Lessons from Pentecost (and Worship Services for 5/24/26)

Sermon - Richard Bristol

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Good morning. Happy Sunday. I'm getting to the age where I have to send myself messages to remind me of things, and it's really sad. All the time, Pat said, don't you remember with blah blah blah. Really? I said, Well, did I do good? Pretty good. I can't remember nothing. So I have to write my song pages down. Page uh four ninety three. Going out to eat with some friends, and I was talking about getting older and always clearing my throat and everything clogs up and I can't sing any more and stuff. I didn't think I was anywhere near a computer or anything. This morning the first thing popped up on the computer was this stuff I need to take. That will uh get rid of all that. It's amazing what they're listening to. Four ninety-three, oh me to his dream, all me to his name, all me to his name, heart with the bird, all me to his name. Jesus Lake was not so in a blessing, you are my home, with a full danger, with a hand that you feel like you are Jesus Lush, Jesus Lamb, Word Jesus Lamb for Annecessary Prayer. Does anybody have anything to meet you? Patricia? Um mom. Mom um wrecked Thirsty. Well, shall I say wrecked? She hit a huge bowler at the office and pulled her car. And she is bruised and pretty pretty beat up and her pride's a little hurt. And she only lose her independence. So we just pray for her. And we had a friend um that we've known for a long time that uh he committed suicide last week. And we have to go to his funeral today. So if you can remember his family, and that situation is not good at all, and just pray for that precious family and what they're having to go through in the days ahead. Remember Miss Hunter and Jerry in their prayers. Miss Hunter's not doing good. Um Mom has me to pray for Lisa. Is taking care of her mother that has Alzheimer's. Her husband is uh, which is Lisa's daddy, just a very hard man and he's not easy to deal with, and um he's not in his right mind, but Lisa sort of needs him there to help make sure that Bray Louie was okay for the night, but it's been very hard. Some of the things that he said to her to Lisa have really affected her love for him and that situation, and it's been a lot of stress on Chris having to watch his wife text in a verbal abuse from a man that's supposed to be her father. So just trade from that situation, too. If you will, uh bow your heads. Father, we come to you again this morning uh first and foremost to give you thanks for the many, many things that you do for us, Lord, each and every day. And uh also we'd like to bring our heartaches and our burdens and our problems to you, knowing that um to bring them to you means that uh we are definitely bringing them to the right place to have them taken care of, Lord. And we'd like to ask that you uh ease some of our minds and some of our uh ill feelings towards others sometimes, Lord, and try to smooth things up for us and just ease the uh the problems of our day-to-day situations. Um sometimes they're not as not the way that we uh would like for them to be. We know that uh prayer is the best way to get them resolved and have them taken care of by you. And also we'd like to thank you for our most precious present ever, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, for whom we pray. Amen. And now it's uh time for Thanksgiving prayer. Does anybody have anything they want to bring to our attention? Yep, Pat. I'm as thankful that Mama wasn't hurting worse than she was, and that it didn't happen when she was on the rope somewhere that she cared hurt so much. Yep, yeah. Just very thankful for that. I think God has been precious in that. Yeah. Yeah, it's hard to watch. I know uh, you know, you you I guess uh I've seen it with a few people that care about, you know, you don't want to it's like you give up at driving, and that's kind of like the independence. Yeah, it's yeah, it's that's rough, but uh which I know people my age shouldn't be driving. Anybody else got anything we want to bring to our attention? Yep, Jim. Amen. Yes. Yep, Maryland. Thank God for his service. Certainly, certainly. Yeah. We're blessed more than we more than we deserve in this country. It's amazing. The things that uh that you know, it's obvious that we live in the the most blessed, wealthiest nation on the planet. I hate to see so many people just take, you know, just it's like they just don't care. They still feel like they're entitled to something, but they've never been in a ditch or in a swamp with somebody shooting at them, you know. Um I don't know, and I'm I don't I I'm I'll be the first to tell you I'm a political person because I think that uh that there is a right and a wrong, and I feel certain of that. And I know a lot of people's squealing about the gas being a little bit expensive, but I can't help but think when I pray about that, all my brothers and sisters in Iran and screaming, thanking Jesus. You know, for the first time in 30-some years, that there's actually a chance that uh they may not be gunned down or killed just because they speak the name Jesus. Anybody else? Yep, Keith. Uh Pat had uh doctors put in this week and had some testing done, and uh, I think for the most part it it came back uh abnormal, but she's okay. Yeah. So just regular old path then. Yeah, just regular old pat. She changed man. Yeah, I think you know, was pretty good. Some things were high, but they weren't worried about. Yeah, it's just like if one thing's high, but the other thing's not, I'm supposed to be okay. So Yeah. Well, I've come to the under under understanding, I mean, throughout my trips, that regardless whether you feel good or not, there's something wrong that you need a pill for. No matter what. And it just so happens they have a pill. Yeah, and they've got another test. Right, right. Yeah, and if you're lucky, your insurance might pay for part of it. Yeah. Yeah. So anything else? Well, let's bow our heads. Father God, again, we come to you just so grateful, so thankful for the many blessings that you pour out on us each and every day. And we're just an example of the generations of goodness and blessings that you have poured out on this country. And this this day, Father, we thank you for each and every person who has stood up to the challenge to defend what you've given us, to go overseas somewhere in some foreign world, and and just be brave enough to fight for the goodness and the freedoms that you've given us. And we just thank you so very much for each and every one. And pray that you would be with those who are actively in harm's way and just keep them safe. We just thank you so much, Father, for all the the wonderful blessings that you give us each and every day here. Uh it's just amazing how we look back over just the last 50 years and how you've increased knowledge in so many different areas and health care and just everything else. And we're just so thankful for it, Father. Again, we thank you for this rain. We thank you for the opportunity to come together as a family. As a church family, we pray that you be with us to bless us this day. Bless those that we care about, Father. And in all things, help us to reflect Jesus each and every day. Help us to be the light of the gospel that He's called us to be. And we thank you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. And we'll have Jeannie. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, long suffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has complained against another, complain against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection, and let the peace of God rule in your heart, to which also you're called, in one body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and knowledgeing one another in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord, and whatever you do in words or deeds, do and do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Have church. But if when steps come up, if I don't have them off, I tend to face plant, so I'm oh goodness. Um, there was a couple of things I wanted to hit on today, and we've actually already talked about a couple of those, um, being Memorial Day. And um it's a day that we want to remember those that have um fulfilled that scripture, John 15, 13, and laying down their life for the brothers. Um if we don't have anybody in our immediate family, I think some of us, all of us, have someone that we know in our family that paid that ultimate price, that died on the battlefield uh for our liberties, for our freedoms here. Um, and then Richard spoke about Pentecost, and that's one of the things I wanted to talk about today. Um, it's the holy day, one of the feast days, and one of the most important feast days, actually. And I know we're gonna speak on this more next week. Uh, but what I wanted to share with you today is better than what I can say about it or what I could write. And this is a young lady that I follow a lot. Her blog, her name is well, she goes by the farmer girl, and I'm gonna read you what she wrote about this. It's sort of just sat in the stage here. It says Jerusalem is already awake long before sunrise fully breaks over the horizon. The city swells during Pentecost, the Feast of Weeks, one of the great feasts commanded by God's generation earlier through Moses, and people have profound, I'm sorry, people have poured it from all over the known, poured in from all over the known world. The streets feel too narrow for the crowds pressing through them, and Roman soldiers stand watch from their stations while merchants shout over one another, trying to sell bread, oil, wine, lamb's cloth, I'm sorry, lamb's cloth, spices, and anything to a traveler that they might need. Um, sandals scrape against the stones that are polished smooth by centuries of other footsteps that have come and gone. Uh smoke rises from the cooking fires, and it mingles with the smell of animals and sweat and dust and incense and fresh bread bacon somewhere nearby. And languages overlap everywhere in turn. You've got the Greek, the Aramic, the Latin, the Egyptians, voices from places all over the world, and they feel Galilee like we've never seen in our lifetime. And Jerusalem feels alive. It's restless, it's loud, and it's heavy with anticipation. We've got to think about where this is happening at what we're reading here in Acts. Um happened just a few weeks after Christ had been crucified and raised, and actually ascended into heaven. And somewhere in the middle of all that noise and that movement come together in one place are the followers of Jesus. Maybe they're gathered in an upper room tucked somewhere in the crowded city streets, and the windows cracked open just enough for the morning air to move through. Maybe they're near the temple courts themselves among the gathering crowds around arriving to worship. Scripture doesn't fully tell us exactly where. But wherever they are, they're waiting together, exactly how Jesus told them to do. And imagine what they must be waiting for and how they had felt like at this point, after all they've already witnessed. Not peaceful, polishing, waiting like people normally do in the paintings that we've seen, but real waiting. The kind where your mind keeps replaying everything you've just witnessed over the last past several weeks until it barely feels real anymore. These are people who watched Jesus brutally executed. People who hid in fear afterward and behind locked doors because they were terrified it was gonna be them next. Um These are the people that saw him alive again. Not as a vision, not as wishful thinking. He was really alive. He was walking, eating, speaking, laughing, sharing his scars on his hands to others. And then just days earlier, they stood on the Mount of Olives, literally watching him ascend into heaven. While they stared upward in a stunned silence, trying to process how someone could simply rise into the light into the clouds before their eyes. And before he left, he told them, But you'll receive the power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And that's in Acts 1, verse 8. But what exactly were they expecting by that? What do you think they thought it meant after what they had just saw? Did they think they would feel stronger somehow, maybe, by this power? Do you think uh maybe a prophet might arrive with a big old message? Did they expect another miracle? Like the loaves and fishes and the storms coming. Nobody fully understood yet what was about to happen. And Peter's there. The same Peter who swore he'd died for Jesus, and then he denied him, even knowing him. He denied him. He sat beside a fire in fear, and he didn't say a word. Thomas is there, Matthew is there, Mary, Jesus' mom, she's there, ordinary people, fishermen, tax collectors, men and women with no political power, no armies, no wealth, and no influence. Just believers clinging tightly to a promise that Jesus had made before he left. And then suddenly the sounds come. And this is the last um Sunday school lesson I have with my kids, and that's why I wanted them in here to hear this story. This is when the Holy Spirit shows up. It's not from the outside and not from the streets, it's from heaven. Heaven itself. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And this is in Acts 2, verse 2. Can you imagine the shock of it? One second the room is filled with quiet conversation, praying, probably, shifting feet, nervous anticipation. And the next a roar explodes through the air so violently it seems to shake the space around them. Not ordinary wind and not thunder, something deeper and something louder. The sound of an overwhelming power crashing into the world. The kind of sound that makes every conversation in a nearby street suddenly stop and people look around trying to understand where it's coming from. It echoes through the stone walls and the narrow alleys, it raises goosebumps along your arms and your necks before anyone ever stands, understands why. And then they see it. Fire not spreading across the curtains or the wooden beams, not destroying anything, but resting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared before them and rested on each of them. And that's Acts 2, verse 3. Can you imagine staring at someone you know and seeing something that looks like a flame resting above them without consuming them? Imagine the terror and the awe colliding together in your chest as suddenly the presence of God feels as close and overwhelming as the fire at Mount Sinai. How it must have felt to the Israelite generations earlier. Because this is not the first time that God's come with wind and fire. At Mount Sinai, God descended in smoke, thunder, earthquakes, and trumpet blasts and fire when he gave the law to Moses. The mountain trembled beneath his presence while the people stood in fear at the base of God's holiness was there, overwhelming that boundary that had been set around the mountain itself. But now some thank somehow something astonishing is happening. God is no longer descending over a mountain or filling a tabernacle or settling above the Ark of the Covenant. He is filling people. And suddenly the room erupts into voices, not random sounds, not confusion, languages, real languages. Men and women speaking fluently in dialects they had never studied and they didn't know, but they were praising God and pouring out into words completely foreign to the speakers themselves. And outside the crowds began gathering rapidly because Jerusalem has heard the sound too, and people push toward the commotion from every direction, and the confusion spreads through the streets because suddenly visitors from all over the world are hearing Galileans speaking perfectly in their own languages. Parthans hear their own tongue, Egyptians hear theirs, Romans hear theirs, Arabs here's theirs. And every single one of them knows that the people should not be able to speak this way. We hear them telling us in our own tongues the mighty works of God, and that's Acts 10, verse 11. We've went from 8 to 11 and look at what's happened in just those few verses. And you imagine standing there in that crowd, and you imagine hearing your childhood language spoken perfectly by our fisherman from Galilee who has likely never traveled more than a hundred miles from his home his entire life. Imagine the realization slowly dawning that this is not trickery. This is not a performance. It was something supernatural unfolding right in front of you. And like every moment in history, this is so human, of everybody that was there, where God moves powerfully, the crowd divides immediately. Some stand there amazed, trying desperately to understand what they're witnessing, and others mock. But others mock him, saying they are filled with some new wine. And that's Acts 2, verse 13. Which honestly feels painfully realistic because humanity has always found a way to explain away the things that make us uncomfortable. God is fulfilling prophecy before their eyes, and someone in the crowd still crosses their arms and says, Yep, they're probably drunk. And Peter steps forward. And maybe this is the greatest miracle of all in the entire chapter, because this is the same Peter who once crumbled in his fear of being associated with Jesus. This is the same Peter who denied him three times while standing there in front of another fire weeks earlier, and now there's no hesitation in him at all. He raises his voice above the crowd and he begins preaching boldly about Jesus Christ, his crucifixion, and he's risen. Fear has lost its grips on him, and suddenly the Old Testament comes alive right there in the streets of Jerusalem. Joel prophesied about this earlier in Joel 2, verse 28, and it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Jeremiah prophesied about it in Jeremiah 31, verse 33. And I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. Ezekiel in Ezekiel 36, verse 26. And I will give you a new heart, a new spirit to put within you. Everything is colliding together in moments. The promises and prophecy of the Old Testament, the longing that Israel had carried for generations, the hope that God would dwell among these people again. And then comes one of those details that's hardest once you notice it. Back in Sinai, after Israel had rebelled with the golden calf, and this is when Moses had gone up to get the Ten Commandments, about 3,000 people died under the law. But here at Pentecost, after Peter preaches Christ crucified and risen, about 3,000 people are saved. The Bible does not weave parallels like that accidentally. Can you imagine watching it happen? Watching people openly weep in the streets, watching strangers from nations scattered across the world suddenly united by one message, watching the ordinary believers transformed into a bold witness before their eyes, watching the church itself come alive in real time. Because before Pentecost, these believers were hiding behind closed doors, and after Pentecost, they carry the gospel across the world. And honestly, I think sometimes we imagine Pentecost far too quietly. We picture soft, calm lights, music, stained glass windows, and a peaceful little flame hovering over everybody's head. But this moment would have felt overwhelming, loud, chaotic, holy, like standing too close to something powerful enough to change the world forever, because that's exactly what it did. Pentecost was the moment heaven crashed into earth and people became temples of the living God. Because that's exactly what it is. Pentecost was the moment that heaven took over. And you remember I said there were three things I wanted to talk about today, and this one I get to share with my sister in Christ. We took the Holy Spirit that day. It's not been easy. It's not the following Christ has never been easy. But God's still on the throne, He's still in control. When our lives feel upside down, He says, Go to this, be baptized. For me, for me is one of those important days in my life. Christ did it with John the Baptist, not because he needed to be forgiven of any sin. The Holy Spirit was already dwelling in him, but he did it as an example to us on something to do. It's an outward expression of an inward transformation, allowing that Holy Spirit that appeared some 2,000 years ago to dwell in us. And I thank God for the Son that cleansed us with his blood for all my sins to allow that Holy Spirit a place to dwell. I get to see heaven, and this old world will be calm. Happy Pentecost everyone. And next we have you keep it. I believe we bought. Or more specifically, to follow Jesus. Now, I feel comfortable as most of you in here, we we are what you would consider probably mature Christians, each and every one. So I'm not preaching a message to um to, I guess, uh what I would say uneducated Christians by no means. But I feel certain that each and every day, as we go throughout our lives, there are things that we need to be reminded of because we're the only Bible that some people around us may read. We're the only Jesus that some people around us may actually see. And regardless of what we consider ourselves, God, through his son Jesus, has placed each and every one of us in the exact position that he would have us to be to fulfill his gospel. So maybe you don't think, well, I'm really uh all that significant in the grand scheme of things. But I guarantee there's people in your circle, in your family, in your neighborhood, in your work, that God has placed you there for the very purpose of shining the light of the gospel for those people. Believe it or not, not all people who identify themselves as Christians actually follow Jesus. One of my favorite teachers and preachers is a fellow by the name of Tony Evans. Some of you may have heard of him. He puts it like this it's one thing to simply believe that Jesus bought my ticket into eternity future, and another thing to follow him in the present. Many of us live as part-time Christians. We show up on Sunday and act like we're loyal to Christ, but on Monday morning we pull a Benedict Arnold on it. In other words, we believe, but we don't follow. And again, I think we can all identify with people that are in our circle that we know this of all too well. Yeah, I'm a Christian. I don't do anything that looks Christian, but I'm Christian. I believe in Jesus. Following Jesus requires more than just believing that he died for our salvation. Following Jesus demands action in our everyday relationship with him. Jesus has called everyone who would to come and be his disciple. We read in Matthew 11, verse 28, Jesus says, Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily laden, and I will give you rest. John 12 and verse 26, we read, Whoever serves me must follow me. And where I am, my servant also will be. My father will honor the one who serves me. All these gadgets, these things that have been created to make our lives easier. I don't know if any of you remember or not, but when the computer was first, well, I should say the personal computer was first coming out, you know, in the in the 80s, all this. Thing, it's gonna be so good. They said it's gonna reduce, it's gonna eliminate half your day's work. This computer. Obviously, they didn't mean that to me because still at this day it takes me three times longer to try to do something on that dirt thing if I just wrote it out. But but that was the idea. Computers were going to pretty much just make our life so much easier. We're gonna have all this free time, we wouldn't know what to do with ourselves. But instead, the opposite has occurred. We find ourselves even busier trying to keep up with the Joneses and what we think are life's demands. I read that the average American spends between four to five and a half hours a day doing what? On their phone. Four to five and a half hours a day spent on their phone. And if my guess is right, they're probably not talking to Jesus. I guess that's one good thing about being in prison is they won't let me take my cell phone with me. So at least for eight hours a day, I'm at peace. Another poll that I read about this past week was done by Yahoo, and it found that of all the people who participated, I don't know how many it was, but they asked a certain number of people in this poll, if I gave you a million dollars, would you give up your cell phone for life? I wish they'd asked me. Now, I'm not saying that cell phones and technology are bad things. Of course not. Of course not. Look at how far, like we said earlier, just in the last 50 years, how things have progressed in the healthcare, you know, and in medicine and in all these different things that would have been impossible a hundred years ago. You wouldn't have even thought about it. And now it's just, you know, second nature. Who would have thought 50 years ago that you'd be spending four to five and a half hours a day on a cell phone? Nobody would have thought that. I guess what I'm saying though is we have to be careful because the devil is a master at using people, situations, and things to get our focus off of following Jesus. There's always something that we're going to stare at each and every day when we get up that's strategically placed there to get our minds off of following our Savior. Following Jesus is an active daily journey of surrendering our own will, aligning our life up with Jesus' teachings, and walking in obedience to his commands to love others and spread the gospel. Luke 9 at verse 23 and 25, we read this. Then he, Jesus, said to them all, If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and is himself destroyed or lost? Simply put, following Jesus requires that we leave behind our old priorities and embrace a radical obedience to Jesus and adopt his mission as our own. So how do we do this? What does that look like? Well, first and foremost, we have to accept his invitation. He's invited all who would to come to him, to sign on, to be a part of this mission. Matthew 4, verses 18 and verse 20, 18 through 22. Here's what we read. And Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. Then he said to them, Follow me, and I'll make you fishers of men. They immediately left for nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed them. That to me just you just have to think about that a minute. What did that look like all those years ago when they're sitting there on the side of the bank, they're tending to what they've known all their lives. That's the only thing they've ever done. Like Pat said, they probably never traveled from here to Valdez. That's all they knew was fishing in nets. But notice that we're told that they, at Jesus' command, at his invitation, they immediately left behind their old priorities and followed him. Think about what that looked like. When Peter and Andrew were there, and this guy comes by and says, You may have done this all your life, but I got a new job for you. Turn away from it, follow me. And then James and John in the same boat with old dad. What do you think dad had to say? When this hippie comes down to the beach and his two boys run off after him, get your honey back in this boat. What would we do in that situation? If we had lived that many years ago, could we just cast aside all that we'd ever known, all that we'd ever did, all that we'd ever hoped in, all that we'd ever saved up for ourselves? Could we just walk away from it to follow Jesus? When Jesus called the first disciples, just as he has with us, he didn't ask them for a part-time, one day a week volunteer. He didn't say, Peter, come help me out this weekend. No, he told them, just as he tells us. He demands our total commitment. Just as Peter and Andrew, James and John immediately left their lives behind, we too must be willing to leave behind our perceived comforts and status that we think we have achieved, and place our trust and our identity in Jesus alone. Hebrews 12 and verse 2, we read, Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and then sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Being a Christian, being a follower of Jesus, is more than just believing facts about Jesus. It's actively walking the same road with him. Someone is always going to say to us, though, what? No, I don't have to work for my salvation. I've heard that from so many people. Or you said, Yeah, yeah, I'm a Christian. Well, I don't have to work for my salvation. Oh, it says that it's by faith alone. And that's exactly right. We do not have to work for our salvation. But scripture is clear that Jesus died to save us so we could work. We ain't working to pay our way into heaven. We're working because he already paid it. And he commands us. Hey, look, I've come and set the example for you. I've saved you. You don't have to worry about anything else. All you have to do is share the gospel. Don't let anything in this life scare you, because you've already won. You already have life eternal. James 2, verses 18 through 20 will read, But someone will say, You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God, you do well. Even the demons believe and tremble. But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? The second thing that we have to do in making Jesus' mission our own, he says, is we must deny ourselves and take up our cross daily. That's the hardest thing for any disciple of Jesus to do. Because our human nature tells us what. We're the most important thing in our lives. I know I'm my biggest fan. Galatians 5, verse 24. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. That's something that I have to do daily. I have to crucify my spiritual nature several times throughout the day, especially dealing with people working for state government, i.e., engineers. Truly following Jesus means that your life is no longer centered around our own desires or our own feelings or our own personal agenda, but rather it's focused on what Jesus has called us to do. Galatians 2 verse 20, we read, I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Each and every day I get up, and I'm sure most of you probably the same way, and I thank God for every day that I get up. Years ago I made it a habit. Before I get out of the bed, I say, Thank you, Lord. Thank you for another opportunity to serve you. And that was something just totally uncommon for me 30-something years ago. You know, I wanted to get up and now, don't get me wrong, I still struggle throughout the day. You know, on the way to work, thank you, Lord, for saving me, but I would really like it if you would let that 18-wheel run over that idiot that just cut me off. It's a struggle. We all know that. But what an honor we have to serve the very one who come and bled and died for us and gave us the opportunity. What does Jesus mean when he tells us to take up our cross daily? Well, I think we've all probably heard something, you know, sitting around at a gripe session, you know, poor mouthing about this that hurts and that that hurts, and they can't pay you this and that. And somebody always pops up and says, Well, we've all got a cross to bear. I see some of you have used that there. Simply put, though, what does it mean to take up your cross daily? The cross was what? It was a Roman instrument of execution. It wasn't a burden. It wasn't an inconvenience, it was a death sentence. When Jesus tells us to take up our cross daily, he's telling us to be ready to die each and every day to our own desires and our own agenda and follow him. That's what taking up your cross daily means. Following Jesus, we've all as we've already said, following Jesus isn't easy. How many of you, as Pat was saying earlier, I know people who, you know, talk to them about you know going to church or you know, stuff like that. No, no, no. No, as long as I keep online like I am a devil, at least me along. And there's truth to that because whenever we focus on following Jesus, what happens? He unleashes hell. Because he knows his days are about hurt. And he knows that our father loves us. And when he can cause us to sin, he knows that it grieves our Father. But we've already won. Following Jesus isn't easy, but it means that we have to be willing each and every day to choose kingdom values over conforming to the rest of the society around us. We have to be willing to be the weird person. We've got to be willing to be the Jesus freak. I can remember in my teenage years, I spent a lot of time, as you know, with my granddaddy. My granddaddy, bless his heart, was a Freewill Baptist. And in his later years, his inner preacher came out. I guess that you reach a certain age, which I can see that already in my own life, you just don't care. Your field is gone. We would go into the grocery store. And the little girl taking us out. Young lady, do you know the Lord Jesus as your personal savior? It didn't matter where we went, but he didn't care. And in his heart, he was doing exactly what he was called to do. And when I find my own self doing that anymore, I've got the point. I don't care either. What are you gonna do? You know, call me a freak. Who cares? 1 Peter 1, verses 15 and 16. Just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all that you do. For it is written, be holy because I am holy. That is impossible for you and I to do without the Holy Spirit living in us. Jesus has called us to follow him. Jesus has called us to be a holy people. And he's equipped us with the Holy Spirit that lives in each and every one of us to do just that. Does that mean that we're going to slip up? Of course. We all know that. We all know that. The third thing in following Jesus is we have to do what he did. We have to do the things that Jesus did. The word follow means to walk the same path. And this requires constant alignment of our actions with his word. What did Jesus do when he walked the earth? Particularly during his ministry. What did he do? He fed people, he healed people, he rescued people, both spiritually and physically. These are the things that he did. Now you might say, well, I can, yeah, I can help out. I can feed people. But I sure can't heal nobody. And I have to type to rescue somebody. Jesus instructed us how to live so that we might draw others into the kingdom because they see how we live out our Christianity. One preacher that I listened to frequently told a story whenever he was in school. In college, I think it was. And there was this big bully guy, you know, and he was just mean all the time. So he makes it his mission to just overwhelm him with grace. Even though, you know, he was called all sorts of names and treated all sorts of ways, and probably had his underwear pulled over his head several times in the locker room. He still, still, just poured grace out on him each and every day. And he said one day that he came to him and told him. He said, I don't care nothing about that Christian stuff. But if I ever was gonna be one, I'd want to be one like you. That such a lot. How many people in our lives, in our circles, are Christians because of what they've seen us do? I guess I could work both ways. I mean, a lot of people might see what you've done and say, I'm gonna get right with the Lord because you don't stand a chance. Ultimately, Jesus loves people. Throughout his life, throughout his ministry, Jesus loved people. Just as our Heavenly Father loves us. And he tells us, we all know by heart, John 3.16, for God so loved us, the whole world that he gave us is one and only son. That whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. God didn't send his son in the world to condemn the world, but to save the world. A lot of people just read over that, just like singing a song. Jesus didn't come to condemn, he came to save. That's the ultimate sign. Unfortunately, that's something that you and I have to work at each and every day of our lives to master. Finally, if we accept Christ's call for us to become his followers, if we deny ourselves and follow him, and if we commit to doing the things Jesus did and walk the path that he walked, he has promised us an eternity filled with his presence, both his physical presence and his presence presence. Each and every one of us has a crown waiting on us. Jesus promised us, as we read back in Luke 9, that whoever tries to save their life on their own terms will lose it. But whoever loses their life for the sake of his purpose will find true eternal life. That's a scary thing when you get up in the morning and you say, all right, Lord, what do you want me to do today? Here I am. The checkbook's empty. You write it out. That's a scary thing. I know for years it scared me. I'm thinking, Lord, I want to do whatever you want me to do, but as long as it ain't too bad. And then you get to worry, well, what if he calls me to do this? Or what if he calls me to do that? There again, I guess as time goes on, you just simply don't care. You know? Lord, if you give me an opportunity to serve you, that's what I want to do. And I think that should be each and every one of us's goal. Because each and every one of us is a preacher of where God's put us. Whether it be in the factory, whether it be in the convenience store, whether it be in the community, wherever He's placed us, He's placed us there with purpose and with intention. Philippians 1, verse 20, we read I eagerly expect and hope. Glorify you and glorify the king. We thank you, we pray you. We have some signs in Jesus. Seven sixty two. Seven sixty-two. There is come a day with no harm. One a day. One a day that to be with my Jesus passions. The one to say my strength. We changed the battle. We should love. There'll be no sound. No more birth to day. No more stupid. No more honey over there. And the wheel with the body that will be. What a day! Glorious day that will be What a day that will be when my Jesus passes you. And I will want to save me by his grace. When we change me by the hand, it brings me through the promised land. What a day, glorious day that would be. What a day, glorious day that will be. And her gods is on her nose. These are from her wheels. And that was here, too. I'm not sure if you turn on to his comfortable seat. If that hadn't been her, it looks better than all the things. I don't know how much she does be bad deal. So as hard as it is. It frightened. Oh, I think that's the drive again. I've got some wire five. I know home before. I know, and that's all right. Which literally is two miles from the wheel. Stuff like that. Places that she's comfortable going. Oh, of course. And I think that's really pretty perfectly. I'm like, I'm all extracts from the birds. Ryan's mad and I works out there. Um I can't hear me. They do, I know. But I don't really want to heal me. I mean, I promise you. I don't know about you. Oh, you say each rather or two.