Bro. John Gabe
July 6, 2011

John 12:23-26 says: Jesus replied, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to receive glory. What I'm about to tell you is true. Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only one seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

Anyone who loves his life will lose it. But anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it and have eternal life. Anyone who serves me must follow me. And where I am, my servant will also be. My Father will honor the one who serves me."

We all want to see Jesus. And we all want to grow. We have been in the community for so long, and we have learned so many things.  Yet, we want to grow beyond what we know.  The first is –

Dying to oneself.

Just like what we have read in the passage, unless a seed falls on the ground and dies it remains a seed.  But if it dies, it produces many grains. Do you know a seed of a plant or fruit that needs to be dried first or sun-dried before it is planted?  Corn needs to be dried. Peanuts, likewise, are sun-dried before they are planted so they will grow fast.  Once the seeds are planted, slowly they will grow—leaves will sprout and fruits will come out.

Similarly, to grow in intimacy with God, we need to die to ourselves so we can begin to sweep upward towards Christ who is life.  In what essence do we die to ourselves?  Is it stabbing ourselves so we die?  Or tie our necks and hang to die?  What kind of death we are talking here?

1. Death to our agenda.  Death to our plans, our desires and submission to the Father’s will.  We need to have a complete trust in God.  Otherwise, we cannot surrender to the will of the Father.  As what it is written, the Lord will bless those who do His will.  It is in trusting in God that He will never forsake us and believing that His plans for us are best for us.  Believe that good things will happen to us.  In so doing, it would be easy tor us  to die to our own plans so that the plan of God for us will come true.

2. Death to our ego, our pride.  If a servant of God is still protecting himself, he has not yet died to himself.  As we grow in intimacy with God, as baptized Christians who entered death with Christ, part of the death is setting aside the right to strike back.  If somebody spread rumors about us, the tendency is to challenge the person, argue with him, exchange bad words with him because it is our right to defend ourselves.  If we keep on explaining and explaining, nothing will happen to our life.  All of us have ego.  Even the saints have it, but they chose to kill the ego in them.  The question is, did our ego bring peace and goodness to others?  Mt. 5:39 says,  “But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on (your) right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.”  Let us not retaliate.

3. Death to our material possessions.  To die with Christ is to surrender all our material wealth. All, everything.  All to Jesus, I surrender.  We cannot bring anything after life.  What is important is how we nourish our relationship with God. All material blessings that we have and those that will come are not bad.  All of these are gifts from God so we could live comfortable lives.  And these blessings will come forth, flowing and runneth over if are worthy to receive them, and so we could also share these with others.  We should all be contended with what we have and be prepared for more blessings to come.  When we are blessed with material wealth, may it not be a reason for us to stay away from God. 

Mt. 19:21-22: “Jesus said unto him, If thou would be perfect, go, sell that which thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. But when the young man heard the saying, he went away sorrowful; for he was one that had great possessions.”

If we have the means, help others, especially our family.  If you are helping others, why not your family first? If we are good in charity with others, we must extend much more charity to  our families as well.  Otherwise,  1 Tim. 5:8 says, “People who don't take care of their relatives, and especially their own families, have given up their faith. They are worse than someone who doesn't have faith in the Lord.”

Mt. 19:24: “And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”  It is not bad to be rich.  It is a privilege given by God to those who are worthy of having it.  But remember, wealth should not be the reason for us to stay away from God.

If we want to grow in intimacy with God, it begins with dying to oneself.

Obedience to Christ.

Jn. 12:25-26 : “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.   If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me.”  Must, a command.

Once our mind, heart and whole being have been purified, we would desire nothing  but to follow the Lord and there would be less conflict.  Because all of us would want to follow Him.

Obedience to Christ is to do what Jesus wants us to do.  It is an action word, in response to trust.  There’s a saying “Ngawa ng ngawa, kulang sa gawa” (more talk, less work).   Life becomes strong when combined with action.   As what Bishop Bacani said, “We don’t need teachers, we need preachers.”  What’s the difference? Teachers use the mind to speak out (ngawa), preachers work then speak (gawa-ngawa).  Jesus worked first before He preached.  That’s why He was an effective preacher.

Obedience to Christ is to willingly submit to God’s will in the spirit of faith and love for Jesus.  If you want to see the goodness of God, look at those people who have become full-time preachers.  They were not abandoned by God.  Once you become a full-time preacher, you need to study and pray more.  You, people who submit to God’s will in the spirit of faith and love, work to support the community and the mission that the Lord gave you.  The things that full-time preachers must do—they are to pray, to preach and to practice what they preach.

It must be a conscious act to conform your will to His.  You act on His commands because you believe in who He is.  Do we really know who Jesus is?  God will never forsake  you nor abandon you.  We will cry not because we are losing hope, but because we are grateful.

God is true to His promise.  Never question God nor doubt His power.  If you are to ask a question, ask yourself, what have you done so far? What is the status of your relationship with God?  Have you matured in Christ?  Have you died to yourself?  Or are you still living in your old self?

What He says will happen. The proof that you trust His promises is by your action, by your obedience to God.  The Bible also says, obey your leaders.  Unless you die to yourself, there can never be obedience.  Once dead, it is easier to obey.

Letting go.

In following Christ, there are a lot of sacrifices. There are a lot of things we have to let go.  Our relationship with our loved ones is being sacrificed because we choose to follow Christ.   We enjoy the intimacy we have with God, which is the most important relationship.  But it doesn’t mean that they are not important to us and that we do not love them.  When we give importance to our relationship with God, He will take over and fill what is lacking in our relationship with our loved ones.

Letting go means not to cling to your emotions.  Your right to get angry,  to do anything you want, right to speak, you just have to let go.  If your elders reprimand you, just bow your head, let it go.  Sometimes, your elders are emotional and the Lord allows this to check your own emotions.  You should focus on God and not on your leaders for we are not perfect.

Letting go means realizing that you, and every one you love, will die.  And accepting that life is limited.  True holiness according to Mother  Teresa, whatever state we are in, whether up or down, there should be no changes in our relationship with God.  So let us remain in the mission until we are used by God effectively, mightily, powerfully for others.  You will not experience how good the Lord is if you will get out of the community.

For us to bear fruit, we need to die from our old selves.  As we control things by ourselves, at first, it would be very hard, but nothing is impossible with God. Eventually you will be able to control everything because God is now in control of your life.  Only then we could grow in our relationship with Christ and with others.