Latest / Wesley at FSU & TSC / "Journey to the Cross :: Passion Predictions" | Sunday Service | March 1, 2026

Transcript

"Journey to the Cross :: Passion Predictions" | Sunday Service | March 1, 2026 · Wesley at FSU & TSC

• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, we're gonna continue our passage.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna continue our sermon series called Journey to the Cross that we're going through in the season of Lent.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: Now, last week you might remember that I talked about uh the holy table of communion, and and I talked about the difference between transactional relationships with each other and then covenantal relationships with each other.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I invited you to see that Judas might have seen his relationship with Jesus as transactional, and Jesus saw his relationship with Judas as covenantal.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: And there can be some very helpful things that we might learn from our relationships with each other there.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: But this morning, I I want to actually look at three different stories that very literally lead up to the cross.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: And we call these in the theological world, we call them the passion predictions, say passion predictions.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Passion predictions.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then that just means that Jesus predicts what's going to happen to him when he goes to the cross.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: We call that the passion story where he goes to the cross to die for us.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're going to look at actually three different chapters of scripture.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: But I figured we couldn't do that until we talked about the cross for a second.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: In 2016, they tore down the building that was once where you were sitting now.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: We called it the chapel of the upper room, the C U R for short.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: Or if you were a Tallahassee native and you had been here since about the 60s, you may have heard it called the Bomb Shelter because it looked like on the outside a bomb shelter.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: It did not look like a church at all.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: It looked like a bomb shelter.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: It had this really cool uniqueness to it.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: And also it had a very leaky roof.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so what happened in 2015 is the insurance company called the conference who owns this property, and they said, Hey, um, we're not going to insure your roof anymore because it could damage human beings.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so they said, okay, they had to tear it down, and$3.2 million later, they built what you're sitting in today.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: Pretty cool, right?
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: And might I mention because of some severe generosity from some alums who care very deeply about you, it is fully paid off.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: I will celebrate that every moment we get a chance.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: It is fully paid off.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: Very grateful for that.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: And when I got here in 2020, uh, many of you kind of know this story.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: I we kind of had to rethink what Wesley looked like and uh try to attract human beings to be here in the first place.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: And we we had to do a lot of that kind of initial work, particularly during the pandemic.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but one of the things that I noticed as we were beginning to have worship every week is that there wasn't any sort of religious symbolism in the space.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: I want you to envision with me for just a second.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: Imagine this right here is not here.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: Does this look any different than any other multi-purpose room that you could use anywhere else?
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: Usually, in maybe in your home church, there's a cross that might hang, right?
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: Might hang from the ceiling in your home church.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and that's that's pretty common.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: But in this space, there was no religious symbolism.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: This kind of mattered to me because I had come from another campus ministry where we worshiped in this chapel that had this beautiful Frank Lloyd Wright-ish cross that hung in the center of the space.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: And they had to do some renovations to the chapel there.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so we were forced to move our worship services to another place temporarily.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, and so we decided when we're gonna do that.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we really wanted to take the cross with us, which was a big no-no because Frank Lloyd Wright had designed the architecture.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: If you know anything about Frank Lloyd Wright, people really care about his stuff.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not quite sure why, but they do.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so we had to take this cross down and carry it all the way across campus.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: We tried putting it on a golf cart, it was not a place where a car could get to.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: We tried putting it on a golf cart, but because of the length and the weight of it, it really did not work out well for the golf cart.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: And we decided that the easiest way to carry this cross would be to carry the cross.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so we did, just as you've seen Jesus depicted, I'm not kidding you.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: I put it over my right shoulder, and we had a few people that carried the backside, and we carried it across campus.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: It was the best way to get it across campus.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: It was really funny because we ran into one of the prominent Jewish professors on the way there, and she stopped us humorously, but she stopped and she goes, Are you guys trying to make a point?
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought, oh yeah.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: We're carrying this cross.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: It was important to us that there be some sort of religious symbolism in the space.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: And when I got here, we didn't have any of that.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't have any of that.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so I started like trying to figure out where we would get across.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I happened to find this one sitting in the back.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: This was actually made by a director two directors ago, at this point, about 30 years ago, and it had been kind of just you know, wandered around the building in storage closets and that sort of thing.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: And so I was like, let's take it and we'll put it central to what we do because I have this belief that the cross shows us who God is and what it means to follow Jesus.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: In other words, I believe in my whole heart that we cannot be a Christian if we don't have our eyes on the cross.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: We could we could do a cool show.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we could do some fun stuff, but if our center and our focus is not the cross of Jesus, then we won't know exactly who God is because God shows us on the cross.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: And we won't necessarily know what it means to follow Jesus because, particularly, of the stories we're gonna read this morning.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: So, having said that, if you have your Bible, we're gonna turn to Mark chapter eight.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so while you're doing that, uh getting that ready, it'll be on the screens, it'll be on a Bible if you have it, and you can use your app, whatever.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I'd encourage you to look that up.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we're gonna be in Mark chapter eight.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: Before we do that, let's pray over the preaching of God's word.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: Oh God, your word is a lamp into our feet, and it's a light into our path.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: May it speak to us, may it speak through us for the establishment of your kingdom on this earth.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: Oh God, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight and in your sight alone, oh God.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: You are our rock and our redeemer.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: We love you.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: Jacob, if you do me a favor, just turn that main left-right finger down.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: That will fix all of that issue that we're all hearing together.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna be in Mark's Gospel, chapter 8, verse 31.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: Here now the reading of God's word.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus began to teach his disciples.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and the legal experts, and be killed, and then after three days, rise from the dead.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: He, meaning Jesus, said this plainly, but Peter, and just a second about Peter.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: Peter is the rock upon which God is going to build his church.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: That's how he got the name Peter.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's from the Greek Petros, right?
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: So this is how we understand who Peter is.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: Peter is supposed to be the, and and still considered today, the first like bishop of the church.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: He's the first pope, if you want to put words to it.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: He is the big guy, he is the star, right?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: In the disciples.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: And he hears Jesus say this plainly, and he took hold of Jesus and he scolded him.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: Man, what guts do you have to have?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: To scold the Lord?
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: I guess he knew he was going to be the first Pope.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: Scolding him and began to correct him, meaning to correct Jesus.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus turned and looked at his disciples and then sternly corrected Peter.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: Get behind me.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: There was no comma, but we're assuming it.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: Satan.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: Ouch.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: You are not thinking God's thoughts, but human thoughts.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: This is Jesus talking to him, by the way.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: Get behind me, Satan.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: You are not thinking God's thoughts, but human thoughts.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Other translations say uh you're not you're not thinking of the ways of heaven, you're thinking of the ways of the world.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: Next slide.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: After calling the crowd together with his disciples, Jesus said to them, All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow me.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: And all who want to save their lives will lose them.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: But all who lose their lives because of me and because of the good news will save them.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: Why would people gain the whole world but lose their lives?
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: This is Mark chapter 8.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna go in a second to Mark chapter 9, in which Jesus foretells the exact same thing again.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: And then after that, because you're really into it at this point, we're gonna go to Mark chapter 10 to see where Jesus does the exact same thing.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: But in this first chapter, he's setting a framework.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: He's saying, Hey, the ways of the world that you're used to, they are no longer.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: This is interesting because we have the guy who's supposed to represent the church who pushes back on Jesus here, doesn't he?
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: He pushes back up against Jesus.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, it says he scolded him.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's because Peter has been, like the rest of us, shaped by the ways of the world.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so his assumption is always like, no way would the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings have to go suffer and die.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: He pulls him away.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: He says, Jesus, you you're sounding a little crazy right now.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: There's no way that he, you who was coming like to be the Lord of Lords, to be served, right?
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: There's no way that he would you would be served.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like that doesn't make any sense.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: There's no way in which you're gonna humble yourself up to a cross.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: There is no way in which you're gonna do that.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: Peter's saying that, and Jesus says, and now you should hear this as clearly as he says it.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: He says, get behind me to Peter, Satan.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: Get behind me, Satan.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: Because Satan is of the ways of the world.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: Get behind me.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: You have your eyes on the ways of the world, not the ways of heaven.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: And then he goes into that piece again.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: Can you go to verse thirty-four for me, real quick?
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: After calling the crowd together with his disciples, Jesus said to them, All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow me.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross and follow me.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: Can I admit something to you very publicly?
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: I suck at that.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: Because for me, I'm always thinking about well, what's the next step in my career?
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: What's the next option for me?
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: What's the thing that's gonna place me on the next level so I can go to the next thing?
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: What's gonna pay me more money?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: When do I get what I deserve?
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: You ever say those things to yourself?
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: When am I gonna get my shot?
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: He says, all who want to come after me must say no to themselves.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Not yes, not when's my opportunity, when do I get what I deserve?
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't say any of that.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: He says, must say no to themselves, take up their cross and follow me.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: He's setting a framework for what it means to follow Jesus.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: Take up your own cross, he says.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's almost like he could say, put it over your right shoulder and walk across campus with it.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: No, not really.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: But he's like saying, take up the cross, take up the hard things, the things that you're trying to avoid, take those up and follow me.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: And all who want to save their lives, this is the next verse, all who want to save their lives will lose them, but all who lose their lives because of me, some your translation might say for Mike's sake, because of me and because of the good news will save them.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: He's saying, if you were following in Luke's gospel when we did that at Bible study, the world is upside down, my friends.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's upside down.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: You want to save your life, you're gonna lose it.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: But if you lose your life because of me, because of the good news, then you'll save it.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: And then the line that you've probably heard before for sure.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you might have heard it.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: What would it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose your soul?
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: What would it profit you?
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: What would why would people gain the whole world but lose their lives?
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: He's trying to say to them, and this is only about halfway through Mark's gospel.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: He's trying to say to them about halfway through the story, hey, listen, if you're gonna follow me, it's gonna suck.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: If you're gonna follow me, you're not gonna get what you feel like you deserve.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: If you're gonna follow me, it's gonna be hard.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: If you're gonna follow me, that's what he's saying.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: So you would think, right, that the disciples at this point, they're like, Yeah, let's do it.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'll take up my cross and follow you.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: Really interesting, he says this by the way, before the cross has ever come.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: Did you pay attention to that?
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: This is Mark chapter 8, not 16.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: You'd think the disciples picked up on it.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we can do that.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go to chapter 9.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: I think you'll be surprised.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: From there, Jesus and his followers.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: This is verse 30, by the way.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: From there, Jesus and his followers went through Galilee, but he didn't want anybody to know it.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: This is because of his teaching, he was teaching his disciples.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: The Son of Man will be delivered into human hands.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: They will kill him, and three days after he is killed, he will rise up.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: That's a quote from Jesus.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then Mark continues this story.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: But they, meaning the disciples, didn't understand this kind of talk, and they were afraid to ask him.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, I love this so much.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: Have you ever had a professor who is so intimidating that you're like, I really don't understand what he's saying?
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: And there is absolutely no way that I'm going to raise my hand in this moment.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's like the disciples here, but they didn't understand this kind of talk and they were afraid to ask him.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: This is like, oh, I'll ask after class.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, uh there's there's a person in line.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna ask him tomorrow.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'll send the email, right?
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like, like that's the kind of thing they they were and they didn't understand what he's talking about.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's hilarious.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: They heard the story in the chapter before, right?
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: They they didn't understand what he's talking about.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: He set the framework and they were like, Yes, I don't get it, right?
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: But then they were afraid to ask him.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: Next verse.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: They entered Capernaum, and when they had come into a house, he asked them, What were you arguing about on the journey?
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh again, the parent being like, What are you guys fighting about back there, right?
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like, uh, what were you arguing about?
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: And they didn't respond.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: Since on the way, they had been debating with each other about who was the greatest.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: Ah, they didn't get it.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: He sat down.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: He called the twelve, and he said to them, Whoever wants to be first must be least of all and the servant of all.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: I just want you to picture what's happening.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: They heard the story before.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: He said, if you're gonna follow me, you have to take up your cross and follow me.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: You have to give up all the things.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: What would it profit you to gain the whole world but lose your soul?
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: So I guess you're gonna have to follow.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: We're got we're with you, Jesus.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: We're still following along.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, oh, what are you guys fighting about back there?
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, actually, we didn't want to tell you because we were fighting about which one of us is the best.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: Which one's gonna be your best person, which one's gonna be your right-hand person, which one of you which one of us is gonna get the job that we desperately want?
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like, we're fighting about that, which has never ever happened in the history of humanity, right?
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: Where people fought about like their their greatness in the midst of other things.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, people do it, social societies do it, churches do it, countries, nations do it, leaders do this.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, we fight about who's the greatest.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: And he says, No, take up your cross and follow me.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: You want to be first, you better be last.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's like the opposite of Ricky Bobby, right?
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you want to be first, you better be last.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: You want to be first of all, you serve it all.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's one of my favorite things to do at the camp uh that I visit sometimes is when we get in line for food, and everybody's like wanting to be first in line, and we just have a upside down kingdom day, you know?
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: Where everybody gets in line, you get ready, and we're like, hey, the first shall be last, and the last shall be first.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then the last person gets to go first, and the people at the front who have been bullying their way to the front all week finally get a taste of their own medicine, you know?
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like I uh there's this moment where you just have to kind of correct behavior.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: I've been thinking about this week.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: What does it look like for us to take up our cross?
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think one of the things we struggle with, and I say we because I told you I suck at that, is that I'm a pretty selfish person.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm always looking out for myself.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: I think all of us are doing that a little bit.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: When do we get what we deserve?
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: When do we get what we want?
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: I think Jesus is inviting us to take that step back, take up our cross, and forget about what hierarchical rung you can climb and instead take a step back and say, I'm just here to serve.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: March 28th, you can serve tables.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Ryland.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just here to serve.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: You'd think they heard it once.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: They didn't get it for the second time.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go to chapter 10.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: This one's a little longer, I'll just warn you.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus and his disciples were on the road, going up to Jerusalem.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: They were leaving Capernaum.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's what happened in chapter 9, with Jesus in the lead, as it should be.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: The disciples were amazed while the others were following behind, uh, the others were amazed while the others falling behind him, were afraid.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: Taking the twelve aside again, he told them what was about to happen to him.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: Stop me if you've heard this before.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: Look, he said, We're going to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the legal excerpts.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: They will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: They will ridicule him, spit on him, torture him, and they will kill him.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: And after three days, he will rise up.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: And James and John, Zebedee's sons, he must be so proud, both of them, came to Jesus and said, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: Bold question.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: What do you want me to do for you?
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: He says.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: I love the boldness.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: They answered, and Jesus said, You will drink the cup and I drink and receive the baptism I receive.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, sure.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: But to sit at my right or left hand isn't mine to give, it belongs to those for whom it has been prepared.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: Suddenly, like, sit in your place, child.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: Keep going.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: Now, when the other ten disciples heard about this, they became angry with James and John.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: Because James and John, Zebedee's friends, they or Zebedee's friends, they wanted to be at the top in glory.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: They wanted to sit at the right and left hand.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: They wanted to be the greatest.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: Do you remember them arguing about it in chapter 9?
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like, are you getting this?
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: They became angry with James and John.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: Next verse.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus called them over and said, You know that the ones who are considered the rulers by the Gentiles show off their authority over them, and high-ranking officials order them around.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: But that's not the way it will be with you.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: Whoever wants to be great among you will be your servant, and whoever wants to be the first among you will be the slave of all.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: For the Son of Man didn't come to be served, but rather to serve and to give his life to liberate many people.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: I love that he gives them yet another story they don't get.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: They're not following.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: And then he says, that framework you're still working with in the one that Peter tried to stop him with, that framework, that lens that he's doing all of that with, he's like, You don't get it.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: You don't get it.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: I've been telling you that I've been coming.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: I've been predicting my own passion.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: I've been telling you this because I came not to be served, but to serve.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: You've heard me tell you this before.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's because I believe it.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: Everything in your life, every person and voice in your life is telling you to go get what you deserve.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: And you should 100% work hard.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: Please don't hear this as some sort of instruction to be lazy.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: I hate laziness, and God does too.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: What I'm inviting you to do is see that it is not for the betterment of you, but for the service to the world.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: A couple years ago, we started going to Guatemala again after the pandemic.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I wasn't quite sure how it was gonna go.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: And this year, we had to buy so many tickets that American Airlines hates me.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: We literally took the last seat on the flight.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: 27 people are paying$1,800 this year to go serve a community that most of them have never been to before.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: It is a remarkable experience.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: And if you can't go this year, I would recommend you try to go in future years.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: There are ways to raise money for it.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: But man, how cool to see where we've come.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: In 2020, when they built this building, I mean when I moved in, but they they built it before.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: But when I got here, we we started talking about um going to Guatemala because we had gone for years and could just not get any momentum with people who wanted to go.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: Mostly because mission trips, just the premise of them is that they ain't about you, they're about service.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: You have to lay down your selfishness, you have to lay down what you deserve and just suck it up because you're there to serve.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: I am often struck by the music that we sing.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and as I was prepping this message, thinking about selfishness, thinking about the ways in which Jesus has turned this upside down, thinking about the ways in which we're shaped by the world and not by the things of heaven.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, when I was thinking about this, uh there were a lot of words that just came to my or lyrics that came to my mind.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: This is from a song called What a God.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: It says, if the highest place I reached is at your feet, then I've done it all.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: If the best thing that I've seen is your glory, then I've seen it all.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's like a banger bridge, bro.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: If the highest place I reach is at your feet, right?
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: I've done it all.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's SEU.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: We love it.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: Why is it then that we could come in on a Sunday morning or a winter retreat or a beach retreat and we'll sing this and we'll dance and we'll we'll like it the highest place I reach is at your feet, then I've done it all.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: But I definitely want to make sure that I get what I deserve.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: I definitely want to make sure that I get that next thing.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: I definitely want to make sure that I've got the attention in my classes, in my life, in my career.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: I definitely want to make sure that I get that next thing.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: But if the highest place I reach is at your feet, then I've done it all.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: Makes it's the per the worship scene a little performative, doesn't it?
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: This one struck me this week.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: Everything changed.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's getting harder to recognize the person I was before I encountered Christ.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: I don't walk like I used to.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: Next line is I don't talk like I used to.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: This is the bridge.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: We sang it this morning.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's never been about performance, perfection, or striving for acceptance.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you, it's only by the blood.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's never been about performance, perfection, or striving for acceptance.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's only ever been about this.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's never been about, next line, deserving or earning.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's a gift that's freely given.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you, it's only by the blood.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of you who are stars in your academic area.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: You're stars in this ministry, you're stars in a lot of your job or anything else that you're doing.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: You might be even the star in your own family, I suppose.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: But it's never been about deserving or earning.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: It was only about the cross.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: Because what happened on the cross, like I said at the beginning, it tells you about who God is and what it means to be a disciple.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: What it means to be a disciple is to take up that cross daily and follow.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's because the one who came as the king of kings and the lord of lords came to be a servant to all, not to be served.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I can't help when we sing those songs.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: And let me tell you, there's like 30 more I could have used.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: There's this this idea is so prevalent in music, and I'm grateful for it because it's great, uh, it's great writing.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: But it is so common for the modern church and modern Christianity to sing that and walk out the door searching for the highest place we can reach.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: To sing that and talk about what's deserved.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_01: My invitation to you is to see that the one who came to save you invited you into a practice where you also could serve.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: I want you to think this week about a way in which you might serve.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_01: A way in which you could uh do something that you wouldn't normally do, or you would maybe normally have somebody else do it.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: May I suggest you start with the bathrooms here?
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'll show you how to clean them.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_01: You could give our bathroom cleaners a week off.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'll even show you how to use the floor machine to clean the floor that you're standing on right now.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: It has to be cleaned twice a week.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: Takes a couple hours to do it.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: Could it also, though, just be a place, a conversation that you have with a friend in which you were gonna point out how you were right, how you were more correct, how you were the one.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe you say, you know what?
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_01: How can I serve you?
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: How can I serve you?
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: The whole principle to Christianity is that it was never about performance.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_01: We tried to make it so.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: It was always about the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords coming to us and trying to flip our world, our lens, our framework, flip it upside down.