MOULD YOURSELF
Andrew Hoseason   24/4/1999

I had the choice of the easy message or that which upset people.
Which did I feel was the one?
It’s difficult to give this message because it can easily be misinterpreted so that you, the hearer are hurt.
But I have to obey the message rather to pander to my own desire to avoid it.

I have to stand on a Godly foundation rather than a foundation of my own preferences.

Its very hard to stand here, I don’t like the layout.   But I must put up with that for the greater pleasure of spreading a godly message that I have been given.

Deny yourself.	Matthew 16:24-27
	“Then Jesus said to His disciples,  "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. for whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it.  For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?  "For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and WILL THEN RECOMPENSE EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.

Why bother?  some might wonder   Leviticus 26  Blessings and curses.
	“Do not make idols or set up carved images, sacred pillars, or shaped stones to be worshiped in your land. I, the LORD, am your God.  You must keep my Sabbath days of rest and show reverence for my sanctuary. I am the LORD.  “If you keep my laws and are careful to obey my commands, I will send the seasonal rains. The land will then yield its crops, and the trees will produce their fruit.  Your threshing season will extend until the grape harvest, and your grape harvest will extend until it is time to plant grain again. You will eat your fill and live securely in your land.  I will give you peace in the land, and you will be able to sleep without fear. I will remove the wild animals from your land and protect you from your enemies.  In fact, you will chase down all your enemies and slaughter them with your swords. 8Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand! All your enemies will fall beneath the blows of your weapons.  I will look favourably upon you and multiply your people and fulfil my covenant with you.  You will have such a surplus of crops that you will need to get rid of the leftovers from the previous year to make room for each new harvest.   I will live among you, and I will not despise you.  I will walk among you; I will be your God, and you will be my people.   I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you from the land of Egypt so you would no longer be slaves. I have lifted the yoke of slavery from your neck so you can walk free with your heads held high.

	“However, if you do not listen to me or obey my commands, and if you break my covenant by rejecting my laws and treating my regulations with contempt, I will punish you. You will suffer from sudden terrors, with wasting diseases, and with burning fevers, causing your eyes to fail and your life to ebb away. You will plant your crops in vain because your enemies will eat them. I will turn against you, and you will be defeated by all your enemies. They will rule over you, and you will run even when no one is chasing you!
	“And if, in spite of this, you still disobey me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over.   I will break down your arrogant spirit by making the skies above as unyielding as iron and the earth beneath as hard as bronze.   All your work will be for nothing, for your land will yield no crops, and your trees will bear no fruit.
	“If even then you remain hostile toward me and refuse to obey, I will inflict you with seven more disasters for your sins.   I will release wild animals that will kill your children and destroy your cattle, so your numbers will dwindle and your roads will be deserted.
	“And if you fail to learn a lesson from this and continue your hostility toward me, then I myself will be hostile toward you, and I will personally strike you seven times over for your sins.  I will send armies against you to carry out these covenant threats. If you flee to your cities, I will send a plague to destroy you there, and you will be conquered by your enemies.  I will completely destroy your food supply, so the bread from one oven will have to be stretched to feed ten families. They will ration your food by weight, and even if you have food to eat, you will not be satisfied.
	“If after this you still refuse to listen and still remain hostile toward me, then I will give full vent to my hostility. I will punish you seven times over for your sins.  You will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.  I will destroy your pagan shrines and cut down your incense altars. I will leave your corpses piled up beside your lifeless idols, and I will despise you.  I will make your cities desolate and destroy your places of worship, and I will take no pleasure in your offerings of incense.   Yes, I myself will devastate your land. Your enemies who come to occupy it will be utterly shocked at the destruction they see.   I will scatter you among the nations and attack you with my own weapons. Your land will become desolate, and your cities will lie in ruins.   Then at last the land will make up for its missed Sabbath years as it lies desolate during your years of exile in the land of your enemies. Then the land will finally rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.   As the land lies in ruins, it will take the rest you never allowed it to take every seventh year while you lived in it.
	“And for those of you who survive, I will demoralise you in the land of your enemies far away. You will live there in such constant fear that the sound of a leaf driven by the wind will send you fleeing. You will run as though chased by a warrior with a sword, and you will fall even when no one is pursuing you. Yes, though no one is chasing you, you will stumble over each other in flight, as though fleeing in battle. You will have no power to stand before your enemies.  You will die among the foreign nations and be devoured in the land of your enemies.   Those still left alive will rot away in enemy lands because of their sins and the sins of their ancestors.
	“But at last my people will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors for betraying me and being hostile toward me.   Finally, when I have given full expression to my hostility and have brought them to the land of their enemies, then at last their disobedient hearts will be humbled, and they will pay for their sins.  Then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, with Isaac, and with Abraham, and I will remember the land.   And the land will enjoy its years of Sabbath rest, as it lies deserted. At last the people will receive the due punishment for their sins, for they rejected my regulations and despised my laws.
	“But despite all this, I will not utterly reject or despise them while they are in exile in the land of their enemies. I will not cancel my covenant with them by wiping them out. I, the LORD, am their God. 
I will remember my ancient covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of Egypt while all the nations watched. I, the LORD, am their God.”
	These are the laws, regulations, and instructions that the LORD gave to the Israelites through Moses on Mount Sinai.

So I deny myself.
	At work there are reels of film.  We slide a segment from a batch card into those reels once they are printed.  I tend to do this a certain way, which is neat and tidy.  However, others do it another way, which gets on my nerves.   However, as an exercise in moulding myself (in areas where change makes no real difference) I have forced myself to do it their way some times.

Ephesians 4:22-24
	You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
(NIV)

Romans 8:13-14
	For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
(NIV)

Matthew 11:28-30
	Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
(NIV)

Colossians 3:4-15
	When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.  Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.  Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.  But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language from your lips.  Do not lie to each other since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.  Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. 	Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.  Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
(NIV)
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I choose for the foundation of my life, the guidance of God, as expressed in the scriptures handed down to us.  When I was baptised, many of you here today were witnesses
of my statement of faith in God, my acceptance of his Lordship, his Ownership as Master over my spirit, of my self.  
I continually fall short of of what this Owner requires.
I sin continually in thought and deed.
	So what do I do about that?
I read the scriptures and allow God’s Holy Spirit to direct me on this question.  I ask God to give me what I need.
I know from scripture that nothing is too much for me to bear without falling away from the Godly path.
What does God say directly to me through the scriptures we have read today?
We are called to put away our old nature, like putting something into a bin; and put on a new Godly self.  To strive to be as God would wish us to be.

I must do my part in voluntarily stepping in the right direction.  God gives me the means to do so.  I do it.  While God may mould me, I have to be willing to let him.  I have to play along with what he is doing.
We are told to hold onto what is good and noble and true.  Our foundation of the Bible we should never compromise on, but with other things....   slips of coloured card, we are better off letting go and letting God guide you.  Instead, take the yoke of Jesus!

Our reading from Corinthians tells us that Paul beat himself into the shape he knew he had to be, as a blacksmith beats a horseshoe into the only shape it can be, so Paul states he beats himself into shape.
He knows what he must end up like, and sets about changing his behaviour, his thoughts and spiritual life to match.
That is what my aim is.  To play my part in producing the end result in my own life.