SPEAKER_00: This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church, please visit grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_00: If you've got a Bible, I want to invite you to take it and open it up to Mark chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: Mark chapter 10, and we'll begin our journey towards Easter.
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk to you about the glory of your deepest desire.
SPEAKER_00: The glory of your deepest desire.
SPEAKER_00: And while you're finding Mark chapter 10, if you don't have a Bible, there's one on your row.
SPEAKER_00: I'm on page 846.
SPEAKER_00: I want to begin with a confession.
SPEAKER_00: I'm 47 years old.
SPEAKER_00: There's something that happens when a man gets to be about 40, especially 45.
SPEAKER_00: Three things basically start happening.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, you start listening to talk radio in your vehicle all the time.
SPEAKER_00: You're no longer listening to music.
SPEAKER_00: My kids get in mind, they're like, Dad, what is that?
SPEAKER_00: Don't ever touch a man's radio, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, you start what you fall out of love with network TV.
SPEAKER_00: It's boring.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't interest you anymore.
SPEAKER_00: You start watching things like the Discovery Channel and PBS.
SPEAKER_00: I watched a two-hour documentary last week on Wailing on PBS and how it all got started and how Herman Melville went out on a ship.
SPEAKER_00: It was fascinating.
SPEAKER_00: But I also thought to myself, if my friends could see me now, they'd be like, you're such a loser.
SPEAKER_00: It was incredible.
SPEAKER_00: I did, I stayed through the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: I had to go to the bathroom, about 30 minutes left, I was like, I don't want to miss anything.
SPEAKER_00: So I just sat there through the entire thing.
SPEAKER_00: Incredible.
SPEAKER_00: If you got questions about the whaling industry, see me after the service.
SPEAKER_00: But also I remember about a year, a year and a half ago, I watched a documentary on glaciers.
SPEAKER_00: Fascinating.
SPEAKER_00: I was just like, oh man.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not just a documentary, it's the narrator.
SPEAKER_00: Like they did that did the one the caribou.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, once the caribou has left the herd, there remains little hope of survival.
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Please show us that.
SPEAKER_00: The documentary on the glaciers, though, the guy said this two or three minutes in, and it hooked me while I watched the entire thing.
SPEAKER_00: He said, uh, and not like I rem I memorized it, but it just kind of stuck in me.
SPEAKER_00: He said, glaciers move without regard to what's happening, without regard for what's happening on the surface, because the majority of the glacier is buried in the deep currents of the ocean.
SPEAKER_00: So it can move against the wind and against what's happening on the surface.
SPEAKER_00: Get that in your head because that describes the life of Jesus as we get ready for Easter.
SPEAKER_00: We put ourselves on a trajectory, not just for the tomb and the cross and everything, but we drop in on Jesus and he's nearing Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Mark chapter 10, the glory of your deepest desire.
SPEAKER_00: Mark chapter 10, verse 32.
SPEAKER_00: The glacier of Jesus is embedded in this deep current, and he's moving against the tide.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says it like this.
SPEAKER_00: And they were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them, and they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid.
SPEAKER_00: And taking the twelve, again, he began to tell them what was going to happen to him, saying, See, we're going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles, and they will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him.
SPEAKER_00: And after three days he will rise.
SPEAKER_00: And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, What do you want me to do for you?
SPEAKER_00: And they said to him, Grant us to sit, one on your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to them, You do not know what you are asking.
SPEAKER_00: Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism which I am baptized?
SPEAKER_00: And they said to him, We are able.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to them, The cup I drink you will drink.
SPEAKER_00: And with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.
SPEAKER_00: But to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant.
SPEAKER_00: But it is for those for whom it has been prepared.
SPEAKER_00: And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus called them to him and said to them, You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.
SPEAKER_00: But it shall not be so among you.
SPEAKER_00: But whoever would be great among you must be your servant.
SPEAKER_00: And whoever would be among you, whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.
SPEAKER_00: For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
SPEAKER_00: The glory of your deepest desire means three things today.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, Jesus' deepest desire is the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what verses 32, 33, and 34 tell us.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say it again.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' deepest desire is for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now Mark tells us that Jesus is now speaking of his death for the third time.
SPEAKER_00: You ever wonder how many times you have to tell your kids something before they get it?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has told them, he said, what the third time?
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 10, if you go back to chapter 8, it's the first time he mentions his death.
SPEAKER_00: It's called the Caesarea-Philippi incident because they were in the town, Caesarea and Philippi, and they're kind of in that area.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is asking the disciples, who do men say that I am?
SPEAKER_00: And Peter gets it right.
SPEAKER_00: You know, some said, hey, some say John the Baptist, some say Lodge, some say one of the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, who do you say that I am?
SPEAKER_00: Peter said, You're the Christ, you're the Son of the Living God.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Blessed are you, Simon, son of Barjona.
SPEAKER_00: Flesh and blood did not reveal that to you.
SPEAKER_00: And then the next sentence, the Bible says that from that time on, Jesus began to speak to them about his death, about how he had to go to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And when he first mentions it, he just kind of slips it in.
SPEAKER_00: Then the next chapter, chapter 9, he mentions it again, unpacks a little bit more.
SPEAKER_00: Right here in chapter 10, he gives graphic detail.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to it again.
SPEAKER_00: He says that we're going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles, and they will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him.
SPEAKER_00: And after three days, he will rise.
SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself this question.
SPEAKER_00: If you knew that awaited you in Jerusalem, would you still go?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I wouldn't.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things I should I because I don't want I sound all religious and I don't watch much TV.
SPEAKER_00: I watch sports and stuff.
SPEAKER_00: But one of the things that I've kind of gotten addicted to watching is a show on AE called Intervention.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've ever watched Intervention because sometimes I don't just watch intervention.
SPEAKER_00: So you all watch intervention.
SPEAKER_00: I watch intervention and I pretend like I'm a therapist and I talk to the TV and tell the people what they need to know.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's the thing if you knew they were gonna you were gonna be intervened upon, you would never go.
SPEAKER_00: The person thinks, oh, I remember I watched one recently.
SPEAKER_00: A guy, his liver is he's got spots on his liver, he's got cirrhosis, he can't stop drinking.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, I don't look at those people and go, just stop.
SPEAKER_00: I know that that's that that that's an incredibly powerful thing.
SPEAKER_00: And you be your life becomes, I mean, you in the beginning, you choose it, and then it starts choosing you.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not harsh in judging somebody that struggles with alcoholism.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just like, man, get some help.
SPEAKER_00: But the person never knows it's coming.
SPEAKER_00: Have you noticed that?
SPEAKER_00: They walk into the room and they see everybody in a circle, they're like, uh-oh.
SPEAKER_00: And they go, what, what, what, what, what?
SPEAKER_00: They start backing up.
SPEAKER_00: And the guy, Jeff Van Vondren is his name, the ball-headed guy that wears like the 1980s, like, hey, Miller's Outpost had a clearance sale, and this dude cleaned up, okay?
SPEAKER_00: He gets up and closed the door and said, Hey, your family and friends here, we just want to tell you how much we love you.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what they want to do.
SPEAKER_00: If the person would have known, they would have never come.
SPEAKER_00: You don't get an e-invite that says, Hey, we're gonna have an intervention on you because we're afraid you're gonna kill yourself.
SPEAKER_00: They don't know.
SPEAKER_00: It sprung on them.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knew.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't sprung on him.
SPEAKER_00: It's not like he got into Jerusalem and they closed the door behind him and got him.
SPEAKER_00: He knew all along.
SPEAKER_00: And yet he went anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Point number one in the talk this morning, Jesus' deepest desire is for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: You say now, now understand, you're gonna you're gonna hear a little bit this morning about your deepest desire and about your loudest desire.
SPEAKER_00: We all have both of those in us.
SPEAKER_00: You have a loud desire in you, and you have a deep desire in you.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes your loud desire is for food, sometimes it's for sex, sometimes it's for money and power and prestige and all this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Like I spoke at a thing this weekend, and this kid walked up to me and said, Yeah, one of our adults was telling me about you, and like, you're this guy that did this and that and that and that and that and that.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I don't mean to hurt your feelings, but I've never heard of you.
SPEAKER_00: No, you think it's no big deal until somebody tells you, I've never heard of you, and you're like, and the guy said, and I went and Googled you and looked you up, and did you know you're on Google?
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Yeah, but that was expunged from my record, was it not?
SPEAKER_00: That thing with that clown and that tequila machine, that's still out there?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, never mind.
SPEAKER_00: That's before I was a preacher, amen.
SPEAKER_00: So you think, anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is walking along, and look what he said.
SPEAKER_00: I love what the Bible says in verse 32.
SPEAKER_00: It says they were all on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them, and they were amazed at those who followed, and they were afraid.
SPEAKER_00: See, that's the model of a rabbi and his students.
SPEAKER_00: He would walk out front and they would walk behind him, and every once in a while the rabbi would turn around and espouse wisdom to his students.
SPEAKER_00: So if you drive by our campus during the week, you'll see me walking around the campus and Lee Barron's behind me with the rest of the staff, and every once in a while.
SPEAKER_00: Just being like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: No?
SPEAKER_00: By the way, just yesterday I saw a couple walking in my neighborhood dressed in certain uh dressed a certain way, and I knew it was a religious tradition, and the man was walking about five yards in front of the woman.
SPEAKER_00: And I I wasn't trying to be whatever, I just said, hey, you know, wait and let her catch up.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, She walks behind me, she is not my equal.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought for a split second, I'm gonna go home and tell my wife that.
SPEAKER_00: And then about that quickly, I just thought, no, I'm not.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, I'm not.
SPEAKER_00: Why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus has done more to bestow dignity upon women than anybody before or since.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus walking to Jerusalem, he knows what's coming.
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna spit on him.
SPEAKER_00: Have you been spit on lately?
SPEAKER_00: I don't care how religious you are.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody spits on you, and you're gonna drop the gloves and we're gonna have to sling something.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's just the worst thing in the world.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you just see football players, they get mad at each other, and they that that's like, oh, that's where that's beyond your mama, okay?
SPEAKER_00: You can talk about your mama, you might get away with that.
SPEAKER_00: You spit on somebody, we're gonna, Jesus said, Hey, by the way, they're gonna flog me, they're gonna spit on me, and the disciples, you know, he's walking in front of them, he turns around and says this to them, and they're just kind of like, What?
SPEAKER_00: What how?
SPEAKER_00: If you knew that's what awaited you, would you go anyway?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus did.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you're in the gospel of Mark, turn to the right, to the Gospel of John, John chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: I'll start reading in verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: It'll come up on the screen there if you don't have a Bible with you, so just relax.
SPEAKER_00: Now the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke and John are the same story, the story of Jesus told from four different perspectives.
SPEAKER_00: And so John is talking about Jesus getting ready for the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Now among those who went up to worship at the feast, there were some Greeks.
SPEAKER_00: And so these came to Philip, who was from Bethsail in Galilee, and he asked him, Sir, we wish to see Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And Philip went and told Andrew, and Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus, and Jesus answered them, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, I said this to you a couple years ago, and it bears repeating.
SPEAKER_00: The way you define glory determines the path your life will take.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say the hour has come for the Son of Man to go down a cross for a bunch of people who don't understand, like these 12 religious goofballs right here, as you'll see in just a minute, how shallow they can be.
SPEAKER_00: He says the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
SPEAKER_00: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone.
SPEAKER_00: But if it dies, it bears much fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever loves his life loses it.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone serves me, he must follow me.
SPEAKER_00: And where I am, there my servant will be.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 27.
SPEAKER_00: Now is my soul troubled.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, look at me for a minute.
SPEAKER_00: What you really believe is most often on display when your heart is troubled.
SPEAKER_00: Because your heart seeks relief.
SPEAKER_00: But God created you and I for the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, Now my heart, my soul is troubled.
SPEAKER_00: And what shall I say?
SPEAKER_00: Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose, I have come to this hour.
SPEAKER_00: Father, glorify your name.
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss that last part there where Jesus says, For this, hey, now I've come to this hour and my heart is troubled.
SPEAKER_00: When I was a kid growing up, my mom uh had me and my two brothers, and we were a handful.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember getting up in the middle of the night and I would hear voices in the kitchen, and it was my mom sitting at the kitchen table smoking and talking to herself out loud.
SPEAKER_00: I remember as a little kid thinking, I think my mom's heart's troubled.
SPEAKER_00: But I didn't have words for it back then.
SPEAKER_00: I remember getting back in bed and my oldest brother said, Don't say anything.
SPEAKER_00: Mom does that every night.
SPEAKER_00: My mom's life was so troubled that she just had to talk out loud to herself.
SPEAKER_00: She had nobody else to talk to.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus saw what I'm reading, John, and Jesus says, Now my soul is troubled.
SPEAKER_00: What shall I say?
SPEAKER_00: Save me.
SPEAKER_00: Your loudest desire cries out every day, save me.
SPEAKER_00: Save me.
SPEAKER_00: But your deepest desire says, What Jesus says, What shall I say?
SPEAKER_00: Save me?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: For this very reason I came to this hour.
SPEAKER_00: Father, glorify your name.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing Jesus teaches us in Mark chapter 10 is that Jesus' deepest desire is the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: Second thing we see in the Bible is that our loudest desire is for ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Our loudest desire is for ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the Bible again.
SPEAKER_00: Now you would think after verse 33, Jesus says, See, we're going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man is going to be spit on and mocked, and I'm going to die, and then I'm going to rise again on the third day.
SPEAKER_00: You would think they would be like, oh wow.
SPEAKER_00: Or no, don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 35.
SPEAKER_00: And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.
SPEAKER_00: And let me ask you a question.
SPEAKER_00: Who asked questions like that?
SPEAKER_00: You know the answer.
SPEAKER_00: You got some in your house.
SPEAKER_00: Who asked questions like that?
SPEAKER_00: Your kids.
SPEAKER_00: Some lady over here went, My husband.
SPEAKER_00: That's your reasons next month, ma'am.
SPEAKER_00: What do you say?
SPEAKER_00: Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.
SPEAKER_00: Every once in a while, my 14-year-old will come to me at 11:15, 11:30 at night on the weekend and go, Dad, would you make me a milkshake?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm thinking, what are you doing up?
SPEAKER_00: Every once in a while in school night, we're supposed to be in her room.
SPEAKER_00: Lights out, 10:30.
SPEAKER_00: Walk out at midnight.
SPEAKER_00: I can't sleep.
SPEAKER_00: Can you make me a milkshake?
SPEAKER_00: See, children talk out of their loudest desires, and parents answer out of their deepest desires.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a parenting sermon, but mom and dad, if you start answering your kid out of their loudest desires, they will never become who the Bible calls them to be.
SPEAKER_00: They just won't.
SPEAKER_00: Because your loudest desires are most often deceiving.
SPEAKER_00: You say, How do you know?
SPEAKER_00: Because when our loudest desires call out and we immediately gratify them after the fact, we're like, What was I thinking?
SPEAKER_00: See, look at what happens.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says all this.
SPEAKER_00: They said, We want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, What do you want me to do for you?
SPEAKER_00: By the way, I don't have time to get into this, but that's the most revealing question God will ever ask you.
SPEAKER_00: You think you want God to say, What do you want me to do for you?
SPEAKER_00: But it's overwhelmingly revealing.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, just in the next little section of Mark chapter 10, there, starting about verse 46, Jesus, there's a guy named Bartimaeus, he's crying out on the roadside.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone's like, Shut your yapper, okay?
SPEAKER_00: The Jesus parade is going by.
SPEAKER_00: And he just calls out louder.
SPEAKER_00: He raises his voice above there.
SPEAKER_00: So he's like, Jesus, I'm over here.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus just stops and says, Call him.
SPEAKER_00: And then they're like, Oh, him?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, oh, hey, he's calling you.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes over there, and guess what?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus asks him.
SPEAKER_00: What do you want me to do for you?
SPEAKER_00: And when you're in the presence of God, this is why that's the most revealing question.
SPEAKER_00: Because when God asks you that, it puts you in touch with your deepest desire.
SPEAKER_00: Bartimaeus didn't say, I'd like a bigger house with a mother-in-law suite.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to do SUV.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like my kids' college funds fully funded, Jesus, because that's kind of, you know, that's kind of nagging on the back of my mind.
SPEAKER_00: Now Jesus says, which he'd love to do, what do you want me to do for you?
SPEAKER_00: And when he asks you that question, what he's really asking you is, Do you understand what I understand about your situation?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says to Bartimaeus, What do you want me to do for you?
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, I want to see.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is like, Would you like some fries with that?
SPEAKER_00: No, I just want to see.
SPEAKER_00: Would you like to biggie size that today?
SPEAKER_00: No, I just want to see.
SPEAKER_00: Would you like an apple pie to go with it?
SPEAKER_00: I pull up to McDonald's now.
SPEAKER_00: I just say, I don't want anything except what I'm fixing to tell you I want, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And the voice comes back from inside.
SPEAKER_00: Hello, Neil, how are ya?
SPEAKER_00: I done set them people straight up in there.
SPEAKER_00: What do you want me to do for you?
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 37.
SPEAKER_00: And they said to him, Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.
SPEAKER_00: Underline those last three words, in your glory.
SPEAKER_00: Dangerous words.
SPEAKER_00: See, you got to understand, keep in mind we're talking about our loudest desire is ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: They think Jesus is going to Jerusalem to set up a new political regime.
SPEAKER_00: And so they're like, we better get some plumb positions in the cabinet.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to be the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State or something.
SPEAKER_00: We want to set it your right and your left hand.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus says, Let me just assess your understanding of the situation.
SPEAKER_00: What do you want me to do for you?
SPEAKER_00: And they said that, and Jesus, you do not know what you're asking.
SPEAKER_00: You have no idea.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, Oh, yes, yes, we do.
SPEAKER_00: They said, We want to set it your right hand and your left hand.
SPEAKER_00: And then here's this little phrase, in your glory.
SPEAKER_00: See, their concept of God's glory is them getting their wishes fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' concept of glory is the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He comes to this hour and his heart is troubled and he doesn't back away from it.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because his life is submerged in the deep currents of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: So he can move against what's popular, he can move against what all his friends are telling him.
SPEAKER_00: You ever ask your friends at work for advice?
SPEAKER_00: And when they give you advice, you just think, man, I need some new friends.
SPEAKER_00: Sure you do.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus was like.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, does anybody understand what I'm all about?
SPEAKER_00: James and John didn't.
SPEAKER_00: But the opportunity for Jesus to explain it was that little phrase, in your glory.
SPEAKER_00: Because their concept of glory was coming in and overthrowing the Romans and setting up a new regime, and the disciples get to be in charge and be his interior minister, and his entire cabinet is set up.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, By the way, the highest expression of my glory, but I'm going to glorify my Father by dying on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus says what he says, and I want to draw your attention to it this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the next verse.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Verse 38, Jesus said to them, You do not know what you are asking.
SPEAKER_00: Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?
SPEAKER_00: And they said to him, We are able.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to them, The cup that I drink, you will drink.
SPEAKER_00: And the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.
SPEAKER_00: It's just that little, we don't talk much about the cup and the baptism.
SPEAKER_00: The baptism, he's just talking about, I'm going to be fully immersed, like my friend JJ a few minutes ago, who I love JJ because JJ said, by the way, I can hold my breath for a long time.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, You want me to hold you under?
SPEAKER_00: He goes, Yeah, five seconds.
SPEAKER_00: So I did.
SPEAKER_00: I put him down.
SPEAKER_00: One, two, three, four, five.
SPEAKER_00: I can see some of y'all kind of like, did he lose him up there?
SPEAKER_00: He's like trying to catch minnows.
SPEAKER_00: Ooh, he got away.
SPEAKER_00: Come here.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: See, Jesus says, I'm going to be fully immersed.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to just take a few best effort passes at glorifying God.
SPEAKER_00: I am going to be submerged in the will of God.
SPEAKER_00: Because my life is like a glacier.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of just anchored in this deep current.
SPEAKER_00: But he also says, Hey, can you drink from this cup that I that I'm going to drink from?
SPEAKER_00: The cup, by the way, in the Bible, it's always representative, even in Hebrew literature, of the wrath of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's why when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, If it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that?
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells us when he pondered the cup that he sweat, as it were, drops of blood.
SPEAKER_00: He was so agonized over that.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the Son of God utterly abandoned.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people have died in church history.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people have died really regal and noble deaths.
SPEAKER_00: Polycarp, the great church historian, when they're going to kill him, he just said, The flames with which you kill me will last but an hour.
SPEAKER_00: So do what you do.
SPEAKER_00: If you read a book called Fox's Book of Martyrs, you'll read about two men named Ridley and Latimer.
SPEAKER_00: And they were chained to the stake.
SPEAKER_00: And they were they were back to back.
SPEAKER_00: And when they started the fire, one of them looked over shoulder at the other and said, Be of good courage today and play the man, because today we will.
SPEAKER_00: Light such a flame by the glory of God, all of England will be lit.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's Jesus, the Son of God, in the garden.
SPEAKER_00: Go, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to do this.
SPEAKER_00: My loudest desire is if it be possible.
SPEAKER_00: Here's how you survive your loudest desire.
SPEAKER_00: You have deeper desires.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, not my will.
SPEAKER_00: Because look at me, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: If you live at the mercy of your loudest desires, you'll never fully understand and experience the will of God.
SPEAKER_00: Yet not my will, but your will be done.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus is saying when he says our loudest desire is ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to look at James and John and just think, man, the cup is that which is impossible, undoable, and overwhelming.
SPEAKER_00: Ezekiel chapter 23 writes about the cup.
SPEAKER_00: It's always of God's wrath and God's displeasure with his people.
SPEAKER_00: And he says this cup is so horrible that people will tear their breast.
SPEAKER_00: It's just the thought of having to drink deeply from the displeasure of God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus sweat blood.
SPEAKER_00: We all have a cup.
SPEAKER_00: I have a cup.
SPEAKER_00: You have a cup, you have to drink from.
SPEAKER_00: Your cup is not always the same.
SPEAKER_00: Every one of you, like I have a friend of mine that had to have a hard conversation with her parents and say, Mom and Dad, you drink too much.
SPEAKER_00: And her mom to prove to her daughter that she didn't.
SPEAKER_00: She said, I'm gonna give up wine for Lent.
SPEAKER_00: She lasted two days.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Be careful talking to your mom because she's your mom, but she's also a little bit embarrassed that wine's become too important in her life.
SPEAKER_00: What am I supposed to do?
SPEAKER_00: Your mom knows the truth deep inside.
SPEAKER_00: You ain't got a brow beater.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: So her cup for this woman who has her daughter and her grandkids all watching is maybe what was once an issue of freedom has become an issue of bondage for me.
SPEAKER_00: And so she said, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna stop doing this.
SPEAKER_00: And she's got a drink from that cup.
SPEAKER_00: For some of you, you think, eh, that's not my issue.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, it's a different cup.
SPEAKER_00: It's whatever in your life right now feels impossible, undoable, and overwhelming.
SPEAKER_00: The thing that you just think, if there be any way possible, let this cup pass from me.
SPEAKER_00: Let somebody else do this.
SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, see, that's your loud desire.
SPEAKER_00: Your deep desire is to live a life that brings God glory.
SPEAKER_00: That's what takes you and I beyond the nevertheless, not my will, but your will, God, be done.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly and finally, the life of Jesus satisfied our deepest desire.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 41.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be done this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus called to them and said to them, You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles, they lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them, but it shall not be so among you.
SPEAKER_00: But whoever would be great among you must be your servant.
SPEAKER_00: And whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.
SPEAKER_00: For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
SPEAKER_00: I've told you before, but it bears repeating.
SPEAKER_00: When you read the Bible, listen to the little words.
SPEAKER_00: Like I just said right there, very innocently, Mark records, For the Son of Man came not to be served.
SPEAKER_00: You ever wonder where he came from?
SPEAKER_00: The Son of Man came from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: A place of perfection.
SPEAKER_00: He's pre-existed, he's existed for all time.
SPEAKER_00: Back in Genesis, when God said, Come let us make man in our image.
SPEAKER_00: That's the Trinity, active in creation.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus left heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Just hear this and we'll be done this morning.
SPEAKER_00: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve.
SPEAKER_00: And to give his life as a ransom for many.
SPEAKER_00: Ransom.
SPEAKER_00: There's the word you need to hear today.
SPEAKER_00: A ransom.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean when you say a ransom?
SPEAKER_00: See, this sets Jesus apart from every other founder of every major world religion there is, because they all came to be an example.
SPEAKER_00: They came to be a good moral example.
SPEAKER_00: You live your life, you're quiet, you're disciplined, you're ascetic, you deny yourself, you get to go to nirvana or paradise.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Hey, listen, I didn't come to be an example, I came to be a sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: This is the first time in Mark's gospel that Jesus connects the dots for his disciples and he's saying, I'm not just going to Jerusalem to die, I'm not just going to Jerusalem to be spit upon.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to Jerusalem to die on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And my dying on the cross releases you from your loudest desires and allows you to live your deepest desires.
SPEAKER_00: That's what a ransom is.
SPEAKER_00: It's the Greek word lutron.
SPEAKER_00: It means to buy the freedom of a slave or a prisoner.
SPEAKER_00: Said differently, you and I are loosed from our loudest desire.
SPEAKER_00: And today you're free to drink from this cup that's before you.
SPEAKER_00: Don't know what it is.
SPEAKER_00: Don't know how it got to be what it is, but I do know that we all have a cup.
SPEAKER_00: And we all have loud desires.
SPEAKER_00: We all have this man.
SPEAKER_00: I just tell you, whether it's any way, I think women understand this more than men do.
SPEAKER_00: For those of you who've been pregnant before and had a child, you understand loud desires versus deep desires.
SPEAKER_00: Loud desires and deep desires.
SPEAKER_00: I saw a lady this weekend, she was walking, she was a whole lot of pregnant.
SPEAKER_00: She had the lean back walk going on.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, When do you do?
SPEAKER_00: Any day now.
SPEAKER_00: And then for some reason, pregnant women insist on telling you what body, what internal organ the kid's laying on or kicking.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I so don't want to hear this.
SPEAKER_00: And she told me anyway.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I guess my face started contorting.
SPEAKER_00: She goes, Is this weirding you out?
SPEAKER_00: I was like, mm-mm.
SPEAKER_00: Not at all.
SPEAKER_00: She goes, I can tell it is.
SPEAKER_00: See, your loud desire.
SPEAKER_00: There comes a point when you first get pregnant, you're ecstatic, and you're like, ooh, I'm pregnant, yay! First trimester, you throw up all the time, blood breath, blood vessels in your face burst.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, oh, and then you get to that first trimester and you're done being sick, and it's kind of like happy, yay! And then the third trimester comes.
SPEAKER_00: Your selfish husband got you pregnant, and you had to be eight months pregnant in July in Houston.
SPEAKER_00: Wake up in the middle of the night and the sheet's just sticking to you.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, get off of me! Get off and get me a bath cloth.
SPEAKER_00: You're just like oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00: I remember we went with our first, went to the hospital.
SPEAKER_00: We just did the little prepaid thing you got there.
SPEAKER_00: We also prepaid for a thing called an epidural.
SPEAKER_00: Epidural is a big needle they stick in your back that makes the pain somehow go away.
SPEAKER_00: I don't understand that.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm like, yeah, you're sticking a needle in my spine.
SPEAKER_00: I don't find any comfort in that.
SPEAKER_00: So we get there and they like have a little chart with a little smiley face and a frowny face on a scale of one to ten.
SPEAKER_00: What's your pain level?
SPEAKER_00: Our nurse was so obnoxious I was at 10 after about five minutes.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, they tell you to get to the hospital at 6 o'clock in the morning like it's just gonna come whoa, shooting out.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's not.
SPEAKER_00: Madison had set up shopping there.
SPEAKER_00: She had a flat screen TV and a couch, refrigerator.
SPEAKER_00: I thought we're gonna be there, we're gonna be home by noon or something.
SPEAKER_00: No, noon.
SPEAKER_00: We were just getting hooked up to we were being on Potosin.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what that is, but it makes stuff come out of you.
SPEAKER_00: I think I drank that in high school, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: Makes stuff come out of you.
SPEAKER_00: About three o'clock.
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's check and see.
SPEAKER_00: Oh no, four o'clock, oh no, five o'clock, about five thirty.
SPEAKER_00: We had some action going on.
SPEAKER_00: Somewhere in there, the guy came in to check my wife's platelet count before he put the needle in her spine and made the pain go away because her fingers were starting to curl like this because she was taking short breaths.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't getting enough oxygen.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, my wife's turning into a tyrannosaurus rex.
SPEAKER_00: Can you tell me what's going on there?
SPEAKER_00: And they said, Well, she's oxygen-deprived, and so I was like, straighten your fingers out.
SPEAKER_00: Shut up!
unknown: Shut up!
SPEAKER_00: And then you do what the coach tells you, you know, do you do you breathe?
SPEAKER_00: They don't want to hear you say that, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: You can do it.
SPEAKER_00: And then rubber back.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, you touch her.
SPEAKER_00: I ain't touching her.
SPEAKER_00: And then the guy looked at me and he said, Uh, sir, I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm sorry to tell you this, but your wife's platelet count is too low.
SPEAKER_00: She cannot get an epidural because we might paralyze her.
SPEAKER_00: And just out of reaction, I just reached on and grabbed him and said, You're not gonna do that.
SPEAKER_00: You're exactly right.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, Please turn loose on me.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay, sorry about that.
SPEAKER_00: And then all of a sudden, I said, the guy looked at me and said, You guys said, babe, we gotta do this all natural.
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, my wife turned into Sigourney Weaver from Alien.
SPEAKER_00: They said, This baby's getting close, we gotta go.
SPEAKER_00: And some light went off, and the ceiling opened up, and stuff started coming out of the ceiling, the end came off the bed, the panels dropped, and I just backed up.
SPEAKER_00: It's like transformers.
SPEAKER_00: And Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Kolkarney, who I'll I'll never forget her voice, she's from like Pakistan or somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: Push, push, push.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: You're doing it, you're doing it, pull, pull it.
SPEAKER_00: And my wife leaned up and grabbed the bed rails, all natural.
SPEAKER_00: An eight-pound, 12-ounce baby came out of her.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, all the women are going, all the men are going.
SPEAKER_00: We'll all be walking out here in a minute like this.
SPEAKER_00: And the baby's kicking my bladder right now.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, see, your loudest desire is for relief, but your deepest desire is for motherhood.
SPEAKER_00: That's what makes it doable.
SPEAKER_00: That's why when Wade Collier shows up at the office, because they have a six-month-old, that was a good idea having another kid.
SPEAKER_00: Until you have a two-year-old and a newborn.
SPEAKER_00: And you come home and your wife's just smoking, them kids are running around naked all around.
SPEAKER_00: They hadn't been fed in three days.
SPEAKER_00: You better get these kids up off of me.
SPEAKER_00: Mom about to go crazy up in here.
SPEAKER_00: I need some vacation.
SPEAKER_00: And I need this kid to take a bottle.
SPEAKER_00: Killing me.
SPEAKER_00: See there?
SPEAKER_00: That kid's agreeing.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all have awakened that baby over there.
SPEAKER_00: Shh, you loudmouth Baptist?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, your loudest desire and your deepest desire are rarely the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: And so therefore, listen to me, we're done.
SPEAKER_00: You have a cup to drink from.
SPEAKER_00: We all have a cup to drink from.
SPEAKER_00: What's your cup today?
SPEAKER_00: And just spend a few moments as we close this morning just thinking about what is your cup?
SPEAKER_00: What is this cup that you say, you know, God, if it be possible, let this thing pass from me.
SPEAKER_00: Your deepest desire is never at the mercy of your loudest desire.
SPEAKER_00: Unless you make it.
SPEAKER_00: So what's your cup today?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says to James and John, when he says to you and I, are you able to drink from the cup that I drink from?
SPEAKER_00: Are you able to live from your deepest desire, not just your loudest desire?
SPEAKER_00: Stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_00: Hold your hands out and speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_00: Your Bible tells you that deep calls out to deep.
SPEAKER_00: And today your God has commissioned you to answer.
SPEAKER_00: You're not at the mercy of that which is loud.
SPEAKER_00: You're at the opportunity of that which is deep.
SPEAKER_00: Depart now and give yourself to that in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Bless you, you're dismissed.