 Jesus himself, the king of kings, has given to you four royal invitations. How will you respond? Before I begin, if you're watching us on YouTube, don't forget to subscribe to EncounterTV and click that notification bell when you do so you can receive notices whenever we put out new content. You can also follow us wherever you're watching us. If you are listening to this message right now, it's because a love for Jesus burns in your heart. You want to know his mind. You want to know his will. You want to know his nature. You want to know what he really is like. You want to hear his voice. You want to obey him. You want to please him. And as you respond to the invitations of the Lord, as you follow him along on your journey of faith, you will be challenged. You will face hardships. There will be moments of sacrifice, but still that fire burns in you. And you say, as the scripture says, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. That's Philippians 3.10. What a privilege it is to know Jesus. What a privilege it is that we have been invited by the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the God of the universe to follow him, to learn his ways. He's calling you now to higher heights. He's inviting you to deeper depths. But for every level of knowing him, there is a level of death to self. For every step that you will take toward him, there is also a sacrifice that must be made to lay hold of the heavenly. You must let go of the material. And Jesus calls to you. He invites you to know him. He invites you that he might share his heart with you. Now, as I study the scripture, I see that there were many invitations that the Lord called out. Certain people responded to different invitations that the Lord gave. And truly, these are royal invitations. These are divine invitations. But with every response to an invitation from the Lord, there will be something you must put on the altar. In John chapter 1, verse 39, Jesus said, come and see. Come and look at what I can do is basically what he was saying. Come and see the miracles. Come and see the healings. Come and see the demons driven out of the demon possessed. And there is no shame in coming to the Lord for a miracle. In fact, that's how you may have found him. There's nothing wrong with coming to the Lord with a broken marriage and saying, Lord, please restore my marriage. There's nothing wrong with coming to him with a sickness and saying, Lord, please heal my body. There's nothing wrong with coming to him and saying, Lord, I need deliverance. I need freedom. I need emotional or mental healing. The crowds followed him for the miracles. And he never rebuked the crowds for following him because of the miracles. Sure, there were moments when he wanted to call them to higher places, but he allowed them to see that which he could perform. He would feed the multitudes. He invited them to hear him teach. He welcomed them to come and see. And this is the point that many believers remain. They come and they see he's good. He's deliverer. He's healer. He's savior. But beyond that, they never really come to know him. They embrace him in a way that's convenient. They come close enough to be blessed, but never close enough to be challenged. They come close enough that they might be wowed by the miracles. But they never come close enough for it to cost them something. But that's not you. For you have said that I may know him. There's a yearning in your heart. There's a desire. And that was placed there by the Holy Spirit. That you may know him in the power of his resurrection, even unto knowing him to the fellowship of his sufferings. But beyond just checking it out, beyond just seeing what he can do, there is another invitation that the Lord will give as you progress on your journey of faith. John 1.43, the next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, Come, follow me. This is an invitation with a greater level of commitment. You see when he says, Come and see, he will do for you. But when he says, Come, follow me, now it's time to change directions. But even this level of commitment for some is not necessarily a sacrifice. Because to change directions from sin, to change directions from addiction, to change directions from bondage and unto the marvelous light of God really isn't a sacrifice. In fact, I don't think there really is such a thing as sacrifice when following Jesus. Because everything we give to him in exchange we get something far greater than what we gave to him. So really, no, there is no such thing as absolute sacrifice, but there are those things that will challenge us and we call those things sacrifice. But to follow him is to change directions. This is when you say, I want to live as you live. I want to do as you do. I want to live my life in such a way that Jesus is glorified. And for some even this at the beginning is simple and easy. Because like I said, we come out of darkness into light. What a wonderful thing. Who really is going to complain if the Lord should take from them an addiction? Who really is going to complain if the Lord should remove from them a bondage? But as you follow him, eventually you'll find that there are things that challenge you deeply, beliefs that you've held on to, mindsets that you don't want to change, habits that you may not even have realized were sinful or insulting to the glory of God. Come follow me along that path when you follow him. Eventually you will come to a place and please hear what I'm saying and don't misunderstand me. Eventually you will come to a place where you disagree with the Lord. Lord, I don't agree with what you're saying. Lord, I don't agree with how I should handle this. And we may not say it just straight out like that, but we say it with our lives when we resist his instructions. Along that path of following him, there will be challenges. He will contradict deeply held beliefs. He will ask of you things that are most precious to you. And therein is the death of self. So he'll say, come and see. We see the miracles. And he says, follow me. Now it's time to change directions. And as we follow him, we come to a point where there now is a challenge to our humanity and that's when he turns to us and says, come and deny yourself. Matthew 16, 24 through 27, then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it. And whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited? If he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul. Or what shall a man give an exchange for his soul? For the son of man shall come in the glory of his father with his angels. And then he shall reward every man according to his works. You want to follow Jesus at some point, you're going to have to deny yourself. This is rarely talked about anymore in churches. This is rarely preached anymore. There is a point where you will deny yourself. The death of self, putting self on that cross, denying your urges, denying maybe what you thought was the plan for your life. You know, sometimes the plan for your life that you have will contradict the plan that God has for your life. Sometimes you will disagree on how certain things should be handled. And this is why instead of rebelling against him, we must come into agreement, deny ourselves and allow ourselves to experience this death. Not a literal one, but a spiritual one. Death to self is a key to intimacy with the Lord, to truly knowing him. Come and deny yourself. So first he says, come and see. And this is where he demonstrates his power. Then he says, come, follow me. And this is where you begin to change directions in your life. And at first this may be easy because you're just exchanging darkness for light. But while it's easy to exchange darkness for light, sometimes we put up a fight when we exchange self for God. It's easy to give up darkness. It's easy to say no to darkness when you have Jesus. But there's that selfishness in us that makes it so difficult to give up self. The plans and the dreams that we have. The ambitions and the goals that we thought were the purpose of life. There comes a point where he will require of you that which is precious to you. Where changing directions will challenge the deepest part of your selfishness. And if you can do that, if you'll count the cost, deny yourself and follow him. There's another invitation that he gives. Matthew 25, 21. His master replied, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness. Come and see. Come follow me. Come and deny yourself. Come and share your master's happiness. When you know the fellowship of his suffering, that is to pick up a cross and die to self for the sake of his love, for the sake of his word. To obey him when you don't want to. To follow him when you don't want to. To sacrifice when you don't want to. To give up that which you desire. For what he desires, not my will but your will. That's to suffer. And to suffer is to know fellowship with him. And to know that fellowship of his sufferings is to then receive this invitation. Come and share your master's happiness. We've been given a royal invitation indeed to follow him, the Son of God, the lover of our souls. And I promise you this, following Jesus at every level is worth it because you get him. You get his presence. You know his love. It's one thing for you to trust the Lord. It's another thing entirely for the Lord to trust you. If you want that, then it's time to deny yourself. Follow him no matter the cost, no matter the price. And you will know the depths of fellowship with the Holy Spirit, such as you have never known. So Father in the name of Jesus, I lift that one now who desires to follow you with all that they are. I pray, Lord, that you would give them the courage, the boldness and the grace to respond to the invitations that you've given to us, what a privilege that is. Lord, give them the grace to live as you would have them live. Glorify yourself with our lives, Lord. In the name of Jesus, we pray. I want you to say it because you believe it. Say, Amen. Here now is a question for conversation. What have you given up to follow Jesus and why was it worth it? Let me know in the comment section. Before I say goodbye, remember, if you're watching us on YouTube, make sure you're subscribed to EncounterTV and click that notification bell so that you can receive notices when we release new content. You can also follow us wherever you're watching us. I want to read Matthew chapter six, verse 33 to you. Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need. Jesus here is saying that if you put the kingdom of God first, that if you live righteously, that all those things that you worry about, namely your material needs, will be taken care of. You can trust the Lord. When you put the kingdom first, when you put the gospel first, you are stepping out in faith on God's word. You're saying, God, I trust you and I know you'll meet my every need. 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