>> All right, welcome to Breen Community Church. We have a few announcements before we get started. But first of all, as you guys know, our Passion Week is coming next Sunday. Pastor Peter Chong is going to lead us through the triumphal entry of Jesus, Palm Sunday, and it's gonna kick off our Passion Week.

And so I kind of made a mistake, the gospel night track, and I'll explain that in a little bit. But the Easter flyer, you should have gotten it when you were coming in. So on the back of that, it gives you the schedule of what's happening that week. And so each Easter week, we wanna maximize the opportunity that we have.

And so starting off on next Sunday with the Palm Sunday, and then each night, Monday through Wednesday, we have a devotional here at 730. And there's gonna be various testimonies and devotions given. And so devotion is gonna be focused on what's happening each day. So Monday, Jesus comes to Jerusalem, and then Tuesday and Wednesday.

And then on Thursday night, we have a Passover meal that we celebrate together. And so if you haven't attended that, and even if you have, and you want to celebrate that together, if you really understand what's going on in the Passion meal, the elements. And how God has embedded that into the Jerusalem, Israel's culture.

And how for hundreds of years, that each time they did this was pointing to the coming of Christ. And so when Jesus is breaking bread and drinking of the covenant wine together. And then he says to do this in remembrance of me, which transitioned into the communion that we have today.

To really be able to understand that physically, not just reading it, but to participate in it. It really kind of highlights the gospel and what Christ was doing into their culture. So if you haven't done that, we highly recommend, even if you're not a family, there is a cap to the number because of the size of the room.

So try to sign up as soon as you can. And so that's happening. And then Friday night, we have the Friday night as we remember his death and suffering. We do have a guest speaker that's coming, Sung Kang. He's going to be coming and he's going to be delivering the word and giving his testimony.

And so I highly encourage you to put that on your schedule. And he's going to be encouraging us with the word. And then Sunday morning, we have the resurrection early rise service we will have outside. And then that day we have Easter celebration and lunch will be provided. And it just happens to be our 25th anniversary of the church.

So we will also have lunch and various things provided for that purpose. So please take this and again take advantage of the fact that there are a lot of people who are seeking and looking for answers of what's happening around us. So use this as an opportunity to share the gospel with people.

At the minimum, keep it in your Bible and pray that this week would cause us to think deeply about what it is that we have in Christ. So we have this flyer or this card, I don't know what you call it. And then we have this gospel night. So I misspoke last time.

The gospel night flyers are welcome to our outreach team is heading up a gospel night that's coming up soon. And so this is to kind of pass out to your friends and invite them to that and to hear the gospel. And they kind of left it blank so that when you do give and invite people, so that you can put personal information and invitation on that.

So you can repeatedly use it. So this is something that you can take, keep it in your Bible, and just give it to people as you feel the need to do that. So that will be available as well. Along with that, we have various evangelism outings going on. So as you're coming in, you probably saw a table out there for EV.

So if you want to sign up for that and then go out and do street evangelism together with them, please do so. And then we also have VBS volunteers that are still needed. So as you're going into the cafe, you probably saw a table that's set up there. And so if you are planning to help in any way, even if it's just cooking food or, "Hey, I can clean up and maybe I'm not really good with kids.

They get scared when I'm around, but I'm good with cooking." So you can go there and just sign up and they'll give you assignments to do whatever you need. So as you're going out, make sure you visit that table. And then one last thing, our Women's Ministry has a tea time, is a fellowship among the sisters that's happening on April 30th, 9.30 a.m.

in this room till noon. And so if you haven't signed up for that, please sign up for that as well. So let me take a minute to pray for us for our offering. And again, those who are going to give electronically, to give either through Zelle or PayPal. And if you only have Venmo, you can also use Venmo, but we want to encourage you to use the other avenues.

And then after that, our sister Diane Lee is going to come give her testimony and be baptized this morning. All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we've gathered together corporately to worship you, to honor you, to hear your word, to celebrate your goodness in our lives. Lord, if we've been distracted with whatever it is, Lord God, in our life, help us to recalibrate our thoughts and our hearts, that we may be molded to the image that you desire of us.

I pray, Father God, as we prepare our hearts and our mind for the big celebration, Lord, of Christ's suffering, and why we are here, why we're gathered together, the purpose of this church, and the eternal hope that we have in Christ. I pray that every part of what we do would cause us to be revived and renewed.

Even this offering, I pray that you would help us to give it to you in spirit and in truth, may it be multiplied for your name, for your glory. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Church family, let's all rise together. I just want to encourage you and challenge you as we come week to week.

Oftentimes it might be a routine, but as we sing this first song, "Hosanna," praise is rising. It's a call to worship that as we sing these songs that we're mindful of what we sing, obviously. And those of you who are able, clap along with us, please. Praise is rising, eyes are turning to you.

We turn to you. Hope is stirring, hearts are yearning for you. We long for you. Because when we see you, we find strength to face the day. In your presence, all our fears are washed away. Hosanna, Hosanna. You are the God who saves us. Worthy of all our praises.

Hear the sound. Hear the sound of hearts returning to you. We turn, we turn to you. In your kingdom, broken like dominoes. You make us, you make us new. Because when, because when we see you, we find strength to face the day. In your presence, in your presence, all our fears are washed away, washed away.

Hosanna, Hosanna. You are the God who saves us. Worthy of all our praises. Hosanna, Hosanna. Hosanna. Come out the way of the lost. Welcome you here, Lord Jesus. Because when we hear you, because when we see you, we find strength to face the day. In your presence, all our fears are washed away.

One more time, because when, because when we see you, we find strength to face the day. Lord. In your presence, all our fears are washed away, washed away. Hosanna, Hosanna. You are the God who saves us. Worthy of all our praises. Hosanna, Hosanna. Come out the way of the lost.

Welcome you here, Lord Jesus. Amen. Sing how great, how great the chasm that lay between us. How high the mountain I could not climb. In desperation, I turned to heaven and spoke your name into the night. And through the darkness, your loving kindness tore through the shadows of my soul.

The work is finished, the end is written. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Who could imagine so great a mercy? What heart could fathom such boundless grace? The God of ages stepped down from heaven to bear my sin and bear my shame. The cross, the cross has spoken. I am forgiven.

The King of kings calls me his own. Beautiful, beautiful Savior, I'm yours forever. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Sing it out, hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope.

Then came the morning that sealed the promise. Your buried body began to breathe. Out of the silence, the roaring lion declared the grave. As the flame of the Lord's heaven. Then came the morning that sealed the promise. Your buried body began to breathe. Out of the silence, the roaring lion declared the grave.

As the flame of the Lord's heaven. Jesus, yours is the victory. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Sing it out, hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free.

Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Lord, you are my living hope. Hallelujah. Amen. You may be seated. Hi, everyone. My name is Diane Lee, and I am a first year student at UC Irvine.

Growing up in a Korean Presbyterian church for the majority of my life, I was always surrounded by God's word and the church. I collected biblical head knowledge, which was something I prided myself of as a young child. However, I was not able to accept these biblical truths in my heart.

Although I never doubted God's existence or Christ's sacrifice that was mercifully gifted to us, it never became a personal testament to my faith until much later in my life. At the age of 12, during a junior high summer retreat, I experienced what I thought was true salvation. It was the first time my biblical head knowledge pierced my heart and allowed me to see what it truly means to follow Jesus and live for his kingdom.

However, my emotion-driven spiritual high died down as soon as we drove off from the retreat site. This pattern continued for the rest of my years in junior high and high school. I saw my spiritual life in waves that would rise during and after a spiritual revival and later die down during the stagnant periods of my life.

I was afraid to let go of my sinful desires because I was self-driven and prideful in my worldly accomplishments. I had no desire to turn away from sin. In fact, I wanted to reap the benefits of salvation without dying to my worldly desires. Despite my lack of true salvation, I was under the impression that I was truly saved.

Because of this, I made the choice to get baptized in ninth grade through the sprinkling of water, motivated by my selfish desire to join an exclusive club of young baptized believers. Even in my sprinkling baptism, I was driven by external motives, and I lacked a true heart of repentance.

During my senior year of high school, in the midst of the pandemic, I fell into a period of depression that stemmed from the contentment I felt sitting in my sin. At this point in my life, I pushed God away and placed my trust on the world rather than God's promises.

I was a slave to sin, feeding into my own desires while still considering myself a believer because I believed the events of the Bible to be true. I tried to fill the emptiness I felt with sinful pleasures, and although only God can bring true joy and fulfillment in my life, I had no real desire to turn to God nor put my trust in him.

After all the time I spent constantly relying on the world, my older brother urged me to read the book of Ecclesiastes as a reminder that the pleasures I find in the world are fleeting and temporary, but God's promises are forever. Ecclesiastes 2, 11 says, "Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done, and the labor which I had exerted.

And behold, all was vanity and striving after wind, and there was no profit under the sun." Through the book of Ecclesiastes, God convicted my heart and reminded me that my depression stemmed from my desire to worship myself through what the world had to offer. For the first time in my life, I understood the weight of God's promises and how they are so much greater than the futile pleasures I had been pursuing for my entire life.

Coming into college, God continued to reveal his glory to me and ultimately led me to a church that would grow my faith and give me a solid foundation of the word. I came to Berean by mere chance when a mutual on Instagram recommended me to come to Berean's college welcome event.

God led me to Berean in the strangest way and continued to get me plugged into the church by his grace. Towards the beginning of my first winter quarter, I felt a deep need to examine my heart and where I stand before God. I realized how much of my life had been displeasing to God and how much I went to church for my own self-justification.

Although my head knowledge of the Bible led me to think that I had salvation, I couldn't let go of my worldly desires and try to love both God and the world, thinking that I can enjoy the pleasures of both, although God's promises truly outweigh the world's. I became a true believer at this time when I truly died to my worldly desires and offered up my whole life, not just part of it, to Christ.

By his grace, God planted this conviction in me after 19 years of being a superficial churchgoer. The Spirit has allowed me to see the weight of my sin and how it isn't possible to love both my sin and God. As a sinner, through the resurrection of Christ on the cross and the atonement for sin, I am truly able to come before God as his child.

Ultimately, as a true believer, I now live not to fulfill my own desires, but I live to glorify God in all that I do, for his promises are eternal and much greater than anything that this world could possibly offer. Thank you. All right, Diane, thank you for your testimony.

I was wondering if that "Lee" was Korean or Chinese, and you confirmed it when you did this. That has to be Korean. Okay, if you could turn your Bibles with me to Matthew 16, 13-16. We're continuing our series to prepare us for the Passion Week that's coming, and so I wanted to go through chronologically.

We started in the book of Isaiah, the prophecies, and the expectations of the Messiah, and then now the birth of Christ and the announcement, and then now Jesus is headed toward the cross, and he is transitioning from his public ministry to private ministry to his disciples. And so the things that he says here is to get his disciples ready for what's coming.

And so we're going to be going through the Gospel of Mark 8, 9, and 10, and in those passages, certain things that he says to prepare them, but chapter 16, 13-16, is a parallel passage that I want to read, and then we'll be jumping into Mark after that. So Matthew 16, 13-16, and then I'll read verse 21.

"Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he was asking his disciples, 'Who do people say that the Son of Man is?' And they said, 'Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, but still others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.' He said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?' Simon Peter answered, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'" And then verse 21, "From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day." Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we pray for your grace to help us to understand this text. And as we prepare ourselves, Lord God, to celebrate, to remember, to walk with Christ in his last day of life, physical life, help us, Lord God, to know you, to love you, to be united in every way, physically, emotionally, spiritually, that we may understand his heart, that we may understand his suffering, that we may also celebrate in his glory.

So we pray for your guidance and your Holy Spirit to teach us this morning. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. This question that Jesus asks his disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" Based upon how you answer this question, your whole trajectory of life will change. Now I know that we're--I'm talking to the choir here because we're inside the church.

You're at a Bible-teaching church where we're doing Bible studies, digging through Scripture. So, you know, we would automatically think that this is not necessary. I would assume that you have an Orthodox view of who Jesus is. In our culture, we have all kinds of opinions. Muslims, if you've ever talked to a Muslim, they'll say that they also believe in Jesus, but the Jesus that they profess is just a prophet.

He just happens to be the latest prophet. So if you ask them this, "No, we believe in Jesus too." But obviously the Jesus that they proclaim is not the Jesus of the Bible. Hindus will also say that they believe in Jesus, but the Jesus that they believe is just one of many idols.

So as they worship all kinds of different idols, they will just add Jesus to the many hundreds, thousands of idols that they follow. And so oftentimes you ask somebody to try to share the faith with them, and say, "No, we don't reject Jesus. We believe in Jesus." But clearly their Jesus is not the Jesus that we believe in Scripture.

Jehovah's Witnesses will also say that they believe in Jesus, but their Jesus is a created being, a son of God, but not God himself. So though they may use the name Jesus, and the gospel superficially may sound the same, we know that the Jesus that they profess is not the same Jesus.

Mormons will also say that they are believers of Jesus, but their Jesus is only the highest created being that we are to follow, and eventually that we will, if we work hard enough, that we will also be like Jesus and have our own places to rule. And so the Jesus that they profess clearly is not the Jesus of the Bible.

But we're not confused about this Jesus here. The majority of us, maybe there's a few of you maybe confused, but the majority of us here are here because we know the difference between the gods that they profess, even if they use the same name, is not the same Jesus that we profess.

Our struggle is not with that, because we can see that clearly. If you know even a superficial understanding of Scripture, you know that the Jesus that they teach is not the same Jesus that we worship. The struggle for us is even within the evangelical, even within what we would profess to be, profess to be orthodox in teaching, people have different opinions of Jesus.

Is Jesus an angry God who is always ready to pounce? He's a holy, holy, holy God who will not tolerate any sin, and whatever you do, like Jesus is going to pounce. And every bad thing that happens in your life is because God is punishing you for something that you've done wrong, because God is a holy, holy, holy God.

Or is Jesus an all-loving God, that because He died for us, that even though He doesn't want us to sin, that even if you live a life of rebellion, even after, that God forgives us, and He loves us unconditionally, and that no matter what we do, God is not going to change our eternal destiny.

And so, is that the Jesus that's professed in the Scripture? He doesn't care about our holiness, because it's just about His holiness. Some today, especially in the last maybe year or two, there's been a big divide in the churches. Is Jesus the Jesus of the social justice? Like, primary call of Jesus, is He telling the church now that our primary task needs to be to feed the poor, the people who are oppressed, to deliver them, and so the churches have divided over this issue.

Is that the Jesus of the Bible? And so this question of, "Who do you say Jesus is?" is crucial, not only in our proper theology, but knowing who Jesus is. Our understanding of the biblical Jesus has direct effect on how we run the church, what we teach, how we live our lives.

The reason why all this is relevant is because the whole purpose of Jesus' ministry with His disciples is to get to this point where Jesus would ask, "Who do you say that I am?" So I'm going to try to give you a brief timeline and the chronology of what is happening.

When Jesus asks this question, it happens right after Jesus feeds the 5,000. And so the feeding of the 5,000 that is recorded in all the Gospels, but in particular in John 6, Jesus feeds the 5,000, and every single person that was there, so 5,000 is the number of men that were there.

If you count the women and children, easily it could be over 20,000. So this is the largest crowd that He's had, and every single person there saw the miracle that Jesus performed. And so as a result of that, many of them said they wanted to forcefully make Him king.

He must be the Messiah. But at the end of that chapter, Jesus says, "The only reason why I fed you is because you would know who I am." And His popularity grew so vast that He just could not rest. So He would break away and go to the other side of the lake, and they would find out He's not there, and they'd pack up their bags, and they would not leave Him alone.

And when they finally find Jesus on the other side, Jesus says to them, "You do not come to Me because you know who I am. You come to Me because you ate bread and you want more." In other words, you don't know who I am. So Jesus says, "I am the bread of life.

If you do not eat of My flesh and drink of My blood, you cannot have any relationship with Me." And as a result of that, it says in John 6, 66--666. From that point on, He said, "Many of the disciples stopped following Him." And so typically when we think of Jesus' rejection, we think of Jerusalem.

He's riding on the donkey. He's headed toward the cross, and say, "Crucify Him, crucify Him." But the public rejection of Jesus actually happened right after the feeding of the 5,000. So as soon as that happened, Jesus begins to pay-- turn His attention toward His disciples. So He takes Him up to the upper part of Galilee in Capernaum, and He begins to prepare His disciples.

And after Peter makes this confession, He begins to slowly-- if you look at the timeline and the geography, Jesus begins to slowly move down Galilee to Samaria, and then eventually to Bethany, and then to Jerusalem, and then to the cross. So when He's asking this question, He already has His mind set to begin to move.

And that's why after the confession in verse 21, it says, "From that time, Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem." So in other words, that time meaning when the disciples finally truly understood who He was. "I am the Messiah, the Son of the living God." And He said, "This is not something that you found out by yourself.

God had opened your eyes to know who I am." So think about it from the disciples' point of view. "I knew it!" You know, "We suspected!" But Jesus was always kind of like, you know, slippery with who He was. Even though He did say it, but He says, "You're right.

This is from God. I am the Messiah." Messiah meaning the one--I am the one who will come to deliver you. In fact, I'm beyond that. Not only am I your king, I'm the Son of the God. And so He says, "After that, now that you know, now that it's confirmed, we're ready to do some work." But right after that, He says, "Because of that," He says, "I'm going to go to Jerusalem, and the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, they're going to kill me." That doesn't make any sense.

If you're the king, you know, the disciples were probably thinking, "Well, if you're the king, and you're the Messiah, and you're the Son of God, let's go! Let's go to Jerusalem and build this kingdom that we've been waiting for. We've been waiting. All the prophets have been talking about how when the Messiah comes, He's going to overturn the world, and He's going to bring peace, and everything that they've been dreaming of is going to happen when the Messiah comes." So the disciples were probably thinking, "Yes!" And we knew it.

But He said, from that time on, He said, "No, I'm going to go. I am the king. You're right. I am the Son of God. You're right. But I'm going to suffer, and I'm going to die." Clearly, it didn't make much sense to them. And you know how sometimes you have this paradigm, and you think one way, and somebody says something that doesn't fit, and it just doesn't register, right?

Now, I debated whether I should tell this story or not, but I'm going to give you a shortened version of this. This is probably inappropriate, but I'm going to tell you anyway. I grew up with three brothers. So I was not around females much, because we moved almost every single year.

So we had family friends who were females, but all three of us, we were just like this three of us. And so the reason why I tell you that is because I knew nothing about females, only through my mom. And so there was a lot of personal hygiene stuff that females had.

Okay, and I'm not going to go into details. I did not understand until I got married. And people usually ask me, like, "Didn't you take health class in junior high school?" Clearly, I was not a good student. And they showed charts and all this stuff. It just didn't register.

And then after I got married, Esther told me what every female-- I'm 24, and I knew nothing of this. And when she told me, I was like, "What? This happens every month?" I'm not kidding. But the thing is, I've been around it, and I didn't understand this. I was a youth pastor as early as I was 19 or 20, and I remember--and there's so many stories I could tell you.

But I remember one particular--we were going up to the retreat, and we just stopped by the bathroom, and I'm driving this van, and one of the female teachers taps me on the shoulder and says, "Hey, Peter, we need to pull over." And I said, "Why?" Like 10 minutes ago, we went to the bathroom, and he said, "We need to pick up some female stuff." And I'm thinking, "Why do you need makeup in the middle of nowhere?" Literally, that's what I was thinking.

We just went to the bathroom. Clearly, they can't go to the bathroom. She couldn't believe that I didn't understand. She said, "No, we really need to pull over." So because they demanded, I pulled over, and they went in, and whatever it was, it was in a brown paper bag, and they came back.

And the whole time, I was like, "Oh, my gosh, I can't believe that I had to pull over to get makeup." And that was kind of in my head. I told you it was inappropriate. I used to be a janitor when I was 19, 20 years old at Hughes Aircraft in Fullerton, and I cleaned bathrooms for eight hours a day from 5 to 2 in the morning.

And so whenever I would go to the ladies' bathroom, they had an extra basket in there that I did not understand because there's a--okay, there's a-- I'll just finish it here, okay? They have a separate trash can, and then they have a separate bag inside the stall. So it was my job to empty all of that and put new bags in.

But the whole time, I was thinking, "Why do they need this tiny little trash can in here?" They got the big trash can outside, right? Anyway, so many things have happened. When Esther told me what that is, I'm like, "What?" And I can't--for days, I'd be driving, and it's like, "Oh." That's why they wanted me to pull over.

And I was like, "Oh, that's what the bags were for," you know? And one time, I dropped it by mistake, and all the content fell out, and I did not understand. It's like, "Oh, that's what that was." And all that time, my mom would have, like, makeup removers, but why does she need a whole bag of makeup removers?

You know what I mean? I said, "Oh, they're not makeup removers." So all this stuff that I didn't understand for 24 years, it's just like the puzzle started coming together. It was such a big part of, you know, every female's life, and I just didn't understand. I heard it, you know?

I heard it. I was around it. I've seen it. But because I didn't have a framework to accept this or understand this, I just had my own idea of what they were, and some of the stuff was very frustrating, you know? It wasn't until that came into view, it was like, "Oh, all these pieces, like the puzzles, just finally came together." This is such a bad illustration, but-- But I couldn't think of anything that illustrates this, you know, so well because the disciples-- This is so bad.

I mean, the disciples, like, hearing so clearly-- All right, let's move on, all right? In Mark 8, 31-37, Jesus said, "He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days, rise again." And then verse 32, it says, "He was stating the matter plainly." So Mark goes out of his way to tell us that they shouldn't have missed this because Jesus made this very plain, and the word for plain could either be translated boldly or openly.

He was not making it vague anymore. But the disciples would hear this, and Peter's response is, "He took him aside and began to rebuke him." Remember, Peter is the one who just said-- This is years later-- Who just said, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." And then right after that, he takes Jesus aside and he rebukes him.

And the audacity of that, right? I don't believe that Peter was doing this for sinful reasons, not in his heart. I think he genuinely loved Jesus, and you could clearly see that. If you read the Gospels, Peter, I mean, loved Jesus. He was so loyal to him. In fact, Peter says in Matthew 26, 33, "Even though all may fall away because of you, I will never fall away." And I don't think that when Peter said that, he was joking.

In fact, remember at the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter was the one who took the life out. And if you read the context, historical context of that, the guards who came probably outnumbered them possibly 100 to 1. And these are trained soldiers of the temple who came to get him.

And Peter took out a sword and said, "Let's go. I'm willing to die." I mean, this is the guy who would walk out into the lake. You know what I mean? Most people would not have done that. What if I drowned? He said he loved Jesus. I mean, he just--he's a man of action.

So when he said, "I will never--even if they all do, I won't," I think he meant it in his heart. But here's the key to what Jesus says, what went wrong, not only with Peter, but with all the other disciples. Verse 33, he said, "But turning around and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, 'Get behind me, Satan.'" Remember, this is the same guy where Jesus said, "Upon this rock I will build my church, and gates of Hades will not prevail against it." You know, you can imagine the pride in his heart, even though he was referring to the confession itself.

Peter was the one who made this confession. And to that same guy, when he says he's going to build his church because of his confession, he says, "Get behind me, Satan." Can you imagine Peter hearing that? It's like, "I'm Satan now?" Right? You're going to build this church upon Satan?

What does this mean? But this is what he says, "For you are not setting your mind on God's interest, but man's." Peter was not rejecting Christ. Peter was not running to idols. But his pride and his loyalty was mixed. When Jesus says, "The reason why you missed me, the reason why you don't understand what's going on is because you have the interest of man and not God's." The danger of misplaced love and loyalty oftentimes is our greatest fault.

Our problem is not oftentimes with the obvious false gospels. We see it coming. If you know the Bible, even just elementary, if somebody says, "Jesus was not resurrected from the dead." No, I don't believe that. "Jesus was a created being." No, that's heresy. That you have to earn your salvation.

That's not what the Bible teaches. We can recognize that, and that doesn't easily penetrate into the church. But what we struggle with is tweaked priorities. That in our loyalty, oftentimes to our families, to a decent way of life, providing oftentimes takes us away from what is best. Good versus what's best.

That's usually our struggle. Not between heresy and orthodoxy. Not between loving Christ and hating Christ. But loving Christ, but loving the things that are good more. See, good is a long life loved by community around us. That's good. Our children, taking care of them, paying for bills, it's good.

Plenty of time to enjoy the hard work that we've done and have plenty of time and money to be able to travel and enjoy nice things. Those are good things. None of these things are heretical things. Buy some nice things and live peacefully with our neighbors. Be generous to the people around us when they are in need.

Be gracious to everyone. To love and to be loved by all the people around us. Every single one of these things are good. But the problem is that oftentimes what is good competes with what's best. What's best is whatever God desires. To follow and trust even if that path leads to greater suffering.

Maybe even forfeit sometimes what is good so that we can have what is best. Best is whatever leads to salvation. Best is whatever leads to sanctification. Best is whatever leads to glorification. Best is whatever leads to the maximum glory of God. Even at times when it seems to forfeit what is good.

See, Peter and the disciples had their minds set on what is good. The kingdom is going to come. Let me sit on your left and to the right. And they were so fixated on that when Jesus says I'm going to the cross. It just didn't register. Because it didn't make sense.

And so even as Jesus is telling them I'm going to die, I'm going to suffer, they're going to pierce me. They're thinking of something completely off the wall. He says in verse 34, "And he summoned the crowd and his disciples and said to them, 'If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?'" We typically think of denying ourselves and picking up the cross means God presents all these good things in front of us and then he says you can't have it.

But in reality what he's doing is the very instinct that we have for self-preservation, and self-preservation includes our family and children and our loved ones, our natural instinct for survival is killing us. And so what he's saying is he's not presenting what is good and then say you can't have it.

I want to live the rest of your life to suffer, to deny yourself, to win over temptation. And then when you get to heaven, hopefully in glorification, if you've taken enough shots to yourself, if you lived hard enough and sacrificed enough and suffered enough, hopefully you'll make it to heaven and glorify and then all your rewards are up in heaven.

That's not what he is saying. He's saying when he says to deny yourself, to deny the very thing that caused Adam and Eve to live in rebellion, when they rebelled, they didn't rebel saying I want to worship idols and I don't love Jesus or I don't love God. They just wanted what God had for themselves.

What's so bad about that? What's so bad about wanting wisdom? But it is in their search for survival. They began to search for life outside of God. And it is in this tweak. And that's why Jesus says if you don't recognize that true life is on the other side of the cross, that you need to deny yourself, that you need to put away your old life.

The problem in the struggle that you and I have is the temptation to add Jesus. To have what the world has and I want to have peace of mind too to go to heaven. I want to have all the comfort and all the peace and all the safety and all the proper education for our children to travel everywhere everybody else goes and then to add Jesus to that so that I could be even better on top of everything that I have, that I would also have the peace of mind that when I die I'll be in heaven.

Not realizing the very thing that you think is bringing life is actually is what's causing damage. It's this desire to live outside, pursuing life, thinking that there's life there. What Jesus is saying, no, that's not where life is. Actually, that's leading you to greater death. And we hear it all the time.

We hear it in Ecclesiastes. We hear it from people who have gone before us. We hear people who are multi-billionaires and have all the accolades of the world and then they jump off a building because something went wrong. And then we just couldn't fathom why would they do such a thing?

They had everything that we desire and yet they jumped off. What was wrong with them? Maybe something went wrong in their childhood because it doesn't fit our paradigm. Because we live all our lives trying to get what they have. It is into that that Jesus is speaking to is our very instinct to live.

Is what's choking our life. Jim Elliot, you guys know him, the young missionary who gave his life. And he wrote this in his early 20s. "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to attain what he cannot lose." This is a 22, 23 year old man.

He understood that true life is in Christ. And he lived that way and he died that way. And there's a reason why this young man who died decades ago, we still speak about him because it's consistent with what we see in Scripture. Right after this encounter, Jesus takes James, John, and Peter to the Mount of Transfiguration.

He made that confession but now he wanted to make sure they hear from God himself. God's been speaking to you from a distance but now you're going to hear his audible voice to tell you, to confirm. Before he goes to the cross, so that they have these witnesses that can say after the resurrection, "I heard him audibly." So the whole thing that Jesus was trying to do, more than, you know, when you go out, make disciples, this is what you need to do, you know, make sure when you go to this person.

And yes, he did teach them that. But the very thing that he was trying to teach the disciples is that they may be able to have the right confession of Jesus. The right confession, right view of who Jesus is. After that, Mark chapter 9, 30-37, as he is making his way to Jerusalem, "From there they went out and began to go through Galilee.

And he did not want anyone to know about it, for he was teaching his disciples and telling them, 'The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and when he has been killed, he will rise three days later.'" So he's giving more specific revelation as he goes, but in verse 32, "But they did not understand the statement, and they were afraid to ask him." You ever get behind in something so bad that you can't even ask questions?

You know what I mean? My parents moved around so much, you know, every single year we were in a different school, so whenever they would do something and I didn't understand, I just thought, "Oh, maybe they were taught before and I didn't hear it." So I was embarrassed to even ask questions.

You know, it's like, if I asked them a question, what if people laughed because it was such a basic question? You ever experienced that? Right? Some of you guys are too smart, huh? You were the one that embarrassed other people. I think the disciples are so behind, you know, and they just, because they didn't understand.

Like, you're the Messiah, you said, you're the Son of the Living God, and you're going to what? They're going to beat you and kill you? I don't get that. I must admit something. Maybe Jesus said something early in the morning and I wasn't there. You know, maybe I slept in.

Maybe he taught it and I didn't get it. So they were so behind that they were afraid to ask him. Verse 33, "They came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house, he began to question them, 'What were you discussing on the way?' But they kept silent, for on the way they discussed with one another which of them was the greatest." So clearly they heard him.

They heard him because Jesus, it says, Mark says, he said it very plainly. They heard it, but they didn't understand it, so they kept on going. He said, with their own framework, that when we go to Jerusalem, this is going to happen. And so they, look at even the question.

They didn't ask who's great. The question was who's the greatest. Now, every single one of them were great because they're hand-picked disciples of Jesus Christ. But the competition wasn't with the other people. The competition wasn't with the Pharisees. It was among themselves. See, if we were to compete with people who are far from us, every single one of us would wake up every single day thinking, "Thank God I'm in the United States." Because we have more money than 99% of the world.

We have more freedom than 99% of the world. I remember years ago when, some of you guys may remember the hanging Chad. Remember the Republicans, Democrats, and the vote was so close, and the presidency was in line, and that thing that they poked through because it was done physically a while back.

And then they had Chad that was hanging and say, "Did they actually mean to vote for, you know, vote for Gore or for, who's the other guy? Bush, right?" And so they were fighting back and forth. They went all the way to the Supreme Court. And these guys who basically, superpowers, who had access to the military, went all the way up to the Supreme Court, and the Democrats lost.

And they was like, "This is not fair." And then they went back to work. And I remember watching that whole thing, like, if there's any time that a civil war would break out, it would be then. But it didn't break out. They lost, and they just went back to work.

They're complaining and griping, but they went back to work. And I was thinking, "Man, if this happened in any other country, it would have been civil war." They would have borne arms and went out to the street and physically tried to take, because this is unfair. And I remember thinking, like, "This is a great country." Even with that much division, the country was able to continue.

If we woke up and compared ourselves to other countries, to people who are far away, we wouldn't think like that. But we don't compare with people who are far away. Our natural instinct is to compete with the people in the room, people who are around us. And that's exactly what the disciples were doing.

They weren't comparing themselves with the poor people or the lepers or the blind or the tax collectors. They compared themselves with themselves. The discussion was, "Who's the greatest? Who's the greatest in God's kingdom?" Verse 35, it says, "Sitting down, he called the twelve and said to them, 'If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last, of all and servant of all.'" You notice here at the beginning of verse 35, it emphasizes that he sat down.

I mean, it seems insignificant, right? In the context of this important prophecy of what's happening to Jesus, he said, "Oh, he sat down." There's a cultural significance to that because today, if we want to emphasize that somebody was really animated or would say something, he said, "He got off his chair and he began to speak." That's how we would express, like, this was important enough that he jumped out of his seat to talk to people.

Well, in that culture, for the rabbi to sit down means, "Okay, now, this is important." Because the habit was he would teach and he would tell them, and typically he would stand in front of the crowd and he would make his statements, but he says, "He sat down," meant, "You need to hear this.

This is formal." Like, this needs to sink in. He sat down and says, "Your desire to want to be first is what's making you last. And if you want to be first in God's kingdom, you have to be the servant of all." And then in verse 36, it says, "Taking a child, he set him before them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 'Whoever receives one child like this in my name receives me, and whoever receives me does not receive me, but him who sent me.'" I've heard people say that he chose a child because they're innocent.

They're kind of dumb, right? Dumb meaning that they're not going to challenge you. So our faith needs to be like a child who, if God says to jump, say, "How high?" That's not why he uses the child. He's using this child because they have no authority. They have no power.

You know, you can take a child from a rich family and take a child from a very poor family and put them on a playground. They play together and they become best friends. It's the parents that will separate them. So when he chooses a child, he said, "You guys are all competing to see who's better and who's the greatest." And then he takes a child who has no power, no money, no authority, no honor, and he says, "You must receive one another like this child.

You want to receive me, you have to receive me like this child." In other words, your whole paradigm, your whole paradigm, your pursuit has been tainted by sin. You're desiring for honor, desiring for some people to recognize you. Everything that we do from the moment that we're born, we ask this question, "Who's the greatest?" You have a child, young parents who talk to each other.

It's like, "Oh, they're walking? How old are they?" "Ten." "Oh, my child's not walking yet. Something must be wrong." "Oh, he's two and he's talking? He's actually putting sentences together?" "My kid barely puts one word." "You're three? He's reading a book at three? He's doing what? At the age of five, he's running?" "He plays sports like, 'Oh, my kid is really good at athletic.'" "What?

Really?" All throughout life, we compare and compete. Then you go to school. "What school are you getting into?" "What's your GPA?" "What college did you go to?" "What job do you have?" "How much do you get paid?" "Where do you work?" "What kind of car do you drive?" "Where do you live?" Then you get married, and you start that cycle with your own kids.

"Oh, where are you retiring? You put enough money away?" All these things are very superficial, but it's indicative of what's happening in our hearts. As soon as you walk into a room, we measure each other. Who's good-looking? Who's dressed nice? Who's taller? Who's shorter? Who's built? Who's out of shape?

We measure ourselves internally and externally. If we don't live up to whatever the standard is, we have self-esteem issues. And if we think we're slightly better than other people, we start to fill up with pride. And this instinct, this natural instinct that we have to want to live, has been completely saturated by our fault.

It's not just one thing. It's our whole pursuit in life. It leads us away from the author of life. That's why He says you have to go through with the cross, unless your old life dies. Unless you recognize, not just, "I sinned here because I lied, and I did this." Our whole pursuit, our whole paradigm of what we think is good, causes us to rebel against God.

Not shaking our fists, but just day-to-day decisions that we make. Day-to-day things like, "What frustrates you?" "Because God didn't give me what I think is going to bring me life." People suffer with bitterness and anger, because they have a paradigm in their head that, "This is what life looks like, and God didn't give it to me." Not realizing it's that very thing that's killing you.

In Mark chapter 10, 32-45, it says, "They were on the road going to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were fearful. And again He took the twelve aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to Him, saying, 'Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem.

The Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn Him to death and will hand Him over to the Gentiles. They will mock Him and spit on Him and scourge Him and kill Him. And three days later He will rise again.'" Every time He mentioned His suffering, He told them that He's going to rise again.

But we know clearly that they didn't understand, nor did they heard Him, because remember, after Jesus was resurrected, they didn't even go to check. You would think that after Jesus went to the cross, they're like, "Oh, I remember Him saying that." They didn't even go to check. The women go to check on Him.

In fact, when they came back and said, "Jesus is not there. He's resurrected." Remember their response? "I can't believe you until I see it." Mark says He said that very plainly, but it just wasn't in their paradigm. Why would the Messiah suffer? Why would He die? Why would He have to be resurrected?

So even though they heard it, it just didn't go off. But look at the response of James and John. "The two sons of David came to Jesus saying, 'Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask you.'" In Matthew's account, it says, "Their mother came." In other words, this was well planned.

This was not just an impromptu kind of like, "Hey, hey, hey, I get it. You're going to the cross, whatever. But can we sit on your left and to the right?" So in Matthew's account, the mother actually planned and went to Him and sought a time to talk to Him.

And said, "Hey, now we're convinced you're the Messiah and you're not denying it anymore. Would you let my son sit on the left and to the right?" Verse 36, "He said to them, 'What do you want me to do for you?' They said to Him, 'Grant that we may sit one to your right and one on your left in your glory.'" Can you imagine?

These are His closest companions. And James and John is, they already saw the transfiguration, right? And so, humanly speaking, Jesus was leaning on these guys. If anybody should have understood, it would have been them. Jesus just told them that, "I'm going to suffer. They're going to mock me. They're going to strike me.

They're going to kill me." And the very next statement is, "Can I touch some of your glory?" That's what they were asking. Some of you guys who are married, it's kind of like, you come home and the dishes are all broken, and your wife is sitting there and she's crying her eyes out, and the guy comes in and says, "What's for dinner?" Can you imagine the fury that you would be in?

You're so selfish, like clearly something happened and your wife is hurt and suffering, and all you're thinking is, "What's for dinner?" Can you imagine, emotionally, as a human being, what Jesus was thinking when they asked this question? I mean, I could easily imagine Jesus saying, "That's enough." And you see, Jesus at the Garden of Gethsemane, He was going to experience the suffering that no human being has ever experienced.

Physically, yes, other people have been crucified, but He was going to bear on Himself the sins of mankind. And He was on His knees, pleading with His Father. That scene in and of itself is such a strange scene. The God of the universe who created us is so vulnerable at the Garden of Gethsemane, and He wanted His disciples just to stay awake.

That at least pray with me, to unload some of that burden, humanly speaking. And every time they come back, they're sleeping. Can you imagine the frustration in Jesus? They would even possibly ask this question. But I mean, He is so patient. He says, "But Jesus said to them, 'You do not know what you are asking.

Are you able to drink the cup that I drink to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?'" And look at the way they answered, 39. "They said to Him, 'We are able.'" It's probably the most arrogant statement that any human being has ever made. "We are able." Clearly, they didn't understand.

"Jesus said to them, 'The cup that I drink to you, you shall drink, and you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized. But to sit on my right or on my left, this is not mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.'" Now, Jesus is not saying that James and John is going to absorb their sins on the cross.

But what He is saying is the suffering that He experienced because of the cross, the disciples will also experience. They're going to experience the suffering because of the cross as they share the gospel, as they begin to understand. And so some of them were crucified, beheaded, burned at the stake, dropped in oil, and they experienced the suffering because of the cross.

"But to sit on my left or on my right, that's my Father." So they did suffer this. In verse 41, "Hearing this, the ten began to feel indignant with James and John." Now, why were they indignant? Because they were thinking the same thing. They were part of this argument.

Who's the greatest? They weren't indignant because they didn't hear Jesus. They weren't indignant because they were concerned about what Jesus was thinking. They were indignant because they wanted to bypass them. How many times do other people's pride bother us because it affects God or because we feel disrespected? So the disciples weren't indignant because they somehow dishonored God or how dare you ask that question right after what Jesus said.

It's because they wanted to bypass them and be greater than them. So even in their indignation, it was competing with one another. How much of the suffering that you and I experience is because we live with this paradigm, who is the greatest? Now, we're sophisticated enough that we don't say these words.

But how often do you learn something and the very next thought is, "You don't know." How often do you experience something and the very next thought is, "You didn't experience what I experienced." How often do you bear fruit and then the very next thought is, "You didn't bear the fruit that I bore." How much of our paradigm, even in our passionate pursuit of Christ, in the back of our mind is, "Who's the greatest?

Who's the greatest?" Not realizing that that is what's causing us to be blind. It's ruining our marriages. It's ruining our friendships. It's ruining our society. And it's ruining the church. Corinthian church. That was the heart of the problem of the Corinthian church. It wasn't, "I don't want Jesus," or, "I'm going to rebel against God." It was, "Well, who should be sitting on the top spot?

Paul? Apollos? Jesus? Peter? Who? Who should be there?" The reason why they were competing with one another, because whoever that they aligned themselves with, if they are in the top spot, that means we're going to be with them. If we align ourselves with somebody who's better than the others, that we're going to receive some of this glory.

And that was ruining the church. How much of our pursuit of our own glory is blinding us, and is affecting our affection for Christ? Verse 42, "Calling them to himself, Jesus said to them, 'You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them, but it is not this way among you.

But whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be a slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.'" You know, the greatest and the fastest way to be humble is to be humiliated.

I remember I had a youth student. We were doing a study on Jesus' humility, and she said, "I really want to be humble." And she went to this church and asked this mega church pastor to pray for her. And then she said, "How can I pray for you?" And she said, "I want humility." And the pastor stopped and said, "Are you sure you want me to pray for that?" And he was kind of taking it back.

"Yes, of course." And he said, "If I pray for this, God may answer through humiliation. Do you still want this?" And I remember that that stuck with me even to this day because it's so true. The fastest and the easiest path to humility is humiliation. Jesus, the Son of God, deserving of praise from all of creation for eternity, the Messiah, the Son of the living God, was stripped naked for all mankind to see.

His family, friends, mother, companions, disciples, people who honored Him, loved Him, followed Him, they stripped Him naked to hang on that cross. He was humiliated. The only man who deserved all praise, honor, and glory was stripped naked, beaten, mocked for all to see. All for what? All for what?

So that He can save the proud. So He can save me and you. So that you and I can come to this room and worship Him. So our eyes can be open to the true life in Christ. How foolish to worship this God and to live the rest of our lives thinking to ourselves, "Who's the greatest?" How are we any different than the disciples?

I pray that as we study, meditate, and walk with Christ toward the cross, that we would recognize the foolishness of the disciples and come to Christ with empty vessels. So often we come to Christ with our cups filled, with our temptations, with our desires, with our hopes, with our pride, and say, "Fill me, fill me." Like, where?

Where am I going to fill you? You're already filled with yourself. That this Easter season, that each one of us would learn to empty ourselves. Empty. That we would come to the Lord Friday at the communion table humbled before the Lord, recognizing what He did for us through the humiliation that He went through so that you and I could be called the children of God and come empty.

So that when we ask the Lord to fill our cup, that we would be ready to receive. Let's pray. Gracious Father, all glory and honor belongs to You. You are deserving of our praise. You are deserving of our finances. You are deserving of our hope. You are deserving of our youth.

You are deserving, Lord God, of whatever life that remains in us. You are deserving. Help us, Lord God, to take our eyes off of ourselves. Help us, Lord God, to recognize the foolishness of the competition, of competing, and thinking that there is life outside of You in any way.

I pray, Father God, that as we walk with Christ, as He deliberately made a choice to go to the cross and suffer on our behalf, that You would bring renewal, revival in our hearts, that whether we are mature Christians or whether we have just begun our journey, that Christ would be exalted.

Teach us, Lord God, to be anchored to Him. Teach us, Lord God, to fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Would you all stand up with me for the closing praise? ♪ Sing it together, He became sin ♪ ♪ He became sin, who knew no sin ♪ ♪ That we might become His righteousness ♪ ♪ He humbled Himself and carried the cross ♪ ♪ So amazing, a love so amazing ♪ ♪ Jesus, Messiah, name above all names ♪ ♪ Blessed Redeemer, Emmanuel ♪ He's the rescue for sinners.

♪ The rescue for sinners, the ransom from heaven ♪ ♪ Jesus, Messiah, Lord of all ♪ ♪ This body, this body of bread ♪ ♪ This blood, the wine broken and poured out ♪ ♪ All for love, the whole earth trembled ♪ ♪ When the bell was tolled ♪ ♪ A love so amazing, a love so amazing ♪ ♪ Jesus, Messiah, name above all names ♪ ♪ Blessed Redeemer, Emmanuel ♪ ♪ The rescue for sinners, the ransom from heaven ♪ ♪ Jesus, Messiah, Lord of all ♪ Sing it out, all our hope.

♪ All our hope is in You, all our hope is in You ♪ ♪ All the glory to You, God, the light of the world ♪ ♪ All our hope is in You, all our hope is in You ♪ ♪ All the glory to You, God, the light of the world ♪ ♪ Jesus, Messiah, name above all names ♪ ♪ Blessed Redeemer, Emmanuel ♪ ♪ Rescue for sinners, rescue for sinners ♪ ♪ Ransom from heaven ♪ ♪ Jesus, Messiah, Lord of all ♪ ♪ Jesus, Messiah, Lord of all ♪ Let's pray.

Now the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and eternal love that is unwavering of God the Father. Rest, restore, rebuke, encourage, and build up His church for the sake of His name. Amen. ♪ God sent His Son ♪ ♪ They called Him Jesus ♪ ♪ He came to love, heal, and forgive ♪ ♪ He lived and died ♪ ♪ To buy my pardon ♪ ♪ An empty grave is there to put my Savior there ♪ ♪ Because He lives, I can face tomorrow ♪ ♪ Because He lives, all fear is gone ♪ ♪ Because I know He holds the future ♪ ♪ And life is worth the living just because He lives ♪ Amen.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ There is still one King reigning over all ♪ ♪ So I will not fear ♪ ♪ For this truth remains ♪ ♪ That my God is the Ancient of Days ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ None above Him, none before Him, all of time ♪