SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us on the CCW podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Make sure you connect with us on social media to stay up to date on ministries and events happening at CCW.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you're encouraged, inspired, and motivated by today's message.
SPEAKER_00: To find out how to connect with us, keep listening after the message ends.
SPEAKER_01: Morning, CCW.
SPEAKER_01: I have been looking forward to this much longer than you as God began to speak to me over this vision in July.
SPEAKER_01: And so I am pumped about this morning and hope that you are.
SPEAKER_01: If you turn your Bibles to the book of Mark, and as we do, I'm going to ask the team to put up a slide that can give you a glimpse shot of the vision that the Lord gave me for the church this year.
SPEAKER_01: The vision this year is called Gospel, the Gospel on the Ground.
SPEAKER_01: And I wanted to give you, I'm going to be explaining this more in weeks to come, but the gospel on the ground is a call to our church to have a gospel-centered, a more gospel-centered focus.
SPEAKER_01: And you say, well, I know we're a gospel preaching church.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about each and every member being a minister this way.
SPEAKER_01: And God gave me a few things.
SPEAKER_01: You can see those arrows that I'll go through this series talking about.
SPEAKER_01: But one of the things that we're going to do, we're going to have gospel evangelism training.
SPEAKER_01: I went through a video study with James Merritt that's fantastic.
SPEAKER_01: Now I love for every member to take part in these.
SPEAKER_01: We'll do them throughout the year.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to have a campaign.
SPEAKER_01: So your connect groups and Sunday school classes, those are going to matter.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so we're going to run a campaign, a gospel campaign, challenging members to be inviters.
SPEAKER_01: Now listen, everybody gets thrown back in concern when you say gospel, as if how am I going to be that person that just cold turkey shares it to my neighbor to their face?
SPEAKER_01: That's not what we're talking about.
SPEAKER_01: We're looking at a campaign, a way of you having opportunity to share your testimony.
SPEAKER_01: It's real hard to argue your testimony.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Opportunities for you to pray with people, coworkers, people at your hobby, the gym.
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to train through that.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to have a campaign through that.
SPEAKER_01: Some evangelistic Sundays are going to be more focused this year, and we're going to talk about those and be ready and hopefully be inviters for those events.
SPEAKER_01: And then some servant evangelism outreaches are going to be peppered throughout the year.
SPEAKER_01: Those are four grounds that I feel like if we push further, this church has no option but to be more gospel-oriented throughout the year.
SPEAKER_01: So we're hoping for that strength and that we would be able to say we were in 25 for the glory of God and the call of God, the gospel on the ground at CCW.
SPEAKER_01: So that said, Mark chapter 8 in your Bibles.
SPEAKER_01: I wanted to start this morning with the most important question.
SPEAKER_01: This summer, as God was preparing my heart, I came across some church visions and it asked a question of those preparing a vision.
SPEAKER_01: And it said, if you had one more year to tell your church anything, what would you pick as the most important thing to teach your church?
SPEAKER_01: And God began to burden my heart with that.
SPEAKER_01: My heart is this, and if if you want a pastor with a different heart, let me tell you, this is my heart.
SPEAKER_01: I want to see lost people come to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: If I had to tell you the most important thing as a church, I want to see people that do not know the Lord one day to have a relationship with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And then I want to see, secondly, people who know it and have it to grow with it and to share it.
SPEAKER_01: And so that to me is the most important thing.
SPEAKER_01: But in Scripture here, in Mark chapter 8, there's this big question that we're going to get to.
SPEAKER_01: Undoubtedly, in your life, you have had big, large questions.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you students, this question is coming and it's not gonna stop until you land somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: What is next for you?
SPEAKER_01: What college will you choose?
SPEAKER_01: Big life question, and it is a big question.
SPEAKER_01: One of those big questions for people today was this: Will you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?
SPEAKER_01: That's a big question.
SPEAKER_01: Bigger and more nerve-wracking on the other side, Benji, was what will she say?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm telling you, it was pretty nerve-wracking for this guy because uh the week of the wedding, I was talking to Heather and I was inviting the guys that were coming, and we had uh the men that were in the wedding, the wedding party, and then I had people coming from Delaware to Tennessee, and I had begun to plan a trip to the blue hole.
SPEAKER_01: The blue hole was a place where you could hike down about a mile through the woods, and there was this 20 to 30 foot spot of water that you could jump off of rocks about 10 foot high out of the water into it.
SPEAKER_01: There was a cliff if you were brave enough to climb up on the other side that was probably 20 feet.
SPEAKER_01: And then there was a tree on the cliff that was about 35 feet that you could crawl out.
SPEAKER_01: And leading to the wedding, one of the reasons why I was standing at the altar so nervous, Heather said to me, What are you guys gonna do when you gather together your your bachelor party?
SPEAKER_01: And you know, we're Christians, so we don't do certain things, and I'm like, well, I'm trying to be quiet about it.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, whatever, I don't care what you do, as long as you don't do something dumb like go to the blue hole.
SPEAKER_01: And I can't remember, I should have asked her, I can't remember if I told her then or if I was quiet about it.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but I do know this.
SPEAKER_01: She knew a day or two before we went, and she knew that I was going and I was planning on going.
SPEAKER_01: And so, what you do before you say I do, you make that woman you're supposed to marry upset with you.
SPEAKER_01: That makes you really nervous at the altar.
SPEAKER_01: And the last thing her granny, the matriarch of the family, said to her was now, Heather, you don't have to go through with this.
SPEAKER_01: And so I stood there with her uncle as the minister, going, Oh, I hope she says yes.
SPEAKER_01: That is a big life question.
SPEAKER_01: Praise God that you said yes.
SPEAKER_01: Um job offers.
SPEAKER_01: Some people this year are gonna have a big job opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: Will you accept this pet position at this pay?
SPEAKER_01: That's a big life question.
SPEAKER_01: Some people, God may say, will you move in this year?
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know this was such a big life question, but do you want a pet?
SPEAKER_01: It has become a big life question in my house.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe y'all got a pet in 24, and it's like having a kid all over, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Politics, growing up, are you gonna be a Democrat or Republican?
SPEAKER_01: Because Democrats have to think this way, and Republicans have to think this way, and you gotta check this, right?
SPEAKER_01: Big life questions if you're gonna do these things.
SPEAKER_01: Well, look at Mark chapter 8, verse 27 through 30.
SPEAKER_01: The most important question.
SPEAKER_01: Now, Jesus and his disciples went out to the towns of Caesarea, Philippi, and on the road he asked his disciples, saying to them, Who do men say that I am?
SPEAKER_01: So they answered John the Baptist, but some say Elijah, and others one of the prophets.
SPEAKER_01: He said to them, But who do you say that I am?
SPEAKER_01: Pray with me.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we love you, and we are so thankful for this church family.
SPEAKER_01: I'm thankful, God, for what it means to be here, what it means to the people that have put their heart and soul in this, in loving you.
SPEAKER_01: And God, I pray that in 2025, as Pastor Dave shared, that this is more than just a statement.
SPEAKER_01: God, that it becomes a part of our heart and our feet and our going and our doing, Lord, that we would be carriers of the gospel on the ground.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, open our hearts to what you have to say through your word.
SPEAKER_01: And I pray for just a few minutes, God.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, that everyone would be able to be in tune with what it is that you have to say to them.
SPEAKER_01: We love you, Lord, in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Letter A this morning is this Who is Jesus to the world?
SPEAKER_01: Who is Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: You see Jesus teaching here, and we learn through Jesus' teaching.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, people debate about different types of pastoring, preaching, shepherding, and the forms, and this is my uh analysis of that.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus taught, and if you look at how he taught, he taught great with parables, word pictures, and questions.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is teaching, and no doubt had authority with his voice on scripture when we go through text, but Jesus always taught with parables, word pictures, and questions.
SPEAKER_01: And the nature of this question is important.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Who do people say that I am?
SPEAKER_01: The meta question.
SPEAKER_01: That is the question about the question.
SPEAKER_01: Why did Jesus ask this question?
SPEAKER_01: Who do people say that I am?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it was because in verse 30 and 31, he strictly warns them, it says, that no one should tell about him, and began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected.
SPEAKER_01: He knew that there was a time coming that the people would finally have enough of this story and put him or take him to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: But was that it?
SPEAKER_01: Was it because he wanted the disciples to reflect on the difference in their experiences with Jesus from those who didn't have inside experiences?
SPEAKER_01: The question, who do men say that I am, is the topic of a doctrine called Christology.
SPEAKER_01: And this question separates Christian ideal from every other religious and cultic persuasion.
SPEAKER_01: Who do they say that I am?
SPEAKER_01: See, to the Muslim, Jesus Christ was a prophet.
SPEAKER_01: To the Hindu, Jesus Christ is just one of many.
SPEAKER_01: To the Buddhist, he was an enlightened figure.
SPEAKER_01: To the Sakhist, he was a spiritual guide.
SPEAKER_01: To the Mormons, Jesus Christ was a mortal man who was a brother of Lucifer and he became a God, but not eternal.
SPEAKER_01: To the Jehovah's Witness, he was created by God as the archangel Michael.
SPEAKER_01: To the science movement, he was a teacher of science.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to see this chart of religion as the world.
SPEAKER_01: Why is all that important?
SPEAKER_01: Because the world we live in that's composed of seven to eight billion people, as you categorize it and chart it and see where Christianity lies with other religions, it's important that you understand why the gospel on the ground is so important.
SPEAKER_01: Christianity takes up 2.4 billion of the world's population.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to add to you about 1.3 billion of that is Catholicism.
SPEAKER_01: The Islam persuasion, about 2 billion, so it's inching up.
SPEAKER_01: There's a non-religious category, atheistic, whatever you want to call it, 1.2 billion, Hinduist, 1.2 billion, Buddhist, 5 million.
SPEAKER_01: And on and on this goes.
SPEAKER_01: There's 17 million Mormons, 8.5 million Jehovah's Witnesses, and we go down that path and we see that the world is very divided on this question.
SPEAKER_01: Who do they say that I am?
SPEAKER_01: And I want to ask you today to reflect inwardly.
SPEAKER_01: Who do you say that Jesus is?
SPEAKER_01: It's an important question.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Peter answers the question there in Mark chapter 8.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what he says.
SPEAKER_01: Peter answers and said to him, You are the Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I need you to see something in Matthew 16.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to turn over there.
SPEAKER_01: Mark, we'll find out next week.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to talk about the book and the author and the differences of this book, not this week for Vision Sunday, but in Mark, he moves immediately, quickly.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's some details that you may not get from Mark that other authors will give.
SPEAKER_01: And the same persuasion, the same topic, Matthew 16, verse 17, or 16, Simon Peter answers, said, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 17, I want you to hear what Jesus says back to him, because it's going to matter for later.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father.
SPEAKER_01: He says, God, only by God are you able to understand this.
SPEAKER_01: So Peter is getting a little pat on the back.
SPEAKER_01: Only God could give you information like this.
SPEAKER_01: And I will say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I'll build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it, and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And so in this moment, Peter answers a question.
SPEAKER_01: He gets up.
SPEAKER_01: You got it, Peter.
SPEAKER_01: But then he continues, Scripture says, Who is Jesus to you?
SPEAKER_01: He answered it that way.
SPEAKER_01: First he said, Who do they say that I am?
SPEAKER_01: Then he says, Who do you say Jesus is?
SPEAKER_01: So we can look at that chart and say, This is what the world says of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Who do they say that I am?
SPEAKER_01: But then we have to look inwardly as Jesus goes from broad to narrow and he says, Who do you say that I am?
SPEAKER_01: This is vital to the doctrine of soteriology.
SPEAKER_01: That is the doctrine of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Other than Christology, soteriology is the next biggest difference in all of world religion.
SPEAKER_01: Soteriology asks, What do we do with Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: What do we do with Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: And your answer, I want you to take a few seconds.
SPEAKER_01: What do you do?
SPEAKER_01: What do you have to do personally with Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Not your church, not your grandmother, or your grandfather, or the way you were brought up, not Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_01: What do you personally have to do with Jesus day in and day out?
SPEAKER_01: I want you to think about that for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: Not your spouse, not your pastor or your small group.
SPEAKER_01: What have you to do with Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Because with that question, I want to give you something that I think everybody needs to know.
SPEAKER_01: You've probably heard this, or some have heard this, that we live in the most unchurched county in all of Alabama.
SPEAKER_01: 70% now, it used to be higher when I first arrived here, so that's good.
SPEAKER_01: But 70% of the people of this county, Shelby County, do not belong or go to the church.
SPEAKER_01: And this meta question.
SPEAKER_01: Why would we ask this question?
SPEAKER_01: Who is Jesus to you?
SPEAKER_01: Because how you answer that question affects what happens in your county and the way that this church approaches this world.
SPEAKER_01: Mark 16, 15 later, Mark, Jesus would say, now go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
SPEAKER_01: And the church here, the church is the center of that gospel.
SPEAKER_01: If the salvation of every man depends on Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, then who is he to you really?
SPEAKER_01: If Jesus is who he says he is, if he is God in the flesh, then how is it that 70% of our county is unchurched?
SPEAKER_01: Who is Jesus really to you?
SPEAKER_01: There was confusion, at least, uh, to people in northern Israel, says they were in Caesarea, Philippi, and Peter was asked this question, who do they say that I am?
SPEAKER_01: And there was some confusion, but I want you to think on that question.
SPEAKER_01: Who really is Jesus to me?
SPEAKER_01: That's the question.
SPEAKER_01: Point two is the teaching, the most important teaching.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 31 to 33.
SPEAKER_01: He continues.
SPEAKER_01: It says, And he began to teach them after that many things.
SPEAKER_01: He taught them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and he had to be killed, and after three days he would rise again.
SPEAKER_01: He spoke this word openly.
SPEAKER_01: Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, but when he had turned around and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter.
SPEAKER_01: Letter A is this the gospel will.
SPEAKER_01: The most important teaching is that of the gospel will.
SPEAKER_01: It starts out with this interesting phrase, the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_01: The Son of Man must be rejected.
SPEAKER_01: It's an important phrase that in Mark you need to pay attention to because it's used 14 times in the book of Mark.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus uses it most often of himself, and the reason for it is kind of interesting.
SPEAKER_01: He uses this phrase to refer to his humanity and also his divinity.
SPEAKER_01: He was always and always will be the second person of the Trinity.
SPEAKER_01: He humbled himself for the glory of God and salvation of man, but he used this phrase.
SPEAKER_01: And it was a subtle way of saying who he was.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't come on the scene and say, I am the Messiah of men, I am the Savior of men, the salvation of men.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I am the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_01: It's not an uncommon thing for you to call yourself a human.
SPEAKER_01: For some of you.
SPEAKER_01: But he was telling them something that was different, and it was this truth of his divinity and manhood hidden in plain sight.
SPEAKER_01: The Son of Man.
SPEAKER_01: And the weight of that, Jesus knew and was humbly sharing this miraculous truth.
SPEAKER_01: Because in Daniel chapter 7 was a prophecy that was going to be fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And it was an exalted position.
SPEAKER_01: This is what Daniel 7, 13 and 14 says about the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_01: It'd be good if you mark this in your Bible if you want to go back, Daniel 7, 13 and 14.
SPEAKER_01: It says, And coming, and behold, like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven, he came to the ancient of days.
SPEAKER_01: And they brought him near before him, and then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, and all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him, and his dominion would be everlasting.
SPEAKER_01: This prophecy was a big prophecy about an exalted position.
SPEAKER_01: So when Jesus said, I am the Son of Man who's going to suffer, it was a much bigger deal than just saying, I'm just a human being.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said it 14 times that Mark recorded all throughout the Gospels, the Son of Man, the perfect flesh sacrifice for the tainted flesh.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it doesn't stop at just the Son of Man, it says he must suffer, be killed, and resurrect.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to tell you about the suffer, the suffering, the killing, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, because the Old Testament boasts some 300 plus prophecies that would be fulfilled by the suffering, the death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to tell you about 300 prophecies years before coming to truth.
SPEAKER_01: Eight of 300 of those prophecies coming to fruition.
SPEAKER_01: The chances of eight of them is one in one trillion.
SPEAKER_01: Do you understand?
SPEAKER_01: 300 prophecies have been fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: Eight of them, 300, 1 in 1 trillion chance.
SPEAKER_01: It would be like this a man said this.
SPEAKER_01: It would be like a blind man going to the state of Texas and the state of Texas being full, two feet deep of silver dollars, and a blind man finding in the state of Texas one silver dollar with one black dot on it.
SPEAKER_01: That would be the chances of eight of 300 prophecies of the Old Testament being fulfilled in the death resurrection of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I thought about this.
SPEAKER_01: I love the Red Sox.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01: Forgive me.
SPEAKER_01: But if I told you the Red Sox were playing tonight, one that'd be a miracle because it's not even spring season yet.
SPEAKER_01: But if I told you they were playing, and then I told you they were gonna win or lose, and I got that right, and I told you the score, you'd say, huh, that's pretty impressive.
SPEAKER_01: He got all those things right.
SPEAKER_01: And if I told you a second night they were gonna play, and I told you they were gonna win or lose and got it right, and I told you the score a second time, you'd say, Pastor Rick's little twilight zone, this is getting weird.
SPEAKER_01: Third time, and you would say, honey, I don't know if we've been gambling in a while, but I think we're gonna start gambling on the preacher.
SPEAKER_01: Because he's hitting it every time.
SPEAKER_01: The likelihood of these resur of these prophecies being fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: And then it makes me think about these disciples who he's talking to.
SPEAKER_01: You know, people are not willing to die for something they do not believe in.
SPEAKER_01: But the disciples willingly gave up everything in this life because they believed Jesus died and was alive.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to tell you a little bit about the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Peter and Andrew, they were crucified.
SPEAKER_01: Thomas died by spear.
SPEAKER_01: Paul and John the Baptist were beheaded.
SPEAKER_01: Think about what they gave.
SPEAKER_01: They gave their life on this earth, but they gave their death because of this man.
SPEAKER_01: Further, when you think about it, nobody really hates a dead man.
SPEAKER_01: When a dead man is gone, all hate has passed, right?
SPEAKER_01: Hate is forgotten.
SPEAKER_01: Yet Satan still hates Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And the demons hate Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And there is a world that hates Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: What about the picture of baptism?
SPEAKER_01: If Jesus didn't die and resurrect, we would go to baptism and we were just dunk, right?
SPEAKER_01: In symbolism of Jesus' life.
SPEAKER_01: And in fact, one time there was a young lady, and I forgot the next words that were coming.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, buried in likeness of his death.
SPEAKER_01: Oh! Raised! She got extra baptized.
SPEAKER_01: Don't judge me.
SPEAKER_01: I know you remember everything, don't you?
SPEAKER_01: But if Jesus does not suffer, die, and resurrect, then eat, drink, and be merry, because this is all there is, right?
SPEAKER_01: This is all there is of it.
SPEAKER_01: We go to the dust.
SPEAKER_01: And if that's just it, then that's just it.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to tell you what Hank Hanagraff had to say about these disciples.
SPEAKER_01: He said, in the span of a few hundred years, a small band of seemingly insignificant believers succeeding in turning an entire empire upside down.
SPEAKER_01: As has been well said, they faced the tyrant's brandish steel, the lion's gory mane, and the fires of a thousand deaths, because they were utterly convinced that like their master, they would one day rise from the grave as he did.
SPEAKER_01: See, these disciples, they bought into this, and I want to ask you this question.
SPEAKER_01: Have you?
SPEAKER_01: Who is Jesus to you?
SPEAKER_01: Because this gospel will says that he had to die, he had to suffer, and he had to resurrect.
SPEAKER_01: But it's going to ask more of its followers.
SPEAKER_01: Letter B is this, God's will.
SPEAKER_01: Halfway through verse 32, then Peter took him aside and he began to rebuke him.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I had to underline that verse.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to think about that verse.
SPEAKER_01: But when he had turned around and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get behind me, Satan, for you're not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.
SPEAKER_01: This scene is something.
SPEAKER_01: And we're told that Peter was impetuous and brash, but Peter took Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He took him, it says.
SPEAKER_01: And that word is, it's hard to say, but it's pros Lembano.
SPEAKER_01: And it's the idea that he took him by the hand, and then it says another word you need to know, he rebukes Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That word as epitomeo, and it means to tax with fault, to reprove sharply.
SPEAKER_01: Why did Peter speak to Jesus like this?
SPEAKER_01: Because Peter's rebuke was based on Peter's understanding.
SPEAKER_01: He knows who this is.
SPEAKER_01: He's just said it.
SPEAKER_01: You are the Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He knows who he is, but this proves his impetuous nature his way.
SPEAKER_01: But can you imagine the moment a man took God in the flesh, pulled him aside, and rebuked him, charged him with fault, it says?
SPEAKER_01: Peter took him and brought him aside in this way.
SPEAKER_01: It made me think about, yeah, I worked, Heather and I worked with teenagers a lot of years, but the hardest thing for me to sort of take, some of y'all got it.
SPEAKER_01: I would tell people, people can work with teenagers and they probably have a certain gifting.
SPEAKER_01: People can work with children, probably have a certain gifting.
SPEAKER_01: When it came to children in a certain context, I struggled mightily.
SPEAKER_01: And it was a silly context, but there was a child named AJ.
SPEAKER_01: And it was time we for a couple of years led what was called like the junior church.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, All right, everybody, stand up, we're gonna sing.
SPEAKER_01: AJ sat there.
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't getting up.
SPEAKER_01: So I did what I was taught in uh well, they the substitute teaching class.
SPEAKER_01: I watched the videos, they said, come and stand by the kid if they're acting up.
SPEAKER_01: They'll likely change their behavior.
SPEAKER_01: So I stood by AJ and I began to sing.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, AJ, everybody here is looking at you.
SPEAKER_01: You need to stand up and sing.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I'm not singing.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, AJ, you need to stand up.
SPEAKER_01: We're saying I'm like starting to boil.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, this is a 10-year-old, and he will not listen.
SPEAKER_01: I have the power to do things that I would not do, but I have the power.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, AJ, stand up.
SPEAKER_01: And he was like, you don't know what's going on.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, I don't, but you can stand up and sing.
SPEAKER_01: And in that moment, I felt like I was just boiling.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, I can't.
SPEAKER_01: If kids can't listen to a simple stand up, like if they can't do that, then I'm gonna have a problem in this area of ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: This was not hard.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought about God in human flesh has all authority and teaches.
SPEAKER_01: They have seen Jesus do great miracles by this point.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter had the goal within him to correct God in human flesh.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_01: Now wait just a second, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Whew.
SPEAKER_01: It says he rebuked him.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: I said there was something about his understanding.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the kind of messiah, now I want you to reflect on this.
SPEAKER_01: What kind of savior do you want?
SPEAKER_01: The kind of messiah the Jews were hoping for did not match the criteria that Jesus just presented to Peter.
SPEAKER_01: Peter said, No, certainly not the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: The Messiah has come to save us from Roman political power.
SPEAKER_01: We've seen your miracles.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna live better because you're here.
SPEAKER_01: Certainly not suffering and persecution and death.
SPEAKER_01: Peter says, Jesus, what are you saying?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Don't say that.
SPEAKER_01: Church, I want you to hear me.
SPEAKER_01: Being a Christian is the best life that you can have in this life, but it comes packaged with God's will, not your will.
SPEAKER_01: Peter was struggling with that.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel is God's will, not our will.
SPEAKER_01: The error of many is wanting our will with God's blessing, and we pursue our wants.
SPEAKER_01: And as an afterthought, we say, Oh, by the way, God, would you bless this that I'm going to do?
SPEAKER_01: I need your mighty hand over this that I'm I've decided to do.
SPEAKER_01: Never asking or wanting or wondering what of it is God's will, or searching the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: Is this job supposed to be?
SPEAKER_01: God, speak to me for this job.
SPEAKER_01: God, speak to me for this marriage or this college, or God speak to me about this next step of ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Show me in your word, show me, God.
SPEAKER_01: It's this door open, and God, now bless.
SPEAKER_01: Because that's what you do.
SPEAKER_01: You're a Messiah who blesses my wants.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter wasn't understanding, he wasn't grasping.
SPEAKER_01: Peter said, Don't say that.
SPEAKER_01: And he was sincere, but he was sincerely wrong.
SPEAKER_01: He was short-sighted.
SPEAKER_01: He couldn't see something that it's interesting.
SPEAKER_01: I can't imagine that in this context he could understand it.
SPEAKER_01: He could not see that Jesus must die, and then that Jesus said the impossible would happen.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I must suffer and die, but I'm going to resurrect.
SPEAKER_01: And when you think about suffering and dying as we know it with resurrection on the other side, it doesn't hit the same way.
SPEAKER_01: We go, yes.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter went, no, because we've seen and know the glory of the power of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter, we want to jump on his case here, right?
SPEAKER_01: But he says, no, no, no, no, suffer and die.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think he understood what resurrection was.
SPEAKER_01: So he rebukes Jesus harshly.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus comes back at him.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't leave it there.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus rebukes Peter more harshly than Peter rebuked Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Look at these penetrating words.
SPEAKER_01: In my Bible, it's the start of the red letters.
SPEAKER_01: I said, get behind me, Satan.
SPEAKER_01: You're not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.
SPEAKER_01: Get behind me, adversary.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the word Satan means.
SPEAKER_01: Thou savorest or cares not on the things of God but of man.
SPEAKER_01: Commentators would say they don't believe that Peter knew that he was being used in this moment of Satan and his thinking.
SPEAKER_01: But when God speaks, his word speaks.
SPEAKER_01: And if we present opposition by life or lip of what this book says, because we're settled in our plans, then God will rebuke.
SPEAKER_01: There's this daunting sentence that may be a sentence that separates half this group of people today.
SPEAKER_01: A daunting sentence.
SPEAKER_01: Because I think about who Peter was.
SPEAKER_01: Peter was a follower.
SPEAKER_01: Peter would tell you, I love Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I'm following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And God told me to live this life.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Jesus said, You care, hear this.
SPEAKER_01: You care more about the things of man than the things of God.
SPEAKER_01: You, Peter, in this moment want Jesus to fit into your planes.
SPEAKER_01: Peter confesses, remember?
SPEAKER_01: He asked him the question, who am I to you?
SPEAKER_01: Peter confesses Jesus is the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus in Matthew compliments Peter.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he tells him, This was a message from God to you, pats him on the back and says, We're gonna build the church through you.
SPEAKER_01: So Peter in this moment, I bet he felt next, what he said, I bet he felt like he knew what God wanted.
SPEAKER_01: After all, he just got complimented for his answer.
SPEAKER_01: He knew what God wanted.
SPEAKER_01: And so Peter answers this question, but I want to tell you, even though God complimented his last question, the next question didn't line up with Scripture the way that he answered, because Isaiah 53 said that there was coming a man born of grief to this world that would suffer and be persecuted and then die.
SPEAKER_01: You may feel like you know what God wants because you've had some spiritual experiences.
SPEAKER_01: But if what you decipher as what God wants does not line up with his holy book, that last thing is not the next thing.
SPEAKER_01: It always must line up with this holy book.
SPEAKER_01: You might have had some spiritual breakthroughs and highs in 24, but if your next move doesn't line up with scripture, you know what Jesus says?
SPEAKER_01: Get behind me, Satan.
SPEAKER_01: It better line up with this book.
SPEAKER_01: Get behind me.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to ask yourself to that end, can you answer this?
SPEAKER_01: Am I fully surrendered to what God wants right now in 25?
SPEAKER_01: Am I surrendered to Him?
SPEAKER_01: You may say, I love Jesus, I follow Jesus, I worship Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Do I want God to bless what I want?
SPEAKER_01: Or can I say, God, use me in 25, however you want to use me?
SPEAKER_01: I'm yours.
SPEAKER_01: Whether in good, high on the mountain, or in low in the valley, God, I'm yours, whatever that looks like.
SPEAKER_01: Well, how do we do that?
SPEAKER_01: How do we get on that mission for him, Pastor Rig?
SPEAKER_01: Point number three, the most important mission.
SPEAKER_01: How do we do it?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 34 through 38.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus took a teaching moment.
SPEAKER_01: When he had called the people to himself with his disciples also, he said to them, Whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
SPEAKER_01: For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it.
SPEAKER_01: For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?
SPEAKER_01: Or what will a man give in exchange for his own soul?
SPEAKER_01: Letter A is this.
SPEAKER_01: To be on this most important mission, we have to forsake this life's goals.
SPEAKER_01: Or you could put this flesh's goals.
SPEAKER_01: The word desire, it's the word phileo, and it is a resolve.
SPEAKER_01: What are you resolved upon?
SPEAKER_01: What do you desire?
SPEAKER_01: Whoever desires, and not everyone will.
SPEAKER_01: It says whoever, because not everyone will desire these things.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to turn over to Romans chapter 7, just a quick verse.
SPEAKER_01: Disciples, it's not just Peter that's going to struggle with this.
SPEAKER_01: Romans chapter 7.
SPEAKER_01: Paul talking about this fight of flesh and desire.
SPEAKER_01: In Romans 7, 18 through 20, he says, For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells.
SPEAKER_01: For to will is present with me.
SPEAKER_01: But how to perform, how to do what is good, I do not find.
SPEAKER_01: For the good that I will to do, or plan to do, or goal to do, I do not do.
SPEAKER_01: But the evil I will not to do, the sin I don't want to do, that I practice.
SPEAKER_01: Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
SPEAKER_01: Paul shares this human tug of war that happens in our flesh.
SPEAKER_01: Every day that we wake up and he says, I want to do this good, but my flesh within me pulls me to do this bad.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, And I want to not do this bad, but my flesh pulls, and back and forth I go in this battle of desire, teleo, my resolve.
SPEAKER_01: The psalmist said, Delight yourself in the Lord, and he'll give you desires of your heart.
SPEAKER_01: He says, if you walk with me, I'll begin to make you like me, and your desire will become like me, and you'll see the things that you want change to be godly things, and I will grant those things, that teleo, that resolve, if you will deny yourself, because your desire, your requirement to be on that mission for Christ, he says in Mark, is denial and a cross.
SPEAKER_01: It was bad enough for the disciples to just hear that Jesus would suffer and that he would die and that he was gonna resurrect, but now they're being told the word cross that they've got to ingest.
SPEAKER_01: It was bad enough to hear that Jesus was gonna go through this, but when he said, take up your cross, there was no confusion to them what in the world that meant.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't some thing that they had to discuss and figure out.
SPEAKER_01: When he said, take up your cross, it was not a way for that to be a prosperity message.
SPEAKER_01: Are you with me?
SPEAKER_01: He said, take up your cross, your desire.
SPEAKER_01: We say, we want to follow, right?
SPEAKER_01: Over here, we want to follow.
SPEAKER_01: And the disciples are like, yes, we're gonna follow the Messiah, and then prosperity, and then blessings, and then power, and then great ministry.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, How about oppression?
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna follow him, and it's gonna be such a magnificent time of flourishing.
SPEAKER_01: Did he did he just say cross?
SPEAKER_01: Did y'all did y'all hear that?
SPEAKER_01: Did he say cross?
SPEAKER_01: The cross wasn't about religion, it was about execution.
SPEAKER_01: The cross was a one-way road down death valley.
SPEAKER_01: And the cross says, I laid down all my plans.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever these men had at the forefront of their life, it says, when they began to follow him, they dropped what they were doing.
SPEAKER_01: Whether you're a fisher, tax collector, shepherd, whatever it was that you were, he says, those things are a byproduct.
SPEAKER_01: Now, whatever I've given you is just to be used to glorify and magnify my name.
SPEAKER_01: Right here, right now, that's you and me.
SPEAKER_01: This thing, whatever it is, he says, lay it down.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I've given you this gift, but have you surrendered the gift?
SPEAKER_01: The thing that you have is to be used for my glory, for my name to be built.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Deny yourself the things of this life that we get so wrapped up in, as if this is the only life, if this is the end.
SPEAKER_01: Your job, your marriage, your home, your car, your account, all are for God's glory.
SPEAKER_01: If this teaching makes you cringe to think through, it might be because you want a different Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: God, I have plans and I need your blessing.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Deny yourself.
SPEAKER_01: The natural man that we live in amongst this world lives a self-focused life.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: It's dog eat dog, climb that ladder, you do you.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody gets yours.
SPEAKER_01: I gotta get mine.
SPEAKER_01: That is the American culture.
SPEAKER_01: Build your kid.
SPEAKER_01: They may be the best in the sport, build your kid, they gotta be number one in the class.
SPEAKER_01: Everything is about self.
SPEAKER_01: We got an entire part of the bookstore for self, self-interest, self-esteem, self, self, self, self, right?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, deny yourself.
SPEAKER_01: It's interesting.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't say deny others self.
SPEAKER_01: He says, deny yourself.
SPEAKER_01: If you can deny yourself, then others can come at a place of the forefront.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, mainly being God.
SPEAKER_01: But God cannot be first if self is first.
SPEAKER_01: Others cannot be served closely next to God if I am first.
SPEAKER_01: I will not serve my wife appropriately if I am first.
SPEAKER_01: I will not love my kids if I am first.
SPEAKER_01: I will not love my church if everything is about this self.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, if you, now he said if.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of people leave today and say, I don't want that if.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to follow me.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't say everybody would, but he says, if you want to, you have to deny yourself and take up your cross.
SPEAKER_01: He got some seeds today.
SPEAKER_01: If you didn't get a seed, there's some in the back.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna make sure you get some before you leave.
SPEAKER_01: Got a little package that looks like this.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to look at that for a second.
SPEAKER_01: If you got a pen, it might be helpful to you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna read this verse again and I'm gonna explain some thoughts that came from the seed.
SPEAKER_01: If you got a seed, you could thank Callie Wright for packing all the seeds last night.
SPEAKER_01: Appreciate her ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Mark 8, 35 says, For whoever desires to save his life, hear that.
SPEAKER_01: Let it be a message to you.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever desires to save his life will lose it.
SPEAKER_01: That sounds so counter-cultural to us.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life, for my sake and the gospels will save it.
SPEAKER_01: When you plant a seed, you bury it in the ground.
SPEAKER_01: And when you bury a seed in the ground, you don't bury it intending that it is a death burial to get rid of the seed.
SPEAKER_01: But you lose a seed from your hand, from your possession, burying it in the ground.
SPEAKER_01: And you don't lose a seed forever when you plant it, but you plant it, and the visual is it's gone.
SPEAKER_01: That seed's in the ground, it's dead.
SPEAKER_01: It's buried.
SPEAKER_01: But what actually happens when you plant it in the ground?
SPEAKER_01: Instead, that seed has been set free to do what it was intended to do.
SPEAKER_01: When you let go of that seed and you bury that seed in the ground, it is now set free.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus said, You've got to deny this flesh.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to put that in the ground so that you can do the purpose that you were intended to do.
SPEAKER_01: So, with your seed packet, there's some wording on there.
SPEAKER_01: And if you got a pen, I want you to take some thought here.
SPEAKER_01: It says seed type for me.
SPEAKER_01: Seed types may be your job.
SPEAKER_01: You may say, in 2025, my place of work is something that I'm going to need to plant into the ground.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to give it to God.
SPEAKER_01: You may say, My ministry.
SPEAKER_01: I wrote that to me.
SPEAKER_01: Ministry.
SPEAKER_01: You may say, my hobby.
SPEAKER_01: Where I need to put into the ground.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: We'll define in just a moment.
SPEAKER_01: Where it says growing notes.
SPEAKER_01: You may need to put a person's name right there.
SPEAKER_01: I'm putting this into the ground so that this person, my dad, my cousin, my co-worker, my teammate, you might want to put their name down.
SPEAKER_01: You may just say, in general, I've shared with this before, I go to the gym often.
SPEAKER_01: I put the gym.
SPEAKER_01: I hope that because of denying myself, that I can plant some seed in a place that I go.
SPEAKER_01: So that God can use that seed.
SPEAKER_01: You may say the marketplace.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: The date is the date.
SPEAKER_01: And the variety we'll be talking out in weeks to come, but I shared them in a that could be an invite to church.
SPEAKER_01: It could be an opportunity to share a testimony.
SPEAKER_01: It could be a prayer.
SPEAKER_01: But I want you to take those and take a moment and write some things there.
SPEAKER_01: Seed type, ministry, my job, my marriage.
SPEAKER_01: What is it?
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to lay those seeds down in a few moments.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to have an invitation.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to ask you.
SPEAKER_01: If you mean it, will you come and lay your seed?
SPEAKER_01: So that we can pray over that.
SPEAKER_01: Well, letter B.
SPEAKER_01: It continues.
SPEAKER_01: The feat for the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 35, I read it, but he said, You'll miss this.
SPEAKER_01: We'd skip right over it.
SPEAKER_01: But it says, if you desire to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever desires to save his life will lose it.
SPEAKER_01: But whoever loses his life, hear this.
SPEAKER_01: For my sake and the what?
SPEAKER_01: What was it?
SPEAKER_01: The gospel.
SPEAKER_01: For my sake and the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Presenting the idea to folks of being better at sharing the gospel, most people begin to consider the reasons why it's difficult.
SPEAKER_01: Me included.
SPEAKER_01: I begin backwheeling immediately because you know there's there's salesmen, right?
SPEAKER_01: You've known the salesman type, right?
SPEAKER_01: They're just on you, they're in your faith, they can sell anything.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not a salesman.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: So that comes difficult to me.
SPEAKER_01: And so I begin immediately talking about why it's difficult to share the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: But he says, if you want to save your life, then you'll lose your life for the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: So how do I then do something with the gospel?
SPEAKER_01: It says, for the gospel's sake, the word gospel is spelled evangelion, Greek.
SPEAKER_01: The V is replaced with a U, and I can't say that U.
SPEAKER_01: So but that's where we get the word evangelist, and it means the good news.
SPEAKER_01: What good news will be worthy of me losing this life on earth?
SPEAKER_01: The good news that Christ died for our sins and rose from the grave.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Jesus left eternity and died on earth, so one day I can leave earth and live in eternity.
SPEAKER_01: This is what Jesus wants to use your feet for.
SPEAKER_01: And it's this great one-sided exchange.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus gave everything.
SPEAKER_01: He asked in verse 36.
SPEAKER_01: I could ask.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 36 says, You can gain the whole world.
SPEAKER_01: That could be your 25 vision statement.
SPEAKER_01: Go and gain the whole world.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to go and listen, companies would have this as a great statement.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to go and we're going to surpass last year's numbers.
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to get lots of money because that's going to feed lots of people and help people.
SPEAKER_01: And you can gain the whole world.
SPEAKER_01: You can say, I'm going to gain in my goals this year.
SPEAKER_01: I've got this, I need this car and this thing.
SPEAKER_01: And listen, nothing's wrong with those goals, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: Or you could say, I'm going to gain power.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to move up the ladder.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to gain mountains.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to gain glory.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus reminds them, at what cost?
SPEAKER_01: You can.
SPEAKER_01: I've told teenagers before, there's no reason every teenager in this room shouldn't be a millionaire.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to work hard, we got all the ability in America to work hard and make bank and then tie it to your local church.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Like do it.
SPEAKER_01: But not at the cost of your soul.
SPEAKER_01: He said, you can gain the whole world and lose your soul.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of people gaining a whole lot of things and then they lose their wife and they go, I don't know how this happened.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how I got here.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you ran out of time.
SPEAKER_01: And you stopped looking at the things that are most important.
SPEAKER_01: How did I get here?
SPEAKER_01: My kids don't even like me.
SPEAKER_01: But I've been giving them all this money and providing for them.
SPEAKER_01: Well, provision is a lot more than money, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: It's time, it's talk, it's spiritual.
SPEAKER_01: You can gain the whole world and lose your soul, lose your family, lose your kids.
SPEAKER_01: And then what?
SPEAKER_01: He says, What profit is it if you have all of that stuff?
SPEAKER_01: If God is first, all of those other things they can happen, may happen, but they're not the number one goal.
SPEAKER_01: So what would make a group of people willing to lose their lives?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I want you to see some of Paul's words.
SPEAKER_01: Philippians chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: We'll be wrapping up in just a moment.
SPEAKER_01: Philippians 3, verse 7 through 14.
SPEAKER_01: Paul said this after he gives a list of everything he accomplished that made him something in this life.
SPEAKER_01: You can read verse 1 through 6.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he tells them how he was the best of the best in all of this and that and this.
SPEAKER_01: And then verse 7, he says, But what things were gained to me, the whole world that I gained, these I've counted lost for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Yet indeed I also count all things lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and I count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is through God by faith, listen to this, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: And he finishes with this challenge that might be the goal of most churches this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Christian graduations, not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
SPEAKER_01: Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.
SPEAKER_01: I press to the goal of the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Paul and the disciples, and many that have given their life, could say, I lose my life, I deny myself, I've taken up my cross.
SPEAKER_01: John Piper said it this way it's better to lose your life than to waste it.
SPEAKER_01: Paul said it, whatever it was that this life had for me is garbage by comparison of knowing Christ and the glory of his resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: I want to know Jesus and the power of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel news is worthy of life exchange because it's a relationship exchange.
SPEAKER_01: For three years of life and ministry, these disciples got, they dropped everything.
SPEAKER_01: But you know what they gained?
SPEAKER_01: They gained a relationship with Jesus day in and day out that they went on and talked about for the rest of their being.
SPEAKER_01: And if you will gain Jesus, you won't be able to shut up about it.
SPEAKER_01: They won't be able to stop your mouth from running about it.
SPEAKER_01: Because when Jesus comes into a life and changes you through the relationship, your life is changed, and you're not talking about the sports score anymore.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the biggest deal.
SPEAKER_01: You're not talking about the trophy, you're talking about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And it changed them.
SPEAKER_01: And it was unforgettable for them.
SPEAKER_01: And they were willing not just to give their life, but their death.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel is worthy because Jesus also, though.
SPEAKER_01: It'd be different if Jesus just died, like Peter, I think, thought.
SPEAKER_01: But Peter died.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, Jesus died.
SPEAKER_01: He gave his life, he gave his death, and he yet lives.
SPEAKER_01: Let me explain my thinking.
SPEAKER_01: I could not give my life nor ask you to give your life for the good news of Buddha.
SPEAKER_01: Because Buddha's message has no authority because Buddha is dead.
SPEAKER_01: I could not give my life nor ask you to give your life for the good news of the Muslim, because Muhammad this prophet is dead.
SPEAKER_01: And I could not give my life or ask you to give your life for the good news of Brahma because Brahma is dead.
SPEAKER_01: And I could not give my life and ask you to give your life for Joseph Smith and Mormon because Joseph Smith is dead, and L.
SPEAKER_01: Ron Hubbard is dead, and David Quaresh died, and Sung Young Moon is dead, and Jim Jones died, and every Pope that's ever existed has died.
SPEAKER_01: There is only one religion whose leader is not dead, and he is alive.
SPEAKER_01: Church, he's not in a casket, he's not in a crypt.
SPEAKER_01: He's not in some mausoleum.
SPEAKER_01: He's not in a tomb they tried, and a rock couldn't hold him.
SPEAKER_01: And after three days, the greatest miracle in history is when Jesus Christ died and raised his dead self up from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: And that is the good news, worthy of your life.
SPEAKER_01: It's worthy.
SPEAKER_01: And your neighbor needs it, and your teammate needs it, and your family member needs it.
SPEAKER_01: That's the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul said, So I forget what's behind.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, 24, good year, bad year, worst year, greatest year.
SPEAKER_01: It's back here.
SPEAKER_01: Some said, Thank God it's back there.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I press forward toward the mark of the prize.
SPEAKER_01: In 25, church, his plan number one for you is to know the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: If you're here this morning and you haven't experienced Jesus as your Lord and Savior, it is his number one goal for you.
SPEAKER_01: He wants you to have an exchange, that relationship.
SPEAKER_01: And the second thing, church, is this.
SPEAKER_01: If you know him, he wants the gospel to grow through you.
SPEAKER_01: He wants you to plant seed.
SPEAKER_01: He wants you and I to be the gospel on the ground.
SPEAKER_01: Would you bow your head and close your eyes this morning?
SPEAKER_01: When I finish praying in a moment, I'm going to invite everybody here to do something that may look a little different.
SPEAKER_01: But everybody here was given a package of seed.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to invite you to write again on that seed.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you don't have a pen, and you can just commit that seed.
SPEAKER_01: You think of a person, you think of a need, maybe it be your job, your ministry, your marriage, or you're thinking of a person's name.
SPEAKER_01: Would you commit in 25 to be in the gospel on the ground in those ways or to those people?
SPEAKER_01: I believe with all my heart, in 25, that's what God wants of CCW.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to pray and I'm going to ask you, we've got some receptacles here and an altar.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to ask you to stand, and if you have something on that envelope that you're willing to say, God, help me be the gospel on the ground in this way to these people in 25.
SPEAKER_01: If you mean that, I want to invite you to come.
SPEAKER_01: And secondly, we're going to worship together.
SPEAKER_01: There is a song on my heart because of this.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you, you grew up hearing it, but I say often about this place, this church, that we're standing on holy ground.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to sing that out to my King.
SPEAKER_01: It says that the presence of his angels are all around.
SPEAKER_01: Let us praise Jesus now.
SPEAKER_01: We're standing in the presence of holy ground.
SPEAKER_01: Can we be the gospel on holy ground today?
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to pray as I begin to pray.
SPEAKER_01: Would you stand to your feet?
SPEAKER_01: And as the music starts, when I finish this prayer, if you would come, if you mean to stay at the altar, if you want to pray over that, but please let's dedicate planting that seed.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we love you and are thankful for a gospel that is past the word worthy.
SPEAKER_01: We can't even say worthy.
SPEAKER_01: It's beyond worthy of what we can offer.
SPEAKER_01: But God, I pray that in 25 that we would look inwardly and say, this is an area.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I gotta lay down some things for the sake of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And God, I pray that you would open wide doors of opportunity that we would see in a year's time.
SPEAKER_01: God, many people that are lost come to Christ because not just background noise, we are working towards it.
SPEAKER_01: And God, I pray that we would see lost family members and friends and God, coworkers, and even some enemies.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, that would come to Christ because we're gonna get on the ground and plant seeds.
SPEAKER_01: God, help our church.
SPEAKER_01: And Lord, we're claiming this time, this moment today as a place that you're in.
SPEAKER_01: And we want to claim it as holy ground.
SPEAKER_01: So, God, I pray that your spirit would fall during this time of invitation.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, use this to be a marker in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: We love you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We're excited you joined us for today's message.
SPEAKER_00: Our heart is to connect with others in our community to grow with one another and build a bigger kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: If you accepted Jesus today, we want to hear about it.
SPEAKER_00: Take a moment and text CCWConnect to 94,000.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you again for joining us on the CCW podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you'll make plans to join us in person on Sundays.