A True Disciple of Christ

You're in March chapter 8, but before we read our text, I'm going to preach on something I've preached on several times before, but I think it's been 12 to 13 years since we hit on this, and that's the insistence of my daughters. I'm going to re-preach it. And to the benefit and the glory of God through my grandchildren, I'm going to re-preach it. Dating and discipleship. Dating and discipleship. Now you're sitting there saying, well I'm not dating anymore, and I got grandchildren or great-grandchildren.

Good! You need to take extra careful notes. Us grandparents must be a part of the godly patriarchy of encouraging or reinforcing our children's teaching of our children's children. So this is for all of us, and as a side note, if I might just say this, you know you can say some things after 44 years that some younger pastors can't say. We've had far too many widows and widowers who entered into relationships with people and acted like fools. I don't mean that in a caustic way, but they're like Paul says about some of the women in the church who were following their emotions and sentimentalities instead of the truth. He said they were silly, i.e.

foolish. So this applies to anyone anywhere, and you know you and I live in a dark, dark age, but we're not going into the darkness. Now let me say this, as I preach through this, I want you to note that I'm talking about general biblical principles. Principles that are much like the teachings of Proverbs, where it's not absolute, but it's generally true, and if you'll do the things Proverbs says, you will generally, generally speaking, prosper and do better.

Human flourishing. So even if you're a lost person, if you do not know Christ, if you will honor these principles, you and your children will do better. But we must not hold these things with a legalistic bent. These are not absolute laws for the most part.

Now there's some things we'll point out that are absolutes, no question about it. But generally speaking, these are guiding principles from the Word of God that you as parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents need to follow in raising up your sons and daughters in the discipline of the Lord, all right? So now, some will go at these and view them with too much law and legalism. If you do that, you're gonna raise a lot of little Pharisees who are law keepers, and most likely, as the Bible teaches, they become little rebels when they get their license to get a little independence because they don't like all the restraint. Others of you gonna say, well the pastor said these are just general principles and we can't judge our brother or sister if that family doesn't do it just like ours. That is true. However, some of you will take a liberal approach and hardly do any of these or implement any of these things because it's not maybe all simple absolutes.

So don't do either one of the extremes, amen? And let's keep a generous and gracious spirit toward one another as, again, one family may be over here on things and one family may be over here, but they ought to all be within the parameters of biblical principles, i.e. biblical truth.

Now here's where we're going. We want to talk about—this is all introduction—we want to talk about some biblical principled approaches to raising our children and how they deal with the opposite sex and get all the way through to marriage. First of all, we want to talk about what I call a Christian guy-girl relationship. That would be the first thing we need to talk to our fellows and girls about.

And I would say this, if your children 11, 12, 13 and you're just starting, you're way, way, way late. These things need to be talked about early in a child's life, just talking the principles, not in a brash, not in a brow-beating spirit, but just generally informing our fellows and girls of these things. Okay, first one, a Christian guy-girl relationship, which then can build into a Christian courtship. And that's when you are serious about pursuing this person as a possible life partner, and discerning is this God's will.

And we'll talk about a lot of aspects under each one of these, alright? Christian guy-girl relationship, that grows into a Christian courtship, and then that grows into a Christian engagement. That's the third thing, the third principle or truth from the Word of God we want to talk about. Now, in the scriptural understanding, this must be our understanding, the engagement was very binding. It needs to be a very, very serious commitment, and it ought to be quite short.

Temptations are too strong. And then Christian guy-girl relationships, and that's a plural because there are probably several of those. Then there's a Christian courtship to discern, is this God's partner for life?

Then the formal Christian engagement, and then that leads to Christian marriage. Ecclesiastes 12.1 and Proverbs 19.14 exhorts us about these kinds of principles. I always forget that they're not on the screen, and I didn't write them down. So look them up later, they're helpful. Alright, but let's start with foundational things here. The foundational key, as I've already been saying to you, is not a bunch of rules, not necessarily even a bunch of guidelines, but biblical principles.

And these must be lived out from the new birth, the new heart. This is not about behavior modification. I had a class in the college one time, and it was a business class, and the professor said something about me to the class that, you know, really I was just about behavior modification, that that's what Christianity is.

No, it is not. Christianity is about heart transformation, and then that changes the behavior. But you're not just taking the old man, the old carnal flesh, and trying to shape it into a better package. That's what maybe the Mormons are doing, and that's what maybe the Roman Catholic system is striving to do, and the Episcopalian system, and far too often the Baptist system, just kind of put up some basic morals and make people better people and better neighbors, and we'll all be a little more moral, a little more ethical, a little kinder, etc. That's not what Christianity is. Christianity is God changing the heart through the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the foundation for having what we would call a Christian guy-girl relationship, or courtship, or engagement, or marriage.

The new heart. Matter of fact, here it is, Ecclesiastes 12.1, remember your Creator in the days of your youth. You're not to quote, sow your wild oats, and then come back later on and say, you know, I think it's time to get serious about the things of the Lord. Far too many of you send your children off to college just to party and have a good time for several years and hope they'll come back to the Lord later. Who told you that was okay? Who told you that was wise or good? Well, they need that experience.

Who told you they need that experience? I would submit to you there are scars and deeply entrenched issues and a lot of people's hearts and lives that they got through that, quote, few years of freedom and excessive indulgence in fleshly lust. It's not of God. I'm not saying college is not of God.

Viewing that as a, now today, if you go to graduate school, I guess you've got 27, 28 years of just being a child. The Bible says foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. We need to think this through a little better. Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, Ecclesiastes 12.1, and this has your spouse included. For example, Proverbs 19.14 says, a prudent wife is from the Lord. See, the Lord's got your spouse, so you don't wait later to seek the Lord.

You seek the Lord while you're in your youth and then God has everything you need, including your life partner. So thinking about the fact that the foundation stone is not a bunch of rules, not a bunch of guidelines, but a heart that has been changed by the gospel. In other words, you've become a true disciple of Christ and that's the name, the title, rather, for our session this morning, A True Disciple of Christ. Now when I say a true disciple of Christ, I'm not talking about perfection here.

I'm talking about something's changed in your life. The gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit has regenerated your heart and soul and now you have a new perspective on life. So now let's look at our text, Mark chapter 8, and let's go through from verses 34 through 38.

It will not unpack everything here, some of it, and then we'll bind to this some balancing truths from or some amplifying truths, I should say, from the balance of biblical truth here. And if you're a young preacher, this is part of what I call local church-centered exposition. There are times when you need to bring things before the body that are urgent, are needful, because of certain temptations or issues or difficulties a church may be facing, our culture is going through, and this is one of those areas we need to visit regularly to remind ourselves so we'll unpack part of it, but then we'll add to this text from other texts to build the message we want to have. I sometimes talk to preachers, I'm chasing a rabbit a little bit, but this might help some young preachers out there. And they said, well it's got to be expositional preaching, to which I say amen and amen and amen. Got to be expositional preaching. But if your child, let's say your teenage child has a particular problem, you don't send a sweetheart, we'll meet tomorrow night in the den, and we're going to do an exposition of the book of Leviticus. I doubt that's the way you need to counsel your child. No, you need to have exegetical truths, but you may have to use a lot of scriptures to address where they are and where they're struggling. Look, as a shepherd in this church, we're going to do exposition as the 90% of everything that comes from this pulpit at least, but there are times when we need to bring what I call systematic overviews, a systematic understanding of certain truths, and bear down on those that may be taught in various expositions of various different texts. Dr. Sill, can I get an amen from the balcony? All right, I got to make sure he's on board with me.

I don't want him to get mad at me or anything up there. All right, verse 34, Mark chapter 8, and he summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake in the Gospels will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. Now to set the context, go up to verse 33. Peter has heard Jesus speak about going to the cross and dying.

Peter didn't understand that truth. He's got a lot to learn, so verse 33, turning out seeing disciples, he rebuked Peter and said to him, get behind me Satan, for you're not setting your mind on God's interest but man. Now Peter's a disciple. He's a saved man, but he's hadn't thought some things through and he still thinks his job is to help Jesus get his job done. Brothers and sisters, we do not help Jesus with anything. We follow Jesus. And so Jesus tells Peter, now Peter at this moment, you're acting like Satan. You're setting your mind to think the way a natural, non-born-again human being would think.

That's what he's saying. So when we come to our subject, dating and discipleship, why do we think, why do we approach this the way a natural, non-born-again person would approach it? We're not like them. We have higher truths that they do not have. We function according to higher principles that they do not have.

We have higher precepts to follow that they do not have. And Peter didn't quite get all of that yet, and we are still all learning ourselves so we can give some grace to Peter. So verse 34, conjunctive word and, after he deals with Peter and says, Peter you're acting like Satan. You're thinking like a man who's never been born again, like as if you get saved and then you figure things out in your own mind and understanding instead of following God's truth. Peter that's what you're doing. Now verse 34, and he summoned the crowd with his disciples.

That means everybody. The disciples needed to learn more what really being a disciple meant, and the crowd that loved all the good things Jesus was doing for them, feeding them, healing them, etc. They were excited about Jesus, but Jesus is about to say, now here's what a true disciple is. So I would say to you moms and dads, that's the main thing, is making sure your children come to Christ. That's the most important thing, and they become a true disciple.

But let's break this down. What do we mean about a true disciple? First of all, Roman numeral one, it is a choice. Becoming a disciple, which is the idea of genuinely desiring to know and follow God's plan. Genuinely desiring to know and follow God's plan, the disciple. It's a choice. He says if anyone, well point A I should say, it's an individual choice. It's an individual choice.

If anyone wishes to come after me. The idea of wishes means a definite decision from a subjective impulse. It means something's happened in me. I remember so clearly driving my car back to Middle Tennessee State University on a Sunday night hearing a Presbyterian preacher on the radio, and God changed my heart.

And it's amazing from that moment in my car when I heard the gospel and my heart was changed, I started making different decisions for my life from a subjective impulse in my heart. That has to come from every individual though. Mom or dad can't do that for you. Aunt Susie or Uncle Joe may be the godliest people you know, but they can't do that for you.

Grandmom and granddad cannot do that for you. The preacher or the priest cannot. You have to choose. I am becoming a follower of Jesus Christ.

I may fail a lot. Peter just blew it pretty big right here. Matter of fact, in the other Gospels, in Matthew's account of this, he says, God forbid it Lord, it'll never happen to you. Can you imagine understanding anything about Christ's purpose and telling Christ that he can't do anything, first of all, that he wants to do? And secondly, that you can't go to the cross, which is the one thing Peter must have, is Christ dying for him on the cross.

So Peter makes a mess. So a disciple doesn't mean you're matured. That was a definition that was really hot and taught a lot in the early days of my Christian pilgrimage with, oh, a disciple does this and this and this. Boy, you know, you got saved people. Most of them are carnal. They're saved though. That's what they would say. And then you got disciples up here.

Wrong! You're either a disciple or you're not a disciple. You're either saved or unsaved. So it's an individual choice. Now secondly, in our outline, B, it's a choice. It's an individual choice. That's A. It's a choice. It's a mandated choice. That's B.

Mandated choice. So here Jesus is going along with this great throng of people. The text calls them, verse 34, the crowd. And the other group is the disciples.

He knows both groups don't get it right now. Even those who are genuine believers don't understand all that I'm trying to get across to them. So he mandates, if you go to be my disciple, you got to understand something. You're gonna have to take up a cross and follow me.

All of you in the crowd, you got to make it. It's mandated. You decide. All of you who are committed to me and converted already, called my disciples, but you've got to decide. It's a mandated choice.

Nobody gets out. You do not escape this earth without making a choice about Jesus Christ. You say, well, I'm not against Jesus. I don't know that I'm a committed Christian. Oh yeah, you've made a choice then. As of right now, today, you've decided I will not be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

There is no neutral ground. So these people were impressed with Jesus. That's the crowd. They were thankful for what He was done. They thought His teaching was wonderful.

They thought His healings were wonderful. Feeding the hungry was wonderful, but they weren't true disciples. You see, everyone is either in the crowd or their disciple, because when He says this here, that includes everyone.

He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and He said to them, that means everyone to them all. Well, it's an individual choice, because it's a choice. It's a mandated choice. Praise be to His name.

It's an available choice. Listen to me, there's no one who holds the glorious sovereignty of God more than your pastor, because if God is not sovereign, He is not God. But listen to me, anyone, anywhere, anytime, who will turn to Jesus and look to Christ for forgiveness of sins and to be Lord of their life, i.e. become a disciple, Christ will take them.

It's available to you. Pastor, you don't know where I've been. I don't care where you've been. Well, I do care, because that hurts you and it dishonors God. But here's what I mean by that. Christ receiveth sinful men, even me with all my sin. I will sing it o'er and o'er again. Christ receiveth sinful men.

You know, the only kind of men Jesus calls as His disciples are sinners. It's an available choice for you, rich or poor. You could come, either up and out or the down and out. You can come educated or uneducated, talented or untalented. Maybe you're from a good family on the quote right side of the tract, or maybe you're from a so-called bad family from the wrong side of the tract.

It doesn't matter! It's available to you. You can be a disciple of Christ. You can have your sins forgiven and follow Jesus Christ. You may be a popular person in the culture or unpopular.

You may be attractive or unattractive. You may be a person that just everyone loves, and you may feel like I'm the most unloved person in the world, but I want to tell you something. Jesus loves you. To be a disciple is a choice. It's an available choice. All of you have to make that choice. All of you have made that choice. It's mandated.

It's an individual choice. You see, no one can be so smart, so virtuous, or so good that they do not need Jesus Christ. And no one can be so bad, so awful, so vile, so willfully reprobate that they cannot follow Christ and know His forgiveness. Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I'll give you rest, Jesus said.

You know what? One of the things weary and heavy-laden means? I'm weary of me. I'm burdened down with my weakness, with my carnality, with my indulgence in sin and ungodliness. I'm weary of me!

I've got good news for you. You're just who He's looking for. He's available to you, if you'll just turn to Him and believe. So becoming a true follower, a disciple, is the foundation stone of true biblical Christ-honoring guy-girl relationships, engagements, courtship, and then ultimately marriage. I can't give you enough rules or guidelines if that's not settled. None of this matters to you if that's not settled. If you just come to this church service just to go home, this doesn't matter. But if you're one of those that says, no, something's happened in me, and I'm making a decision from a subjective impulse, that's what the word wishes, if anyone wishes to come after me, Jesus said.

If something in you has risen up and said, I want to please Him, I want Him to be glorified, then this is great stuff for you that we'll be looking at today and then for the next three sessions. Let's go to Roman numeral 2 now. It's a choice, individual choice, a mandated choice, an available choice. Secondly, Roman 2, the choice begins the moment I'm converted. The choice begins the moment I'm converted.

Doesn't say it's explicitly in this text, though it is implied, but it's taught exhaustively in the Scriptures. You see, everything in the flow of this text means discipleship starts at conversion. You've decided on me, you're gonna be mine, then be a disciple. Live out true discipleship.

He says, let's go, let's do it. It's not like, oh, you get saved, there's a pause, you get through high school, you get through college, you get through graduate school, then you can get serious about being a disciple. No. Christianity knows nothing of that. The Bible does not separate the forgiveness of sin from following the Savior. Biblical salvation, receiving Christ as Savior, has these three results. When we are truly converted, when we believe on Christ, we are immediately saved from the penalty of sin, hell is immediately removed off of our future, or out of our future. I don't have to dread that or wear with that, because what is hell? Hell is the judgment for your sin. Not all of them, you get some of that in this life, but it's not to be compared to the torments of eternal wrath in hell. But Jesus took the torment of eternal wrath in your place when He died on the cross for you. When you believe, you are freed, saved, from the penalty of sin, would you say? Hell, you are saved from the power of sin, which includes saved from a life of aimless wondering. Think about the nonsensical and idiotic stuff that the so-called elitist and university professors and the leftists, the political leftists and others, have brought upon our nation in the last 10 to 20 years.

Think about the bizarre thing. You see, that's what happens if you don't stay with the old stuff and be a true disciple. You'll just wander off into every kind of thing that man's filthy, vile nature can possibly come up with, or everything Satan in the imps of hell can vomit up out of hell to get us to embrace. You see, but we have a higher principle to live by as true disciples. So we're saved from the power of sin, that is, its ability to to control us and cause us to exclusively walk with the ways of the world which are always changing. That's one thing I love about God's truth, it never changes. What's right is always right, will always be right.

What's wrong has always been wrong and will always be wrong. Praise the Lord for that. And in talking about young people and raising them so that they approach this thing of biblical gaga relationships and biblical courtship and biblical engagement so that it pleases God and it's best for them by far. We're doing all of that, we're doing that to the end for God's glory and for human flourishing.

It's best for them. Well thirdly, not just saved from the penalty of sin, hell, not just saved from the power of sin and a life of aimless wondering, but saved to gain a home in heaven, the presence of sin. We're saved from one day being rid of all sin that's around us. Now when Jesus gave what we call the Great Commission, He said, Matthew 28, 18 through 20, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. In other words, don't listen to anybody but me.

I'm the only one that you need to listen to. All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples.

He did not say go and get decisions. He did not say go and get them to raise their hand if they want to receive Christ. I mean, it's amazing to me the years we've spent, I had to put myself in that a long time ago, getting people to do a little hoop jump and yet Jesus says, I want them to be so changed, not that they barely have the energy to admit they want to be saved and raise their hand, I want them to live their whole lives for me, not just one hand for three seconds.

I want the power of God to have changed them so that they can be my disciples and dedicate their whole life to me perfectly. No, not down here, not yet, but it's the purpose and pattern we enter in on as true disciples. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations interesting, baptizing them.

You know what that means? It means your discipleship begins with local church membership. That's why being in a good local church is everything, everything.

Baptism is the entrance into the local fellowship of dedicated and true believers. And then he said, after you make them a disciple, they're not a matured disciple, they're not a completed disciple, they may be like Peter, no, they will be like Peter, make some real messes until they learn. You know, you do some, you couldn't have been more ignorant than I was when I was first converted, but I was a disciple.

I didn't know Nicodemus, I thought he was an economist. I didn't know what a leaper was, I called him a leper was, I called him leapers. And some of them did leap when Jesus healed them, by the way. So you may be ignorant, you're just learning, but you're a disciple. Go and make disciples, put them in a local body of baptized believers, a local church, baptizing them, and then what? Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. That's training them to be a disciple.

That's what I'm doing this morning, I'm teaching you all the things He's left us to learn and understand, that we might be better disciples. And you know what's gonna happen when you get 75 on up into 80? 85's not so far from me anymore.

85, 90, 95, 100? You know what's gonna happen? You're still repenting, you're still learning how to be a better disciple. Not under the stress of, oh no! He'll throw me away, he'll cast me aside!

No! That's settled forever. So it begins though, this process of learning and being and growing and maturing as a disciple begins the moment you believe on Christ, the moment you're converted. Jeremiah 29 11 reminds us, for I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope. So young people, moms and dads, you're teaching your children these principles on courtship, on Geiger relationships, on engagement, whatever it is, finding the right life partner, then you're teaching them things that are good for them and not for calamity. You're teaching them things that give them a future and a hope. God will bless them for it, God will bless you for it. Matthew 6 33, we're to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added.

What things? It includes a spouse, the right life partner. Do you believe that? See, too many of you are seeking a spouse, you should be seeking God. God's got her hidden somewhere until He knows you want Him most.

God has Him hidden somewhere, her hidden somewhere, until He knows you want Him most. You know, I found that in my life. I've said this to you many times, that the things in this world that I would really enjoy having, at least you know, you'd think you'd enjoy them, you really want to have, I wanted my own home. And man, when I started the ministry, y'all paid me $40 a week, $40 a week. I don't know if you've noticed, but even back then, you couldn't make a house payment on $40 a week. Now you'd pay me a lot more than that now, and I'm grateful for your generosity. But I wanted a house, and Pam and I finally got to the place where we could build us a house, and Robert Eaton helped us a lot, just to be honest, probably couldn't afford it if he hadn't.

But we built a house over here on Jennifer Avenue, and I remember being out in my yard not long after we completed that house, and I looked at it and I said, do something for me! I was grateful, and I was glad, and I was happy, but it wasn't my everything. And God has to teach us afresh, I'm your joy. It's okay to enjoy these things, but I'm your joy.

I'm your real treasure. That's what a disciple keeps learning. And in all of those areas of my life, the house we live in now, God miraculously let us buy some land, and one of our church members helped me sell the timber off of the land, and sell the land, and I made $75,000, because somebody called me and asked me if I wanted to buy this land. I wasn't out looking for it.

We were able to build our house that we have now with that down payment, and Robert Eaton helped us. I probably couldn't have got it done without Robert's help, to be honest, but those things seem to come when God knows you don't have to have them. A true disciple doesn't need to live like he has to have temporal things.

He can enjoy temporal things. It's not wrong. Praise the Lord, I've told you this many times, I begin with nothing. I may end this ministry with nothing. I don't know, but I'm not going to compromise.

We're not going to sell out on material things around here. We've had a whole bunch walk out on us in the past because we wouldn't go the way of the world, and look what God's done. He's raised up families and people who are able to support us generously, and they love what we are. Ain't God good like that? I've had pastors ask me, pastor, your church does so well financially. Well, matter of fact, I was looking at these notes, they're 12 years old, you know, one of the points in the notes was I talked about how tough our finances were. So it ain't all been like this. Well, we got some extra money in the bank and we can do some things.

Been some slim and tough and difficult seasons also. But our treasure is Him, our joy is Him, and discipleship includes learning that, and our mate for life is in Him. And that choice to be His disciple and trust Him first and treasure Him most and joy in Him most begins the moment I'm converted.

Roman numeral three, the choice requires carrying your cross. As you say it here in our text, Mark 8 34, He summoned the crowd with His disciples, that means everybody's involved, and He said to them, if anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. Now please parents, as you exhort your sons and daughters, and I mean little sons and daughters, tell them this, not in a harsh tone, but sweetheart, there's a part of what we are as Christians. If you're gonna be a disciple, a follower of Jesus, that means you have to carry, look, we don't carry His cross.

I know there's some songs that say that, I get what they're trying to say, but that's not good theology. We carry our cross. He carried His cross. Our cross. Luke 14 27, whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. Trust Me, if you try to be biblical, even though you're not legalistic, even though you're not harsh in your tone, if you try to be biblical in this area, there are plenty of Baptists in the shoals area that are gonna ridicule you. That's part of carrying your cross. Matter of fact, I think on average you'll have more religious people give you a hard time than you will the pagan people of the community.

That's been my experience. So Jesus is referring to, obviously, you have your cross and He's already told them about, I'm going to My cross. That's what got Peter so upset in that earlier verse where he said, well I don't want to go alone with this Jesus. I don't want to see you die on a cross. He said, well Peter, not only am I gonna die on a cross, you're gonna have to carry your own cross.

Now these folks in this day knew what that meant. Dying on a cross was a form of execution in Jesus' day, and it was reserved for the vilest of criminals. Dying on the cross was horrible.

It was humiliating. There was excruciating pain, both physical and emotional, so severe. It was so awful that Rome would not allow a Roman citizen to be executed by crucifixion.

The Jews used it very rarely and only for the most serious of blasphemy and idolatry. Yet Jesus went through all of that and imbalanced the physical and emotional pain that He literally felt in His body and in His inner man. That pain paled in comparison to Him becoming sin and enduring the abandonment of His Father as He turned His back on His Son and crushed Him by putting our wrath we deserved on His Son. Jesus carried His cross out of obedience to His Father's will. Let me just read this to you.

I don't want to do this a lot, but listen to what this one author wrote. Whatever else may have been done to the victim prior to crucifixion, there was at least a flogging to the point of making blood flow. In actuality this hastened death and thus reduced the extreme agonies that intensified as long as the victim endured the cross. As the next step in the process the victim carried his own cross beam to the place of execution where the upright pole had already been erected. Then on the ground he was fastened to the beam with nails with his arms outspread.

The beam and body were then lifted into place on the upright poles. A small wooden block or wooden peg was positioned halfway up the vertical pole to support his body weight with his hips to prevent him from tearing the nails through his flesh and thus coming off the cross. Once the condemned was thus immobilized he was left alone unable to attend to his bodily functions unprotected from inclement weather or flies and because the place of execution was usually some public street or prominent place subject to abusive words and mockery from passerby's. Often the body was left a putrefile and the cross had become the prey of carrion birds to complete and utter humiliation.

The extreme dishonor that lack of burial represented especially in Jewish circles can hardly be exaggerated. It was not unusual for a tablet identifying the crime to be hung on the condemned as he went to the execution site and then attached to the cross for all to see. Jesus had his cross. Jesus died on his cross because he chose to follow his father's plans and no one else's. So when Jesus told us you have a cross to carry, there are two essential parts. Dying to your plan or any other person's plan for your life and following his plan with your conviction that he is the only wise and trustworthy God and guide for your life. It's a cross because we come into this world crossed up, twisted, backwards in our thinking. An extreme example of this is this whole bizarre and vile cross-transgendered movement. Fathers and sisters, all that is at its root is, I reject my God's design. I'll be my own God.

I'll design myself. And every survey and all the research tells us that overwhelmingly children who may struggle with that grow out of it by the time they're 18 or 20. They do fine.

They do fine. And also that those who go through, can you believe that California will now treat a child who, quote, thinks they're trapped in their own body and never tell the parents about it? Are you talking about vengeance?

If you did that to my child or my grandchild, you better find another place to live quick. It's time for men in this country to be men again. Are you kidding me? So what am I saying here? We're twisted. You see, when you come to Christ, He starts untwisting you. You're starting to get things straightened out. And that's hard and it's painful and it's difficult because all we know is twisted junk. It's fixing you. I've got, I've got spinal deterioration in my lower back and in my neck. I thought my neck was fine. I went to the doctor a while back and I had this stinging pain in my shoulder and I know my lower back's been a mess for a long, long time. And they said, we better x-ray your neck. And they x-rayed my neck and they came back in and said, your neck's a mess.

I thought, wow. But you know, when they, when they, when they twist me or turn me, it hurts. But if it realigns me, that's helpful. That's what carrying your cross is. It's not that this is some horrible, awful thing.

No. It's getting you on track. You just don't know what on track looks like or feels like yet. You're getting in the flow of your master and the flow of your Creator and the flow of your God. It's just that we live in a world that's against our master. We live in a world that rebels against our Creator.

We live in a world that is godless and ungodly. So they scoff and they ridicule and they persecute and they mock and they make light of you. And they call you following a cult leader like Jeff Noblitt. And they say, you're an extreme fanatic.

No, you're not. You're getting normal. They've just gotten comfortable in the dark. And when you start trying to live right, a little light comes on and it causes their darkness to be illuminated some.

And they don't like that. Remember the story John told me years ago? John was a big, tough, rough guy. He got converted here and he used to work as a bouncer in one of the nightclubs in the area.

He said, Pastor, I want to tell you something, maybe it's amazing. Those people can be out there just in the dance floor. They're all drinking. They're all having a bedtime. But the law said at two o'clock the club's got to shut down.

So at two o'clock we turn the lights on and they scurry like rats to get out of the light. When we are true disciples, we carry the cross of those in darkness being convicted by our light. And so instead they have two choices to humble themselves and repent too. And then we're all repenters, amen?

Or attack, diminish, hold you in contempt, criticize, slander. But you keep going, that's carrying your cross. That includes dying to your plan or any other's plan for your life in order to follow Him and accepting whatever persecution or suffering that may be. You know when we are striving to follow Jesus Christ, we got to remember that that's exactly what He did and that's the model that He left for us. John 5 30, He says, I can do nothing on my own initiative. I hear, I read it, excuse me, as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just because I do not seek my own will but the will of Him who sent me. Luke 22 42, Father, if you are willing, remove this corrupt for me, yet not my will but yours be done. I'm gonna follow my Father's will. So you accept whatever comes your way. Now you know while Jesus carried His cross, they nailed Him to that cross and they suspended Him between heaven and earth and there they mocked Him.

Vile, blasphemous mockery. And in effect said, how's this working out for you, Jesus? Following your Father's will, following God's will, you say. Well how's it working out for you?

Doesn't look like it's working too good. Now young people, are you listening, moms and dads, are you listening? If your children follow biblical principles, there will be times when even your own heart will say, this ain't working. There will be times. Hold that thought. I'm gonna get back to it in just a minute. Don't lose that thought.

But you'll have times when you'll wonder, this isn't working. Roman number four, and it's my last one and it's not long. It's a choice.

Let's see, where have we come so far? It's a choice that begins the moment I'm converted. It's a choice that requires carrying your cross.

And it's a choice that's made in love. Listen to me, I'm not brow being you. I'm not arm twisting you. I don't want to create something to you that's not already there. I want to fertilize and put water on the seeds God's put in you. That's why you keep coming to hear this guy yell at you every Sunday. Because there's been some seeds put in there that when this truth goes out there, you say, boy it's hard at times and that's not what the world says, that's not what my natural inclination is, but I like this, I need this, I want this. And it's got to come at the end of it all folks, it's got to come from a heart that says, I love God. I love God. Does it ever happen to you, I don't love my Lord like I ought to?

Lord knows I don't love my Lord like I ought to, but I was just, I forgot, I think I was in my car. And just some thoughts about the glories of our salvation, and it just got, it just started resounding in my heart, I love Jesus. I love Jesus. I love Jesus. That's why I want to be a true disciple, because I love Him.

You see, Jesus followed His Father's plan even though it meant such pain, suffering, and persecution. He says in John 14 31, listen to this, John 14 31, but that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father has given me commandment, even so I do. He said, I do what my Father commands me so the world would know I love Him. I love Him more than I love them. I love Him more than I love this world. I love Him more than I love myself. So why would Christ's disciple follow God's plan knowing it will bring pain and suffering and persecution? Love?

Love? John 14 15, if you love me you will keep my commandments. John 14 24, he who does not love me does not keep my word.

If you're gonna listen to these biblical precepts I'm gonna lay before you, you're just gonna walk right out that door and not get another thought. You do not love God. I'm not saying you have to perform at a certain level, I'm not saying we won't struggle, I'm not saying there's not doubts and difficulties, but I'm saying if you could just carte blanche, say I'm not on that team, I'm not following that path, you do not know or love God. Unequivocally, without reservation or halting, you do not love God. A disciple chooses to die to his or anyone else's plan for his life, to follow God's plan and accept any suffering or persecution that may bring.

You don't go looking for it, but you're willing to suffer it. I just ran across some things on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the godly man who wrote the book, The Cost of Discipleship. He was a minister in Germany during Hitler's reign. Before that time, he had come to America, and in New York where he was studying at Union Seminary Theological School, he started attending and ministering in a black church. And if you read through Bonhoeffer's autobiography, you realize that it's probably there in that black church where he was converted. He was already a theologian and a pastor, but he probably was really saved during that time. Now, Bonhoeffer was the son of Professor Bonhoeffer, his dad of course, who was head of the psychiatric department at the University of Berlin, the most esteemed intellectual institution in the world. He was from a line of scholars, intellectuals. But at the age of 14, Bonhoeffer told his family, I'm going to study theology and I want to be a minister. And he endured severe persecution from his own family for going into the ministry.

But it didn't deter him. He goes back to Germany. Hitler's reign is getting more and more powerful, and early on he joined a resistance group that plotted to remove Hitler, remove the vicious atrocities they were seeing, and stop the war. Hitler's lynchmen found out about Bonhoeffer's plan to be in on undermining Hitler.

They put him in a concentration camp, and two years later they executed him by hanging totally naked, just cruel, harsh, humiliating. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a true disciple. He carried his cross. Bonhoeffer wrote, quote, Christianity without discipleship is Christianity without Christ. Do you know, Bonhoeffer's glorified in heaven today, and so is Jesus. Jesus suffered the most pain and agony and humiliation and rejection that anybody could suffer, because nobody else was one with God the Father and experienced a separation as He bore our sins, because the Father can't fellowship with sin. No one else can even fathom what it meant to take the retribution, a divine and holy wrath upon yourself, and Jesus took it. But on the third day, on the third day, up from the grave, he rose with a mighty triumph o'er his foes. He's glorified in heaven, adored and loved and honored and obeyed and submitted to, and joyous forevermore, having secured not losing one of his precious church he came to save.

Whoo! Glory be to His name. Here's what I'm trying to tell you. Here's what I'm trying to tell you. Yes, if we follow these principles, mom and dad and young people, there may be a time when you're by yourself at home on Saturday night because you're a disciple of Jesus Christ. And it may be hard, and they may scoff at you, they may reject you, they may exclude you, but after you carry that cross, there's going to be a resurrection. Did you hear me? And that resurrection in other forms included, but it will include God will have for you the right person, because He's got your spouse. You say, oh me, brother Jeff, I didn't do it that way. I must have married the wrong person.

No, they're the right one now. Carry your cross. Carry it now, carry it later, amen.

Carry it for a couple of years or carry it for 50 years. As I was raising my girls, and to the glory of God and to their commendation, they thrived in these teachings. They loved it, and they loved the fact that no guy's coming into my life unless he comes through my dad, and that's why I keep a mean reputation.

You had to have some testosterone and fortitude to come to Jeff Knoblet's house and ask, can I court your daughter, as I'm polishing my 30-06 deer ride. But every now and then, and by the way, my son-in-laws thrived in it. They loved it. They enjoyed in it. So much so that each one of them had to go to the farm and work. Dig a ditch, ditches were dug, lines were laid, stuff was done. They hadn't done anything since, but they did it trying to court my daughters.

No, they've done something things, just not much. Anyway, every now and then, one of my girls would say, Daddy, can I do this or this? Can I go this place with this person? And it was something that shouldn't be done. And I would sometimes say it like this, that's a sweetheart, you don't have to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. We can have a church meeting, you can go before the church and say, I denounce Jesus, I've decided to go a different way. That's harsh.

That's what it is. My point to them was, it's not about there's these rules, it's about this person that I love, and I've chosen to follow Him. And I'd say, you don't have to be a disciple. If you're a disciple, that's probably not the type of thing a disciple needs to do. The point I'm making is, your convictions, modern day, may be over here, the other modern day may be a little over here, but we all need to be within the biblical parameters of truth.

But it's because we love someone, and those few days of some rejection, some suffering, some persecution of being a true disciple, will result for you in a glorious resurrection. I'll say this again, but young ladies, are you listening to me? Satan will bring his guy first. And dads, that's our job.

We'll talk about all that. And guys, Satan will bring his girl first. But if you're a true disciple, got to get them out of the way and put you with the right one. Well, you're good, you're flourishing, and for His glory. Now, I will say something to you.

I'm like Peter. I'm in this journey of repenting and learning and striving to be a true disciple. I'm just challenging you to keep going with me and do the best we can by His strength for the glory of God.

It all begins right there, being a true disciple. Because if I don't begin it like this, you'll just take the rules. Some of you think the rules make... Some of you think the rules save people. The rules don't save people. The gospel saves people. I've seen families really mess up maybe over here, but they love Jesus and they love the gospel.

Their kids end up doing better than the family over here that didn't really act like they love Jesus and the gospel, but they love rules. That never works. Can I get amen? That never works. I've said enough this morning. I love you, and I appreciate you. Pray that we'll gird up our loins as such in these areas and keep striving on for the glory of God.