Luke The Orderly Account of Truth - The Costly Confession - Luke 9:18-27

So if you would open with me to Luke, the Gospel of Luke found

in your New Testament chapter nine, we're going to be looking at verses eighteen

through twenty seven. If you don't have a Bible, you can follow along

on the screen here. But what I'd really encourage you to do is we

have bibles in the back, so I'd encourage you to go grab one so

that you can have a Bible for yourself that's yours to keep our gift to

you. So let's look at it. Luke nine, starting in verses eighteen,

says, once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with

him, he asked them, who do the crowd say I am? They

replied, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others

that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life. But

what about you, He said, who do you say I am? Peter

answered God's Messiah. Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone,

and he said, the son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected

by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law.

And he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

Then he just said to them all, whoever wants to be my disciple must

deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants

to save their life will lose it. But whoever loses their life for me

will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world

and yet lose or forfeit their very self. Whoever is ashamed of me and

my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes

in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the Holy angels.

Truly, I tell you some who are standing here will not taste death

before they see the Kingdom of God. This is God's word. Let us

pray, Lord, we lift up this time to you that as we've opened

your word, we asked that it is already going out into our hearts that

have been prepared and tilled and are made ready through the praises that we've just

sung. Maybe it's through the trials that we've been going through this week,

or the things that have been impressed or already on our hearts that you've already

been doing in our lives this last week. I just asked that today would

be a confirmation or a challenge to those things. Lord, I asked you

to be with us, or God, that we don't want to be in

an empty building without your presence, and so we asked that, and believe

that as we open your word, that you will speak, that we will

hear your words or God. So I just asked what we are ready to

receive from you. It would be having our hearts ready to hear your words,

put them into practice, and have our lives changed or God. So

we love you, we thank you, We submit this time to you,

to your glory and Jesus name. Everyone said, amen. All right,

today, very interesting passage. We're gonna be looking at one of the most

difficult places in the scripture. I really really wrestled over this text this last

week. And it's not because of its lack of clarity, but because of

the astonishing claims and clarity that Jesus has in these passages. And the reason

I say difficult is because what Jesus has to say about himself and about those

who follow him may seem extreme. They may seem too black and white,

and that's because they are. They are black and white. They are extreme.

But it's not really because Jesus is extreme or too black and white,

but because we aren't enough. And today I believe we're gonna see three big

things. We're gonna see that Jesus is the Messiah. We're gonna see what

is going to happen and did happen to Jesus the Messiah, and what it

takes to follow Jesus the Messiah. So this is your first time with us.

We have been going through a series called Luke The Orderly Account of Truth.

And in this series, we've been going verse by verse through the Luke

or through the Gospel of Luke, which is a closely documented and investigated account

of Jesus's life and ministry as put forth by Luke the Doctor. The hope

of this series is that as we continue to look at these things that Jesus

taught, that Jesus did, that we will be encouraged and strengthened in our

belief and certainty in the person and work of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

And last week, specifically, we saw Luke. He shared the incredible and

amazing, miraculous event of Jesus feeding over five thousand people with just five loaves

of bread and two small fish. Once again, this is Jesus showing himself

to be the long awaited prophet that the people had been waiting for. But

it wasn't only that, it was him showing himself to be God in the

flesh. We saw him perform this amazing miracle of creation and provision. And

now this week luca is going to shift scenes in the gospel to another event

where Jesus is going to ask his disciples one of the most important questions in

this life. And after that he's going to share with them a little bit

more about what that means and what that means for them. Today honestly kind

of feels like a Christianity like one oh one, which is kind of cool.

It was a consideration for a message title, but if you are taking

notes today, today's message is titled this the Costly Confession, The Costly Confession.

So Lucas moved us to the scene where Jesus is praying with his disciples

and then he turns to a very ends up becoming this very important conversation that

he or, a conversation that he has with them. Like I said,

he's going to ask them one of the most important questions not only they,

but every single one of us needs to answer in this life. Let's look

at it. We're gonna start in Verses eighteen and nineteen. Once, when

Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them,

who do the crowd say I am? They replied, some say John

the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others that one of the prophets

of long ago has come back to life. So Jesus is asking his followers,

what are you guys hearing about who I am? Who are people starting

to what are the rumors going around? Who do people say that I am?

And now his disciples start to lift off a list off a bunch of

big name celebrities from the recent and distant past. John the Baptist who was

dead, Elijah who technically never died, He just went up in a chariot

of fire. So I don't know what we classify that is, or maybe

Jesus was some other prophet who had died from long ago. The big idea

here is that the people believed that Jesus was some kind of prophet, and

now today, if you were to go around and ask who do you think

Jesus is? What kind of answers would you get in today's day and age

if you were to go around and say, who do you say Jesus is?

If Jesus were to ask you, who do people say that I am?

What would the answers be? Think about that? If you were to

ask your coworkers or your family who does not believe, what are the answers

that you would get? I think some of the ones that we may get.

Or he was a myth, he never existed. Maybe he was a

good teacher and they threw him up there with all those other Balist teachers,

Buddha and all them. Or maybe, like the crowds in Jesus's day,

a great prophet he was. He was a great prophet. He spoke for

God. But Jesus has a more pressing question, and it's much more important

than just who do others say that I am? But who do you say

he is? Who do you say he is? We're gonna look at that

in our next verse, verse twenty. But what about you? He asked,

who do you say I am? Peter answered, God's Messiah. Jesus

asked the most important question who do you say I am? And now it

needs to be understood that what Jesus isn't saying. He's not saying that who

he is is defined by what others think about him. So if if he's

your God, he's your God. If he's a good teacher, he's your

good teacher. If he's some guy, some guy, that's not why Jesus

is asking. That's not why he's asking his disciples. But he's asking his

disciples because he wants to know if they recognize who he truly is. And

Peter, good old Peter, he gets the right answer. He says,

God's Messiah, or your translation may say the Christ of God. And the

title of Christ is the Greek word for messiah, both meaning the anointed one,

and that is the anointed one that God had promised to sin to save

his people. And now Peter is having this conversation with Jesus and tells Jesus

that he believes that Jesus was the one who is going to come and has

come. That's amazing. Heck yeah, And this is an amazing profession.

This is an amazing conf profession of faith that Jesus is Lord, that Jesus

is the Christ, that Jesus is God's chosen one. This is a really,

really big deal. This is a the most important confession that anyone could

ever make. And that's why I think it's amazing that in Matthew's Gospel,

when he records this event, we get to see Jesus's response to this,

and we're gonna look at it in Matthew sixteen, verses sixteen through seventeen.

So Jesus had just asked him, well, who do you say that I

am Simon? Peter answered and actually kind of a fuller answer, you are

the Messiah, the son of the Living God. He could have answered that

more perfectly if you tried. And Jesus replied, bless our youth, Simon's

son of Jonah. This is really interesting. Look at this, for this

was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in

Heaven. That is that it's not that Peter was smarter than the crowds or

knew his Bible better than other people, but that God the Father, had

revealed this truth to Peter. And this is ultimately our prayer for anyone who

has yet to profess Jesus as the Christ, that God the Father would reveal

the truth of who Jesus is to them. And this question of who Jesus

is, like I keep saying, is the most important question that we will

ever face, because once faced with this truth of who Jesus is, we

only have two choices. We only have two choices, that is, believe

in him or reject him. There are still some who know that Jesus is

the Messiah and in their sin and rebellion him. If you want to a

couple quick examples Satan and his demons. They know exactly who God is and

they don't want anything to do with him. They don't want to submit.

They will submit one day, they will yield, but they don't want to

they know exactly who God is. So our hope and our prayer is that

for everyone who does recognize that Jesus is the Messiah, that it would be

the type of revelation that comes from God the Father that leads them to following

Jesus, which in a minute, Jesus is going to define and tell us

what that looks like. But as we see in our next portion of the

text, Jesus is going to tell his disciples what is going to happen to

him as the Messiah. But first he says something very interesting. To look

at it. In verse twenty one, Jesus strictly warned them not to tell

this to anyone. That's weird. Right after Peter makes a confession of who

he is most important question, Jesus tells them not to tell anyone who he

is. And this might not make sense to them or to us. But

if it doesn't make sense, it's only because, just like them, they

did not yet realize the bigger plan that God had in store. There was

a bigger plan, there was something bigger going on there. The disciples and

people of Israel were waiting for the Messiah to come and do what save God's

people. That's what they were waiting for, But they misunderstood how the Messiah

was going to save them. They thought the Messiah would come as a king

who would come and fight off those pesky Romans who keep occupying and taking their

land, that maybe he would come and save Israel from their enemies. And

in John's Gospel, right after g Jesus feeds the five thousand, the story

we looked at last week. After Jesus does that, Jesus he perceives that

doing such an amazing miracle. All the people are saying to go, like,

should we make this guy king? Should we go get this guy and

make him king? I mean, he just fed us with bread and fish

and I only saw the boy with the fish and the bread, and there

wasn't a lot of it, but we all aim were completely satisfied. Jesus

perceives that after this amazing miracle, the people are going to take him and

try and make him king by force. So what he does is he pieces

out. He's like, all right, I'm getting out of here. So

he gets out of there before they could do that. And why because that

is not why he was sent in the first place. Yes, he was

sent to save his people, but it wasn't from the Romans who occupied their

land, but from the sin that occupied their hearts. So this would make

sense why he didn't want them sharing who he was, because once again,

the people, misunderstanding the purpose purpose of his arrival, try to make him

do something he hadn't been sent to do. Does that make sense? I

think it's helpful for us to kind of work through some of these texts because

we see text like this, and really, Jesus, this seems like the

opposite of what we're supposed to do. So what's going on here, But

that's what context is very very important. But instead Jesus now tells him the

purpose of his coming, that is to suffer, be rejected, killed,

and raised on the third day. So get it. In verse twenty two,

and he said, the son of Man must suffer many things and be

rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law,

and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

Jesus says, the son of Man must suffer, and the son of

Man was just another title for the Messiah, which is kind of funny.

Jesus like, all right, we're just we're gonna use the same term.

We're gonna be a little bit different terms. But he's affirming after they answer

correctly who he is, He's like, yep, and don't tell anyone about

it. By the way, this is what's gonna happen to the Messiah me.

He tells his disciples the shocking truth, this is shocking news, that

he the Messiah, must suffer, be rejected by the leaders of Israel,

and ultimately be killed. Jesus does say that he'll be raised to life at

the third day. You can imagine this news coming as shocked to the disciples.

I think if we were to try and put ourselves in their situation,

because for us on this side of Jesus's death, burial and resurrection, we're

like, don't worry, guys, it's be okay, it's all gonna work

out. It's really awesome. This is where you're good. But if you

were, if you were to put ourselves in their shoes, we have to

understand that they were the first to really hear this news. They're following this

person that they believe is the Messiah, is the chosen One. He's the

one who's come to free them and save them. The rabbi, their teacher,

and now he's telling them I'm going to suffer, I'm going to be

rejected, I'm going to be killed, and I will be raised to life

on the third day. And if I was in their shoes, I'm sure

I would have a hands my hands full getting my head wrapped around the first

three things he just said that personally, it might be easy for me to

forget about the last thing he said. I'm like, hold up, what

did you just say? Or those first three again, you're gonna do it?

What's gonna happen to you? And we get this idea of shocked from

the disciples because we see the response to this news from Peter once again,

get on you, Peter, right, Peter's like one and oh right now

right, that scoreboards about to change. Let's look at Peter's response, also

found in Matthew's gospel account of the same event. Uh oh, Peter.

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Never Lord, he said,

this shall never happen to you. Jesus turned and said to Peter,

get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me. You

do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.

He's now one in one. He had the right confession. He didn't quite

understand exactly what was going on yet, so he's right in the person.

He just didn't know what the plan was. He didn't know what it was.

Fully. Jesus says that the son of man must suffer, be rejected,

killed, and raised. And here he tells Peter, who says,

don't do that. He says, you're not even considering what God's plan is

in this situation, you're just thinking about yourself. You're just thinking about your

concerns. You're thinking about merely human concerns, which makes sense. I mean,

there's one sense which we like, you can kind of empathize with him.

He said I'm gonna die, and he's like, oh, people are

gonna come after you. I'll be right there with you and I'll stop him.

You know. Jesus is like, you don't understand what's going on here,

but God has a bigger plan at work. And what's amazing is this

wasn't a new plan. Jesus wasn't introducing a new plan. Actually, if

Peter had known his Bible better, he might have caught on that this the

plan is Jesus was the lamb who's slain before the foundations of the world,

as to ransom and save people from every tribe, tongue, and nation for

all who would believe in him, and to say that he was the lamb

slain before the foundation of the world. And it was always the plan.

It wasn't a new thing that Jesus was going to be the suffering servant of

Isaiah fifty three. If you haven't read that chapter go read. It talked

about that the Messiah, the one to come, would be the one who

would bear the guilt and sin of his people and satisfy the wrath do their

sin. Jesus is the Messiah who is here to put death to death in

his death on the cross. That Jesus would bear the punishment of the sin

for all who would believe in him. And this is is such great news.

This is actually really really good news, and so much bigger news and

better news than Jesus just being sent to deliver him from other nations, the

Romans or other enemies. That Jesus was the messiah who was sent to live

and die in our place. And Jesus has just told the disciples the necessary

components, the necessary parts of that plan. It doesn't necessarily tell us here

that he's like and that's why it will all be okay. He just says,

this is what's going to happen. But now Jesus is going to shift

focus, and he's going to move from who he is and what he is

going to do. The Jesus who would soon suffer and be rejected and killed,

looks to those following him and tells them what they must do to follow

him. We see this in our next verse, verse twenty three. Then

he said to them all, whoever wants to be my disciple, must deny

themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. Jesus says, whoever

wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, must take up their cross daily

and follow him. This is actually very interesting. Jesus has yet to go

to the cross at this point, Jesus hasn't even gone to the cross,

and he's looking to his disciples after telling them what's gonna happen to him,

he didn't necessarily tell them how was gonna happen. He says, I'm gonna

die, I'm gonna come back to life, and he looks to his followers

and tells them that you must deny yourselves and take up your cross and follow

me. And being that there were people who were living under Roman rule,

being that the crucifixion, which is dying, the death on a cross,

which is a crime for a criminal or a punishment for a criminal, they

either would have been well acquainted or at least heard of the horrors of the

death penalty by the cross. They're being told that if they want to follow

him, they need to deny themselves and crucify themselves daily. Plainly put Jesus

is saying, you need to die to yourself and follow me. If you

want to be my disciples, you need to die to yourself and follow me.

If you want to follow Christ, you must die to yourself. You

must deny yourself. You must be willing to suffer daily, putting yourself and

your own desires to death. Jesus says you must. Now, Jesus is

not say that in order to save yourselves you must do these things to be

saved. That's not what he says. No, but that those who truly

follow him. If you want to be my disciple, if you want to

learn from me, if you want to follow after me, this is the

mark. This is what it looks like. This is what you have to

do. This is the mark of a true follower. Jesus's true followers are

the ones who do deny themselves, die to their own passions and desires for

the sake of following and obeying Christ. We see this in Galatians. We

see this all over scripture. But I told this verse. I feel like

it was very clear. Galatians five twenty four. Those who belong to Christ

Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires, And Jesus is honestly

at this point he's just going to continue to drive deeper and deeper this point

that he is making. We can look at it in verse twenty four.

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it. But whoever loses their

life for Me will save it. Jesus says that those who try to save

their life, those who try to hold on to and cling to their old

self, their old ways, they will be lost. But if you abandon

your ways, abandon yourself for Christ, you will save your life. That

is, you must stop trusting in yourself in your own ways and start trusting

in Jesus Christ in his ways and actually following after them. Which I don't

know if it's good news or bad news to some of you, but most

of the time are ways in Jesus's ways are not the same things. They're

very different, and most of the time they're at odds with each other.

So if you're taking notes that you can write this down for today's main point,

to live for Jesus, you must die to yourself. To live for

Jesus, you must die to yourself. And if you maybe make it more

personal, don't write it down like that, because you're just gonna be like,

yeah, they do, you do make it more personal. If I'm

going to live for Jesus, I have to die to myself. Jesus says

that if you're going to follow him, you must stop following yourself. You

must stop following the ways of this world. If you follow yourself, if

you follow this world, then you can't follow Jesus. Jesus's ways are not

the ways of this world or the ways of our own wicked heart. So

we cannot follow both. You cannot follow both. Jesus asks, or then

asks a rhetorical question of verse twenty five, What good is it for someone

to gain the whole world and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Anyone,

It's not good, right, It's not good to gain the world but

lose your soul. But do you know what's really really unfortunate? In so

many instances, we aren't even offered the entire world, and yet we're attempted

to trade our soul for so much less. We don't even get offered the

world, and we're like I might consider it to gain a little comfort,

happiness, relaxation, peace, will sell our soul to get ours before we

lose it all, to live our life and enjoy it before it's gone.

But that's not living like a Christian with hope in Christ. That's living like

a pagan or an atheist who believes that this life is all we have.

That's what we believe. Then we should satisfy ourselves first and foremost. But

that is living for ourselves. And Jesus says such a person cannot be my

disciple. Any person who is going to follow me must live for me,

not themselves. And why is this so important? There's a reason for this.

This doesn't just feel like I mean, it is a Jesus party.

It's all about Jesus. Okay, so we'll need to get over that,

for sure, We're definitely gonna need to get over that. But why is

this so important that we are not living for ourselves, that we do not

live for ourselves. Because if we ultimately live for ourselves, then even if

we claim Christ as Lord, it's only a matter of time before we desert

him or deny him, because it will most suit us in this life.

I'm gonna say that again, if we ultimately live for ourselves, then even

if we claim Christ as Lord, it's only a matter of time before we

desert him and deny him, because it will most suit us in this life,

in this life, in this world, if we want to fit in

and be a part of what's going on, it will most suit us to

deny reject Christ. I think that's why Jesus says what he says next very

important verse twenty six. Whoever is ashamed of me and my words Jesus,

whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the son of Man, will

be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of

the Father and of the Holy Angels. Jesus just told his disciples what was

going to happen to him. Jesus is going to suffer, be rejected and

killed. That was the that was the bad news. That's who they were

following. That's what was going to happen to their leader. And that means

if you're going to follow him, if you're going to follow Jesus, you

could, you can, and you should expect the same. That's how the

world treated Jesus, how much more of those who follow him. This means

you will suffer because of him, that you will be rejected because of him,

that you may even be killed because of him. And if there's any

part of you that does live for yourself, let this be a sobering moment

to follow. Jesus will be uncomfortable, you will face suffering, you will

face rejection, and you may even face death on account of his name.

But if you live for yourself, you will do whatever you can to preserve

yourself, even if it means denying Jesus by being ashamed of Jesus and his

words. Here's the deal. The world's kind of interesting. They don't mind

Jesus until he opens his mouth, you know what I mean. Everyone really

like the idea of Jesus. Seems like a good guy, a good idea,

And you're like, have you heard what he said? And if they

don't like him, they most likely have. And it's only a matter of

time when you start telling them what Jesus teaches. And it's not because what

he says is wrong or bad or evil, but because the people are.

And here's the deal, not just them, We were all sinners in rebellion

against God. At one point, Christ loved us. That's the greatest news.

He laid down his life for us, even while we are still his

enemies. But what's amazing is people really don't have a problem with Jesus until

he starts to talk. Why this is important is because as followers of Jesus,

to have our minds renewed by his word, to have our lives conformed

by his word. What's going to start to come out of us Jesus's words,

the things that he spoke, the things that he preached, the things

that he taught. They were all true things. But if we're ashamed of

those words, we're ashamed of him. Jesus says, when he returns,

he will be ashamed of you. Now, I told you this is a

difficult text because Jesus does not pull punches. I couldn't soften this if I

tried. You know what I mean, even if I tried to get rid

of this. Don't believe me. Believe what he said. He's telling you

the truth. It is sobering. One of the commentaries I've read this week

put it like this. You can either deny Christ and follow yourself, or

you deny yourself and follow Christ. And I need the band to come up.

Please. You can either deny Christ and follow yourself, or deny yourself

and follow Christ. And to finish up our text for today, let's look

at our last verse twenty seven. Truly, I tell you some who are

standing here will not taste death before they see the Kingdom of God. It's

kind of a cool text. Jesus tells his disciples that there were some there,

some standing there hearing his words, that would not die before they see

the Kingdom of God. Now here's the deal. This is where things get

a little interesting. It's debated about exactly when Jesus meant by this. There's

lots of different ideas. This could have been the Transfiguration. This could have

been at the Resurrection. This could have been at Pentecost. This could have

even been at the destruction of Jerusalem in seventy AD. There's all kinds of

ideas. Personally, I would lean towards one of the latter two. When

exactly it would happen, I don't think is the important part. I don't

believe that that is the important part of when it would happen. The important

part is that Jesus who speaks only the truth, says that some standing there

would see it come. This also implies that some standing there would die before

that time came. He's promising, Hey, some of you here, you'll

see it. And it wouldn't really make sense if this was like next week,

right, that'd be kind of a weird thing to say. He says,

some standing here will see it. Also, like I said, it

could be implied that that means that some standing there would not see that day.

I think this is important because it goes back to what Jesus was just

speaking to, of the denial of self, of following him, of not

being ashamed of him, because there were those who were going to and did

suffer for Jesus on account of him. There were some who would be rejected

on account of him, and there were some who would be killed on account

of him. Now, by God's grace and his mercy in Christ, Jesus,

one day we believe that we will be raised on account of him,

and that is good news. Jesus is saying. If you try to cling

onto this life with the preservation of self at the forefront of your purpose,

you will ultimately lose your life. But if you lose your life. If

you crucify your self preserving, selfish ways on account of following Jesus and his

way, you will reap eternal life. And the cost of following Jesus as

the Messiah not only takes a toll on our life as it regards persecution from

others. We live in a day and age where we can kind of understand

that we can see some areas where like, if I was more outspoken about

what I believe, it would not it would not go well, probably not

being killed, definitely being rejected. That'd suffer maybe in some ways. But

it's also the cost of putting to death our self preserving, self seeking,

selfish ways that want to lead us away from Christ. Say, that's probably

one of the hardest places to put to death. That's one of the most

difficult things to put to death, because it's to start with, it's who

we used to identify with. Those are the things we used to do,

It's the person we used to be. We're calling those things to be put

to death because we need to not be deceived. So don't be deceived.

The cares of this world, the worries of this life, want to pull

you away from the one thing that can actually save your life and actually save

your soul. And here's the deal. Satan is a liar and a deceiver,

and he will offer you the world to try and make sure that your

soul is just as damned as his. Jesus is saying, don't buy it,

deny it, deny yourself, deny what this world has to offer,

and follow me and you will live on a light or note. It made

me think about, like, follow me if you want to live, Come

with me, if you want to live. That's what we see Jesus saying,

Ye, but it's gonna costs to something that costs us. Our own

ways they weren't good ways, they were our ways. I wrote this in

my notes as I was studying this week, that what you will die for

is what you will live for. What you die for is what you will

live for. And honestly, I think what our problem is is that these

things don't match up. These things don't line up. I think we end

up living for things that don't matter and then end up dying for them too,

Rather than considering the most important things in life, those things worth dying

for, those things worth giving our entire lives for. And then actually living

for those things, actually considering what are those things that are actually important,

and then live for those things rather than just like I'm living and I'm enjoying

this, and they eat away and leave you with nothing in your life.

And Jesus is the only thing worth living for. Jesus is the only thing

worth dying for. So we were to flip that around, because Jesus is

the only thing worth dying for. He's the only thing worth living for to

give our whole life to him. Everything else in this life can and will

be taken from us. But Christ is the one sure thing that not even

just a thing, but the person who promises never to leave or forsake us.

Jesus is the good portion. And I believe that this is what Paul

is getting at in Philippians. And I'm gonna just tell you right now,

turn there with me. Philippians three. We're gonna read some Paul, We're

gonna read some scripture. We're gonna read God's word. It's a couple of

paragraphs that we're gonna look at where I believe Paul is trying to drive home

this point. He's speaking to everything we've we've been talking about puts it in

the language of saying that everything is garbage in comparison with knowing Christ Jesus,

and with and in following Christ Jesus. Everything in comparison is garbage with knowing

Jesus. Let's look at it Philippians three. We're gonna start in verses or

verse seven. But whatever we're gains to me, I now consider loss for

the sake of Christ. So they, at one point point were considered gains.

They were the things that we identified with and held onto. Whatever gains

to me, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is

more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ

Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. And you

would think maybe he's bummed out about it. But let's keep reading. I

consider them garbage. Doesn't sound like he's that upset that I may gain Christ.

I consider them garbage that I may gain Christ. We can go to

the next set and be found in Him. Not having a righteousness of my

own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ,

the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want

to know Christ yes to know the power of his resurrection and the participation in

his sufferings, the participations he wants to be a part of this suffering party

that's going on, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow attaining

to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this

or have already arrived at my goal. But I press on to take hold

of them for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters,

I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one

thing I do forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I

press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me

heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us, then, who are mature,

should take such a view of things. Everyone who is mature should view things

like this. And if on some point you think differently, that too,

God will make clear to you. I love it just He's like it.

If you don't get it yet, God's still working on you. Only let

us live up to what we have already attained. Join together in following my

example, brothers and sisters, And just as you have us as an example

or a model. Keep your eyes on those who live as we do.

So, if you're strug and if you're looking around, find the people who

are living like this, and start watching them and following them and walking after

them. Keep your eyes on those who live as we do. Why,

For as I have often told you before, and now tell you again even

again, even with tears, many live as enemies of the Cross of Christ.

Their destiny is destruction, Their God is their stomach, and their glory

is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our

citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a savior from there, the

Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything

under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like

his glory body. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love

and long for my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this

way, dear friends, So, dear friends, my plea and my cry

to you would be to stop living your life for pleasure, stop living your

life for yourself. Hear Christ's call to put them to death. Put to

death the love of your sin, the worries or shame associated with Jesus and

his words and fine life in the risen Christ. And if you've started to

wander, if you've started to stray, know that there is forgiveness in Christ's

finished work on the Cross. I don't want to be an enemy of that,

his finished work. I don't want to put myself up against that.

But come back and put your passions in life to death before it puts you

to death. There's an old saying that goes be killing sin, or sin

will be killing you. For you are to live for Christ, we must

die to ourselves. So Church family, please, I'm in the same boat

here with you. Okay, deny yourself, pick up your cross, and

follow the risen Jesus. The most I was gonna end there, I was

like, how do we practically do this? What does this practically look like?

I can say, die to yourself? Okay, sure? How can

we? How can we practically do this? I think we got to ask

a question. Have you submitted your entire life to Jesus? Have you submitted

your entire life to Christ? Every decision, every desire and purpose and plan

for your life? Is that his? Or is that yours that really quickly

is going to start to show you the playing field of what you're dealing with.

Whose plan am I dealing with? Is one thing to know that this

is what God's called me to, So unless he tells me to do something

different, A lot of us don't ask a question. And the problem with

a lot of us is we are our own gods. So we're like,

yeah, this is exactly what God wants. This is exactly God's plan.

But we're not God. But have we taken our plans and submitted them to

the Lord? Are we following his direction and guidance, from his word,

from his church body? We have people in our lives. If we're just

making decisions, we should pump the breaks. If we have no counsel and

no instruction and no people around us, we should pump the breaks. I've

needed people in my life to tell me to pump the breaks. I think

my way is the best way. I think what I'm doing is exactly right.

I don't know everything. None of us know everything. We need people

in our lives, we need God's word, we need good counsel. But

so many of us just make decisions and do what we want to do.

Because we don't want the input, We don't want the council, we don't

want the guidance. We want to lead ourselves. Have you submitted everything to

Christ? Is it all his? Or are you chasing your own dreams and

passions with no consideration or counsel from your Lord. That's the confession, that's

the profession. He's my Lord. So what it looked like? It does

your life actually look like it's directed by your Lord? And my plea is

that you'd hear the call of Christ and abandon any picture of your life if

it has not been submitted to or led by Christ. Good news for every

one of us. So we can stop where we're at, turn around and

start following him. We can redirect so no one can be like, well,

I'm just so, I'm far gone. Can't change it now, that's

not true if it's not been submitted to or led by Christ. We all

have those areas in our life right, So it doesn't even have to be

a big thing. Sometimes it's a big thing, probably is a big thing.

Also could be little things. There's so many areas in our life that

we have yet to yield to our Lord Lord, that we confess and profess.

So deny yourself in the area daily, take up your cross, and

follow our risen Lord Jesus, because it needs to be said that confessing Christ

is Lord will cost you everything. Following Christ's Lord will cost you everything.

But just like the man who found the treasure hidden in the field, had

no problem once he saw the worth of that treasure, he had no problem

taking everything he had and selling it, getting rid of it so that he

could possess that field, so he could go and purchase and buy what that

field had to offer. So, by God's grace and his mercy, I

pray that you see Christ as that treasure, that you see the treasure that

is Christ as to lose it all to gain Christ, and in that way

gain everything. Would you please stand to your feet,