July 19 "The Demands of Discipleship" (Mark 8:34-38)

Mark chapter 8.

Mark 8 · chapter mention

In a few moments, verses 34 to 38 will serve with our text.

And my title this morning is The Demands of Discipleship.

The Demands of Discipleship.

So as far as I know, this is a true story.

A true story.

It takes place on a college campus back in the 1960s.

There is a large gathering, a few thousand college-age students in a large auditorium.

I do not know if this was the exclusive reason for them assembling or if this was a part of the assembly, but nonetheless, there are members of the four major branches of our military who were there to recruit.

Up first, a guy from the Army.

He gives a little speech.

He's like, Hey, I'm from the United States Army.

Join the Army.

You're going to get on a GI bill.

Your college is going to be free.

Uncle Sam's going to pay for it.

It's going to be awesome.

You should join the Army.

Then the lady from the Navy gets up.

She explains, hey, you should join the Navy.

If you get in, you'll learn job skills.

You're going to have opportunities for career advancement.

The guy from the Air Force is going to tell you you're going to get to fly planes in the Air Force.

Actually, you're going to get to fly even more in the Navy.

It's going to be awesome.

You should join the Navy.

Then the dude from the Air Force comes up.

He says, Hey, you should join the Air Force.

You can learn to fly jets.

You can work on engines.

You can retire early.

You can make a ton of money with the skills you're learned from the Air Force.

It's going to be awesome.

And then as the story goes, the dude from the Marine gets up, Marines gets up.

He is one scary looking somebody.

He comes up to the podium, and for the next 60 awkward seconds, he does not say a word.

He just looks eyeball to eyeball with everybody who was present and then speaks.

Ladies and gentlemen, I was asked today to come recruit potential Marines, but from the looks of this audience, I think it is a waste of my time and yours.

I know that you expect me to tell you that if you join the Marines, you're going to love it.

You expect me to tell you about career advancement opportunities and early retirement, lots of job skills that you can put into practice in the private sector.

But I'm not going to tell you any of that because it's probably not going to be true.

If you join the Marines, you're going to hate it.

If you join the Marines, you'll curse the day you were born.

You'll be mad at God for making your mom and you'll be mad at your mom for giving birth to you.

You'll go to bed hungry and cold and thirsty.

You will be shot at.

Some of you will be hit by live ammunition.

Some of you will be killed in the line of duty because when you join the Marines, you're the first ones in and you're the last ones out.

But I'm wasting your time.

And I'm wasting mine because I've looked over this crowd and I've made eye contact with every single one of you.

And from the looks of you, I don't see a single person who has what it takes to be in the United States Marine Corps.

Forgive me for wasting your time.

Good day.

When the people were dismissed, there was a sprinkling of people at the Army desk, the Navy desk, the Air Force desk, and the line behind the Marine desk was all the way down the hallway.

Why?

Because deep down we want something to live for.

We want a purpose to live.

And we want even a purpose that we would be willing to die for.

And it's almost as though Jesus had the same mentality of this Marine Corps recruiter with what he's going to say in our passage this morning.

If you've been being here, Jesus, he is making no bones about it.

It is a very high calling to be a Christian.

Jesus expects a ton out of all people who claim to be followers of his.

There are some people who would argue that if you want to grow a church, you need to water things down.

You need to dumb things down.

I disagree with that.

Jesus, when he called his disciples, he didn't dumb things down.

He didn't water things down.

He upped the ante.

He was very forthright in what it was going to cost you to be a follower of his.

And I would like to take this opportunity this morning to take God's word, to take Christ's words, and just remind you of the calling that God has on your life if indeed you are a Christian.

I want to raise the bar.

I have no intentions of lowering it.

I'm here, not here this morning, to make it easier for any of you to be a follower of Jesus.

If anything, I want to remind us of just how challenging it is and what God expects out of all of his people.

Now, unfortunately, there are a lot of Christians who have a misunderstanding about the whole concept of discipleship.

There are some people who think there's a difference between being a disciple and being a mere Christian.

There are some who would say that, man, it is high-level Christianity.

Bible college attending Christianity if you're a disciple.

Disciples are those who answer the call to be missionaries.

They're the ones who are pastors' wives.

Folks, that is not what the Bible teaches.

The Bible teaches that to be a Christian is to be a disciple, and to be a disciple is to be a Christian.

They are synonymous terms.

Nobody in this room, nobody watching the live stream, who is a blood bought, born-again Christian, you're also a disciple.

And so these demands of discipleship that Jesus will talk about this morning, they're for all of us this morning, if indeed you are a believer.

Now, as we saw last week in verse 31, for the first time Jesus makes no bones about it.

He talks about what is forthcoming.

And it is very sobering.

Verse 31 the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.

Now, if you were here last week, we talked about how the disciples, when they heard that, it was mesmerizing to them because they did not have any comprehension of a suffering servant, a suffering Messiah.

But they also thought, now, wait a minute.

If that's in your future, it might be in ours as well.

And guess what Jesus did to alleviate those concerns?

Nothing.

He built on them.

He assures them that if you're thinking that this might happen to you as well, you're exactly right.

And then notice verse 34.

And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

I do not know the text does not tell us how much time elapses between verse 31 and verse 33.

But somehow or another, enough time has elapsed where it's not just Jesus and the twelve.

There are some other people around.

And now Jesus speaks this truth into all of their ears.

And so I want you to notice with me the gospel invitation that Jesus extends.

He says there, if anyone would come after me, let him.

But now I want, I want to uh drill down on it just a moment, real quickly, and make sure we're all on the same page about this gospel invitation.

First, it's optional.

It's optional.

The scripture says, Jesus says, if, if anyone will come after me.

So guess what?

You don't have to.

You can say no.

You can refuse to be a follower of Jesus.

He will let you stay in your sins.

So it's optional.

This is not, this is not something that everybody says yes to.

Secondly, it is a universal invitation.

The invitation reads, if anyone would come after me, anyone there is almost like whosoever in John 3.16.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

It's a man, it's universal.

There are people in this room, just as I glance around, I may not have ever met you.

I don't know anything about you.

But even if I did know everything about you, and I were to find out that you are one incredibly wicked somebody, doesn't matter.

The gospel invitation is universal.

It is for whoever, anyone, whosoever, doesn't matter how sinful you are.

Jesus did not come to save those who didn't think they needed a doctor.

He came to save those who knew they were desperately wicked and sick and need help.

A third thing to notice about this invitation, it's personal.

It's personal.

If anyone would come after me, let him.

You've got to make your own decision.

Ladies, you cannot save your husband.

You cannot save your children.

If it were possible for a mom to do something on behalf of her children or her husband, my dad would have been saved a whole lot longer, I mean a whole lot sooner than he was.

You've got to make the decision.

This is your call.

God gives you the free will to make a decision.

Yes, I will follow you, or no, ain't gonna do it.

Now, there are consequences from saying no, and there are consequences from saying yes.

It's just a matter of which consequences do you want to live with.

Now, Jesus is not merely looking for a crowd of people.

He's already been there and done that on more than one occasion.

We we know several weeks ago we were there where uh Jesus fed the 5,000 plus women, 5,000 men plus women and children.

Who knows how many total were there?

We saw Jesus feed the 4,000.

So if Jesus wanted to just gather a crowd, all he had to do was just keep providing buffet meals.

All he had to do was just keep healing people.

Crowds would come, but no, that's not his purpose.

And so Jesus makes sobering truth statements about what true discipleship is all about.

And so I want to just take Jesus' words and share with you three marks of discipleship.

Three marks of Christian discipleship.

The first mark is dedication.

Dedication.

You've got to kill self-centeredness.

Did you hear me?

This is for everybody who wants to be a follower of Jesus.

You've got to kill self-centeredness.

It says there, let him deny himself.

Now, folks, I'm I'm I'm 62.

Uh, it's almost like I can hardly believe I've how quickly I've gotten to this age.

And so I don't have quite as much perspective as maybe Carlene's mom and dad do, who are both 100 plus.

But in my 60 plus years, I don't know if I have ever sensed our culture in good old America any more narcissistic than it is right now.

Just narcissistic.

People so focused on themselves.

We've got narcissism all the way from the highest political figures to fifth graders at G.R.

Whitfield.

Just focused on me and what I want and what I want to do.

And Jesus says, if you're gonna follow me, you gotta deny yourself.

The word deny here is a strong term.

It means to have no association with, to disown completely.

It's the same word that is used when Peter denied Jesus.

We'll get to that again in a few moments.

But folks, you must be willing to disown yourself and give up everything if asked for Christ's sake.

It doesn't mean that you're demeaning about yourself.

You're made in God's image.

Christ was willing to die for you.

You've got significance, but you've got to put yourself in the right place.

And that's not first place.

It's not first place.

You've got to kill self-centeredness.

Folks, you must, biblically, you must simultaneously embrace Jesus as your savior and also wholeheartedly submit to him as your Lord.

For anybody who thinks that you can have Jesus as your Savior and be just fine, you don't have to have him as your Lord.

What Bible are you reading?

That's not Bible.

For Jesus to be your savior, it means for him to be your Lord.

And when Jesus is your Lord, he calls the shots.

He leads.

You follow.

Folks, you and I, we have to renounce the right, the perceived right, to run your life.

You let Jesus run your life.

You let him call the shots.

Look, I've asked this question, but I don't intend to ask it this way again.

But we probably all asked it and we've been asked.

So, what do you want to be when you grow up?

I don't think that's a good question.

I think it just feeds right into the whole narcissistic, I'm gonna do what I want to do kind of thing.

Instead of saying, what to do, what do you want to be when you grow up, maybe we should start saying, hey, what do you think the Lord wants you to be when you grow up?

All of us should have a longing to know what the Lord wants us to be, what the Lord wants us to do.

Every Christian, everybody who professes faith in Jesus, we should we gotta stop being hellbent on doing life your way.

And whether you sing it with them or just say it with them, Frank Sinatras, I did it my way, is not Christ's way.

A second mark of discipleship, determination.

Determination.

Press on regardless of the consequences.

Press on, keep on keeping on following Jesus regardless of the consequences.

So he says here, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross.

Oh my goodness, so many Christians are confused about what the cross is in this context.

You might hear somebody talk about, but you know what?

I have migraine headaches.

I have excruciating chronic back pain, but you know, that's just the cross I have to bear.

Come on, people! That is not what the cross is here.

And that's with no disrespect towards your back pain or your migraines.

Some people might have an ordinary husband or a bossy wife or a supervisor who has never even thought about being thankful for what you do, and they think, well, that's just the cross I have to bear.

No, it's not.

The cross bearing here has nothing to do with the ordinary annoyances of life.

It has nothing to do with the difficulties that anybody and everybody has to face as a part of the human race.

No, when when I can assure you of this, when Jesus said, if you're going to follow me, deny yourself and take up your cross, nobody listening to him, not just the 12, nobody would have even none of those other things would have crossed their minds.

Folks, when Jesus said, take up your cross, they immediately thought he ain't playing around.

You see, the cross was a known symbol for suffering and death.

The Romans perfected the means of prolonging the suffering and the agony of somebody who has the gall to sin against the state.

And they would crucify people publicly.

Estimates are that during Jesus' lifetime, maybe as many as 30,000 people, most of them Jews, would have been crucified by the Roman government.

And they didn't do it behind closed doors, they did it out in broad daylight, in prominent byways where people would walk by.

And when you saw people being crucified, it was a reminder if if you break the laws, if you sin against the state, it's gonna cost you.

To take up one's cross, then, is simply to be willing to pay any price to follow Christ.

Willingness, if necessary, to endure shame and embarrassment and reproach and rejection and persecution, and yes, even death.

So Christ was now saying, in effect to his disciples, If I'm your Lord, you too will suffer many things, and you may be killed.

So, my my dear believers, my brothers and sisters in Christ, Christ did not call you to himself to make your life easy or prosperous, but to make you holy and productive.

Now, following Jesus and abiding by biblical principles in our in our country, in our culture, it just might lead to prosperity.

But that that's not indicative of God showing favor on you as a disciple.

He's called us as followers of his to be holy and productive.

A true disciple carries his or her cross until they die, whether by natural causes or spiritual hatred, whether by old age or satanic rage.

Folks, think about it.

We read this passage, taking up your cross, and the difficulties and the persecution, and we don't with like, what are you talking about?

Imagine people in other parts of the world, in Nigeria, in Iraq, Iran, and other places, imagine them coming to know Jesus and then like, if you follow me, you gotta take it up your cross.

They read this completely different from us.

But if if if things just turn so drastically that it really does become a high price to pay for being a Christian in the good old US of A, what are you gonna do?

You're gonna drop your cross.

No, when Jesus talks about bearing your cross, most of the time, the the a person that's about to be um executed, they would carry the cross beam.

That cross beam itself could weigh 150, 200 pounds or more.

And you you you carry that, and anytime anybody saw somebody carrying that cross beam, they knew they were going to die.

And so when Jesus tells us to um carry our cross, we're to carry it at all times.

January the 8th, 1956, Jim Elliott, many of you know something about the story, him and four other buddies, man, they felt like God had led them to go to the Alka Indians at Vecador and share the gospel.

It was an incredibly dark place, unreached.

No Jesus, no Bible.

They didn't even know a Bible existed.

And they go there just just hoping to pierce the darkness with the light of the gospel.

And next thing you know, all five of those men were killed.

The story was carried in uh Life magazine, um, which back in the 50s and 60s was a very prominent publication, read by hundreds of thousands of people.

Um, Jim Elliott's, I mean uh Jim's wife, Elizabeth, she wrote about the event and through gates of splendor, and some of you you've read that.

But now, folks, Jim and his buddies, they were ready to die.

Some of you can recall the statement that Jim is kind of famous for.

He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot lose.

But listen to something else.

He wrote this in his journal.

In his journal, he wrote, God, I pray thee, light these idle sticks of my life that I may burn for thee.

Consume my life, my God, for it is thine.

I seek not a long life, but a full one like you, Lord Jesus.

Could you say anything remotely close to that?

Oh, and by the way, in Luke's gospel, he records Jesus as saying that the would-be disciple must take up his cross daily.

Daily.

It's like every day you're faced with new challenges, new opportunities to drop it, to let go of it, to take a break.

You're to tell yourself and the world that you are dead to it every single day.

Take up your cross everywhere you go, to work, to school, to the ball field, on vacation, on a business trip, take your cross with you into the board meeting, into the job interview, the sales call, take it with you into the restaurant, take it with you when you go shopping.

You see, taking up your Cross means daily dying to self at the bare minimum and willingness to die if necessary for the cause of Christ.

So you have to take up your cross and prior towards prioritize your life daily because you face new challenges every day, new people, new temptations, new opportunities to fade.

When you go off to college, you're faced with a temptation to drop your cross.

You get married, you keep on bearing your cross, new opportunities.

You get your first job, you get a promotion, you get a raise, you're making more money than you've ever made in your life.

You've got to keep bearing your cross daily.

Discipleship is a full-time job, not a weekend hobby.

Full-time, not weekend hobby.

A third mark of discipleship is direction.

Direction.

Follow Christ and imitate his life.

If any man would come after me, any man, woman, boy, or girl, if any man would come after me, deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

Don't miss the obvious.

Following Christ means he determines the direction of your life.

He calls the shots, he dictates, he shepherds.

Listen to what Jesus said, likening himself to a shepherd and his people being sheep.

John 10, verse 27.

John 10:27

My sheep, those who truly know me, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

Now, before we dive into the next several verses, I want to make sure that something is vividly clear.

No misunderstandings.

The demands of discipleship are the same for all believers.

The differences lie in the details of God's calling on your life.

The demands are the same.

The details vary based on God's calling.

Here's how I illustrate it.

Rex is my brother.

Many of you know that.

Rex works for overhead door.

Rex Manning, my brother, could be equally or more of a disciple of Jesus than me, his brother, who's a preacher.

It's possible for Rex, my brother, to be equally or more faithful in his discipleship selling garage doors than me preaching sermons.

It has nothing to do with the details of your life just because I've got pieces of parchment on my wall, just because I've been to Bible college and grad school, etc.

Those things in and of themselves don't mean squat about where somebody is as a disciple of Jesus.

Do not think that automatically, because somebody's been to Bible college or got Bible college degrees or whatever, that they automatically are on a higher plane.

It's just not so.

Discipleship is for every single one of you, just like it is for me.

It's just that the details of my life might be different.

And obviously they're different from most of yours.

You're getting this, you understand this?

So you may keep on working at NACCA, you may keep on working at the hospital, you may keep on working in the public school system or wherever.

You're to be a disciple.

You may be retired, you're to be a disciple.

You keep on denying yourself, picking up your cross, and following him.

Now, in verses 35 to 38, Jesus contrasts those who follow him with those who don't.

And let me tell you something.

The contrast could not be more striking.

Verse 35.

For whoever would save his life, in other words, I'm not denying myself.

I ain't taking up a cross.

I'm not following you.

I'm going to save my life and do what I want to do.

For whoever would save his life will lose it.

But whoever loses his life for my sake in the gospels will save it.

We probably all heard the saying, finders, keepers, losers, weepers.

Well, Jesus takes a little bit of a different turn.

It's as though he's saying, keepers, losers, losers, winners.

The person who divests himself of all of his self-interest, all of her self-interest, and is just willing to submit all of their life to the Lord.

Lord, you do with me whatever you please.

In investing for the kingdom, you end up saving your life, as it were.

But you show me somebody who just lives for self.

It's all about themselves.

They might, when their body is put in a casket, when that casket's put in the grave, they might have a boatload of money.

They might have had an incredible reputation.

And yet, if they died without Jesus, guess what?

They were losers.

They were losers.

And yet, there are people who men who just sell out to the Lord.

Oh, they keep working their full-time job, but they're sold out to the Lord.

They're disciples of Jesus.

And they give and they serve and they worship.

And people are thinking, man, you folks are messed up.

Those are the ones who end up having an investment, if you will, that pays dividends for all eternity.

For all eternity.

Verse 36.

For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

For what can a man give in exchange or in return for his soul?

So just imagine, just imagine if it were possible.

Now it's not, but just to prove the point, Jesus says, what if somebody could gain the whole world?

All of its wealth, all of its gems, all of its gold, all of its silver, all of its notoriety, all of its popularity, all of its power, all of its prestige, and then at the end of life take all of that and cash it in for hell.

What does a man gain if he what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world?

Do you have any idea how valuable your soul is?

Is there anybody here who does not understand how valuable your soul is?

Just in your mind, go back to Calvary where Jesus died for you.

Think about all that he experienced so that your soul could be saved.

Your soul's valuable.

Oh, to follow Jesus so that in losing your life, as it were, you gain it.

38, verse 38.

For whoever is ashamed of me in my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation of him, will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with His holy angels?

Are you in any way ashamed of Jesus and the gospel?

Is there anybody who knows you well who does not know that you're a Christian?

Anybody?

Is there anybody who knows you well who does not know you're a Christian?

And if so, um, why would that be?

Do your friends and co-workers, do they all know that you're a Christian?

What's the opposite of being ashamed of somebody?

Well, it's it's being proud of them.

It's admiring them.

It's not being embarrassed to be seen by them.

It's loving to be identified with them.

And for those of you who know my wife, Jennifer, man, I'm gonna tell you what.

I'm so stinking proud of her.

I admire her.

I am thankful for her.

In 41 plus years of marriage, not to mention the time we dated, I have never one moment, not one moment of time been embarrassed to be her boyfriend or husband for all these years.

Not one time.

I'll claim her under any and all circumstances.

And the Lord Jesus wants us to feel the same about him.

Somebody asked you about being a believer?

Absolutely.

Why do you ask?

Because, folks, if you are ashamed of him, it may give sufficient evidence that you don't know him.

And then when you stand before the God of the universe and all of us are going to stand there, all of us are gonna stand before God.

Can you imagine standing before the God?

This is not your boss, this is not a supervisor, this is your creator.

Can you imagine standing there in front of God, giving an account, and you think you're getting in, and Jesus says, Father, I'm sorry.

I don't know him, I don't know her.

They were so ashamed to be identified with me.

I'm ashamed of them now.

I don't think anybody in their right mind who thinks they're a Christian would want that to happen.

When Jesus speaks of his return in the glory of his father and with the holy angels, he's drawing on some Old Testament imagery.

And one day the Lord is going to return and he's gonna return in glory, he's gonna establish his reign over the whole earth.

The rugged cross will be replaced by the royal throne.

And folks, when that happens, Jesus is going to destroy his enemies.

But for those of us who know the Lord, there's the comfort of knowing that our sins have been forgiven, that the blood of Christ and the grace of the Lord Jesus is greater than our sin.

Man, what a glorious day.

So those who follow Jesus as Christians, as disciples, one day we're the winners.

Those who don't are the losers.

For unbelievers, the certainty of final judgment, that should be a terrifying reality.

Hebrews 9.27 is appointed in a man who wants to die after this to judgment.

Tim Tebow.

Most of you at least recognize the name.

Tim Tebow was an incredible athlete, high school, I mean, just one of the best athletes of his era.

Such a good athlete.

It gained him a full ride scholarship to the University of Florida, the Gators.

And while there, I mean, man, he would excel.

He would win championships in the SEC.

He he won the national championship, two out of, I think two years out of three.

Um, won the Heisman.

The Heisman is given to like the overall best college football player for a given season.

And old Tim Tebow, he had all these aspirations to be the MVP.

And I didn't fact-check this, but I think he might have won most valuable player at either or both of the national championship games.

He would go on to play in the pros for a while.

But then as his football career was coming to a close, well, Tim Tebow started thinking, you know what, maybe their pursuit of being an MVP and most valuable player was a little off all those years.

He still let his light shine.

He still told people about Jesus, but maybe it's time for me to really take up my cross and follow Jesus.

No turning back, no turning back.

And so now, instead of Tim Tebow being focused on being a most valuable player, he has established a foundation and the proceeds of it go to help other MVPs, most vulnerable people, people with special needs, people who've been involved in sex trafficking, people with all sorts of maladies, people that are often kicked to the curb by society in general.

You see, old Tim Tebow, he heard Jesus' calling.

If you're gonna come after me, I want you to take up your cross, I want you to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.

Not that you're gonna start a foundation, but maybe there are some others in here who need to be like Tim Tebow.

And just recommit yourself to the call of Christ on your life afresh and anew.

Stop making excuses.

Would you bow your head with me?

Every head bowed, every eye closed, and would you stand with me?

Just go right ahead and stand.

Um two things.

First, I know because I know most of you, I know what your relationship with Jesus is.

You're a follower of his.

Would any of you who do know Christ as your Savior, would you today make this a momentous moment?

May you maybe look back on this Sunday as a day where a fresh and anew, you said in so many words, you know what, I've decided to follow Jesus.

I ain't turning back anymore.

I'm picking up my cross and I'm not putting it down again.

I want to deny myself, take up my cross, and I'm gonna follow Jesus.

If if you feel like that, it's just the real heartbeat of your heart.

You can stay standing and pray and commit yourself to the Lord.

You could just sit back down and just pray.

You could put your knees on the carpet and your hands and arms on the seat and just make that an altar right there.

However way you'd like to do it, I would like for this to be a moment in time where you look back and I renewed my decision to be a full-blown disciple of Jesus.

For the next 90 seconds or so, would you just talk to the Lord however you choose to?

If you want to sit, feel free.

If you want to kneel, feel free.

In the first service, I had people doing all of it.

Jesus, I'm gonna follow you no matter what.

No turning back, no turning back.

Now, as you continue to pray like that as believers, is there somebody here who does not know Jesus?

And your soul is in danger of being separated from God for all eternity.

If if you're here this morning and you just simply would say, Jeff, I I've never done any of this disciple stuff, this discipleship stuff.

I need Jesus.

Would you please pray for me?

I promise you I'm not gonna embarrass you.

I'm not gonna come up to you afterwards, but I would like to pray for you right now.

Is there anybody who would just simply say, Jeff, would you pray for me, please?

Anybody?

Jeff, please pray for me.

I'm concerned about my soul.

Okay, now I didn't see a hand go up, but that doesn't mean that somebody doesn't need Jesus.

So let me pray.

Father, thank you for meeting with us.

Thank you for the presence of your Spirit.

Thank you for how He can convict and challenge and also comfort and soothe.

And I pray, Lord, for anybody who knows not Jesus, that even today would be the day of their salvation.

Soon, Lord, I pray they will put their faith and trust in Jesus.

And Father, for us who do know you as our Savior and Lord, may we take up our crosses afresh and anew, deny ourselves, and follow you.

Come what may.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.