Sticking with Jesus: The Cost and Glory of Endurance

• Suffering of Discipleship [00:37:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor distinguishes between general tragic suffering experienced by all people and the specific suffering unique to followers of Jesus, which involves grieving over unmet desires and sin while following Christ.
• The Nature of the Messiah [00:40:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that Jesus redefined the Messiah's role from a conquering king to a suffering servant, contrasting human expectations with divine reality.
• Faith Formation through Suffering [00:46:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using an analogy of birds learning to fly, the pastor argues that God uses suffering and the withholding of comfort to 'grow our faith wings' and encourage spiritual maturity.
• Inward Suffering and Spiritual Growth [00:46:58 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of mother birds withholding food to encourage fledglings to fly, explaining that God withholds desires or allows grief to help believers 'grow their faith wings' and learn to trust Him.
• Social Shame and Cultural Rejection [00:49:15 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor identifies social shame as the second cost of discipleship, distinguishing it from guilt and explaining that Christians face shame from the world for holding to biblical convictions on issues like sexuality and abortion.
• Personal Safety and Martyrdom [00:57:05 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor discusses the ultimate cost of following Jesus, referencing His death and burial, and challenges the congregation to be willing to sacrifice their lives and safety for the gospel.
• Resurrection Hope [00:59:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor concludes that the ability to endure suffering and shame comes from the hope of resurrection, citing the story of Mark Roser and his son Ethan to illustrate eternal perspective over earthly loss.
• Resurrection Hope and Eternal Perspective [00:59:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that resurrection hope is the key to understanding suffering and rejecting worldly pursuits like pleasure and honor, leading to perseverance through God's grace.
• Perseverance and Grace [01:00:07 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor emphasizes that sticking to Jesus is not by human strength but requires God-given grace to persevere through temptation, shame, and pain.

• Sermon Illustration [00:35:37 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a personal story about witnessing a news crew at Lawson Field in Wheaton, Illinois, where a college freshman, Ethan Roser, had been killed by a hammer throw during an athletic event, illustrating the suddenness of tragedy.
• Sermon Illustration [00:45:07 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares an anecdote about observing house finches in a nest on his front porch, explaining how the mother bird withholds food and demonstrates flight to force the fledglings to leave the nest and learn to fly, using this as an analogy for how God uses suffering to grow faith.
• Sermon Illustration [00:45:27 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal story about house finches nesting outside his front door. He describes how the mother bird withheld food and demonstrated flight to encourage the fledglings to leave the nest, using this as an analogy for how God uses suffering to help believers grow spiritually.
• Sermon Illustration [00:54:04 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a story about a house he owned that had a bumpy paver path caused by tree roots. He describes how guests at a party tripped on the bump, using it as an illustration of how Christians can be a 'stumbling block' to those who reject the gospel's specific moral teachings.
• Sermon Illustration [00:58:56 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a story about Mark Roser, whose son Ethan died in a hammer throw accident. He mentions Ethan's dream where a voice said he was 'going to eternity,' using this to illustrate the comfort and perspective provided by resurrection hope in the face of tragic suffering.
• Sermon Illustration [00:59:11 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts the story of Mark Roser, father of Ethan Roser, who died from a hammer throw. Mark shared that two weeks before Ethan's death, Ethan had a dream where he told his dad he was going away. When his dad asked where, Ethan turned and walked away while a voice said, 'he's going to eternity.'

• Pastoral Charge [00:56:58 ▶️ 📄]
  > Choose to seek honor from Jesus Christ rather than avoiding shame from the world.
• Pastoral Charge [00:59:57 ▶️ 📄]
  > Make up one's mind about eternal realities and count the cost of discipleship to receive grace to persevere.
• Pastoral Charge [00:59:57 ▶️ 📄]
  > Make up one's mind to the truth of resurrection hope and count the cost of discipleship.
• Pastoral Charge [01:01:19 ▶️ 📄]
  > Rise and sing hymn supplement 19, 'Solid Rock'.

[00:01:52] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:01:52] Good morning and welcome to Corinth. Whether you're here in the room or you're joining us online, we're so glad that you're worshiping with us today.
[00:01:59] Our mission here at Corinth is to proclaim and worship Jesus as Lord, and one of the best ways we do that is in the community with one another.
[00:02:05] So if you're seated along our center aisle, you've got a black folder right next to you. We call that our friendship pad.
[00:02:10] That's for everyone. We don't care on that pad if you're a member or a visitor, it's your first time, or you've been here every Sunday your whole life.
[00:02:16] We'd love to know that you are here with us today.
[00:02:19] We use that to help know when we need to reach out to folks.
[00:02:21] If you suddenly go missing and we don't know why, it's a really helpful tool to know that we haven't seen you in a few weeks.
[00:02:27] But if you are new to Corinth, inside that black folder, you'll find a blue card.
[00:02:31] We call that our Visitor Connect card.
[00:02:33] That one is for new folks to Corinth.
[00:02:35] We would love for you to complete that, or you can use the QR code on it and complete it online.
[00:02:39] That's going to help us get you connected and get you a little more information about who we are, and we would love so much to connect with you.
[00:02:46] I've got just a couple of announcements to draw your attention to this morning. The first is that it is Mother's Day, so happy Mother's Day. If you missed it on the way in, we've got some buckets of flowers. We'd love for the moms to grab one of those. If
[00:02:58] you didn't get one on the way in, make sure you get one on the way out. Or if you're going to see your mom later today, go ahead and take one with you. Give it to mom when you get there.
[00:03:07] Today is the very last day to submit your graduates' information. Next Sunday is going to be Confirmation Sunday here at Corinth. Not Confirmation Sunday, that's two weeks from now.
[00:03:17] graduation Sunday here at Corinth. We're going to celebrate our graduates, so if you would like us to recognize the high school or college or graduate school graduate in your life, we need that information today so that we can properly celebrate them next week. There's a form online
[00:03:33] at CorinthToday.org slash graduation. We also want to remind you that every Sunday at 8 a.m. and again at 10 30 a.m., a small group of folks gather over on the Althaus building in the archives room
[00:03:44] to pray for our worship services, and we would love for you to join us for that prayer time at 8 o'clock and 10 30 every Sunday morning. The only thing that group prays for is our worship
[00:03:54] services, and that's such an important and easy way that we can love and serve one another is by praying together. Our dream is that that group way outgrows that tiny room, but we're nowhere close to it right now, so help us to meet that dream and outgrow our prayer space. Also in your
[00:04:10] bulletin, there's information about stuff that's more than a week out, but now is the time to think about it and get it on your calendar and RSVP for it. A couple of those great things that are
[00:04:19] coming up later this month include the men's night out on May 18th. You need to sign up for that this week. There is date night next week. You also need to sign up for child care for that.
[00:04:29] And the adults 50 and up are taking a trip to the Aviation Museum on the 23rd. There's a lot more than that in your bulletin, though. Make sure that you check it. So I'm going to turn the microphone
[00:04:39] over for just a couple of minutes to some friends of mine. And as they sort of make their way forward. I'll remind you, we've got two searches going on at Corinth right now. The first is for
[00:04:48] our formation pastor, which is the role that Kevin used to have, and the other is for a student ministries director or pastor, which is the portion of Pastor Paul's role that he decided last year already he was ready to hand off to the next person. So we've got Abigail Hardy and Adam
[00:05:02] Payne to give you some updates on both of those searches. So I'm a member of the search team for

[00:05:10] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:05:10] the student ministry director or pastor the title is going to depend on the education level of the person that we find so it could be a pastor level or it could be a director level that's still to
[00:05:21] be determined we have been meeting for about two months now we have had 29 applicants today very exciting we've narrowed that down to about six that we're pursuing for further more detailed applications and hoping to get some interviews from those. But it's still open. If you know
[00:05:40] somebody that you're related to or that you know that you think would be a good fit for that, please send them the information. It's also in the bulletin, the link that has both the application
[00:05:51] or interest form and a little video about our church. So please be in prayer about that. If you have anybody that you are like, they would be perfect for this, we would love to hear from them.
[00:06:02] and pray for our team too, that we have patience and for our youth, that they just continue to come

[00:06:07] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:06:07] during this time. Good morning. I am Adam Payne. I am on the formation pastor search team.
[00:06:16] We've had a couple of questions about what formation pastor means. This role is focused on making sure that Corinth's ministries are all working together for the common goal of making people look more like Jesus. One of the primary focus areas is adult ministries, which equipping
[00:06:30] and training leaders for our different adult Bible studies and groups like that. They will also be preaching and leading worship. So far, we've had 34 applicants. Of those 34, we have eliminated 24 as being either the wrong fit or underqualified. The remaining 10 are actively
[00:06:48] under consideration. In addition to providing their resumes, about half of them have sent us a more detailed application explaining their philosophy of ministry and demonstrating their unique gifts for ministry. Our next step in the process is going to be to move into interviews
[00:07:03] with those and go from there. So like Abigail said, our team also really would love you guys to be in prayer for this. Adult ministries is close to my heart personally, and we're looking for somebody that can help us align more to what the Spirit's doing. So we need your prayers for

[00:07:21] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:07:21] that. Thanks. Thanks, Abby and Adam. And let's do go ahead and pray for that. They both asked us to do that, and that's a reasonable request. Let's pray together. God, as we are looking for who
[00:07:36] might be our formation pastor or our student ministry director or pastor, there's so many unknowns. We don't know who the right candidate is, but we know that it's not going to be a surprise to you when the right candidate comes along. We know you've already seen who that is, and you're
[00:07:50] preparing that person for each of those roles right now. So we pray that you would continue to do the good work of preparing the folks you have called to serve here at Corinth, and we pray for
[00:07:59] clarity on our teams to see where you're up to work in the world that we might join you in that not to force our will but to align ourselves with yours we pray for our youth as they continue
[00:08:08] to go through the summer season and wait for the next leader and we pray for our adults as they are also waiting for their next leader and would you help us to wait well to wait faithfully and
[00:08:19] to follow you even in what feels like sometimes the unknown we pray this in jesus name amen Now, as our worship team comes forward to get set for their first song, I'd love for you to take a couple of minutes and greet the folks around you.

[00:09:28] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:09:28] Last week, quick story, last week, Cammie was going to visit a new friend, and so she set the GPS, got in the car, got out of the car, found the address, knocked on the door.
[00:09:40] The door was kind of open, so she called in.
[00:09:43] She walked in a little bit.
[00:09:46] It was the wrong house.
[00:09:48] So, you know, I think the bad news is it was the wrong house.
[00:09:52] Good news is she's still alive.
[00:09:54] And we have her here today.
[00:09:57] You know, when we do the Nicene Creed, just to be clear, when we say the Nicene Creed, which we're about to say together, we are not saying that just by mumbling these words, that makes you a Christian.
[00:10:09] What this does is this gives you the address, but you still have to go in the door, right?
[00:10:15] And our responsibility as a community is to make sure we all know where we live, we all know what our right address is.
[00:10:22] And so this morning, I'm going to ask us to do the call to worship together and present the call to worship to each other.
[00:10:29] And I think we should stand for this, so stand with me as we see the Nicene Creed together.
[00:10:37] I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.
[00:10:47] I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages.
[00:10:56] God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father, through him all things were made.
[00:11:09] For us men and for our salvation, he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.
[00:11:21] For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate.
[00:11:26] He suffered death and was buried and rose again on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.
[00:11:33] He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
[00:11:38] He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.
[00:11:47] I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.
[00:12:02] I believe in one holy Catholic and apostolic church.
[00:12:07] I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
[00:12:17] Amen.
[00:12:18] You may be seated.

[00:12:19] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:12:19] A few things a little differently today

[00:13:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:13:04] to get you revved up and we want to see who has the most spirit in their voices today.
[00:13:09] We have Toby over here and his brother, Torrey over here and his brother Toby over here.
[00:13:15] We're going to do this chorus again all together and we're going to then alternate.
[00:13:22] Say, you're going to see my hands go that way.
[00:13:24] You're going to see my hands go that way.
[00:13:26] If my hands go this way, you sing this way.
[00:13:28] And we want to see who is backing up their leader.
[00:13:32] Then we're going to finish all together, and then we'll sing the whole song, King of Kings, and go into another worship song.
[00:13:38] So all together, praise the Father.

[00:13:49] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:13:49] Now, we come to you in prayer.

[00:19:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:19:02] We come to you to worship you.
[00:19:04] We come to you to praise you.
[00:19:05] Lord Jesus Christ by your own volition you came down though we were buried in our sin though we were covered up with iniquity you found us you plucked us like a stick from the fire and you redeemed us
[00:19:21] you brought us to the Father and you've covered us with every blessing and having given us forgiveness in yourself Jesus Christ and having redeemed our soul from the pit you've just surrounded us with every blessing
[00:19:35] that there is in Christ.
[00:19:36] And so this morning, we praise you and we call out to you.
[00:19:41] And Father, we are just so delighted to be here this morning.
[00:19:44] Receive our worship, we pray.
[00:19:49] Take it and may we meet with you this morning.
[00:19:54] Amen.
[00:19:54] You may be seated.

[00:19:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:19:56] Remain standing, actually.
[00:19:57] We're gonna sing one more.
[00:19:59] Okay.
[00:20:00] Yet not I, but the cross did be.
[00:20:01] One more, one more.

[00:20:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:20:02] A gift of grace is Jesus, my Redeemer. There is no more for heaven, now it's my joy.
[00:20:30] Justness and freedom, my steadfast love.

[00:24:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:24:48] You may be seated.
[00:25:01] We've been worshiping different ways this morning. We've been worshiping by saying the Nicene Creed together.
[00:25:06] We've been worshiping with our bodies. We've been worshiping with music and song.
[00:25:11] One other way we worship God is with our credit card.
[00:25:15] So, but now this is a time for gifts and offerings.
[00:25:19] It's our way of giving back to God, just a portion of what he's given back to us.
[00:25:23] QR code should be on the screen right in front of you.
[00:25:26] There are other ways to give listed on your bulletin.
[00:25:29] We invite you to continue your worship.

[00:27:26] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:27:26] she had done. I saw him bring a dead man back to life. I saw him taking chances, never fearing for his life. Let's pray together. God, thank you for the many gifts that you've given us, the

[00:29:38] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:29:38] opportunity to share those now. And as we turn our attention to the reading of your word, we pray that you would open our ears to hear what you're saying and our hearts to want to know and follow
[00:29:47] you more. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Our scripture reading this morning comes from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 8, beginning in verse 31. He then began to teach them that the Son of
[00:30:00] Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this
[00:30:12] and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But when Jesus turned and looked at the disciples, he rebuked Peter.
[00:30:20] Get behind me, Satan, he said.
[00:30:23] You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.
[00:30:28] Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
[00:30:38] For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.
[00:30:45] What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them
[00:31:01] when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels. This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. In this passage, Jesus offers a pretty severe call to discipleship,
[00:31:13] And it's discipleship that makes no sense at all, unless the one you're following is a perfectly faithful and good God. And that is the call that Jesus is issuing. So would you stand as we sing
[00:31:25] together a hymn of God's great faithfulness? It's number 35 in your purple hymnal supplement,

[00:31:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:31:30] Great is Thy Faithfulness. You may be seated. It was a Saturday evening in April,

[00:35:37] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:35:37] and it was 10 o'clock, so it was time for me to walk the dog in Wheaton, Illinois. And And we chose one of our typical four routes, Calvin and I.
[00:35:49] And we're going around the neighborhood and we come across a certain part of Wheaton only, about two blocks from our house, where there's an open green space taking a whole city block.
[00:36:00] And it's just a field and it's called Lawson Field and belonged to the college.
[00:36:05] And I'm walking the dog and there's bright light on the corner of the field.
[00:36:10] And as we're getting closer, I realized it's 10 o'clock at night.
[00:36:14] and there's a Chicago news crew right there with a reporter and a light flashing on her face, and they're doing some kind of news event in the middle of Wheaton, Illinois, in a field.
[00:36:28] Like, what's that all about?
[00:36:31] Well, soon enough, I found out what it was all about.
[00:36:35] Apparently, that Saturday, Wheaton's freshman, Ethan Roser, had been killed on that field.
[00:36:44] He was participating in an athletic event, and his job was to retrieve hammers during the hammer throw.
[00:36:50] And though all the NCAA regulations were being followed, somehow somebody had thrown a hammer, this 15, 17-pound piece of metal, going through the air some 50 yards.
[00:37:02] It hit him in the head, and he was out, and he had died before he reached the hospital.
[00:37:10] And the community was devastated.
[00:37:13] His parents naturally were devastated.
[00:37:18] Sometimes things happen like that.
[00:37:20] Tragedy comes into our life, and we say, why God?
[00:37:23] Why did you cut this life so short?
[00:37:28] We all know suffering of different kinds.
[00:37:31] This morning, as we look at Mark chapter 8, I want to look at a suffering of a very specific kind, and that's the suffering that goes along with being a Christian, the suffering that's unique to being a Christian.
[00:37:46] People in this fallen world, all kinds of people, believers and non-believers, suffer tragic loss, suffer illness, suffer all kinds of things.
[00:37:55] But there's a certain type of suffering that only the followers of Jesus know about.
[00:38:01] And my point this morning is this.
[00:38:03] If you take one thing away, I want to just say this, is that in the midst of our suffering, when we feel like bailing, and we feel like we're entitled to just go our own way
[00:38:13] because the suffering feels so intense, That's exactly when we must really stick with Jesus.
[00:38:18] We must stick with Jesus despite the costs.
[00:38:24] Well, what costs are we talking about?
[00:38:26] Well, I want to talk about this morning.
[00:38:28] So I have three points.
[00:38:30] And here I'm really talking about three types of suffering we undergo as Christian and why it's worthwhile holding on to Jesus despite the suffering.
[00:38:41] The first cost we have in following Jesus is what I call inward suffering.
[00:38:48] inward suffering. Let's go to our passage in verse 31. Jesus then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and the teachers of the
[00:39:01] law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. So here's the situation. Jesus and his disciples are at a place called Caesarea Philippi in the north country, and Jesus has been
[00:39:16] walking with the disciples for some time, and they've been wondering, who is this guy? They, in fact, they say that out loud. Who is this? And then in the previous scene, Jesus asks the disciples, well, who do people say I am? And they give their answers. Some say Elijah. Some say John
[00:39:33] the Baptist. Some say one of the prophets. And then he focuses on them. He says, well, what about you guys? Who do you say I am? And then Peter, speaking on behalf of everyone, says, well,
[00:39:45] well, you're the Christ. You're the Messiah. And he warns them not to tell anyone. So the first eight chapters, essentially, of the Gospel of Mark, the disciples are wondering, who is this guy anyway? And now we get the answer. This guy is Jesus, and he's the Messiah. But now there's
[00:40:10] another question that needs to be answered. And Mark, if you take the time to read the rest of gospel answers that question. That is, okay, if he's the Messiah, what does this particular Messiah do? And the short answer is right here in verse 31. He suffers many things. He suffers many things.
[00:40:30] Now, the disciples are probably at this moment just scratching their heads and saying, what?
[00:40:37] You know, the Messiah's job was to come in, was to kick out the Gentiles, was to take back Jerusalem and rule and righteousness?
[00:40:46] Where is the suffering piece supposed to come in?
[00:40:50] And then not only that, Jesus says, this is all centering around the Son of Man.
[00:40:55] And if you know your Old Testament, you might know that this phrase, Son of Man, comes from Daniel chapter 7.
[00:41:02] It's this chapter about an exalted, transcendent figure who overcomes a beast.
[00:41:07] And there's no clear indication that that Son of Man suffers.
[00:41:11] Yet Jesus says that he's the son of man, and that as the son of man, he's going to suffer.
[00:41:17] Now, this gets quite the reaction from the disciples, and we read about this in verse 32 and 33.
[00:41:23] So Jesus spoke plainly about this, and Peter takes him aside and began to rebuke him.
[00:41:30] But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter.
[00:41:34] Get behind me, Satan, he said.
[00:41:36] You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.
[00:41:42] Now, here's what's going on.
[00:41:46] Jesus is telling Peter and the rest of the disciples, here's what the Messiah is going to look like.
[00:41:51] And Peter said, Jesus, can we have a moment here?
[00:41:53] Can we just talk?
[00:41:55] You see, Jesus, you got this wrong.
[00:41:57] And so Peter's trying to straighten Jesus out and rebukes him.
[00:42:03] And then Jesus turns around and rebukes Peter.
[00:42:05] We have a rebuke fest going on here.
[00:42:09] And Jesus says, get behind me.
[00:42:12] another way of putting that today, today's terms is stay in your lane. I'm the Messiah. I'm the one to dictate the terms of what the script is going to look like. And so what we see here is that the
[00:42:25] disciples thought they knew what Messiah was supposed to be like, but their script was a human script and a fallen script. And Jesus had a different script that was a divine script. On the human script, they said, yeah, the Messiah is going to come and then God's forgiveness is going to come
[00:42:41] through that, and God's going to redeem us, and he's going to bless us, and there's going to be health and wealth and success. And Jesus says, hold on. Actually, the way it's going to work is, yes,
[00:42:54] God will provide forgiveness. Yes, God will redeem. Yes, God will bless. But the crown of that blessing is suffering. The best part is suffering. Because through suffering, we get to know Jesus in a way
[00:43:13] We might not otherwise get to know him And so Jesus says What's distinctive about my messiahship What you could never have predicted Is that I will suffer And here's why this matters to you and me
[00:43:29] Is because what the messiah does Is what he's going to expect of us If you're a messiah follower If you're a Christ follower this morning The very fact that Jesus is the son of man
[00:43:41] Is tasked with suffering many things it probably means he's going to task you with suffering many things, even for his name.
[00:43:51] And we could talk about all kinds of ways that we suffer, but I want to stick to the story of Jesus. A little bit later on, we come to the Garden of Gethsemane, and Jesus is in the garden.
[00:44:05] He's suffering. Why is he suffering? Because he's being tempted, and he feels the pull. He's being called to the cross, but he doesn't want to go. He wants to live a full life. He wants to be
[00:44:19] able to keep going. He doesn't want to hang on some Roman cross. He doesn't want to be separated from God. He doesn't want to go through the spiritual, emotional, and physical agony that the cross would bring. He's got these desires, but the Father had a different way for him.
[00:44:34] And so Jesus in Gethsemane is grieving over his unmet desires, but he's also grieving over sin because even in Gethsemane, as the blood is pouring out of his sweat pores, he's feeling the weight of our sin on his shoulders
[00:44:51] and he's grieving this weight of human sin.
[00:44:57] And those types of sufferings are unique to being a Christian because we share in those same griefs.
[00:45:07] earlier this spring we had some visitors at our house on our front porch we heard this chirping chirping chirping sound realized there was a nest of house finches and they were all there right outside our front door so we couldn't use our front door for a while and it was interesting
[00:45:27] just to see these little house finches grow and the mother would go and get worms and bring back food and go and come back and come back and then one day I'm out cutting the grass and I'm just
[00:45:38] driving the lawnmower, right there in the driveway, there's one of the fledglings that apparently they flew the nest. And it was just hopping around and scared by my lawnmower, but it couldn't fly yet. And I guess it just took time. But I'll tell you this, unless the mother
[00:46:00] kicked that fledgling out of the house, it would never learn to fly, of the nest, it would never learn to fly. And so I got to thinking, got to researching, how does this work? How do birds
[00:46:10] actually learn to fly? And so what happens with house finches, I read, is that first the mother begins to withhold food, begins to restrict, to encourage the birds to go look somewhere else.
[00:46:22] And then the mother demonstrates what it means to fly. She just flies right outside and says, here kids, it's not that hard. You just flap your wings. And she coaxes them and she calls them and
[00:46:35] she encourages, even as she withholds them, and eventually they're motivated enough to fly out of the nest. You know what happens through our sufferings? When we suffer, when we grieve over unmet desires, when we grieve over sin, God is growing our faith wings. And if we're not grieving,
[00:46:58] it might mean we're not out of the nest. Maybe this morning you're a single person. Maybe because you're divorced, maybe you're widower or widowed, maybe you've never been married, and you long for intimacy, you long to be with somebody, and you know that the culture gives you possible options
[00:47:19] for meeting that need. You could turn to hookup culture, you could turn to pornography, you could turn to a lot of other things to give you not lasting satisfaction, but at least initial satisfaction to alleviate pain in the short term. But that's not God's way. And so you have these
[00:47:38] unmet desires. And sometimes what God asks us to do is he says, look, I need you to, I'm going to withhold this from you for now in order that you might grow your faith wings. In order that you
[00:47:52] might learn to entrust your desires to me. Or maybe some of you are here this morning, you're married, but you have kids, and the kids are grown, or they're growing up, and they're making choices
[00:48:08] that break your heart. They've left the church. They've adopted a lifestyle that stands in flat antithesis to what God is all about, and it breaks your heart. And you knew that if you weren't a
[00:48:23] Christ follower, it probably wouldn't bother you. But the fact that you know what God calls us to makes it all the more painful, and you bear this burden, and you say, God, could you just
[00:48:36] change my child? Could you change how they think? Could you just change their disposition? Could you open their eyes and give them repentance and bring them back to yourself? And you know God has the power to do it, but he doesn't do it, and he's withholding that. And maybe the reason he's
[00:48:52] withholding that is because he wants you to grow your faith wings and to get out of the nest and to try out those faith wings, and that only comes through suffering. So God meets us in our inward
[00:49:06] suffering, but he also meets us in our social shame. That's the second point I want to make.
[00:49:15] The first cost is inward suffering. The second cost of following Jesus is social shame. There's a certain social shame we as Christians have to endure and have always endured in this world.
[00:49:28] And I'm going to go back to verse 31 Here's what Jesus says When he began teaching them He said the son of man must suffer many things And be rejected by the elders The elders are the people whose opinion
[00:49:41] Really really counts in that culture And Jesus would be rejected by them Not just be rejected But absolutely scorned How could it be that the Messiah would be scorned By the elders of Israel Well, in God's mysterious wisdom, this was the way.
[00:50:03] So in order to explain this more, I'm going to go take us to verse 34.
[00:50:08] Jesus says this.
[00:50:09] He calls the whole crowd and he says, Look, if anyone would come after me, here's what you need to do.
[00:50:15] You need to deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow me.
[00:50:20] Forever who wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me in the gospel will save it.
[00:50:26] what good is it for a man to gain the whole world yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of me in this adulterous and sinful generation,
[00:50:41] the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels.
[00:50:48] So Jesus is saying, look, you have a choice in life. You can live to please the world or you can live to please the Son of Man when he comes. You can look to avoid shame from the world,
[00:51:02] or you can look to avoid shame from the Son of Man when he comes. Jesus says, if anyone comes after me, he has to deny himself and take up your cross. Why does Jesus say,
[00:51:17] take up your cross? Because when you die on a Roman cross, you're dying in the most shameful way possible. And that's the way the Romans designed it. They wanted to maximize not just your physical pain. The Romans wanted to maximize your shame so that as you're carrying the cross
[00:51:37] down the street, people are booing you, hissing you, throwing things at you, mocking you, scorning you. And as you're hanging naked there, that show can go on until the wild dogs eat your corpse off
[00:51:49] the cross. The cross was designed into shame. Jesus says, if you care to follow me, then you have to be ready to identify with my shame. Now, here's the thing. I want to make the distinction between
[00:52:07] guilt and shame, because sometimes people mix those up. Guilt and shame overlap, but they're different things. Guilt has to do with things that we've done wrong, and we know that they're wrong, and so we receive forgiveness for that in order that we might be re-accepted by God or accepted
[00:52:25] by God and restored into the community. Shame really has to do not so much with what we've done but who we are and how we look at ourselves in the mirror. Sometimes we can be restored from guilt
[00:52:41] but we still carry shame. When we're shamed, we feel like we've lost the world's esteem, we've lost the world's admirations. And when we feel shamed, we feel inadequate, we feel ugly, we feel unworthy. And for many, many Christians, shame just hangs there in their lives, just walking
[00:53:00] around feeling worthless and ugly. Even the most beautiful people feeling inwardly ugly because they just feel, carry this shame. What the gospel does, what the gospel says to you and me is Jesus Christ has delivered us and removed our shame. But you have to keep your eyes on the cross
[00:53:21] because what the world does is the world is set on shaming Christians simply for their commitments. Let me give you an example. When Jesus came and he talked about being rejected by the elders. He identified himself with a stone of stumbling, just like there was a rejected
[00:53:49] cornerstone. Jesus said, I am that cornerstone. I'm the rejected cornerstone, and it's going to cause people to stumble, and that's why they shamed Jesus, because he caused them to stumble.
[00:54:04] We had a house once where, you know, we moved in the house, and we got this building report as we bought the house.
[00:54:12] And one of the things the building report flagged up was in the front path, there was a path of pavers and there was a hump in the path and then went back down.
[00:54:21] And the hump was there because there was a tree and the tree's roots started growing, pushing up the path.
[00:54:27] And the inspector said, look, you know, someone's going to trip on that sometime.
[00:54:32] We said, yeah, probably right.
[00:54:33] We should do something about that.
[00:54:35] So we had a bunch of people over to the house for, you know, a party and said, come on over, and they came over. And sure enough, someone walking down the path tripped and face-planted on our paver path because of this little bump that caused
[00:54:51] stumbling. You know, in the Church of Jesus Christ, we are throwing a party, and we're inviting everyone to come, and we hope that they do come. But sometimes when people come, what happens? They they stumble. They stumble on our commitments. They stumble on Jesus Christ. And they stumble
[00:55:09] on what the gospel has to say. Because, you know, in my gospel, we have to follow the certain path.
[00:55:18] You know, for example, in the LGBTQ plus community, I have friends and family members in that community. And I love them. But sometimes people say, well, if you love us, then you have to embrace
[00:55:34] our cause. But I say to them, look, my Bible says, has very clear guidelines for what righteous sexuality looks like. And I can't get on board with that. And so what the world wants to do to
[00:55:48] me with me at that point is heap shame on me and make me feel inadequate. I have people I'm really close friends with who are pro-choice. And I just said, you know what? I can't embrace that cause
[00:56:04] because my Bible says that the life is, the human life is, you know, this highest, greatest value.
[00:56:12] I'm sorry, I can't get behind that.
[00:56:14] And they said, well, if you can't celebrate that, then I'm going to have to dump shame on you, you see.
[00:56:20] And there's so many, I mean, the list can go on of these areas of religious intolerance.
[00:56:26] Some people say, well, so do you think Jesus is the only way?
[00:56:29] I said, that's what my Bible says.
[00:56:31] Well, then you must be an intolerant bigot.
[00:56:33] And so here comes the shame.
[00:56:35] And the thing is, friends, if you're going to follow Jesus Christ, you're signing up for a life of shame.
[00:56:41] But you have to realize that there's going to be a day when Jesus appears and he says, whoever is ashamed of me and my gospel, I'm going to be ashamed of him.
[00:56:49] And so you have a decision who you're going to choose to be shamed by and get your honor from Jesus Christ.
[00:56:58] That's a unique suffering that goes along with the gospel.
[00:57:01] I already talked about inward suffering and social shame.
[00:57:05] Here's one more, and that's our personal safety.
[00:57:16] He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and the elders of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day rise again.
[00:57:30] Jesus said, I'm going to be killed.
[00:57:35] And you know, when we talk about the Nicene Creed and we talk about Jesus being at the Father's right hand but descending down and became flesh, born of the Virgin Mary, and then he was killed and buried.
[00:57:47] Do you see how Jesus in the incarnation takes steps lower and lower and lower and lower and lower and lower until he's buried in a grave?
[00:57:59] The Roman centurion sticks a spear in his side, proving he's not just dead, he's dead, dead.
[00:58:03] When he's in that grave, he's not just dead, dead, He's dead, dead, dead. He is absolutely gone. And yet, in three days, Jesus says, I will rise again.
[00:58:16] When we follow this Messiah, what we're doing is we're signing over our life.
[00:58:21] And we're saying, if Jesus was willing to die for the kingdom, then who am I to hold back my life?
[00:58:31] Whatever personal risks, whatever personal problems might be incurred from the gospel, I give it to you Lord because when I stand before you on the last day my main hope the thing that I'm living for is that I would not be ashamed but that I remain faithful in his book blindsided
[00:58:56] Mark Roser the father of Ethan Roser who died from the hammer throw writes this he talks about his son death and mentions that two weeks prior to his death he had a dream and in his dream he's
[00:59:11] dreaming about his 19-year-old son, Ethan, and his son in his dream says, I'm going away, Dad.
[00:59:19] And he responds back in the dream, says, you can't go. Where are you going? And he turns around, and his son turns around in the dream and just starts walking, and there's a voice that comes
[00:59:29] beyond him saying, he's going to eternity. The way we can make sense of our suffering as Christians, the difference it all makes is because we have resurrection hope friends.
[00:59:45] We're not living for this world.
[00:59:46] We're not living for pleasure in this world.
[00:59:49] We're not living for honor and esteem in this world.
[00:59:52] There's honor, esteem, and blessing waiting for us on the other side.
[00:59:57] And once you make up your mind that's true, once you've counted the cost, God will give you the grace to stick to Jesus.
[01:00:07] Let's pray.
[01:00:14] Father, on a day-by-day basis, I'm aware of the many ways that I don't stick with you.
[01:00:19] where I gratify myself in fleeting thoughts in all kinds of ways or do things that you would rather have me not do.
[01:00:34] And yet, Lord, I want to be like Jesus.
[01:00:36] And I know in order to be like Jesus, I need to do what Jesus does.
[01:00:43] Give me, give everyone in this room the grace this week to live in light of the resurrection and to realize that our sticking to the solid rock that we have isn't by our own strength.
[01:00:58] We don't have the strength.
[01:01:00] You have to give the strength to us.
[01:01:02] And when temptation comes or when the world shames us or when we feel pain, give us the grace to persevere.
[01:01:13] Amen.
[01:01:19] In closing, I'd like us to rise and sing together.
[01:01:21] This is hymn supplement 19, Solid Rock.
[01:01:26] Let's sing together.

[01:01:27] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[01:01:27] Receive now the Lord's benediction

[01:04:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[01:04:01] May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ The love of God the Father And the fellowship of the Holy Spirit Be on you all Amen