The Cross | Mark

well everyone welcome to the countdown my name is tc i'm one of the pastors here at lighthouse and i'm joined today again by our communications director jenna ring jenna how you doing i'm doing well how are you i'm great how has your weekend been so far my weekend has been great i was actually in a wedding this weekend congratulations on your wedding i did not get married i was in a wedding i was a bridesmaid in a wedding it was the first time i've been a bridesmaid at a wedding and it was super fun well congratulations on getting married we are all very excited for you uh that's your your weekend's going better than mine so far i ran into a tree on a trail run and i'm gonna have a pretty cool scar going on here soon how did that happen i ran into a tree there was a tree and i ran into it on the trail run there's a lot of damage and there was a branch sticking out and it was it do you have splinters and stuff in your arm now i feel like you should sit before i do but hopefully hopefully we'll see if i recover so jenna last week uh it was national slurpee day and we had some fun with the fact that you had fun making fun of me yes it was not behind your back because you were standing right over there it was in front of your face and you were laughing as i was teasing you but as as i pay back for it you decided you were going to choose the national day this week so you're going to do something where you know it'd be hard for me to make fun of you for so jenna what's the national day that we're celebrating or recognizing this week so today it's a big day it is national sour candy day and i okay my favorite sour candy do you see i would like for you to try one ah i'm not a [ __ ] this one's my favorite it's the red and the yellow one yeah there you go but okay we'll try one together okay i love cheers candy but sour candy that's two that's two opposite things that's like that's like orange juice and toothpaste i'm not that's not majestic well you gotta try one okay so i have a stunt double for situations like this uh cam could you could you come over here please also like a food taster you know in the medieval times um you know kings would have food tasters in case someone's trying to poison them and i feel like that's a possibility right now please try this one this one's my favorite so that that is a sour candy would you have you ever had one before truly no okay this is a big this is a really big moment okay all right cam experience once and it didn't go well wait wait wait i'll try one with you oh cheers here we go so good cam how you feeling i'm not getting the sour to be honest with you well that's why i like it because it's just i have uh i have what's called a warhead here you just mentioned it so cam i just need you while you're on camera just pop that bad boy in right now i did not know about this to be fair uh well you know what that wouldn't be fun okay you do this one no absolutely not yeah and that's the face we were going for on national sour candy thank you cam thanks for being a good stunt man if you could have run into this tree for me that would have been very helpful but you know i'll let you i'll let you slide on that one well that's a pretty good day um now i i'm not a sour candy guy so you don't want to take these home even though i bought them for you my daughter my oldest daughter naomi she loves sour candies so tell me these are for you okay so i i will bring those yeah she's going to be very happy i'll tell her i got them in honor of national sour candy day no i'll tell you they're from me i'm a nice person um well jenna i wanted to talk just a little bit about something that we had happen recently at lighthouse because it's going to happen again that sounded more cryptic than i was intending to make it sound yeah but what i'm talking about is that we had an online webinar recently uh called debunking anxiety where we brought in someone uh who's a bit of an expert in that field uh and she yeah a counselor she talked about anxiety she talked about um ways uh ways that that we kind of build myths around anxiety and then she talked about what scripture says about anxiety and it was incredible we had over a hundred people show up for this webinar it went fantastically i really think there's something to be said about you know these relevant topics that we're talking about just what are people craving to hear about these days yeah um and we did see i think we had over 200 people sign up again we had a really great turnout so that was really awesome yeah and and i i think absolutely like the the reason that we saw so much interest is that's an incredibly important topic right now we are i think everyone is like a little burned out from this last year and a half what do i do about it how do i how do i actually engage in that in some kind of healthy way and so i love that she explored it and then gave just these practical things that you can do with it uh and so jenna we're actually going to be doing another one coming out this month you want to talk about that one a little bit so at the end of this month we are doing a webinar on relationships and it's called relation slips yeah i always mess that up every single time so we're gonna bring on a couple a married couple who have been married for quite a while um just to talk about you know what it looks like to have a healthy marriage what it looks like to be in a healthy relationship so that'll be awesome yeah and i think i think that's valuable if you are married if if you want to get married or whatever relationship you're in i think there's dynamics of relationships that can apply everywhere and so i think they're going to be looking at a broad scope and so if you go on the website you can register for that it's totally free we got wonderful feedback from the last one we're really excited about sharing that um and what's more jenna is again as you said we really want to do these on topics that are impactful where you know we want to talk to situations where people are right now and so if you have a topic where you're like man i would love it if lighthouse would spend an hour and dive into this and look at you know what what's happening in this situation what does god have to say about this topic what are some practical ways that i can you know get closer to jesus and get some joy some happiness in the midst of this we would love to hear about that yeah let us know in the comments reach out to us on lh chat social media we will take note of that this is something we want to continue to do through the through the fall through really the rest of the year so yeah let us know what topics you want to hear about yeah i love that so in the midst of that we are continuing in our mark series right now have you have you been following along with the soap journal and doing all that good stuff yes yeah it's been awesome it's been really really cool just as the series has gone on to journal through that um you know to read through that so yeah because jenna as we've said many times you know as we're going through the sermon series for for you know one sermon we have to kind of pick some of what mark talks about that week that we're reading we we have to we can't talk about everything it's not possible and so if you're not reading along you're missing so much more in fact um you know a couple weeks ago or a week and a couple days ago i guess when we had the night of worship at catonsville i had a chance just to share a little short message and i preached something from mark chapter three that we just weren't able to engage in on a sunday but there's so much more that get out of it that mark is telling us about what jesus says and what jesus does and there's so much to get out of that and so we would just continue to encourage you read along with us sunday is like it's like the cherry on top of the sundae you wouldn't just eat the cherry jenna you want to eat the whole sunday cherries to be honest with you so well that analogy was pretty wonderful as i was trying to make a useful analogy and jenna was like i'm not touching your analogy tc we gotta work on improv rules it's yes and jenna you gotta go like like cam hey cam did it because i pulled out a candy he had no idea he actually said that eating a word was was painful and bad and i said well good news cam here's a warhead and he's still he's ate it he's a champ you know what we should do if you have a favorite candy all right maybe maybe sour candy is not your candy i just thought of this jenna you should put that candy into the chat if you're watching live and jenna i think you should mail them a bag of their favorite maybe if you let us know hey you never know what's going to happen that was a good yes end i said something crazy and yeah along with it oh man this is going better than i ever could have imagined well hey in just a couple minutes we're going to be transitioning over to the sanctuary we're going to join with the service today i tell you you know usually i'm here because i'm i'm on staff right and so so i'll go over uh for the 9am and and i'll get to hear them say hey our online community is joining us and there's always excitement in the room everybody's have like they just list us up to remind us that we are family whether we are in the building whether we are online whether we are in the state out of the state in another country we are family we are community it is just such a powerful moment a powerful reminder for me whenever i get to hear that and so um jenna as you talked about we do have ways that we can stay in touch so if you want to be in touch with us if you have questions um you can jump on lhchat on our website on our app there's a little icon you can click that you can talk to a real live staff person whenever you want to also we want to welcome our guests would you welcome our guest anyone who's joining us for the first time who's new jenna yes welcome welcome to lh online we're so glad to have you we hope you join us from here on out hey shout out to all my people in columbus ohio let us know where you're watching from today we want to hear from you yeah yeah and if you're new throw it in the chat if you're watching live we love welcoming people who are new we love hearing how you heard about lighthouse and where you're watching from all that incredible stuff but in just a minute we're going to be jumping in to the service we're going to be worshiping together and then we're going to be hearing the next message this week from the gospel of mark so wherever you're at we would ask you prepare your hearts and worship with us amen well good morning would you stand with us we worship our king jesus [Music] is [Music] take me back to love you again everything brand new [Music] your hand just always [Music] [Applause] [Music] if [Music] is [Music] making everything brand new [Music] your love is overcome oh jesus [Music] [Music] oh [Music] ago [Music] brand new [Music] making everything [Music] [Music] actually [Music] well lord jesus we uh we come before you um come before you with hearts of gratitude god that uh that we can be here trusting because of your word because the promise is in your word that you are here with us right now that you are redeeming that's what which is broken that though we we've broken everything we screwed it up lord that you are so faithful to come in to fix it to bring us into your fold to to continually uh rescue us from from what we we've screwed up lord but um lord i just pray right now for each and every one of us would you help us to lay aside everything every agenda every weight every sin we laid that at your feet and would you help us to build our lives on you lord would you help us to continually put our trust our confidence and our peace and our joy we need you we're desperate for you we love you jesus [Music] worthy of every song we could ever see worthy of all the praise we could ever break worthy of every breath we could ever breathe we live for you oh we live for you jesus name above every other name jesus the only one who could ever save worthy of every breath we could ever breathe [Music] there is none beside you open up my eyes in wonder and show me who you [Music] heart and are me worthy of every song we could ever say worthy of all the praise we could ever break worthy of every breath we could ever breathe we live for you oh we live for you jesus jesus the name above every other day [Music] jesus the only one who could ever say worthy of every breath we could ever [Music] breathe [Applause] [Music] [Music] me who you are is no one like you there is none beside you open up my [Music] who eyes are psalm 23 it says the lord is my shepherd i lack nothing he makes me lie down and greet pastors he leads me beside quiet waters he refreshes my soul he guides me along the right path for his name's sake even though i walk through the darkest valley i will fear no evil for you are with me your rod and your staff they comfort me surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life and i will dwell and house the lord [Music] forever [Music] i [Music] and i will not be shaken i will build my [Applause] [Music] i will put my trust [Music] i will i will put my trust there is [Music] who you are [Music] me [Music] i will put my [Music] such a firm foundation such a firm foundation lay aside every weight lay everything at your feet build my life on you jesus build my life on you and you alone for you were trustworthy i will not be shaking i will not be shaken for i am yours and you are mine i will not be shaken [Music] i will not be shaken for i am yours and your mind i will not be shaken i will not be shaken if i am yourself i will not be [Applause] [Applause] i will not be shaken [Music] again [Music] me up my eyes in wonderland show me who you are [Music] is [Music] who you are upon your love it is i will put my trust in you and i will not be taken [Music] to [Music] that is [Music] you bring light to the darkness [Music] in [Music] is [Music] you [Music] you restore every heart [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] of our our hearts will cry these bones will sing [Music] our hearts will cry these bones our hearts will cry these poems our hearts will cry these bones our hearts will cry these bones is yeah [Music] is [Music] [Applause] thank you amen amen hey man come on somebody oh amen oh well good morning good morning good morning if uh um i don't know what you just said jp but it's good to see you brother god morning god morning so good to see you guys and be with you and uh man i've missed you and uh i not only want to welcome you but i want to welcome those of us that are watching online right now we love you so much so grateful to have you part of the lh family no matter where you're watching from whether driving watching listening or this will be later i just want to say welcome and uh oh man it has been an incredible season here at lighthouse church both that of uh what you've afforded me the right to do and that is i've been uh sort of headlong in a writing project that uh has been incredibly edifying and beneficial to me i pray that it would be the same for you come the fall but uh that's a later story we'll get to that in the weeks that are forthcoming but uh let me just bring up the speed real quick um as to what's happening in and among the house for those of us that are joining with us for the very first time we want to say welcome we honor you we love you so grateful to have you but there's a lot happening in lighthouse church and um typically in church life what happens is that there's like an an ebb and a flow just like seasons church life is is just like season so what that means is typically the summer um is what we would call the summer slump or the summer law that's where attendance is a little more diminished people travel to and fro and you sort of take that season to reset gear up as you head into the fall well um as far as this summer goes that's not the case for lighthouse church we have been growing um we have been seeing growth in so many areas not just attendance both physically and digitally we've been seeing life change men and women meeting jesus salvations are happening all the time all week long it's not just weekends we're talking monday through saturday and then we get to be the beneficiaries of it on sunday we're baptizing week in and week out so let me just say this church this isn't normal so so let's not take it for granted like uh this is just what we do around here ah this is what jesus is doing in our midst amen and so we revel in that and we're we're grateful for that and so when it comes to that naturally there's tensions that are birthed out of that i want to speak to one of those tensions real quick one of those tensions are naturally when you're growing and when you're bustling and there's a lot of to and fro naturally it creates tensions and you feel it by way of attendance and capacity this is why under the leadership of lh kids uh liz seidel and megan and and delaney they have working diligently and feverishly to make capacity for our kids so what that means is until such time kids find their way in here all right so so when they find their way in here all right that means that sometimes they don't like being in here all right you're going to hear them they're going to cry out they're going to flip out you know if john's preaching they're going to really get restless they're going to be bored um but but what happens is is that they're in here and then they get rowdy and then they get distracting and so here's typically what happens now i don't make any qualms about this all right i mean typically you know i was raised like like under my old man if i brought my kids into the service and my old man saw my kids were getting restless he would say publicly in the service sammy get your brats out here they're distracting me i can't think straight and he loved my brats my brats were his grandchildren but he'd like be going with it he wouldn't just say that to me that was anybody else that came in there and their kids were like like wine he'd be like you got to get him going that's an ugly baby too get it going i don't know why but he felt the liberty to do so us we're a little more dignified than that around here so what we do is we we hand you okay all right this is how it works if kid gets a little disruptive we we usher god bless our ushers we'll slip down the row down the road this little card all right for you and here's what the card says all right it says lh loves babies uh-huh uh-huh you know what's coming and then you flip it over and this is what it says on the back but we know babies get loud out of respect for the speaking pastor and for those around you if your child gets fussy during the service we kindly ask you to watch the service from the lobby right capisce caprice let's just be on the real real real for an usher god bless our ushers for them to slip this down the road that's really awkward all right that's really awkward i mean i mean when it gets right down to it these cards these cards suck it but it's awkward you're trying to slide it down the row and what that means is you got to get that baby get it gone all right all right let me tell you why it's awkward because you made it awkward all right our ushers last thing they want to do is be like slipping this thing down why if your baby gets cr cranky don't make it awkward we've all been there you know how many how many restaurants i had to get doggy bags for prematurely because of my kids too many to number so you some of you all don't know when your baby gets it gets fussy listen we love your baby get it gone get it going all right we're gonna love you we've all stood in that for you i know i have i got three kids the lot in the foyer all right we just asked you would you please don't make it awkward just take the baby get him out there he can run up and down the concrete actually the chairs out there more comfortable than the ones in here true story and so we just asked that you would do that both for just the the distraction those men and women that are in here so that they can hear clearly and so we don't need to make a scene we love love love your babies so either lh kids or out in the foyer would be sufficient with that i'm going to ask you now to turn with me to mark chapter 8. mark chapter eight we're gonna have a good time in god's word i'm gonna pray holy spirit comes ministers to us this morning leaves us here more encouraged than when we arrive closer to jesus and more in love with him i love you so much i'm so grateful for this community what jesus is doing and our time that's going to be spent in god's word heavenly father we we ask you would you please father come and the last thing we want to do is go through emotions in some sort of formality or religiosity lord jesus we want to experience the resurrected king so father by your holy spirit i pray as we open scripture father that you would be with us and you'd show yourself so real to us whether we're in the room father those of us watching listening online i pray that you would be amazing over our next few moments together as we look into your page of scripture for life and instruction your precepts and your principles father that we want to apply so that we can reap all the benefits that come from give us ears to hear eyes to see in hearts to receive what you want to do in jesus name and all god's people said amen i am the older that i get the more i um have have learned to pause and stop and what now i find is is is more frequent in my life of what i would like to describe as ldms and ldms are life-defining moments that i think far too often the infinite wisdom of our creator our sovereign king would love that we would savor life-defining moments and reap from them what he intends to show us through them but unfortunately when i consider my own experience and my own sort of pace at living i've found that oftentimes i'm moving at too fast of a rate too preoccupied in my mind too sort of in a hurry to get through things that i miss the moment that i miss what god wants to show me at certain junctures or in passes or seasons when i really believe that had i had i let the weight sort of rest on me and consider the implications therein i would have been different coming out of it and many times i probably could have avoided having to then go back through it again first reaping what god wanted to show me initially and i think all of us to some degree or another sort of go through life-defining moments the question is whether or not we pick up what god wants us to in the moment or we just blitz through it and miss all that could have been had right now i'm reading a book called the listening life where ultimately the author is making the case that that uh the listening life was the life god intended us to have but we have broken and violated the natural order and we typically talk more than we listen we simply we simply cast our opinions more before we learn it we're we're thinking about something before we're we're processing and and chewing on on something and so so god wants us to have life-defining moments whether it's when you have children or whether you enter into a relationship or you come out of a relationship or you graduate a certain sort of threshold of life that there's moments that are that are defining in mark chapter 8 this is going to be a very defining moment for the disciples this is going to come as unexpected to them unbeknownst and really it's going to come very abrupt to them but jesus sees their their need for it sort of give you some context as to where we're going to be they are coming off of a real high water mark as far as the ministry of the disciples and certainly the groundswell and the ministry of jesus i mean it is like all systems are firing the throngs of people are following uh the the the reputation precedes him and he's doing miracles now in the most unorthodox fashion that people are expecting and people are following and and really what what leads up to this is is a miracle that jesus performs that was of the unique nature um really that only mark records this miracle is uh really only recorded by the gospel of mark and moreover there it's a miracle that it's the only miracle where jesus did it in stages and so what happened was is jesus went into this town called bethsaida and these people came up and they found him and they they beseeched him scripture says so they begged him would you please touch the eyes of our friend whom is blind and the next thing jesus does is is it says that he takes the man by the hand and he leads him out of the city and what jesus is doing now is he's not going to perform this miracle publicly he's not looking for any more groundswell or hoopla what he's going to do is do something very intimately so he takes this man outside of the city by the hand this man lets jesus be his seeing guide he leads him out of the city and scripture records and he's spat in his eyes and then jesus asked him this question he says now can you see the man says actually actually i can see somewhat of a blur it's as if people are walking but they they look like trees there's a lot of conjecture and a lot of speculation as to why didn't jesus just touch his eyes why is it that jesus spit in this man's eyes you can read every commentator every scholar everyone that cast an opinion and man it is diverse but nobody lands with any foundation but can i just share with you i share with this isn't discerned but i just want to share with you why i believe that jesus spat in this man's eyes actually it stirs my heart and it resonates with my experience but actually when you were when you were inflicted with the disease in that day typically when it came to lameness or blindness or death or mute or or the like there was no remedy for it there was no concoction actually in blind people back then the only thing they would do is take rooster's blood and mix it with honey it never worked never worked it was mystical it was it was a vain attempt to try to reap some type of of of of fix but it never worked and and and what would happen is if you were inflicted with something like that then then many times it was looked at upon as you were inflicted and cursed by god so that was a sin that you committed either in secret or it was a generational curse that was passed down through your lineage and so what people would treat you as is an outcast and not only would they treat you as an outcast they wouldn't get near you they wouldn't let you their kids around you and then they would scoff and mock at you and many times they would spit on you and here it is that jesus now leads this man out and as they would see this man as detestable and cursed and actually defiled and ultimately no good not even to god jesus takes this man and as he is probably very used to hearing someone fill their mouth with saliva and then project it upon him once again he hears the same thing yet this time that mouth of saliva is not going to lend itself to his misery actually it's going to lend itself to his ministry that it's going to liberate him that that mouth that he used to recoil when hearing people and he used to sort of sit in the cut and go here it comes once again that he was actually used to now becomes the very thing that god's going to use to cause him to see clearly why do i say that because many times actually all you see in your afflictions in your diseases in your hardships in your imprisonment all you see is the misery that comes with it can i tell you something about my affliction and my addiction my addiction is what brought me to the foot of the cross my addiction is what led me to the feet of jesus that my misery actually has now 20 years later become my ministry because it led me to the one that helped clean and save me that now i i don't i don't look back on my addiction and my heroin use and that season and yet and there's a moment where i might recall but i look at it and i go oh my gosh it screams redemption it screams what god's capable powerful and sovereign enough to do and now jesus does this with this man in this real intimate fashion in the most unorthodox way why don't you just touch him why just spit in the mud like he used to and just stir it up and then place it upon him oh no no he spit right on him and then the man says now i see clearly and he goes okay now don't go back into that city he says you go home so as you can imagine at this juncture this this moment the disciples they're electrified they're electrified they're on cloud nine throngs of people are blown away whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa and now all of a sudden jesus turns to his disciples and says who are people saying that i am there's a lot of groundswell a lot of speculation a lot of people that are following me who do people say that i am and they pipe up and say well some say that you're john the baptist and others say that you're elijah and some that you say you're a prophet there's a lot of speculation about who you are and he says peter who do you say that i am he goes oh you're the messiah you're the christ you're the anointed one you're the son of the living god and jesus looks right at peter and goes simon son of jonah flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you you're not that smart he says but my father in heaven downloaded that and you get that and then he says to peter and on that confession i'm gonna build my church and the gates of hell will not stand against it now now as you can imagine oh pete pete at this moment i mean he just passed the s.a.t with the 1600. i mean jesus just called him he said i'm gonna build my church oh pete this this cocky and sort of egotistical speak first thing later type guy he got it all right so now man he's walking with a swag i mean he's on high time baby he's like come on team follow me jesus you even follow me here we go i mean it's a bad bad thing when men start to feel themselves real bad when when we drink the kool-aid of ego and we're thinking okay you know hey at sunrise and sets where i walk and all of a sudden all of a sudden after this incredible moment miraculous signs and wonders man be healed move past meseata now talking to jesus peter in front of you know uh caesarea philippi all the sudden jesus then summons his disciples and this is what he says in 31 then he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders the chief priest and the teachers of the law and that he must be killed after three days rise again this is what he says and he spoke plainly about this they minced words he didn't try to thread a needle he didn't talk in you know in in in in some language they weren't going to be able to it says he spoke plainly about this and peter then took him aside and began to rebuke him so now peter's feeling himself wait a minute he just tipped his hat yeah you passed score man you're all in i'm gonna build my church on that jesus says now here's the deal here's the deal let's we all get it twisted unless you think that this is this is going to go a different way he says it's going to get real bad for me and there's i'm going to face mass rejection it's going to lead to my persecution it's going to lead to my suffering and it's ultimately going to lead to my death and peter asserts himself now peter mind you at this moment he's speaking on behalf of the disciples so he's not operating unilaterally this is he is the spokesperson for the other eleven and it says that he pulls jesus aside and begins to tell him you have got to stop talking like that this is not what a king messiah does we don't talk like that we're not gonna that's not gonna happen certainly not while i'm with you i got your flank i'm with you it's not going to end in your death i know who cares who rejects us we're going to stand tall we're going to overthrow the roman regime it's going to be me and you i'm your ride or die but this does not end like that stop poor mouthing what will happen here's peter now way out on his own thinking totally carnal like we all do thinking totally natural and this is what it says but when jesus turned and looked at his disciples he rebuked peter check this out and he said get behind me satan almost like you look through him like you don't even you're it's not even you that understands what you are doing and this is what he said you do not have the mind or the concerns of god but merely human concerns in aramaic what jesus just said is you always peter cheer on the children of men but you never cheer on the son of man what that means is you're always encouraging what you see in the natural you're always like being like a you know a cheerleader for guys that either accomplish something to do something because it benefits you benefits you it sees your earthly kingdom being built and established and sort of in some way this benefits you but me when i come and get real with you when i tell you how things are going to go he goes you never cheer me on you never say jesus i'm with you and i'm going to be i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm going to follow you and it's your agenda over mine he goes you're always thinking carnally you don't get it and jesus sees in this moment the need for an ldm uh we got to redefine things fellas and this is what he said 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 the cross and follow me it says for whoever wants to save their life will lose it but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel the message of my kingdom the message of jesus the anointed one the message of of of it's not just here it's about somewhere else he says and for the gospel will those they're gonna save it he says what good is it for someone to gain the whole world and yet forfeit their soul or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul if anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation the son of man will be ashamed of them oh here we go when he comes into his father's glory with the holy angels now at this moment those disciples had never heard anything like this before they certainly had heard jesus summon them and say i want you to follow me be with me you know this is but but they didn't they didn't understand the weight of that this is going to be their introductory class to the weight of that now jesus says okay i want you to i want you to listen to how this is going to go this would have been groundbreaking earth shattering game changing they probably at this point there was no retort there wasn't any pushback there probably were very few questions at this point it was the weight of what was just said by and large hear me now because of a single sentence in which jesus had just said and that single sentence was the one made from the onset when jesus said anyone that desires to be my disciple must deny themselves and then he said and take up their cross and follow me see when it comes to this this matter of the cross our connotation depiction and sort of thoughts around the cross have been completely shaped largely by christianum but completely different than the early church moreover before jesus's crucifixion like like like for us the cross is something completely different than they would have even thought about they'd look at us like man that's crazy you all think of of it like that like for us i mean we adorn ourselves with crosses without you many of you you might got a little something on you right now a little little 14 little 18 maybe even a little 20 you know gold all right got a big old you know cross on it some of you got a little adorned in your ears all right we put crosses stickers you know you got little craft books at home little crosses on it you know little shirts i mean you wear shirts with crosses on it even even non-believers not even christian like brands you know put crosses on shirts it's just cool you know little coptic crosses old school crosses big crosses little crosses you'd be mma fighter you know wear a little cross you know a little afflicted little old-school little ghetto you know what i'm talking about cross you know we are doing our churches with crosses we put crosses anywhere hang them all you know a little air freshener and eating crosses i mean crosses come in all shapes and sizes we look at we don't even you know non-believers even rock crosses but in the early church they would have looked at that and been like what are y'all wearing crosses for they crossed that would have been like like like putting like like like a gold like like electric chair like around your neck and like pow but you're wearing crosses for because crosses meant something completely different to them moreover when jesus made this statement mind you he hadn't told them that his means of death would be by way of a cross the prophets of old said that he would be lifted up but they didn't know wait a minute he's going to die by roman crucifixion this is even prior to that so now he's saying to them you must in order to follow me and to you and i by extension he said in order to follow me you're going to have to take up your cross and when it came to jesus what the cross meant the cross meant something all together weighty and it would have been the same for them cross typically by john jorgeson and matt chandler one time said you know it didn't mean something different for us than it meant for them but when it come to jesus he saw the cross through four lenses the first is is that the cross meant opposition the cross was used by the romans actually designed by the persians perfected by the romans ultimately as the tool to demonstrate to anyone and everyone this is what happens to opposition it was the instrument of which you would be placed with those that did the most egregious of sins egregious of crimes rather murder rapist revoltist and the like that anybody that stood against the roman regime you were nailed to a roman cross bar and this is what was displayed by the romans and the empire this is what happens when you are the opposition you don't succumb to and abide by the rule of the land certainly that of the romans the cross meant opposition but secondly the cross meant shame see the jews they lived by in the fact that they were oppressed by the romans dignity was a big deal to them so when it came to not only dignity by way of jewish law and morality but it was also dignity by way of modesty they were very clothed they would walk shoulders back chin up this was the roman's way of robbing you or desecrating you of all your dignity they would nail you to a roman crossbar typically on a public sort of thoroughfare so it wasn't removed it was certainly outside of the city but all your passer buyers all the public they would see you hang there many times they would strip you naked people would walk by and they'd throw things at you and spit upon you and they'd scoff at you and mock you many would beat you with sticks and you would hang there naked it was totally shameful but thirdly the cross also meant suffering the cross was was a means it wasn't just an instrument of of of uh sort of immediate death it was a it was a means perfected by the romans to sort of maximize all the suffering that would come with death so typically you would stand there or you would be nailed to that roman cross bar over a long period of time you would hang and they would take nails and they'd drive them through the bridge of your feet one upon another and they drive them through the wrists on your hands and then what you would die from is ultimately suffocation because you could no longer push up so as to get another breath in your lungs and so your lungs would collapse and you would die shortly there after and so naturally then the cross meant death and so so so now when jesus was speaking of the cross and now speaking to his disciples and make no mistake speaking to us though maybe it didn't have the physical connotation to us that it would them it's still metaphorically meant the same because when jesus invites you and i to take up our cross and follow him know this what he's saying is in order to follow me you got to know you're going to face opposition he he's saying that to the same to the generation then that he's saying right now please please please no you're going to face opposition people are going to reject you people are going to stand against you people are going to scoff at you people are going to ridicule you even those that love you are going to disassociate with you it's it's not real popular to follow jesus rightly so jesus was saying to his disciples make no mistake you're going to face opposition but secondly you're going to face shame it's it's going to be really really tempting to be embarrassed to follow jesus welcome to 2021 it's going to be really hard for you to proclaim the name of jesus and stand up strong and bold and be loud and proud and say i follow jesus sort of like the apostle paul did when he said i'm not ashamed i'm not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power unto salvation jesus says do no in order to follow me it's going to invoke shame you're going to be embarrassed you're going to feel like hiding and succumbing and shrieking back he says it's going to be shame also what he's saying is it's going to entail suffering it's going to be a little bit of a rough ride at times why because not only is it going to cost you at times relationships causing you people think that you're antiquated for believing in the authoritative word of god and thinking that wait a minute i can't even believe that you believe that there's sort of some god somewhere that's invisible and you buy into that and you let him shape your life and then they ridicule you for but then it's going to entail spiritual warfare because there's a very real enemy that's put a bull's-eye on your back that's going to work overtime to get you to walk away from your testimony and recant your faith it's going to be suffering at times and most certainly lastly the cross means that you're going to die to self that you're going to die to to to your natural life so that you can be raised in spiritual life that you're you're gonna die to your agenda and you're gonna die just like peter didn't and the moments before when he pulled jesus aside and said you're doing it wrong what jesus is to say is no no i get to tell you you're doing it wrong you don't tell me i'm doing it wrong and so so so what jesus was saying to them and to us is know this know this in this life-defining moment before you start thinking it's all miracles and lollipops and unicorns and walks through the daisy wait a minute if you really want to follow me peter and you really want to follow me lighthouse church and hear me or me before i'm preaching at you i'm with you and you really want to follow me sammy what that means is you're going to have to take up your cross and deny yourself and follow me that means opposition shame suffering and death now at this juncture you're probably like man i'm so glad i came here today i know i know because a lot of you are thinking man this is perfect because i've been looking for a little shame and suffering i think i found the right place it would have thunk it down down glam bernie here it is and i say this because because sometimes um you know when it comes to this matter of of the church i think the problems within the church is because many times we haven't understood what it is to be the church sometimes the fallout i mean we're we're struggling right now team whether it's with pr or holding our own testimony and i think a lot of it has to do is we've never allowed jesus to take us through a life-defining moment to go you really in is this legit are you just looking for a little fix slow a little help little word of encouragement a little shot of hope or you do you really want to follow me and i know i know under the sound of my that some of that is like wait a minute is this what it really is this is what it really is and anybody that's walked with jesus for any length of time would tell you because they got a million myriad of t-shirts to say this is what it really is this is real deal holy field discipleship but but i i want to tell you something that in that text in that text there are two incredible incredible shots of hope that create the incentive for you and i to stay the course and the first is is that when you consider what jesus asked his disciples to do it wasn't something that he first didn't do so when it comes to him inviting us to take up our cross our great god king and sovereign ruler overall already did it first so for those of you that are sitting in the room right now that are like i'm facing opposition you know what jesus would say to you i not only see you but i feel you and also i'm with you for those of you that feel like you know i feel like i'm being shamed or i feel embarrassed or i feel like man i'm tempted to shrink back and and try to find another way to do this thing life you know what jesus would say is i see you i feel you and i'm with you for those that are in the midst of suffering you're in it right now you came in here tired today you came in looking for encouragement you know what jesus would say in your suffering is i see you i feel you and i'm with you for those that feel like i'm dying right now jesus would say i see you i feel you and i'm with you that not only am i inviting you into this incredible life and this invitation to pick up your cross i've done it already ahead of you to be the example for you now that's now if you don't derive enough hope from that to say wait a minute jesus jesus endured the cross jesus carry the cross jesus is our example as now we carry our own cross if that doesn't stir you let this one that the cross this cross that we that we reflect on that we look at that we sort of revel in that cross that was not the end of the story the cross wasn't the end of everything actually jesus the reason that we can look at our example and go i'm going to follow him is a heavy there's a heavy call and a weighty invitation i'm going to follow him why because the cross means that the story doesn't end there why because the opposition that jesus faced in his life became reconciliation that because he endured opposition now we've been reconciled with him you want to know why you sit in this room we sing prayers and pray song and sing songs and and hands raised and tears shed and joy had why because jesus reconciled us to himself through opposition and didn't quit you know what shame became shame ultimately shame became honor why because not only did jesus endure the shame of the cross it became honor because now he sits at the right hand of the father ruling and reigning preeminent and sovereign over all let me tell you something church there is no hope outside of jesus there is no other answer nobody else is coming there's not another messiah there's but one messiah and he is coming once and for all to return for his team and we're it and then and then and then as far as suffering suffering that he endured it became peace because he conquered sin and the war therein so that now we can have peace even in the midst of turmoil why because we're in right relationship with our heavenly father and death death became life why because they buried him in a borrowed tomb thinking that he would be a bygone memory and three days later he sat forward folded his grave clothes laid him to the side removed that stone and walked out triumphant over satan sin and death itself he became life so now so now hear me on this of course you could read that and go man that's that's a heavy heavy invitation and heavy it is but also you can see it as that when you pick up your cross it's not an invitation that the cross is the end of the story actually what it means is is that those four things they're not the end of your story either that for those that follow jesus just like opposition wasn't the end of jesus story now it won't be the end of your story those of you that are sitting in this room and you feel like i feel like i'm dealing with shame or embarrassment or i want to shrink but listen listen that's not the end of your story because it wasn't the end of jesus story that your shame becomes honor that you're suffering let me tell you something that we haven't preached enough of to follow jesus is to suffer but when you're with jesus you have peace in the place of suffering and when you die to self when you die to self and you feel like i'm gonna lay down my agenda i'm gonna pick up jesus's i'm not gonna do what my flesh cries out for i'm gonna do with jesus and you think man this is a pride swallowing siege and it's going against the grain of my flesh you know what lies on the other side of it life abundantly i chased anything and everything thinking i was gonna find life outside of jesus you know what it almost did killed me then i let go of my life picked up jesus you know what i found in it life and here's the incredible thing just just to balance the playing field as we get ready to to close you're probably wondering how you wrap this up i want you to know that that what we're feeling right now in in in our culture this is the outworking of sin if you're wondering why you scroll through a feed or you turn on the news or you peer into the pages of any given media and you're like wait a minute why is it so jacked up why is it so bad why do people clear out of the national stadium last night because somebody's popping off rounds and in any given street corner of any given metropolis city people are dying in broad daylight and why does it feel like there's such an instability and uncertainty and insecurity this is what sin does this is what genesis 3 sort of fractured and set in to motion you want to know why because we were the opposition to god because our first parents adam and eve opposed god's way of doing life and you know what came with it shame it says as soon as they sin they started covering themselves with animal skins and and keeping themselves and it says they came to him and he says why are you running away from me and he says because we were naked in a shame we know something broke we broke something and we we didn't know how to face you you know what birthed out of shame suffering that's why there's wars and rumors of wars there's crime there's addiction there's depression there's despair there's hardship why because of sin shame birth suffering and you know what came out of suffering death and the truth of the matter is the truth of the matter is just being on the real just being on the reel you'll get an encouraging word next week the the truth of the matter is is that you can't avoid those four things because of sin now no matter what either in jesus or out of jesus you're still going to deal with opposition i expect that before you ever met jesus you were facing opposition review i mean you know this is why scripture says life of the sinner is hard it's just hard it's hard slugging it out and i'm sure that outside of jesus you dealt with shame you knew something inherently was wrong when you would do something you come home from the bar you climb into bed you wake the next morning you do your thing and you were like why do i feel so much shame and don't tell me you didn't suffer chasing life and trying to find high water marks i'm gonna do it on my terms you were suffering and you know what it ultimately all leads to death and outside of jesus that's all you get opposition hear me opposition is just opposition shame well just deal with your shame suffering hey that's all you get is suffering and then when your clock's up death well death is what you get as the bow at the end of the rainbow that's it but with jesus with jesus opposition becomes redemption and shame becomes your honor and suffering becomes your peace and dying to self becomes with a place that you find life this is why this is why scripture says for whoever whoever wants to save their life thinking i'm gonna do it on my terms i don't need god i don't need jesus i don't need somebody telling me what to do well you keep your opposition suffering shame and death and he says this whoever wants to save their life well they're the ones that lose it but he says but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel well they're the ones that save it whoever what good is it for someone to gain the whole world and yet forfeit their soul why would we forfeit our soul to hang on to opposition shame suffering and death you'd have to be a fool but because we don't allow life-defining moments to sit we'll just keep on plowing all the way until the clock runs out so here's my question real simple real simple no gimmicks who went in among us who in among lighthouse church says i want to pick up my cross and follow jesus and if that be you i just want you to stand to your feet right now i'm gonna ask the worship team to come on out this would be a hard environment to stay seated you know what i'm talking about be like get this cat out but i hear you and let me just say something i'm not going to lead you in a prayer i'm not going to do that what i want to do is i just want you to feel the life-defining moment that jesus is leading us into i need to answer it and let me tell you it's not a one and done just because we're answering it with confidence on a sunday let me tell you you might have to answer this question again tomorrow amen and you might have to do it two times on tuesday and wednesday's hump days get rough so you might have to do it but let me tell you something it's good for your soul to do it why because god loves you and god has an eternity prepared for you and god has called you by name and let me tell you on the other side of our four things is life like we can't even imagine don't forfeit your soul for trying to save something that you can't keep anyway heavenly father i thank you for my brothers and sisters i thank you lord jesus for what you're doing in this church i thank you father for despite our sin and how we've defied you how we father have many times ran away from you you still pursue us jesus i pray that you would reign in our hearts and then as men and women and true disciples of you we would pick up our cross daily and say i want to be a faithful disciple so we can radiate you to a lost dying jacked up world thank you for my brothers both in person and online bless us lord with your holy spirit in a more heavy way as we follow you in jesus name [Music] amen cross has the final word the cross has the final word [Music] sorrow may come in the darkest night the cross says the cross has the fine word the cross has the final word paper its strongest fight the cross has the fine [Music] world thank you jesus [Music] the [Music] the cross has the cause this is [Music] thank you there's nothing stronger nothing higher nothing greater than the name of jesus [Music] all the power all the glory to the name of jesus there's nothing stronger nothing higher nothing greater than the name of jesus [Music] all the glory through the name of jesus nothing greater than the name of jesus all the glory to the name of jesus christ [Applause] savior has come world [Music] man another powerful message i love that we're going through mark i love that we're just paying ridiculous attention to jesus because there's so much we can take from what he says what he does that applies to our lives even 2 000 years later totally yeah you know we're only on week seven of this mark series and we have 12 weeks to go in total love it so we're going to be working through that for the rest of the summer in fact next weekend we have our next young adults event so july 24th be there at 6 00 p.m i'll be there cam will be there maybe he'll bring some more heads and maybe some trolleys yeah you should bring warheads for cam it's his favorite when he wakes up after eating the one earlier he's going to be excited to hear about that um but uh i'm excited i've heard nothing but good things about these young adult gatherings i've been told i'm an old man and can't show up but i hear they're wonderful jenna told me that specifically jenna can i pray for us and then let's go about our weeks and see what jesus has for us lord we are so grateful for today we are again thankful for your word lord that you don't leave us just wondering and guessing you speak to us you guide us by your word and then you give us your holy spirit you you wrote these words holy spirit and as we read we believe you will give us insights you will tell us what you want us to hear you will tell us how we can follow in your footsteps jesus so we can have all the blessings you want us to have so we are thankful for that we praise you we pray all this in your name amen amen we'll see you all next week on the countdown you

Channel: Lighthouse Church

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Length: 85min 55sec (5155 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 18 2021