the local businesses I was servicing as well. e. One thing I noticed about the big, national companies almost all of them featured two things in their advertising #1, an easy to remember slogan #2, a symbol that they wanted people to associate with their business. f. Let me give you a little test you don t have to answer out loud but you can nod your head if you can associate the company with the following slogans and symbols. g. #1 slogan I m loving it symbol a sign featuring double golden arches McDonalds #2 slogan Just do it symbol a swoosh mark Nike. h. #3 slogan Melts in your mouth and not in your hands symbol two large M s connected by the and symbol M and M s #4 Betcha can t eat just one symbol the name of this company lettered in a distinctive type, almost always imbedded in a red box Lay s Potato Chips. II. THE SLOGAN AND SYMBOL FOR CHRISTIANITY-

2 a. If you were to choose a slogan and symbol for the Christian faith what would it be? b. Marketing experts today may suggest a dove as the symbol of Christianity and a slogan like Find the peace you have always wanted. c. Or they choose a shepherd's staff as the symbol of the Christian faith with a slogan like Let the Good Shepherd guide and protect you. d. Or maybe they would chose a rainbow as the symbol of Christianity and the slogan Come to the One who gives hope and always keeps His promises. e. Others may chose the picture of a big house or a fat wallet or a fancy car as the symbol of Christianity and the slogan How to have your best life now. f. But as you read these verses and these words of Jesus the slogan Jesus used then and the slogan Jesus uses today to call people to follow Him is Come and die and the symbol Jesus used for the faith He established was a cross. g. If today you were trying to get people to follow you and believe in you would you really use as your slogan Follow Me and die and would you really use the image of an instrument of tortuous death as your symbol? h. Today the equivalent of the cross would be the electric chair today would you really manufacture little golden replicas of an electric chair and hand them out as a symbol of your faith? i. To the modern mind or the mind of any age of all the strategies someone could use to try to gain a following no worse strategy could be found than inviting people to come and die and to use as your symbol the image of an instrument of tortuous execution.

3 j. And yet in this passage Jesus said to the crowd the Bible says that He said to them all. k. If you want to follow Me if you want to be My disciple if you want to receive the salvation the blessings the eternal life I have to offer then you must die. l. In this passage Jesus is not talking about literal physical death though that is always a possibility for those who follow Him. m. Every year around the world multitudes of people are killed because they are followers of Jesus Christ. n. In this passage Jesus is saying that if you want to follow Him then you must be willing to die to yourself to die to your ambitions your desires your goals your plans. o. Jesus said to follow Him you must deny that you have the right to run your own life you must be willing to surrender your life completely over to His control and follow Him. III. A WATERED DOWN GOSPEL- a. The church in America today is filled with pseudo-christians and unsaved church members because the message Jesus spoke in these verses is not the message that you will hear in many churches in our country today. b. We live in the age of comfort most Americans today are committed to spending a great deal of their time and resources seeking pleasure and making their lives as comfortable as possible. c. And, most Americans today are fiercely independent we insist on maintaining the right to control our own lives and do our own thing. d. A message that calls for people to die to sacrifice to surrender the control of their life to anyone including God will not be a popular message in America today.

4 e. Many churches recognize that the gospel that Jesus preached and many parts of the Word of God will never be popular in modern America. f. In order to draw crowds and fill the pews in order to be appealing to this world. g. Many churches in America have become embarrassingly worldly and carnal in their worship but more importantly they have watered down the Word of God and in some cases completely abandoned the gospel that Jesus preached. h. In these churches the Bible may be opened but what is presented is an edited and sanitized version of the Word of God. i. In these churches you will hear a lot about salvation but you will hear nothing of surrender you will hear a lot about forgiveness but you will hear nothing about repentance and sin. j. In these churches you will hear sermon after sermon on how special we all are about how God wants to solve all of our problems about how God wants us all to have our best life now but you will never hear a sermon about sin, surrender, sacrifice and dying to self. k. The theology presented in these churches is a sanitized, edited and watered down version of the Word of God and in many cases the gospel that Jesus preached is altered or completely ignored. l. Many of these churches are large, popular, growing and impressive. m. Many in the world will be attracted to a church that carries on more like a nightclub and rock concert in its worship than a church and a church that guts the Bible of its truth. n. Today in America more than ever we have to learn that God does not judge a church by how big it is and neither should we.

5 o. God judges a church by how faithful that church is in proclaiming and obeying the Word of God and in carrying out the mission God has given the church and proclaiming the gospel Jesus preached. p. Yes there are many wonderful large and mega churches that are God honoring in their worship and faithful to God s Word. q. But there are also many wonderful smaller churches that are just as faithful to God and His Word. r. When a church compromises, waters-down and filters the truth of God's Word when we change or abandon the gospel Jesus preached we rob the gospel of its power and we rob people of the life God has for them. IV. THE GOSPEL JESUS PREACHED- a. What is the gospel Jesus preached? listen to what Jesus said in these verses. b. Jesus said if you want to follow Me if you want to be My disciple if you want to receive the salvation the blessings the eternal life I have to offer. c. Then you must be willing to die to yourself you must be willing to die to your ambitions your desires your goals your plans. d. You must be willing to surrender to God s plan God s agenda and God s purpose for your life. e. You must be willing to receive Jesus for Who He is the Savior who died on the cross for your sins and the Lord of all. f. To follow Jesus and to receive the salvation He offers you must willing to deny that you have the right to run your own life. g. You must be willing to surrender your life completely to His control and follow Him.

6 h. In these verses Jesus makes it clear following Him and becoming a Christian means more than walking an isle joining a church and being baptized. i. Following Christ does not mean trying Jesus or adding Jesus on as a part of your life. j. Following Jesus and becoming a Christian means nothing less than the total surrender of your life to His control. k. In his book Mere Christianity C. S. Lewis put the decision to follow Jesus this way: Christ says, Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there. I want to have the whole tree down. I don't want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. I don t want part of you. I want all of you. l. In this passage Jesus is saying that if you are not willing to give Him all that you are and all that you have. m. If you are not willing to give Him your past, present and future if you are not willing to give Him complete control of your life you cannot be His follower and you cannot receive the salvation that He offers. n. Some may say I want to make that commitment to Christ I really do but I don t know if I can keep that kind of commitment. o. Here is what Jesus is asking you to do and more accurately since Jesus is Lord and King of all this is what Jesus is commanding you to do. p. Today King Jesus is commanding you to give your life to Him if you do so He will save you today finally, fully and forever based on your surrender and commitment to Him.

7 q. But not only is Jesus your Lord and King He is also your Friend and when you make a commitment to give your life to Him through the person of the Holy Spirit Jesus will come into your life to help you to keep that commitment. r. And when in the future as a follower of Christ you fail Him and every Christian fails the Lord. s. Jesus will not throw you away He will not take His salvation from you He will forgive you when you repent He will pick you up and He will help you to continue to follow Him. t. Today if you will make a commitment to give your life to Christ He will save you and change your life forever. V. COUNT THE COST- a. When many people hear the gospel that Jesus preached and count the cost of following Him they make the decision that the cost of following Jesus is too high. b. They don t mind adding Jesus to their friends list they don t mind joining the church and being baptized but they are not willing to die to themselves and give Jesus complete control of their life c. In Luke 14 Jesus told a parable about counting the cost of following Him. d. Luke 14:28-33 (NKJV) For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it-- lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he

8 sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple. e. Most people who count the cost of following Jesus ask the wrong question. f. The question is not what will it cost me if I follow Jesus following Jesus will cost you. g. Salvation is free but it is not cheap following Jesus will cost you it may even cost you your life. h. But, when counting the cost of following Jesus the right question is not what will it cost me to follow Jesus the right question is what will it cost me if I don t follow Jesus? i. Luke 9:24-26 (NKJV) For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels. j. If you refuse to give your life to Christ if you save your life for yourself if you hold on to your life for yourself if you live your life for yourself your wants and your ambitions in the end you will lose everyone and everything including your own soul. k. Jesus said even if you were to gain the whole world hyperbole what good will it be if you lose your own soul for all eternity? l. Whatever a person loses whatever a person gives up to follow Jesus is nothing compared to what they gain. m. You don t want to give up your ambitions your dreams your goals to follow Jesus?

9 n. Whatever ambition dreams goals desires and plans that God has for your life is far greater than anything you can begin to imagine. VI. CONCLUSION- a. Have you made this commitment to Christ?