We turn in the Psalms, we're gonna turn to Psalm 1, a little different than in your bulletin, Psalm 1 and then Luke chapter 9. Let's stand together for the reading of the word. Psalm 1 reminds us of a theme that is also in Psalm 73, the theme of the two ways. And we read it from the word of God, Psalm 1. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in His law he meditates day and night. He should be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper. The ungodly are not so. but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. We turn to Luke chapter nine, beginning at verse 21. And He strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised up the third day. Then He said to them all, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and 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? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory and in His Father's and of the holy angels. But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death until they see the Kingdom of God." This is the Word of the Lord. We turn in the preaching of the word to Luke chapter 9 verses 21 to 27. Picking up in that unfolding narrative of the glory of Jesus Christ contained in that great work of the historian Luke. Luke writes in classic style of a Greek historian. He's intending to convey to you historical reality. He has brought to our attention the glory of Jesus Christ and his forerunner in his birth and his powerful ministry, miracles, teachings, stilling of the sea, casting out of demons. He's branded to us this brilliant, blazing view of the glory of our Savior. And then last week we came to that special A fulcrum point, as it were, in the Gospel that Jesus, especially after His miracle of feeding the 5,000, He does in the other Gospels, He then turns to His disciples and asks that question. First, two questions, who do men say that I am? What's the news on the street? And then, last week we looked at that much more personal question, who do you say that I am? In the great confession of Peter, you are the Christ. If we look at the Gospel of Matthew, we know that we have a condensed form of the confession. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. We know that this confession to identify Jesus as the Old Testament Messiah, which is what Peter was doing, was the work of God. He had been given the gift of faith. He was able to see beyond what he had seen in those moments, and maybe put the pieces of the puzzle together, and to recognize from everything that was known about Jesus, born in the city of David, the son of David, to receive the throne of his father David, and to rule forever, that this was all found in Jesus Christ. He is the King Israel has been waiting for, and Peter knows it, Peter understands it. You are the Christ. All the hopes of Israel are centered in and will be realized in you, Jesus. This is a great confession of faith. A great confession of faith. Without it, there's no salvation. They have grasped At least Peter and many of the disciples, they have grasped one great central truth about who Jesus is, the Christ, the Messiah. And had they been careful in reading the Old Testament and put the pieces together more closely, they would have known more even than they appear to know in that confession here. And what I mean by that is the Old Testament is so full of the glory of Jesus Christ and His work, If they had pulled all the pieces together, they wouldn't be as surprised at what comes next as they were when we read the rest of the Gospels. So we can put it this way, they understand who He is, and in broad strokes that He's the great King of Israel, the anointed priest-king, that salvation for Israel is in Him, it's here. But what they're about to learn is something that will surprise and shock them twice over. how he will accomplish that work as the Messiah. Number one. And then a second thing that is equally surprising to them is how they will share in that accomplishment. So here's the two questions. He's the Christ. The blazing, high-definition presentation of His glory that we have read and they saw face-to-face has convinced them of the identity question, and now the new question is the how question. How does a king gain his throne? Because he doesn't look like a king right now. He looks like a man despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, the son of man who has no place to lay his head. But we've seen something. The question is, how will you move Jesus of Nazareth, that's the question surely on their minds, from this to the throne of glory that was promised to the son of David forever? And what Jesus' answer is, is an answer that should change your life completely. Perhaps you know what a, you heard the words type and archetype. Maybe you haven't, but if you haven't, let me try to explain them. What is a type? It's a broad category, we call it a kind. I'll give you an example, fathers. There's this idea of what a father is. And then you could have the first type or the principle type from which all fatherhood flows and that is God is our father. So all fatherhood is a reflection of the ultimate archetype, the first type. And what Jesus says next is he gives an archetype and then a type. The original pattern and then the subsequent reflection of that pattern. What question are we answering? How will the King of Glory, the Savior of sinners, accomplish redemption? How? And His answer, His unfolding of what it means to be the Christ of God is two things. Just put it together. Here is the plan for my life. and how I will carry out my mission. And then number two, that's the archetype number. So this will be then the pattern for your own. Your life will reflect mine. In doing this, Jesus is gonna teach and he does teach all of us what discipleship looks like. Not only what he came to do and how he came to do it, but what it means to follow him. And this might be one of the most important lessons that you could ever learn. We're living in a world that's grasping for utopia. All injustices made right in this life, all unrighteousnesses erased. A world that grasps endlessly, apart from a mediator and a savior, and apart from the principle of suffering, a way to evade the curse, to make a better world. Some sort of redemption or freedom without the need of the confession of sin and apart from suffering, which is impossible. There's no road from A to B. It doesn't exist. The most important lesson we learn this morning as Christians, there's two of them, the work of Christ, the most important lesson, and then how we follow Him. That if the work of Christ included suffering, and betrayal, and loss, and pain, and nails, and blood, and tears, and death, then when we follow Him, ours will too. And that this is an inseparable connection that leads to glory, victory, and power. But the way of the cross is Christ's way and it's our way. Jesus teaches the principles of discipleship then here as he teaches that his life is the overlay or the pattern for ours. So two lessons on discipleship. The first thing is it means to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and we're gonna see these lessons on his terms. Number one, lesson number one on discipleship, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ on his terms. What does it mean that he is the Christ? To have that confession, Jesus now fills out what you are believing when you say this. Number two, second lesson on discipleship, is that then his life becomes the template for your life. So let's put those two things together from the text. First, discipleship first means to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ on his terms. Who do you say that I am? Verse 20, Peter answered the Christ of God, the Messiah, the anointed, the father's great son, the king of glory, the king of kings, the Emmanuel, God with us, the one who would make one flock and one shepherd, Jesus Christ, the priest king of the Old Testament. They have correctly identified him, they've professed faith in him, but now Jesus is going to say, now this is how we're going to get to the kingdom that you're waiting for. How, verse 21 and 22 is how. We read, he strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, the Son of Man, and if you know who the Messiah is, he's also the Son of Man in the Old Testament, so he's connecting the confession to his explanation. The Son of Man, you've said I'm Christ, the Son of Man, the Messiah. The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised the third day. Jesus reveals here in sort of an incomprehensible way that his kingdom will advance. If you grew up in a church, you heard the simple message that Jesus went to the cross to pay for your sins. If you were a disciple at this period of time, even though you should have read Isaiah 53, but it's not only the disciples that get this wrong, we can want to bypass the cross. Jesus here presents something that to the disciples is shocking. We know that it's shocking because in Matthew's gospel, after Jesus is done, Peter rebukes Jesus. And Jesus has to tell him, get behind me, Satan. What comes in the next verse is a kind of enthronement that defies all natural expectation. First of all, the son of man must suffer many things. The road to the throne is paved by suffering. Number two, to be rejected by the chief priests and elders and scribes, to become a political pariah. Ultimately, he would be rejected by the Sanhedrin and the entire Roman Empire. The powers of this age will stand against me. Part three, they will do this in such a way that it will lead to my death. They will kill me. Okay, you need to understand the two currents that are going through the mind of a Jew waiting for the salvation of Israel. Think of Simeon, and Anna, and Mary, songs. This one is going to be great. He's going to be the son of the highest. This is the one who will sit on the throne of David forever. And Jesus' first words are when they identify him as that one, his first words are, okay, here, listen carefully. I'm going to suffer many things. I'm going to be rejected by my people, and I'm going to be murdered. I will be dead. I just said Peter was thinking, you are the Christ and you now tell me the end is a grave. The disciples seem to not grab hold of or listen to. It's almost like they're so shocked every time Jesus says this, he says it again and again, that they can't get past the phrase, oh, he's gonna die, because he also promises that he's gonna rise again. It's not until they see the empty tomb and finally they realize and remember everything that he said. But they are shocked, they are scandalized that they've confessed Him as the Christ and it's almost in a moment Jesus evacuates for them the power of that confession by saying, I'm gonna be dead in a grave and rejected by Israel. What does this teach us about Christ? There's a few things to note here about our Savior. The first thing is He's a prophet because everything He said happened exactly. It's very plain. This all happened exactly as he said. Remember the shepherds, they heard from the angel and then they went and followed the instructions of the angel and they found out it was just as the angel had said. Everything Jesus says here, I will suffer many things, I'll be rejected by the leadership of Israel, I will be killed and raised the third day, happened exactly. He's revealing the way of the Christ. The divine decree of the triune God for the salvation of Israel will go through suffering and death. In all four gospels, there's one testimony. This is exactly what happened. Second, the central work he came to do. And here, an absolute, you know, how did, how did, How did our mainline Christian denominations, if you can call them Christian anymore in America, lose their way? Because they could not take this confession of Christ. All that it means that Jesus would have to suffer and die means an acknowledgement of our profound sinfulness. a need for atoning sacrifice and a mediator. He is proclaiming that he is the Lamb of God who will take away the sins of the world and that the sins of humanity and its corruptions are so great that the only way to the throne would be through the cross. This is why I came into the world, to suffer for sinners, to be rejected for sinners, to die and rise again for sinners. Note, he said this plainly, boldly, straightforward details, only one plain interpretation. So if you follow Jesus, here's the thing. If you say you are the Christ, Jesus immediately says, and this is what this means. You are embracing a suffering, dying, rejected, atoning Savior, which means you must confess your sins and run to Him for the salvation He came to give. You receive Christ for who he claimed to be or you don't have him, you have no participation in him. And I go back to this, it's a stinging rebuke to liberalism and what has corrupted much of the American church as it has descended into unbelief. Any so-called church or ministry or preacher who denies this truth, Jesus came into the world to save sinners by substitutionary atonement, to die. He came to die because we are wretchedly sinful, to pay the penalty. Anyone who divides the cross, the empty tomb, no Christian, if you go to Matthew's gospel, instead is in league with the devil. The Christ, what does it mean? I came to suffer, and I came to die, and I came to rise again. And if you follow Jesus, if anyone would follow after me, you are embracing the suffering, dying, and rising again Jesus, which means you're acknowledging your sin and your need for a mediator. This is the beginning of discipleship. Number two, Jesus didn't stop here. He goes on to say something remarkable. He says, that's my life. and now your life. Verse 23, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. You know, there's something very remarkable in that language. The first thing is the mention of a cross. That Roman instrument of torture. You'll notice that Jesus didn't say in the previous verse that he would die on a cross. But now he presses the archetype type. And he says, now listen, you have to understand the psychological weight, the shock. The road to the throne goes through my death, and so does yours. And if you want to follow me, you embrace first that you are a sinner in need of a dying Savior and a rising Savior. And you are willing to embrace the life that I lived, the suffering I experienced, even the death that I died. You're willing to give up your life for mine. This perhaps is as important to your Christianity as the above. And what do I mean by that? As believing in Jesus for who he says he is, what's the evidence of a true embrace of Jesus Christ, a willingness to follow him as this kind of disciple? There's lots of people who say, Lord, Lord, Jesus in his parable of the sower said, there is a kind of person who says, boy, I need that forgiveness. But when the heat comes on, what happens? They quit. Jesus said, then you're not a citizen of the kingdom. America is so prosperous, even now with all of our problems, all of our problems in totality as a nation, we still live a quality of life that is remarkable. It's not that we don't all suffer in different ways, we do when we follow Christ. Jesus said that a high standard of living Wealth. It's easier for a camel to pass through an eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Which means we as a nation have a profound temptation to want a life of ease that we can buy with our money. Whether it be a drug to numb our mind, whether it be a bigger house or some other kind of ease that we can buy for ourselves. It's very easy to do, put our trust in riches. What follows here in this text is a penetrating insight into following Christ, which is a very different kind of life. Notice he said to them all, this is the universal call of the gospel, it's not just to the apostles, it's to everybody, it's to all of you, it's to the world. This is the general call of the gospel. What he says, what follows here is for all of you. He's saying, I lay down my life for sinners, for their justification, adoption, sanctification, and glorification. If you want what I came to give, you need to believe in me and you need to follow me. You need to believe in me, you need to follow me. If you follow me, what does it look like? Deny yourself, take up your cross daily. Jesus says the same thing in Luke chapter 14 and verse 27. And then we have a little picture of it when Simon the Cyrene. Who on the way to the cross is picked out of the crowd and he carries the cross of Christ, and there you have Jesus and a follower. On the way. In a sense, a living picture illustration. Together. And Jesus is saying, My life, template for your life. What will your new life look like if you follow Jesus Christ? First, self-denial. You won't live to please yourself. You will deny yourself. You will walk worthy. The calling with which you are called, fully pleasing Him, Paul said. Which means that you are willing to say no to yourself. Your life is not your own. You were bought with a price. Your time is not for you. Your house is not for you. Your children are not just for you. Everything you have is for Him. You are not important. And let me say this plainly, including not your possessions, your abilities, your troubles, your passions, none of them are more important than Jesus Christ. You deny yourself. A new principle. Settle expectation, great suffering. Take up your cross daily. They could not be more graphic. That Roman instrument of unspeakable cruelty is gonna be your daily companion wherever you go when you follow me. I will die and you will experience the sensation of dying. Paul describes it this way to the Corinthians. Daily bearing in my body the dying of the Lord Jesus. Where do you think he got that language from? Daily bearing in my body the cross. Paul would write that you will die with him and then you will be raised with him, that your union with him is in suffering, great suffering. Jesus is saying, here's the path I walked. And the blazes say, pain and suffering. And when you walk, the blazes will say, pain and suffering. Have you thought about that? Jesus said, if anyone desires to come after me, embrace this when you follow me. Embrace this. Take up your cross daily. Perhaps we need a sort of an earthquake in our expectations of what it means to follow Jesus Christ. He promised this, follow me. Suffering, emotional pain, trauma, PTSD. You know all these phrases that we hear every day in our culture? It appears that Jesus wanted this to be part of our life as we follow him. and that one day we'd be freed from them, but then in this life, we ought to experience them. Paul, as I preached last week, he says, if by any means I might know the power of his resurrection, then he says a little interesting phrase in Philippians 3, the fellowship of his sufferings. Paul actually wanted to feel, he counted it as a privilege, Philippians 1.29, a gift to experience something of the echo of the suffering of Jesus in his own life. Not that he pursued persecution, but that when it happened, he believed that there was an echo of the life of Christ. Some years ago, I was in a moment of deep sickness with a tremendous amount of pain, The pain was so great for a few hours that I thought I was going to lose my mind. I didn't think I could hang on. And I'd never had any experience like it before. It was simply sickness and physical pain. I knew even that it would pass. The pain would not be permanent, that the inflammation would go down again. But I had never, ever, ever thought I was going to lose my mind. And I remember at that moment thinking two thoughts. What if this went on forever and there was no relief? What if this was all there was? That would be like hell. Some little taste of pain that had no end. I'm thankful that if I suffer, the Lord has promised redemption at the end. Number two, second thought came to mind. This is nothing in comparison to the pain my Savior underwent for me. The Lord brought it to my mind with a particular clarity at that moment. This is a small picture. the edges, the outskirts of something that has a magnitude and glory so far beyond my present momentary pain, it's not even worthy of comparing, but God in that moment lifted my eyes to see something, the beauty and glory and power of Jesus Christ, who pain didst undergo for my poor sake. Then he says, third, a massive life change. You'll lose your life. for my sake to save it." Your entire life, your old way of life, everything will die. Romans 6, you die with Christ, you rise with Christ, a newness of life. You commit your whole life to Christ. You are not the master of your faith, the captain of your soul. And then he gives warnings. If you don't live this way and you want the whole world and you can't lose your life, You will go to hell, and if you're ashamed of me and my words, I will be ashamed with you when I come again. Let me give you some tests for your life. Press some of this to the heart. If you're a true follower of Jesus Christ, let's go back over some of this language. Your physical life will be less important to you than Jesus Christ himself. Listen to this, whoever desires to save his life will lose it, whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. You have let go of, you have given to him your life. It belongs to you. You were bought with a price. We were at a friend's house on Friday night and we were reading the Apostle Paul, the book of Acts. And he was confessing, he was saying, I've broken some Roman law worthy of death, then I'm not afraid to die. And a little phrase struck me, I'm not afraid to die. For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. Paul understood his whole existence now belonged to Jesus Christ. And actually, whether living or dying, no difference. I belong to Him. All of it I give to Him. You follow Him. You lose this life. You give it to Him. You lay behind all your old sins and patterns, and you give your entire existence to Him. and you will gain eternal life, Jesus said. If your plans and your temporary existence is more important to you than Christ, then you're not a disciple. The great promise of discipleship is that if you live this way, you will save your life. Christ, mercy, power in you. It's unstoppable when you give your life to Him completely. And what is the hope of losing your life? Well, it's also in the words of Christ before, if you lose it, you will save it. Because if you're willing to die with Him, you will also rise with Him. Do you value your physical life more than following Christ? or do you seek the power of the cross and the power of the resurrection? You say, Lord, give me my life. Give me your, I give you my life, rather, as you gave me yours. Number two, second test of following Christ. How about your material possessions? Look at verse 25. What profit is a man if he gains the whole world and is his himself destroyed or lost? It's possible to have it all, I mean all powers, goods, and influence, and if you had it all, and to lose, because when you died, you would have nothing. Jesus says something very kind here to us. The inverse is also true. If you lose everything you own in this life, but you have Christ, you have eternity. If you gain all the goods of this world, and you have nothing else, you lose your life. See what Jesus is saying? Your physical life, your possessions, the entirety of those things, He is higher and more valuable. Suffering for Him is better than all of those things combined. You will gain your soul. Test number three, even your own reputation. Verse 26. Who is ever ashamed of me and my words? Of Him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory and His Father's and that of the holy angels. The warning is very simple here. Your life, your physical life, your goods, and now your reputation, your place in the world. I am ashamed as I think over my life how many times I have felt the pressure, the world. The world who we know says, you are a strange creature. You've lost your mind to follow Jesus Christ. And what's something in us that we want to be what? Accepted by the world. Jesus says, let that go. All of it. Because if you're ashamed of me, then when I come, I'll be ashamed of you. Realize how deep this cuts into self-denial? your life, your comfort, your house, your retirement fund, your reputation, your friends. Jesus says, if you understand discipleship, there's no limit to the taking up of your cross daily that is called for in discipleship. There's also hope, look at verse 27. But I tell you, truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death until they see the kingdom of God. And we could spend a lot of time at that verse, but at the very least we can say this, is that the disciples would see one day what Jesus was talking about. That by virtue of His death, His resurrection, His ascension, His gift of the Spirit at Pentecost, His building of His church, The life of discipleship to lose one's life, as Christ did, is to follow in his train as he builds his unstoppable kingdom and brings his people home to glory. Finally, a grand theme. There's something deeper that our Savior is teaching. Third place here is union with him. Union with Christ. This is perhaps the thing above all that pulls this together and you need to remember. So many times in the Gospels, Jesus uses language like this. I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abides in me bears much fruit. What is that a picture of? Union. An inseparable closeness. And unity of life. Accomplished by the Holy Spirit. What did the Spirit do at the beginning of Jesus' ministry? He drove Him into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. The Spirit sustained Christ in His ministry. The same Spirit dwells in you. Servant is not greater than his master, Jesus said. Your life is not to be expected to be different than mine. Here, take up your cross daily and follow me. Again, Paul in Philippians 3, I want to know Christ, the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. Paul in Romans 6, I want to, it is my delight to die with him and to rise with him. Hebrews 12, he ran the race before me and went through the cross before he went to glory. So I run the race following him. To have the mind of Christ, Philippians chapter two, is to follow him in humble suffering and service to his father after having been redeemed by him and his grace and glory. Perhaps the words of the apostle Peter are profoundly pertinent and instructive here. Why do you think he would write this? Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial that is about to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you. but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory is revealed, you may also be glad with him in exceeding joy. Are some of you surprised that your life is hard when you said, I will follow Jesus? Are you surprised? Peter said, don't be, don't be. If anyone, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. Union with Christ means his life is the overlay and pattern of mine. The nature of discipleship is an echo of the experiences of Jesus Christ. Paul uses this everywhere, Christ the firstfruits, then we following him, both in his death and his resurrection, and so many have. This is a call to exercise these qualities of discipleship in trusting Christ. Resisting sin, how does the writer of the Hebrews describe resisting sin? You have not yet resisted to bloodshed. It's interesting language, he said you haven't felt the pain yet. You haven't suffered yet. You haven't been willing to deny yourself. You haven't been willing to leave everything at the foot of the cross. How about a generous giving to others where you would then deny yourself and have less? How about bold evangelism when someone may spit in your face because you named the name of Christ? But you say, I remember when they spit on him and I will still speak of his mercy. We used to have, some of you don't remember this, but some of you do, Pastor Zacarias. Well, DeJesus was one of our pastors here for a time, now he's in Atlanta. Remember what happened, his country was liberated by a so-called liberating army, and only five years later he was in prison for the cause of the gospel. All the hopes and freedoms they hoped for turned into nothing, to ashes. And you remember how he gave us a set of Sunday school lessons on suffering. And one of the things he emblazoned in my heart and mind in those classes of Philippians 129, for to you, it has been granted to suffer. It's a gift. You have the honor of laying down your life for the one who laid down your life, his life for you. When God in history calls you to follow Jesus Christ, The particular distinct echoes of his suffering life, his dying and his rising are evident in yours. Embrace this and pray for grace. On October 6, 1536, William Tyndale, translator of the Bible into English, was led to the stake in England. He was supposed to be strangled before he was burned so that he wouldn't have to feel the burning. How's that a way to die? It gets worse. Strangling didn't work. So they lit the fire and he was still alive. You could imagine spending your entire existence running for your life to translate the Bible for a Savior who you love. You might think, if you were thinking in a worldly way, this is gonna end well for me. How did it end? It ended with them lighting the fire and he was alive. As he was being put to death, he cried out, some of you probably know this story, Lord, open the king of England's eyes. It's amazing. His last act was pray for his country. Embracing suffering, understanding the way of the cross, Understanding something about the principle of suffering, that it's through suffering that this kingdom advances, not riches or political power, but lives laid down for Jesus Christ. His crime, again, condemned for the heresy of translating the Bible into the common language He understood discipleship and submitted his body to the licking of the flames. The goal of the Roman Catholic Church and the king at the time was to maintain control by destroying the English Bible. What was the goal of Christ? That through the suffering, dying labors of William Tyndale, the whole world would know the story of the gospel, who Jesus is, how he came to accomplish his kingdom by dying and rising again. The Bible that you have in your pew rack is the New King James Version. Five years after he died, the king published the King James Version in 1611. And Tyndale's words and patterns and cadences are in your heart and mind now if you've memorized your Bible. because you follow your Savior to the end in suffering, and you realize that the principle or secret of the kingdom, that suffering leads to the advance of a kingdom against all opposition and leads to glory. And then you say, Lord, now I understand. You gave me your life. You secured a kingdom on the cross. I'll give you my life. Lord, advance your kingdom through me. And now when you have tears and suffering and you have a week where inexplicable things happen that you don't know the end from the beginning, you just commit it all to the Lord. And you say, Lord, I understand and believe that you can use my tears and deprivations to advance your kingdom in ways that I don't understand yet, but I'm willing to take my life and let it be. It's a gift. Why follow? Because it leads to glory, the glory of Christ. And ultimately, final glory. If you have not done this, be careful. You might gain the whole world. But lose your own soul. If you have done this. The promise is that when Jesus comes in his glory with his holy angels, he won't be ashamed of you. He will consider you to use the language of the writer of the Hebrews to be one of those of whom the world was not worthy. And He will take you to Himself forever. Remember He's worthy. He's the pattern. And we follow Him believing and living as He taught us to do. Let's pray. Our God, we ask again this morning that we would understand the nature of your kingship, your saving love. We would glory in the cross, not only in our minds, but with the very pattern of our lives. Even this morning, you would enable us as we gaze on the glory of the son of man dying for us, that our hearts would be melted again and we would give our lives to him. We pray that this would be evident in our self-denial, in our embrace of suffering, in our holding loosely to the things of this world, in our considering His reputation to be higher than ours, O Father, and to trust that You and Your power and glory will bring us through our tears to a better place and even be pleased to use them all for Your glory and the advance of Your kingdom. Lord, that not by might or by power, but by your spirit you would be glorified. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Again, look up and receive the blessing of the Lord. Peace to the brethren in love with faith from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus in sincerity, amen.