LUKE 9:23-26 HOW TO FOLLOW JESUS2012 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 9:23-26 How To Follow Jesus

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You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2012. Well, this morning as we look at this portion here in Luke chapter 9, I titled the message this morning, How to Follow Jesus. Because as we look at this, we are seeing Jesus explain to the people

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What they must do in order to follow him and really why they need to follow him. We see the invitation there at the end of verse 23 as he gives some instruction, but he finishes it up by saying, and follow me. Now as we talk about following Jesus this morning, what does it mean to follow him?

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The word follow means to be in the same way with. That is to join with someone. I phrased it in my own way saying join up with Jesus. It's signing up with him, joining up with him to be on the same path that he is on. This word follow it means also to accompany. And so you're accompanying Jesus. You're coming alongside of Jesus today.

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When you follow him. And that's what he's talking about. This joining up with Jesus. Being with Jesus. Walking with Jesus. That's his invitation to you and to me. And it's an invitation to whoever desires. You see that in the first part of chapter 9 verse 23. He says, if anyone desires.

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And I would ask you this morning as we get started in this passage, do you desire to follow Jesus? Is that something that you desire, that you would like to do, that you strive to do? Do you want to be with Jesus? Do you want to accompany Him? Do you want to accompany Him in this life, but also in the life that is to come? What I love about

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and specifically this passage is, Jesus does not discourage you if you desire to be with him. He doesn't discourage you and say, you know, just forget it. I mean, it's nice that you have that desire, but you know, you're not all that exciting and I'm not really excited for you to be with me. So, you know, just put that out of your mind. He doesn't discourage us. This is an invitation.

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If anyone desires to come after me, Jesus says, if you want to be with me, if you want to follow me, if you want to accompany me and be with me in this life and in the life to come, he's going to go on to explain, well, here's how to do it. And so he doesn't discourage us, but instead he shows us the way. He doesn't disqualify us.

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You know, Jesus doesn't look to us and say, well, you've tried that before and you failed. So you're no longer qualified to come after me. You're not qualified. You cannot follow me. Jesus doesn't say that. He doesn't look at us and say, you know, you've fallen into sin too many times and you know better. So you can't follow me anymore. Jesus doesn't do that. He does not disqualify us. He doesn't tell us, look, you've had too many opportunities.

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I'm giving you time after time after time to turn and repent and to follow me and you haven't done it so now it's too late. Don't even bother. What we see here as Jesus is extending this invitation, it's to anyone who desires. It's an open invitation. If you desire to be with Jesus, if you would accompany Him, you would want to be with Him, He welcomes you as He gives you the instruction for how to

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to do so. Jesus's response to our desire to follow him is great. That's what I've been waiting for. That's what I've been hoping for. Now here's how to follow me. This word desire that Jesus uses here, he says, if anyone desires to come after me, the word desire is not just a willingness, but it includes the pressing on to action.

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So it's not just a desire like a wish, but it also then includes the action going forward to accomplish that desire. And so if you desire to be with the Lord in a way that it's not just, you know, maybe one day, you know, you're kind of sitting back and you have the desire, but you're not willing to do anything about it. Well, that's not the people that Jesus is addressing. He says, look, if you desire...

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you have the desire, you have the will to do so, and you're willing to put it into action, you're willing to take some steps, then you are able to follow me. So the real question this morning, again, is do you desire to follow Jesus? Well, if you do, he gives us

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The way to do so. And four points I'll share with you this morning about how to follow Jesus. Beginning here in verse 23, we see point number one, and that is deny yourself. Again, verse 23, it says, Then he said to them all, If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Deny yourself, he says, take up your cross daily.

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and follow me. Jesus says, you want to follow me? You want to be with me? Here's how. Deny yourself. This word deny, it means to remove from oneself. It means to refuse, to deny or disown. Think about that one. Disown yourself. Deny yourself, Jesus says. Another dictionary says that it means to lose sight of oneself and one's own interests.

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To lose sight of your own interests is what it means to deny yourself. And so when Jesus says, look, if you desire to be with me, to accompany me, you want to follow me, here's the first thing you need to do. Deny yourself. Lose sight of your own interests. Now, if you've been studying with us here in the Gospel of Luke,

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Follow the flow here of what's been happening because this is one continuous account that we're studying even though we're just looking at a few verses here. And so we were looking at previously how Jesus revealed himself as the Messiah. Remember he asked the disciples, well who do the crowd say that I am? And there was all kinds of opinions in the crowd. And then Jesus asked the disciples, but who do you say that I am?

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And Peter, inspired by the Heavenly Father, said, You are the Christ, the Savior, the Son of the living God. Peter got it right. He recognized that Jesus is the Savior, the Messiah, that God had been promising from really the beginning of time in Genesis chapter 3. And so Jesus reveals Himself to His disciples as the Savior, the Messiah that God had promised. And then immediately Jesus goes on to explain that

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Now, disciples, I'm going to be rejected by the Jewish leaders. And I'm going to be put to death. And on the third day, I will rise again. Now, the Jewish people were not expecting a Savior who would come and die. They were expecting a Savior who would come and reign. And so, the disciples didn't really understand what Jesus was saying. In fact, in another gospel account, we see that Peter rebukes Jesus.

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And says, Jesus, you're wrong. You're the Savior. You can't be saying that you're going to die. That's not right. Because they had a misunderstanding of what the Messiah was coming to accomplish. But so Jesus reveals himself as the Messiah. He says, I am the Savior. Then he says, I'm going to be rejected and put to death. And then he says, if anyone desires to come after me. You see the context there?

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He says, I'm going to be put to death. Anybody want to join me? Anybody want to sign up for that? Anybody want to volunteer to be with me, to accompany with me as I go to the cross? He says, look, if you want to accompany me, you want to be part of me, you want to be with me, then pick up your cross because that's where I'm going. I'm going to be crucified. I'm going to be put to death.

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In order to follow Jesus, he says you must deny yourself. You must be willing to disown yourself, to lay down your life. You must lose sight of your own interests and take up your cross. The cross is, of course, a very familiar symbol for you and I today. But it means something very different for us today than it meant for the disciples as Jesus was sharing this.

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Because as of yet, he has not gone to the cross. So we look at the cross and we think of what Jesus did for us. And it's a sign of the Christian faith. And we carry it in, you know, different forms on pictures and bracelets and necklaces. And we have crosses, you know, on top of churches or inside of churches. I mean, we use crosses all over the place.

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It's a very familiar symbol for us. And for us it's a joyful symbol because we remember what Christ did for us. But they would have understood the cross very differently because Jesus hadn't gone to the cross yet. So the only thing that they knew about the cross was that the cross is a means of terrible execution.

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An execution of excruciating pain. It would be your worst nightmare to consider the cross. To take up your cross. Because those who were sentenced to death on the cross would carry their cross to the site of their execution. And you might remember that because when Jesus was leaving the praetorium, they laid the cross on his back and he carried it as far as he could. But then

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He was not able to carry it any longer. Remember, they took Simon from the crowd and compelled him to carry the cross to Golgotha where Jesus was crucified. So those who were sentenced to death would carry their cross. So as Jesus is talking to his disciples, notice he says, if anyone desires to come after me, this is a broad invitation. Anybody, hey, you want to follow Jesus? You want to be with Jesus?

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You want to have that relationship with him right now. You want to spend eternity with him. Here's what you must do. Deny yourself and take up your cross. Put the cross on your back. Join me as I go to be executed is the general idea that Jesus is declaring. Now he's not talking about a literal cross and a literal execution because he says take up your cross daily and follow me.

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And of course, he's not expecting you to be physically crucified daily. That's not really possible. But he's talking about this death sentence. I like what David Guzik says. He says, we've sanitized and ritualized the cross in these 20 centuries after Jesus. How would we receive it if Jesus said, walk down death row daily and follow me?

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Or, take up your noose. You know, I was kind of thinking about that, how we have the cross. I was at a wedding yesterday at a Catholic church, and so you know, they have the crosses everywhere, but then they also have Christ on the cross. I was just in my own imagination. I know this is a little distorted. I apologize for that. But, you know, what if it was a noose? Take up your noose. And so there's a guy hanging from a noose. That's the picture that we carry around and we treasure. But,

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You know, he says, grab your noose, take up your noose and follow me. Carry the implement of your own execution. Gil Irwin talks about, you know, what if it was the electric chair? And how would that change our worship songs? You know, at the electric chair, at the electric chair where I first saw the light, you know, just... It takes a second and it's, oh, it's funnier than I thought. See, we understand the cross very differently.

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But they understood what he was talking about. A death sentence. To deny yourself is to die to yourself. To take up your cross is to die to yourself. It is to lose sight of your own interests. To lay aside your goals, your priorities, your objectives, your desires.

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Pastor Chuck says, in the life of Jesus, the cross represented a full and complete surrendering of His will to that of the Father. And it is the same thing in our lives. It's that full surrender to God's will, to the Father's will.

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It caused me to think about, you remember when Jesus was about to be crucified and he's there in the garden of Gethsemane and he's praying fervently. We'll get to it in the book of Luke where he's praying fervently. He's burdened severely so that he's sweating greatly and even drops of blood are included in his sweat because of the the fervency of his prayer as he cries out to the Lord.

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If there's any other way, let this cup pass from me. It was with great fervency that he wrestled there in the garden of Gethsemane in surrendering to the will of the Father. Saying, if there's another way of salvation, if there's another way that mankind can be redeemed, let this cup, let this execution, this torture, this cross pass from me.

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But then Jesus, as he prayed that three times, ended saying, nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. He did what he called us to do. He denied himself and he took up the cross. He surrendered completely to the will of the Father. Now, that was difficult. And yet, you and I, we want peace.

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Following Jesus to be easy. But I would ask you to consider, with the fervency that Jesus prayed in the garden, are you willing to pray that way as well? Are you willing to deny yourself? And you know there will be times in your life where it will require that kind of fervency where you say, Lord, if there's any other way, I want to follow you, but I don't want to go through what I'm about to go through.

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I don't want to endure what you've set before me. I don't want to go forward in what you've called me to. I don't want to let go of this thing you've called me to let go of. Lord, if there's any other way that I could be with you, but still hold on to this or not do that or whatever the case may be.

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What I'm suggesting is that there needs to be those times. There will be those times for a follower of Jesus where with great intensity, like with Jesus in the garden, you'll be praying, if there's any other way, let this cup pass from me. But Jesus says, look, if you desire to follow me, then you will deny yourself and you'll take up that cross. You'll die to yourself and what you desire and what you want, and you will follow Jesus.

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Even when you're not very comfortable with it. Even when it's difficult. Even when you're not excited about it. Our tendency is to indulge ourselves, not to deny ourselves. To make sure that we're comfortable. To look out for our own interests. But Jesus says, if you want to follow me, here's what it's going to require. You need to deny yourself. Die to yourself. And follow me.

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Accompany me. Join with me. Are there things that you would perhaps describe as, you know, in order to do this, oh, it just kills you, right? Sometimes asking for forgiveness, right? It's one of those things you're like, oh man, I hate to do it. It just kills me to say I'm sorry. It just kills me. It just, you know, we have that description, right? That phrase that we use. That's the idea. Deny yourself.

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Do the things that you know you must do even when it kills you to do it. Whether it's asking forgiveness or forgiving one who has harmed you. Do what you know you need to do even when it kills you to do it. Whether that be an issue of forgiveness or witnessing to someone standing up for righteousness in a difficult situation.

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correcting someone or receiving correction, quitting something or starting something. Whatever the case may be and whatever applies to your life and what God has called you to and the path that Jesus has said, hey, accompany me, join me, here's my plan for your life. We're going to encounter all kinds of different things. And to deny ourself is to respond to His call even when it kills us to do so.

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He says to take up your cross daily. And I think that's an important point for us to consider. Because it's not a one-time decision. It's not just a one-time thing. Following Jesus is not a one-time decision. It's a daily decision. If anyone desires to come after me, Jesus says, let him deny himself. Take up his cross daily. So that means each day we kind of have to start over and re-decide.

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Today, I'm going to lay aside my own interests. I'm going to lay aside myself. And I'm going to follow Jesus. I'm going to die to myself in order to be obedient to Him. It's not a one-time decision. It's a daily decision to follow Jesus. The invitation is open. If anyone desires, here's what you must do. And so we see the first thing here. Deny yourself.

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The second point, as we go on now into verse 24, how to follow Jesus? Well, you surrender your life to Jesus. Look at verse 24. He says, for whoever desires to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. So now he's explaining why we should follow him. But we also learn here,

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A little bit more about how to follow Him. A little bit more about what it means to deny yourself and take up the cross. And that is, surrender your life to Jesus. It's not just laying aside your own interests and rights and desires. It's not just laying down your own goals and priorities. It's not just dying to yourself. But you also need to surrender your life, surrender yourself to Jesus.

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Now, here in verse 24, he says, if you desire to save your life, you will lose it. And what he means by that, what he's talking about when he talks about saving your life is this idea of taking matters into your own hands to make your own plans. Now, for those of you who are with us as we're journeying through the Bible in three years,

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We're continuing on in the book of Numbers and we've seen a really good example of this verse this week in the life of Balaam. Balaam desired to save his life. Remember Balak, the king, summoned Balaam and said, Come and curse the nation of Israel for me and I'll give you great riches and great honor. God told Balaam not to go.

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But then King Balak summoned him again. Please come. Here's even more riches I can promise to you. Even greater honor I can bestow upon you. And so this time Balaam goes and he attempts three times to curse Israel. He tries from one location, but God puts in his mouth a blessing. And so instead of pronouncing a curse, he pronounces a blessing.

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And King Balak is a little bit frustrated because now this guy has blessed Israel instead of cursing them. So, well, let's go over to this other mountain. They try again. Still, God gave him a blessing and caused him to pronounce a blessing instead of a curse. And then, well, let's go to a third mountain and try again. All the while, God is intervening. He's causing Balaam to bless the people. But Balaam is attempting to defy God, to...

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curse the people to obtain the riches and honor that King Balak is offering to him. And so three times he tries, three times he fails. And so what Balaam does, because that was unsuccessful, he couldn't get the reward that he wanted. So what he does is he tells Balak the plan for how

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To cause the nation of Israel to involve themselves in immorality and to bring judgment upon themselves. Because he's still plotting and planning how to obtain what he wants to obtain. This is a good picture of trying to save your life. That he's working really hard to get what he wants. To achieve his goals. To accomplish his purposes.

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And he's trying and he's trying and he's trying and it's failing and it's failing and it's failing. And so he's coming up with new ideas. He's striving, going to these lengths even of disobeying God in order to obtain what it is that he desires.

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That's a good picture of what it means when Jesus says, whoever desires to save his life will lose it. And we also see this played out in the life of Balaam because it's just a couple chapters later that Balaam is put to death as Israel attacks the Moabites and the Midianites who were involved in this seduction and this immorality that took place. And so he may have obtained the riches and the honor and the wealth that he wanted from Balak,

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But it was for no good length of time. He didn't really get to enjoy it. Very soon after, he was killed in battle. Listen, it was true of Balaam and it's still true. You and I, we have the choice. We can deny ourselves, that is, let go of our own interests and follow Jesus. Or we can pursue our own interests and

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And in pursuing our own interests, Jesus said, you will lose your life. If you try to save your life, if you try to make life happen your way, you try to hold on to your purposes, your plans, your goals, you're going to lose it. It's not going to last. It's not going to work. And the harder you try, the worse it will get. You and I, we have desires. We have interests. We have goals.

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Oh, wouldn't it be nice to be in this condition? Have that position, drive that vehicle. Oh, wouldn't it be nice? Wouldn't it be wonderful? We have those thoughts, those plans. And if your life is, well, the pursuit of those plans, Jesus says you will lose it. You might achieve that goal, but in achieving that goal, you'll find it doesn't have the life that you thought it had.

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You'll find it doesn't satisfy the way that you thought it would. And so there will be the next pursuit. If you desire to save your life, if you live your life to achieve your own goals and interests, you will lose it. However, he goes on to say, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. So the opposite side of that then, the other side of the coin, is if you will lose your life, but notice he says, for my sake.

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Then you'll save it. Then you'll find it. That's when you'll know real life. When you lose your life for my sake. This is why I put it this way. Surrender your life to Jesus. Turn it over to Him. Instead of thinking about what you want and your desires and your plans and your goals, surrender all of that to Jesus. Just give it all over to Him.

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If you want to follow Jesus, if anyone desires to come after me, he says, you must surrender to Jesus. You must lose your life for his sake. There's lots of ways you can lose your life. You can get lost in sin and drugs and alcohol. You can get lost in the pursuit of a career in materialism. I mean, you can lose your life in lots of ways. But to lose your life for his sake...

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is to lay aside your goals and priorities and put in place His goals and priorities. You lay it all aside and you say, Jesus, what do you want from my life? What do you want from this day? Lord, this is what I want to accomplish today. This is what I want to achieve. But what do you want? Surrender your life to Jesus.

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Matthew chapter 6 verse 33, we quote it often because it's essential for us. And it's the same point. Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you. Jesus is talking about when we worry about what we're going to eat and what we're going to wear, how we're going to live.

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And Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Put him first. In other words, lose your life for his sake. And seek out his priorities, his passions, his goals. And as you devote yourself to Jesus, you surrender your life to Jesus, then all the other things that you need will be added to you.

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It's, I know, counterintuitive, right? It's not the way that we would think. You and I, we would think, well, in order to get these things, I have to work towards getting those things. I mean, I need food. I got to provide for my family. And so I need to work really hard to do so. But Jesus is asking us to approach life differently than what we would think. You would think in order to get that promotion, you have to maybe do like the other guys do.

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And compromise. Cut some corners. And maybe waver a little bit in your integrity. In order to get that promotion. Jesus says, stand up for righteousness. Do what's right. And you may or may not get that promotion. But he will accomplish more as you surrender to him. Than you can accomplish in devoting yourself to those things that you think you need.

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That you think are important. It's amazing though. How you devote yourself to the Lord. And then he does put you in those places that. Well it was what you desired. But you don't get there. By making that your priority. You get there. By making Jesus your priority. Seeking first the kingdom of God. He'll take care of your needs. He'll bless you abundantly. Exceedingly above all that you could ask or think. He's got greater plans for you. Than you've got for yourself.

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but you must lose your life for his sake. I like a point that David Guzik made. He said, you can't gain resurrection life without dying first. I think that's important because, you know, we think about it as believers in Jesus. We think about that resurrection life and the power of resurrection that Paul the Apostle is talking about. And man, that's just exciting. That spirit-led life, man. We want to be led by the spirit, the power of God. And

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But you cannot have that resurrection life without first losing your life, dying to yourself, surrendering to Jesus. Do you desire to follow Jesus? Jesus says, that's great. I want you to be with me right now and for eternity. So here's how. Deny yourself, surrender your life to me, and number three, focus on eternity. Look at verse 25.

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He says, for what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and is himself destroyed or lost? So now he's asking us to think. He's asking us to consider, to evaluate, to weigh out these options that we have. What profit, he says, what benefit, what advantage is it? So let's weigh our options here. If you gain the whole world, now that's kind of an aggressive goal, right? To gain the whole world.

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But it's a goal that some have. And what if you were to achieve that goal? What if you got out of life everything that you could ever want or dream or hope for? What if you gained the whole world? But at the same time, you were destroyed or lost. Now we get some insight about what Jesus means to be destroyed or lost from the parallel passage in Matthew chapter 16. Matthew 16, 26 puts it this way.

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For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? What's the exchange rate that you're willing to pay for your soul? When he talks about being destroyed or lost, he's talking about your soul, your eternal condition. And so what is the advantage? What is the profit if you gain everything you hope for in this life, but then you spend eternity in hell?

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That's what Jesus is asking us to evaluate. You lost your soul, but congratulations, you became CEO. You lost your soul, but congratulations, you know, you had the 2.5 kids and the picket fence. Good job. It doesn't add up. It doesn't make sense. What would you give in exchange for your soul?

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What would you cash in and say, yeah, this is fair. I want this. And in exchange for that, I'll have eternity of judgment in the absence of the presence of God. Jesus asks us to consider. Do the math. Work out the equation. Does it make sense? Because if you seek to save your life, if you're pursuing your own plans and purposes...

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You may even achieve them and you may gain the whole world. But is it worth it if you lose your own soul? If you're destroyed or lost? What's the benefit? And so yeah, you could live the party life in pursuit of all the pleasure that you can handle. But is it worth it when in the process you destroy yourself and lose your own soul? Is it worth it to achieve the career?

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But in the process you lose your family, you compromise your integrity and in the end you lose your own soul. Is it worth it to get the riches? And so on and so forth. We must do the math and evaluate and focus on eternity. Put your eyes where they belong. We get caught up with this life because it's the life that's right in front of us. But it's a very small part of the rest of eternity.

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And so we need to keep focused on what really matters. We need to keep focused on what's really important. And that is eternity. Jesus tells a parable in Luke chapter 12 about a man who has an abundant crop one year. And he gets all excited. He thought, man, I got so much abundance.

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What am I going to do? Because the barns that I have, they're not big enough to hold all the abundance that I received this year. And so he decided, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to tear down those barns. And I'm going to build bigger barns. Oh, and things are going to be great. Because I'm going to store all my crops. And it's going to be wonderful. And I'll say to my soul, soul, you have many goods. You've attained the good life.

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You've made it to easy street. So eat, drink, and be merry. You gained the whole world. But in the parable, Jesus goes on to say that God says to this man, Fool, for this night your soul will be required of you. He thought, I've made it. I've achieved my goals. I've accomplished it. And God says, you are a fool. You see, to focus on this life is foolish.

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For two reasons. Number one, eternity is more important because eternity lasts longer. But the second reason is this life is not promised. We have a tendency to kind of try to negotiate with God, right? God, I'm going to follow you. I really do want to deny myself. That sounds pretty cool. But first, I need to do these things. As soon as I accomplish this, then I will follow you and deny myself. And yeah, taking up the cross, I like that idea. But not quite yet.

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But that is foolish. Because this life is not promised. And so you may gain the whole world. And achieve all you ever hoped and dreamed. And then your soul might be required of you that same night. And you never got around to that relationship with God. You never got around to following Jesus. Your soul is the most important thing. That's what's most important. Your soul.

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It's more important than anything else that you need to be concerned with. What's the condition of your soul? And the condition of your soul is determined by the first two points. Denying yourself and surrendering your life to Jesus. Jesus doesn't say, look, if you want to follow me, there's a couple options. First of all, you know, just respond to an invitation sometime. Just pray a prayer and then go on about your life and do whatever else you want to do. And that's fine.

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Now, if you want to be more serious, you want to be more religious, then that's great. Well, then, you know, you can be a disciple and you can deny yourself and take up your cross. Jesus isn't given a menu here. Well, which path do you want to take? He's saying, look, if you want to follow me, here's the way. Remember in John, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father except through me. And so this is a challenge to you and I today.

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There's only one way to the Father. And that's through Jesus. And there's only one way to follow Jesus. That's to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Him. To surrender your life to Jesus. There's not a variety of ways. If you desire to accompany Him, to join up with Jesus, you must deny yourself. Surrender your life to Him. And focus on eternity. Put Him first. His ways. His plans. His ways.

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His purposes. Well finally point number four. We find in verse 26. And that is do not be ashamed of Jesus. Verse 26 says. For whoever is ashamed of me and my words. Of him the son of man will be ashamed when he comes in his own glory. And in his father's. And of the holy angels. Do not be ashamed of Jesus. Now.

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The first three points that we've been looking at, denying yourself and surrendering your life and focusing on eternity, those really deal with your own self, your own ideas, your own thoughts, your own plans, your own priorities. But here this fourth point extends that a little bit and considers the people around you. Don't be ashamed of Jesus. To be ashamed, well, it's when you know Jesus

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These things that Jesus has said, but you don't follow him because of other people. It has to do with the opinions of others and what others think, what others would say, what others do say, what others might say. To be ashamed is to know what's right, to know what the Lord has said, but to not do it because of those others.

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Now, you and I are very familiar with peer pressure, but we tend to think of peer pressure in the context of high school, right? I mean, that's the general placement of this idea of peer pressure. But, you know, of course it extends way beyond that. And you and I make decisions constantly, and we're dealing with what others will think. In fact, I would venture to say that even during our time of worship today, some perhaps were wrestling with

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will I lift my hands in worship you know as the Lord's prompting your heart you're worshiping and you're like oh lift my hands but then what happens your mind starts to think well who's around me and what are they going to think and even though we're in church even though we're amongst fellow Christians we still have this concern well what are they going to think if I raise my hands well they're going to think you're worshiping the Lord that's great but somehow it doesn't seem always that way in our mind

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We're ashamed. So even though perhaps God's prompting your heart to lift your hands, you don't because you're ashamed. Jesus says, whoever is ashamed of me and my words, you know who he is, you know what he said, but you hold back from denying yourself and taking up the cross and following him. You hold back from raising your hands or doing those things that he's put upon your heart. You hold back from speaking forth his words and

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Because you're ashamed. Because of what others might think. You know, I think this is something that the church in general is going to be challenged on and tested in more and more with the issue of marriage and the proclamations that were made by the president this week that he now believes and agrees that homosexuals should be able to be married. It's going to be opportunity for us

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To know what God has said. And not be ashamed of His word. Do not be ashamed of Jesus. Jesus says if you're ashamed of Him and His words. Then He'll be ashamed of you when He comes in His own glory. Jesus came as the Savior. He was crucified. Put to death. And He resurrected on the third day. He ascended up to heaven where He is now. And He's coming back one day. Any day. Any day.

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In glory. And the glory that has always belonged to him because he is God. And when he comes in glory, there will be rewards. There will be lack of rewards. There will also be judgment according to how you have lived. And so Jesus says, if you are ashamed of me, then when I come in glory, I'm going to be ashamed of you. If you're not willing to stand up for me, I won't be willing to stand up for you.

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If you're not willing to listen to my words and follow my words, I will be ashamed of you when I return, when you stand before me in judgment. These are heavy things Jesus is talking about. Again, he's saying, if you want to accompany me, you want to spend eternity with me, this is the way.

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You must follow Jesus and obey Him and walk with Him no matter what others say. No matter what others might think. You must stand up for what He has declared regardless of the people around you. Whether they agree, whether they're with you, whether they're against you, do not be ashamed of Jesus. Again, He started out in verse 23 saying, If anyone desires...

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And so as we finish up our time this morning, I would again ask you, do you desire to follow Jesus? To accompany Him? To join with Him in this life and the one to come? If you have that desire, Jesus doesn't discourage you and say, forget about it. You can't do it. You're a lost cause. Jesus says that to no one. His invitation has come. He doesn't disqualify you. He doesn't discourage you.

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He says, great, that's what I've been wanting. That's what I desire. So here's how. Deny yourself. Surrender your life to Jesus. Focusing on eternity and not being ashamed of Him. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, I pray for each one of us here that you would help us to have a clear understanding of where we are with you when it comes to following you.

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Jesus, I pray that you would reveal our hearts to ourselves. God, that we would not be deceived and think that we are following you when in reality we're not. Help us, God, to see the truth. I pray that you would challenge us. And Lord, even as you say to take up the cross daily and follow you, Lord, I know there's some who have followed you previously, but at some point they stopped making that decision.

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Day by day to follow you. God, I pray that you would speak to their hearts. That you'd reveal yourself to them. Help us, God, to understand that when we try to grasp hold of life and accomplish our purposes and goals, we end up losing everything. Lord, that doesn't make sense to our brain, but help us to accept the truth that you've presented to us. To believe you at your word. That in order to really have life.

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We must deny ourselves and surrender to you completely. And so God, I pray as you're speaking to different hearts, Lord, that you would help them to respond. Lord, that they would not be ashamed. They would not be worried about what others might think, what others would say. Lord, that they wouldn't consider that the things of this life are of more value than eternity. But Lord, that they would grasp hold of you and respond as you call to their hearts. In Jesus' name I pray.

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Amen.