WEBVTT 00:00:00.260 --> 00:00:04.040 Colossians 3 and Mark 4 is what we're going to look at this morning. 00:00:04.170 --> 00:00:09.730 This is the end of our series together that we've looked at on, "4 things I wishing you knew about God". 00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:19.020 It's been building this last message, which I'm going to tell you this morning, when it comes to our life in Christ, it is 00:00:19.020 --> 00:00:21.460 challenging to think about. 00:00:23.460 --> 00:00:30.480 This is one of these topics that we are going to discuss this morning, I think of as all four topics have been, it is something that not only to 00:00:30.540 --> 00:00:34.710 Christians know, but it's a topic that we continue to learn in our life with Christ. 00:00:35.760 --> 00:00:37.500 What is it mean to live life this way? 00:00:37.600 --> 00:00:44.680 So let me give you just the idea of what we're going to follow this morning as one of the things I wish you knew about God, and that is that God wants you to lose your 00:00:44.680 --> 00:00:49.360 identity apart from Him and take on a new identity in Him. 00:00:50.520 --> 00:00:53.120 God wants you to lose your identity in His identity. 00:00:54.860 --> 00:00:58.410 In the book of Mark 8, I'm not going to be in chapter 4 just yet. 00:00:58.760 --> 00:01:06.080 I'm going to give you just this basic verse in Scripture that Jesus shares with his disciples as sort of the platform to built into 00:01:06.080 --> 00:01:08.520 the two passages of Scripture we're going to look at this morning. 00:01:09.340 --> 00:01:16.600 But in Jesus's life and in Mark 8, something that is significant takes place within the gospel 00:01:16.600 --> 00:01:18.560 of Mark, right in the middle the book. 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:22.920 The first eight chapters Jesus is preaching predominately about his kingdom. 00:01:25.080 --> 00:01:31.040 In chapter 8, there something that takes place called the "Confession of Peter", and Peter acknowledging that Jesus is the Christ. 00:01:33.080 --> 00:01:39.120 And upon this confession that Peter gives to Jesus, Jesus transitions his message. 00:01:39.340 --> 00:01:40.480 He further explains it. 00:01:40.480 --> 00:01:47.340 Yes, he continues to propagate and teach about his kingdom but now he teaches his people how to be people in pursuit of that kingdom. 00:01:49.460 --> 00:01:52.580 We use the word discipleship as a summation describing that. 00:01:54.600 --> 00:02:01.800 After Peter's confession, Jesus teaches about his death and then he teaches his followers about what it means to be a disciple. 00:02:03.260 --> 00:02:07.020 Jesus teaches about being a disciple over the next three chapters in Mark. 00:02:08.220 --> 00:02:15.240 Every time Jesus foretells his death (you can go look at this later in your personal study) in chapter 8, chapter 9, chapter 10, as Jesus foretells 00:02:15.240 --> 00:02:17.260 something specific about his depth. 00:02:17.320 --> 00:02:22.660 Right after he foretells about his death, he then explains to the disciples something about what it means to pursue Jesus with their lives. 00:02:25.080 --> 00:02:33.380 God's desires is for you to lose your identity apart from him and take on a new identity in him and this is this what Jesus says in Mark 8:34, he 00:02:33.380 --> 00:02:40.580 said, "And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, 'If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross 00:02:40.580 --> 00:02:47.620 and follow Me.'" One of the reasons I want to examine this section of Scripture 00:02:47.620 --> 00:02:54.760 together with us this morning is because, we as believers get really good at cleverly crafting our words 00:02:54.760 --> 00:02:55.860 within Christianity. 00:02:57.600 --> 00:03:01.180 Meaning, there's a specific lingo that we sometimes live by. 00:03:02.240 --> 00:03:06.980 And in our pursuit of Jesus we can even fool ourselves by the terminology we use. 00:03:07.380 --> 00:03:10.820 What I mean is we give evidence of Jesus by our lips, but we deny him by our lifestyle. 00:03:12.680 --> 00:03:19.700 But what God desires for us, is for us to lose our identity apart from him and take on a new identity in him, if that doesn't communicate it any 00:03:19.700 --> 00:03:21.300 better than this verse, I don't know what does. 00:03:23.560 --> 00:03:31.640 "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." If anything, 00:03:31.740 --> 00:03:37.020 I think this passage certainly says that God's plan for you is not boring. 00:03:39.160 --> 00:03:46.160 And if your picture of Jesus and joining together with his church is boring, someone, somewhere is doing 00:03:46.160 --> 00:03:46.560 it wrong. 00:03:50.740 --> 00:03:57.730 What this passage communicates for us is that God has an incredible journey for you. 00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:01.980 That journey is more than just, you get to go to heaven. 00:04:06.380 --> 00:04:09.960 Ephesians 2:10 is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. 00:04:12.560 --> 00:04:21.800 It says, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." One 00:04:21.800 --> 00:04:26.000 of the reasons I love this passage is because the way it's communicate in the Greek language. 00:04:28.880 --> 00:04:37.060 This word for "workmanship" is where we get our English word, "poem". 00:04:37.060 --> 00:04:38.640 God sees you as his poem. 00:04:41.540 --> 00:04:48.760 If you were to read the context of Ephesians 2:1-9, you'll discover that what Jesus says in this passage through 00:04:48.940 --> 00:04:53.020 Paul is that, we're dead, meaning we're separated from God. 00:04:54.800 --> 00:05:01.800 He explains to us, in that separation, God has reconciled us to him completely by his power and what 00:05:01.800 --> 00:05:04.930 he's done for us on the cross as we place our faith in him. 00:05:05.440 --> 00:05:12.640 Ephesians 2:8-9 is the pinnacle of this passage, which says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." 00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:21.880 He doesn't end with, "and so now you get to go to heaven." But then he, in verse 10, takes a further 00:05:21.880 --> 00:05:24.030 step and says and now you're on this incredible journey. 00:05:27.300 --> 00:05:28.820 You are God's poem. 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:36.560 He's taken the old identity that you had separated from him and he's shaping you in a new identity through him. 00:05:39.240 --> 00:05:46.480 Many times we get the way of the journey God desires to produce in us, so this morning what I want encourage us to do is not 00:05:46.480 --> 00:05:49.780 to cheapen the journey God desires to have with you. 00:05:52.020 --> 00:05:59.200 I want to talk about a couple of ways we tend do that within an evangelical Christian world by the terms of 00:05:59.200 --> 00:06:00.930 the gospel that we propagate today. 00:06:03.440 --> 00:06:10.560 One of things that I find–and maybe this is a little bit of a pet peeve for a minute, but just hear me out–is the way that we tend to cheapen the gospel by the way 00:06:10.560 --> 00:06:14.400 we present it to people to hear the message of Christ. 00:06:16.660 --> 00:06:25.020 What I mean is sometimes we summarize the gospel down to this thought, that you don't want to go to hell, so to go to heaven, right? 00:06:25.040 --> 00:06:31.060 But that message emphasizes the individual more than it does Jesus. 00:06:31.300 --> 00:06:33.670 Let me paint it this way. 00:06:35.140 --> 00:06:41.780 When we make the gospel about not going to help but going to heaven, we miss the very one who created heaven for us to experience with him. 00:06:43.260 --> 00:06:50.520 We talk about let's not to go to hell but go to heaven, the whole point of eternity is dealing with your relationship with God. 00:06:52.500 --> 00:06:59.760 But when we communicate the aspect of heaven and hell apart from Jesus, what we communicated is the centralization of the gospel is 00:06:59.760 --> 00:07:07.300 about me, and therefore I needed to heaven because it's going to be a better place for me, and we preach a message devoid 00:07:07.300 --> 00:07:09.700 of Jesus who is the very prize of heaven itself. 00:07:12.590 --> 00:07:16.240 So the joy of what makes heaven, heaven, is the presence of Jesus is there. 00:07:19.320 --> 00:07:26.580 Now, I'll acknowledge that when we talk about heaven and hell within Scripture, that Christ warns about eternity and eternity 00:07:26.580 --> 00:07:33.680 is forever, but the point of what Jesus has accomplished for us isn't primarily about heaven and hell, though it plays a part in it. 00:07:33.740 --> 00:07:41.400 What Jesus accomplished for us is for us to enjoy his presence forever and wherever his presence is experienced that is 00:07:41.400 --> 00:07:41.980 what heaven is about. 00:07:48.140 --> 00:07:53.740 God wants to do much more in our lives than make it about heaven and hell. 00:07:56.280 --> 00:08:03.360 If we view the gospel that way, this is the way we experience our walk with Jesus: I get this get out 00:08:03.360 --> 00:08:09.940 of hell free card, and now I just twiddle my thumbs for the rest of day until I get to experience this option that God has given me. 00:08:14.020 --> 00:08:21.040 Jesus, he is the prize of what heaven is all 00:08:21.040 --> 00:08:21.790 about. 00:08:23.660 --> 00:08:30.720 Maybe a challenge to you as you think about that thought is to see if you can find one place in the Bible that describes heaven without 00:08:30.720 --> 00:08:31.440 the Lord being present. 00:08:33.700 --> 00:08:40.720 What I find within Scripture as you look through sections and passages that deal with the afterlife and into eternity and in 00:08:40.720 --> 00:08:44.800 God's presence heaven is not described apart from the beautiful presence of God being there. 00:08:48.140 --> 00:08:55.140 If all Christianity was about was avoiding hell so you could go to heaven, the 00:08:55.140 --> 00:08:59.770 moment you trusted in Jesus, God should haven taken you out of the world. 00:09:02.860 --> 00:09:09.060 The fact that you remain says something more to us that God desires to do with you and in you. 00:09:12.360 --> 00:09:19.460 You are his poem and Jesus wants to take the identity that you had apart from 00:09:19.540 --> 00:09:22.800 him and shape a new identity in him. 00:09:24.940 --> 00:09:28.060 The prize of heaven is Christ and heaven isn't heaven without Christ. 00:09:28.620 --> 00:09:34.460 In fact, in Colossians 3, we're just going to look at three chunks of Scripture this morning as I explain some of these thoughts to us. 00:09:34.780 --> 00:09:41.960 Colossians 3 says this, "Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ keep seeking the things above where Christ is, 00:09:43.360 --> 00:09:44.620 seated at the right hand of God. 00:09:44.640 --> 00:09:51.060 Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 00:09:51.360 --> 00:10:01.300 When Christ, who is our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory." The 00:10:01.300 --> 00:10:05.170 message isn't just you get to get to go to heaven, though it is a part. 00:10:07.400 --> 00:10:10.950 The message is that you get to experience eternity in the presence of your creator. 00:10:13.920 --> 00:10:21.120 When I read a verse like, "Take up your cross and follow after me" there's something within our nature, sometimes, that baulks at the trust that 00:10:21.120 --> 00:10:21.520 takes. 00:10:23.700 --> 00:10:30.720 We talked about this a few weeks ago, that when it comes to God, sometimes we attribute things to him that we've experience in this 00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:33.520 world, meaning, this world has disappointment. 00:10:36.140 --> 00:10:40.400 And we find in life that when we trust in things, inevitably at some point it will let us down. 00:10:42.320 --> 00:10:48.220 The Bible told us in 1 Corinthians 1:9, Paul marked something significant about God that's different than anything else in creation. 00:10:48.220 --> 00:10:49.960 He says this, that God is faithful. 00:10:50.160 --> 00:10:53.300 He starts off that verse with those three words, "God is faithful". 00:10:53.320 --> 00:11:00.460 What Paul's trying to say to us as people, if there's anything dependable, there's anything worth trusting in, if there's anything you can bank your life, upon it's 00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:03.720 the God who is trustworthy. 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:07.330 God's concern is for you. 00:11:08.720 --> 00:11:10.500 That's the whole point of Jesus's coming. 00:11:12.100 --> 00:11:19.320 He didn't do that for himself, but selflessly he did it to rescue you that 00:11:19.320 --> 00:11:26.540 you may experience what he's talking about in Colossians because it is significant for your life. 00:11:26.780 --> 00:11:30.620 Jesus has created you for life and life is in him. 00:11:30.660 --> 00:11:32.920 He upholds all things by his hands. 00:11:36.440 --> 00:11:40.570 There is a term in Christianity that we use, it's found throughout scripture, it's call justification. 00:11:43.520 --> 00:11:50.140 Understanding our journey through the justification God has brought you, helps us see Christ as the price. 00:11:52.860 --> 00:11:59.880 This word for justification helps us understand how to refuse to cheapen the gospel is merely just going to heaven and avoiding hell. 00:12:01.480 --> 00:12:07.050 The main point of the word justification isn't intended to emphasize that you get to go to heaven, all although it certainly is the result. 00:12:07.400 --> 00:12:14.480 The main point of justification is that the condemnation and separation you've experience from God has been removed so that you can draw near to him. 00:12:18.660 --> 00:12:20.380 Justification means declared righteous. 00:12:22.660 --> 00:12:28.440 The thought of justification as it is a judicial term and it mets both justice and freedom. 00:12:31.140 --> 00:12:38.220 What it's saying to us is, God the Father looks at the penalty Jesus paid on your behalf and he declares 00:12:38.220 --> 00:12:45.240 that payment for that sin has been justified and you and that justification now are declared righteous in God 00:12:45.240 --> 00:12:47.000 because of what Christ has done. 00:12:49.100 --> 00:12:56.280 The justification of God emphasizes the significance of Jesus and allows us to see and appreciate him alone 00:12:56.280 --> 00:12:58.480 as the price of what heaven is all about. 00:13:01.040 --> 00:13:08.040 In Galatians 2, Paul talks about this thought of justification says, "Nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of law but through 00:13:08.180 --> 00:13:09.240 faith in Christ Jesus. 00:13:09.700 --> 00:13:17.080 Even we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the la, since by the works of the law no 00:13:17.080 --> 00:13:18.670 flesh will be justified. 00:13:20.720 --> 00:13:24.160 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by the law. 00:13:24.580 --> 00:13:31.780 You have fallen from grace." Galatians 5 and Galatians 2 00:13:31.780 --> 00:13:35.610 really communicate the significance of what justification is all about. 00:13:36.740 --> 00:13:40.350 Chapter 2 tells us that it's not by my power but by Jesus's. 00:13:41.840 --> 00:13:51.600 Chapter 5 tells it when we attempt to make it by our power, we're severed from the one who came to set us free by his own justification, in himself. 00:13:51.720 --> 00:13:54.080 This justification is by Jesus alone. 00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:04.100 Now I said in the beginning sometimes we use Christian-eze to fool ourselves in the thinking that we have this deep concern to 00:14:04.100 --> 00:14:11.130 lay down our lives for Jesus, but the reality is one of the ways we can check ourselves is what you really long for in the world to come. 00:14:15.110 --> 00:14:19.600 Is heaven your ultimate prize because you know it's a good place for you and you just want to be there? 00:14:20.560 --> 00:14:22.870 And to you it's not a thought of Christ. 00:14:25.830 --> 00:14:30.350 Or is heaven your prize because Jesus is truly there and your desires is to be with him and in his presence. 00:14:34.620 --> 00:14:43.080 I think one of the reasons that's important for us to approach a verse that says, "Take up your cross and follow me." Is 00:14:43.080 --> 00:14:47.060 that unless Jesus really is your ultimate prize, when life gets harder you abandon him. 00:14:49.960 --> 00:14:53.090 In fact, when we read Mark 4, we're going to see that in just a few minutes. 00:14:54.440 --> 00:15:01.660 Jesus gives four examples of the type of individuals that hear his message and the third one he shares with us is an individual who 00:15:01.740 --> 00:15:07.430 says he pursues God with his life, but the moment it gets tough, he abandon's it. 00:15:09.980 --> 00:15:17.040 You look at that parable and you ask the question, "Why?" And my inclination within that passage is 00:15:17.040 --> 00:15:22.990 just to simply say that things they pursued God for, wasn't because Jesus was the ultimate prize. 00:15:27.220 --> 00:15:31.760 They saw Jesus as a tool to get to what they thought was an ultimate prize. 00:15:34.040 --> 00:15:35.800 I think we can do that with heaven. 00:15:39.620 --> 00:15:46.140 That's not to say that it's not good to think about the goodness of what heaven is about because it represents the goodness of God who created it. 00:15:46.180 --> 00:15:48.100 Certainly think about the good things of heaven. 00:15:50.240 --> 00:15:51.970 But heaven isn't heaven without Jesus. 00:15:54.960 --> 00:16:01.960 Colossians reminds us, when we think about Christ, to set our minds on Christ who is here ruling and reigning 00:16:01.960 --> 00:16:03.960 in this eternity. 00:16:05.520 --> 00:16:12.700 Getting to the celestial heaven isn't the ultimate prize, living in the presence of God's grace is the ultimate prize, for this gracious God is the one who created the celestial 00:16:12.700 --> 00:16:15.580 heaven for you to enjoy his presence. 00:16:15.580 --> 00:16:22.580 Heaven isn't about us, it's about his glory and we are the beneficiaries of the glory of God being displayed in such a heavenly place. 00:16:27.020 --> 00:16:30.660 God has you on this incredible journey with him. 00:16:32.440 --> 00:16:37.980 Justification helps us and reminds us of seeing Jesus as the ultimate prize. 00:16:38.020 --> 00:16:40.940 But so is this other word within Scripture we call it sanctification. 00:16:44.240 --> 00:16:47.820 Understanding the thought of sanctification helps us not the cheapen the Gospel as well. 00:16:50.800 --> 00:16:54.480 Not only does justification show us what God does us for our benefit, so does sanctification. 00:16:55.060 --> 00:17:02.560 This word sanctification reminds us that we not only have a future with Christ, we also have a present with 00:17:02.560 --> 00:17:03.110 him. 00:17:04.800 --> 00:17:08.740 This work sanctification means you don't have to wait to enjoy God in the future through justification. 00:17:10.800 --> 00:17:16.810 But because of your justification, you get to enjoy God in your sanctification right now. 00:17:18.420 --> 00:17:25.859 The word sanctification in its root basis means, "set apart." That the moment you trusted in Christ, God 00:17:25.859 --> 00:17:33.100 justified you in him, made you righteous, declared you righteous, and made you his own and now he is setting 00:17:33.100 --> 00:17:35.680 you apart for his great purposes in him. 00:17:35.700 --> 00:17:39.260 You belong to Jesus and Jesus is on this journey with you. 00:17:40.740 --> 00:17:47.900 In fact, in Colossians 3, if you just read this chunk of Scripture a little bit further, if you asked for definition of sanctification, a lot of times people 00:17:47.960 --> 00:17:55.220 will turn to Colossians 3:10, and this is what it says, "And have put on the new self who was being renewed to a true knowledge, 00:17:55.220 --> 00:18:02.580 according to the image of the one who created him." Going on a little further, "the 00:18:02.680 --> 00:18:09.860 peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful at the word of Christ which richly dwell 00:18:10.200 --> 00:18:17.260 within you with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 00:18:17.260 --> 00:18:26.520 Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord, giving thanks through him to God the Father." 00:18:26.520 --> 00:18:33.580 This word for sanctification allows us to recognize that Jesus is doing a 00:18:33.640 --> 00:18:38.570 work in you to shape you from your old identity into an identity that is found in him. 00:18:40.680 --> 00:18:47.680 In 2 Corinthians 3:18 it says to us, "As we gaze upon the face of God, we are transformed in his 00:18:47.680 --> 00:18:54.880 image, glory by glory, moment by moment." For you, if you've put your faith in Jesus 00:18:54.880 --> 00:19:02.180 and you felt this transformation take place, this heart desire being transformed within your life, or what you desired before 00:19:02.220 --> 00:19:08.770 is different what you desire now, we would say that word is what Christ is calling sanctification. 00:19:09.160 --> 00:19:11.900 This transformation where he is now molding you into his image. 00:19:11.980 --> 00:19:15.750 That is the journey that God desires for you to be on with him. 00:19:18.950 --> 00:19:22.180 It helps us to experience and enjoy his presence right now. 00:19:25.880 --> 00:19:29.010 The Bible tells us it's what sets us free. 00:19:31.580 --> 00:19:38.840 In Galatians 5, maybe juxtapose this thought compared to Colossians 3:13, "For 00:19:39.160 --> 00:19:40.300 you were called to freedom brother. 00:19:42.520 --> 00:19:50.500 Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another." What 00:19:50.500 --> 00:19:57.860 Jesus is saying happens in our sanctification is this: God has finally, through Christ, set you free 00:19:57.860 --> 00:20:01.240 to enjoy the journey he created you for with him. 00:20:02.980 --> 00:20:10.350 I read in Galatians 2 and Galatians 5 a minute ago, where we try to justify ourselves by our own doing, we find that it is impossible, 00:20:10.660 --> 00:20:12.740 but it's done by Christ doing. 00:20:12.740 --> 00:20:15.830 But when Christ does that for us, it brings us justification. 00:20:17.680 --> 00:20:22.900 We're now set free to enjoy the sanctification, which before we could not do within our own power. 00:20:27.160 --> 00:20:34.240 But here's what happens with us in sanctification: sometimes within our terminology of freedom, as 00:20:34.240 --> 00:20:37.580 Americans, we've taken the word freedom to mean: I can do whatever I want. 00:20:40.840 --> 00:20:41.420 I'm free. 00:20:43.220 --> 00:20:45.530 And therefore, if I want to offend people, I can offend people. 00:20:45.660 --> 00:20:49.820 If I want to just serve myself, I can serve myself, if I want to do something else, I can. 00:20:50.080 --> 00:20:55.940 Because I'm free, I can say what I want, I can do what I want, I'm free, right? 00:20:57.320 --> 00:21:03.680 And that's true, in the way that we sometimes define freedom as Americans, but that's not what freedom is about based on what Scripture communicates to us. 00:21:06.040 --> 00:21:13.360 Look at the way Paul defies it through Christ in Galatians 5, he says, "For you were called to freedom brother and only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for 00:21:13.360 --> 00:21:15.730 the flesh, but through love, serve one another. 00:21:20.240 --> 00:21:27.380 When Jesus set you free, your freedom wasn't intended to selfishly die with 00:21:27.380 --> 00:21:28.230 you. 00:21:30.060 --> 00:21:37.200 As a matter fact, if we as people only use our freedom to serve ourselves, today, as American citizens, freedom dies with 00:21:37.200 --> 00:21:37.400 us. 00:21:40.280 --> 00:21:44.980 Because what makes freedom, freedom is the willingness of those were free to lay down their lives in service to another. 00:21:45.200 --> 00:21:46.540 That's what propogates freedom. 00:21:50.260 --> 00:21:57.380 What Jesus is getting us to acknowledge here is that your freedom, now in finally understanding who Christ is, now it gives you the opportunity to help liberate other 00:21:57.840 --> 00:21:59.750 people in Christ. 00:21:59.980 --> 00:22:06.980 Making him the prize and the joy, rather than taking sanctification and saying, "I've been set free and so, therefore, I'll use my freedom 00:22:06.980 --> 00:22:13.980 for me." The whole point of that freedom is now to see how God can use you on that platform to see others 00:22:13.980 --> 00:22:16.680 liberated through the freedom that you have experienced. 00:22:20.620 --> 00:22:21.560 Freedom isn't about selfishness. 00:22:24.800 --> 00:22:25.610 Freedom is about selflessness. 00:22:28.400 --> 00:22:33.060 Someone always has to lay down their lives so that you can experience it. 00:22:36.300 --> 00:22:43.540 Jesus came to set you free, having laid down your life, now says, "If anyone desires to follow after me, let 00:22:43.540 --> 00:22:50.580 him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me." If you understand that Jesus is the prize of 00:22:50.580 --> 00:22:57.720 heaven and that your sanctification is centered upon Christ alone and that freedom is only found through him, then in that we 00:22:57.720 --> 00:23:03.880 find ourselves liberating others by preaching and sharing the freedom that Christ has given to us. 00:23:11.240 --> 00:23:12.670 Freedom isn't about self. 00:23:17.940 --> 00:23:18.960 It's selfless. 00:23:22.760 --> 00:23:30.320 God wants to take your identity apart from him and shape your 00:23:30.320 --> 00:23:32.480 identity in him. 00:23:35.120 --> 00:23:42.160 A few ways just to examine the heart as to whether or not we do that as people, is just to simply ask yourselves, "What really is my prize 00:23:42.160 --> 00:23:51.500 for eternity?" Is it heaven apart from Christ or 00:23:51.500 --> 00:23:52.920 is it happened because of Christ? 00:23:56.160 --> 00:24:01.840 Is it freedom for myself or is it freedom for selflessness? 00:24:07.740 --> 00:24:14.780 The way we demonstrate whether or not we understand it is seen by the way we interact with people in this world. 00:24:17.820 --> 00:24:18.440 How we love. 00:24:20.600 --> 00:24:21.160 The way we care. 00:24:23.500 --> 00:24:28.180 The sacrifices you make at your convenience for the convenience of someone else. 00:24:31.760 --> 00:24:35.930 Not just simply the words that we say, but the way that you live. 00:24:38.400 --> 00:24:39.690 God's called you to make a difference. 00:24:41.420 --> 00:24:42.870 I think Jesus shared that throughout Scripture. 00:24:43.580 --> 00:24:50.700 In Hebrews it says, "You serve a kingdom that is unshakable in Jesus." In Matthew 28, it says, "All 00:24:50.700 --> 00:24:57.820 authority in heaven and earth is being given to me, then go into the world." And Matthew 6:18, "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." God 00:24:57.820 --> 00:25:04.920 has built you as movers and shakers for his kingdom and I want to just remind us last week, 00:25:05.020 --> 00:25:08.700 one of the important foundations that we talked about in John 3. 00:25:08.700 --> 00:25:14.380 When Jesus goes and calls us into this world, when he came, he said this, that he didn't come to condemn the world. 00:25:17.680 --> 00:25:23.830 But through him, that the world may have life because of what he's done. 00:25:27.780 --> 00:25:29.730 God has called us to be people of life. 00:25:32.500 --> 00:25:39.560 People that demonstrate the grace of God by making known how his grace has been poured out on us, and not 00:25:39.560 --> 00:25:44.940 only for us, but for all of mankind and encouraging life in him. 00:25:47.580 --> 00:25:48.560 So let me get to Mark. 00:25:51.680 --> 00:25:58.740 In the book of Mark, knowing that Jesus has call us into this world to be a light for him, he describes four different types 00:25:58.740 --> 00:26:01.070 of reactions to who he is. 00:26:02.980 --> 00:26:10.060 This parable is actually described in the book of Matthew and Luke as well, but Mark is where I'm going to quote it from, it says this, "And he begin to teach again by the sea," 00:26:11.480 --> 00:26:17.660 talking about Jesus, "and such a very large crowd gathered to him that he got into a boat in the sea and sat down. 00:26:18.900 --> 00:26:22.860 The whole crowd was by the sea on the land and he was teaching them many things in parables. 00:26:24.260 --> 00:26:31.740 And he was saying to them in his teaching, "Listened to this, behold, the sower went out to sow." Let me stop right there and say this: when 00:26:31.740 --> 00:26:37.360 you study parables within the Bible, there is some danger to it. 00:26:37.440 --> 00:26:44.560 I just want to, in a hermeneutics (what that word means is your studying of the Bible) it's important to understand the way the Jews would teach 00:26:44.560 --> 00:26:45.010 parables. 00:26:45.280 --> 00:26:52.260 When a Jew would teach a parable, typically the reason they taught a parable was to teach one central theme, within the parable. 00:26:53.000 --> 00:26:54.800 They usually had one point they wanted to make. 00:26:56.020 --> 00:27:04.440 Sometimes within Jesus's teaching, he taught parables with multiple points, like I think the prodigal 00:27:04.440 --> 00:27:05.910 son, when he ran away from his father. 00:27:06.040 --> 00:27:11.660 You can use that parable to see a couple different points, but predominant when a parable was taught there was one main point. 00:27:12.220 --> 00:27:19.460 You get into a lot of heretical teaching when you take parables that were to intended to make one point and you try to make lots of points and make everything 00:27:19.460 --> 00:27:20.020 mean something. 00:27:21.160 --> 00:27:28.240 The only time I would say that you should take a parable and make it mean more than one point is after Jesus teaches the 00:27:28.240 --> 00:27:32.680 parable, he explains it to us within the text, and he makes it mean more than one thing. 00:27:33.460 --> 00:27:35.080 That's how you know you're being careful with the parable. 00:27:35.980 --> 00:27:39.780 Jesus does that in Mark 4 and as soon he's done he teaches what it means. 00:27:40.160 --> 00:27:44.040 So let me go back to this, "Listen to this," he says in verse three, "Behold the sower went out to sow. 00:27:44.940 --> 00:27:49.140 And as he was sewing, some seed fell beside the road and the birds came and ate it up. 00:27:50.200 --> 00:27:53.800 Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil. 00:27:54.800 --> 00:27:57.440 And immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. 00:27:58.680 --> 00:28:02.120 And after the sun had risen it was scorched and because it had no root, it was withered away. 00:28:02.160 --> 00:28:03.500 Other seed fell among the thorns. 00:28:04.580 --> 00:28:07.170 And the thorns came up and choked and it yielded no crop. 00:28:07.240 --> 00:28:08.880 Other seed fell into the good soil. 00:28:09.580 --> 00:28:17.220 And as they grew up and increased, they yield a crop and produce 30, 60, and 100 fold, and he was saying, he 00:28:17.220 --> 00:28:24.460 who has an ear to hear, let him hear." What is this parable saying to us? 00:28:26.040 --> 00:28:34.180 Well, optimists, you optimists out there, you would look at a parable like this, and maybe you would say, "You 00:28:34.180 --> 00:28:41.360 know, maybe this garden that's being planted, maybe everything didn't 00:28:41.480 --> 00:28:48.520 grow all the way, but at least something grew, right?" Just to think through 00:28:48.520 --> 00:28:49.320 that for a minute. 00:28:51.360 --> 00:28:58.440 If you are a farmer and you had to farm land and you went out and your vegetables, or whatever 00:28:58.440 --> 00:29:04.820 you are growing, grew three-fourths of the way, but nothing ever sprouted that was edible, would you be excited that grew? 00:29:07.560 --> 00:29:14.680 To me, I would be a little upset with all the labor I poured into my garden, only to find out that every ounce of energy I 00:29:14.680 --> 00:29:18.880 spent ended up producing nothing that was helpful for me and my family. 00:29:21.060 --> 00:29:23.160 This year decided I was going to plant a garden. 00:29:25.220 --> 00:29:26.250 Yeah, I heard somebody laugh. 00:29:29.360 --> 00:29:32.780 And I decided I wanted to do a little science experiment this year. 00:29:33.520 --> 00:29:35.560 I did know how good Utah soil is. 00:29:35.700 --> 00:29:38.820 Where I'm from, if I throw a seed in the ground, I come back next day, it's Jack and beanstalk. 00:29:41.100 --> 00:29:42.930 But here in Utah, it's a little different with the soil. 00:29:43.540 --> 00:29:45.200 So I decided, I gonna see of how bad the soil is. 00:29:46.380 --> 00:29:51.560 I'm going to till up the ground, I'm going to actually put some nice soil in the ground on one half on the other. 00:29:51.560 --> 00:29:52.550 On the other half, I'm not going to do that. 00:29:52.620 --> 00:29:55.680 I'm just going to let my plants grow the way that the natural ground is. 00:29:56.040 --> 00:29:59.520 And so I planted, and I put some plants on one side, some plants on the other side. 00:29:59.980 --> 00:30:07.180 One side of my garden now looks like a tropical jungle, and 00:30:07.220 --> 00:30:11.280 now the other side is just the cry fest when I go outside. 00:30:11.640 --> 00:30:16.060 I walk out and look at my garden and there's the pathetic tomato plants that are almost knee-high now. 00:30:16.840 --> 00:30:24.100 And a couple days ago, I noticed there is a tomato about the size of the pea that just sprouted out on one plant, 00:30:24.540 --> 00:30:26.180 and that's all I've got going on that side. 00:30:26.540 --> 00:30:28.940 But then I go to the other side and I got other plants as well. 00:30:29.920 --> 00:30:37.000 Stacy and I spent the last few weeks doing camp with kids up on the mountain, so we haven't looked at the garden 00:30:37.000 --> 00:30:37.580 that much. 00:30:37.680 --> 00:30:44.120 So I went back as week and looked at one and we have a zucchini that could feed Goliath sitting on one side of our garden. 00:30:47.870 --> 00:30:50.180 The point of this story isn't that something grew. 00:30:53.000 --> 00:30:56.020 The point of the story is that there's something that grew the right way. 00:30:59.680 --> 00:31:07.220 Sometimes we look at a story like this as people and we're sensitive to what Jesus wants to do in our lives, and say to ourselves, "Oh man, which 00:31:07.220 --> 00:31:08.400 one of the four am I? 00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:16.600 Am I going to be that the one that the thorns, it grows in it and it just gets choked out? 00:31:16.600 --> 00:31:21.480 Am I gonna be the one that continues to grow and yields what God wants? 00:31:21.480 --> 00:31:24.500 Am I the one one where he scattered and don't even know what is going happened to me? 00:31:24.720 --> 00:31:32.150 Which one am I?" Usually when someone approaches a passage like that, 00:31:33.900 --> 00:31:41.140 I want to say if you are sensitive to what God says within this verse, it's the sensitive people to this passage that I'm least 00:31:41.140 --> 00:31:42.360 concern about. 00:31:44.500 --> 00:31:49.280 Because what it really communicates, is that you are concerned with where you are in Christ. 00:31:51.720 --> 00:31:56.580 And so when you come to passage like this, I don't think this verse is meant to condemn you. 00:31:58.680 --> 00:32:06.720 I'm glad that maybe in your life you might feel conviction over where you're not aligned with Jesus, but 00:32:06.720 --> 00:32:11.890 I think rather than feeling condemnation, what this verse is intended to do is encourage you. 00:32:15.040 --> 00:32:15.640 Let me tell you why. 00:32:18.240 --> 00:32:22.940 When you read verse eight, Jesus describes those who fell in the good soil. 00:32:24.620 --> 00:32:32.040 Then he describes the way that they respond in landing in this good soil: they produce 30, 60, 00:32:32.100 --> 00:32:32.820 and 100 fold. 00:32:34.520 --> 00:32:41.620 Now, I don't know how people know this, but I looked this up, I have no idea how you find out information like this, but during the time of Christ it 00:32:41.620 --> 00:32:48.760 was estimated when a crop would yield produce, it took one crop to yield 8 to 10 items 00:32:48.760 --> 00:32:54.380 off of it for selling or eating or replanting into the ground. 00:32:54.420 --> 00:32:59.040 So one crop yielded 8 to 10 produce from its plant. 00:33:00.780 --> 00:33:07.400 What Jesus is saying within this passage is far more significant than what the typical crop would produce when it was harvest time. 00:33:09.420 --> 00:33:16.820 What Jesus is saying is those that are that are planted properly, they produce 30 and 60 and 100 fold. 00:33:19.200 --> 00:33:24.340 What Jesus is encouraging us here, is not to make your pursuit what you produce. 00:33:26.480 --> 00:33:34.440 I want to be careful in looking at this passage and saying that what God's desire for you in here isn't to 00:33:34.460 --> 00:33:38.420 try really hard for Jesus's sake to produce more results. 00:33:41.400 --> 00:33:49.320 What it's saying, the result the showing us just how healthy the crop is when it is nourished out 00:33:49.320 --> 00:33:50.820 of this special soil. 00:33:54.280 --> 00:34:01.300 I think what Jesus is saying is, what counts to God isn't the 00:34:01.300 --> 00:34:02.440 numerical results results. 00:34:04.880 --> 00:34:09.639 The results are supernaturally up him. 00:34:09.639 --> 00:34:16.800 What counts to God is that you and your hearts desire is to glory 00:34:16.800 --> 00:34:17.139 in him. 00:34:20.580 --> 00:34:27.620 Failing to glory in Christ causes us not to see him as the prize of heaven and the freedom in life. 00:34:31.500 --> 00:34:35.219 The point of this passage isn't that you need to try really hard to yield more. 00:34:38.219 --> 00:34:41.620 The point of this passage is that you root yourself in the soil. 00:34:45.980 --> 00:34:54.699 When you stick to the soil, when you deny yourself and take up your cross, when 00:34:54.699 --> 00:35:02.860 you see Jesus as the prize of life, that's when God supernaturally does 00:35:02.860 --> 00:35:07.420 things beyond just normal comprehension. 00:35:09.300 --> 00:35:12.960 A regular crop in and of can do 8, 10 good things. 00:35:15.480 --> 00:35:26.020 But Jesus, when he has a hold of your life, it's supernatural. 00:35:26.020 --> 00:35:26.720 This is what I think. 00:35:30.100 --> 00:35:37.460 God's not going to get to the end of your life and measure your results but 00:35:37.460 --> 00:35:38.970 what we would deem earthly success. 00:35:41.400 --> 00:35:48.520 You're not going to get to the end of life and God's not going to measure you based on how often you were in the church every time 00:35:48.520 --> 00:35:49.250 the doors opened. 00:35:51.240 --> 00:35:53.090 Although Gods you to encourage his people. 00:35:55.340 --> 00:36:00.680 God's not going to judge you on how many people you lead them to him, though he wants you to lead people to him. 00:36:02.580 --> 00:36:07.830 God's not going to judge you based on how may people you see baptized, though he wants people to profess their faith in him. 00:36:09.340 --> 00:36:13.700 God isn't going to judge you by the dollar amount you gave to him, although he desires for you to give cheerfully. 00:36:15.740 --> 00:36:19.320 He isn't going to judge you by the outward appearance or man-made methods of success. 00:36:25.160 --> 00:36:32.150 God's going to measure your life by one way: how you gave yourself to him. 00:36:35.340 --> 00:36:36.320 That's the point of this parable. 00:36:39.640 --> 00:36:45.880 That's the point of what justification does for us, that's the point of what sanctification does for us, that's what the point of heaven is all about. 00:36:47.840 --> 00:36:50.880 It's the point of why God has set you free, it's the reason we're here today. 00:36:54.920 --> 00:37:02.040 That when we take the time to glory in something, and when our hearts are inclined to worship something, 00:37:04.780 --> 00:37:07.150 that worship goes to Christ. 00:37:10.020 --> 00:37:17.120 Because when you're attached that soil, God in 00:37:17.120 --> 00:37:21.780 that, does miraculous things through your life and in your life. 00:37:26.240 --> 00:37:31.960 We can make heaven about us and we can make heaven about heaven, but we can also make heaven void of Jesus. 00:37:33.940 --> 00:37:38.510 We can make freedom in Christ about us and yet never make it about Jesus. 00:37:40.740 --> 00:37:45.500 We could even make results for Christ about us producing fruit and not about Jesus being our soil. 00:37:48.620 --> 00:38:00.600 But here's what God desires: God desires that you glory in him. 00:38:00.600 --> 00:38:07.780 "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we walk 00:38:07.780 --> 00:38:11.620 in them." You are his poem. 00:38:13.760 --> 00:38:21.160 "And they summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, if any wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and 00:38:21.160 --> 00:38:26.840 follow me." Your justification was found in his glory. 00:38:26.900 --> 00:38:28.990 Your sanctification is found in his glory. 00:38:29.120 --> 00:38:31.760 Your growth with him is found in his glory. 00:38:33.380 --> 00:38:35.660 Christianity is Jesus. 00:38:39.980 --> 00:38:47.840 My encouragement to you this morning: this will be a reminder in your life, to 00:38:47.840 --> 00:38:49.960 let Christ be the ultimate prize. 00:38:52.300 --> 00:38:59.230 And the way that looks for us, isn't by pushing everything else aside and saying, "You know what, sorry I don't have time for that, I got to read my Bible. 00:38:59.380 --> 00:39:01.360 No, sorry, I don't have time for that, I've got to pray. 00:39:01.440 --> 00:39:03.760 No, I can't stop thinking about Jesus, get away from me. 00:39:03.760 --> 00:39:11.130 I've got to do nothing but think about Jesus." Now, I would say that's deftly putting Jesus first in everything, 00:39:14.980 --> 00:39:18.160 but what Jesus desires rather is to be the center of everything. 00:39:20.900 --> 00:39:22.320 He is the centerpiece of heaven. 00:39:24.280 --> 00:39:25.960 He is the centerpiece of your family. 00:39:27.740 --> 00:39:29.090 He is the centerpiece of your church. 00:39:30.780 --> 00:39:32.060 He is the centerpiece of your life. 00:39:34.240 --> 00:39:41.440 When you make him the center of your life rather than first in life what you do is as you journey through life you seek the way God would desire to 00:39:41.480 --> 00:39:43.860 make himself known in the way that you live. 00:39:46.340 --> 00:39:46.660 Put him first. 00:39:47.900 --> 00:39:50.300 Or better yet, let him be the center.