Correcting On Purpose - March 9, 2025

Well, today I would like to ask you to open your Bible to Mark chapter number eight.

Mark chapter number eight.

I'm going to be preaching in our series we've entitled Walking with Jesus.

It's through the Gospel of Mark.

It's an exposition.

We're going verse by verse.

And today is a wonderful thought.

It's a helpful thought.

And I think it's a necessary message for us and for our families.

And I've titled this message Correcting on Purpose.

Correcting on Purpose.

We all need correction.

We all need rebuke.

We all need reproof.

There are times that we think we're going the right way, only to find out we're not.

And we need to make an adjustment.

My dad used to say, Jason, you need an attitude adjustment.

You know, it used to kind of get me from my attitude.

And there are times that we need an attitude adjustment.

There are times we need a course correction adjustment.

There are times we don't like the direction of our life.

We don't like the direction of the church.

We don't like the direction of the nation.

And we fail to understand what God is doing.

And we can wall up against it and become stubborn and obstinate.

And in this message, Jesus teaches us how he corrects.

How a loving leader communicates, clarifies, corrects, and then compels.

And it's going to be a wonderful message to help us in our growth.

But let's pick it up in Mark chapter number 8, verse number 27.

The Bible says, and Jesus went out and his disciples into the towns of Caesarea Philippi.

And by the way, he asked his disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that I am?

See, Jesus does care about opinions.

He does ask, who do people think that I am?

He's asking his disciples this.

Verse 28, and they answered John the Baptist.

But some say Elias or Elijah.

And others say one of the prophets.

So all of these men have passed on.

They're all thinking he's somebody special, he's somebody powerful.

And then Jesus asks his disciples a very specific question.

Okay, guys, but whom say ye that I am?

Okay, I get that you're with this feedback you're giving to me about what they think of me and who I am.

And by the way, they all got it wrong.

And that's why you don't want to take everybody's opinions as gospel, because people get it wrong.

Jesus penetrates with the question, all right, guys, well, who do you who do you think I am?

And Peter steps up and he gets it right.

He says, Thou art the Christ.

Now, Christ is not his last name.

People think it's Jesus Christ, first name, last name.

It's not.

It's the Messiah, it's the anointed one.

He's the Savior, Jesus the Savior, Jesus the anointed one, Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the one that would come, the Son of God that would that would live and be and die for our sins, Jesus the Christ.

Peter says, You're the Christ.

Now look what Jesus says in verse 30.

He charged them that they should tell no man.

It's the same thing he told the guy that he just healed from his blindness.

Hey, shh, don't go tell everybody in the town.

Go home.

You say, Why is Jesus doing this?

If at one moment he's telling you to go out and preach the gospel to every m everybody, and the next moment he's saying, Okay, good, I'm glad you got it.

Now that just hold it together.

You say, Well, why would he do that?

Because not everything you know needs to be shared with everybody all the time.

There are some blessings and some awarenesses that there's a timing to it.

And Peter got this right.

He had the who right, but he did not have the how right.

And we're gonna see that here in a minute.

So he Jesus charges him and says, Don't tell anybody about this.

Verse 31, he began to teach them, and as a loving leader, a loving uh pastor, a loving parent would teach, he says this, he gives a hard message to them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days, rise again.

And he spake that saying openly.

And Peter took him and began to rebuke him.

So you'll notice Jesus delivers this message and says, Hey guys, um I want to let you know I'm gonna suffer soon.

I'm gonna be beat, I'm gonna be tortured, I'm gonna be rejected, I'm gonna come before the Sanhedrin, they're gonna make a mockery of me.

Um, they're going to, they're gonna kill me.

They're gonna kill me.

Now, mind you, his disciples are remembering this is the guy that just healed this guy of blindness and raised the dead and healed the deaf and and and does all these miracles.

They're thinking at this moment they're unstoppable.

Have you ever felt that before?

You've got so much momentum in your life, so much success going for you that you are unstoppable.

And whatever you fantasize in your mind, whatever you visualize, whatever you can picture, it's just gonna happen.

But here we see that God's ways are not our ways.

And here we see how Jesus rips and shreds this idolatrous thought that I would label the success syndrome, that all of us oftentimes get intoxicated with, where we begin to worship success and wealth and prestige and honor and platform and reputation.

And in this situation, Peter is going to be corrected.

He got the who right, he is the Christ, but he does not understand the how the Christ is going to lead forward.

And I think all of us can relate to this.

We love Jesus as the Savior, the deliverer, the healer, the blessed and only potentate, the ruler, the lion of the tribe of Judah.

But I want to remind you, you would never be saved if he didn't come as the Lamb of God, if he didn't suffer, if he didn't submit himself to the will of the Father.

And so here we see that Peter takes Jesus and rebukes him.

One moment he's telling him he's the Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah, and the next moment he's rebuking him.

How about you?

Do you ever do that in your life?

Oh God, I love you, oh God, I adore you, oh God, you're the best, oh God, uh, you're you're and you're singing all these praises, and then God's doing something different in your life, heading a direction, causing something to happen, and now, oh God, why have you left me?

What are you doing?

And you have doubt and you get dismayed and you get upset, and it's because you don't understand what he is doing.

And when that happens, you need to be rebuked.

And I need to be rebuked.

And we all need to be reminded that it's not our will be done.

We don't get to choose how things shake out.

God is sovereign.

And so Jesus, in this situation, after being rebuked by Peter, in verse 33, the Bible says, and when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, so this he looks at all of his disciples after Peter's doing this to him, and he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.

This is a wonderful, wonderful passage.

In fact, the other day, I almost said this to the Girl Scout cookies trying to sell me the toxic little sugar bombs.

But I thought better.

She will not understand it.

I'll just walk the other way.

I got to looking at this passage and I got to thinking, you can be enlightened and still get things wrong.

Peter, he got the who right, who Jesus is, but he got the how wrong.

You can get the Savior right, but you can get the sanctification wrong.

You can have zeal and passion, but it not be according to knowledge.

You can have loyalty and commitment and determination, but it lack wisdom.

You can express liberty, but it can go too far.

You can have the dearest affections and commitments, and that can cloud your judgment of God's ways.

What God will do is He'll rebuke misplaced kindnesses that are rooted in self-care and devoid of sovereign direction.

You see, the things that you do seem good and right, but can often be wrong when you're not factoring in the Messiah's will and way to suffer for the redemption of mankind.

You can have your clarity, you can have your purpose, you can have your passion, but not have God's correctness.

See, just because you have your goals and your vision and what you want and your image of success and what you want your family to be and your finances to be and how you want your life to shake out, you can have all that and still miss God.

Just because you're clear on your direction and your goals doesn't mean that you're right with God.

And you can be right with God in one moment and in one breath and then give it a minute, a sentence later, and be completely wrong.

Clarity, personal clarity, doesn't always equal correctness with God's will and way.

You can have absolute, I'm confident, I'm confident, and be going the wrong way.

How many of you husbands know what I'm talking about?

I know where I'm going, woman.

Let the woman be silent.

I'm driving.

Okay, buddy.

And then you find yourself in the wrong spot.

You can be determined and be wrong.

You can have conviction and be wrong.

You can have confidence and be wrong.

You say, what is this?

This is stubbornness that leads to idolatry.

You say, what is Jesus doing here?

He's revealing something.

You love Jesus when things are going your way, when the miracles are happening, when your prayers are getting answered, when people are getting healed.

But you misunderstand Jesus when all of a sudden you thought you were going to new levels and new heights of success, and he decides to take you to the hospital, when he decides to take your business to another direction, when he allows suffering of your reputation, allows failure to enter in.

Question, is God still good when he lets these things take place?

See, that's our problem.

We think this.

Okay, I do X, Y, and Z.

I go to church, I read my Bible, I do my reps, I do all the things, and that means my life is gonna work out perfectly, right?

Ern wrong.

No, listen, you can have everything going for you, and God can still choose in his sovereign will to say, Hast thou considered my servant Job?

Oh, you want me to test Job?

Let me add him.

He'll curse you and die.

No, he won't.

Read the book of Job.

Some of your suffering is the will of God.

That the works of God would be made manifest.

And as long as you're kicking up against it and trying to, no, no, I want success.

I want this way.

No, Jesus, we're not gonna do that.

That's when you need to be corrected.

That's when your children need to be corrected.

When they don't want to pay the price of sacrifice, and all they want is success, and all they want is self-care, and they won't yield themselves to whatever God's will is.

That's where we're in need of rebuke.

Now I love how Jesus asks questions and gets people's opinions.

I love how he clarifies and communicates and confirms things.

You see, they all had the Messiah, but the overall plan and procedure they got wrong.

He would rule and reign and shall one day in the future on earth as it is in heaven, in the millennial kingdom.

But that's not now, brothers and sisters in Christ.

He first came as the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

He willingly chose to give his life for your redemption.

No man took his life from him, he gave it on purpose.

See, you got the Savior right, but you don't got the sacrifice right.

You got the Messiah right, but you don't have the method right.

Here's what happens: you and I, we get so attached and intoxicated to power and to personal self-preservation and what we want, that it's very hard for you and I to lose.

I don't lose.

And you can tell when your flesh and your stubbornness comes in because you're a sour, poor loser.

You don't know how to lose in the grace of God.

You love to win, you love your family to win, you love your church to win, you love your nation to win, but I want to tell you this.

Sometimes you need to lose the battle to win the war.

And that's what Jesus did.

He willingly lost the battle, if I can put it that way, of his life.

He gave it up so that he could win redemption for all mankind.

In this situation, we can see that Pete loves winning, but he hates losing.

How about you?

How are you doing at losing?

When your finances go down, when your health goes down, when people leave you, when people are forsaking you, when you have to sacrifice.

How are you doing when Jesus calls you to lose your life?

I don't know about you, but I'm not good at it.

I'm not good at it at all.

And I'm and the more of a fighter you are, the harder it is.

And you can see that parents out there, if you have little children, when they have a strong will and they really want something, by how long their temper tantrum is.

Get it out.

Go ahead.

I'm not doing anything.

You get all that out.

Now we do that as adults as well.

And you can tell when the child's growing in maturity because they stop throwing their little temper tantrum and they start realizing maybe daddy and mama knows what they're doing, and I'm not gonna get my way.

See, let me tell you this: praying, fasting, and giving does not mean that you're gonna get the success that you want.

It means that God's gonna have his will done in your life.

See, you don't just rub the the genie in the bottle and he pops out and gives you your three wishes.

If this is God's will, it's God's sovereign.

God chooses.

God chooses to raise up leaders and put down leaders, God chooses to raise up nations and to put down nations.

Not you or I.

It's God.

And and God rejoices to raise one up and God rejoices to put one down.

You say, well, how does he choose?

Why doesn't he talk to me about it?

Because you're not God.

He's sovereign, he's righteous, he's holy, he's perfect.

And he's just as perfect when you're winning as when you're losing.

He's still good, he's still wonderful.

Don't base your Christianity and your followership based upon the circumstances of your life or your batting average or your GPA or how much money's in your bank account.

Your identity is not based in your success.

It's rooted in Christ.

And if we can get this right, you will grow tremendously as a Christian.

See, I'm less interested in tickling your ears and making you like me, and I'm very much interested in you becoming a committed disciple of Jesus Christ.

And be fully equipped when you go out and all of a sudden you start losing and you're doing everything you know is obedient and right in God's eyes, and you'll be able to say, you know what?

Have thine own way, Lord, to be done.

Thy will be done, God, not mine.

I savor the things of God, not the things that be of men.

So, God, if you want to take this from me, if you want to make that go down, then so be it, God.

So be it.

I say, yes, Lord, yes.

Not my will be done, not what I want in my ministry or my family, what you want, God.

Now all of a sudden, you're not trying to get God on your ship, you're getting on God's ship.

You're not trying to force and connive and manipulate him to do whatever you want.

You're doing what he wants.

This is surrender.

This is what we need.

Now Jesus goes on.

Look what it says in verse 34.

And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples, now he brings them all together and he says to them, Hey guys, listen up.

Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

And whosoever will save his life shall lose it.

And whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's sake, the same shall save it.

For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?

Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation?

Of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his father with the holy angels.

Here's what he's saying.

He's saying, if you're gonna follow me, if you're gonna be a disciple of Christ, if you're gonna be a Christian, it can't be all about you and what you want, your success, because I'm gonna do some things you're not gonna like.

And we're gonna find out who your God is.

Is your God you or is your God me?

That's what Jesus is getting at here.

And that's why he says, you better check your flesh at the door.

You better check your preferences at the door, you better check your sins.

You need to deny yourself and stop being a narcissist and making Christianity all about you.

Then you're gonna have to pick up your cross, the instrument of death and cruelty, and you're gonna have to endure persecution.

People are gonna hate you.

See, that's the problem with American Christianity.

You want everybody to like you.

We have fallen into the trap of the praise of man and the fear of man and been intoxicated with the success of wanting everybody to like us and love us and be looking good.

That's not biblical Christianity.

Our brothers and sisters around the world and China and Russia and the Middle East, they're being butchered.

And if they had the same mindset like you and I have, they wouldn't have died for their faith.

But you and I, we I'll take it or leave it.

I'll go to church today, I won't go to church today.

I'll give today, I won't give today.

See, you're a feelings-based Christian.

You're not a principle-based Christian.

And that's why you're shifting back and forth.

The moment you say, Lord Jesus, I have decided to follow you, come hell or high water, I have chosen you.

I will deny myself, I will pick up my cross, I will be crucified with Christ.

Yes, Lord, yes, have thine own way with me.

That's a whole nother player.

That's a whole nother Christian.

See, I'm not interested in working very deeply with Christians who are, oh, just make it easy for me.

No, no.

You're gonna fall out by the way if you think this Christian thing is all about easy street.

It's not, and it's not all about you.

You have to learn how to suffer and take and receive a rebuke.

Nowadays, if somebody gives you a rebuke or they don't like, well, they didn't, they gave me some correction on my music, or they give me some correction on the nursery, or they give me some correction on this, and I didn't like that, so I'm gonna leave.

Here's what you're showing me.

You're shallow, you're selfish, you're self-centered, and when people don't give you what you want, you take your ball and you go home.

This is why the divorce rate's over 50%.

This is why people jump from church to church, because they are so fickle, and it's because they don't understand biblical Christianity.

Biblical Christianity is Jesus is Lord, and you're gonna have moments where you need rebuke and reproof.

And the way we can tell if you're a wise person is how well you take the rebuke.

See, a wise man or a wise woman will say, Thank you.

Thank you for correcting me.

I'm glad I didn't know I was off.

I didn't know I was going against you, God.

I didn't know I wasn't being a blessing to you, wife.

I didn't know I was mistreating you, son.

I didn't realize that.

Thank you for correcting me.

I need correction, you need correction.

It's the necessary feedback that we receive to make the adjustments, to follow the will of God for our life.

So you've got to have the correction.

And churches nowadays, and parents nowadays, because we We don't like it, we can't give it.

And you can't give what you won't, what you won't, and don't receive.

That's why you look at little kids and they're running around like little hellions, banshees that don't have any morals, no discipline, and the parent isn't saying, shut your mouth and sit down.

Because a parent doesn't know how to rebuke a child because the child they the parent thinks, I want them to be my friend.

No, no.

Your job is to raise them up in the nurture and admonition of God.

And if they don't learn how to receive rebuke and correction at a young age, they're gonna be complete fools when they get older.

So it starts when they're young.

If you've got a mom, a dad, a coach, a pastor that speaks the truth to you in love and corrects you, you should count yourself majorly blessed.

Especially in a culture and a society that's so messed up and enamored with, I want people to like me, I want you to follow me, I want you to share my post.

That's your problem.

It's all about you, you, you, you.

You know what we need?

We need some real truth tellers that will give us the truth.

There's such a thing as false, false momentum and false peace.

There's a lot of homes and there's a lot of churches.

They are dying of cancer because they won't deal with the issue.

A rebellious son, a wayward husband, and they just pretend.

Peace, peace, when there is no peace.

What I love about Jesus' leadership is he steps in and he says, No, get thee behind me.

That's wrong.

And that's what we need.

We need the next generation of Christians to learn how to receive a rebuke and to be corrected so they can give the correction.

Now, when Jesus is correcting here, it's not because he hates Peter.

And that's the problem with our society.

We equate correcting somebody and rebuke with that they hate us.

No, they actually love you.

It's your flesh that's making you go into the feelings that causes you to think, oh, my feelings don't feel good right now because this doesn't feel good.

They must hate me.

No, no, they love you.

Pay the price now so you can play better later.

It's about holy living.

And so what I love here in this passage is Jesus, he's destroying the idol of success and comfort and personal agenda and reputation and following Jesus for your own accolades and for your own platform and for your own rewards.

And he's advocating this concept of following me means suffering.

Your loyalty can't be to all those temporal things and to God.

So what that means is you've got to search your heart right now and look in and say, okay, where am I worshiping success more than the Savior?

Where have I got it wrong?

Where have I falsely accused God and made it all about me?

Jesus is the perfect example of how to correct.

If you want to write down a few notes, I notice how Jesus corrects on purpose.

Number one, I see Jesus cares.

Don't go try to correct somebody that you haven't spent time with in loving them.

The more you spend time and show care, the more candor you can offer.

They need to know that you love them, parents, before you're correcting them.

You gotta connect with that heart before you adjust with the hand.

Jesus takes his disciples and he's asking about their opinions out there and the news out there.

It's because he cares.

Number two, Jesus corrects.

He cares, and then Jesus corrects.

He's giving feedback, he's training them, he's giving them insight.

And I got to thinking, you know, there's way too many passive parents and leaders that don't do this.

And as a result of not giving proper correction and feedback and training, you enable selfish manipulators.

But not Jesus.

He steps in and deals with it.

And I think a lot of times what we do is we're afraid to lose people.

We're afraid people will leave us, so we end up leaving God and trying to stay in connection and affiliation with them.

But if you look at Jesus, he corrects because he has the courage to communicate and he wants to love them in a better way, and he wants to love us in a better way.

Number three, Jesus clarifies.

So he cares, he corrects, and then he clarifies.

He says, Hey guys, if you're gonna follow me, you need to lose your life.

You need to learn how to lose.

You need to pick up this the cross, you gotta figure out how, like, this is part of the walk with God.

Like, listen, there's gonna be times you don't feel like it.

You don't feel like going to church, you don't feel like giving, you don't feel like fasting, you don't feel like praying.

And guess what?

You're gonna have to learn how to do it out of obligation.

Oh, well, I don't want to do anything out of obligation.

That's your problem.

You will always want to feel good.

You always want to feel it.

But here's the deal: there's times you won't feel it.

There's times the the feelings are messed up, they're hijacked by emotions, and everything's all over the place, and then you're gonna find out what you're made of, or rather, who your God is.

And so there are times, listen, you're gonna have to show up, listen, I don't miss church.

I don't forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is.

The Christians met on the first day of the week, they were placed in the body of Christ.

And listen, if that's what they did there, then I, yes, I will come out of obligation, out of command, out of discipline, even if I don't feel like it.

I will pray that way, I will give that way, I will do it by principle, I will do it by obligation, I will do it by duty.

And here's what I found.

If you will pay the price and obligation and discipline and duty, yes, there's gonna be moments where Jesus gathers the crowd around your crucifixion and you look like a complete mockery and a fraud and a sham and just somebody that's hecked that's that's to be heckled and and nobody cares about.

You're gonna look like a failure.

You're gonna have to learn how to accept the shame and the mockery and endure the hardship just like Jesus did, and they'll gather them all around you.

And it's because Jesus set it all up.

It's not that he forsook you, it's that this is part of the design of God.

In order for there to be a resurrection, there has to be a crucifixion, and the same is true in your life and my life.

There are some things in your life that have to die in order for God to raise it up again.

I don't know about you, but there's so many times I'm like, no, Lord, no, Lord, no, Lord, not my son, not my daughter, not my wife, not my church.

And I will fight tooth and nail, and I will use every single tactic and strategy and willpower and discipline, and I'll even use Bible verses to try to fight against God and to get God to do what I want for my success.

You ever been there?

And then all he does is he just puts his screws on more and says, No, this is the way it's going.

The sooner you learn to yield and stop crying and complaining and making it all about you, the faster you're gonna see the power of God in your life.

There's a ton of people out there that have a messed up Christianity.

I sure hope it's not us.

Now, I get that there's times we get like that.

But what I love about Jesus is he clarifies.

Now, if you're in here today, if you're in here today and you're like, well, I'll go to church just for my husband, my spouse, I'll go to, I'll go to I'll I'll throw him a bone, I'll throw him a little blessing.

You're doing it wrong.

You've made this all about you and your selfishness.

What I love about Jesus, he says, listen, this is a personal thing between you and I.

You, Missy, you, Mister, you must deny yourself, your feelings, your sins, your ambitions, everything in you, and deny it.

Divorce from it and pick up your cross.

And yes, following me is gonna cost you something.

So don't think that you're gonna be a Christian, it's not gonna cost you something.

It is gonna cost you something.

It's gonna cost you your life.

The boring, lame, sinful life that led to destruction and hell.

Are you willing to give that up for the glorious life that leads to heaven in Christ Jesus?

I don't know about you, but I sure am.

The life that I had before Christ was not a life at all.

It was terrible.

But the life I have in Christ, it's truly abundant life.

And yes, there's twists and turns, and yes, there's times Jesus says, Hey, hey, son, give me your five loaves and two fishes.

And I'm like, no, Lord, this is all I got.

Give them to me, I gotta feed the church.

Give them to me, I gotta feed the missionaries.

But this is all I got, Lord.

Do you trust me, son?

No.

But yes.

Here you go, my master.

And don't think that he doesn't see our hearts.

He does see our hearts, and it's a one-on-one thing.

What he's doing in my life, he's doing something a little bit different in your life.

Because he knows the idols that you're holding on to, and he knows the idols I'm holding on to.

And so what he does is he clarifies what we need, he cares, and he speaks in.

And I love what he says here.

He says at the end of this passage, he says, What is it gonna profit you anyways if you gain the whole world and lose your own soul?

Hey, what is it gonna be?

What's it gonna profit you if you become the next all-star, you become the next big business person, you get the biggest church in America, you get whatever platform you want to build, and you lose your soul, you lose your closeness with God, you lost your courage, you lost your conviction, you lost your closeness with Christ.

What does it profit you now if you take all the jobs and you do all the travel baseball and you do all the things and all the jobs and work three, five, ten different jobs and you lost the closeness with Jesus Christ?

What good is it now?

When you make your identity, all the things of this world and the success of this world, then what happens when all of a sudden you can't swing a bat or your mind is not working the same way, or your hands fall apart.

We're gonna find out if you are a baseball player and then a Christian, or if you're a Christian that happens to play baseball, or if you're a pastor that is a Christian, or if you're a Christian that happens to be a pastor.

There is a difference between the two.

Or if you're a Christian that happens to be a wife, or if you're a wife that happens to be a Christian.

That order matters.

Because, well, you know what, I'm a wife, I'm a husband, and then I'm a Christian.

Problem is this: when God decides to take your husband or your wife or your son or your daughter, now we're gonna find out what was your identity rooted in.

Was your followship rooted in these roles that you play and your accolades and your sports and and these other human relationships, or was it rooted in following Christ?

Now, if you can get this right, if you can get this right, and you say, I am a Christian first that happens to play sports, I'm a Christian first that happens to preach and be a pastor, I'm a Christian first that happens to be a spouse, I'm a Christian first that happens to be a dad or a mom or a grandpa or grandpa, here's what happens.

Because of that order of priority, now it's when those two things, when those two good things collide or clash or or they're in competition, your Christianity comes first.

And when all of a sudden there's a competition between savoring the things that be of man and savoring the things that be of God, it's a test.

It's a test for your life.

Are you gonna go after being a spouse or chase the ball or chase the money?

Or are you gonna chase after Christ?

Now there's gonna be shame involved.

Either there's gonna be shame involved because you're shaming God because you're not following him and putting him first, and you won't suffer any persecution because it's all about you, or there's gonna be shame involved from the human relationships because they can't get you to go do whatever they want.

They can't manipulate you anymore.

Oh, yeah, oh, please don't go to church.

Please, you're always at the church house.

You're trying to bring shame on me for going to the house of God and worshiping God who gives me all the blessings in my life.

Get thee behind me, Satan.

You're gonna have shame coming from one place.

It's better, is what I'm submitting to you.

It's better for you to get it from the humans than it is to get it from God.

I would so much rather please God and have God's accolades and God's affection and God's closeness than have the praise of man without the presence of God in my life.

And so, my question to you is what are you chasing after?

And how about this?

Let me flip it the other way.

What are you feeling shame for that God is commending you for?

God is encouraging you in.

We covered number one, Jesus cares, Jesus corrects, is number two, number three is Jesus clarifies, and the last point is Jesus compels.

Here's what he's compelling: don't be ashamed.

Don't be ashamed of me, don't be ashamed of my ways, don't be ashamed of my work, don't be ashamed of my direction, don't be ashamed of my church, don't be ashamed of my Bible, don't be ashamed of loss, don't be ashamed of failure, don't be ashamed of baptism, don't be ashamed of membership, don't be ashamed of communion, don't be ashamed of my will and my works and my ways.

And too many times we let the world kind of put us in a place of shame.

And he says, Listen, I'm coming back, friends, with the holy angels.

And he says in verse 38, Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation.

Of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his father with the holy angels.

Listen, I encourage you, don't be ashamed of Jesus Christ.

Don't you be ashamed of reading your Bible in public and carrying it around.

Don't you be ashamed of posting it and sharing it and doing videos.

Don't you be ashamed of calling out sinners and telling them, hey, that's wrong, that's wicked, homosexuality is wrong, uh, adultery is wrong, uh a bad mouth is wrong, taking God's name in vain is wrong.

The Bible says this.

Don't you be ashamed of God.

Don't you let them peer pressure you into censorship and being ashamed of the word of God.

We need to stand on the promises of God and proclaim them.

I see here Jesus.

I see him compelling all the people.

And so, in closing, are you ashamed of God's will and way and word and the way he's leading your life?

Perhaps it's into failure.

Perhaps it's into loss, perhaps it's into sacrifice, perhaps it's into the to being riding the pine and being on the bench for a little bit.

Perhaps the numbers are down, perhaps uh the the love and feeling is gone.

Are you ashamed of the way God's leading the church?

Are you ashamed of the of fasting and giving?

Are you ashamed of soul winning and knocking doors?

Are you ashamed of missions?

Because if you are, that's wrong, and I'm here to correct you.

That's wrong, I'm here to correct you.

You gotta get this right.

Because God's calling you not to live in the fear of man.

Next question: what do you feel shame for that you shouldn't because it's God's will?

Listen to this.

Some of you, you suffered loss, you suffered divorce, you suffered a job loss, you went through all kinds of issues in your life, and you're walking around feeling less than.

Let me say this to you.

You need to own what God has done in your life.

You need to own it.

Jesus wasn't trying to shy away from the cross here, he was embracing it.

So if you look ahead in your life and you see nothing but a path to destruction, or it looks like darkness and it looks like pain, and even though you want to do everything you can to avoid it, if that's the direction that leads to eternal life, then you go with Jesus in that moment.

If you find yourself laid up in a hospital with cancer, or you find yourself that you can't, your heart's not working anymore, I don't know what my future holds, but I do know who holds my future.

And I'm not gonna walk around afraid anymore.

How about you?

Aren't you done walking around afraid?

Aren't you done walking around being ashamed?

I would much rather say, okay, Lord, let's go.

I'm gonna own whatever you do in my life.

And if that means I've got to lose everything, but I have you, then let's do this, Jesus.

Let's do this.

Now I don't know what it is in your life, but I do know this.

In this example with Peter, he was calling Peter to surrender.

He was calling the disciples to submit.

He was telling all the people, you need to learn to yield.

Cast everything before God and let him call the shots.

Let him take the wheel.

What is it in your life right now where you keep grabbing the steering wheel and it's causing you anxiety and panic in your head that you need to just like, okay, you know what?

Lord Jesus, if I perish, I perish.

If it falls apart, it falls apart.

I am not going to freak myself out and cause myself to have major issues in my life because I'm fighting against God.

Right?

Now here's the kicker.

The moment you yield over and you submit and you receive the correction and you receive the good communication, you receive the clarity, you receive that compelling spirit, all of a sudden you're now riding with God.

He's directing you.

Instead of you forcing against him, now you're with him.

Now you can enjoy whatever that next step is in your life, even if it is loss, even if it is the grave.

Because you and I, we know this.

After the cross and after the grave, what is there?

Eternal life, but the resurrection.

So, what do you have to be afraid of?

Nothing.

Not death, not principalities, not powers, not darkness, nothing that can separate you from the love of God.

So today, let's stop living in fear.

Let's stop living in shame.

And whatever direction Jesus wants to take us, our families, our church, our nation into, let's say, yes, Lord, yes, I will live a crucified life and let you live through me.

That's the message.