[0:00] Thank you, Ben and Kristen. We'll jump back into Luke chapter number 18 today. Eric Elrod and I have this joke after being on a phone call and explaining something to each other or working on a project together and feeling like all the details have been laid out.
[0:15] When I go to get off the phone with him, he'll say, well, just let me know and I'll help. And I'll say, what do you mean just let you know? That's what we just talked about for the last hour. This whole conversation was letting you know.
[0:26] But it's a good Southern way of getting out of something, right? Somebody asks you to help and say, hey, I could really use your help on this. And then when you leave, say, well, just let me know. And then you don't have to do anything, right? Is to say, I don't have the information needed, just let me know.
[0:39] And we've done that for a while now. But, you know, there's more than one way to not understand something than not having people explain it to you. It's just where there's not a category in your mind for it.
[0:51] That's what we're looking at here with the disciples. I remind you, Jesus gathers the 12. He talks to them. He says, behold, we're gonna go to Jerusalem. They knew what that meant. That phrase was just filled with anticipation or anxiety for them, the hostility that was going.
[1:08] They knew what Jesus meant as he was headed to Jerusalem. So very few of you ever come down to my office area. But in my office, I have the book of Luke on the wall. And this is a turning point, as we can see, as they begin to head towards Jerusalem.
[1:22] And so as we get here, I can see it visually on that poster, but the disciples had it. They felt it coming. And so he says, we're gonna go to Jerusalem, and all that's been prophesied about me is gonna be fulfilled, and I'm gonna deliver it into the hand of the Gentiles.
[1:37] I'll be mocked. I'll be spitefully entreated and spit on and scourged and put to death. And on the third day, I'll rise again. And this is what it says about them. And it says, and they, the disciples, understood none of these things.
[1:54] These were, they understood when Jesus spoke. He had been clear. He had been talking to them, but they were just missing it. They were missing the understanding. They hadn't developed yet an understanding of the role of suffering in the ministry of Jesus.
[2:10] They hadn't come to an understanding of the role of suffering in their ministry. And so the disciples are missing the understanding because it just doesn't make sense to them. They're looking for a messianic king and a kingdom.
[2:22] They're looking for a coronation and not a crucifixion. They're looking for a Messiah who kills his enemies and not a Messiah that would be killed. They're looking for one that's gonna come triumphantly and not be tortured, one that's bringing life and not a Messiah who would be dead.
[2:40] And it just seems the idea of a crucified Messiah was just absurd to them. It almost was ridiculous to the point that they couldn't even comprehend it. Jesus had been saying it, and this isn't the first time, but they just can't comprehend it yet.
[2:55] The role of suffering is going to play in this story here. Jesus never offers a kingdom without a cross. When he says, written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man, he's saying, what I've been telling you has always been, it's always been talked about.
[3:13] Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, Zechariah 12, clear descriptions of it. All the pictures of the Old Testament show a sacrifice, a suffering lamb, the lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world, that he's gonna offer a kingdom through the cross.
[3:28] Remember on the road to Emmaus after the disciples, and Jesus is walking with them, and he explains to them what he's trying to explain to them right now is that this has always been God's plan from the beginning, that Jesus would come, the suffering servant, and that he would die in our place.
[3:45] But when Jesus said it to them, and he was explaining the game plan, and they were huddled up, they're just like, I don't get it. Jesus has been teaching them in the necessity.
[3:57] Just so far in this, I'll just stay in the book of Luke. Luke, it says in chapter number 9, verse 44, he says, let these sayings sink down into your ears. I know that's how David addresses his kids when they're not listening, right?
[4:09] Listen, let this thing sink down into your ears. The Son of Man shall be delivered into the hands of men. In Luke 12, he tells them that there's a baptism that he's gonna be baptized with that has to be accomplished.
[4:21] In Luke 13, he tells them that it'll be on the third day that it's perfected. And then Luke 17, 25, I must suffer many things and be rejected of this generation.
[4:32] It wasn't from a lack of information that the disciples had that they were having trouble with this. It's just they didn't have a category for suffering that had been developed in their lives in regard to following after Christ.
[4:47] Everybody wants to follow a triumphant king. But what about a man of sorrows? Everybody wants to be on the winning team, right? But when they begin, when things begin to change, so many people come and they don't want to follow with him.
[5:03] Isaiah, this term, man of sorrows, the song that gets sung here on occasion, Isaiah 53 says, And he is despised and rejected a man, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.
[5:15] And we hid as were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. But on Wednesday, we have the great joy of seeing the teal's head, the china, and they'll be by in the morning.
[5:27] And some of you will stop by and see them and pray with them. But they'll get over to that part of the world this time of year and they will have the opportunity to explain Christmas to some people.
[5:37] As you know, they both speak Chinese. And as they begin to tell about this baby in a manger, and they'll talk about how there's a shadow of the cross over this manger and how that baby was born to live a life and to die for their sins.
[5:52] And we can rejoice in that. But that's not the story that most people understand. A man of sorrows, Philippians 3.10 talks about this fellowship of his suffering that we've been invited into.
[6:06] The disciples are being invited to it in a very literal sense when Jesus says, Hey, let's go to Jerusalem as disciples or followers of Jesus. When we put our faith and trust in him, he told us to take up our cross.
[6:17] We're invited into the same fellowship of suffering. And let me take a moment because the Bible does here to just spend a moment to talk about that suffering. On every imaginable level, he suffers.
[6:31] In Psalm 41.9, it says, Yea, my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, has lifted up his hill against me. That prophecy will be fulfilled when Judas, who had been with him all that time, will walk up to the Son of God and will kiss him on the cheek to mark him, to let the people know that are watching that this was him, that this was the Christ, and that he'll be betrayed in such an intense fashion.
[7:01] He'll be rejected by people that he came to bring peace. In Luke 19, he looks over a city and he weeps for them. Had they not known that which belongs on the peace, but they have hid their eyes from him.
[7:14] He came bringing peace, but they rejected the peace that he was bringing to them. And in Zechariah 13.7, it says, If you smite the shepherd, the sheep should scatter.
[7:26] That Jesus is dying on the cross, the disciples scatter out. That they all go in different directions. These are all forms of suffering. And the most profound rejection, that of his nation, more than the nation, more than the disciples, is that in Matthew 27.46, when he says, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
[7:47] Because my mind is limited in comprehending the Trinity and the relationship between the Father and the Son. I can't even hardly understand all the suffering that goes involved in that.
[7:58] But I know that on every imaginable level, Jesus Christ, he suffers. And then the cross. I'm talking about the instrument, the wooden cross, the two beams put together.
[8:10] They're made in such a way that prolong suffering. They were made for that entire purpose. It isn't right to just say that the cross was made to execute people. That could have been done in many ways.
[8:21] The cross was made to prolong the suffering of the execution of somebody. So as I've already read to you, it says he'll be delivered into the hand of the Gentiles, the Jewish people. We're going to turn them over to the Romans, the Gentiles.
[8:34] And those people are going to mock him. They're going to cast lots at his feet. They're going to bid over his things here. They're going to say, put a sign up there. Call him the king of the Jews. They will spit upon him, which is disrespectful in every culture.
[8:49] But certainly here in this, when they spit upon this man, they will scourge him and put him to death. But it doesn't end there, right? And on the third day, he shall rise again, which is wonderful.
[9:03] But all those other things are going to take place before the disciples get to sit with him again. And that's what going to Jerusalem is about and is inviting them to him. So they're developing a category of suffering when it comes to following Christ.
[9:17] Come with me to Jerusalem. We don't understand this. Well, as you grow in your understanding of what I'm going to do, you'll grow in your understanding of suffering. I ask you, do you have a category for suffering of the Son of God coming into the world to die on a cross to bear your sins, to take your punishment, to die in your place, to receive the wrath of God instead of you receiving it?
[9:39] Do you believe that Jesus Christ, as God has came into this world, died as a substitute for sin, who was the sinless one, rose again the third day as God affirmed the satisfaction of His own sacrifice by His Son?
[9:52] Salvation, coming to understanding of Jesus Christ for salvation means that you understand why He came to suffer. You understand why He had to go to the cross because you recognized that you were a sinner and that the penalty was going to be paid by Him.
[10:07] There becomes a category in your life where you understand suffering, but it doesn't stop there. As a believer, as a group of believers meeting on a Sunday morning together, I ask you this, do you believe that God would invite you to join Him in His suffering?
[10:22] Does any request from Him that leads to discomfort cause you to question His love for you? Do you believe that He might call you in the suffering?
[10:33] So many times, Jesus laid something upon my heart, Holy Spirit's laid something upon my heart, and I say, that sounds like a great plan, but then comes in the category of suffering or the discomfort or what I'm going to have to give up.
[10:46] And then I begin to ask, are you talking to me? Are you sure that that's what you're really inviting me to? Is there another plan that you might have that is much more comfortable? And then we'll get to that more in a second.
[10:57] But verse number 32, so after explaining the suffering to them, and before they say we don't have a category of understanding, He says, for He shall be delivered into the hand of the Gentiles, delivered unto the Gentiles.
[11:11] I want to remind you about the will of God through the hands of men. Men as secondary causes in the story. Acts 2.23 says that it was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God He had taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.
[11:31] Determined counsel of God and by wicked hands. So, in the crucifixion of Jesus, the Jews were involved in a parallel passage to this. In Mark, it says that the Son of Man will be delivered unto the chief priest and unto the scribes who would condemn Him to death.
[11:47] That's speaking about Jewish people. But in Matthew 20.19 it says, you delivered unto the Gentiles the mock and the scourge. The same in Luke. So, the Jews are involved and the Gentiles are involved.
[11:58] Then it gets even more personal in Colossians 1.22 in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable. You are involved in the death of Christ.
[12:09] Jews and Gentiles and you, He died in our place. Its secondary causes are human. The primary cause is divine by the predetermined plan of God.
[12:22] We're seeing it here in a very negative, in a very evil fashion that God would allow the involvement of evil hands, wicked hands, as it says in the book of Acts, to be used in the crucifixion of Jesus, which reminds us that the will of God comes through the hands of men.
[12:43] that we play a role in this story. And so when He invites the disciples to join Him, because they will have a role to play as well, when Jesus calls us to Himself, He calls us into a fellowship of suffering.
[12:58] Behold, we go up to Jerusalem. Could they have decided to sit this one out? Jesus says, we're going to go up to Jerusalem? And they could have said, this is as far as I go. A lot of people have already said that to Him.
[13:09] More people are saying that than not. They could have. Many people are walking away from Jesus. More people are walking away than following.
[13:20] Somebody, well, I'll meet and they'll find out I'm pastor of a church and they'll say, how many people does your church run? That's a common way of asking. And I heard this years ago and this is what I always say. I say, we're running thousands of people, all right?
[13:32] But only a fraction of people are following Jesus, all right? Meaning that thousands of people are running away from the message that the church preaches about Jesus and the gospel. But we have dozens of people that are following Him.
[13:46] And that's what's happening there. I thought it was quite comical. I thought y'all took it very seriously, didn't you? I guess it is kind of an intense way to say it is that we're running thousands of people, running away from this message.
[13:58] Anytime you go and share the gospel message with somebody and then they hear and they say, like the rich, rung ruler, it doesn't matter if he was walking away or running away, he was walking away from life.
[14:09] He didn't decide he was going to follow. He was not, I will follow you up to Jerusalem with these other disciples. He was just saying, I'm out. The cost is too great. I'm not in it. And so people are walking away.
[14:21] In John 6, that's what they even say, right? Many of the disciples left in John 6, 66 because of Jesus' hard sayings. He said things, they didn't understand it and instead of sticking around and said, I don't get what you're saying, but I'm going to stick around and understand it because I can trust you.
[14:37] You have the words of life. As Peter said, many of them left at that time. And I remind you that suffering is central to our story. It's not just the consequence.
[14:47] It was part of God's plan. It's part of God's plan from the beginning. It was part of God's plan to go to the cross. It's part of His plan when you go to serve Him. If we're going to show Christ to the world, then we have to show the true Christ, not an imaginary Jesus, the true Christ, the Scripture, the one who goes outside of the camp.
[15:08] That is where He is and that's where He calls us to go. 2 Corinthians 1, 8, 9. This says it so plain and clear for us. For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure above strength insomuch that we despaired even of life.
[15:29] But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, but we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raises the dead. I don't want you to be ignorant about this. We've had a death sentence on our days all day long from the very beginning of this thing.
[15:45] And we do not trust in ourselves, but we trust in the God who has raised His Son from the dead. And all of this seems like foolishness to the world.
[15:55] 1 Corinthians 1, 18. For the preaching of the cross to them which perisheth is foolishness, but which are saved it is the power of God.
[16:08] Everything about it seems to be foolish. The whole Messiah being crucified, that seems to be foolish. The fact that we would preach this message, it seems to be foolish.
[16:19] And so I ask you, how do you view the suffering of Christ? As a believer, you don't consider it foolishness. It is the power of God. And the salvation. That Jesus Christ would die in your place.
[16:31] That gospel message, the good news. And how about the suffering He invites you into? And so maybe you say, I can understand the suffering that Jesus has, but what about the suffering that He invites you into?
[16:43] You may not call it foolishness, but do you see it as the power of God? Do you see it as necessary? You may not scoff at the suffering that Jesus went through, but are you like the disciples when Jesus calls you to join Him in the fellowship of the suffering?
[16:57] So now in modern day, Vision Baptist Church, we huddle together and Jesus says, behold, we go up to Jerusalem. And the narrator says, and they understood none of these things because it did not fit into the story of their lives.
[17:12] Right? Is that what the narrator would say when God comes to you? When the Holy Spirit says, hey, I want you to go with me to Jerusalem. Hey, I want you to go into me in this area of town. I want to lead you into this area of ministry.
[17:24] I want to lead you into suffering because it will be ministry and you would just say, hey, let me know about that, right? As Eric Elrod would say, just let me know about that.
[17:35] And all that's been given is there. We like to think of our lives as a fairy tale. Stuff that know this, but I don't think so mine. The night we got engaged at the Westin Plaza, we didn't eat there because we couldn't afford to.
[17:48] I'm not sure we still could, but we didn't eat there that night. We just rode the elevator up. It's the dial, the sundial restaurant that's spinning at the top. And so I took Stephanie up there and an elevator and she says, you must be really afraid of elevators.
[18:02] You're nervous. I'm like, it has nothing to do with heights, all right? It's about the other jump we're about to make together. And I took her up there in case she said no, she would find a different way down, right? And so I took her up there and I wouldn't have thrown Stephanie off.
[18:15] That's what I was implying, but I wouldn't have done it. But I went up there and I think my friend Jake had helped me or I don't know how I got it up there. But before we went up there, I had a book made and I created a book, an animation, and it was a story of a princess and a knight.
[18:31] I'm the knight, she's the princess, all right? And it tells a story. And so we're walking around and we come upon this table and there's a book that is there and we begin to read it together.
[18:42] And as we begin to read it together, she should have known, this looks like a pretty cheap book, all right? to be at this place. But as we got to it and it turns and then it's where I get down on my knee and I propose to her and I ask her to marry me, which was how the story was supposed to end.
[18:58] And everybody said, thank you very much, I appreciate that. But that is, that's what we want from our lives. We want fairy tales. But you know, in fairy tales, there's dragons.
[19:10] And in fairy tales, the knight has to have a sword. In every good story, there is still suffering and there's still challenges. And so I could tell you that that naive young 20s couple had no idea what we were asking of each other in that commitment.
[19:27] And there's been hard days, but it's been worth it to be together. And I would say, wherever we go, you know, we'll go together. And that's an earthly relationship. That is an earthly understanding where I can say, Stephanie, these have been hard years at times as everybody experiences.
[19:46] But we got to be together. There's so much more where the disciples would say, it was more than a song to them when they would say, wherever he leads, I'll go. It wasn't just a song.
[19:57] It was something that they really said. You can lead us in the suffering and we will follow. The greatest story that will ever be told is one of suffering and obedience to the Father's will.
[20:07] And this is the story we rejoice in for all eternity. So here, Jesus has invited us to follow him. The path is not the one that we've been taught to seek.
[20:18] It will come with suffering. However, it allows us to walk with him. He will accomplish much along the way and he will allow us to be involved. We very much, as a church, as with an open Bible, preach a counter-cultural message in a world that says that we should do everything to make our lives as soft as possible to avoid suffering at all costs.
[20:41] We say, no, we follow Jesus at all costs. And so let us follow Jesus with resolve and valor. Let us follow Jesus with resolve and valor.
[20:53] Then he took unto him the twelve. Jesus invited them to join him. Jesus chose to not go alone. These men would become the first preachers of the good news.
[21:04] disciples will follow Jesus in obedience. There's two aspects of the disciples. One is, they didn't understand but they followed anyway. Right? Isn't that wonderful?
[21:15] Before we criticize them and say they didn't fully understand this understanding of suffering that he was explaining but they follow anyway, saying wherever he leads I'll go.
[21:27] And Jesus set his face towards the cross. As he's going to Jerusalem, he is going to the cross. He told them in Luke chapter number 9 verse number 51 where it said that he has steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.
[21:43] That steadfastly setting his face to go through Jerusalem that was once again a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy where in Isaiah chapter number 50 verse 7 it says, For the Lord God will help me therefore shall I not be confounded therefore I have set my face like a flint and know that I shall not be ashamed.
[22:04] A flint it's a very dark rock it's used figuratively in the Bible to express hardness it's a one time it's referred to as like the hardness of a horse's hoof or it's used to explain an impossible task or an unwavering determination in the book of Ezekiel but he set his face like a flint he set his face knowing what was before him Jesus it's said of Jesus in Hebrews chapter number 12 verse 2 and all of you should know this passage that Jesus fully aware what was coming for us the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy was set before him endured the cross he knows when he says I must go to Jerusalem guys let's go to Jerusalem he sets his face towards it like a flint with a joy knowing what is coming Jesus overcame every obstacle that we would ever face in following him Satan he goes upon a mountain and he's fasting right for those 40 days we looked at it every temptation and every shortcut could be thought of was thrown to him and he overcomes by the words of God though friends misunderstand him
[23:15] Peter says you don't need to go do this and he says get behind these Satan when those he came to serve do not accept him but reject him and betray him he continues to the cross and so we should follow him with valor which means courage on behalf of other people and we should follow Jesus with resolve Charles Spurgeon in his prayer for his congregation after teaching this passage this is what he says my great object is to lead you to love Jesus who so loved you that he set his face like a flint and his determination to save you oh you redeemed ones on whose behalf this strong resolve was made you may who have been bought by the precious blood of this steadfast resilient redeemer come and think a while of him that your hearts may burn within you and that your faces may be set like flints to live and die and die for him who lived and died for you and I'm borrowing this
[24:27] I've borrowed many things from Spurgeon and I'm praying that for our church that we would be steadfast and have resolve and valor to follow Jesus even when it requires suffering for us because wherever he leads we will go by the power of God we will fulfill the God given desires he has placed in our hearts 2 Thessalonians 1 11 give you a moment to look at it on the screen or in your Bible I want to make sure that you see what's being said here it says wherefore also we pray always for you that God would count you worthy of this calling and fulfill all good pleasures of his goodness and the work of faith with power fulfill all good pleasures of his goodness fulfill all good pleasures of his goodness means to resolve it means to go about what God has given you to do if you have a right purpose that glorifies God then resolve to carry them out if you have a good purpose that's been placed in your heart that glorifies
[25:32] God then resolve to carry that out Miss Lisa I pray that God allows you to see the desires of your heart for a ministry towards the death become a reality for those of you that have shared with me your desire to see a person come to faith in Christ in this coming year I pray that we will have resolve to be faithful at what we have been given to do those of you that have opened up your homes in this last year the care for those in foster care may you have the resolve for your home to be a gospel centered environment that shows many kids the way to Jesus I could go on and on but I don't want to limit the things that God may place in your heart that you need the resolve to do to my list because I'm not the list maker that is the role of the Holy Spirit in your life but when the Holy Spirit has put a right purpose in your life to glorify God then resolve to carry it out have valor have courage follow Jesus to Jerusalem even if it's going to require suffering because in doing that you're taking your next steps and following
[26:42] Christ God places us in a desire to do the things that will honor him Philippians 2 13 for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure it is not your fallenness it is not Satan it is not the ideas of anybody else but it's the God of heaven that places a desire in your heart to do the things that bring glory to him and if it's difficult to do it you say well then you must be all the same more determined in your resolve to do it simply yes it's difficult which just means that you need to meet it with a resolve that is stronger there's nothing in the world so hard but something harder will cut it so if your own resolve becomes harder than the difficulty you have to face then things go to be done your resolve must be stronger than the difficulties that you face but I won't stay there because if I was to stay there this would be something that your basketball coach could tell you this would be something that somebody without the cross could tell you this is something that I might have heard in middle school at a pep rally where my coach would say find a way or make a way just get the job done nobody cares about your best but your mother and she's not here
[27:56] I had a pretty intense basketball coach right and that is not what I'm going to tell you today I am not going to tell you that and we'll look at verse number 33 and the significance and on the third day he will rise again I want to talk to you about the connection between the power of the resurrection and the power that you have to live out what God has placed in your life what does the resurrection have to do with my resolution to do spiritual things let's give you may have seen this before but where they bring into an office they'll bring somebody that's climbed Mount Everest right I heard a comedian talk about this all right they bring somebody into the office and have a guy come in he's going to talk to you about how he climbed Mount Everest three times barefoot to encourage you and your company and Janice from the HR department she says I'm just trying to get the printer to work okay and like it's a little bit of overkill all right the goals that I have for my year don't really equate to this guy that is trying to climb Mount Everest all right man when the comedian told it it was quite funny all right but it's just kind of overkill we're gonna have a guy talk about climbing Mount
[29:03] Everest as you're setting as you have your third grade soccer team about to go out and play in a tournament it just seems to be too much and so I'm talking to you about Jesus Christ headed to the cross and then you're saying but you're asking us to get involved in Awana you're asking us to share a gospel track you're asking us to feed somebody who that's in need you're asking us to do something does this not seem to be a far disconnect between the doom you may say sure I'll be glad to sign up for some new year's resolutions but I know that they will not continue in my life I am powerless I'm hopeless to pursue any of these God given desires in my life you feel like you're without hope is that you've started something and then it stopped again in a personal level on a spiritual resolution the evidence of God's power in your life is not the absence of resolve but it's the strength of our resolve but how do we have it we know that God works through the hands of men right in the story that's what we saw is that in that story that he was delivered into the hands of men that Jesus invited the disciples with him because they have a role to play in the story that God is working through us that God works through us in this story here that God even took the evil actions that were there to bring about the crucifixion upon the cross and now now he's brought the disciples with him because they have a role to play in the sharing of the message here and so search Thessalonians 1.11 we said it says this fulfill the good pleasures of goodness this resolve and the work of faith with power
[30:37] Philippians 2.13 we've looked at it says for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure there is a hope that should be resurrected the apostle Paul four times as he's enduring persecution again and again in the ministry he references the resurrection before King Agrippa in Acts 24.21 he says except it be this one voice that I cried standing among them touching the resurrection of dead I am called into question by you this day Paul calls into account the resurrection of Christ on four occasions here it should be the greatest influence on our lives we serve a resurrected king it wasn't the apostle Paul that was resurrected but when the apostle Paul is being persecuted and being beaten and all the things that are going on that ought to stop him from moving forward he always points back to the resurrection of Christ because you would say well that's not Paul's resurrection that's not my resurrection that was Jesus's resurrection but it is our resurrection that he because he arose we can arise his death was in our place and so that event that fact not have the greatest of influences upon our lives it is there where we find the power to have resolve and determination and so it's described like this by Jesus it was the joy that was set before him and with you and I we can say this for I reckon
[32:08] Romans 8 18 that the suffering of this present world of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us and so here there's this link between having hope in the resurrection and loving other people Luke 14 13 and 14 it says and when he maketh a feast call the poor the maim the lame the blind so let's just take verse number 13 and say in some type of ministry in which Jesus Christ has called you into the care for other people the minister to them in whatever condition they're in and thou shalt be blessed for they cannot recompense thee for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just it is at that fact that we find the power and the resolve needed to follow through with what he has given us your resolve to live out the calling that God has placed in your life does not come from your grit it doesn't come from your strong work ethic it comes from the hope that is found when you look at the resurrection of Christ
[33:13] I read this this weekend and I love it so very much it says grace will smash you of your pride and then it will give you more reason to live with confidence than you've ever had before grace will smash your pride and then it will give you more reason to live with confidence than ever than you ever had before so as believers here in this story in Luke chapter number 18 the believers believe all that he says that's why we're called believers right what is it we believe everything he says right do you believe the Bible yes what do you believe about the Bible everything that it says because we're believers but as followers we also follow and where do we follow wherever he leads we follow him wherever he leads and we don't often fully understand but we can trust his plan and regardless of the outcome we know that following him is the right path for our lives they were amazed and they were afraid because the timing seems so wrong this isn't the time to go to Jerusalem there's too much around it there's too much hostility the disciples knowing this followed Jesus with fear but they followed him nonetheless and they were looking to him they weren't looking into their own resolve they weren't looking into their own work ethic they're just saying
[34:38] I can trust him and if he tells me to go down this path I'm going to trust him and as we look to him and we get through times that are hard and say I just can't do this and we can say the same God that raised his son from the dead is the same God that I am following and I can trust him to provide all that I need that it's not in myself but it is going to be completely in him and I'm going to resolve to do it that's what I'm asking church family today that beginning now between the end of the year would you go to him and say Jesus just like you asked those disciples to follow up to Jerusalem I am ready now to follow you wherever you may lead me into whatever area of opportunity maybe it's a ministry with a name and a logo I love ministries with names and logos right but maybe it's a person maybe it's a family member maybe it's a situation maybe it's something in life where he's telling you I want you to be involved
[35:40] I'm placing this upon your heart I am calling you I want to lead you into this but you've been saying for too long I don't understand and why is it you don't understand is because you're saying I don't feel like Jesus can lead me in the places where there's suffering because don't you understand that me and Stephanie decided that our lives were going to be fairy tales and what Jesus is leading us into doesn't seem to be a fairy tale story but it seems like it's going to be work and it seems like it's going to be hard and I feel like every time I've ever done anything that was hard and that was suffering I didn't continue but don't look inside of yourself just come to him today and in your prayer and tell him say Father just like your son's face was set like a plant to go to the cross I want you to set my face today with resolve and with valor to live out the calling in life that you have given to me that you can lay upon my heart desires that make a difference in this world for your honor and your glory with every head bowed every eye closed and Kristen begins to play the piano you know the day we've already sung about his death we've taken up his sin upon himself we have rejoiced we've lifted hands we've smiled we've sung about how great that it is but that is not where it stops where it stops is where we walk out of here imitating him in Hebrews 13 13 it says let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach if we truly follow such a Lord as Christ our faith should be set like a flint for all holy purposes let us pray to God the Holy Spirit to make it so we often sing these songs with heavy hearts but let us come to God today with just a full disclosure and admit to him that without his power in our lives nothing he gives us to do will ever get done ask him to lead us where he desires and resolve that wherever he leads us we will go and after praying that prayer to him with open hearts and full honesty let's take time and we will stand to sing not as people with heavy hearts but with people with strong resolve wanting to follow our Jesus with great valor
[38:03] Heavenly Father I ask Lord that you will take these words from your book Lord and that you will make it Lord a theme upon our church in this coming weeks that my brothers and sisters in this room as you through the work of the Holy Spirit will lay upon their hearts goals and dreams to make a difference for your honor and your glory that they will not walk away because it asks something of them that we would not walk away because it may require suffering Lord I pray that you will give them clarity in the work Father I'm asking what are the things that you would have for me and my family Lord me as a pastor but me as a dad and me as a husband that Lord that I have walked away from without the resolve needed because I knew that it would bring suffering Father I pray that you will make it clear to all of your servants that you will show us your work