Dying to Self (flesh)

1. Several expressions to describe self-centeredness : the old self (Rom 6:6), the flesh (Gal 5:16-17), the sinful nature (rom 7:18), the carnal mind (Rom 8:7).
2. Essentially it is a self that wants everything and everyone to revolve around it, an ego that puts not God but itself at the center.
3. The ego-centeredness and the self-reference are like a defective compass. In Latin, cor curvum in se (curved in on ourselves). They are exact opposites of self-giving and self-sacrifice.
4. Although we have been born again, we treat Jesus as a guest in our home. Jesus is not content to be a guest. He wants to be the president, not just a resident. We have given Him certain parts and we are still in charge.
5. As Christ begins to challenge us at the point of total ownership or lordship over our life, we often will try to bargain with Him by giving Him individual rooms, but not the whole. We surrender things to Him – time, money, service – yet without surrendering ourselves.
6. It’s time for His lordship to become actualized in us at a profound level. We need to undergo a deeper death to self and be brought to a place of full surrender so that Christ can exercise full control.
7. Will Christ be the hub or merely a spoke? How we decide will determine the fruitfulness of our life and ministry. Only after a person had died to self at a deeper level did they enter into the Christ-controlled, Spirit filled life and ministry. 
8. Died to self : opinion, preferences, tastes and will, died to the world : its approval or censure, died to the approval or blame of my brethren and friends, and since then I have studied only to show myself approved unto God. Until you fully surrender right to themselves, you wont be set free from the tyranny of a divided self. When you reach the state of fully surrender, you life becomes a living and holy sacrifice, a fragrant offering, acceptable to God. Out of their dying to self, they were raised to new life. As they entered deeply into Christ’s death, they experienced the power of His resurrection. They’ll give up many things for Christ, but will not disown themselves.
9. There are misconceptions about full surrender. Like the Pharisee who was proud because he was not like the despicable tax collector (Luke 18:9-14), they are proud of their self surrender. Their self renunciation is actually an expression of the old self that needs to die. Others get caught in a vicious cycle of trying to make a perfect surrender. Without realizing it, they turn it into a human accomplishment, a way of exalting themselves and their own righteousness.
10. What we can do is offer ourselves to God as fully and completely as we know how. Then in response to our surrendered act of will, God will accomplish a deeper work of grace in us, consecrating us completely to His service.
11. Some believe that once they have fully surrendered themselves to God, they’ll never have to struggle with self-will again. It does not work that way, as we face new situations, as new issues in life and ministry unfold, we will continue to wrestle with self-will. Dying to self therefore both a crisis and a process. Each new circumstance becomes an opportunity to reaffirm our full surrender.
12. Hagar was born in human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God’s promise. We often tempted to follow the same pattern in our ministry : to bring about God’s will and purpose in our own way and in our own strength, according to our timetable, instead God’s way and strength according to His timetable. Rooted in our religious self determination, done in the power of the flesh, it is a human attempt to accomplish God’s will and is descended from Ishmael to Isaac.
13. Be productive and make it happen vs be fruitful. Striving to build Christ’s church vs allowing Christ to build His church through you.
14. Asking God to set one’s goals and to bless one’s dreams does not ensure that they are from God. Only God can reveal His plans and He does do in His ways, on His time schedule and to whom He wills.
15. Even though God redeemed Abraham and Sarah mistake by blessing Ishmael, still there was a gut-wrenching day several years later when God said to get rid of Ishmael.
16. There came a time when Isaac, became a problem child, a hindrance to Abraham’s relationship with God. For Abraham was delighting more in Isaac that in the Lord (Psalm 37:4). He had made an idol out of Isaac. So God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.
17. For Christians, ministry becomes our Isaac. The greatest competitor of devotion to Jesus is service for Him. Too often we love our ministry that we love God.
18. Throughout our ministry we’ll be given countless opportunities to die to ourselves. In such sacrificial self-giving, patterned after the triune self giving, we find our highest fulfillment, greatest fruitfulness and truest freedom.

Learning to Accept Selves

1. The act of self acceptance is the root of all things. I must agree to be the person who I am. There is a fallen and sinful self that must be denied (Mark 8:34) and put to death (Romans 6:6) and also there is a new self, that is loved by God and is therefore to be accepted and nourished (Eph 4:24)
2. Journey to self acceptance
   • Renouncing the false self. The false self who hide behind fig leaves of accomplishment, acceptance from others (approvalholic) and acclaim.
   • Removing the seeds of self rejection. It can be from traumatic childhood, horizontal comparison, seeking to establish my self worth on the basis of accomplishments, acceptance and acclaims.
   • Receiving our acceptance from Christ. Hear Him say, “My child, you are accepted in the Beloved.”
3. Embracing our weaknesses. Cherish and delight in yourself and all that you are as God cherishes and delights in you.