The job description of a christian

Mark 8

4 things in the 11 verses of Mark 8:27-38:

I am the christ

I came to suffer
You gone suffer
To lose is to gain

34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

- Crowd to him
  - Describe crowd
    - Thousands
- If any one would come after me
  - The recipe
  - Stress the individuality of this passage
- Deny himself
  - Compound word
    - Super-deny-utterly disown
  - Why do i need to deny myself?
    - Because christ came to save you from yourself
    - Yourself is not all that hot
      - Sin
      - Works of the flesh
      - No one is righteous
      - From the supervillian to the “squeaky clean humanist”
        
        All of us are bad and needing saving
        
        Letting go of the notion that we are good enough or that we can save ourself
    - Ephesians 2:1-3-all!

Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned

- - Empty yourself
    - Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
  - Christ too emptied himself

Philippians 2:5-9

- - Kill my flesh
    - Galatians 5:24 and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires
- This denying, is a lifelong process
  - Lifelong struggle
  - We must utterly deny and disown ourselves if we are to gain Christ
- What does denying ourselves look like?
  - Denying sin
  - Denying pride and deferring to the glory of God
  - Being humble
  - Seeking to please God more than ourselves
  - It is a denying of our flesh, but a joying and pleasuring in the things of God!
    - So yes we deny ourselves, but in Him
      - Psalms 16:11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Philiipians 3:7-8

So we have come to Him and we have to deny ourselves, next we must take up our cross

- - We have dropped our flesh, our self and now we are to pick up something, our cross

34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Take up his cross

- Not romantic
  - Torture symbol
  - Prior to crucifixion
- Its personal, his cross
- Pickup or replace with something
- Take up suffering
- Take up trials of the enemy
- Take up fight against yourself
- Take up fight against the enemy
- Psalms 34:19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,

but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

- - Philippians 1:29 for it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake

1 Peter 4:12-14

1 Peter 5:8-10

So we have come to Jesus, denied ourselves, and picked up our cross, lastly, we must follow Him

34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Follow me

- Not a one time thing
  - Anyone ever had to follow someone in the car?
    - You try to stay as close as possible
    - Sometimes things get in the way
    - Sometimes you catch a red light
    - Sometimes you get distracted and forget you are supposed to be following
    - What do we do when that happens, we start looking for the car
  - What following Jesus is not, is when we start following Jesus and say, you know what, i’m going to stop and get gas, im going to mcdonalds.
    - Jesus calls, I thought you were following me?
    - I am, I’m just…

In order to follow Jesus, we have to stick close to Him
- Sticking close with jesus
- stick close in prayer
- Stuck close in study
- Stick close to Jesus with your church family
- Stick close to Jesus in worship
- Stick close to Jesus in your thoughts
- Stick close to jesus in worship and song
- Stick close to jesus in the good
- Stick close to jesus in the bad
- Stick close to jesus in the ugly
- Stick close to jesus when your faith is strong
- Stick close to jesus when you can barely believe
- Stick close to jesus when you feel close
- Stick close to jesus when it feels like He is no where to be found
- Stick close to jesus until the day you meet Him face to face