Marching to Zion II

you have come and I know that the Lordhas a special blessing for you however Iwill say you may miss a blessing if youown aPrius not because I'm against Priusesbut because there's a Prius outside withits lights on and if you're battery goesflat then you're not going to have asmuch of a blessing this afternoon as youwould have hoped for so if you own aPrius you parked on the uh field outsideplease go and turn off your lights sothat you can have the fullest blessingpossible we also want to welcome all ofthose who are tuning in online thissabbath and really all day today we havethe distinct privilege of having DrConrad Vine join us and sharing God'smessage how many of you were here lastnight amen what a blessing to go digdeep into the Book of Mark and for thoseof you online if you would like tocomment and share the blessing from lastnight we know we had many that came anduh and joined us online really aroundthe world but we're in for a treat uhnot because of the information you knowthe information is onething but when it comes from the heartof an individual who truly loves Christa true servant and disciple of Christwho is willing to go wherever the masterleads that's really what brings a a realspecialness to thatmessage and uh I know many of you havebeen privileged to witness in Dr Vine'slife a true follower of Christ and sothis is really what makes it an honor tohave you here Dr Vine is that Jesus isseen in your life and uh we willcontinue to pray for you that Jesus willcontinue to be seen in your life as youpreach and share him uh would you joinme in bowing your heads just as we openour meeting withprayer Father in Heaven I just want toask for your special blessing to rest onthis place as once again we open yourword I pray that your blessing would beupon Dr Vine as he shares and I praythat you would speak through him mayJesus be lifted up we pray in Jesus nameamen thank you DrVine uh good morningeverybody uh thank you Pastor Michaelfor that graciouswelcome and I'd like to thank um Pastorsaer for hosting me last nightum I stayed in a lovely um Cottage isthat the word Cottage yes and uh it wasreally nice and so it's good to be backhere today and to share the Sabbathhours with you uh so for those whowatching online we give you a warmwelcome and uh today we're going to beuh walking with Jesus on the road toJerusalem so our topic our series iscalled marching to Zion and we're goingto be following Jesus and hearing whathe has to say to to us in areas that arevery important to our lives we're goingto be talking about uh the issue ofdiscipleship as it relates to childrenand as it relates in our sermon actuallyto sexual and physical abuse and whatJesus has to say about money and wealthand what it means to follow him in ahostile world so um as we go throughthese passages together um I'm notsharing this information and they studybecause um you know knowledge is goodfor the soul no I'm sharing these thingsbecause um as a pastor I want everybodyto bring our lives into alignment withthe teachings ofJesus and so uh what I my challenge foryou even before we begin today is thisthat um as you hear the Holy Spiritspeaking to you about something in yourlife that's Covenant with God now thatwe're going to put it into practice thatwe want to go home at the end of theseSabbath hours as differentChristians uh uh compared with those whoarve this morning would that be a fairthing to do we want to grow we want tochange we want to more perfectlyrepresent our Lord and Master JesusChrist we want the world to see aclearer picture of Jesus in our lives inour words in our families and ourfinances in our um importantrelationships in life so um let's bowour heads again and just ask the HolySpirit to impress upon us his lessonsfor today so heavenlyfather I want to thank you that Jesustook the time to repeatedly tell touchhis disciples eyes so they would haveever clearer understanding of what itmeans to followhim and father we're living in a worldthat says we will not have this man torule overus but father Jesus also says to eachone of us followme so today Father we're gathered hereprimarily because we want to followJesus so father as we go through thisthese teachings of Jesus this morningand this afternoon I'm ask asking thateach one of us will have hearts that areopen and ready and softened and readyenough to be molded more into thecharacter of Jesus that there will bemore of him and less of us in ourcharacters by the time we finish thisjourneytoday Father I ask that you take awayany Hardness of Heart I pray that wewill not grieve the Holy Spirit when hewhispers and brings conviction to ourhearts and minds and father may you beglorified in all that is said in donetoday please speak through me and for methis is my prayer in jesus' nameamen all right so um for those of youwho were not here last night just kindof a 30 second overview um uh Mark'sgospel you can you can analyze it anumber of ways um from from a powerperspective or a financial perspectiveand we're looking from A discipleshipperspective here today and the firsteight chapters Jesus is in the North inGalilee and then from chapter 8 and uhverse 27 Jesus starts walking South FromGalilee to Jerusalem to the passion weekand chapters 11- 16 are the passion weekand the resurrection so half the gospelis focused on the last few weeks ofjesus' life in Mark's gospel and thefirst eight chapters Jesus is up inGalilee and he's Healing The Sick andhe's casting out demons and he's raisingthe dead but other than the parable ofthe so in Mark 4 there's almost no ideaabout what is he actually saying and sothe disciplethey have really very littleunderstanding what it means to followJesus and so on the way down toJerusalem to the most important date inSalvation history Jesus Takes the timeto repeatedly tell his disciples what itmeans to follow him and uh as they'remarching to Zion and the greatest crisisof their lives so we're also marching tothe NewJerusalem and we're also marching to thegreatest crisis in humanhistory so therefore it's incumbent uponus to take the time to learn and to growuh in our understanding of what it meansto follow Jesus not just to know thesethings but to actually put them intopractice does that seem fair okay and wesaw last night in the that the journeystarts with a blind man and it ends witha blind man we start with a man thatJesus touches his eyes twice so he cansee clearly and we end up with blindbmus the last of the Miracles In thispassage that we're going to be lookingat just on the road to Jerusalem um andsitting that down there by Jericho so westart with a blind man and we end with ablind man and in both cases There AreSpiritual lessons for us the lesson fromlast night is we need to give peopletime and space to grow in theirunderstanding of Jesus not everybody hasthe same understanding uh we need toallow those who are fresh and new intheir faith the repeated Touch of Jesusin order for them to see Ever moreclearly and likewise I myself and all ofus need to recognize we're not thefinished product we can always see moreclearly ourselves so we want to hear theteachings of Jesus aresh on a dailybasis in order that we might see him andunderstand him and follow him moreclearly and more closely so we're goingto pick up from where wewere uh last night and um I want tothank the the uh Team here let me justmake sure this thing is on all rightso there we are allright thankyou the first Passion prediction allright so if you have your Bibles withyou we're going to be going through thegospel of Mark so you need to keep yourBibles open if you want to mark them upthat's fine um but uh it's not it's notjust important to hear the reading ofthe word of God but seeing it as wellhelps cemented in our minds and it helpsus to remember these things so I'dinvite you to have your Bibles with youmost of our time we're going to be inthe gospel of Mark we're going going togoing we're going to be going back andforth the main texts are on the screenif I jump somewhere else in the gospelI'll just read it out directly from thescriptures here but um Jesus just askedthe disciples who do people say that Iam and and they said you're John theBaptist or Elijah and so others one ofthe prophets and the point about that isit's easy to hide behind what otherpeople say about Jesus and you may hidebehind what your parents think aboutJesus or what the church says aboutJesus or what you've heard about Jesusbut then Jesus homes in on us and hesays but who do you say that I am andthis gospel was written at a time whereyou had to offer a sacrifice to Caesarthat the imperial Cults you had to offera sacrifice put some little incense inan altar before a judge and you wouldhave to say Kaiser coros which is Caesaris Lord but the Christians refus to dothat they would say yesus Kos whichmeans Jesus isLord and so this gospel is not given ina vacuum when Jesus says who do men saythat I am well it's easy to answer thatquestion but when he says who do you saythat I am and your answer protestpotentially can get you thrown to theLions this is a significantquestion the point is there comes a timewhen we can't hide behind what otherpeople say about Jesus there comes thatmoment of truth in our lives and ourfaith walk where everything is on theline and Jesus is saying well what doyou say aboutme and that day comes to all of us oneway or another when I was 16 I wanted tobe a sea captain I wanted to Pilot I Iwant to be a captain of um oceangoingships as I looked into it I realizedthat I'd have to work on Sabbath so Ihad to make a choice I decided not to bea sea captain why because I wanted tohonor the Sabbath rather than Follow MyChosen career you know that's just asimple example but when you choose Jesusabove everything else there areconsequences for the decisions we makein life so we're going to start out withthe first there are three Passionpredictions we're going to look at todayand so as we saw last night you candivide the road to Jerusalem into threecomponents there's the each componentshas a geographical reference has apassion prediction by Jesusthe disciples misunderstand then Jesusteaches them what it means to follow himso those four components are repeatedthree times over on the road South FromGalilee to Jerusalem and so um the firstPassion prediction is found there inMark 8:31 and it says there then he thatis Jesus began to teach them that theson of man must undergo great sufferingand be rejected by the elders the chiefpriests and the scribes and be killedand after three days he is to rise againnow let's just note for from from theget-go here that Jesus repeatedly callshimself the son of man in this gospelnobody else calls Jesus the son of manbut Jesus calls himself the son of manother people give Jesus titles Jesus ofNazareth is what bmus calls him JesusSon of David is another title given toJesus you are the Messiah says Peter butnobody else calls Jesus the son of manand Jesus repeatedly calls himself inthis gospel the son of man and I want toencourage you if you do nothing elsefrom this series today is go home andread through this gospel and write outevery verse where Jesus calls himselfthe son of man and you'll discover thatthe son of man is an incredible title ofJesus in Mark 2 for instance verse uh 89and 10 the son of man has authority toforgive sin on Earth that's a great goodnews isn't it that Jesus can wipe awayall of our guilt he can take thoseburdens of guilt in in mark 2 verse13-31 the son of man is Lord of theSabbath that's really good news thatmeans he's the Creator and he has theauthority to forgive sin in Mark 14: 62he talks about the coming of the son ofman in the Clouds Of Glory that's alsovery good news he's coming again for hisown to to gather his elect it readsthere and when the high priest said tohim I tell us are you the Messiah Jesusresponds by saying it is as you say oryes and he says and you will see the theson of man seated at the right hand ofpower coming in the Clouds Of Glory sothe son of man has authority over sin hehas authority over disease he he is thecreator he is the lord of the Sabbathhe's in charge of time um he is comingagain and he knew when he confessed tobe the son of man before and the Messiahbefore Caiaphas that it was going tolead to his death and the reason he wentto his death was he said in Mark 10:45will comes out later today the son ofman did not come to be served but toserve and to give his for what a ransomfor many so the reason he came was tosave you and me and he has the son ofman he has the right to save he has theright to forgive he has the right toheal or the authority to heal and he'scoming again in Mark 14 as a son of manto gather the elect to Heaven above sothere's a lot of stuff about the son ofman in this particular gospel and Jesussays here the son of man is going to bemust undergo great suffering and berejected by the elders the chief priestsand the scri cries and be killed andthen rise again on the third day sowhere's Jesus getting this idea fromabout the son of man well there arereally kind of two areas in the OldTestament he's drawing this from thefirstly is that in Daniel 7: 13- 14after the pre-advent Judgment that isbefore Jesus returns there's apre-advent judgment God makes it clearwho's lost and who's saved before Jesuscomes again we know that because inMatthew 25 when the son of man comes inglory in that Parable he divides theworld into the Sheep sheep and the goatsremember that Parable okay he alreadyknows before he comes who are the sheepand who are thegoats that means there's a pre-adventjudgment implicit within thatParable and so in Daniel 7: 13- 14 theson of man possesses Heavenly Authorityhe possesses Authority in heaven andthroughout this gospel Jesus says theson of man has authority to forgive toheal sins he's lord of the Sabbath hegives his life for ransom for many andhe's coming back as son of man tocollect his own so Jesus is speaking asthe one who has Authority in heaven andonEarth so this is a very very exaltedpicture of Jesus that we find withinthis passage here but it says the son ofmanmust that phrase must he must undergogreatsuffering Peter didn't like the idea ofa sufferingMessiah and he didn't like the idea of adead mess Messiah who needs a deadMessiah when Jesus asked him earlier inthis two verses earlier who do you saythat I am G Peter says you are theMessiah and uh Jesus sternly ordered himnot to tell anybody about him why wasthat because even though Peter had theright name for Jesus Messiah he couldn'tput the right meaning to that phrasethatterm and so Jesus is starting to explainto his disciples and to us today thatthe son of man has two roles he has hisEarthly role and he has his end timerole and if you look in your Bibles inverse 31 it describes the Earthly roleof the son of man he's going to undergogreat suffering and at the end of thisteaching of discipleship in verse 38 hesays those who are ashamed of me and ofmy words in this adulterous and sinfulgeneration of them the son of man willbe ashamed when he comes in the glory ofhis father with the Holy Angels so atthe start of this teaching ofdiscipleship you have the Earthly roleof the son son of man his death and theend of this teaching of discipleship youhave the son of man coming in greatGlory so this the these two roles forthe son of man they bracket thisteaching on discipleship are youfollowing me with this yes okay when youstart looking to the gospels it's reallyinteresting it's really intricate it'slike looking at a Persian carpet attimes all right or a Persian rug it'sreally fascinating how it's kind ofinterwoven together but the son of manis going to die and this was a shock tothe disciples and the worst thing thatthey could imagine was for Jesus to becrucified crucifixion was a horrificexecution method you might say today theson of man needs to bewaterboarded we may be a modern way ofdescribing this the son of man is to betortured todeath we have little idea of how muchblood was shed in the crucifixionprocess most men were almost at thepoint of death by the time they were putonto the cross because of the scourgingwhich stripped you of your skin on yourback back and stripped you of much ofyour blood and many people could barelymake it to the crucifixion spot itselfas did Jesus he was not strong enough tocarry that cross and to the disciplesit's a shocking thing that Jesus has tosuffer but notice this at whose hands isJesus going to suffer who is responsiblefor his death in this um this PRprediction here it says he's going to berejected by the elders the chief priestsand the scribes so Jesus does not sayI'm going to be restrict I'm going to berejected by the mobs of P andOregon he's going to be he's going to berejected by the Jewish Sanhedrin and bythe Roman Governor it is not Humanity atits worst that will crucify the Son ofGod but Humanity at its absolute best hewill be arrested with official warrantshe'll be tried and executed by the juthe Envy of jurist prudence of theancient world the Jewish Sanhedrin andthe Roman legalsystem it wasn't Humanity at its worstthat took condemn Jesus it was Humanityat its best condemningJesus and the disciples are shocked bythis what need has Peter of an EarthlyMessiah who is dead because Peter wantsto be the prime minister in God'skingdom and Jesus touches on this themea lot we're going to talk about it a lotthrough today the question of power andauthority the ability to coerce anotherhas no part in God'skingdom and and so Peter in verse 32 youhas he starts to rebukeJesus here we have the disciplesmisunderstanding we've gone dead againuh thank you brother so anyway in verse32 read follow me in your Bibles it saysthis he said all this quite openly nowin the Greek it said he was saying theword openly so this is the heart ofjesus' teaching you see on the screenthere it says he said all this quiteopenly this is really the first time inthis gospel other than the parable ofthe s in Mark 4 we get an idea of thethe heart of the teaching of Jesus andthe Heart of the teaching of Jesus isthat the son of man is going to die andraise again that is the heart of thegospel and it says he he said all thisquite openly now the tense that is usedthere the said is in the imperfect whichmeans he didn't just say it once ortwice Jesus is repeatedly telling thisto the disciples like he keeps having totell it for to sink in they don't get itthe first time they don't get it thesecond time they don't get it the thirdtime Jesus having to repeatedly tellthis give this teaching to the disciplesbecause they need the repeated Touch ofJesus on their spiritual eyes so theycan understand him and what he's allabout and Peter takes him aside andbegins to rebuke him I missed out the Hin the hymn there look at that rebukehim all right they began to rebuke himso if you look in verse 30 it says Jesussternly ordered them not to tell anyoneabout him and that word ordered is epauin the Greek um it's often used forrebuking and then in verse 32 Peterbegins to rebuke Jesus but in verse 33Jesus turns around and he rebukes Peterso what's going onhere so in the first case in verse 13when Jesus ordered them not to speakabout the Messiah it is he saying it'sbetter for you to say nothing than togive a false impression of Jesus Christif somebody asks you a question and youdon't know the answer don't give ananswer on theFly take the time and say that's areally good question let me go and studyit out or better let's still let's studyit out together and come to a conclusiontogether if you have nothing to say toan answer a question don't sayanything I'm not talking about husbandsgiving silent treatments their wives allright like the husband says to his wifeI want to watch a ball game could yougive me the silent treatment for 3 hoursno that's a joke by theway the point is this it's better to saynothing than to falsely represent Jesusif you don't know the answer to aquestion don't spin a tail say I don'tknow the answer be honest about it andwhen you do give an answer becauseyou've studied it out your answer willbe that much more credible James chapter3 verses 1 and two says do you not knowthat those who presume to teach will bejudged more severely than those who donotbecause when you teach and you givefalse ideas about Jesus you can leadpeople down a falsepath so sometimes silence is the betterpart of valor but then when Peter beginsto rebuke him uh it's interesting herethat other than this verse here wheneverJesus rebukes somebody in the gospelshe's always rebuking spirits and so sowhen it says that Peter takes Jesusaside begins to rebuke him Peter issaying Jesus the idea that you're goingto die and suffer that is a satanic ideayou do not need to dothat remember it was um Satan came toJesus and said I'll give you all thekingdoms of this world if you'll justBow Down and Worship me that is youdon't you can be the ruler of the worldwithout the need to go through Calvaryand that would have been good for Jesusbut it wouldn't been good for you or forme he came to this world to seek andsave that which waslost he will sentenc this world not tocondemn the world but that the worldmight be saved through him him coming tothis world and receiving Earthly Glorywithout saving us in the process was aTemptation from Satan but it was notwhat Jesus came to do and Peter here isessentially giving to Jesus the SameTemptation Jesus you can be the Messiahbut you don't need to suffer for sinfulhumanity and so Peter is is essentiallychanneling Satan at this moment uh PEdisciples can ChannelSatan unwittingly and how does it thishappen because Jesus has just beensaying I'm going to go to Jerusalem I'mgoing to be undergo the great sufferingI'm going to be rejected I'm going to bekilled and after three days I'm going torise again and Peter says oh noway so when a disciple contradicts theplain teaching of Jesus you are allowingSatan to speak through you in thatmoment and Jesus turns to Peter in thenext verse and itsays if we can check click to next versebrother Mark 8:33it says' but turning and looking at hisdisciples Jesus rebuked P Peter the sameverb and says get behind me who Satanfor you are setting your mind not onDivine things but on humanthings so a false view of the Messiahand a false view of who Jesus is leadsto false discipleship in the service ofSatan when disciples play God ratherthan follow Jesus they inevitably becomesatanic so be careful what you saylittle mouthlittle tongue this is a song yes oh becareful what you say little mouth orlittle tongue be careful what you'resay if what Jesus says and what youthink are in Collision then it is betterfor you to accept what Jesus says ratherthan what you think because youinadvertently may find yourself speakingfor Satan and leading other peopleastray and if you don't know the answerto a question don't give an answer waituntil the holy spirit gives you theanswer and then you can share that withsomebody else but pizzza is full ofbragado doio and he's full of himselfand he's going to speak up for thedisciples and he has no need he has noneed for a a dead Messiah and so Jesusteaches Jes Peter about what it means tofollow him so this is the teaching ondiscipleship it says he called thecrowds next verse 34 with his disciplesand he said to them if any want tobecome myfollowers so Jesus isn't just speakingto the 12 here he is speaking to any whowant to follow him that means he'sspeaking to us todaythis isn't just a teaching for the twelthis is to any who want to be a followerof Jesus Christ this teaching is for youand for me today this emphasizes theopen nature of the kingdom of God and soJesus says if any want to become myfollowers let them deny themselves andtake up their cross and follow me and uhin in this in in in the underlyinglanguage when it says deny themselvesthat this this is um this is arist andthis is present continuous imperativeswhat Jesus is saying is when you chooseto follow Jesus you're choosing to puthim on the throne of your heart ratherthan self on the throne of your heartand after that all your subsequentactions flow from that original decisionthat you have made that I'm going tochoose to follow Jesus that means I'mgoing to deny self and then I'm going tofollow him there's there's a logical umconsequence to following Jesus in allareas of my life I'm no longer followingmy desires I'm following the teachingsof Jesus as my guide inlife and if I don't know the teachingsof Jesus I need to be reading theteachings of Jesus on a dailybasis because we're following him asAdventists to the NewJerusalem we're Adventists we don't justlive in the in the in the everlengthening Shadows of Calvary we'reliving in the ever brightening dawn ofthe secondcoming we look bothways and so the the mention of the Crosswould have probably sounded terrifyingto Peter and those original Heroes inRome given that was the particular meansof execution by the Roman governors butto followers of C of Jesus sufferingunder the persecutions of Nero anddemission shortly after this gospel waswritten Jesus is affirming that theirsuffering and their persecution are notuh do not mean that God has abandonedthem but this is a part and parcel ofbeing a disciple of Jesus Christ and tous today Jesus is letting us know thatto follow him means that we are to bewilling to sacrifice everything for forhim up to and includingdeath I'm just being blunt about thisnow the concept of a Marty is a MIT muchis a much misunderstood concept we thinkthat a Marty is somebody who dies forhis or her faith is that not right butthat's not the biblical definition ofMarta the word Marta is the originalword is martus it means it means awitness in a law court and Antipas in inthe Church of um of smna in the secondum message that the second Church of theseven churches Revelation Antipas was myfaithful martus unto death itsays the point about this is is that a aMarty is somebody who lives for theirfaith and who expresses their faithknowing that there may be terribleconsequences of that expression butthey're still going to do it anyway youare a mar not because you die for yourfaith but because you lived for yourfaith regardless of the consequencesdoes this make sense so when we are tobe martyrs for Jesus it doesn't meanwe're looking for death somewhere itmeans I'm choosing to live and for I'mchoosing to live for him to shine forhim to express his teachings let histeachings be the guiding principles ofmy life and come what may I will stillfollow him up to and includingdeath so we are called to be not deadMartyrs for Jesus but living Martyrs forJesus that people can see in our lives atestament to the goodness of God nowJesus says here you are to deny he sayslet them deny themselves now Jesus didnot say here you are to deny things toyourself like icecream or cheese or whatever yourfavorite chocolate I don't know we allhave things we like to pamper ourselveswith yes Jesus does not say here I wantyou to deny things toyourself that would lead to asceticismand you know the practice of the monksand the nuns in the Middle Ages andpeople who maybe um fast for so manydays or live in the desert and so forththis is not what Jesus is talking abouthe's talking about something much morefundamental he's talking about denyingself he doesn't say deny things toyourself because anybody can do that hesays I need you to deny self if you'regoing to follow me the first thingyou're going to do is you're going todeny self now what does that mean in thecontext of this passagehere wellthe problem the disciples have all theway through this gospel they have onefundamental problem is they have a humandesire for Prestige for self-exaltationand for authority over otherpeople almost everybody wants toprogress in whatever their chosen careeris most people like to have power andauthority over other people we saw inthe last three years how much of anaddictive drug power and authorityreally can beand you give somebody like a a cup ofpower and they want an ocean of powerand the ability to mandate and say youmust do this or you're going to have theworst consequences in your life it italmost makes people drunk on power as wesay and power corrupts and absolutepowercorrupts and you know who wrote thatLord Acton a Roman Catholic um historianin Britain in the 1880s 1890s whounderstood from the papal history thatwhen you have one man with absoluteauthority over Humanity salvation itleads to Absolute moralcorruption absolute power corruptsabsolutely so what Jesus is talkingabout here is that um if you're going tofollow me your life cannot be dominatedby the desire to dominate otherpeople the son of man came to serve andnot to be served therefore we hisfollowers are not seeking to be servedwe are seeking to serve and and wesoften we soften in our Englishtranslations when Jesus says you know tobe a servant of all he's talking aboutbeing a slave of all we soften thetranslations because the word slave isjust too hard for us to understand butJesus is is telling us here that if weare to follow him we have to put asideall desires to have power over otherpeople now these two commands paralleleach other the inward denial andrejection of self results in theexternal willingness to take up yourcross and Jesus then gives us fourreasons why we should do this the firstreason is here it says for those whowant to save their life will lose it andthose who lose their life for my sakeand for the sake of the Gospel will saveit so Jesus presents a paradox here andhe start starts out by saying um heresave and lose and save and loose andloose and save so you got the theseparallel ideas whoever wants to savewill losewhoever wants to lose will save and thisis how you save your life and the lifethat he's talking about is not the 70miserable years we've eek out on planetEarth it's eternallife if I want to receive eternallife um if if I want to save my lifetoday by by seeking power over otherpeople in the process of doing it I'mgoing to lose my eternal life but if Ichoose to serve other people as Christserved Humanity in that process I willsave my eternallife so you can have power today but youlose eternal life or you can haveservice today and you have entry toeternal life and that's a choice thateverybody has to make the desire to saveyour temporal life today um such as thedesire for worldly Authority and wealthactually means you lose eternal lifetomorrow uh verse 8 chapter 8 and verse36 hesays for what with it profit them togain the whole world and forfeit theirlife indeed what can they give in returnfor their life now we're familiar withthese words for what will it profit aman says the King James he gains thewhole world and loses eternal life it'sa good question isn't it is that a goodbargain to drive from Mercedes today butto die in Everlastingdeath you know or to drive a Ford todayand have eternallife no no just disrespect those whodrive Fords but there is a differencebetween a Ford and a Ferrari I'm sorrythere is a difference maybe not in thesnowy mountains of Idaho but um whereroads are flat and dry I'd rather bedriving a Ferrari than a Ford but thepoint is this there are so there are toomany people today who are looking forworldly gain not realizing that in thein the pursuit of worldly gain they arelosing their eternallife and if you look at for instance howwe treat education in America today itused to be that we valued educationbecause you were a better-roundedindividual you had understanding of theworld now I mean I I literally as Idrive to O'Hare Airport every Friday togo somewhere there's a big sign therethat says meet Michelle um she'sgrateful for her degree Everypayday all right what's the messagebehind that it's saying the purpose ofeducation is to get more money in thebank and that really isn't the purposeof education but that that's how weMarket careers to young people you knowdo this do this class you know qualifyas an electrician or an X-ray techwhatever it is you do in life in orderthat you're going to have a certainstandard ofliving rather than in order that youmight be a man or woman of understandingwho can make wise decisions throughlife so what will it profit you to gainthe whole world and lose eternal lifethere's nothing you can give for eternallife you may gain all the wealth thisworld has to offer but you're stillgoing to die and that's it so is itworth pursuing all of that wealth so thedesire to save your life today and thedesire for worldly Authority is notprofitable because it leads to Eternalloss of your soul on the other on theother conversely you might say beingunashamed of Jesus and of his words andof the Gospel is profitable because itsecures your eternal life the pursuit ofpower is not the way of Jesus servant isthe way of Jesusand I don't know really any of thecongregations represented here or any ofthe marriages or the familiesrepresented here but wouldn't it be anamazing thing if everybody entered thoserelationships within their marriageswithin their families within theirchurches consumed by the desire to serverather than to have power over somebodyelse how many marriages could be healedif husbands and wives their goal was toserve the otherperson you know when my wife walked downthe aisle we were in Baku in thecathedral the German Kira it was builtby rosch child and it was really theonly big Christian Church in town backthen about it was built in the early1900s I think and as my wife walked indown the aisle I was R she was Russian Iwas English we were marrying in a thirdcountry aaban and I realized as shewalked down the aisle what a risk shewastaking she was placing all her hopes anddreams in for life in myhands that's an awesomeresponsibility I don't use that in theCasual sense it is a profoundresponsibility when your spouse hasplaced all their hopes and dreams inlife in yourhands and are we honoring those hopesand dreams in ourmarriages are we seeking the goodprimarily of our spouse rather thanourselves the room has gone very quietnow if you imagine if you applied thatsame principle to your local church yourchurchboard where when you walked into churchyou knew that everybody there wasbasically yourcheerleaders they are cheering you on inlife doing all they can for you to getinto eternallife how would that change the lives ofourcongregations what I'm saying here todayis that if we're to be followers ofJesus this is to be what this is what isto happenso think of your marriage think of yourchildren think of your parents think ofyour church your congregation and askyourself am I following the way of Jesushere that is service to those around meseeking their good above the good ofmyself or am I seeking for my dominationand power am I seeking to smell of rosesand everybody else can go to hell youmightsay what am I seeking forwhat are you seeking for maybe becausethe room is so quiet you know there's aholy spirit working on a few Heartsrightnow I want to challenge you to thinkabout when you leave this church heretoday how you're going to actdifferently in yourmarriage and in your family and in yourchurch because those are the Covenantrelationships in your life you don'treally have a covenant relationship withyour employer but you are in a covenantrelationship with your spouse you are ina covenant relationship with yourchildren and you are in a covenantrelationship with the body of Christ soyou enter into thosevoluntarily and we are all to beambassadors of Jesus in whateverrelationship we find ourselves in so weare not to seek power and gain we are toseek the good of those around usremember when your wife walked down thataisle gentleman she placed her hopes anddreams in your hands and are youhonoring those do her successors bringyou Joy does her Joy bring youpeace does the smile on her face bringyousatisfaction do you get up each morningand do stuff for your wife so that whenshe gets up there's a smile of Joyfulsurprise on herface the teachings of Jesus are verypractical so why strive for temporalriches when doing so precludes yourfollowing of Jesus and being prepared tosuffer for the proclamation of of theGospel this is slight different pointhere but there are some people will sayI want to follow Jesus but not if itjeopardizes mycareer I want to follow Jesus but Idon't want it to be known publiclybecause people may mock me or may beheld against me in my career or I wantto follow Jesus but I don't want to beinvolved in any kind of mission workbecause that would involve sacrificingmy Earthly Comforts todaythe number one reason why people don'tserve as missionaries is because therethere's debt and the number two reasonwhy people don't serve as missionariesis because we want somebody else to facethe suffering and notourselves so the search for wealthdoesn't just poison our humanrelationships it means we're not readyto suffer for the proclamation of theGospel so once again the exclusivenature of the discipleship of call ofJesus is very clear seeking temporaladvancement and wealth will directlyendanger your eternal lifein verse38 those who are ashamed of me and of mywords in this adulterous and sinfulgeneration of then the son of man willalso be ashamed when he comes in theglory of his father with the HolyAngels so now we we're moving from theEarthly role of Jesus as the son of manwho's going to die he's going to sufferand be resurrected we're moving to hisend time role as the coming son of manwho brings Eternal judgment for good orfor bad bad for all ofhumanity and he's speaking to hisdisciples here that if you're going tofollow metoday if you want me to stand up for youin the final judgment and to bring youto uh to eternal life then you need tostand up for me today wherever youhappen to be if you're ashamed of metoday I'll be ashamed of you in thefinaljudgment if you stand up for me today Iwill stand up for you in the finaljudgment what goes round comes round inspiritual and eternal termsso he's talking to disciples here whobear the name of Christ intheory but who are ashamed of the personof Jesus and of histeachings now there are many cases wherethis may be applied today you know Ibaptized some Iranians not so long agoand they were heading back into Iran andI said look you know if I baptize youand you go back into Iran they mayexecute you and their response was wewant to Bear the name of ChristCome WhatMay and you may ask well why would youdo such a thing well when Paul wasimprisoned and Paul appealed to Caesarand and the uh the Roman Governor sayswe've appealed to Caesar to Caesar youshall go when Paul goes to Caesar inRome he then lates write he writer hewrites later in the book of Philippianshe said it is because of my imprisonmentin Rome that the gospel has been knownto the Imperialhousehold so when you become a martyr orwhen you become imprisoned for yourfaith or when the when when thegovernment locks you up as they did inchesu Romania or North Korea today whenthose things happen to you it is not afailure of your witness now the entiresystem knows about you and everybody'shaving to choose where they stand inrelation to yourwitness so suffering for the name ofChrist doesn't mean that Christ hasabandoned you when those three Hebrewswere thrown into the fiery furnace onelike the son of man walked withthem and Nebuchadnezzar recognized thatand so did everybody else and beingpersecuted um was was um helpingNebuchadnezzar Move Along his process ofconversion when Daniel was thrown intothe lion's den um and daras looked downDaniel says uh well you throw me intoLions Den but God sent an angel to shutthese lion mouths all right and whenJonah was in the whale the whale's bellyyou may think was he far from God wellactually the only time that Jonah prayedwas when he was in the fish's belly hewas closer to God in the fish's bellythan he was any other time in thatstory the only time he prays is not justwhen he goes into the fish's belly hedoesn't pray When God says go to Ninevehhe goes to jopa and he doesn't Pray whenhe gets into the boat he doesn't Praywhen there's a storm and he doesn't Praywhen they're about to throw him into thewater and he doesn't Pray when the fishcomes up to swallow him and he spendsthree days in the belly of the fish andthen it says after three days I decidedtopray I think what does it take for thisbeliever in God topray I mean really the Pagan Sailors atthe first sign of a storm they startpraying but this prophet of God it takeshim like a near-death experience beforeit occurs to him oh maybe I shouldpray and what aboutus do we turn first to God when we Faceproblems are we ashamedof bearing the name of Christ in 2023standpoint do our employers know that webear the name of Christ do they see itin ourBehavior are we trusted in our societyare we trusted as men and women who maynot have power but at least they'rehonest are we honest with our taxes arewe honest with the police and lawenforcement are we honest in ourbusinesspractices I hear too many times thatpeople say those ad they've got sharpbusinesspractices and that's notright because people come away not justwith a sense that you a bad person or asharp business person that you you cutCorners here and there but they takeaway the message that following Jesusallows you to cheat inbusiness so Jesus says here if you areashamed of me and of my words in thisgeneration then there's Eternalconsequences it's quite a saying isn'tithave you been ashamed of Jesus in thisadulterous and sinfulgeneration have there been times in yourlife when you had the chance to speak upfor your faith but you keptquiet have there been occasions in yourlife where you sat on a plane or you saton a train or You' sat you stood next tosomebody in Walmart or wherever you meetpeople in your daily life and theopportunity came for a spiritualconnection and you turned away from thatconnection because you didn't want themto kind of laugh at you or mock you orthink you're religiousextremist thinkcarefully and don't do itagain Covenant with God today that whenthose spiritual moments come when thoseconversations go in a certain directionyou will step up to the plate and you'llbe the presence of Jesus in thatperson'slife there's an eternal consequence tobeing ashamed of Jesustoday I think it's because Christiansare ashamed of Jesus that the world knowso little about Jesus today becauseChristians are not willing to speakopenly about their faith and they'reunwilling to live openly the teachingsof Jesus because we seek first publicApplause rather than the Applause of menwe see we seek the Applause of menrather than the Applause ofGod and we saw that in the last threeyears our worldwide system sought theApplause and funding of men rather thanthe Applause of Godso the logic of what Jesus is saying isthis it makes sense to take up yourcross and to die to self every day todie to your desire for power andauthority and the ability to coerceother people it makes sense to do thatbecause when Jesus comes again there'san eternal reward foryou so when we look at these teachingson discipleship here Mark 8:38 we gotthis little sandwich we already mentionit we start out with the son of man inhis Earthly role in verse 31 we have theson of man in his end time role in verse38 and the sandwiched in the middlethere is some teachings on by Jesus onwhat it means to follow him to followhim in his Earthly role and also toreceive a blessing from Jesus when hecomes again in the Clouds OfGlory so if you to ask yourself thismorning how do I stack up today againstthese teachings ofJesus maybe there's areas for growthwould yousay maybe there's are where we can allgrow I don't want you just to listen tothis and say that was interesting I wantyou to Covenant with God that you'regoing to follow through and what theholy spirit's been convicting youof because I think of this often I don'twant Jesus when he comes again to beashamed of me say ConradVine yeah well you pretended to followme but when push came to shove he wasn'twilling to standup I want Jesus to stand up for me soI'm going to stand up for him today howabout you how aboutyou so the passage moveson and this is like a transitionalpassage here he said to them truly Itell you there are some standing herewho will not taste death until they seethat the kingdom of God has come withpower it's interesting verse now what isJesus talking about here is he talkingabout the second coming well maybe Iknow that in the early church peoplethought that that the um that the secondcoming of Jesus was going to be withintheir lifetime you certainly get thatsense within some of the writings of theApostle Paul um you may also see that uhwhen je when Mark wrote this gospel hewriting to Christians in Rome who arebeing thrown to the Lions by Nero and sothis is a word of encouragement fromJesus to those disciples who are facinggruesome execution at the hands of Neroand the subsequent emperorsbut you notice that this passage thisthis saying here in chapter 9 and verseone is immediately before theTransfiguration and maybe Jesus istalking about the Transfiguration in afew days time six days after this thisevent takes place that may be what he'stalking about but there's something elsethat is is is uh comes to mind here itsays they see that the kingdom of Godhas come with power and that word poweris dunamus we get the word Dynamite fromthat and if you turn just keep yourfingers in Mark we'll drop to anotherbook of the Bible here here turn toRomans chapter 1 and verse1 and you'll seethere you'll see there that when Jesusrose from thedead Romans 1 and verse4 he said he wasRomans 1 verse4 it says Jesus wasdeclared to be Son of God with whatpower according to the spirit ofHoliness by Resurrection from the deadJesus Christ Our Lord and so the pointis this we get the word Dynamite fromfrom the word dunamus so if Dynamitegoes off in your life does your lifestay the stay the same is does anythingstay the same if Dynamite goes off UnderYour halfes Everything Changes yes soJesus I think is talking here you cantalk about as the resurrection you maytalk about it as the resurrection youmay talk about as a Transfiguration oryou may think about is he's talkingabout the second coming but the otherpart of the Bible that talks about Jesuscoming with power is the resurrection ofJesus and that's how Paul describes hisresurrection that is it is the resresurrected Lord Jesus Christ um who isgoing to come back with power and whenthe resurrected Jesus comes into yourlife nothing stays the same everagain that Jesus comes into if Jesuscomes into your life and nothing haschanged I would suggest that he hasreally not come into yourlife that when Jesus comes into yourlife the resurrected Lord he comes withdynamite power and nothing is ever thesame again my attitudes my relationshipsmy heart my my priorities in lifeeverything gets turned upside downbecause his kingdom is not of this worldas he says later to pilate my kingdom isnot of this world and if you're going tobe part of my kingdom and my power comesinto your life it means that the valuesthat you espouse the values that youlive by the principles you uphold arenot the values and principles of thisKingdom that we live in today they'renot the values of America or Britainwhere I come from they're the values ofGod'skingdom and so when we talk about youknow politicians like talk about valuesnobody ever articulates what thosevalues areanymore but we as Christians live by theprinciples of the kingdom ofGod those are the principles those arethe values that people need to see in usbefore any other values and if you wantto know what those values are look atthe Beatitudes blessed are thepeacemakers for they should be calledchildren of God blessed are those whohunger and thirst after righteousnessfor they shall be filled blessed arethose who mourn for they shall becomforted etc etc look at the Beatitudesand ask yourself am I someone who ispure in heart am I someone who um am Isomeone who is grieving and grieve withthose who grieve am I someone whohungers and thirsts after righteousnessum and so forth am I a peacemakerblessed are the peacemakers for theyshall be called children of God thoseare the principles of God's kingdom andso when Jesus says truly I tell youthere are some standing here who willnot taste death so they see that thekingdom of God has come with power Ibelieve he's talking about theresurrection and these disciples otherthan Judas would all see theresurrection and you have the motivehere of seeing they will see that thekingdom of God has come with power westart with a blind man Jesus has totouch his eyes twice we end the storywith a blind man blind bartmus and thepoint is that when the when thedisciples see that the kingdom of Godhas come with power means I finally getit I finally understand that when Jesuscomes into my life it comes withdynamite power and everything is turnedupside down and no longer do I representthe values of planet Earth I representthe the values of the kingdom ofGod so does your life represent thevalues of the kingdom ofGod do we know what those valuesare are our values no different tomiddle-aged middleclass Americans inIdaho or do our lives espouse and showsomethingdifferent do people know that there'ssomething different about the Adventistsjust as much as people know in Ohio thatthe armish are just differentyou know the last three years nobodybothered putting mandates on the Amishbecause the government knew they're justdifferent but not theAdventists nobody seems to know theAdventists aredifferent but we can change thattoday we can change that today we cansay Adventists are different we march toa different tune we March to the drumbeat of the kingdom of God and we liveby his his principles not by theprinciples and values of this FallenEarth and if you don't know what thoseprinciples are start searching for themin the teachings ofJesus just just go home tonight andGoogle Kingdom of God in the gospels anddozens and dozens and dozens of Poquotes will come up and you print themout and you start dwelling on thoseprinciples and you ask God for the graceand understanding to put those intopractice in yourlife and people will see that you adifferent man and a differentwoman so we come to the Transfigurationitself Mark 9 verse2 and um I'm hoping this shifts there weare okay nextslide there we are okay lot of text onthat screen so we're continuing to workour way through this passage it sayshere six days later Jesus took him withPeter and James and John they led him upto a high mountain apart by themselvesand he was trans figured before them andhis clothes became dazzling white suchas no one on earth could bleach them andthere appeared to them Elijah with Moseswho were talking with Jesus then Petersaid to Jesus Rabbi it is good for us tobe here let us make three dwellings onefor you one for Moses and one for Elijahhe did not know what to say for theywere terrified then a cloud overshadowedthem and from the cloud there came avoice this is my son the Beloved listento him suddenly when they looked aroundthey saw no one with them anymore butonly Jesus so this is a very famouspassage of the Transfiguration you cango to Israeltoday and there's the Mount oftransfiguration where tradition saysthat it takes took place it's kind oflike a very steep pyramid it takes likean hour to walk up this perimeter umwalk around the edge you finally get tothe top and it's there in the pl plainof Jezreel on the West Bank of today andso this is where people think thishappened and this the interpretation ofthis passage um shows whether youbelieve in the literal historicity ofthe Bible or whether you think the Bibleis just ametaphor like was Jesus transfigured yesorno yes and as Adventists we say yesbecause we have a literal understandingof scripture and um if you were likemost modern Scholars you would say wellhe wasn't really transfigured whathappened was Jesus was standing up thereand The Morning Sun was shining off thesnow on the top of the mountain thereand when the disciples looked at Jesusand the low Morning Sun caught off thesnow that he was transfigured by theglare of the snow literally that's whatsome people say today just like whenJesus walked on water in the Sea ofGalilee there was a sh of sandconveniently just underneath the surfaceat that moment at that spot in the SeaofGalilee so some people seek anaturalistic explanation for this storyhere but the bible really doesn't allowforthat and the text doesn't say much aboutreally what happens keep your fingershere and go to Second Peter and we wespoke last night this near the end ofyour Bibles you got Peter James JohnJude Revelation so go to Second Peterand there Peter describes this event oneof the eyewitnesses to this event and sothis is one of the reasons why peoplesay that Mark's gospel is the eyewitnessaccount of Peter so second Peter chapter1: 16-8 says this for we did not followcleverly devised myths when we madeknown to the power that is the dynamiteand the coming of our Lord Jesus Christbut we had been eyewitnesses orWitnesses ormartes um test we have we Are Witnessesof his majesty for he received honor andGlory from God the Father when thatvoice was conveyed to him by theMajestic Glory saying this is my son mybeloved with whom I'm well pleased weourselves heard this voice come fromHeaven while we were with him on theHoly Mountain so Peter testifies thisevent later in The Second Epistle thathe wrote there towards the end of yourBible and so Peter certainly believedthis is whathappened and Peter shortly after thisgospel is written dies for his faith sohe's not going to die for alie people don't die for lies Peterknows what he saw and he's telling us aseyewitnesses or Martyrs we're going tobe faithful to what we saw up until thepoint of death it doesn't matter whatthe Roman government may do to us we'regoing to be faithful to what we we sawand we're not going to lie about itwe're not going to downplay it we'regoing to say exactly whathappened so what happened on themountain there well you can come to yourown conclusion I believe Jesus wastransfigured with him were Elijah andMoses who were talking with Jesus youcould explore that all day um Elijahrepresenting the prophets Mosesrepresenting the law of God you mightsay there are many parallels here towhen Moses went up to mount siai to meetwith God in Exodus chapter 24 there manyparallels um such as Moses was on MountSII for 6 days and this Story begins inverse two with the phrase after 6 daysum when Moses went up onto Mount Sithere were three people with him Aaronnaab and Abu and when Jesus goes up ontothe mountain there are three people withhim Peter James and John in both storiesa cloud covers the mountains in bothstories God speaks from the cloud and inboth Stories the the primary person whogoes up Moses or Jesus are transformedand in both Stories the three people arewith them have a reaction of fear as tothe Israelites when they come down fromMount siai in the story of Moses sothere are many many clear connectionswith Moses going up into the presence ofGod and Jesus being transfigured on theMount oftransfiguration but the point the pointabout this story is this in verse 7 Godspeaks from the cloud and he says thisis my son the Beloved or my belovedSon and what does God then sayyeah it says listen tohim now when Jesus was baptized justcome back to Mark chapter 1 when Jesuswas baptized there a voice Came FromHeavenagain it was an affirmation from God theFather to God the son one chapter 11says a voice Came From Heaven you are mybeloved Son with whom I am well pleasedso Jesus starts out his ministry with anaffirmation from his heavenly fatherthat you really are my sonand the next thing that Jesus hears inhis Earthly Ministry is Satan saying tohim if you are the Son of God turn thesestones intobread okay so Jesus isbaptized God the father says this is mybeloved Son with whom I'm well pleasedand the next words Jesus here is inMatthew's gospel M Matthew chapter 4 ishe goes to the Wilderness he fasts for40 days and Satan says if you are theSon ofGod and but in Mark's gospel Jesus saysI am well pleased with my son and inthis gospel Jesus says listen tohim that is listen to what he's tellingyou it's not just God the son tellingyou this this is God the Father sayingyou need to listen to the teachings ofthe Messiah these things are importantforyou and so we're invited today to listento the teachings of Jesus and in thisTransfiguration we're let into the realMessianic secret not just that Jesus isthe Messiah of God but but he is theDivine Son ofGod these two Revelations from God Mark1 at his baptism and Mark 9 on the Mountof transfiguration reveal to us thatpeople coming to know that Jesus is theDivine Son of God is not a matter of theBrilliance of your preaching or theeloquence or the logic of your lessonsit is a gift from God to understandconversion is the work of the HolySpirit it is not your job or my job itis God who brings conviction as to whoJesus really is into people'slives and when we rely on you know on onpreachers and teachers and seminars andand PR out lesson studies and all therest of it and we forget that theprimary process of conversion is thework of the Holy Spirit upon somebody'slife and my job as a disciple is to helpfacilitate that process of the holyspirit in your life so the Holy Spiritcan bring you to conviction and toconversion and into the kingdom of Godthen that just appeals to humanPride we're not going to go out and savesomeone body ourselves it's God who doesthesaving there is no place for Pride amongpreachers orteachers Elders or Sabbath Schoolteachers we're cooperating with the HolySpirit and it's the holy spirit's job tobring people to conviction and toconversion so there is no space in inthe Christian church for Ministries thatrevolve around individuals and big namesall that kind of stuff the only name intown that should be heard is the name ofJesus Christ when Jesus sent out the 12in Mark chapter 6 they go out they'rehealing they're preaching they'reteaching they're Raising Dead they'recasting out demons it's a curious thingit says when Herod heard of this it saidbecause the name of Jesus had come tohisears you see when Herod 12 men were sentout but it was the name of Jesus thatcame to hisears so if we are 200 people sittinghere today and we go out from this placeis it the name of Jesus that will beheard in our communities or is it ournameswhen people think of the standpoint 7Adventist Church do they think ohthere's the presence ofJesus or I think there's a presence ofPastor Michael moous and these are theelders and so forth and so forth what dopeople think of when they think ofyou and do people understand do theyrecognize the presence of God in yourministry and in my ministry as well sowe are taught by by our heavenly fatherin this passage not merely to imitateChrist we are to obey Jesus and histeachings discipleship is found inobeying Christ more than it is found inimitating Christ why is that because ifdiscipleship is based on imitatingChrist we all have an imperfectunderstanding of what it means to be afollower of Jesus but obeying is basedon jesus' perfect understanding of whatyou and I need todo so we don't talk about this much butto be a disciple means to obey theteachings of of JesusChrist I have fa faith in Jesus but I amobedient to his teachings that's how Ishow that I'm in relationship withhim when it's our wedding anniversarywith my wife which I remember it's the19th of December generally speaking menstruggle to remember their weddinganniversaries you know the reason whywas the joy of receiving a wife is umcounterbalanced by the pain of receivinga mother-in-law but so the brain kind ofcancels it out allright I that will probably get me intosome trouble with somepeoplebut um why did I come up with that I'velost my train of thought all right maybeI shouldn't have gone down that path umanyway yes obeying is a is is anexpression of love for somebody that youlove so when it's my wedding anniversarymy wife's an our wedding anniversary andmy wife says let's go out for a meal andyou probably know the story of when Iwant to go hog hunting in Texas for our20th weding anniversary and my wifeasked me what I'd like to do and I saidyou want to know what I want to do Isaid yes I'd like to go on a three-dayhog hunt to Texas and I knew from thelook on her face that I hadn't hit theball out of the ballpark um we ended upgoing to um Olive Garden that's mywife's favorite restaurant so it was abig disappointment for me so anywayum and that's kind of a painful SideStory the point is if my wife says let'sgo out for a a meal and I say we drivepast Olive Garden and got a Taco Bellallright by my actions I'm shown that Idon't value thatrelationship and we show that we're in acovenant relationship with L the LordJesus Christ by being obedient to histeachings it is not the means of ourSalvation is by one man's Act ofrighteousness we are saved in Romanschapter 5 we are saved by the Perfectionof Jesus Christ not by our own but as wefollow Jesus and as he touches our eyesevery day we see ever more clearly whatit means to follow him so we put intopractice the teachings of Jesus now ourtime is almost up here we're going tohave to close this bit this bit earlywe're not going to go down through therest of this this it's not 3:45 10:45 itis time for us to finish here but I justwant to close this this this littlestudy through these these verses here bysayingthis if we're not willing to suffer forJesustoday and to stand up for Jesustoday he's not going to stand up for usin the finaljudgment if we're going to follow Jesustoday we are called to be obedient tohis teachings God the father says to Godthe son and to the disciples Peter Jamesand John this is my beloved Son listento him and listen doesn't just mean hearLet Go in this here and go out the otherit means apply his teachings in yourlives so we're going to draw thissession to a close here we're going tomove into a sermon regular sermon in thenext session together we're going tolook some more the these passages we'regoing to talk about the causes forstumbling among disciples what causes ascandal in the church inparticular but if the Holy Spirit hasbrought conviction to you this morningof something that needs to change inyourlife and don't Harden your heart therehave been moments where this Hall hasbeen very quiet it's gone quiet becauseI know it's a preacher that the holyspirit's working on a fewHearts so put this intopractice this is my beloved Son says Godthe Father listen to him apply histeachings in your life so when the sonof man comes in glory he is coming togather his own and he knows who his ownare because they are not ashamed of himin this wicked and sinful and adulterousgeneration so we're going to draw thisto a close here right now we'll continuein our worship service we're going tolook at some more topics related to theteachings of Jesus In this passagebut I'm grateful as we said last nightJesus never fired adisciple he is willing to repeatedlytouch every disciples eyes so we can seeever moreclearly and he walks with us as fast aswe can go along the road to Jerusalemyou know when you're leading a flock ofsheep you can only go as fast as theslowest lamb in thatflock if the shepherd walks off aheadand the flock gets strung out the Wolvespick off the flock one byone so a good shepherdgoes as fast as the slowest lamb canwalk so it doesn't matter how slow weare in our understanding or how hard itis to pick things up we have theassurance that the Good Shepherd willalways be with his flock with his sheephe's always going to be with you andwith me let's bow our heads and we'llclose with a prayer heavenlyfather I want to thank you that Jesus isthe GoodShepherd that he has Authority in heavenand on Earth he's the author authorityto forgive sin to heal bodies he giveshis life a ransom for many that he hasthe son of man rose from the dead withpower but he's coming back to collecthisown so father today we commit Our Livesaresh to Jesus I pray that we willindeed not just deny things to ourselvesbut we denyourselves and we will follow Jesus inthe path of service to our fellowHumanity this is our prayer in jesus'nameamen e