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[Music] the kingdom good morning oak cliff bible fellowship to everybody that's viewing with us online we want to welcome you to our online worship experience but guess what we have an in-house audience today as well and so we want to welcome all of those that are viewing in person this morning on this sunday morning we're so glad that you chose to worship with us as well as those that are viewing all around the world we're so glad that you chose to worship with us listen before we get started make sure you go to your kitchen grab some juice water cracker spread whatever it is that you need because at the end of the service pastor is going to lead us into a time of communion and fellowship with the lord listen but first things are first listen it's our chance to come before the king of glory this morning and to present our offering of worship and david said in psalm 122 he says i was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the lord i don't know is anybody glad this morning i'm glad about it why don't you stand up in your living room and join us in a time of worship to our king praise the lord oakley bible fellowship in a constant and ever-changing world with a blessed assurance that one thing remains let's sing together [Music] [Applause] stronger than the power [Applause] [Music] unchanged [Music] are you letting [Music] on and on and on [Applause] [Music] two one [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thankful and grateful for his love it never is [Music] is [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] it's unconditional [Applause] [Music] me for us me father we're grateful for your love this morning we magnify you we extort you we give you all the glory father for your consistent love towards us somebody give god a great shout in the room this morning hallelujah you know sometimes we often are at a loss of words you know as songwriters or as just minstrels and when i was growing up they taught me if you don't have a song and saying just sing the word of god we're going to do that this morning in proverbs 3 simply says write it on the tablet of our heart we're going to teach it to you this morning we want you to sing along clap your hands with us come on there you go let's sing together let us teach it to you every teacher say write them all [Music] [Applause] [Music] that's the whole song sing it with us this morning everybody [Music] you are the branches he who abides in [Music] [Applause] [Music] the truth and the light no one gets to the father except that he comes through me this is jesus talking faith and [Music] [Applause] [Music] forsaken [Music] this morning everybody [Music] the truth and the life no one gets to the father except they come through jesus christ [Music] [Music] and [Music] [Applause] [Music] this is the degree trust in the lord with all your heart trust in the lord with all your might trust in the lord with [Music] [Applause] trust in the lord oh opposition [Music] please [Music] one more time in god's presence must first believe give us what you gotta do but god's word will stand forever [Music] [Applause] hide it in your heart stand on it depend on it lean not to your own understanding [Applause] don't trust in your own strength somebody give their praise in the room this morning no no somebody give god praise in the room [Applause] well good morning to you all [Music] second week with some folks that helps me and again i was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the lord and we have a few more folks here than we did last week and next week we'll have more but still with proper social distancing and masking because we still want to make sure we're being responsible with our our attendees those who are are comfortable attending and those who are uh are being careful we want to make sure we're being careful as a church but we also want the lord to know that we view him as worthy of our praise regardless of our circumstances and so so we welcome all who are worshiping with us and we are glad to be uh being able to give the lord the praise to his name i'm sure you would agree these are days that tram in souls as we look at all of the chaos and the calamity and the confusion and the conflict that surrounds us uh it's good to know that our god is in charge of chaos okay he's in charge of things that look like nobody is in charge of and that is because of his unique ability to turn messes into miracles and so we celebrate our god in this uh even in all of the various pandemics that we are addressing today well we are uh we wanted our membership to know that this wednesday night is what we call super wednesday we went through the whole month of of january with our solemn assembly our sacred gathering on wednesday but this wednesday the whole family gathers and we're going to do a a super living super bowl living weekend so we we did the taping for it already and we did it on a football field and we're going to talk about what it means to be a winner in life okay i got a i got a call i got a call this week from the tampa bay buccaneers and they asked me would i speak to the team because i figured they know they need god to help him this week okay so uh so you know we want us to win in life and we need god to help us to do that so uh for all of our members you go on your zoom and but do it as a family we want the whole family together at one time as we have this special wednesday night worship experience we also want folks to know who are in the metroplex that we have a membership process for those who need a church home and every true christian needs a church home and for those who are uh wanting to be part of this fellowship you can go online ocbfchurch.org forward slash membership and you can find out about our membership process the kind of church we are what we believe very simply we're trying to make kingdom disciples who make a kingdom impact because they are kingdom servants and so that's what we're trying to do as we disciple the church to impact the world so go online and find out if this is the church for you you know but be part of some solid biblically based fellowship of saints that are advancing god's name god's glory and the good of god's people uh and you be a part of that process well you know there's a lot to give thanks for even in a pandemic you're still here we're still here if you have food on your table clothes on your back a roof over your head you have a reason to give thanks it may not be all you want but it's what you need and so i want you to give thanks not only verbally but as you give as you give online [Music] make sure you do it with thanksgiving so as i pray for our service today we're going to talk today about spiritually confused christians spiritually confused christians um and uh i i want you to thank the lord for all he is giving you in the pain and problems that you may be facing i want you to give thanks be anxious for nothing but pray with thanksgiving if he still got you employed you're still getting a check that's something to give thanks for because many people don't have that privilege right now and so i want you to honor the lord in giving with your tithes and thanksgiving offering you can see the various ways that you can give online or mail in to say lord i recognize you're my source because you've demonstrated that the world can shift in a moment and the sources can change but you are my source and i want to let you know how thankful i am through giving of my tithes and my thanksgiving offering if you're not a part of this church then please support your church because they need your support and of course if this ministry is ministering to you then you can give an offering over and above that to keep this ministry strong coming your way but our members have been so faithful and have kept all of the jobs and kept us being able to do vital ministry even through these difficult times so i'm going to pause for just a second and let you pray and give thanks as you prepare to give in however way you're going to do it because i want you to tell god how grateful you are for his goodness to you let's pray [Music] i'll give thanks to the lord and we give thanks i give thanks on behalf of this church these saints and on behalf of all those who are not in the building but who belong to the house and family of god we give thanks in confusion we give thanks and chaos we give thanks and uncertainty we give thanks in loss we give thanks in pain we give thanks and problems we give thanks so thank you for those who are shedding tears wipe their eyes for those with broken hearts mend the fishers for those who are confused add clarity for those who are impoverished meet needs [Music] and then lord would you demonstrate to a broken world that you are indeed the fixer-upper because we're going to praise you in the morning we're going to glorify you at noon time and we're going to give thanks before we go to bed because all of our days are in your hands receive your people in worship today for you are worthy to be praised in the name of the risen christ we ask this all god's people said amen [Music] when we have the posture of thankfulness the atmosphere literally changes because there is only one name there is only one name the power to save with power to sing there is only one day there is only one there is only one [Music] we champion the name of jesus is champion hebrews forevermore forever [Music] is [Music] hallelujah and every tongue will confess jesus jesus christ [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] our hands as an act of surrender father we give you glory and we magnify your name jesus you are our god we are your children you are our father and you reign supreme all power is in your name and in your hand [Music] and because of this we can declare wherever you are in your life now chains be broken break out holy spirit come now [Music] be destroyed in his presence holy spirit come now fluff this place with your presence [Music] holy spirit [Music] change [Music] our god [Music] just the voices [Music] he praised [Music] [Music] is [Music] yes jesus changes in your presence [Music] forever [Music] [Applause] [Music] forever [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you go to the doctor because there's typically something wrong you can't fix you tell the doctor doc i've got a problem but in his mind there could be something else causing what you think is a stomachache all you know is the pain you don't know what the real problem is yet so i'm going to you doc for you to tell me what the real deal is i need the truth he says this is the problem he pulls out a sheet of paper called a prescription and he writes on it words you do not understand you take a piece of paper that you don't understand you give it to the pharmacist who you do not know the pharmacist goes back there with a whole bevy of medicines and starts putting your stuff together that man could be putting strychnine and giving it to you because you don't know you gotta believe that what he is offering is what's on the paper so you've taken the prescription you've gone to the pharmacist he's giving you the medicine until you take it you've not fulfilled obedience and if you don't fulfill obedience you're not gonna get better because your way was solving the symptom not solving the problem see many of us we come to church we get the word and we say well i don't understand all that but i know the one who gave it knows what he's talking about if there is no acting on what's prescribed there is no faith that has been exhibited and if there is no faith that has been exhibited stop complaining to the doctor his stuff not working we've got a lot of people complaining to god your weight doesn't work and we haven't taken pill first he said take one every four hours we take one every four days and one why is not working because we have not exhibited faith faith is not a feeling faith is not a discussion faith is an action taken based on the authorization of somebody who knows what he's talking about last time i checked god knows what he's talking about when my uh youngest child my second son jonathan began playing basketball i remember an occasion when i went to see his one of his earlier games and he'd always been you know athletically inclined and had played a lot in the backyard but now he was playing on a team parents had shown up to uh cheer on their their children as they played but they were learning the game and in a team kind of way and i was sitting in the stands and jonathan intercepted a pass that was being passed to one of the other team's teammates and i remember the excitement as i jumped up and other people who were parents on the same team jumped up as he made his way down the court to score two points the only problem was he went the wrong way he went the wrong way and he wind up scoring for the enemy now he didn't mean to do it but the problem was he got confused in the midst of all the activity on the court and all the noise in the crowd he got confused and turned around so that inadvertently he was playing for the for the other side and instead of representing the team he belonged to he was representing the team that he was battling against and all because he had gotten confused see that was so much noise so much activity that it was disorienting in his thinking in his mind and in his movement and so the enemy was faring better because he had gotten confused today i would like to suggest there are a lot of confused christians a lot of christians who are belonging to the home team of jesus christ but scoring for the enemy team because they've gotten confused with all the cultural noise civic chaos public calamity mixed viewpoints there is a disorientation that has occurred among god's people for which there needs to be a divine reset we need to get back on track even if it was inadvertent even if that's not what you and i meant to do the reality is the other team still gets the points such was the case in matthew chapter 16. in matthew 16 we have spiritual confusion on the part of peter now to appreciate this you have to understand peter is just coming off of a win a big win because earlier in the chapter of matthew 16. verse 15 jesus said but who do you say that i am simon peter says you are christ the son of the living god the lord said blessed are you simon bar jonah because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you but my father who is in heaven but i also say to you that you are peter and upon this rock i will build my church oh peter peter had just gotten compliments from the savior he was scoring points for the kingdom jesus said i'ma call you peter that means a stone his previous name was simon that means a pebble so the boy had gotten a promotion he'd gone from pebble to stone because he was now the articulator clearly of the christian faith thou art the christ the son of the living god so it's all on the up and up but when we come to verse 21 confusion sets in because it says from that time jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to jerusalem suffer many things from the elders chief prescribes and be killed and be raised up on the third day peter took him aside and began to rebuke him saying god forbid it lord this shall never happen to you but he jesus turned and said to peter get behind me satan you are a stumbling block to me for you are not setting your mind on god's interest but on man's interest a few verses earlier he got a promotion an evangelical elevation you didn't move from pebble to stone but a few verses later he's called a stumbling block a stumbling block is something set in front of you to trip you up one moment he's for god's kingdom he's going to be a centerpiece of god's church and a few verses later he has to be corrected by the same savior that complimented him between the two he had gotten confused let's evaluate this a little closer jesus has been teaching his disciples about the fact that he was going to suffer die and be raised again peter didn't like that he didn't like the plan of god he didn't like the purpose of god he didn't like the concept of a suffering savior after all jesus had come to bring a kingdom jesus was healing the sick and the blind could see the lame could walk everything was on the up and up but now he's saying there's going to be some painful days ahead and i've got to go through this peter then says god forbid it lord how much you miss that he takes jesus aside that phrase taking him aside means grabbing him in other words he didn't say may i talk to you master he said come here he grabs jesus and he says look you and i we need to have a conversation and then he uses the phrase god forbid it lord so watch this peter is correcting jesus in god's name peter is correcting jesus in god's name so that ought to tell us something right now just because you use god's name doesn't mean you know what you're talking about see we got folk all over the culture and in the church even today who are using god's name who don't know what they're talking about because they're using his name in conflict with his program and with his plan but they think just because they put a little god juice on it it's acceptable not only that he says god forbid it lord so he calls jesus lord while telling him what to do wait a minute the lord is the one who tells you what to do the lord is the master jesus you just told him what the plan was let me explain something isaiah 55 8 9 says my thoughts are not your thoughts my plans not your plans as high as the heavens are above the earth what you want and what i want won't always be the same in fact what i want and what you want you may not always like peter did not like god's plan for jesus related to the suffering of the cross and so he sets in motion because he's the spokesperson the first time early in the chapter he knew what he was speaking about now he doesn't let's look at it a little closer he says this shall never happen to you whenever your word con contradicts god's word you're confused confused so jesus had to help her brother out he had the hbo him peter had to put it jesus said to put peter in his theological biblical and relational place look at what he says he says get behind me satan i would have thought he would have said get behind me peter but he says get behind me you devil the devil was using peter to try to block the plan of god while using god's name we live in a day where far too many christians don't know they're being controlled by the devil because what they think how they feel and what they say contradicts what god says and because they sprinkle a little jesus on it sprinkle a little church on it they think it's okay to correct the will of god with the will of man you hear it politically socially relationally economically as people who like peter peter is already born again peter is already saved we're not talking about a sinner we're talking about a saint a saint who was just complimented a few verses earlier who is now working for the opposite team and he doesn't even know it he's a confused saint when i hear what some of the christians say about biblical issues that god clearly speaks on and they have the audacity to say but i think that's another way of saying god forbid it lord but i feel he says in proverbs 14 12 there is a way that seems right to man it makes sense to your own human understanding there is a way that seems right to man but the end thereof is death it's destruction it may seem right feel right it may be the popular thing to do when jonathan shot the ball in the wrong basket it felt so right and the way i know it felt so right is after he made the two points he was celebrating he was celebrating he was waving his hands in the air like he just don't care because he had scored two points without realizing he was helping out the enemy one of the problems today in our declining decaying devolving culture is that we've got christians celebrating in worship while working for the wrong team because it just seems right it feels right it sounds right and in the name of illegitimate emotions that feel real they are working for the wrong team see what satan does and what he did with peter is satan put his thoughts in peter's head so peter began to think satan's thoughts and what was in his head came out of his mouth so he said what he was thinking because all the mouth does is repeat the information that the brain is absorbing and since he was absorbing satan's thoughts it overrode god's word so the way satan gets us to get confused is he puts illegitimate thoughts making them our thoughts so that we utter his thinking in contradiction to what god says leading to spiritual biblical and evangelical confusion he was using human logic because what jesus said didn't make sense satan has a way of switching the tags his story is told of some boys who went to the store department store and they took expensive tags and put it on inexpensive clothes took inexpensive tags put it on expensive clothes they switched the tags so people who thought they were getting something expensive were getting something inexpensive you know he's able to switch tags so that we think we we know what we're talking about we think we own it when the tags have been switched we don't even know that we're working for the opposite team look at what jesus says he goes on to say in verse 23 for you are not setting your mind on god's interest but on man's interest you are setting your mind on human understanding on man's way of thinking i just told you the will of god and you telling me what people think what men think how men feel that is in opposition to what i say and how i feel and how i think leading to confusion there needs to be a reset so notice man's interest independently of god is satan's program and satan's program is meant to create a stumbling block and a stumbling block is meant to trip up the will of god jesus had told them the will of god satan put in a man's sort of thinking man's thought of thinking was tripping up the will of god now if he were to listen to the whole word because he got tricked he got tripped up on the suffering part see because if he would have read if he would have thought about the whole statement it said and rise again on the third day because satan don't want you to hear the whole word he just wants you to hear the pain part the negative part the part that we all want to avoid the inconveniences of our faith if he would have had a discussion about let's discuss his resurrection but that's what he does he trips us up and we become confused and that's why you have so many christians talking like the world knows what it's talking about because it sounds so good sounds so right and you don't have to deal with rejection you don't have to deal with adversity so that needs to be a reset to the confusion particularly among believers since peter is a believer so how do we correct the confusion you don't want to be a confused christian you don't want to be tricked by the devil to score points for the kingdom of hell rather than the kingdom of god you don't want to be duped like we don't want our children to be duped by the voices of of their peer group who is leading them in the wrong direction because it sounds so good and they can become publicly acceptable well here it is verse 24. if anyone wishes to come after me he must deny himself take up his cross and follow me there it is the correction boils down to a decision this i have discovered of late is the essence of the problem christians who have not made this decision we're trying to disciple people who haven't yet decided to become a disciple let me say that again our problem is we're trying to disciple people who have not made the discipleship decision which means you could be with them for years and they make no spiritual progress because they haven't decided until the decision is made to be one you can't be developed properly into one so we got to back up see your baptism was supposed to be the statement that now i'm going public as a visible verbal follower of christ you can accept christ privately you get baptized publicly because you're saying now i want to be a disciple but many people who start off dry go down wet and come up the same and so they wind up hurting the cause of christ and seeking to trump the will of god one of the reasons why we're in all this cultural mess is we've got plenty of christians and so few disciples he says if you want to correct the confusion in your life in our families the definition of men the definition of women the definition of marriage the definition of order the definition of government the definition of all of this stuff that's being challenged today you got to start by making a decision notice he says in verse 24 if anyone guess what that means you in other words there are no exceptions to this if anyone referring to christians peter is already saved he's talking to his disciples if anyone wishes to come after me he must deny himself now we lost a lot of folk right there we we lost a lot of folk right there he must deny himself that is when what you want and what god wants does not agree you've got to agree to lose to you when what you want and what god wants is not the same if you are going to be his disciple you must say no to you not no to him now it's easy when you and he agree i can say yes all day to that if you ask me to eat squash you're gonna have to talk me into that i'm gonna tell you that now if you if you if you if you want me to eat squash that that's going that's going to require a little conversation a little coaxing now you asked me to eat fried chicken we do not have a problem houston there is no problem because me and fried chicken agree we agree you don't have to beg me coax me talk me into it but squash we're gonna have a little issue there because that's not natural to my desire i don't i don't prefer squash but the argument is even though it's not preferable it's better see we don't believe god knows better so we'll roll with god with the chicken we ain't gonna roll with him with the squash with the stuff we don't like with the stuff we don't prefer but that is being made acceptable and popular by the culture that is trying to get us to join up with the devil because it just seems so right and real and preferable he says he must be willing to say no to himself then the second thing he says is if you're going to decide to be a disciple you must take up your cross verse 24 says take up your cross now crosses can be popular people wear them around their neck hanging up in the house it's a symbol of spirituality it's a symbol of good will spirituality to have a cross let me explain the cross the cross is not a popular tool in the bible it was it was a device of execution to bear the cross is to go to the grave jesus was carrying his cross to golgotha he was carrying his cross to the place of death he wasn't going for a joy ride when he was carrying the cross he says you must take up notice what he says you must take up his or your cross what does he mean the book of hebrews chapter 12 verse 2 says to consider jesus who was willing to endure the shame of the cross it had to do with shame to walk through the roman road carrying the cross that was a shameful thing you were convicted of a crime worthy of capital punishment you remember crucify him crucify him you remember they made fun of him he could save others he couldn't save himself it had to do with shame so to bear your cross some people say well this is the cross i have to bear referring to some problem in their lives no that's not what the cross is that's a trial but that's not the cross tell what the cross is the cross is the shame the rejection the hurt and the persecution that comes with your public identification with jesus christ that is the cross it has to do with the shame that comes with publicly identifying with jesus christ luke 9 23 says to we are to pick up our cross daily so obviously if you're picking up your cross daily he's not focusing on physical death because then you wouldn't be doing it daily he's talking about a decision that you make on a daily basis that says i will identify with you today i am going to be a visible verbal follower of jesus christ in my value system in my belief system i am going to identify with you and i will accept the shame that comes with that identification now there was a time in western culture when shame was limited you didn't have to deal with too much shame because of a christian veneer america was never a christian country and i can go into the reasons for that because none of our documents nor none of our uh criteria demanded that but it was dominantly influenced by christian culture it was never a christian nation but it was dominantly influenced by christian culture in other words a christian perspective enveloped many of our institutions without it being formally declared as a criteria for the nation so during those days there was not a lot of shame to be a christian in your school to be a christian in the public square to name the name of jesus in prayers and well you didn't have to go through a lot of rejection and shame because there was enough christian influence by the church and by media and the value systems made it okay to be a christian not anymore not anymore you're going to now stick out like a sore thumb if you are a public representative of jesus christ let's make this straight i'm not talking about somebody who just believes in god that's vague i'm talking about taking up his cross the cross relates to christ god the father didn't die on the cross jesus the son died on the cross there must be a willingness to identify as a christian by the cross paul says in first corinthians 1 verse 18 that for the non-believer the cross is foolishness but for the believer it is the power of god there's power in the cross we sing about the power of the cross but it's not just power in the cross you only experience the power of the cross when you're identified with the cross meaning you're willing to be identified with the shame that is going to be associated with your christian commitment you and i are living in cancer culture and they are coming for christianity they're coming for the church when you hold a biblical stand in love but with clarity the goal is to cancel the voice many voices but specifically here the voice of christianity general religion won't be touched biblical religion will be assaulted so the question is are you willing to pick up your cross and the shame and the rejection uh my church knows this when i was invited to city hall and they asked me to pray but don't mention jesus's name well they asked the wrong person because i make a long story short i went down there and i said father they've asked me to come pray so i assume they want me to reach you and you told me that the only way to reach you is through the son so i can't do what they ask me to do unless i invoke jesus name i went on to say that we're told to pray for government by the apostle paul who met jesus on the damascus road thank you for creating the city council because if you hadn't created them then they wouldn't be here to make decisions and you said everything that was made was made by christ jesus so bless their decision-making today in jesus name amen now if you don't want to hear about jesus don't invite me and please don't tell me don't mention him you and i are not to be ashamed of the cross now you do it appropriately you don't do it bombastically but you don't hide from it you don't become embarrassed by it you're you and i if we're going to get a divine reset and not be confused christians we're going to have to be clear representatives of christ the other thing that the cross did was it showed that i'm under roman authority because it was a legal thing roman rome rome would put you on a cross that meant rome had the decision about your life rome decided whether you were gonna live or die you were under the lordship of rome when you were crucified jesus says you're under the lordship of me if you're going to be my disciple in other words i tell you what to do you're under my final authority you're not under the authority finally of the culture you're not under the authority of what's popular those are not wrong within themselves until they conflict with me and so why does satan want to keep you from taking up your cross because only the cross has dominion over him see see you have to understand that if he can back you away from the cross that is your public identification with jesus christ then he can keep ruling your life like he ruled peter's life a few moments ago satan can call the shots and keep you confused so that's why satan was trying to keep jesus from the cross because he was trying to keep jesus from having dominion over him you get your authority you get your power you get your dominion from the cross and so that's why so many believers lack authority because they back away from the cross from the shame they don't want to lose popularity they don't want to lose friends they don't want to lose money they don't want to lose notoriety they don't want to lose any of that not knowing they've just invited satan to rule their lives and rule their thoughts because only the cross has dominion so today you must be willing if you're going to be his disciple to accept what first peter chapter 2 verses 7 and 8 calls jesus the rock of offense galatians 5 11 paul talked about the offense of the cross it's going to be offensive he's not saying for you to be offensive he's saying the cross is offensive that is identification with jesus christ as lord is going to offend folk so i'm not talking about christians with bad personalities being offensive i'm talking about your identification with christ being offensive in the name of jesus christ he says you must be willing to be identified with me that was a military guy one day and he asked permission from his superior to go to a wedding he said and uh the commanding officer said well yeah this saturday you can go to a wedding but you need to be back by 10. well the the private said but you don't understand sir to go there to get back to be back by ten you don't understand i'm in the wedding that's when the superior said no you don't understand you're in the navy now i got all that fun stuff you're doing out here but you have to understand who your commanding officer is you know you in the navy so you must adjust see see we got too many christians adjusting in the wrong direction they're adjusting to the culture they're dumbing down the standard and so they don't have the power of the cross the third thing he says is that you must follow me you must follow me let me give you some bad news before i conclude with some good news because i know you want some good news follow me now he's talking to the disciples who he just said i'm going i'm going to the cross follow me when you are committed to christ he will sometimes take you to places you don't want to go and to tell you otherwise i would not be telling you the truth peter was no dummy i'm a follower of you you just said you're going to the cross excuse me you must be willing to follow me but peter if you paid attention there there is a sunday morning i am going to rise from the dead follow me see we don't want to follow christ when we don't like where he's taking us and i you know me too i don't i don't want to go certain directions but the question is am i willing to identify with him jesus just doesn't want to be in your life he wants to be your life so what will you get out of this decision what will you get out of a divine reset that says i don't want to be duped by satan anymore because many of us are messed up because satan tricked us with something that seemed right at the time felt right at the time looked right at the time well first of all you got to make this decision until this decision is made satan even as a believer like peter can take you back and forth well let's look at some something that you can count on once that decision is made verse 25 for whoever wishes to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul or what will a man give in exchange for his soul guess what he just said he just said if you will make the decision to become a disciple i'm gonna give you your life let me ask you a question if somebody offered you 10 million dollars to commit suicide would you take it i'm done we talking about 10 million now we talk about 10 million bucks they're going to give you 10 million dollars to take your life well any right thinking person would say that's not worth it because what you're giving me destroys me it's a lot you're giving me but it's going to kill me to do it whenever we take the world over christ we are life destroying he says if you make the decision to become a disciple i'm going to give you your life the soul the suke the greek word it's the soul it's the life your life is not your body your life your body is the house for your life your life is your soul that's your life your emotions your intellect your will your consciousness that makes up your soul which is your life that's what goes into eternity not this body when a person passes away the soul leaves that personhood leaves the body doesn't he says i'm going to give you if you want to save your life then make this decision and i will give you your life what john 10 10 called the abundant life i'm going to share my life with you that's why paul could tell timothy in first timothy 6 12 he says timothy sees grab hold of eternal life timothy's already a believer he's not telling him get saved to go to heaven he's saying grab hold of life which is my involvement with your existence we don't have enough divine involvement with our existence because we haven't chosen life we've chosen culture we've chosen popularity notoriety we've chosen things stuff and we've given up our lives for it now i'm gonna i'm gonna tell you now when you make this decision to have life your soul is gonna throw a temper tantrum we've already we've all seen kids throw temper tantrums the kids kids don't like it they go and they jumping all up and down so so when you make this decision every day your soul is gonna go because it wants its own way but once you see god feeding you life that is his life because you've made this decision then you're not bouncing around in existence anymore you're you're experiencing his life because you've decided to follow him even when he's taking you a place you don't want to go he says i will give you life and just like john 12 says verses 24 and 26 unless a seed falls to the ground and die you won't see anything coming up he says a seed has to go be buried for you to see life come up you and i have to die to you and me for us to see life come up but as long as we insist on our own seed we won't see life come up then secondly he says verse 27 for the son of man is going to come in glory of his father with his angels and will then repay every man according to his deeds so he says i'm going to give you life now you will experience more of my reality you will make this discipleship decision and stop being a confused saint you'll see my supernatural enter your natural and when i come back i will reward you for your commitment when the son of man comes back because you chose me that's a whole series of its own the series of rewards for faithful believers that god will dispense because every day you kept choosing him and we don't all hit a bull's-eye every day but that should be the direction we are pursuing and repenting when we fall short it says and i'm going to bring my reward he's not talking about going to heaven he's talking to his disciples they're already going to heaven he's talking about the reward for commitment and then finally he makes a astounding statement to his disciples verse 28 truly i say to you there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the son of man coming in his glory that some of you standing here he tells his disciples who will not taste death until you see the son of man coming in his glory jesus had different levels of disciples he had the 70 he had the 12 and among the 12 were the three peter james and john those different levels of discipleship reflected different levels of closeness the three peter james john were the closest then you went to the 12 the 70 then the 500. so there were different levels of closeness he says to those listening that some of you not all 12 of you some of you who will not see death until you've seen the son of man well that's a reference to matthew 17 verses 1 to 8 on the mount of transfiguration that's when jesus stood on the mountain and stripped away his humanity so that the deity burst forth in bright lights that took them to their knees they were blown away by the glory of the son of god he didn't take 12 up there took three because the closer you were to him the more of him you got to see and he says and you're gonna see it before you die he says first of all i'm gonna give you life your soul secondly of all i'm gonna bring back reward but then he said and before you die for those of you who were the closest to me you will see a manifestation of the son of god that's what happened in acts chapter 7 when stephen was about to die it says while he was still alive he looked up and he saw heaven open and jesus standing on the right hand of the father giving him a standing ovation as he was about to transition from earth to heaven as we entered into the final days of sister evan's life god gave her this as it was getting closer to her transition to heaven and it became clearer and clearer that there would be no supernatural healing that we prayed for and believed him for there were a number of incidences i'll tell you three one is when she said to me the voices are telling me i only have a few days left secondly number of us were standing in the bedroom and she says i see my mother can't y'all see her i see my father can't y'all see him of course we couldn't she asked me to write the name jesus down and i didn't understand that she said write down his name and i said write it down she said yes right write down his name i said why she said you you've got to write it down so i took a big sheet of paper not understanding the request and i wrote down jesus j-e-s-u-s in big letters so she could see it and held it over her she took a deep breath and she said yes yes and then a little bit later she said they're coming to give me my reward she said they are coming to give me my reward they're just waiting for the song they're coming to give me my reward they're just waiting for the song it's time for my reward they're waiting for the song a few minutes later a song came on i don't know it's a radio or whatever but it was the song victory in jesus and she rang out with a loud voice that's the song because of her closeness to jesus she got to see before she transitioned where she was going i don't know how it's going to be for you or me or us all i know is that you get your soul you get your reward and in some way unique to each of us there are those who get to see heaven before they ever get there but only those who do not let the world confuse them trick them or duke them and who make the decision to be a disciple of jesus christ now the first thing you've got to do is accept jesus christ into your life as your personal savior which enters you into the school of discipleship it's that decision to trust him alone into your life to forgive your sins and to give you eternal life you can go to him now and say lord i'm a sinner and i need a savior and i can't save myself because you can't but i will come to christ alone asking you to take my sin and give me your life if you will trust christ alone for eternal life he will forgive you save you and freely give it to you we want to pray with you and let us know if you've made that decision so we can respond to you then if you are a christian to the members of oak cliff bible fellowship in this new year will you make the decision to be a disciple then you can be discipled when you make a decision each day when you wake up to say i'm yours today you are lord of my day your lord of my decisions your lord of my actions your lord of my reactions let your holy spirit just show me which way to go and even if i don't like it i'm gonna choose you and then you watch the seed that you buried by burying your soul to sprout life and to earn reward communion orients you to that it's a way of saying lord for this week i want to be yours i want to be lorded over by you not by the culture i'm in the culture but i don't want to be of the culture i want to appropriately wisely but clearly represent the cross and i will accept the shame we're going to give you a moment to meditate as we have a brief song and have a moment with the lord establishing his lordship for this week [Music] he's gonna [Music] don't give up on god because he won't give up on you he's able to [Music] is his body broken he gave his life on the cross to give his life to you and me we don't worship a crucifix that's the cross with still somebody hanging on it no we don't worship the crucifix jesus is alive he's risen he's not on the cross now hallelujah but he wants us to carry our cross he's already carrying his simply by identification if you're going to identify with him this week eat in celebration of him [Music] you're in a divine reset for this year identification with christ because he shed his blood for that relationship shall we drink together [Music] lord we love you we thank you we need you we repent for being spiritually confused and we want you to be lord we have made that decision of discipleship now show us what we should do with it as we remake it every day afresh in jesus name we ask may god bless you richly give you a great week the lord see you next time [Music] you