The Will of God and The Way of the Cross

Mark 8:31–33
31 And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

How will I respond when the will of God is the way of the cross?

This is a challenging question for everyone reading this email. What will I do when God allows suffering, struggle, heartache, and heartbreak to enter my path? How will I respond when life gets hard and obedience actually makes it harder?

Jesus is clear over and over again that following Him means denying self, taking up the cross daily, and following (Mark 8:34–36; Luke 9:23–25). Jesus never made it sound easy, and yet all we want is ease. Sure, Jesus will call us to come to Him when we are weary and heavy laden, but that doesn’t excuse us from a journey of obedience that at times includes the valley of the shadow of death.

Today, I want to urge you to simply pray this:

God, help me to be faithful even when life is hard. Help me to trust you even when it is not the path I would choose.
Help me to obey even when obstacles exist.

You can be assured of this: There will be times in your life when the will of God will look like the way of the cross. Hold fast. The God who leads you to the cross is the same God who brings resurrection on the other side.

The Jesus I Want

In the Galleria Mall, there is a Build-A-Bear store. In this store, you get to fully customize whatever type of stuffed animal you would like. You get to pick the color, the name, and even what it says. You get to individualize this stuffed animal however you like.

Customizing a stuffed animal is fun.
Customizing a Savior is dangerous.

If we are not careful, we create in our minds the Jesus we want to follow—a Jesus that looks like us, lives like us, and chooses who to love like us. We create a picture of Jesus that conforms to our desired way of life. This is dangerous!

I asked on Sunday, “Is the Jesus you follow shaped more by Scripture or by your preference?”

What does that mean? Are you like Peter who says to Jesus, “You will be safe under my watch! I will protect you!”?

Or maybe you have created a Jesus that affirms every choice you make. You can justify failing to love others because of the way they treated you. You manipulate Scripture or ignore it altogether to sleep well at night with your choices.

It is a dangerous proposition when we prefer the Jesus of our creation over the Jesus of the sacred text—when we trust in a God we have manufactured rather than the God who made the world. Why is this dangerous? Our invented Jesus cannot save. Only the real Jesus can!

The real Jesus is not the one we design.
He is the one revealed in Scripture — the crucified and risen Son of God.

Where are you prone to veer away from the Jesus of the Bible to believe a Jesus of your own creation?

Right Words, Wrong Expectations

Mark 8:29–31
29 And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” 30 And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him. 31 And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.

I am constantly underwhelmed. Be it a game, a restaurant, or an experience, I tend to have high expectations that are never quite reached. It is not a fun way to live, I must be honest!

Expectations are powerful. They shape how we interpret reality.
When expectations are wrong, even the right things can disappoint us.

This is exactly what happened with Peter in Gospel of Mark 8. Peter correctly identified Jesus as the Messiah but wrongly assumed what that would mean.

Peter was expecting a militaristic uprising that would reestablish Israel’s sovereignty and autonomy in the land. Jesus was here for a spiritual revelation, not a nationalistic one.

We must be careful not to put our desires over God’s decrees.
We can confess the right Jesus with the wrong expectations.

We want Savior — not suffering.
We want authority — not obedience.
We want victory — not surrender.
We want resurrection — not crucifixion.
We want a crown — not a cross.

We want the Jesus of our dreams, not the Jesus of God’s desire.

But the real Jesus cannot be reshaped by our expectations.
He is the crucified Christ, and following Him means embracing the same path of surrender.

The question is not whether Jesus will change to match our expectations.
The question is whether we will surrender ours to follow Him.

Even today, it is possible to say the right words about Jesus while still misunderstanding His purpose.

The Big Question

Everyday around 4:30, the question on everyone’s mind is this: What are we having for dinner? It is the question we all need an answer to but hate to be the answerer of.

Somehow the question sneaks up on us every single day, as if dinner wasn’t coming for the past 24 hours. It’s like we haven’t thought of it all day and now we are pressed with making a decision.

“What are we having for dinner?” often feels like the most important question to answer, especially before everyone in the home gets hangry.

However, you know that is not the most important question to answer. Dinner affects your evening, but how you answer Jesus affects your eternity.

The most important question anyone will ever answer is this: Who is Jesus?

It is the question Jesus asks his followers in Gospel of Mark 8:29:
29 And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?”

Today, I want to focus on the “you.” The answer of what the crowd thought had been answered. The general consensus had been established, but Jesus wanted more. Who do you say that I am? I want to know YOUR answer!

Faith in Jesus must be a personal choice. It doesn’t matter that you grew up in the Bible Belt or in a church-attending family. It doesn’t matter that you have attended camps or Sunday school for years. What matters is “Who do you say that I am?”

Faith is not inherited, nor is it assumed. Faith is a choice that each follower of Jesus must make. Each person must respond with their own choice—not the choice of a parent, culture, or spouse.

Eternity is not decided by what others say about Jesus. It is decided by what you believe about Him.

This morning, I want you to consider: Who do you say Jesus is?
Is he your Savior? Sacrifice? Substitute?
Is he your Lord? Forgiver? Hope?

Or is he a good man that you know a lot about?

Faith

Mark 7:24-30

24 And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon.[g] And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. 25 But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” 28 But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.” 29 And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” 30 And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

Yesterday I promised the answer to our universal problem that we are “defiled” by our sin.

The answer is faith in Jesus.

I could end the devotion there, but in this passage we see a woman with remarkable faith that is more than worth our attention.

So Jesus is trying to keep a low profile, leaving Jewish lands, but even in Gentile territory He is a little too bright to be hidden. So this woman hears about Jesus, and immediately comes to Jesus.

Stop #1. She already has shown more faith than us. How often do we try to handle problems on our own? Whether it’s problems of life or sin problems, we wait until we’ve tried every other option before coming to Jesus. She comes to Jesus at her literal first opportunity (praise God we can always go straight to Jesus thanks to the Holy Spirit living in us).

She then falls at Jesus’ feet.

Stop #2. She again shows greater faith than us by coming to Jesus with complete and utter humility. No reluctance, no self-reliance, no pride, she falls at his feet.

Jesus then offers her a test, essentially asking why she, who is not part of God’s people, with an unclean daughter, should receive help from Him. Her answer reveals she knows she has nothing to bring but faith.

Stop #3. Oh how we need to learn this lesson, that we have nothing to bring before God except for faith and obedience. But instead we are tempted to approach God thinking of all we can do for Him and His Kingdom, missing that He has given us all we are and have anyways.

Finally, because of her faith Jesus heals her daughter. He tells her to be on her way, and immediately she returns home.

Stop #4. She trusts and obeys Jesus immediately. She does not require convincing, multiple commands to go, she doesn’t demand proof, or a trial run of Jesus’ power. Her faith is such that Jesus says He has worked and she acts as though He has.

Let us all learn from this woman’s example of faith, and live our lives trusting Jesus as quickly and as completely as she does.