 We're going to look at Matthew chapter 16 today and we're going to be looking together at verses 21 through 26 and frankly what we have in front of us is three different studies that I'm wrapping into one. The first study that we're going to look at is a synopsis. It's going over what we've already gone through in order to develop or set up the scene or the context for the second portion which is found in verses 21 through 23. And then we'll have a third portion that is found in verses 24 through 26. It all ties together but I'm going to have to weave it together over the time of the study. And so you're going to get an introduction that's going to remind you of what we already have looked at. Some of you weren't with us last week and so this may be fresh to you. Then we're going to move into its practical application found in verses 21 through 23 and then conclude with Jesus' call to discipleship. Now it all ties together but it's going to take a little bit of time for me to develop that so we can get to a practical point of application. And so let's begin reading together here in verse 21, Matthew chapter 16, I'll read to verse 23 and we'll get into our study. Matthew 16 beginning at verse 21, reading to verse 23, from that time Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third date. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him saying, Far be it from you, Lord, this shall not happen to you. But he turned and said to Peter, Get behind me Satan, you are an offense to me, for you are not mindful of the things of God but the things of men. Now Jesus is with his disciples in a region called Caesarea Philippi and I was mentioning to you last time we were together that Caesarea Philippi is to the north of the sea of Galilee. It's in a region called Dan and it was about 25 miles north of the sea of Galilee. So if you were looking at a map of Israel and you saw to the north the sea of Galilee you'd proceed 25 miles almost do north and you'd get into the region of Dan and then you'd get into the area called Caesarea Philippi. While Jesus is in this region called Caesarea Philippi, he's with his men and he begins to speak to them and he asks them the most important question. He asks them, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man Am? Now Jesus is aware of the fact that there are those who are influencing his men. There is discussion or talk about the Lord Jesus Christ that he knows that his men are being influenced by or at least aware of. And so the Lord wants to make sure that they are not taken away from the things that he is teaching them. We need to remember that the current population at that time had statements about Jesus and they were saying that he's John the Baptist or he's Elijah, he's Jeremiah, one of the prophets. And so that was a spirit, that was really a deceptive spirit. That was not from God. God was not, in other words, provoking people to believe that Jesus was one of those. God was not saying this is who my son is. That was the current of the world. That was the public opinion of his day and knowing that his disciples are going to be influenced by what people say about him, which is true to this day, Jesus asks the question, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man Am? And immediately they responded, Jeremiah, Elijah. They said John, they said one of the prophets. They responded because they had heard the current talk. At that point the Lord begins to ask them again, but who do you say that I am? And that's when the apostle Peter said thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. You're not simply an ordinary man. You're not even a great man. You're the Son of the living God. That's who you are. You see what we need to do as believers is we need to remain true to what God's word declares concerning Jesus Christ. You see, the ability to be conformed to the world's opinions of Jesus is true. It was true then, it's true today. Somebody will correct you if you say something that goes contrary to public opinion. And if you do say something contrary to public opinion as it relates to Jesus, say it and see what the response may be. Often you're going to hear something negative in response and often that may come out of the lips of fellow Christians. So as a believer in Christ, I need to remain true to what God's word declares. I need to seek His counsel. I need to receive His counsel through the Bible as well as my godly friends. The Bible says to me in Psalm 119, 133, direct my steps by your word and let no iniquity have dominion over me. Or Psalm 32, verse 8, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will guide you with my eye. God wants to direct us through His word, by His spirit. He wants to guide us to go where He would have us to go. That's why the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that people are influencing His apostles and they're aware of the current, asked that question. Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And then that's why He said, but who do you say that I am? Now eternity, with or without God, hinges on their response. And that's why Peter responded, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Again, you're not an ordinary man. You're not even a great man. You are the Son of the living God. Napoleon is reported to have said this, I marvel that whereas the ambitious dreams of myself, Caesar and Alexander should have vanished into thin air, a Judean peasant, Jesus, should be able to stretch his hands across the destinies of many nations. I know men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between him and every other person in the world, there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I myself have founded empires. But upon what do these creations of our genius depend? Upon force. Jesus alone founded His empire upon love, and to this very day millions would die for Him. Jesus was no mere man. He was and He remains a Son of the living God. He's the Savior of the world. And to know and act upon this understanding in faith results in salvation. You see, there are fundamentals and essentials of the Christian faith that are what we call non-negotiables. And if a person does not believe these essentials, they're not Christian. And one such essential is that Jesus is God Almighty clothed in human flesh. In Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6, in the Old Testament it reads, For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. In Matthew 1, 21 through 23, speaking of Mary, it says, She will give birth to a son. You are to give him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet. The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son. They shall call Him Emmanuel, which means God with us. In Hebrews 1, 3, the writer said, The Son, speaking of Jesus, is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven. The Bible teaches Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. He is not a creation of God. He is God in human flesh. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. The Word dwelt amongst us. We beheld His glory. The glory of the only begotten Son of God, full of grace and truth. The Bible makes it very clear that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. One of our members in our fellowship, his name is Steve. Steve was a missionary in Morocco for many years. Speaks fluent Moroccan Arabic, as well as two or three other languages. Steve went to some kind of a Muslim gathering recently, because he still has a heart to minister to and win Muslims to faith in Christ. And so he took a team, and they went together to go minister. And he showed me some pictures. And one of the pictures was interesting that he showed me, because it was a picture of a booth. And the booth had a banner. And the banner said, we love, it said, we love Jesus. We love Jesus because we are Muslim, which I found very interesting. He said, I said, this is, I asked him, are these Muslims, former Muslims? He said, no, no, these are Muslims who say, we love Jesus because we're Muslim. He said, it's one of the ways that they will attract people to discuss Christ. And so he has a picture of him with this fella. And the fella has a t-shirt, the guy who's manning the booth. And the t-shirt says, worship the creator, not his creation. So Islam teaches that Jesus Christ is one of the creations of God, but not God in human flesh. One of the essentials is to know that he is the son of the living God. He is God in human flesh. We need to understand his mission. You see, every human being is born sinful. And we sin because by nature we are sinners. But God sent his son, Jesus, on what is called a rescue mission, that he might rescue those of us who are lost sinners. Now Paul said that in 1 Timothy 1.15 when he said, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. When John the Baptist saw Jesus, John made a clear declaration concerning the Lord in John 129, he said, behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Later the apostle John was writing concerning Jesus' mission in 1 John 3.5. He said, you know that he was manifested to take away our sins. And in him is no sin. That mission, that rescue mission, is completed when Jesus gave his life on the cross for us as a sin offering, because the Bible says, I'll have sin and fall short of the glory of God. And so the Lord gave Jesus to take our place as an offering. In Hebrews 9.26, it says that Jesus appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And so that's what the Lord is dealing with right now as he's laying the context for his disciples. And so when he asked the question, who do men say that I, the Son of man, am? And then he said, but who do you say that I am? That's when the apostle Peter responded in the way that he did and said, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. When we looked at verse 17, Jesus at that point spoke a blessing to the apostle and said, blessed are you, Simon, by Jonah, flesh and blood hasn't revealed this to you. So Peter's confession of faith wasn't simply something that he said. It was something he truly believed. He wasn't just answering a question. He was declaring his complete trust in Christ. And that specific knowledge, as we looked at last time, came by revelation, and that's an important point I'm going to develop in a second. It came by revelation from God. In John 15.26, it says, when the helper, speaking of the Spirit, when the helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify of me. In 1 Corinthians 12.3, Paul said, no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. And so it's not a matter of simply going to catechism classes and receiving religious instruction. It's the Holy Spirit who convicts us of sin, righteousness, and judgment. It's a word of God that explains to us a way of salvation. And combined with the Spirit and the word, we come to faith in Christ, and we're born again. And thus we're able to say, Jesus Christ is the living God, the Son of the living God. And Jesus pronounces a blessing for that. Now after doing so, he speaks concerning a new entity, which is the church, a church that will be built on him. It's a church that he will build. It's a church that belongs to him. It's a new community, and it is invincible because the gates of Hades cannot withstand its onslaught. So as we looked at that together, we move now into verse 21, and it says, from that time, Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. So after such an incredible revelation, the thought that Jesus would suffer was too much for them to hear. The disciples couldn't grasp such a thing that Jesus would die and that he'd be raised from the dead. His disciples didn't realize it, but he's revealing how the church will be born. You see, the church is gonna be born through his death, burial, and resurrection. And they don't understand it at that moment, but that's how the church came into being. Somebody once wrote, the church's one foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is his new creation by water and the word. From heaven, he came and sought her to be his holy bride. With his own blood, he bought her, and for her life, he died. And so Jesus is making it clear that the way that the church will be birthed is when he dies, is buried, and resurrected. Now, as we've been going through Matthew, up to this point, Jesus had said nothing explicit, really, about his suffering, dying, and resurrecting. We've seen that he's given brief insights into this, but he hasn't spoken explicitly about it. When we looked at Matthew 1240, he had said, the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. He repeated that in chapter 16, but now he is crystal clear. He's saying it this way, I will be betrayed, I will suffer, I will die, and I will be resurrected. So this is very clear. It's difficult for them to comprehend. They didn't understand it actually until all things had been accomplished. But that's what he's speaking about. And so he says to them that he needed to go to Jerusalem and he needed to suffer. In other words, it's a divine imperative. That is how God rescues sinners. He does it through his merciful intervention on their behalf. Paul said in Romans 5 verse 6, when we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. And so Jesus must go to Jerusalem. Hostility has been growing towards him. He's been contradicting and correcting the teachings of the scribes and Pharisees. He's exposed the hypocrisy of many. We saw in verse 3 of chapter 16 that he called the Pharisees and Sadducees hypocrites. But now he's making it clear that he's gonna suffer many things because of that. When it speaks here and it says, suffer many things from the elders, chief priests and scribes, he's speaking of the Jewish High Council. The Jewish High Council is also referred to as the Sanhedrin. They're so inflamed against him that they are ultimately gonna kill him. When he says that he will be killed, that word killed there is a strong word. It means murdered. They are gonna kill him violently. And that's the point that he's making. So he instructs them. He instructs them in this way to prepare them to give them hope. Because when it comes to pass, they're gonna be filled with shock, with sorrow, with fear and unbelief. They need to see beyond the immediate. They need to see what the fruit's going to be. And that's why he says, but I'll be raised the third day. And the gates of Hades will not prevail against the church because I, he's saying, will conquer death. Death itself cannot keep me bound. That is the heart of the gospel. In Acts 2, 23, and 24, it said, this man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge in you with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. So he says, I will be raised again the third day. Now, as he says, let's notice Peter's response, verse 22. Peter took him aside, began to rebuke him saying, far be it from you, Lord, this shall not happen to you. It's almost like Peter is saying, you've been under a lot of stress lately. Let me take you aside and give you some encouragement because after all, remember, I'm the one who receives revelation. You just pronounced a blessing on me, blessed are you, Simon, Bar-Joan, a flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, so I'm the one who receives revelation. So let me give you a revelation for your life. Let me speak into your soul, Jesus. You've been so busy, you're so tired, far be it from you that this should occur. So what is he trying to do? He's trying to dissuade him privately. It's interesting when it speaks concerning him bringing a rebuke. Notice in verse 22 how it says, began to rebuke. That word rebuke speaks of a word of correction based on attempting to preserve someone's honor. In other words, it's not necessary that there was any sin involved or any real error that needed to be confessed to. What he was trying to do was bring a word of encouragement and he was attempting to honor the Lord by dissuading him from following through with this. But how did Jesus respond to that? Verse 23, he turned and said, Peter, shut up. He turned around and he said, man, Peter. You know, it's been said that Peter, Peter would take his foot out of his mouth only to reinsert the other one. And that's kind of how the apostle seems to me sometimes. So what he's saying is, he's saying, get behind me, Satan, you are an offense to me for you're not mindful of the things of God but the things of man. Now, even though Peter took him aside privately, Jesus rebukes him in front of everybody else. He said it openly. He says, get behind me, Satan. Now, why would he say that? Why would he say to the apostle Peter, get behind me, Satan? We need to remember the word Satan translated means adversary, opponent. So Jesus is not saying that Peter is literally Satan but he's saying to Peter is the influence that you have been influenced by is not my father. A moment before God had influenced the apostle Peter to say you are the Christ, the son of the living God and that's why Jesus would pronounce a blessing on him because the Holy Spirit, the father, had provoked him to this confession of faith but now another kind of spirit is provoking him and it is not the spirit of the father, it is the enemy. It's the enemy Satan's influence in the life of Peter that is attempting to use the influence and love that Peter has for Christ and the love that Jesus has for Peter to turn Jesus from the cross and to not do the things that God had stated needed to be done in order for salvation to be won. Satan has already attempted, in Matthew 4, already attempted to get Jesus to take the crown without the cross. He already has promised Jesus the kingdoms of the world if Jesus would only worship him. He's already attempted to get Jesus to bow his knee to him without going to the cross and this is just another effort on his part to do the same. So Peter has been influenced by Satan to attempt to persuade Jesus to avoid the cross and that's why Jesus makes it very clear that he's going to the cross. And when he said, get behind me Satan, you are an offense to me. You are not mindful of the things of God. The word mindful means you are not aware of, centered on or intent on the things that are pleasing to God. How do I illustrate that in a way that makes sense? It's difficult for me to put into words when I'm trying to say let's do the best I can and see what happens. I've had people approach me and speak to me in the past who have said something and I've looked at him and I've said, you know, that's really not you speaking. Who have you been talking to? Who have you been talking to? Who's influencing you? And what do you mean? No, who's influencing you? Those aren't your words. Someone's been talking to you. I've said it to my kids. They'll say something. I'll say, who's been talking to you? These are inventions of my own mind. No, they're not. No, somebody has been telling, has anybody here ever done anything like that where somebody's talking to you? But that's your voice and that's your body but that's not your thought. Somebody's influencing you. Who's influencing you? And that's what is basically taking place here is that the enemy is influencing the apostle Peter. So Jesus speaks to the influence. Get thee behind me, Satan, adversary, opponent. You're attempting to keep me from the cross. Get thee behind me because this idea that I should not go and lay my life down for the sin of the world. This idea that I am not the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This idea that I am not to be betrayed. This idea that I'm not to be tried. This idea that I'm not to be killed and buried and then resurrected does not come from the Father. This is your invention, Satan, to keep me from the cross because you know in the cross I will crush your head and so you're influencing my beloved apostle to try and dissuade me from going to the cross which is the only means of salvation that God has provided for man. Because if righteousness came by the law, Paul said, then Christ has died in vain. There was no reason for it. If I could get right with God through my own effort or by abiding by certain rules then why did Jesus come and die in the first place, Paul said, and that's the fact. And so that's what's happening and there are times when the enemy will attempt to keep you from doing what God says when you sense in your heart that he is leading you in this direction. We have had times in our fellowship when we've had people who wanna be in missions, be a missionary. And they're saying I'm gonna go to such and so country, I wanna serve the Lord there and their parents are saying no, they even have called us and said what are you doing? How are you influencing our kids? My kid shouldn't be a missionary. I want my kid to be a doctor. But what if God is calling them to the mission field? Am I supposed to dissuade them from going into the mission field? Simply because mama and daddy want them closer to home. There have been times in my own life when I have been in prayer about something and I don't know about you but there are times when I've openly said to the Lord, God be merciful to me, I'm such a sinner. I can remember one particular time where I remember praying saying, Lord, this was quite some time ago but I've never forgotten this lesson about 30 plus years ago to be honest with you but I was praying in my office and I was saying, Father, I don't wanna be critical. I don't wanna be harsh. I don't wanna be unloving. I wanna be filled with your grace and God help me because it seems like I'm everything but that. And then I have a counseling appointment with a guy who comes in and sits down and as we're talking, he's in sin. He's in sin. And I have to tell you, man, as a pastor, it's difficult sometimes to have to confront that. You don't wanna do that. You don't wanna sit down with someone and say, listen, you just don't. You would like everybody to have a great day. I mean, I'm one of these, yeah, let's get along. But when they're sinning, it has to be dealt with and it has to be done in a gracious way and you just don't ignore it. You don't leave it alone. It has to be dealt with because a little 11-11's the whole lump and that whole batch of dough is gonna be infected by sin because it appears that we don't care about what God wants to do and all of that. And so you have to deal with it. And so I still remember this conversation where this guy is speaking to me and I had to talk to him about his sin. I said, well, you know, bro, and I told him some things and I'll never forget as he just said, he was only maybe three feet away where he's sitting and chairs just facing each other and he says, doesn't it bother you to be so harsh, unloving, lacking in grace and judgmental? Doesn't it bother you? And I said, dad, I'm sorry. No, I didn't. I don't mean to be so mean to you, papa. And it rang in my ears. And I thought, how interesting, how interesting that my own words come back to haunt me through the lips of somebody who's trying to tell me what I'm doing isn't of the Lord. Have you ever had that happen? I have. Where somebody's trying to say, this is what the Lord had had for you when in fact, you know the opposite is true. And here's Peter saying, oh no, this shouldn't happen to you at all. Far be it from you, Lord. This shall not happen to you. Again, you can trust me. I'm the apostle Peter. I am Rocky. You can trust me. Get thee behind me, Satan. You are an offense to me. You're not mindful of the things of God. You are not centered on God's plan. I see the Spirit provoking the words and he deals with the one who's provoking those words. You have failed to set your mind on God's interests. You have put your mind on your own. And so that's how he's dealing with them and he confronts him about that. That's your second message. Here's your third one. Moving into verse 24. Then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me for whoever desires to save his life, will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake, will find it. What is a man profited if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? What will a man give in exchange for his soul? How costly is your soul? Now in Mark 834, Mark made it clear that Jesus was not speaking just to his disciples, but there were others, and his disciples meaning his apostles, but there were others because in Mark 834 it says, when he had called the people to him with his disciples also, he said to them, whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. So he called the people to himself as well as his disciples. And so as you continue, it may not seem to actually have a flow, but indeed it does because Jesus has just spoken about how the church is going to be birthed and he now goes in to describe the individuals who make up that church. And he speaks concerning disciples. So when it says Jesus said to his disciples, he's speaking concerning the fact that these are his followers. And he's calling people to himself, not just apostles, but he's calling people to be his disciples. And he's gonna make it clear that to be one of his disciples requires self-sacrifice and self-denial. There is a cost to being a disciple. Now I've mentioned to you, and you might wanna mark this if you take notes, that the word disciple is the common way of speaking of a Christian. The word disciple is used 29 times. The word disciple's plural is used 243 times for a total of 272 times in the New Testament. It's interesting to note that 272 times, people are called either disciple or disciples, but the word Christian is only used twice and Christians in plural is only used once and the word believer is used two times. The overwhelming majority of the time that the Lord is speaking of his followers, he uses the word disciple. And so a disciple is the one who learns and follows Jesus over a lifetime. There is no such thing as a part-time follower of Christ because God is calling us to permanently follow him without looking back. Now it's interesting that instead of welcoming them to follow him, he is now challenging them. Now why would he do that? Why would Jesus impose these kinds of terms on those who wanted to follow him? You would think that the more the merrier, the more people following me, the better. I wanna be a very important person. I want all kinds of, you would think that that, at least in the natural, you would think that the more the better, but somebody once said an appeal to self-interest always attracts the wrong kind of follower. The road of following the Lord is difficult, but the cost for refusing him is much higher. So Jesus is issuing a challenge for people everywhere to become his disciples. He's not calling me to be once in a while Christian. He's calling me to follow him daily. He wants us to be his disciple. Now how do I become a disciple? Notice what he says in verse 24. He says, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, follow me. So he begins there in a very simple way. First, I want you to notice, he says, if anyone, and in other words, his invitation is to anyone and to everyone. That's including every person in this room, every person in this world is being invited in one form or another to be a follower of Christ because God loves the world. Isaiah 45-22, God says, look to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth. In 1 Timothy 2, verse four, God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. So he says, the invitation, if anyone, is to everyone, but he goes on to say, if anyone desires to come after me, the word desire means to delight in, to purpose or resolve. If anyone resolves to follow me, let him follow after me. So following Christ is a voluntary act of your will. That's an important point because when I was a few months old, about four months old, my parents, my mother actually took me and I had received water baptism as an infant. I had an uncle and an aunt who stood by proxy for me and they believed that at that time I was being brought into the family of God through water baptism, but the Bible never teaches that I became a follower of Christ through somebody else's faith. As I mentioned to you before, it takes personal faith in Christ, not somebody else's faith. And so Jesus is saying, follow me. He's not forcing people to follow him, but he's inviting people to follow him. God desires all to come to him, but not everybody sees the need to do so. Some don't see it as necessary, some don't believe, and some feel it's not worth the effort, but the way you become a member of the family of God is through receiving him. In John 11 and 12, it says he came to his own, his own did not receive him, but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name. So his message is, if anyone desires to follow, respond in a certain way. Well, how do you respond? Well, he says, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow. When he says deny yourself, that means no longer serve your own interest. It speaks of forgetting about yourself. If a person is gonna be a follower of Christ, they say no to their own desires and yes to his. That's how it is. That's what Christianity is, and I realized, I was speaking to my wife about this just yesterday, I realized that that isn't a message that has ever been really a popular one. The idea of denying myself and picking up a cross and following him, that is not a popular idea. Most people don't want that. I was just reading a satirical column where somebody had written concerning a young woman, and it was satire, it was irony, it was just intended to bring humor because it was showing to us kind of the odd way people can think and all, but it says this woman went to a woman's conference and it was amazed at how she came away from that woman's conference learning and had never realized how awesome she really is. Because in a lot of ways, that's kind of what we wanna hear. How awesome am I? How wonderful am I? You know, it's kind of like we look at the psalmist David and he writes how that he was out there in the wilderness and he was, he said, I was looking at the stars and when I look at the stars, the universe that you've placed into order and all, he says, I begin to wonder how wonderful I am. No, he didn't say that. He says, what is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you should even consider him? Listen, the closer you get to the things of the Lord, the less great you see yourself and the greater he becomes. That's called Christianity and when we get caught up wanting to to be the center of the universe, we forget that there's already one who is and that's Jesus Christ and that's why Jesus said, deny yourself, learn to serve others. I wonder what would happen in marriages if husbands and wives actually learned to deny themselves. If husbands and wives actually learned to serve one another, I wonder what would happen in Christian families if moms and dads actually learned to minister the faith of God to their children in a way that would cause their children to say, the kind of life that you live is the kind of life that I want to adopt for myself. I want to be a person who loves God and follows God. I wonder what would happen in churches if members of the church would actually learn to esteem others being better than themselves the way Scripture teaches because I was speaking to someone just the other day and I asked him the question, when is the last time you heard about a division in a church that was caused by people trying to be the number one servant in the church? Most of the time that's not what happens, right? It's people wanting to be the greatest in the church, having most attention in the church and that's what happens. So what does Jesus say? Now, this is not attractive, but it's true. He says, deny yourself, pick up your cross, follow me. Deny yourself. Stop putting yourself in front of everybody else and learn how to give way to somebody else's. Why? Won't that show me to be a punk or kind of weak or whatever? No, if there's ever been anybody alive who with just a look could wither people, I guess it's Jesus. I'm assuming that. If he can control the winds and the waves, if somebody came up to Christ, I suspect that he was the baddest person in the universe. I don't know that he'd have been an MMA fighter, but he'd be undefeated, there's no doubt. And yet, he allowed himself to be taken, brutalized, killed, murdered, savagely. You're the greatest in the kingdom as a servant of all. And what the church needs today are service-oriented people. I mean, we had that community wedding. People donated a cake large enough to feed 250 people. Usher's came on their Saturday to help. I was so blessed that I actually, I know this will surprise you, I actually teared up. What a wimp, right? I mean, it touched my heart so deeply, so deeply that this is part of the family that God gave me to be part of. I was so blessed, I was so blessed by that because that's Christianity, that's denying yourself. And to pick up the cross, to pick up your cross, the cross is an instrument of torture and death. You're to die to yourself. So you yield up the direction of your life to the Lord and instead of plotting your own course, you follow his lead in your life. You are loyally obedient to him. So you spend time with the Lord in prayer. You spend time with the Lord in his word. You spend time in fellowship with other believers, sharing the word of God with other, serving God and you learn to die to yourself. It's interesting how he says in verse 25, whoever desires to save his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. If you're gonna live in eternity, you die to your natural and ungodly desires now. And then he asks this question, and we'll close with the question, for what is a man profited if he gains a whole world loses his own soul, what will a man give in exchange for his soul? When I was young, I didn't understand that very much. I'm understanding it better now as I'm growing older in the Lord. I'm understanding it better now. When I was young and I had small kids, I would say to you, those of you who are old and might remember, I would say, the only thing I really want for my kids is for them to serve the Lord when they were little. I still say that now that they're all old. And now I'm saying, and my greatest desire is to see my grandchildren serve the Lord. And it is more deep in my heart now than it was when they were small. I've had my kids say, Dad, why don't you go out and do something? I'll go home and I'll just relax on the couch or whatever, Dad, you ought to go and do something. Don't you want to do something to make you happy? And I say, I am happy, I am happy. What would make me happier than sitting here right now with you or what makes me happier than to be with my wife? Listen, God has given me many opportunities over the years. I followed the Lord for a number of years since I was 20 years old. And I'll be 66 years old this month. I've been following the Lord for a long time. And I can tell you, there is nothing more satisfying than to see your kids love Jesus, your grandchildren cared for, and me to be able to sit on my couch, drinking a cup of coffee with my wife. There's nothing more satisfying than that and seeing people come to faith in Christ, that causes my heart to rejoice because that's the purpose of life. What would it profit a man to gain the whole world to have the coolest car? Not that you shouldn't have a cool car. Cool cars are cool, I like cool cars. I don't care, I'm not down in having a cool car. Do you want a Maserati? Give me a ride, I'm cool with that. But you know as well as I, that once you drive it for a year, you start thinking, man, I wish I had, because that's what the water of the world does. It continues making you thirsty. That's what it does. But there's nothing more, to me at least, there's nothing more satisfying and gratifying than to know that God has blessed my life by walking with him, he's given to me a wife who loves Jesus, children who serve the Lord, grand babies who are being raised in the faith. And I discovered a long time ago, there's nothing that profits a man outside of a relationship with Jesus Christ. Not a single thing can ever satisfy you. And then the day comes when I stand before the Lord, I'm not gonna look at him and say, but you know I always wanted that 63 Corvette and you didn't give it to me and that's why I don't wanna go to heaven. No, I'm gonna say anything like that. You didn't give me enough? You didn't bless me enough? No, you blessed me so much that I can contain all the blessings you poured into my life. What is greater? What shall that profit a man? You see, eternity with the Lord is far more satisfying than accumulation of temporary pleasure. That's why Jesus said in Matthew 6, 19 and 20, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal. Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy, where thieves do not break in and steal. To seek after that which cannot fulfill nor last is an absolutely foolish investment. What is a man profited if he gains a whole world? Loses his soul. One last insight. Jesus is drawing a comparison from what we would call commercial life. Notice how he uses the word profited, gains, loses and exchange. They are all commercial terms. So temporary gain is being compared to eternal life. And to seek after that which cannot fulfill nor last, Jesus is saying is an absolutely foolish investment. The Psalmists in Psalm 49, 5 through 10 said, why should I fear when evil days come when wicked deceivers surround me, those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches? No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him. The ransom for a life is costly. No payment is ever enough that he should live on forever and not see decay for all can see that wise men die the foolish and the senseless alike perish and leave their wealth to others. The way Rockefeller was said concerning him, somebody asked one of Rockefellers, the richest men wherever lived in the United States, asked, they asked Rockefeller's aid, how much did he leave behind? And the aid answered, everything, everything. He didn't take anything with him. The only thing that lasts is that what you invest into the kingdom of God. And that's what Jesus is saying, what is the profit of man to gain the whole world? Lose his soul, what will you give in exchange for your soul? A night with that guy, a little extra dope, a little more alcohol, a little more money? You know, beat that guy up because he looked at you wrong. I mean, what are you gaining from that? What do you ultimately gain from that? Jesus would say, absolutely nothing, absolutely nothing. The only thing that matters is what you've done for him. That's why he says, deny yourself, pick up your cross, follow me. That's why he says to Peter, get thee behind me. The influence behind you is keeping me from the cross. But if I don't go to the cross, then I'm not gonna be able to develop and give and have the church birthed and the gates of Hades cannot prevail against the church. So in order for the church to be birthed, if I need to go to the cross, do not dissuade me and I'm asking you now, count the cost so you can follow me because your soul is worth it. And that's why Jesus died on the cross to redeem and ransom you. So the day would come when you stand before him and you say to him, thank you, Lord, for allowing me into your kingdom. Thank you for forgiving me of my sins, for cleansing me. Thank you for the blessing to port into my life. And the moments that I really didn't understand what you were doing, I always knew one thing. You were busy, you were active, and you were doing something that was conforming me into your image. I may not have given you thanks at that moment because I didn't see your hand, but now I do. And for that, I am grateful. And you'll hear his voice when he says to you, come into this kingdom that has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And you'll say, amen. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.