September 7, 2025 • 18 mins
Christianity isn't about getting a free pass to heaven while continuing to live life on your terms; it's about exchanging your entire life for Christ's. Jesus makes it abundantly clear in Mark 8 that following Him requires denying yourself, taking up your cross, and fully surrendering to His lordship.
• Jesus feeds 4,000 people with just seven loaves of bread and a few fish, demonstrating His compassion and power
• When Pharisees demand a sign, Jesus sighs deeply and refuses to perform on demand
• Jesus heals a blind man in stages, first giving partial sight and then complete vision
• Peter correctly identifies Jesus as the Messiah, but then tries to prevent Jesus from talking about His coming death
• Jesus delivers the challenging truth: "If you try to hang on to your life, you'll lose it"
• The cross was not a symbol but an execution device—taking up your cross meant beginning a journey that ends in death
• True Christianity isn't giving Jesus your problems; it's giving Him your entire life
Take a moment today to ask yourself if you've truly given your whole life to Christ or if you've just given Him your problems. The peace and joy of complete surrender await those who choose to follow Him fully.
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, everybody, welcome back to the Bible
Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon.
Today, mark, chapter 8, andtoday's title is Following Jesus
is Expensive.
Following Jesus is expensive.
It reminds me of when my girlswere real little.
I had some friends and they wentto Disney World every year.
(00:22):
I mean like every year, and Ihad no idea how much Disney
World cost.
I had no idea what all goesinto it, all the planning and
all the things.
And I was like, hey, we oughtto do that, babe, because my
wife for a long time has alwaysplanned all of our vacations and
stuff because she's just goodat it.
I don't even know if she likesit or not, but she's good at it,
(00:45):
so she gets to do it.
And my wife looked at me andshe said darling love of my life
, do you have any idea how muchit costs to go to Disney world?
And I was like, no, they goevery year.
We should go.
And she started laying out forme plane tickets, park tickets,
all these other things, hotels,all that.
And I was like, oh, and shesaid do you realize?
(01:05):
They save up their money everyyear and that's all they do all
year long and they go.
It is expensive.
But all I had in my head werethe rides and the fun and the
stuff.
And he's like, oh yeah.
She said, oh yeah, it's fun andit's great, but it's expensive.
Are we going to be willing tosave and to count the cost in
order to go do that?
Well, can I tell you, when youthink about the idea of being a
(01:27):
Christian, eternal life,spending eternity in heaven and
seeing the glory of God on earthand peace and joy and all the
fruit of the Spirit, it'sbeautiful.
It's wonderful, but has anyoneever told you there's a price?
It's a wonderful thing, butit's not free.
Now, it's a wonderful thing,but it's not free.
Now, salvation is free.
It costs Jesus everything, andthen, to follow him, there's a
(01:49):
price to pay, and I think it'simportant that every once in a
while, we take a moment and werealize that, with all this
glory and all this wonderful,wonderful adventure of
Christianity, it's a price to bepaid.
We're going to talk about thatin just a moment.
So have your Bibles and open upwith me to Mark 8.
While you're doing that, makesure you take just a moment to
like, share and subscribe to theYouTube channel and the podcast
(02:09):
.
Make sure you leave us afive-star review on the podcast.
It really does help.
And make sure you go into theBible Breakdown discussion on
Facebook.
There's an amazing team doing awonderful job and you can find
all of it atthebiblebreakdowncom.
Well, if you remember, we'vebeen in this journey of going
through the gospel of Mark onechapter at a time, and we're
kind of reflecting on this ideathat the whole idea of the
(02:33):
gospel of Mark is the gospel inmotion.
And the reason why I love thatidea of the gospel in motion is,
from the very beginning, markis just heading straight to the
cross.
You know what I mean.
He just starts with theministry of Jesus and the grand
climax is on its way and that isJesus dying for us, rising
again, and so, in a way, I justthink of this whole journey as
(02:57):
building momentum to that day.
And we're going to continuethat journey with Mark, chapter
eight.
And in Mark chapter eight we'regoing to get to see about Jesus
having compassion and doing allthese different things.
But he says something at theend that, if I'm honest, we
don't talk about a whole lot.
But that's what this is for, iswhere we take a moment and we
dig into some of the deeperthings of God's word and we
(03:19):
really kind of let them marinatefor a moment.
So we're going to get to that.
Let God's word speak to us Ifyou're ready.
Mark, chapter 8, verse 1, saysthis about this time another
large crowd had gathered andpeople ran out of food again.
So Jesus called his disciplesand told them I feel sorry for
these people.
They have been here with me forthree days and have nothing
(03:42):
left to eat.
If I send them home hungry,they will faint along the way.
For some of them have come along distance.
I mean, you think about it.
There's no McDonald's orsomething like that.
They have nothing until theycan get to a place to buy
something, like a merchant orback home.
So some of them they're legitin some problems here.
So verse 4, who distributed thebread to the crowd, and a few
(04:22):
small fish were found too.
So Jesus also blessed these andtold the disciples to
distribute them.
They ate as much as they wanted, and afterward the disciples
picked up seven large baskets ofleftover food.
There were about 4,000 men inthe crowd that day, and Jesus
sent them home after they hadeaten.
Immediately after this he gotinto a boat with his disciples
(04:44):
and crossed over to the regionof Dalmuthah.
When the Pharisees heard thatJesus had arrived, they came and
started to argue with him,testing him and demanded that he
show them a miraculous signfrom heaven to prove his
authority.
When he heard this, he sigheddeeply in his spirit.
Pause, every parent knows thatI'm going to read that verse
(05:07):
again.
When he heard this, he sigheddeeply in his spirit.
Can I just give you an exampleas a weary father, what a sigh
deep in his spirit when he heardsomebody say something stupid.
I know this because I heard mydad give this sigh many times
(05:28):
and I know this because I havegiven this sigh.
Jesus hears these Phariseesjust being silly and I don't
mean in a good way and hefinally just does.
Here it is.
That is the sign of someone,the sigh of someone who's just
like ugh.
So here we go again.
Ugh, there we go.
(05:49):
He said why do these peoplekeep demanding a miraculous sign
?
I tell you the truth, I willnot give this generation any
such sign.
And he got back into a boat andhe left them and he crossed over
to the other side of the lake,but the disciples had forgotten
to bring any food.
Now, how do you forget to bring?
You just got through feeding4,000 people with seven loaves
(06:11):
of bread and you didn't bring amorsel, a scrap, a piece,
nothing, no, they didn't bring athing.
But they didn't bring any foodand they had only one loaf of
bread with them in the boat whenthey were crossing the lake,
jesus warned them Watch out,beware of the yeast of the
Pharisees and of Herod.
And at this they began to arguewith each other because they
(06:34):
hadn't brought enough bread.
I wonder if they're arguingabout not bringing enough bread
and somebody going Well, youknow, he did just increase seven
loaves to feed 4,000.
We could ask him hey, can youdivide this up amongst the 12 of
us?
And they're going hey, youidiot, that's not what we're
supposed to do.
I mean, they're arguing right.
Verse 17,.
Jesus knew what they were sayingand so he said why are you
(06:55):
arguing about having no bread?
Don't you know or understood orunderstand even yet?
Are your hearts still hard totake it in?
You have eyes, even yet, areyour hearts still hard to take
it in?
You have eyes.
Can't you see?
You have ears.
Can't you hear?
Don't you remember anything atall when I fed the 5,000 with
five loaves of bread.
How many baskets of leftoversdid you pick up afterward?
(07:20):
Twelve, they said.
When I fed the 4,000 with theseven loaves.
How many large baskets ofleftovers did you pick up?
Seven, they said Don't youunderstand?
Yet he asked them.
When they arrived in Bethsaida,some people brought to him a
blind man and they begged him totouch him and heal him.
Jesus took the blind man by thehand and led him out to the
village and then, spitting onthe man's eyes yes, spitting on
(07:41):
the man's eyes he laid his handson him and he said Can you see
anything?
Now the man looked up and he'slike yes, I mean, I see people,
but I can't really see them veryclearly.
They look like trees walkingaround.
I love this.
Jesus placed his hands on theman's eyes again and his eyes
were opened.
You know what this sounds likehappened.
It sounds like listen, for hisown reasons, and we talked about
(08:05):
this some yesterday, thethought of healing properties in
the spit.
We got that.
But this is what it sounds likehappen.
Jesus spit on this guy's handjust hawk poo, you know and
rubbed them together, put themon the guy's eyes and he's like
what do you see, I see, Well, Isee men like trees.
And then it says Jesus put hishands on his eyes again.
(08:27):
You know what it sounds like?
Jesus just cleaned the spit offhis eye.
It's not like he had to touchhim again to heal him.
He just needed to finish theprocess by getting the spit off
of his eye.
And then the guy's like oh,there you go.
He says his sight wascompletely restored, he could
see everything clearly.
And Jesus sent him away, sayingNow listen, don't go back into
the village on your way home,verse 27.
(08:51):
Jesus and his disciples leftGalilee and went up to the
village near Caesarea, philippi,and they were walking along.
He asked them who do people saythat I am?
Well, they replied Some sayJohn the Baptist, some say
Elijah, others say you are oneof the other prophets.
Then he said but who do you saythat I am?
Peter replied you're theMessiah.
(09:13):
But Jesus warned them not totell anyone about him.
Then Jesus began to tell themthat the Son of man must suffer
many terrible things and berejected by the elders, the
leading priests and the teachersof religious law.
He would be killed, but threedays later he would rise from
the dead and as he talked openlywith his disciples, peter took
(09:34):
him aside and began to reprimandhim for saying such things.
Jesus turned around and lookedat his disciples and he
reprimanded Peter.
Get away from me, satan.
He said.
You are seeing things merelyfrom a human point of view, not
God's.
By the way, that's awesome.
Peter was willing to tell thepeople that is me, I'm the one
(09:55):
that messed up.
He got mad at me.
He told me I did it wrong andthen he said and come on, keep
following me, because it didn'tsay he got rid of him Verse 34.
Here's the point.
We need to.
We need to.
Just every Christian needs totake a moment and listen.
Here we go, verse 34.
Then, calling the crowd to jointhe disciples, he said if any
one of you wants to be myfollower, you must give up your
(10:16):
own way, take up your cross andfollow me.
If you try to hang on to yourlife, you will lose it, but if
you give up your own life for mysake and for the sake of the
good news, you will save it.
And what do you benefit if yougain the whole world but lose
your own soul?
Is there anything worth morethan your soul, if anyone is
(10:40):
ashamed of me and my message andthese adulterous and sinful
days, the Son of man speaking ofHimself, will.
That's deep he's saying.
I love this verse.
He says this right here.
He says if you want to be myfollower, you've got to give up
(11:04):
your own way, take up your crossand follow me.
Now, what the original audiencewould have understood is there
was a thing called the crosswalk.
They didn't call it quite that,but that's what it was.
And what it was is the momentof crucifixion did not start
when you got on a crosssomewhere else.
The moment of crucifixionstarted when you would take the
(11:25):
cross beam and begin the walk ofdeath to the place of execution
.
So once, according to theresearch I've done, once you
started the walk toward whereyou would die, you couldn't undo
it.
The punishment was in process,and so you can't look back, you
can't do anything.
You're going to die at thatpoint.
(11:46):
And so Jesus is saying so muchmore than we get.
He's saying if you want to bemy follower, then you have to
actually follow me.
You must give up your own way,take up the cross which means no
turning back and follow me.
If you want to be my follower,then follow, follow me.
He says if you try to be myfollower, then follow, follow me
.
And he says if you try to hangon to your own life, you're not
(12:08):
going to be able to save it, butif you give your life to me,
that's when you find it.
And he said if anyone isashamed of me, I will be ashamed
of that person.
But in another gospel he saysbut if any one of you proclaims
me, I will be so proud toproclaim you.
And that's what we've got torealize about Christianity.
(12:31):
Unintentionally, I think thatfor many people they have
understood Christianity to be aget-out-of-jail-free card,
no-transcript.
(12:52):
And for many people they'retold there's sin in your life.
We're born into a sinful state.
Jesus wants to forgive you ofyour sin.
And we go cool, I would love tobe forgiven of my sin, please.
I'll take some of that.
And so they say just pray thisprayer and then go on living
your life, and the moment thatyou die, you cash in your God,
(13:15):
your free God, hope.
By the way, 20 years ago atthat church, I prayed this
prayer and they told me that ifI prayed the magic words, I'll
go to heaven now.
And then they go oh well, thenyou never went to church again.
No, you didn't actually serveGod.
No, you didn't like try to livea sinless life and grow into
the in the goodness of God, andall that, and of course not.
No, okay, no problem, you didpray that prayer once.
(13:35):
That that is not how this works.
Is it possible?
They're going to be people thatare going to be shocked when
they die because they they gaveJesus their problems.
They never gave him their life.
And Jesus said I don't want justyour problems, I want all of
you.
I am exchanging my life foryour life.
(13:56):
I died on the cross, rose againand I'm willing to give you my
life, but it's going to cost youyour life.
Now here's the catch.
People hear that and they go.
I don't want to give God mylife, I just want to give him
(14:17):
all the bad stuff.
Don't work like that.
You have to give him everything.
That's why the Bible says if wewill confess with our mouth the
Lord Jesus and believe in ourheart that God raised him from
the dead, we shall be saved.
We declare with our mouth, thatis to declare allegiance.
All other things are gone.
We now belong to God.
You go well, my goodness, thatsounds awful permanent.
Sure does.
Jesus dying on the cross wasawful permanent.
Thank goodness he rose again.
(14:38):
Here's the amazing thing.
Jesus' verse there says if youtry to hang on to your life, if
you try to do it your way,you're going to lose.
But life you try to do it yourway, you're going to lose, but
if you give your life for me,you'll save it.
This is the amazing thing thathappens.
People have this idea that ifthey give their life to God,
it's like a death sentence andthey no longer get to do things
their own way.
(14:58):
It's actually a life sentenceand you get to figure out what
true life really is.
We're actually proclaimingfreedom, salvation and joy.
So here's my question for youwhen you gave your life to Jesus
, did you give him your life ordid you just give him the bad
feelings?
Did you just give him theemotions?
(15:19):
Give him the moment?
Here's the thing God knows Ifyou gave him everything, then
you gave him everything.
So this is not in any wayintended to take away any
assurance of your salvation.
That's not what this is at all.
It's just to remind us what thewalk of Christianity is
Christianity, chris-ti-anity, afollower of Christ, christ
(15:41):
follower, we are a follower ofChrist.
So here's what you get to do.
If you would say yes, pastor,all that time ago, I just prayed
a prayer.
I wasn't giving God my life.
Well, today's your day.
It's time to come home and assoon as this podcast is over
with you, take a moment and yousay God, I'm so sorry, I repent
of all my sin.
(16:02):
I give you my entire life.
I exchange all of me for all ofyou.
I give you my entire life.
I exchange all of me for all ofyou.
Come into my life and I'm goingto follow you the rest of my
days.
That is the eternal commitmentof Christianity.
Welcoming to the family of God.
But on the other side, if youdid do that, but if you found
yourself not giving Christ yourlife, this is a moment, of
(16:22):
course, correct.
Can I tell you?
You'll never be more full ofpeace and of joy than to know
God is in control.
So here's the question Is he,have you given him everything?
It's the greatest thing in theworld.
Don't the enemy lie to you andtell you oh, but then you're not
in control.
You never were in control tobegin with.
Can we get that straight?
But now we can give our lifeover to Jesus and watch what
(16:46):
happens.
The proof is in what happens.
Let's pray together right now.
God, thank you so much for today.
Thank you, god, that you'rewith us and you're for us.
I'm thankful for you.
I'm thankful that you give usthe most amazing opportunity,
and that is we get to exchangedeath for life.
Thank you for that.
We celebrate it today In Jesus'name.
(17:07):
We pray Amen.
Amen.
God's word says in Mark 8,verse 34,.
It says If anyone would comeafter me we read it today let
him deny himself, take up hiscross, follow me.
What joy it is for those inwhom their sins are forgiven.
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow for Mark,chapter 9.
Well, everybody, welcome back to the Bible
Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon.
Today, mark, chapter 8, andtoday's title is Following Jesus
is Expensive.
Following Jesus is expensive.
It reminds me of when my girlswere real little.
I had some friends and they wentto Disney World every year.
(00:22):
I mean like every year, and Ihad no idea how much Disney
World cost.
I had no idea what all goesinto it, all the planning and
all the things.
And I was like, hey, we oughtto do that, babe, because my
wife for a long time has alwaysplanned all of our vacations and
stuff because she's just goodat it.
I don't even know if she likesit or not, but she's good at it,
(00:45):
so she gets to do it.
And my wife looked at me andshe said darling love of my life
, do you have any idea how muchit costs to go to Disney world?
And I was like, no, they goevery year.
We should go.
And she started laying out forme plane tickets, park tickets,
all these other things, hotels,all that.
And I was like, oh, and shesaid do you realize?
(01:05):
They save up their money everyyear and that's all they do all
year long and they go.
It is expensive.
But all I had in my head werethe rides and the fun and the
stuff.
And he's like, oh yeah.
She said, oh yeah, it's fun andit's great, but it's expensive.
Are we going to be willing tosave and to count the cost in
order to go do that?
Well, can I tell you, when youthink about the idea of being a
(01:27):
Christian, eternal life,spending eternity in heaven and
seeing the glory of God on earthand peace and joy and all the
fruit of the Spirit, it'sbeautiful.
It's wonderful, but has anyoneever told you there's a price?
It's a wonderful thing, butit's not free.
Now, it's a wonderful thing,but it's not free.
Now, salvation is free.
It costs Jesus everything, andthen, to follow him, there's a
(01:49):
price to pay, and I think it'simportant that every once in a
while, we take a moment and werealize that, with all this
glory and all this wonderful,wonderful adventure of
Christianity, it's a price to bepaid.
We're going to talk about thatin just a moment.
So have your Bibles and open upwith me to Mark 8.
While you're doing that, makesure you take just a moment to
like, share and subscribe to theYouTube channel and the podcast
(02:09):
.
Make sure you leave us afive-star review on the podcast.
It really does help.
And make sure you go into theBible Breakdown discussion on
Facebook.
There's an amazing team doing awonderful job and you can find
all of it atthebiblebreakdowncom.
Well, if you remember, we'vebeen in this journey of going
through the gospel of Mark onechapter at a time, and we're
kind of reflecting on this ideathat the whole idea of the
(02:33):
gospel of Mark is the gospel inmotion.
And the reason why I love thatidea of the gospel in motion is,
from the very beginning, markis just heading straight to the
cross.
You know what I mean.
He just starts with theministry of Jesus and the grand
climax is on its way and that isJesus dying for us, rising
again, and so, in a way, I justthink of this whole journey as
(02:57):
building momentum to that day.
And we're going to continuethat journey with Mark, chapter
eight.
And in Mark chapter eight we'regoing to get to see about Jesus
having compassion and doing allthese different things.
But he says something at theend that, if I'm honest, we
don't talk about a whole lot.
But that's what this is for, iswhere we take a moment and we
dig into some of the deeperthings of God's word and we
(03:19):
really kind of let them marinatefor a moment.
So we're going to get to that.
Let God's word speak to us Ifyou're ready.
Mark, chapter 8, verse 1, saysthis about this time another
large crowd had gathered andpeople ran out of food again.
So Jesus called his disciplesand told them I feel sorry for
these people.
They have been here with me forthree days and have nothing
(03:42):
left to eat.
If I send them home hungry,they will faint along the way.
For some of them have come along distance.
I mean, you think about it.
There's no McDonald's orsomething like that.
They have nothing until theycan get to a place to buy
something, like a merchant orback home.
So some of them they're legitin some problems here.
So verse 4, who distributed thebread to the crowd, and a few
(04:22):
small fish were found too.
So Jesus also blessed these andtold the disciples to
distribute them.
They ate as much as they wanted, and afterward the disciples
picked up seven large baskets ofleftover food.
There were about 4,000 men inthe crowd that day, and Jesus
sent them home after they hadeaten.
Immediately after this he gotinto a boat with his disciples
(04:44):
and crossed over to the regionof Dalmuthah.
When the Pharisees heard thatJesus had arrived, they came and
started to argue with him,testing him and demanded that he
show them a miraculous signfrom heaven to prove his
authority.
When he heard this, he sigheddeeply in his spirit.
Pause, every parent knows thatI'm going to read that verse
(05:07):
again.
When he heard this, he sigheddeeply in his spirit.
Can I just give you an exampleas a weary father, what a sigh
deep in his spirit when he heardsomebody say something stupid.
I know this because I heard mydad give this sigh many times
(05:28):
and I know this because I havegiven this sigh.
Jesus hears these Phariseesjust being silly and I don't
mean in a good way and hefinally just does.
Here it is.
That is the sign of someone,the sigh of someone who's just
like ugh.
So here we go again.
Ugh, there we go.
(05:49):
He said why do these peoplekeep demanding a miraculous sign
?
I tell you the truth, I willnot give this generation any
such sign.
And he got back into a boat andhe left them and he crossed over
to the other side of the lake,but the disciples had forgotten
to bring any food.
Now, how do you forget to bring?
You just got through feeding4,000 people with seven loaves
(06:11):
of bread and you didn't bring amorsel, a scrap, a piece,
nothing, no, they didn't bring athing.
But they didn't bring any foodand they had only one loaf of
bread with them in the boat whenthey were crossing the lake,
jesus warned them Watch out,beware of the yeast of the
Pharisees and of Herod.
And at this they began to arguewith each other because they
(06:34):
hadn't brought enough bread.
I wonder if they're arguingabout not bringing enough bread
and somebody going Well, youknow, he did just increase seven
loaves to feed 4,000.
We could ask him hey, can youdivide this up amongst the 12 of
us?
And they're going hey, youidiot, that's not what we're
supposed to do.
I mean, they're arguing right.
Verse 17,.
Jesus knew what they were sayingand so he said why are you
(06:55):
arguing about having no bread?
Don't you know or understood orunderstand even yet?
Are your hearts still hard totake it in?
You have eyes, even yet, areyour hearts still hard to take
it in?
You have eyes.
Can't you see?
You have ears.
Can't you hear?
Don't you remember anything atall when I fed the 5,000 with
five loaves of bread.
How many baskets of leftoversdid you pick up afterward?
(07:20):
Twelve, they said.
When I fed the 4,000 with theseven loaves.
How many large baskets ofleftovers did you pick up?
Seven, they said Don't youunderstand?
Yet he asked them.
When they arrived in Bethsaida,some people brought to him a
blind man and they begged him totouch him and heal him.
Jesus took the blind man by thehand and led him out to the
village and then, spitting onthe man's eyes yes, spitting on
(07:41):
the man's eyes he laid his handson him and he said Can you see
anything?
Now the man looked up and he'slike yes, I mean, I see people,
but I can't really see them veryclearly.
They look like trees walkingaround.
I love this.
Jesus placed his hands on theman's eyes again and his eyes
were opened.
You know what this sounds likehappened.
It sounds like listen, for hisown reasons, and we talked about
(08:05):
this some yesterday, thethought of healing properties in
the spit.
We got that.
But this is what it sounds likehappen.
Jesus spit on this guy's handjust hawk poo, you know and
rubbed them together, put themon the guy's eyes and he's like
what do you see, I see, Well, Isee men like trees.
And then it says Jesus put hishands on his eyes again.
(08:27):
You know what it sounds like?
Jesus just cleaned the spit offhis eye.
It's not like he had to touchhim again to heal him.
He just needed to finish theprocess by getting the spit off
of his eye.
And then the guy's like oh,there you go.
He says his sight wascompletely restored, he could
see everything clearly.
And Jesus sent him away, sayingNow listen, don't go back into
the village on your way home,verse 27.
(08:51):
Jesus and his disciples leftGalilee and went up to the
village near Caesarea, philippi,and they were walking along.
He asked them who do people saythat I am?
Well, they replied Some sayJohn the Baptist, some say
Elijah, others say you are oneof the other prophets.
Then he said but who do you saythat I am?
Peter replied you're theMessiah.
(09:13):
But Jesus warned them not totell anyone about him.
Then Jesus began to tell themthat the Son of man must suffer
many terrible things and berejected by the elders, the
leading priests and the teachersof religious law.
He would be killed, but threedays later he would rise from
the dead and as he talked openlywith his disciples, peter took
(09:34):
him aside and began to reprimandhim for saying such things.
Jesus turned around and lookedat his disciples and he
reprimanded Peter.
Get away from me, satan.
He said.
You are seeing things merelyfrom a human point of view, not
God's.
By the way, that's awesome.
Peter was willing to tell thepeople that is me, I'm the one
(09:55):
that messed up.
He got mad at me.
He told me I did it wrong andthen he said and come on, keep
following me, because it didn'tsay he got rid of him Verse 34.
Here's the point.
We need to.
We need to.
Just every Christian needs totake a moment and listen.
Here we go, verse 34.
Then, calling the crowd to jointhe disciples, he said if any
one of you wants to be myfollower, you must give up your
(10:16):
own way, take up your cross andfollow me.
If you try to hang on to yourlife, you will lose it, but if
you give up your own life for mysake and for the sake of the
good news, you will save it.
And what do you benefit if yougain the whole world but lose
your own soul?
Is there anything worth morethan your soul, if anyone is
(10:40):
ashamed of me and my message andthese adulterous and sinful
days, the Son of man speaking ofHimself, will.
That's deep he's saying.
I love this verse.
He says this right here.
He says if you want to be myfollower, you've got to give up
(11:04):
your own way, take up your crossand follow me.
Now, what the original audiencewould have understood is there
was a thing called the crosswalk.
They didn't call it quite that,but that's what it was.
And what it was is the momentof crucifixion did not start
when you got on a crosssomewhere else.
The moment of crucifixionstarted when you would take the
(11:25):
cross beam and begin the walk ofdeath to the place of execution
.
So once, according to theresearch I've done, once you
started the walk toward whereyou would die, you couldn't undo
it.
The punishment was in process,and so you can't look back, you
can't do anything.
You're going to die at thatpoint.
(11:46):
And so Jesus is saying so muchmore than we get.
He's saying if you want to bemy follower, then you have to
actually follow me.
You must give up your own way,take up the cross which means no
turning back and follow me.
If you want to be my follower,then follow, follow me.
He says if you try to be myfollower, then follow, follow me
.
And he says if you try to hangon to your own life, you're not
(12:08):
going to be able to save it, butif you give your life to me,
that's when you find it.
And he said if anyone isashamed of me, I will be ashamed
of that person.
But in another gospel he saysbut if any one of you proclaims
me, I will be so proud toproclaim you.
And that's what we've got torealize about Christianity.
(12:31):
Unintentionally, I think thatfor many people they have
understood Christianity to be aget-out-of-jail-free card,
no-transcript.
(12:52):
And for many people they'retold there's sin in your life.
We're born into a sinful state.
Jesus wants to forgive you ofyour sin.
And we go cool, I would love tobe forgiven of my sin, please.
I'll take some of that.
And so they say just pray thisprayer and then go on living
your life, and the moment thatyou die, you cash in your God,
(13:15):
your free God, hope.
By the way, 20 years ago atthat church, I prayed this
prayer and they told me that ifI prayed the magic words, I'll
go to heaven now.
And then they go oh well, thenyou never went to church again.
No, you didn't actually serveGod.
No, you didn't like try to livea sinless life and grow into
the in the goodness of God, andall that, and of course not.
No, okay, no problem, you didpray that prayer once.
(13:35):
That that is not how this works.
Is it possible?
They're going to be people thatare going to be shocked when
they die because they they gaveJesus their problems.
They never gave him their life.
And Jesus said I don't want justyour problems, I want all of
you.
I am exchanging my life foryour life.
(13:56):
I died on the cross, rose againand I'm willing to give you my
life, but it's going to cost youyour life.
Now here's the catch.
People hear that and they go.
I don't want to give God mylife, I just want to give him
(14:17):
all the bad stuff.
Don't work like that.
You have to give him everything.
That's why the Bible says if wewill confess with our mouth the
Lord Jesus and believe in ourheart that God raised him from
the dead, we shall be saved.
We declare with our mouth, thatis to declare allegiance.
All other things are gone.
We now belong to God.
You go well, my goodness, thatsounds awful permanent.
Sure does.
Jesus dying on the cross wasawful permanent.
Thank goodness he rose again.
(14:38):
Here's the amazing thing.
Jesus' verse there says if youtry to hang on to your life, if
you try to do it your way,you're going to lose.
But life you try to do it yourway, you're going to lose, but
if you give your life for me,you'll save it.
This is the amazing thing thathappens.
People have this idea that ifthey give their life to God,
it's like a death sentence andthey no longer get to do things
their own way.
(14:58):
It's actually a life sentenceand you get to figure out what
true life really is.
We're actually proclaimingfreedom, salvation and joy.
So here's my question for youwhen you gave your life to Jesus
, did you give him your life ordid you just give him the bad
feelings?
Did you just give him theemotions?
(15:19):
Give him the moment?
Here's the thing God knows Ifyou gave him everything, then
you gave him everything.
So this is not in any wayintended to take away any
assurance of your salvation.
That's not what this is at all.
It's just to remind us what thewalk of Christianity is
Christianity, chris-ti-anity, afollower of Christ, christ
(15:41):
follower, we are a follower ofChrist.
So here's what you get to do.
If you would say yes, pastor,all that time ago, I just prayed
a prayer.
I wasn't giving God my life.
Well, today's your day.
It's time to come home and assoon as this podcast is over
with you, take a moment and yousay God, I'm so sorry, I repent
of all my sin.
(16:02):
I give you my entire life.
I exchange all of me for all ofyou.
I give you my entire life.
I exchange all of me for all ofyou.
Come into my life and I'm goingto follow you the rest of my
days.
That is the eternal commitmentof Christianity.
Welcoming to the family of God.
But on the other side, if youdid do that, but if you found
yourself not giving Christ yourlife, this is a moment, of
(16:22):
course, correct.
Can I tell you?
You'll never be more full ofpeace and of joy than to know
God is in control.
So here's the question Is he,have you given him everything?
It's the greatest thing in theworld.
Don't the enemy lie to you andtell you oh, but then you're not
in control.
You never were in control tobegin with.
Can we get that straight?
But now we can give our lifeover to Jesus and watch what
(16:46):
happens.
The proof is in what happens.
Let's pray together right now.
God, thank you so much for today.
Thank you, god, that you'rewith us and you're for us.
I'm thankful for you.
I'm thankful that you give usthe most amazing opportunity,
and that is we get to exchangedeath for life.
Thank you for that.
We celebrate it today In Jesus'name.
(17:07):
We pray Amen.
Amen.
God's word says in Mark 8,verse 34,.
It says If anyone would comeafter me we read it today let
him deny himself, take up hiscross, follow me.
What joy it is for those inwhom their sins are forgiven.
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow for Mark,chapter 9.
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