Services | Take Up Your Cross

Bulletin

Hymn # 231 “Count Your Blessings”

SCRIPTURE READING – Ezekiel 34:23 - 31
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate

Praise and Worship
“Way Maker”
“Who You Say I Am”
“Behold the Lamb of God”

Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Take Up Your Cross”

PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection

“At the Cross (Love Ran Red)”



Sermon Notes
Mark 8:34 Jesus tells His disciples and the crowd that they must pick up their cross and follow Him
Mark 8:35 If you want to save your life you must lose it for Jesus’ sake
Mark 8:36 Question – What profit to gain everything and forfeit your soul?
Mark 8:37 If you have everything, what would you give up in exchange for your soul?
Mark 8:38 If you are ashamed of Jesus He will be ashamed of you
Hebrews 11:13 – 16 Examples of those who believed and were not ashamed

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Scritpures

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Transcript of Service

In several popular churches today, there's this. The sense of teaching that. That God just wants every single blessing and every single dream and plan that you have. To be a part of your life. However, Jesus says to follow him is a little different. Come and listen to what Jesus says. You must do to follow it.

I don't like to go to the doctor. So I generally don't. And I even tell the doctor this the reason I don't go is because I'm not sick until he tells me I am. So if I don't go to the doctor. Then I'm not sick. But a while ago. I finally decided that I should go. And I kept putting it off and unfortunately, because they kept having the wrong schedule. And so there was one other time I was going to put it on. I go. Nope, I haven't eaten. Well, I haven't done all these things, so I'll go. So I did all the blood tests and whatever. And so. When I went to the doctor after the blood test and stuff, he goes do you want the good news or do you want the bad news?

So I figured the good news part would be shorter, so I'll take that and then he can spend a lot of time on all the bad news. And so I go give me the good news. He goes there is. No bad news. So apparently my blood to you know, was OK. I mean wasn't perfect, but it's OK. But that's kind of you see, the gospel is the good news. And it tells us. That if we have faith in Jesus. And his death, burial and resurrection that we will have eternal life. The good news? The problem is most of us don't want to take the medicine. To get that good news. And Jesus is going to. Talk to his disciples and others. About what? Receiving the good news is all about. And so if you have. Your Bibles and you should.

Turn to the Gospel of Mark, starting with Chapter 8, starting with verse 34. Now the context is this, Jesus. And asked his disciples by themselves who the people said that he was, and there were various possibilities. Then Jesus asked, well, who do you say that I am and Peter hurts out. You're the Christ. And then Jesus starts to teach them what is necessary for him, that he must be rejected and suffer and be killed, and then rise again. And and Peter rebukes them. And then Jesus rebukes Peter. After that, now he will. We will see kind of broaden his audience. And so when Mark. Chapter 8, verse 32 four says this and he summoned the crowd with his disciples and said so. Now he had gone from talking purely to his twelve of his disciples and those who are to the crowd. So now he's going to be speaking to everyone. And so he says, he said to them, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself. And take up his cross and follow me. So Jesus is telling him after he told them what must happen to him. That he must suffer and die and raise again, he then tells his disciples and those who wish to be his disciples that they too must deny themselves that it's not about them that they must. No longer seek what it is that they're desiring, but deny themselves now. In many churches today, unfortunately, you won't hear that.

What you'll hear is that God has a wonderful plan for your life, and he does. And that it's going to be an abundant life and it is, but then they mess it up and then they say. Whatever your dreams and your desires and whatever those things that are that you want, God just wants to give them to you. I don't see that in what Jesus is teaching. Jesus didn't say, well, whatever it is you're dream, I'm giving it to you, he said. No, no. And the opposite. You must deny yourself. Even those perhaps dreams and desires are now. God may give you the dream, and if that's the case, then that's wonderful. That's different. But if it's your dream, your desire not God's plan, not what God has done for your life, then you must set those aside. Deny yourself. No, we don't like that. We like to, you know, to do what we want to do when we want to do it the way we want to do it.

And you can tell that in today's world. We have a whole bunch of narcissists, everybody. It's about them. The whole idea, as a matter of fact, we kind of think crazy those people who are willing to. Serve others. To deny themselves and serve others and make others the most important thing. And so Jesus says. Notice he didn't say. Here's the suggestion. You should deny yourself. He said you must. Deny. Yourself. Well, I like the good news. When Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so. This he goes. You want. You want to talk about love. And deny yourself. And. Must and take up his cross? And follow me. Means you now need to take your instrument of execution. That which is painful. That which is shameful. That which is. Undesirable. That you must take up your cross. Now your cross. Now the crosses are the same. It's an instrument of death. But your. Carrying of your cross may be different than carrying a mic cross. God has said you must follow me. Take your cross and follow me. That cross is going to be in the likeness. Of his cross. But it is going to be in your situation, so you may suffer in a different way than others. But you are to take up your cross. And follow Jesus. And what did Jesus do? He denied himself. For us.

He suffered for us. He rose again for us. He did what it was God's will. And he did it. To be obedient to the father and to show his love. And the father's love for us. Now. Again, we love to sing the song, and we even heard it. Jesus loves me. Oh yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me all this. We love to talk about how much Jesus loves us. How often do we talk about how much we love Jesus? And if we talk about how much we love Jesus, it's just that talk. We may give a praise. Oh yes, I love Jesus. Because I want to count all my blessings and all the wonderful things that he's done for me, and therefore I love him. As opposed to. Yes, I love Jesus. And I'm going to take up my cross. I'm going to deny myself. Put myself on that cross and die his self. That I might live to him. That I might show him. That my love for him is genuine. Just as he showed me his love for me is genuine. No wonder we don't like this verse. Because we want to hear all about the blessings and the and the. All the great things that God is going to do for us and how our life is going to be wonderful and everybody's going to like us and. Take a look at the history of the scriptures. It seems that the more holy the people were, the more other people hated them. The more they were persecuted. Me. It started all the way back to the first two Bros. Abel made a thy sacrifice came not so much. So what did cane do? He killed him. He didn't change. He killed Abel. Abel's trying to do what God had called him to do. And he dies for it. From Cain and Abel to present day, the more we try to serve God, the more the world. Will activate against us. And unfortunately, sometimes even those who call themselves Christians. So Jesus makes us and again couple of weeks ago we talked about who Jesus was and and some people say, well, he's a good teacher. Well, this is his teaching. You see the. World doing it.

No, unfortunately, we don't see enough Christians doing it. So if he's a good teacher, which means his teaching is good. So we. Should follow them. Since he is a good teacher, this teaching is good and we. Should follow it. Then he says this. It's. Or whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake. And the gospels will save it. Now that seems to be. An Austin warrant. If I want to keep my life, if I want to save it, then I. Have to lose it. And if I lose my life for his sake and for the gospel, for the good news sake, then I will keep it. I will save it. Sometimes when we take a look at what God says from our. Puny human perspective we go. No, no. If if if I want to save my life, then I want to do careful things and have as long a life as possible. And Jesus can know if you want to. If you want to keep your life. And lose it. There was a person who said. That. What basically we're doing is. We're willing to give up something. We can't keep. To get something we can't have. We can't keep this life. Because there's going to be a day and time. You may live what seems to be a long time. You might even live to be 100. And 20 years old. When you consider the breadth of time. That's still just a fleeting breath. So even what we would consider a long life is short. So even if you lived 120 years, you still cannot keep it. It will be gone. So Jesus. So here's the deal. Lose your life for my sake. Lose your life. For the sake of the gospel. And you will end up having eternal life. You will keep it.

And then he's going to give two opposite examples. This is this. For what does it? Profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul. So if you spend the rest of your life. Trying to get everything in this world has to give, and this world will give you all the support it can. I mean, even all the commercials. Used to be like. Will seek all the gusto. You can live this life through the full you only live once. No, you only live. With what you do with it. You may have eternal life, which means yeah, you live once forever. Or you live once and die forever. So he goes. So what? What does? It gain you. If you have everything that this world has to offer. But you lose your soul. Because even if you were born wealthy. So you lived 120 years? Wealthy. What is that in comparison to eternity? 120 years living the greatest life humans have ever lived. And spending eternity in hell. Or offering up your life on the cross for Jesus. And living for eternity into his house. As his child. He said there is no comparison, so it goes so there is no profit. We capitalists ought to understand this. There is no profit. In gaining the world and losing your soul. And then Jesus is going to give kind of an opposite. For what will a man give in exchange? For his soul.

So let's say. You are able. To make the richest person who is now alive seem like a puffer. That you have a house so large that during your whole 120 years of life on Earth you couldn't stay a night in each room. That's how big your house is. And as one rich. Actor once said, once you get to a certain wealth, you only buy the best state and there are no more best stakes because you got the best steak. So if so, every day you've got the best of what life had to offer every single day. And you drove all the fancy cars and you had all the great airplanes and you had all the excellent yachts, so many yachts that you couldn't be on each yacht during your lifetime. You're so wealthy. You have all that. You couldn't buy your soul back. For what will a man give in exchange? For his soul. A man will forgive everything. He would change. Every single profit that he received his entire lifetime. In exchange for his soul. You see, this world will lie to you, and Satan will. Lie to you. Because you will never be satisfied. All you got to do is take a look at the wealthiest people in the world. Are they content with their stuff? No. They want more stuff. They want more businesses, they want more. Well, because sometimes that's the fun or whatever. But. You can have. You can go to the nicest restaurant this evening. And I'm absolutely sure this you're going to go to the nicest restaurant this evening and you'll eat. And you'll be full. And then they'll tempt you with dessert and you'll go. Oh, I'm full. But that's OK. I'll take more. And so you get dessert and you are so stuff. You are sick because of how stuff you are. I guarantee you. Tomorrow you'll eat. Because you're not going to be satisfied. Nothing satisfies this life except the Lord. And so since so all this stuff that you have that will not satisfy you, you will give it all up. If you had the opportunity to exchange it. For your soul. But that's not how it works. You decide now. To deny yourself.

Pick up your cross and follow him. Then he says, for whomever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the son of man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his father with the Holy Angels. Now there was a time I hated this verse. Now I tell you why I hated this verse. I was an older participant in participant in what was our church, had what was called the Young Christian Singers, the YCS, and we would go on tour, get in these buses and go like to Northern California or Oregon or other different places and we would stay and we would usually show up. We would canvas the Community, pass out Flyers door to door and then have a concert. I hated going door to door. And I go. Am I ashamed of Jesus? You know, and so this this verse bothered me because. I'm going, I. I hate going door to door. This is this is. I just don't like it. So there's. So I not like it because I'm ashamed of Jesus and being a Christian. Until. I applied for an opening in the Westminster School Board and after. Strange. I didn't get appointed, but part of the commitment was that you would agree to run for the office. And so I ran for the office. You know what? I never knocked on a single door. I like me. I like me so much, I. Take me wherever I go. I laugh at all of my jokes. I think what I have to say is important and interesting. And that you should pay attention to me. You see, I'm not ashamed of me. Maybe I should be, but I'm not OK. So I didn't knock on the doors because I'm ashamed of me. I didn't knock on the doors because I hated knocking on doors. So I'm grateful for that opportunity to say it wasn't, but there are a lot of people who we want to be secret Christians. Oh yeah, I'll sing now. Praise the Lord in church. Monday and not so much. What is our relationship with God? Do we love him? Or is he like? A secret family. And nobody knows about. We live a life that's different in church. But a wholly different life. Monday through Saturday. We should take a look at what is it that motivates us? What is it that we desire to do? Is it that we are? Confident and proud to be believers, not that we are. Better than others. Not that we are. Self-righteous. But we understand. Who makes us righteous? And whose we are. As a Davis. One of the things I try to teach my kids and whatever is that we were proud to be Davis. My father lived a good, exemplary life and and all those types of things and and I and I always expected more of my kids than others and and quite frankly, I expect more of my grandkids. Because they're mine. Now you may think that about yours, and that's wonderful. You just happen to be wrong when it comes to my kids and my grandkids, is there? Whatever. But but there is this certain sense of if you will, pride and expectation. Because. You're mine. Wouldn't it be good if God had that same expectation of us? That we might be like Joe. Have you considered my servant? Frank. And say and they say, yeah. You made his life great. Try it.

As God knows who we are. He's proud because we are, as we sang today. I am for you say I am. And that God's confidence in us. You see, there are times when God may test us. It's not so that God might find out. Who we are. But that we might find out who we are. And just how much we trust him? Do we trust them this much? This much this much or this much. Because there will be a day. And he will come. In his glory. With his angels. And with those who have fallen asleep. Before his coming. Hebrews tells us this. In Chapter 11, verse 13. All these died in faith without receiving the promise. But having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on Earth. You saying? People who didn't even get mentioned. And those who did lived their lives not by what was here. But by what he said and what he promised that they were. Strangers here this world is not my home. As the. One organization not of this world. My citizenship is in heaven. And that's who I wish to be. For those who say. Such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. This world is not. Insignificant. And if indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had an opportunity to return. We've been studying in our Bible studies on Wednesday nights. Genesis. And it's interesting. When Abraham and Isaac will see. Others. When it comes time for them to get a wife. They go get family. But they refused to let the kid go back. Because this is now their promised land. We don't look to go back to the old World. Look forward to the promised land. But as it is, they desire a better country. That is a heavenly. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God. Are you ashamed? To call Christ yours. Those who have faith. God is not ashamed of you.

For he has prepared a city for them. Now notice. We love to read and true. And my father's house. As many dwelling places, many mansions, and that he goes to prepare a place. Not only preparing us. House. It's preparing for us a city. That we might dwell in it. The last scripture I want to take a look at is Galatians chapter 21st. I mean chapter 2, verse 20. This is this Paul speaking. I have been past tense. I have been crucified with Christ. He takes serious that teaching of Jesus. To pick up his cross, deny himself and follow Jesus. I have been crucified. Not only have I taken my cross I. Got nailed to it. And is no longer I who lives. But Christ lives in me. Answers I have now swapped. My desires or whatever. It's no longer what I want. What does Jesus want? My life is not my life. My life is his life. And the life which I now live in, the flesh I live by faith. Heaven. Is real. But none of us have seen it. We believe it because he has said so. We believe that if we deny ourselves and follow him, that we will have eternal life.

We are operating in faith. And the life which I now live in, the flesh I live by, faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. Again, all is making an affirmation of listen. Yes, Jesus loves me. He died for me. Yes, I love Jesus. I died for him. Now. Unfortunately. I kind of say. I have been faithful to God several times. I've kind of been crucified several times. I will deny myself. I'll follow him. And think that I'm operating. In his interest. Then something strange happens. My fleshly desires resurrect themselves. And I started wondering about me. What about me? It's not fair. Come, I don't. And I realized. Rose again from the dead. All since I've been crucified and I'm. Dead. I'm living. For him. And we need. But Paul also has said. Which gives us comfort. I do the things I don't want to do and I don't do the things I do want to do. Oh. What a conflict I have. And we have the same so my. Advice to you and to me. The sooner we see that our we're getting off that cross. Have less and less time off the cross. And to deny ourselves. And to follow him. And to show him.

That we're not ashamed of him. And just as he loves us. We love him. What do you get to God who has everything? To know yourself. And follow him.

And all of God's people said.