Are You Ashamed of Jesus?

This is the First Mustang Pulpit Podcast, a podcast of the weekly preaching and teaching at First Mustang.! Thank you for joining us. Open your Bible with me, if you would, to Mark chapter 8.

So much of life is deciding what you truly value. And according to what you truly value, what you're willing to sacrifice to achieve those goals.

If you are a high school athlete, you are right now in the middle of the most important season of the year, the summer.

Because every high school athlete knows that if you're going to have a successful season in the school year, when that rolls around, you have to dedicate yourself in the summer.

You've got to be willing to train, to practice when no one else is watching, to work out, even if no one else is there to push you, to eat right, and to have certain habits that other athletes just aren't willing to live by in the summer.

While your friends are sleeping in and staying up late and eating junk food and getting out of shape, to have to work themselves back into shape when the season rolls around, if you want to be a great athlete, this is the time where you have to separate yourself.

You have to do what not everyone else is willing to do. You have to live by certain standards not everyone is willing to live by, so that by giving up your freedom in the summer and choosing to live by discipline, you enjoy the reward when the season rolls around.

It's about what you value and what you're willing to give up. As adults, there is some truth to that as well. If you want to pay your house off early or if you want to save for retirement, there are some things you have to do different than how most people do it.

And while your friends may be getting in debt and buying things they can't afford and driving cars that are too expensive for what they are able to pull off, for a moment your friends appear to be living the good life and you're having to sacrifice and live beneath your means.

But not only is there great wisdom in doing so, in time you are able to enjoy the rewards of a simple life that avoids the financial and emotional stress that comes from making poor decisions.

It's about what you're willing to sacrifice according to what it is that you truly value. And we could look at a dozen other examples where that same reality is true in our life.

It's also true in the spiritual realm as we have been looking at in Mark chapter 8. For those who may be new with us today as a church, we've been walking through the gospel of Mark and we've been at the end of chapter 8 for a while now because we've been looking at these extremely important words that Jesus spoke to those that were listening in verse 34 when He said, If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.

For whoever would 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 can a man give in return for his soul? And as we consider these words for a number of Sundays, we then jump to Colossians 1 to consider for a few Sundays, who is Jesus and why is He worthy to make such a demand?

I mean, this is an amazing demand that Jesus makes. That if you want to be His, that you have to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him.

That's quite a demand. And so we spent a number of weeks looking at who Jesus is and why He is worthy of such a commitment from us.

We looked at what Jesus calls us to do. We looked at why Jesus is worthy to call us to do that. And now we jump back into Mark chapter 8 to consider our response to this call.

If you look in verse 38, He says, For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.

You know, the spiritual life is a bit of a paradox. I mean, just consider what the Bible says. The first shall be what? Last.

It's a bit of a paradox. It's more blessed to give than what? Receive. That seems backwards. As a child, you love to receive gifts.

Buying gifts for somebody else seems like a punishment. And the older you get, the more you realize the Word of God is true. It's a bit of a paradox.

Those who strive to be first in all things end up being last. And those who are willing to be last in this world and the kingdom are first. True blessing comes not from receiving, but from giving.

And the Bible adds to that, that true freedom is found in being a servant of Christ. It's a paradoxical consideration.

That the greatest freedom you'll ever experience comes when you give up your freedom and you are a servant of Christ. And another paradox we see here in Mark 8 is the one who has the praise of the world will one day be utterly ashamed.

In a world where people are vying for attention and vying for first place and striving to get the praise of the world, Jesus says those who live for the praise of the world will one day be completely ashamed.

Look at verse 38 again. For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in glory.

I want you to consider with me four things from verse 38 that may seem like a paradox.

It may seem a bit backwards with the way that we see the world thinking, but it will help us to understand how to view life properly. Number one, saving now leads to losing then.

Saving now leads to losing then. We see this in what we looked at a few weeks ago, verse 35, whoever would save his life will lose it.

If you try to save your life in the sense of if you try to court the favor of the world, if you try to avoid suffering, if you try to avoid persecution, if for you it's all about just the years you'll spend on this earth, if that's the most important thing to you, if earthly living is more valuable to you than eternity, then you will learn that trying to save now leads to losing then.

So you think about how you're going to live your life and what is it that you're going to value. If you try to save for yourself all the money and all the resources and you try to gain for yourself all the worldly goods you can and you live for earthly treasures, those things don't last.

Proverbs 23 tells us, do not wear yourself out to get rich for your wealth will surely mount wings like eagles and fly away. If that doesn't happen in your lifetime, it most assuredly will happen at your death.

Conversely though, the gospels tell us that you can store treasures in heaven where the thief cannot destroy and moth and rust cannot destroy.

It's a matter of are you living for now or are you living for then? Is your focus on the temporal or is your focus on the eternal?

Now it is possible, although historically it's the exception, it's possible to be devoted to Christ and for your life to be filled with riches and blessing and to be filled with respect and acclaim from the world.

It's the exception, but it is possible. However, those things can never be the aim of your life. It can never be your life's ambition as a Christ follower to say, the most important thing to me is this life because we live for the life to come.

Your greatest desire can never be about this city. It's about Hebrews 13, the city that is to come. Now the Lord may choose to bless you with worldly gifts and with riches.

The world itself may respect and esteem you, though that would be the exception throughout church history. Most who follow Christ are not appreciated, are not loved, are not wealthy.

But regardless of how the Lord's sovereignty may take care of the details and circumstances of your life, the aim of your life and the desire of your heart must never be for worldly things because to try to save it all now is to lose it then.

Jesus makes it clear that those who seek to save their life now, in other words, those who seek to avoid suffering, those who seek to avoid persecution because of Jesus, trying to save their life on this earth, in the end lose it all.

Now remember the context here, verse 38. Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, so will the Son of Man be ashamed of him.

This comes right on the heels of Jesus' invitation in verse 34 that if you would come after Him, you have to deny yourself and take up your cross.

This is His invitation to die to yourself. This is His invitation to be willing to lose it all for the sake of the gospel.

In the first century, when people talked about taking up a cross, it wasn't about a frustration. It wasn't about something that just didn't go their way.

To talk about taking up your cross meant to identify with death and to be willing to lose your life. And for many, maybe for most, they would rather win in this life at the expense of eternity.

But as a friend of mine said about this passage, you can either deny yourself or you can deny Jesus. That's the choice. You can deny yourself or you can deny Jesus.

That's the choice that we make. In John 12, verse 42, it says, Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in Him, but for fear of the Pharisees, they did not confess it so that they would not be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

Consider carefully this morning. Who are you trying to please? And where does your greatest joy truly come from?

If you love the favor of the world in time, in time, you're going to have to deny Jesus.

Because it will be impossible to live a consistent life and be straddling both sides of the fence. When Jesus says, if you want to save your life, you're going to lose it, what He's saying is, if you want to live it up in this world, and if you think this world is what it's all about, then when you come to the end of your life and you step into eternity, you will realize you have lost it all.

And you say, well, who is He to hold me accountable to my choices? Romans 3, 19 says this, Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world be held accountable to God.

There is a day coming when the mouths of all the world, all the chatter, all the argument, all the debate, all the rejection, all the cursing, all the denial, all the arguing, all of it stops.

And all are held accountable. If you try to save your life now, if you try to live for the world now, in the end, you lose.

Second, the flip side of that, losing now, leads to saving then. Losing now leads to saving then.

That's the second part of verse 35. Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it.

There is a kind of losing that leads to winning. For those who are willing to deny themselves, those who are willing to follow Jesus, they may have to give up everything but in the end, what they have is eternal life.

This is why it's such a bad, bad practice to compare your life to somebody else's right in the midst of what you're doing. Because if you take a faithful person who is losing it for the gospel and compare that to someone who has sold out to the world and has all the world's wealth and all the world's acclaim, at a snapshot in time, it looks like the righteous is losing.

But that's so short-sighted because Jesus tells us that for the one who is willing to lose it all for my sake and the sake of the gospel, in the end, you gain it all.

Which is why Philippians says, to live is Christ and to die is what? Gain. Now, that's only true for the believer. If you're not a Christian, you need to understand this.

That when Philippians says, to live is Christ and to die is gain, that's true, but only true for the one who is connected to Christ. To have rejected the gospel and take your last final breath is no gain and is the ultimate loss.

And so you decide, do I save now to lose then or am I willing to lose now and gain it then? Hebrews 11, this remarkable chapter where it recounts some of the faithful throughout the biblical era.

Not perfect people by any means. Highly imperfect people. But people who were men and women of faith. And it describes in verses 32 to 40, those who were faithful, but they lost according to the world.

It describes those who were tortured. It describes even those that were sawn in two. Tradition holds that one of the prophets was put inside a large hollowed out log and then the log sawn in two.

Brutal, graphic, horrendous, painful ways that so many of the faithful died. And Hebrews 11 describes those who were mocked, those who were called fools, those who were martyred unto their death.

And everything about their earthly life looks like they lost. You can read about it in our day today.

People this day in all various parts of the world who on account of their faith and on account of their refusal to deny the Lord Jesus Christ will lose their life.

And as these executioners stand over them, mocking and taunting and threatening them, just seconds before they take the life of the faithful, it seems to the executioner like they're winning, like they're the powerful, they're the strong, they're the sovereign, but one day they will learn they've won nothing and they have lost it all.

and the one who in this life was faithful though they had nothing will gain it all.

People may lose today, but they gain it all in the end. So when Jesus says, if you want to come after me, deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow me, understand your life may by worldly standards look like a loss.

It's not. You're preparing to receive the greatest gain. In an earthly, trivial sense, one of the things that I enjoy is lawn care.

It's one of my kind of stress release. We've got a couple of us on staff that exchange pictures. We mow our yard each weekend and then take a picture of our lawn and send to each other.

I'd like to tell you it's for encouragement. It's not. It's for pure arrogance. And one of these days, Joey will win, but he hasn't yet. But we'll mow our lawn a few of us and we take pictures of it.

And I think the other guys cheat and probably use filters, but either way. So I enjoy it. I love taking care of my lawn. I mow it, spray it, fertilize it, try to make it all look as good as I can.

And last week, I had a neighbor who said that they had just finished with this riding aerator. An aerator is this little machine you ride on that just takes out clumps of the soil and it lifts them up.

It just creates these massive holes all over your lawn. You say it's good for your lawn because oxygen gets into it and the water and fertilizer can penetrate the roots and it's good and it feeds it.

But the problem is right after you do it, your lawn looks terrible. It's heartbreaking. I just got through mowing the day before and I did what every man does after he mows the yard.

You just stand there and stare at what you've done. I mean, it's Genesis 3, work the land. It's pleasing to the Lord. Remove the thorns, the thistles, the weeds and just admire the work.

My neighbor said, if you want to use this aerator, you can use it for free. Really generous offer. Someone out there and for two hours just rode around on this thing and just tore up my yard.

I walked out the next day and I looked at it and it just looked so bad. I wish I could tell you it wasn't that big of a deal but it really hurts. And then it rained and that's the goal to get that water deep into the roots because of the promise of that which looked good.

You wound it and then it heals and it gets stronger and stronger. So I won't exchange a picture this week.

It's not coming but in two or three weeks I will bombard you with them because that's what happens in life. You go to the gym to lift weights and you're actually doing damage, creating micro trauma to your muscles and then your body heals and you get stronger.

And so in the spiritual realm while you're on this life the goal is not to win. The goal is to be faithful.

And if suffering comes, it comes. And if loss comes, it comes. Because sanctification is the goal not wealth. Holiness is the goal.

Not worldly applause. Because as believers we understand that saving now leads to losing then but losing now leads to saving then.

Third, honor now leads to shame then. That's verse 38.

Whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him will the son of man be ashamed when he comes in glory. Honor now leads to shame then.

When I say honor now, I'm not, it may be that in your life, in your job, in your career, you're recognized, you're honored, you win awards. That's fine. What I'm talking about and what Jesus is talking about here is the one who lives their life for the purpose of the honor of the world.

If you're trying to win favor with the world system, with the belief that rejects Christ and hates the gospel, if you're trying to curry favor with those who are opposed to Jesus just so you can swim along stream with the world and not stand out and not be persecuted and not suffer, if you seek that kind of honor now, you may well get it.

But it will lead to shame then. Whoever's ashamed of me and of my words, why would you be ashamed of Jesus?

Why would anybody be ashamed of Jesus? Nice man, loved the children, healed the blind, helped those who couldn't walk, rise and walk, fed the hungry.

Why would anybody be ashamed of Jesus? I mean, in many parts of the world, even those that aren't Christian, they would speak fondly of Jesus.

For even many unbelievers in your workplace, though they may not call themselves Christians, most of them would speak fondly of Jesus. There would be exceptions, but for the most part, people would speak fondly of Him.

So why would there be this talk about being ashamed? What's there to be ashamed of? What's verse 38?

Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words. See, when people say things like, you know, I'm not a Christian, but I respect Jesus, He was a good man.

He was a good teacher. He was a good prophet. And you say, let's talk about Jesus, this good man.

You know, Jesus said that He's the only way to heaven. There is no other way. Well, I don't believe that. Jesus said that for those who believe, they go to heaven, but for those who don't believe, they go to hell.

Well, I don't believe that. Who are you to judge? And all of a sudden, what you find out is people may think fondly of this kind of mythical man-created view of Jesus.

But when you talk about the words of Jesus, it changes very quickly. You see this today in our world so clearly.

Remember, when Jesus says, take up your cross, that means be willing to associate with death. So to be connected to Jesus, may cost you everything, even your life.

And when Jesus refers to the generation as sinful and adulterous, if that was true then, that's true in our world today. So why would people be ashamed of Jesus?

Well, because they're ashamed of the Bible. And you don't even have to go outside the church to see this. You can go in so-called churches, churches that have buildings like ours, but what you'll find even today is no shortage of people who are supposed to be preaching the Word of God who they themselves are ashamed of what the Bible says.

And so they either try to explain it away or they just neglect it altogether because they're ashamed of what the Bible says. people today are ashamed to hold to a worldwide flood.

But Jesus did. Matthew 24, he refers to the days of Noah as the days before the flood. Jesus believed in the flood.

It wasn't metaphorical. It wasn't allegory. Jesus believed in the flood. And if you find yourself too sophisticated or too educated to believe in a flood, then you are ashamed of Jesus.

Preachers today are ashamed to say that they believe that a prophet named Jonah was truly swallowed by a fish. fish. To them it's too metaphorical, too allegorical.

It's embarrassing to say that you believe in that. But in Matthew 12, Jesus spoke of the sign of Noah who was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish.

If you don't believe in Jonah being swallowed by fish, you're ashamed of the words of Jesus because he spoke them as true.

You see it in Genesis. People today, even pastors today, ashamed to speak of Genesis as an authentic reckoning of creation. But in Genesis, or I'm sorry, in Mark chapter 10 verse 6, we'll be at here soon, it says, from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.

to deny that is to be ashamed of Jesus. And so now you understand why Jesus said, if you're ashamed of me and my words, because to be faithful to the gospel, to be faithful to the word, to be faithful to the words of Jesus is in many ways to make yourself a fool in the eyes of this world.

world, do you really believe God spoke the universe into existence? Of course. You really believe God created them male and female?

Of course. You really believe that because of sin, that God created a worldwide flood that changed the world? Of course we believe that.

but for many today, out of a desire to have enough Jesus to get into heaven, but most of the world, so they can be viewed as knowledgeable and respectful by the world, they deny the words of Jesus.

And by doing so, they're ashamed of Him. The title of the message is, Are You Ashamed of Jesus? How would you know? When's the last time you spoke of Him?

When's the last time you called someone to repentance? When's the last time when it cost you something, you were willing to take your stand with Jesus? When's the last time when the Bible was being criticized or Christianity was being mocked, you didn't just stay silent, but you spoke up and said, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, we believe the word of God, we believe Jesus is the only way to heaven.

Now let me be clear, and I want to speak for a moment particularly to our young people, children, middle school, college students, learn.

You need not ever be afraid of science. It's a wonderful thing to learn. We ought to study and learn all that we can. Learn all that you can about the world.

Learn all that you can about the weather. Learn all that you can about what God has created. Don't be afraid of science. Christians ought to be the most curious, interested, energetic learners out of all people.

You just have to understand this, that when an unbeliever who doesn't know the truth, and their eyes are blinded by the truth, when they look at the world, they are grasping for explanations in the dark without the truth of what we know that God created.

So when somebody gives you some explanation that is against the scripture, it doesn't need to shake or rattle your faith, just be reminded, this is spiritually blind person looking for answers without the truth.

But it doesn't mean you should be afraid of science. You ought to embrace it. We need Christians to be in every discipline of life.

We need Christians to learn and to grow and to teach and to study and to do research in all kinds of different fields and branches. Help us to learn and understand about the creation God has made.

Help us understand about the bodies that God has designed. Help us understand more about who God is and the world that He has made and how we can give Him glory for because as Psalm 19 says, the heavens declare the glory of God and the skies proclaim the work of His hands.

God is. Don't be afraid of science. Don't be intimidated by it. Just understand that if people don't know God, they're missing the truth.

So, in the end, when they deny God, what else are they going to do? But for us, we take our stand.

we believe the Bible. We believe Genesis. We believe Jonah. We believe the Gospels.

We believe Revelation. He's coming again. And by the way, so did Jesus. That's why in verse 28 He says, when the Son of Man comes in glory, He believes He's coming again.

Romans 1 16, Paul said, I am not ashamed of the Gospel. Why would anybody be ashamed of the Gospel? The Gospel speaks of how people can be forgiven.

The Bible speaks of how people can go to heaven. Why would anybody be ashamed of the Gospel? Well, if you've ever been in the conversation where people are mocking the Christian faith, you understand the temptation to stay quiet.

And the temptation to stay quiet is because you don't want to be ashamed. You bet it's a story of good news. But it's only a story of good news because of the bad news that also exists, namely, that those who reject the Gospel have no hope.

If you want to just talk about heaven, the world's fine with that. But you better not mention Jesus is the only way to get there. rest of people.

Because the world's ashamed of that. If you want to talk about resting in peace, the world's fine with that. You just better not mention that those who don't know Christ will never know peace.

Because they're ashamed of that. And so too are many who call themselves Christians. Romans 1 speaks to sexual perversion and the judgment that it is upon a society.

If you want to know what this world thinks about the words of Jesus and the Word of God, just go home and spend five minutes on the internet. tell me what our society embraces this month.

Read Romans 1 and you tell me who's ashamed of the words of Jesus. They don't mind you being in church this morning.

It doesn't affect them. and if what we do in here doesn't affect you, then they for sure don't care what you do.

When you go to church on Sunday, go to church. What does the world care? I mean, for most people who go to church on Sunday anyway, they live just like the world the rest of the week.

Why would the world care where you go on Sunday morning? As long as you're ashamed of the words of Jesus, you'll stay quiet. But to that reality, Jesus says in verse 38, whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will I be ashamed.

Are you ashamed? of the words of Jesus? Are you ashamed of the gospel? Are you ashamed to affirm what Jesus affirms?

Are you ashamed to call sin what Jesus calls sin? You know, there's a connection between verse 38 and verse 34.

when he speaks of being ashamed, this is on the heels of saying that you have to be willing to carry your cross.

To carry your cross was not just to die, it was to die a shameful death. As we looked at a few weeks ago when we were in this passage to start it, the Romans perfected crucifixion not only as maximum pain, but also maximum shame.

To be crucified wasn't just to die, it was to die a gruesome death, but not just a gruesome death, an embarrassing death, a horrific death, one filled with mocking and cursing and laughter and taunting, it was maximum pain combined with maximum shame.

And as we looked at, crucifixions on purpose were normally slow, not fast ways to die. That's how you maximize pain, and that's how you maximize shame.

so when Jesus says you've got to be willing to take up your cross, you've got to be willing to identify with Jesus in any shame that would come from it, which is why in verse 38 he says, if you are ashamed of me and my words.

Jeremiah 6.15, were they ashamed when they committed the abomination no, they were not at all ashamed, speaking of those who were sinners, they did not know how to blush.

You can know everything you need to know about a society by what they're ashamed of. And you look at ours and consider what we take pride in and what we are ashamed of, you'll know exactly why Jesus said, if you're ashamed of me and my words.

Honor now leads to shame then. And then finally, just the flip side of that, number four, shame now leads to honor then.

Shame now leads to honor then. Look at chapter 9 verse 1. This is one of the most hotly debated verses in the New Testament.

We'll look at it in detail next week. But Jesus says the crowd standing there, some of you who are standing here, are not going to taste death until the kingdom of God has come in power. How does that going to be?

This is 2,000 years ago. How is it that people in the audience 2,000 years ago are going to somehow not die until the kingdom comes? Does the kingdom come? Did Christ go away and return already?

We missed it? We'll look in great detail next Sunday at what Jesus means when he says those words. But for today, I just want you to understand this.

Those who associate with Christ are not ashamed of his words and those connected to Christ receive honor for all eternity. Chapter 9 verse 1 is a sneak preview of coming attractions.

You'll understand that more next Sunday. But for now, consider the words of Matthew 5. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Just stop right there and listen to what Jesus says. You're blessed when people revile you. You're blessed when people hate you. You're blessed when people persecute you on my account.

Let's be clear. If the world hates you because you're a rude person, that ain't good. That's not holy. There's some people that go around and they treat people terrible.

And when people are rude to them, they say, hey, Jesus said, you're persecuted because you're rude, you're mean. That's not good. If you go to lunch and you're rude to the waiter and somebody calls you on it, don't drive home and think, persecuted for Jesus, persecuted for Jesus.

No. You were mean. The words of Jesus matter. Blessed are you when you're persecuted on my account.

When you speak the words of Jesus and people insults you, now you're blessed. Why would people insult you for the words of Jesus? Because they are, Mark 8, 38, ashamed of his words.

But Matthew 5, 12, rejoice and be glad for your reward is great. There's two words come after that.

You know what they are. In heaven. great is your reward in heaven. Shame now leads to honor then.

Be willing to deal with the shame and the reproach and the insults and the persecution today because great is your reward God. In heaven.

One of the reasons why we preach verse by verse through the Bible, there's so many reasons, but one of them is so that we're not ashamed of his words. And we deal with all of the word of God.

After the transfiguration in Mark 9, if you just glance the headings of chapter 9 and of chapter 10, you're going to see some topics coming up that aren't that much fun.

Are we ashamed? Are we going to preach about hell when Jesus talks about hell? Will we say about marriage what Jesus said about marriage?

a lot of people won't openly deny the words of Jesus, they'll just stay silent on them. Why? Because they're ashamed.

Let it not be said of us. But let's make sure that if we are hated by the world, it's on account of Jesus.

Let the world never hate us because we are dismissed of them or cruel to them or unloving to them. Let's be gracious. Let's be kind.

Let's be long-suffering. Let's be willing to serve. Let's be willing to love the outcast. Let's be willing to welcome people who are hurting. Let's be willing to sacrifice to serve other people.

Let's be ministers of mercy in the hands and feet of Christ. Now, if they hate the words of Jesus, they're going to hate you. There's no way around that. If they're ashamed of the gospel, they're going to mock you.

There's no way around that. But if someone despises you, let it be because of the gospel you preach, not the way that you live.

But don't ever look at somebody's life today and think to yourself, they're winning.

Because if they have honor now, if the world loves them today because of what they say negatively about Christ, rest assured, shame is coming.

those are the very words of Jesus. If you're ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you when I come in glory.

There's a story of a farmer in a small town. The town had a long-standing understanding that people did not work their farms on Sunday.

whether they were believers or not, out of respect for those who were, no one in that rural town would do their farming on the Lord's Day. One day, there was a farmer in that town who had enough of the Christians and enough of the Bible.

He himself being an unbeliever and despising the things of the Lord, he decided to go against the traditions of his community. And he did plowing on Sunday and planting on Sunday and cultivating on Sundays.

He would walk around and openly ask the Lord to feel free to strike him with drought and to strike his crops to not flourish because he was willing to work on the Lord's Day.

And while people were going to church and meeting in churches, he would be as loud and noisy as he possibly could, bringing all the distraction he possibly could to those who were gathering for worship.

You know what happened? The rain fell, the crops grew, and in October, he went and gathered his crop, a very prosperous crop.

love. In a way to mock the believers, he wrote a letter to the paper where he boasted of all of his success, how he had worked on Sunday and threatened the Lord to do something about it, and how he had his greatest yield he had ever had.

He had defied God, and there was no damage. The editor of the paper printed the farmer's letter, and at the end just added one comment.

He said, I'm afraid our friend, the dear farmer, has forgotten one thing. God does not settle all accounts in the month of October. forever. That's true.

Friends, you look at people today and you say it looks like they're getting ahead, they're lying, they're cheating, they're stealing, they're winning, they're mocking Christians, they're insulting Christians, they're martyring Christians, they're winning. God has not yet settled all accounts.

He will. And for those who have had the world now, they will lose then. for those who are willing to experience shame now on the cause of Christ will have eternal gain.

Do not be ashamed of Jesus and His words. Lord, we thank you today for your word and pray that it would bring clarity to us, courage to us, that we would love people and serve others faithfully, that the world would never see in us anything contrary to what is revealed in your word, God, but that we would be willing to suffer if need be and willing to sacrifice whatever is necessary for the sake of the gospel.

We pray that even today, those in this room who may not know you as Savior would understand that living for the love of the world is fleeting, but living for your glory is where true joy is found.

We pray that we would believe that and live that. In Jesus' name, amen. Church family, I love you so dearly, so thankful for you, so grateful for you.

Pray that you've been encouraged as we have sung about Christ and His work, as we've studied about His words. Let's go forth from this place today and serve joyfully. Share the gospel every place and every way that you can.

Love people in a way that honors Christ. And whatever happens to you this day or this week, never be ashamed of Christ and His words.

Identify with Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ.

Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. fathers. Christ. fathers. Christ. Christ. fathers. Christ. Thank you.