Creekside Church, Sunday, March 12, 2023
How Much Are You Worth?
Locations & Times
Creekside Church
660 Conservation Dr, Waterloo, ON N2J 3Z4, Canada
Sunday 9:00 AM
Sunday 10:30 AM
Will you follow me?
This question is an invitation, an open invitation to everyone to personally follow Jesus and experience a beautiful and fully-alive relationship through Jesus with our Creator God. This question is also a challenge, it’s an in-your-face-extremely-demanding-challenge, to understand the high personal cost Jesus requires of those who choose to follow him.
34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would follow me, let that person deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
35 For whoever would save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.
36 For what does it profit a person to gain the whole world and forfeit their soul?
37 For what can a person give in return for his soul?
38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of that one will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Mark 8:34-38 ESV with KT Revisions
THE INVITATION . . .
And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would follow me, let that person deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
Mark 8:34
deny yourself – It’s connected to the word follow. Can you ever follow someone without denying yourself in some areas of your life?
take up your cross . . . This is the ultimate requirement to follow Jesus. It is to surrender fully even to the point of giving up your life itself to Him. If you don’t follow Jesus, as you will see in his message to us, you will die to something else, to another force or cause. Our lives all lead to a death of some kind. It’s either a death for Christ or a death for the cause of the world system.
THE INCENTIVES . . .
There are four incentives or reasons for choosing to follow Jesus. They overlap or blend together in some ways and are distinct in others but all four of them are designed to help us
see that following Jesus, while a huge call on our lives, is worth every amount of sacrifice and pain we might experience.
For whoever would save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.
Mark 8:35
If you refuse to follow Jesus and instead seek to save your life you will lose your life to the call of a world system that says live for stuff, pleasure, power, self, sex, adulation and so on. If you choose to lose your life for the cause of Christ you will ultimately save your life because you will find in Christ who you truly are and know the One who created and loves you. Why would you choose a path that will cause you to lose your life when by following Jesus you could save it?
For what does it profit a person to gain the whole world and forfeit their soul?
Mark 8:36
If a person seeks to gain all that the world has to offer there is a cost and that cost is the forfeiting of their soul. It might appear that all the things the world has to offer will satisfy the longings of our hearts but in truth not only will they not satisfy but they will, like a cancer, eat away and destroy your soul. Why would you pursue something that will destroy you?
For what can a person give in return for his soul?
Mark 8:37
This is the grand exchange. Jesus is telling us that our souls are the most valuable thing in the world. All the world has to offer is of far less value than a single person’s soul. Why would you sell yourself off so cheaply?
For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of that one will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Mark 8:38
Jesus is not addressing shyness here. Some of us are just super shy people by nature. Nor is he speaking to lapses of courage all believers experience from time to time when they don’t stand up for Jesus or share their faith like they want to. Jesus is saying that if you have a settled state of mind toward him that finds his character and actions and teachings to be embarrassing then you are really not a follower at all. How can you be? If you are not proud of Jesus and the price he paid for your sin and if you do not cherish all that he is and all that he has done for you then
how can you call yourself a follower? And if you are not proudly following Jesus then you do not belong to him and how can he be proud of you after all he has done for you and after your response to that is one of embarrassment and shame?
THE INQUIRY . . .
1. Are you a follower of Jesus? Are you a person who longs to, as best you can, deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Him?
2. Are you someone who now realizes that you are not following Jesus as fully as he demands? You are questioning your relationship to him.
3. Are you someone who has now decided to turn away from Jesus because the demand is too high?
This question is an invitation, an open invitation to everyone to personally follow Jesus and experience a beautiful and fully-alive relationship through Jesus with our Creator God. This question is also a challenge, it’s an in-your-face-extremely-demanding-challenge, to understand the high personal cost Jesus requires of those who choose to follow him.
34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would follow me, let that person deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
35 For whoever would save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.
36 For what does it profit a person to gain the whole world and forfeit their soul?
37 For what can a person give in return for his soul?
38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of that one will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Mark 8:34-38 ESV with KT Revisions
THE INVITATION . . .
And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would follow me, let that person deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
Mark 8:34
deny yourself – It’s connected to the word follow. Can you ever follow someone without denying yourself in some areas of your life?
take up your cross . . . This is the ultimate requirement to follow Jesus. It is to surrender fully even to the point of giving up your life itself to Him. If you don’t follow Jesus, as you will see in his message to us, you will die to something else, to another force or cause. Our lives all lead to a death of some kind. It’s either a death for Christ or a death for the cause of the world system.
THE INCENTIVES . . .
There are four incentives or reasons for choosing to follow Jesus. They overlap or blend together in some ways and are distinct in others but all four of them are designed to help us
see that following Jesus, while a huge call on our lives, is worth every amount of sacrifice and pain we might experience.
For whoever would save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.
Mark 8:35
If you refuse to follow Jesus and instead seek to save your life you will lose your life to the call of a world system that says live for stuff, pleasure, power, self, sex, adulation and so on. If you choose to lose your life for the cause of Christ you will ultimately save your life because you will find in Christ who you truly are and know the One who created and loves you. Why would you choose a path that will cause you to lose your life when by following Jesus you could save it?
For what does it profit a person to gain the whole world and forfeit their soul?
Mark 8:36
If a person seeks to gain all that the world has to offer there is a cost and that cost is the forfeiting of their soul. It might appear that all the things the world has to offer will satisfy the longings of our hearts but in truth not only will they not satisfy but they will, like a cancer, eat away and destroy your soul. Why would you pursue something that will destroy you?
For what can a person give in return for his soul?
Mark 8:37
This is the grand exchange. Jesus is telling us that our souls are the most valuable thing in the world. All the world has to offer is of far less value than a single person’s soul. Why would you sell yourself off so cheaply?
For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of that one will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Mark 8:38
Jesus is not addressing shyness here. Some of us are just super shy people by nature. Nor is he speaking to lapses of courage all believers experience from time to time when they don’t stand up for Jesus or share their faith like they want to. Jesus is saying that if you have a settled state of mind toward him that finds his character and actions and teachings to be embarrassing then you are really not a follower at all. How can you be? If you are not proud of Jesus and the price he paid for your sin and if you do not cherish all that he is and all that he has done for you then
how can you call yourself a follower? And if you are not proudly following Jesus then you do not belong to him and how can he be proud of you after all he has done for you and after your response to that is one of embarrassment and shame?
THE INQUIRY . . .
1. Are you a follower of Jesus? Are you a person who longs to, as best you can, deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Him?
2. Are you someone who now realizes that you are not following Jesus as fully as he demands? You are questioning your relationship to him.
3. Are you someone who has now decided to turn away from Jesus because the demand is too high?