The Way of the Cross: Deny Yourself and Follow Jesus

I'd like to start off reading from Ecclesiastes 3:1 there is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens and you know as I was driving this morning I saw some leaves were starting to fall and we're starting to see winter as well you know just over the horizon and it kind of reminds me of the brevity of our life you know one day we will look back and we'll see that our life is almost over and it'll be like the leaves falling off the trees and like in Ecclesiastes it says there's a time for everything um and there's a time for sorrow time for Joy there's a lot of different things that we go through in our life a lot of lows and a lot of highs uh and there's also times to praise God to worship him and to thank him for everything that he has done for us and today is one of those days uh so let's definitely stand up let's pray and and worship our Lord thank you God for everything that you have given us Lord for this beautiful morning God all praise and glory be to you God we thank you for the word that you have given us and for the holy spirit that helps us in our life Lord we ask you and we pray fill this place by the Holy Spirit and bless the preaching bless the singing God we ask for you to be here on this place today and help us to learn something new not uh to leave empty-handed God all praise and glory be to you God in Jesus name we pray amen good morning church the first song that we'll be singing is going going to be called Pass Me Not O Gentle [Music] Savior pass me not oh gentle Sor here my heart humble cry while on others thou our calling do not pass me my [Music] saor [Music] saor dear my heart cry well on others thou are calling do not pass me by let me at thy Throne of Mery find us sweeping [Music] kneeling there in deep cont help my un saor saor Here My mble Cry [Music] all on others thou are call do not pass me by trusting only in thy mer Lord I see thy face [Music] heal my wounded broken spir Save Me by thy Grace saor [Music] saor here my humble cry while on others thou are calling do not pass me wi the spring of all my comfort more than like to me [Music] whom have I Hon earthed beside thee whom in heaven might be saor [Music] savior here my humble [Music] cry on others thou are calling do not [Music] passor saor dear my humble cry well on others thou are calling do not pass me [Music] by what gift of Grace is Jesus My Redeemer there is no more for heaven now to give he is my joy my righteousness and [Music] freom my steadfast love my deep and boundless peace to this I hope my hope is only Jesus for my life is swly bound to his oh how strange and divine I can seeing all is mine yet not I but through Christ in me the night is dark but I am not forsake for by my side the savior he will stay I labor on in weakness and rejoicing for in my need his power is displayed to this my shepherd will defend me through the deepest valley he will Le oh the night has been one and I shall overcome yet not I but through Christ in me no f i TR I know I am forgi the future sure the price it has been paid for Jesus bled and suffered for my paron and he was raised to overthrow the grave to this I hope my sin has been defeated Jesus now whenever is my G oh the chaines are released I can sing I am free yet not I but the Christ in me with every breath I long to follow Jesus for he has said that that he will bring me home and day by day I know he will renew me until I stand with joy Before the Throne to this I hope my hope is only Jesus all the glory ever more to him when the race is complete still my li shall repeat yet not I but through Christ in me praise God and I'm just going to read a Bible verse a passage that we can all dwell on and meditate today on and it's going to be in Isaiah uh 12: 2 and it says here surely God is my salvation I will trust and not be afraid the Lord the Lord himself is my strength and my defense he has become my salvation praise God and I also want to announce our program for this morning and we'll have Tim and Michael sing us a song called It's a beautiful morning and we'll also have brother Vlad sing a word for us right after God bless praise God Church you know my song is called It's a beautiful morning in reality it is a beautiful morning I uh I checked the the statistics that 17079 people didn't make it today and that's just in one day and we're all here so praise God it's a beautiful morning and we're here and we're healthy and we're strong and uh the song is very very easy so if you guys want you guys can join me it's a beautiful morning it's a wonderful day walking with Jesus every step of the way he's got a blessing waiting for you today it's a beautiful morning it's a beautiful morning it's a wonderful day it's a beautiful morning it's a wonderful day it's such a good feeling just to know that you're safe don't let your troubles stand in your way it's a beautiful morning it's a beautiful morning it's a wonderful day God has made this morning especially for you he hopes that you will be joining in the work he's going to do do he's got a blessing waiting for you today it's a beautiful morning it's a beautiful morning it's a wonderful day God has made this morning especially for you he hopes that you will be joining in the work he's going to do he's got a blessing waiting for you today it's a beautiful morning it's a beautiful morning it's a wonderful day it's a beautiful morning it's a beautiful morning it's a wonderful day It's a beautiful morning it's a beautiful morning it's a wonderful [Applause] day it's a beautiful morning praise God praise God Brothers and sisters really is a beautiful morning so uh my sermon today it will be called The Way of the Cross and I do have a presentation today as well so I'll wait for that to be put up but uh this will be a two-part series and today will be the first part of that and I'd like to just focus on some places in mark okay um let's just yeah let's read from Mark 8:31 to: 33 where Jesus predicts his death uh and keep in mind that up to this point in Mark Jesus has been performing many miracles Healing The Sick and teaching the crowds uh but in Mark 8:31 and further we see Jesus breaking to the disci IES for the first time about his coming death and resurrection and I'll read those verses now which is verse 31-33 in Mark chapter 8 he then began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders the chief priests and the teachers of the law and that he must be killed and after 3 days rise again he spoke plainly about this and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him but when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples he rebuked Peter get behind me saying he he said you do not have in mind the concerns of God but merely human concerns and next next slide yeah uh and with the disciples uh what they heard from Jesus it was quite shocking to them because they were waiting for the Messiah and they wanted someone who would conquer their enemies and not a messiah who would have to suffer and go through all the things that Jesus Christ talks about and this period mark Jesus is true Mission and it's not only to perform Miracles but to die for the sins of the people and to resurrect in Victory and in verse 32 we can see that Peter uh being one of his closest disciples rebukes him and even his closest disciples misunderstood what Jesus's mission was uh but Peter he couldn't fathom that someone he loved and respected so much like Jesus would have to suffer and die but Peter was only thinking with a worldly mindset next slide and then we see Jesus respond to him in verse 33 get behind me Satan he said you do not have in mind the concerns of God but merely human concerns now Jesus didn't mean that Peter was exactly Satan but it was the same voice that he had actually heard when he was being tempted in the wilderness by Satan and um in the same way Peter's words sounded like Jesus deserved more or that Jesus should feel some kind of remorse for himself uh but we see Jesus quickly rebuking that just as quickly as he rebukes Sayan in the same way and uh after this Jesus calls not just the disciples but the whole crowd in order to explain to them what true discipleship actually looks like and in the next few verses we'll be reading we will see that it entails taking up your own cross self-denial and living for go for God rather than ourselves and like Peter and the disciples sometimes we think worldly like they did and we think that following Jesus will bring us you know sometimes Comfort success and uh an easier life but we will see that Jesus lays out three points that we need to fulfill in order to be one of his disciples uh next slide and that is bearing up the cross self-denial and following Jesus and now that we have a good idea of the reality that Jesus taught the disciples we are ready to hear the rest of what Jesus has to say about being his disciple so for part one today we'll be focusing on uh verses 34-36 chapter 8 of Mark then he called The Crowd to him along with his disciples and said whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me for whoever wants to save their life will lose it but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it what good is it for someone to gain the the whole world yet forfeit their soul and then Jesus we see here he says whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me and this is a universal call to anyone who wants to become a disciple of Jesus and Jesus he invites each of us today and the question that we have to answer is do we really want to follow Jesus and are we prepared to pay the price he says we must deny our elves um and what does that exactly mean what does it mean to deny ourselves well we can look at many different stories in the Bible and one of them is Moses leaving Egypt and leading Israel uh let's go to the next slide uh we'll read from Hebrews 11: 24-26 by faith Moses when he had grown up refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter he chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin he regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking ahead to his reward wait so how did Moses regard disgrace for the sake of Christ before Christ was even born how's that even possible well first we know of uh John chapter 1 which actually Doug he preached on last week and uh Jesus Christ he has always existed and in in John 1:23 it says in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and even though Moses did not know Jesus he trusted in God's promises and he knew that eventually they would be fulfilled in the Messiah uh which was Jesus Christ and Moses he left Pharaoh's Palace where he had Comfort riches power and instead chose to suffer with the people of Israel and how did this even happen in the first place of mes leaving such a great place uh I'm sure we know the story but we can also read this in Exodus 2: 11-15 one day after Moses had grown up he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew one of his own people looking this way and that and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and HD him in the sand the next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting he asked the one in the wrong why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew the man said who made your ruler and a judge over us are you thinking of killing me as your as you killed the Egyptian then Moses was afraid and thought what I did must have been known when Pharaoh heard of this he tried to kill Moses but Moses fled from pharaoh and went to live in Midian where he sat down by a well and uh after Moses fleas to the desert we know he eventually finds a wife and after that the burning bush where God speaks to him and starts to use him for his work and and Moses he became a faithful follower of God's plan denying himself sacrificing personal security and privilege and ultimately leading the Israelites through the Wilderness despite many different challenges and obstacles they had to go through and to deny ourselves it means to put aside our personal desires our ego and fully submit to the will of our heavenly father uh and what he has for us and just ask yourself this question what areas of your life is Jesus asking you to deny yourself is there a habit addiction or relationship or a certain decision whatever it is where do we need to deny ourselves going back to the verse where it says whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me so how about the part of taking up our cross and following Jesus what did the cross mean in the first place uh let's go on to the next Slide the cross it was a symbol of humiliation and suffering and to take up your cross is to willingly accept the fact that you will suffer you will have hardships and it will be very hard at times to where you want to give up and when Jesus was carrying his cross it was very hard even for him and Simon of sirene came in to help Jesus we can go on to the next slide and in Luke 23: 26 it says as the soldiers led him away they see Simon from sirene who was on his way in from the country and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus now we might not have to literally carry a physical cross in our lives but if we are not already we will have to suffer for Christ it's inevitable and in the letters Paul wrote he speaks of s uh suffering necessary for the following of Christ and in Galatians 2:20 it says I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me the life I now live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me he emphasizes that we are crucified with Christ and endure suffering for spreading the gospel and we not only see people in the Bible like Paul Stephen Peter and the disciples and other Apostles that had to suffer but we also see that in our current generation in our current day and uh we you know we can look at places like China Pakistan North Korea Afghanistan where they risk their lives and are killed just for following Christ and there's also another story I once heard of a man uh he went by the name of diatri Bon Hofer in the 1900s and he was a German pastor and a theologian who strongly opposed the Nazi regime and Bon haer's his famous book was the cost of discipleship which is a a classic Christian book which some of you might have read uh and emphasized that true Christian faith requires sacrifice and willingness to suffer for one's belief and he was arrested in 1943 and then he was executed by the Nazis in 1945 or like our grandfathers you know who had to suffer persecution for their faith in the uh in Christ in the former USSR it has never been easy to take up the cross and follow Christ Even in our daily lives where it might seem that they are small things you know but we fight against sin Temptation against the world's influence and against spiritual forces and in Ephesians chapter 6:2 it says for our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the authorities against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the Heavenly Realms and uh we can go on to the next slide this is what we are battling at the minimum every single day of Our Lives until we leave this earth we always have have to be ready and watchful towards sane attacks and this is what it means to take up our cross and at the very end of that verse uh that we are focusing on whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and Follow Me by that ending follow me it means a Daily Commitment and it's not a one-time decision we are to love Christ you know and we are to live like him by love humility and service and full obedience to God and His will and that is by praying fasting reading the word spreading the gospel fulfilling God's will we know that this is what we have to do but it's easier said than it's done and uh that's just what we have to do and let's now read verse 35 of Mark chapter 8 for whoever wants to save their life will lose it but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it as humans we are naturally wired to protect our lives and we seek Comfort we seek safety uh success and self-preservation that is just how God wired us that's how he made us and to get into a little bit of the science behind it I just bring up four quick points here we can go on to the next slide as well uh so the first point is being Comfort the brain releases dopamine during comforting activities which is eating resting uh reinforcing our survival behaviors and physical Comfort reduces stress and our cortisol levels in our body and the second is safety and is the amydala in the brain which triggers fear to protect from threats and safety is a fundamental law in the moso's hierarchy of needs and anxiety helps avoid danger and the third one is Success dopamine motivates success seeking driven by the basic need for social standing and passing on genes and the achievement motivation Theory explains our pursuit of competence and growth some of us might have learned this in school um and then the fourth is self-preservation humans naturally avoid risks and prioritize Health driving medical advances for longer and safer lives so that is how our human bodies are built so when Jesus is saying for whoever wants to save their Liv life will lose it this is going completely against how our bodies are being wired and and when you probably hear this part of the verse you probably have a little alarm going off in your brain no normal no uh normal human wants to lose their life it's against us and um you know what is the catch here what is Jesus Christ offering us Jesus is offering us eternal life you know and sometimes our brains can't really grasp what that means and so imagine this example you're holding a single grain of sand on a beach that stretches endlessly miles and miles and miles and just think of the beaches you know the West Coast Washington Oregon and California and uh you know a massive Coastline of sand and beaches and that single grain you're holding represents your life on Earth very tiny and very brief and that endless Beach that seems endless to our vision symbolizes eternity going on forever just like eternal life with God and while our time on Earth is important it's just a small moment compared to the infinite life that awaits Us in eternity and so now when we hear Jesus telling us that we have to give up our short life for him here on Earth it actually makes way more sense and it doesn't seem so bad that we have to give up one grain of sand for the infinite amount of sand that we see on the beach and it actually seems like an insanely good deal you know uh but many times we're so caught up in our lives that we can't see what Jesus wants to offer us and going back to verse 35 for whoever wants to save their life will lose it but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it uh so next slide true life or eternal life is when we surrender ourselves to Christ and this doesn't exactly mean physical death although in some cases in some rare cases it could be uh it means more of giving up the will we want for ourself and to submit to God's and uh let's actually go on to next slide as well and we'll read from Mark 10:1 17-22 as Jesus started on his way a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him good teacher he asked what must I do to inherit eternal life why do you call me good Jesus answered no one is good except God alone you know the Commandments you shall not murder you shall not commit ad adultery you shall not steal you shall not give false testimony you shall not defraud honor your father and mother teacher he declared all these I have kept since I was a boy Jesus looked at him and loved him one thing you lack he said go sell everything you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven then come follow me at this the man's face fell he went away sad because he had great wealth the story of the Rich Young Ruler is a sad one this man he was not willing to lose his well to follow Jesus because he had many many great possessions and he valued his possessions much more than eternal life with Christ and we must put following Christ at the very very time top of our list and not at being barely number one you know where um and like our eternally desires or I mean our Earthly desires it follows it but so much more above all of our Earthly desires that we don't even see them and Jesus knew what was in heaven he could care less about any single thing you know on this dirty and filthy planet and in John Chapter 14 verse 2-3 it says in my father's house are many rooms if it were not so would I have told you that I'm going there to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am we hear of so many great things of Heaven and the more you get to know about it the more you figure out that it's so much more magnificent that you than you could ever imagine and it's like the man who found a field with treasure in it and sold all he had to buy in that field everything it becomes worthless to us for our Apostle Paul in Philippians 3: 7 to8 but whoever uh but whatever were gains to me I now consider lost for the sake of Christ what is more I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for whose sake I have lost all things I consider them garbage that I may gain Christ Paul considered them garbage it rarely says garbage or rubbish in the Bible you know now if a word like that is used you really know that it is garbage and uh what parts are you holding on to tightly in your life like the Rich Young Ruler Jesus calls us to surrender everything and where is God asking you to lose your life for him okay now we are on the last verse uh for the sermon today which is verse 36 of Mark 8 and we can go on to next slide what good is is it for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul we can see how this verse directly ties into the other two how can someone gain the whole world what does that exactly mean the world that offers us wealth power Fame success but these do not truly satisfy our deepest needs of the soul and we can go on to the next slide and we have a lot of stories in the ible proving this the Rich Young Ruler as we just read the prodical son or Solomon where everything is is also mentioned in Ecclesiastes the world uh when you look at it the world was not meant for us it's plain and simple and in Ecclesiastes 1:2 it says vanities vanity of vanities says the preacher vanity of vanities all is Vanity that's how Solomon started that that book and then he ends with uh in chap 12:3 let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole duty of man you're telling me Solomon had everything and experienced everything and his conclusion was fear God and keep his Commandments yes brothers and sisters this world is nothing to us and then that last part of the the verse 35 what good is it for someone to gain the whole world world yet forfeit their soul Jesus reminds us how valuable our soul is and we can go on to the next slide if the whole Heaven rejoices over one Soul how valuable is that you know it cannot be bought with all the money in the world and we know that uh we know the story of um of J Judas in the Bible given up Jesus you know he gained a little bit of money but he ultimately lost his soul it's so so sad brothers and sisters that story is very sad and this can happen to any of us if we're not true followers of Christ and coming to the conclusion of the sermon I just wanted to reread verses 33-35 of Mark 8 for it to be further imprinted in our brains so these verses uh 34-36 then he called The Crowd to him along with his disciples and said whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me for whoever wants to save their life will lose it but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it what good is it for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul brothers and sisters Jesus calls us to deny ourselves take up our cross and to follow him although it costs us one grain of sand you know we have the whole Beach awaiting us which is eternal life amen let us pray uh we'll be singing God sent his son [Music] God sent his son they call in [Music] Jesus he came to love he live for he lived and died to BU my P and empty grave is there to prove My Savior Lives Because He Lives I Can Face Tomorrow Because He Lives all fear is God because I know he holds the future and life is worth the Living Just Because He Lives how sweet to a newborn baby and feel the bride and joy he gives but greater still the calm [Music] Assurance this child can face a certain days because he Liv because he Liv I can face tomorrow because he Liv all fear is gone because I know he holds the future and life is worth the Living Just Because He Lives and then one day I'll cross the river I'll F my no war with and then I dead gives way to Victory I'll see the lights of Glory I'll know he [Music] Because He Lives I Can Face tomorrow because he lives all fear is God because I know he holds the [Music] fure and life is wor of Liv Because He Lives because I know he holds the future and life is worth the living just because he praise [Music] God praise God my dear friends the service has is coming to the end and uh we heard a very good message you know um I think we all have something to think about I for sure have something to think about and uh May the Holy Spirit give us strength that we are able to deny those things in our life that are hindering our walk with Christ you know at the end of the day today uh the Bible says that God he is trying to make us imitators of his son and that's a lot of denying to do and what we saw today I encourage everybody to to re uh rewatch or relisten vlad's sermon and we're excited for him to speak next week as well but may we all take it to heart and see where in our lives we need to deny to commit ourselves to Jesus Christ amen well um does anybody have any needs uh if not then after service I'd like to to welcome everybody to the gym there will be some coffee might be coming a little late today because service is ending early so uh but uh praise God you know um but there's going to be some some snacks there as well so let's stand up and pray Lord God we thank you we thank you for this morning Lord we thank you Lord for loving us God and for Dying God when we were Sinners Lord God you saved us Lord God and the least we can do Lord God is to commit ourselves to you fully Lord Jesus help us help us in our daily walk Lord God that we always understand and that we always know the sacrifice you made for us us Lord help us to deny ourselves to turn away from all evil that is hindering our walk with you Jesus God bless each person here in Jesus name I pray amen Our Father in heaven Hallowed Be Your Name Your Kingdom Come your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us lead us not into temptation but Deliver Us from the evil one for your kingdom your power and Glory forever are yours amen God bless everybody we'll see you in the gym and uh we'll meet each other amen be blessed