He is Good | Not So With You | Mark 10:32-45 | Coleton Segars

We are in a series right now titled He Is Good, looking at the Gospel of Mark and just going section by section through the Gospel of Mark.

I think we have slides on the screen at some point.

Colin, we got slides.

Love it.

Awesome.

But going through the Gospel of Mark, we're finishing up really like next week, we'll finish up.

Mark is kind of told in three sections, and so we'll finish up section two of Mark really next Sunday, and then we'll pause for a bit and do a vision series and what uh kind of what our church wants to be about and where we're headed, um, not just in the next year, but honestly, just as a church in general.

Um, and then we'll jump back in and finish up the third part of Mark after that.

But today the teaching text comes from Mark 10, verses 32 through 45, 33 through 45.

Mark 10:32–45

It says they were on their way to Jerusalem with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid.

Again he took the twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him.

We're going up to Jerusalem, he said, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law.

They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him, spit on him, flog him, and then kill him.

And three days later he will rise.

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him.

Teacher, they said, We want you to do whatever you whatever we ask.

What do you want me to do for you?

He asked.

They replied, Let one of us sit to your right and the other on your left in your glory.

You don't know what you're asking, Jesus said.

Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?

We can, they answered.

And Jesus said to them, You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I'm baptized with.

But to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant.

These places belong to those for whom they've been prepared.

When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John.

And Jesus called them together and said, You know that those who were regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.

Not so with you.

Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

This is the word of the Lord.

Teddy, my son, and I do these trips every year, uh, multiple ones.

We call them bro trips because I'm we're two bros, and I don't I couldn't think of anything more original than that.

But we do these things, and most of the time we just spend some time together, we try and have a lot of fun.

Uh, but as he's gotten older, we dur I've directed the trips to be um aimed at things that I want to develop in him.

So the things that we do, I want these time this time together to develop things in his life.

I want him to become a Seeger's man.

And so I have this slide here, what Seeger's actually means for us.

So Seeger's men.

Seeger's men are strong and brave.

Come on.

Um Seeger's men are educated.

This is what I want.

I mean, I'm not saying that I have all these, but Seeger's men are gentlemen.

Uh a Seeger's man will be filled with awe and wonder of the Lord.

Um, they're resilient and they're skillful.

Uh they got a bunch of skills.

Um and so we take these trips and we aim at these things.

And so, strong and brave, I I every trip I encourage him.

He must do something he's afraid of doing.

And so I push him into this space where he's afraid of doing a thing, and uh he has to step in it and he has to do it.

Uh, educated, we're gonna read good books, uh, we're gonna watch good movies uh if they are um if they're educational.

Um we're gonna hold doors and say use our manners, and you're gonna become more and more a gentleman.

Um we're going to be filled with all and wonder.

We're gonna eat the best food, we're gonna say no to nothing, everything that we want.

We will eat it and we will enjoy it and we will be filled me.

And when we're doing that thing, we're just like, why do we feel and taste this good stuff?

It's like, because the Lord is good.

I want him to be filled with all and wonder.

Resilient, we're gonna do hard things, even when they're hard and skillful.

You gotta learn something.

Every trip, you gotta learn something.

Learn a new skill.

Um, and so one time it was fishing, um, another time it was something to do with cooking or something like that.

But he's got to learn something.

But that's what I want for him.

And so we do these trips aimed at here are the qualities I want to develop in your life.

And uh the reason I say all that is one, we're about to do one next week.

We're gonna go and do a thing.

Um, but in this text, what you see inside this text is really something similar to that.

Jesus is calling the disciples together, bless you.

He's calling them together, and he's taking the time to look at them and say, hey, I want certain things to develop in you.

I want qualities to develop in you that maybe aren't true of the world as a whole, but I want these things to take shape in you.

And so what I want to do today is look at three qualities that Jesus really wants for if you call yourself a Jesus follower.

If you would say, like, yes, I'm with him, he's with me, what he wants to take shape in your life and three things that he wants to form into your life as qualities, that's what I want to look at today.

So, the first, Jesus wants in a life of a follower of Jesus, he wants the cross to be central in our lives.

He wants us to never forget that the cross is supposed to be a central element of what we think about and what we do in our lives.

He puts it in front of them again.

This is the third time with his disciples that he's placing the cross and placing the crucifixion in front of them, letting them know it's coming.

He says it in verse 32 through 34.

So again, he took them aside to tell them, hey, here's what's going to happen.

We're going to Jerusalem, the Son of Man will be delivered, and they will condemn him to death.

They will hand him over, and they will mock on him, spit, uh, mock him, spit him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him.

And then three days later, he will rise.

And so Jesus is putting the cross central in their minds again, constantly reminding them of this thing.

The issue is they're not grasping it in any way.

They've heard it three times and they still have no idea what he's talking about.

But the reason that Jesus is trying to make the cross central in their lives and then the life of the disciple is that if the cross is not central in their lives and if the cross is not central in our lives as followers of Jesus, what eventually happens is you'll begin to expect and anticipate that what Jesus is supposed to do for you is give you a very easy life and really just be used for your benefit.

If the cross isn't central, where we immediately go is what can you do for me?

And the disciples do it right here.

Jesus spends some time saying, Hey, I'm about to die, and they're like, Cool, cool, cool.

If could I like sit on your right and your left?

Can I get some power?

Could you, that's really so you're gonna be spit on, flogged, killed.

I would love a position of power.

What are we doing?

Like they they immediately they dismiss the cross altogether, and they eventually in verses 35 to 37 say, Hey, do what I want.

I don't actually care what you want.

I don't care what you're about to walk into.

You're for me, not the other way around.

You're supposed to do for me.

And so as soon as the cross is not central in their life, they want to use Jesus to get whatever they want in their life.

Make my life easy, give me power, make my life better.

And so instead of taking up their cross and following Jesus, but because the cross is not central, they begin trying to use Jesus to get everything that they want in their life.

You are God, and you are just supposed to do my bidding.

Here's what I want.

Do everything that I want.

That's their prayer.

Do exactly what I want you to do.

Make my life easier.

And to me, if we're not careful, we can shift into believing that if you and I, if we believe in Jesus, if we follow Jesus, we can shift into thinking that if we do that, that then He is, He owes us or is going to give us a very, very good, cushy, comforting life.

If the cross isn't central, we we shift into He's gonna give me a very comfortable life.

In pastoral ministry, I have talked to people who thought that if they were baptized, as soon as I get baptized, it's gonna fix some of my problems.

I'm like, it's just water, bro.

It's just water.

Um, it's not gonna fix your marriage, it's not gonna fix your bankrupt business.

You're just bad at business.

You know, maybe that's the issue.

Maybe it's not the baptism, not gonna do a ton.

Um people have thought that if I start doing good things, if I just give go to church, give some money to the church, serve the poor, if I start doing right things, then God must bless me.

He's gonna begin doing good things to me as I start doing good things for others and this sort of karma, cosmic way of doing things.

And so they begin thinking, if I'm good or if I do something good, I'm gonna experience something good in the process because God owes me that thing.

And the issue is what happens is when that doesn't happen, when they when they're doing all the right things and then suffering enters into their world, they're like, What happened?

I'm doing my part.

Like God, you're not doing, you're not keeping your end of the bargain.

You're not doing what you said you were gonna do.

I'm doing good, and you're not doing good to me.

I'm suffering.

And so they begin thinking that like he's just failing them.

And they feel like they're doing their part, but he's not doing his.

But the issue is that was never the way that Christianity was supposed to work.

That was it's never mentioned in here that that's the way that it's going to work.

If it were true that if you were baptized, you turn from sin and you do good things, then life will go easier for you.

Jesus never would have died because Jesus was baptized, he was perfect in every way, no issues, no sins whatsoever, and yet he suffered the most.

That's the story that we actually follow.

So the idea that, like, I'm doing good stuff, life should then go good for me, and I should be able to avoid suffering is like it doesn't exist in the scriptures.

Suffering is a part of it because we follow someone who's a suffering servant, we follow someone who's filled with sorrow, a man of sorrows.

And so it was never supposed to be this idea that, well, if I'm just good enough, then I will receive good enough.

It doesn't work that way because if that were true, Jesus wouldn't have experienced what he did.

He was perfect in every way.

But he also suffered more than anybody ever.

Jesus says this will be true of him.

He says, take up your cross and follow me.

What is following me like?

Take up your cross and follow me.

Following me will feel like a death march sometimes.

It will feel like you're just about to go and die.

That's what it will feel like.

He says in John 14, in this world you will have trouble.

It's pretty clear.

He's not, he's not, he's not trying to like, he didn't say, in this world, life's gonna go super easy for you.

It went really easy for me.

Honestly, the crucifixion didn't even hurt.

I mean, nails and hands, it's not that bad.

Like he doesn't say any of that.

He's like, in this world you will have trouble.

Paul says in Acts 14, the Apostle Paul, he is, uh, he preaches the gospel.

He is immediately pummeled with stones and stoned, uh, all to the point where they believe that he's dead and they drag him outside the city.

He's not he's not dead, or he comes back to life, whatever.

And he goes back into the city to the church where the Christians just watched him.

The Christians just watched him be persecuted for his faith.

And it says this, he says, he strengthens the other Christians, he strengthens them and encourages them to continue in the faith by telling them, and here's his encouragement.

Hey, it's necessary to go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.

Okay, I want you to be encouraged.

I'm gonna I'm gonna strengthen you and encourage you.

This kind of thing, my black eye and my arm hanging limp because I get hit with a rock, this is a part of it.

Okay, let's keep going.

Like that's what he, that's the encouragement that he gives to them.

And what he's saying, and he's what he's trying to communicate to them, is like, if you're wondering, what's it like to follow Jesus?

He's going, this is what it's like.

I was just brutally hit with rocks to the point where I was dead or they thought I was dead, knocked out unconscious for a while.

That's what it's like to follow Jesus.

You need to know following Jesus is this hard, it's this difficult, and suffering is a part of it.

When you follow him, when you follow Jesus, hardship is not abnormal, it is inevitable.

It is not the anomaly.

It is supposed to be this thing that we recognize like suffering is inevitable when we follow Jesus.

It doesn't exclude us.

We follow him and therefore it excludes us from suffering.

It doesn't do that.

Charles Spurgeon, uh, an author that I really love, a pastor, he says this.

He says, God's people have their trials.

It was never designed by God that his people should be an untried people.

They were chosen in the furnace of affliction.

They were never chosen to worldly peace and earthly joy.

Freedom from sickness and the pains of mortality was never promised to them.

But when their Lord drew up the charter of the Christian privileges, he included chastisements among the things to which they should inevitably be heirs.

Trials are a part of our lot.

They were predestined for us in Christ's legacy.

As surely as the stars are fashioned by his hands and their orbits fixed by him, so are our trials allotted to us.

He has ordained their season and their place.

He has ordained their intensity and the effect that these trials shall have upon us.

It is ordained of old that the cross of trouble should be engraved on us, because it is the royal mark that distinguishes the king's honored subjects.

But even though hardship is the path of God's children, they have the comfort of knowing that their master has traveled it before them.

It's a long quote, but it's a wonderful quote.

It is ordained of old that the cross should be engraved on us, because it was engraved on Jesus.

Therefore, if we follow him, it's going to be engraved on us.

The cross, suffering, hardship, all of it.

It is a part of life with Jesus.

It's a part of following him.

Following Jesus does not make us immune to the normal sufferings of the world.

Christians will still get cancer.

Christians will still get depressed.

Christians will still deal with addiction.

Christian children, Christians who have children will still have rebellious children.

Christians will still be barren.

Christian marriages will still end in divorce.

Christians will still have hopes and dreams and joys they long for in this life and see those things unfulfilled.

Christians will still deal with death and tragic loss, miscarriages, all these things.

The list goes on.

Christians will just, they're not immune to the suffering of the world.

And actually, the truth is, Christians also have the added benefit of you'll be persecuted and hated by the world.

And so really, the Bible testifies that, like, not only are we not immune to the normal stuff that everybody experiences, but we have the added suffering of what's possible for Christians.

And so the scriptures testify to like who will suffer the most in this world?

The Christians.

Like that's what the scriptures actually testify to.

And the cross was always supposed to be this thing that reminds us this is what life is like with him.

It's worth it, but it's not comfortable.

And it's not going to be this space where he blesses you with abundance through and through and through, where everybody looks at you and it's like, that's what it's like to follow the Lord.

It's like, man, you follow someone who lived with fulfillment and lived with abundance, but he also suffered the most and he found abundance in the midst of that suffering.

And so for us, if the cross isn't central, we will not know how to handle suffering.

We won't know how to deal with our own suffering.

We'll see hardship as an anomaly and be like, this is completely random.

This should not be happening to me.

Or what you'll see is you'll experience that and think that this is just punishment from God.

I must be doing something wrong.

That's why I'm experiencing suffering or hardship.

Or that I'm outside of God's will.

God's will is supposed to be easier than this, not difficult.

And it's like, where did you get, where do we get those things?

That's not true in the scriptures.

If that were true, Jesus' suffering wasn't random.

Jesus' suffering, Jesus going to the cross wasn't being outside of God's will.

His suffering wasn't outside of it.

It was actually, this is the will.

And it wasn't punishment from God for Jesus' own bad behavior.

It was purposed for a reason.

He had a plan for the suffering that Jesus actually went through, and the same is true for us.

As Christians, there's purpose in the things that he does, but he does allow it, and it's a part of following him.

This is why James says, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters.

Whenever you face trials of many kinds, consider it joy, pure joy.

You know that the testing of your faith through these trials produces perseverance.

Let those things happen.

Let perseverance, let those trials continue in your life.

Do not escape them.

Don't jump into the world and try and get away from them.

Let those trials finish their work in you.

Because he's trying to make you mature and complete where you're whole and lack nothing.

And Peter says the exact same things.

Don't be surprised at the fiery trials that you're dealing with.

These things are actually testing you and forming you into the people that he wants you to be.

Suffering is a part.

The cross is supposed to remind us that suffering is a part of what it means to follow Jesus.

And if the cross doesn't say stay central in our minds, we won't know how to handle the hardships that we deal with and we'll think that he's he's against us and not for us.

And it's like, that's not true.

It's a part of it.

And not only that, if you believe that suffering is random or the cross doesn't stay central, not only will you not know how to handle your own suffering and the stuff that you deal with, you won't be able to comfort the people, other people in your life that are actually dealing with suffering.

You won't be someone that can actually step into their world and help them.

You'll either be like Job's friends who are like, oh, you're suffering, it's because you're a terrible sinner.

And you start condemning the person, be like, oh, the reason you have so many problems, because you're an awful, ungodly sinner that deser deserves everything you get.

Like, that's a terrible friend.

Don't be that to anyone.

You'll you'll either do that or you just you'll just minimize their pain and say that, like, oh, it's not that big of a deal.

When years ago, um I did my um sister's wedding and huge gift.

Uh her and her husband uh they had a uh little boy who was special needs, and they were just uh incredible parents together and been married for like a year and uh pregnant again with their second.

And uh two days before their second child was born, uh my sister's husband was shot and killed, and uh never got to meet his second son.

And uh it was just it was awful.

He was he was a police officer, um, on duty, wasn't supposed to be there, showed up just to kind of help, and he was the only one that that was killed.

And it was just awful.

And I heard about it, I was getting texts from my parents saying he was shot and stuff like that.

So I just started praying.

I was like, Lord, please, like, don't do this.

Please don't, like, this is horrible.

Please don't do this.

Praying and praying and praying, and my dad texted me, and he's like, He's gone.

He was shot, he's it's over.

And I just wept and I cried and all this stuff.

And well-meaning Christians, people who I that I told this story to about what was happening while I was going to Georgia to see my family and that kind of stuff, and talking about this story, well-meaning Christians, I was like, Yeah, I I prayed that God would heal him, and God didn't heal him.

Well-meaning Christians were like, Oh, sweetie.

God did heal him, he gave him the ultimate healing.

And I can't express like how much I wanted to punch people in the face and go, like, do you think God is stupid?

Like, do you think he's dumb?

Do you think that God was confused?

Like, oh, you wanted me to heal him here?

Oh my gosh.

I'm so sorry.

I had no idea.

He's with me now, and I can't do the back thing.

So there's no like Command Z that I can undo.

I am so sorry.

Like, and I like I wanted to be like, do you think that God misunderstood my prayer?

That I needed to be more specific and say, like, I want you to heal him on earth, not the ultimate one that this old lady's telling me about.

Like, could you, like, I just I got so angry.

I'm like, no, he didn't.

He, yes, he gave him the ultimate healing.

Well, that's fine.

But don't tell me that he said yes to my prayer.

Because that's what you're saying.

You're saying that I prayed a thing and God said yes, even though we're all suffering and dealing with hardship and loss, and my nephew will never meet his dad on this side of heaven.

And you're saying God said yes to me.

He didn't say yes, he said no.

That's what he said.

And I have to figure out that God is still good in the midst of it because I know that he is, but I'm walking through something.

My sister is walking through hell.

Don't tell them that God said yes.

Like it won't help, it will minimize their pain.

And it does, and these well-meaning, y'all are so sweet, everybody's so kind.

But if you do not have a theology of the cross, if you do not have a theology of suffering, you will look at people in the midst of their pain and be like, He did say yes to you, sweetie.

Like, no, you're dumb.

Don't say that.

You sound dumb.

Don't do that.

You're ruining it.

You're ruining the fact that there's an actual theology here that exists for people, that Jesus walked through suffering, and when we walk through suffering, and when he allows us to walk through suffering, he promises, you will walk through it, but I will be with you, and I'm near to the brokenhearted, and you will find me in the midst of it.

And so this minimizing and these cliches that we use drive me insane and they ruin people's just vision of what they actually need in that moment.

They do not need somebody saying God said yes when he actually said no.

He could have healed Chase.

He chose not to.

He can heal people.

He does, he chose not to, he chose to say no.

And we have to figure out that he's good in the midst of it.

And my sister has a stronger faith now than she's ever had.

And then people are like, see, he works all things to good.

I'm like, I'm going to.

Would you stop talking?

Verses like people just sitting with them in the midst of their pain, weeping with them, crying with them, bearing that burden, and being silent and going, I don't know why.

There's no good answer in the midst of this kind of suffering.

But I know that he's near to the broken heart.

And he'll be near to you.

And I'm not leaving either.

But we have to have a theology of suffering.

We have to keep the cross central.

We have to know that suffering is a piece of it.

We're going to walk through something because Jesus walked through something and he's going to walk with us in the midst of it.

But they have been ordained from of old.

We will suffer.

And this is why Jesus wants to keep the cross in front of the disciples.

Sorry, that was my longest point.

They will be shorter.

All right.

Second, he wants the cross central to our lives.

Second is he wants us to be set apart from the world.

He wants us to be set apart.

The word is holy, but it really just means different.

He wants us to be different than the way that the world does this, be different than that.

This is what he says in verses 42 through 44.

He calls them together again and he says, look, this is how the world does leadership.

This is how the world does service and ruling and exercise and authority.

And then he says, He's like, not so with you.

This is how they do it, but not so with you.

Instead, whoever wants to become great must be the servant.

Whoever wants to be first, be slave of all.

And what I love about this is like, he's like, be different than the world.

He doesn't condemn the world.

He doesn't look out at the world and be like, these idiots.

Like he doesn't do any of that.

He doesn't talk about whether it's right or wrong.

He's just like, it's just less than.

This is how they do it, not so with you.

That's a lesser way of doing life.

That's a lesser way of exercising authority, not so with you.

I have a better way that I want you to live.

I want you to step into this thing that I have for you.

I want you to live a better vision so that you provide the world with an alternative vision of how life could actually be.

And the reason that it could be that way is because I'm at the center of it.

And so what he's saying is like, I don't want you to act.

The way that they act, I don't want you to act like them.

I want you to actually be so different that you provide something better for them to look at and so that they can see.

Don't condemn the world for acting the way that it does.

Just show them a better way.

And that's what he's saying, not so with you.

Christians, the church has struggled with this throughout history, doing great things and then terrible things.

A great one when the church was like, here's how the world acts, but not so with us.

Back in the early churches' days, the Roman world, they would expose children they didn't want.

So if they had a child and it was a girl or it just looked funny or it had a deformity or something like that, they would just stick it outside and the wolves would eat it or whatever, it'd be exposed to the elements.

And that's how they did, that's what how they dealt with children they didn't want.

Um, and that's that's what they did.

But not so with the Christians.

What the Christians would do is they're like, everyone's made in the image of God.

Everyone matters.

There's this life is is is it's important, it's holy, it's good.

And so they would go and they'd snag those babies from being eaten by the wolves and they'd take care of those orphans.

And that was what taking care of the orphans.

They didn't get payment for that, they didn't get anything.

They just knew that like that child could grow up to be somebody that absolutely changes the world because everybody's made in the image of God.

And so, and y'all, y'all toss them out and expose them, we'll go snag them and raise them.

And so that's what they did.

And that was this beautiful thing.

The world does this acts this way towards children, not so with the Christians.

Here's how they do it.

And the church grew by just tons because all these moms were like, what a better way of life.

Like, that's so much better than tossing children and just kicking them out on the street.

Like, that's so much better.

And that was a wonderful way of doing it.

A terrible way that the church has struggled with this is uh Christians used to be persecuted in Rome at least, you know, in that in this particular time.

And they were killed for their faith.

And then Christians came to power, and it was the religion of Rome for a number of years and all those different things.

And um as soon as they came to power, then the Christians were like, uh, we'll we'll persecute people for not being Christians.

And if you don't want to be baptized, we're gonna force you to be baptized.

And if you don't want to be baptized, we're gonna kill you.

And so they just took, they started doing the exact same thing that the Romans, like Romans uh persecuted and killed Christians, then the Christians began persecuting people and killing people.

And it was like, but they're but they're sitting there saying, but not so with us.

We're killing them because they're not Christians.

And it's like, that's not better.

That's so that's so not better.

That's not what you should be doing.

And so that's that's like they they just we've always gone back and forth on this in our day and age, and it's not not really mine as much.

But one of the ways that the the church tried to do this was like the world drinks alcohol, not so the Christians.

We don't drink any alcohol.

Uh the the world smokes and goes to the movies, not so the Christians.

We don't smoke and go to the movies.

I think it was also dancing.

I can't remember.

The world dances, not so the Christians.

I'm like, man, that's some boring parties.

Like, and but that they thought, and and I know that people are doing this in a good way, but they're like, not so with us, but they thought that would be compelling.

We don't, the world does this, we don't do that.

The issue is they kept judging people the same way that the world did.

We don't drink, but we judge people out the frame.

Like we don't, we don't dance, but we condemn people like all the different times over their beliefs.

Like we were just as cruel and just as the church didn't change any of the things.

We changed a lot of the outward things, but our hearts were exactly the way that the world was.

We judge people the same way, we condemn people the same way.

And so this thing that they thought would be compelling to the world actually ended up being like, thanks for doing all that stuff with the drinking and stuff, but honestly, I just wish y'all were nicer people.

And so we had all these different things.

And so to me, when I was thinking about like what would it look like, what would be a compelling vision to the world of like, not so with us.

To me, I think it would be more compelling is if the world said, most people blame everyone else for their mistakes, but not so the Christians.

I work with these Christians and they take ownership for their mistakes.

They're the first to say that they're wrong.

Everybody else puts it off on somebody else.

Everybody else has problems, they blame somebody else.

I'll tell you what, those Christians, they'll really own it.

That's really cool.

That would be a very compelling.

I'd love to hire those people and they would love to hire me because I'm a person who wants to like, I'll just own the stuff that I do wrong.

The world wants credit.

They want to be seen, they want to be noticed, they want to be first.

Not so the Christians.

They take the lesser seat, they pass around credit.

They don't mind serving in the background, they don't mind if they're forgotten at work, they don't need the accolades, not so the Christians.

The world is fearful, not so the Christians.

They seem to have a peace and a foundational strength and this courage that like you can go to them and you can depend on them.

The world puts all their hope and legislation in political leaders, not so the Christians.

They don't get wrapped up in political arguments.

Lord help us, please make this true in our time.

They don't get wrapped up in political arguments and worldly leaders.

The world responds to criticism with powering up, not so the Christians.

They humbly receive criticism.

They listen, seek to understand, make amends.

Everyone I know holds grudges and keeps a record of wrongs to throw in my face.

They use my wrongs to leverage them against me, not so the Christians.

They will forgive those who hurt them.

They show grace and seek to be at peace with others.

The world isn't interested in reconciling with one another, not so the Christians.

They're stubbornly loyal in relationships.

They will fight for the relationship more than they fight for themselves.

The world spends their time and money on themselves and maybe gives the leftovers to others.

Not so the Christians.

They're incredibly generous and will live beneath their the level they could live in order to help others.

Most people are just trying to make money, get more money, consume by money, not so the Christians.

They live within their means, financially wise, very generous.

Most people aren't interested in an actual date.

They just want to use me to get what they want.

Not so the Christians.

They treat you with respect.

They honor you.

Most couples just call it quits when it gets hard to stay married, not so the Christians.

They do the work to have the best marriages.

Most college students spend all of their time either at parties, getting drunk, racking up debt, maybe going to college.

And I was just thinking, I was like, not so with Ella Goforth.

She spends her time with students seeking to advance the kingdom among sixth through 12th graders, some of which we don't even want to spend the time with sixth through 12th graders sometimes.

But like she's like, I'm in.

I'm going to advance the kingdom in this church.

I'm going to do this thing.

Like we've actually seen what it's like when it when you go, the world acts this way, but not so with you.

And some of that not so with you has changed our lives.

It's changed our kids' lives.

And we've seen that happen.

And so there's something here that Jesus is like, look, you have the ability to live such a compelling life in front of people that they might think it's weird, but honestly, they're like, it is compelling.

It's really beautiful.

And that's what Jesus is asking of us.

He's like, look, live with an alternative vision in the world.

The worldly way of living, of trying to exercise power and do all those things.

You see it in the disciples.

They start arguing with one another.

They're angry with one another.

It's like causing all this conflict.

And when we live that way in the way of the world, all we're going to experience is exactly the vision that we're living into.

We're going to experience the conflict and the pain and the toil of just bad relationships and bad things happening.

And Jesus is like, I just have something more for you.

And so everybody argues that way.

Everybody refuses to say that they're wrong.

Everybody does that, but not so with you, so that you experience something different and so that you offer that thing to the world.

That's what he wants for us.

To not condemn the world over its practices, but just to be a model of like, this is what it's like when Jesus rules your life.

I promise you it's so much better.

And so we're supposed to be set apart.

And then the last.

He wants the cross to be central.

He wants us to be set apart from the world.

And then third, he wants us to represent him well, to actually represent him, to be like him in the world.

And he says this.

He's like, I want not so with you, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

And so what he's saying is like, live that not so with you life because that's what I came to do.

Live the differently than the world because I came to live differently in the world.

The entire world, everybody sacrifices other people in order to get what they want.

I will sacrifice anything else in order to get what I want.

And but Jesus is like, I'm gonna flip that on it on its head.

I'm gonna sacrifice myself so that other people can flourish.

Everybody else is interested in doing it the other way.

I will crush you to the ground in order to get the flourishing that I need.

And Jesus is like, I'd rather be crushed to the ground so that you can receive the flourishing that you need.

I'm going to live that way.

And if you follow me, please represent me that way.

Do those same things for other people.

Let them see me in you.

You have the ability to introduce me, Jesus is saying, you have the ability to introduce me to other people and for them to see me in you and what I actually was.

And so I want you to do that.

Live like me, talk like me, act like me so that other people can be introduced to me through your life.

More than anything, more than most things, I want this.

I want this church.

I want us to represent him really, really, really well.

The vision of our church is that we would, that our time together, everything, if you're like a guest or you're just, we're just thankful you're here.

But if you're here at this church, like what are we trying to do from our time together, from everything that we're doing, we are seeking to develop people into actual, not just moral people who call themselves Christians, but like actual followers of Jesus who are following in his footsteps, practicing the way of Jesus.

Like I am actually a practitioner of his way, his way of life, I practice that way of life.

That is what we want to do.

I want us to become like him so much that we actually practice the things that he wants to do.

And the reason is because to me, we live in a world filled with Christian impostors.

I'm just people who bear the name but don't bear the marks and they don't look like him.

They bear the name of Jesus, but they don't actually live and follow in the way of Jesus.

And I have non-Christian friends and I have non-Christian family, and they don't need more people who just say that they're Christians but treat them terribly.

Ray and I were talking about this uh I guess today and earlier uh earlier this week, but 20 years, 22 years of being a Christian, I share the gospel with people a lot.

Um maybe three times I've had people reject Jesus because they either didn't believe that he was the Messiah or couldn't really get on board with a man rising from the dead.

Maybe three times they rejected him because of that.

And I've shared the gospel a lot.

Every other time has been, why do you reject Jesus?

Why don't you want the gospel?

It's good news.

Why don't you want the gospel?

Because I've met Christians.

That's it.

Like, all if you read Acts, if you read the book of Acts, people reject Jesus as the Messiah because they don't believe that he's the Messiah and they can't get on board with somebody rising from the dead.

That's not my experience.

People reject Jesus in my time because they're like, oh, my parents were Christians and they're the worst.

And I'm like, sorry.

Uh or I went to some church one time and they treated me terribly.

Or I see I worked uh the day shift on Sunday after church lunch, and all the Christians that showed up always gave me tracks that looked like dollar bills, but it really was sharing the real good news with me.

And like, like all these different things, it's horrible stuff.

And my Christian friends and my or my non-Christian friends and non-Christian family, we don't need more people who just claim a name, go to church on Sunday and claim a name, but then treat other people like they're terrible.

And then they go, like, oh, you're a Jesus follower?

Perfect.

This you're exactly you're a perfect example of why I don't want anything to do with him.

We need less of that.

That has to shift.

And I want it to be true here more and more and more and more and more.

Because when you look at the Gospels, Jesus talked to people and he would have these conversations with people, and he his words were so encouraging and so compassionate and so generous and so kind that it it radically transformed their lives.

Like his just the way that he spoke to people changed their lives.

Jesus befriended people that no one else would befriend.

No one would talk to these people, no one would be friends with these people, and Jesus would befriend them and it changed their lives.

Jesus stood up for people who couldn't stand up for themselves, people who probably were in the wrong.

Jesus would stand up for them and stand in the gap to protect them from what was coming and it changed their lives.

Jesus noticed people who were forgotten.

He noticed people who were hopeless, and then he entered his life into their story and gave them hope and changed their lives.

And on and on on.

Jesus went to people that the world was like, look, you got some real issues, bro, like huge problems.

Like we just gonna stick you over here in a corner and just do your crazy over there.

And Jesus was like, I want to go to the corner where that man's being crazy and I want to enter into a story and I want to change his life.

He had power to help people that the world couldn't help.

And so he moves into these spaces like that's what Jesus was actually like and what the world needs, and what my non-Christian friends need and what my non-Christian family needs.

They need more people like that that have been shaped and formed into his image where they actually experience what he's actually like.

And they don't need, they don't need more people who call themselves Christians but really worship the president and condemn the other political party.

They don't need more people who call themselves Christians praying before they eat at the restaurant and then being cruel to the wait staff.

They don't need more people who call themselves Christians but refuse to love their enemies.

They don't need more people who call themselves Christians and claim to believe that God is sovereignly in control of everything, including the government, but actually they're just as afraid as the rest of the pagan world.

We don't need more of that.

We need people who are like, I'm not afraid of that.

Honestly, I think he runs everything.

He did, he's done a pretty good job so far with the world and all the rest.

My salvation rose from the dead.

It's pretty cool.

We don't need more people who claim to be Christians, post their Bible verses on social media, and then spend the rest of their time on social media blasting everybody else for everything they disagree with and getting in online social media arguments.

We don't need that.

And so if you do that, stop it or call yourself an atheist, please.

Or just that you go to a different church that we, you know, somewhere.

We don't need that.

And there's grace for those, for you and for me when I struggle in these ways.

There's grace.

But if you think that following Jesus and these things are okay, they are incongruent and they do not work.

And the first thing that Jesus would do is he'd walk up to you and be like, I love you so much, gave my life for you, I bled for you, I have holes in my hands and feet for you.

But I listen, I need you to really stop that.

I need you to not do that.

You were supposed to represent me, and that is that does not represent me well.

That presents a version of me that's really mostly you.

And I want you to represent me.

What Jesus wants is for people who were broken and have been put back together to just offer that back to the world.

I was broken and Jesus put me back together.

Offer that to the world.

I was sinful and needed forgiveness unconditionally.

I can't believe no one would ever forgive me, but he forgave me.

Okay, great.

Then offer that back to the world.

He wants people who have been transformed by him to move into the world, helping other people be transformed by him because we introduced them to him.

So that's what he wants for his followers.

He wants the cross to be central because suffering is a part of following him.

He wants us to be set apart from the world, not to condemn it, but just to offer a better alternative to what it's like to actually live in this world.

And then he wants us, please represent me well.

Please represent me well.

Because you may be the only way that people see me.

And I want them to actually see me and be introduced to me and not some version of me.

And so a couple of questions just by way of application.

The first, suffering and hardship, suffering and hardship are inevitable as we follow Jesus.

So for you, how do you currently view suffering?

How are you currently dealing with your own troubles and hardships?

Do you see it as God's punishment or being outside of God's will or like God is failing you?

Because the cross would testify that it's it's central.

This is actually a part of it.

And I'm not saying I know that like we sin and make mistakes and we just deal with the consequences of our sinful mistakes.

That's true.

If I punch a gigantic man in the face and he punches me back, I'm not like, God, why are you making me suffer?

It's like, don't be an idiot, stop punching big people.

But don't, I mean, don't punch small people either, but you know, you get it.

How are you currently viewing your suffering?

Keep the cross central in your mind.

Second, your life will resemble the world and its values, or it will resemble Jesus and his values.

Where would Jesus point in your life and say, the world lives this way, but not so with you?

Where would he look at your life and go, hey, this is incongruent?

The world lives this way, not so with you.

Let's not do this.

And honestly, you will struggle with this, and I will too, because the disciples who lived and ate and slept with Jesus for three years still didn't get it.

He's like, look, the world acts that way, not so with you.

And so even if you've been a Christian for a little bit or a long time, this is still true, but where would he look at your life and go, you are living the way the world lives, and I actually have something different for you, not so with you?

And then three.

People will be introduced to Jesus through your life.

If you're a follower of Jesus, they will be introduced to Jesus through your life if you claim to be a Christian.

Are they getting a biblical version of Jesus?

If you were, if your life were the only way people could see Jesus, how would they describe him?

What would they say Jesus is like based on how you represent him?

What would be the words?

As they see you, encounter you, talk with you, watch you do your stuff, and you're representing Jesus to them, what would they say that he's like?

The scriptures say that he was rich in mercy.

Are you rich in mercy?

The scriptures say that he lavished grace upon us.

Did you lavish grace upon people or lavish like I'm just gonna dump condemnation on you every time you do something wrong?

Or you lavish with your grace and forgiveness?

He humbled himself and took the nature of a slave for us.

You humble yourself and take the nature of somebody who's gonna lose in order to see other people rise.

What would they say Jesus is like based on how you represent him?

Love you guys.

Really grateful for you.

Please come back next week when we talk about blind Bartimaeus.

It won't be as heavy.

Let me pray.

Lord Jesus, would you bless this church?

Would you bless our people?

Lord, you want your people to be like you.

You want them to know you and know that they're loved by you so that they move out into the world, actually reflecting your nature and your character.

And so, God, I pray that you would help us.

Or for those in the midst of suffering, in the midst of difficulty, that have been thinking that maybe you're against them and not for them, God, I pray that you would change that.

Would you help them to see, to count it pure joy when they face trials and hardships of many kinds, knowing that you are producing in them something glorious and good.

Would you help them in the midst of it to be near to them?

In Jesus' name.

Amen.