We are Not the Same

We are in a series called Facts That Jesus Spoke. I'm sure I could have come up with a way more clever way to say it, but, I didn't, so get over it. No, just if you weren't here, last week we introduced a series facts that Jesus spoke. Is like: okay, we love the, the loveydovey piecy type, What's that thing that they?

The, the little hippie signal symbol.

I don't know. We love that type of Jesus. But Jesus said a lot of stuff that if you actually knew what he was saying, most people in our country would probably be offended by it. And so I'm learning in my own, like walk with God and in my ministry.

As it regards the people in this room, I care about what you think, but I'm I'm, I'm trying to subordinate what you think to what God thinks.

And so when I look at Jesus, he did, he did that like better than anybody in human existence obviously is Jesus, But they didn't fully understand who he was when he was walking through the world And when he would say stuff. Sometimes people were healed, There were miracles happening in Jesus's ministry. And then other times he would say some stuff, and the Pharisees and Sadducees weren't the only ones who were wondering like: "Yo G Jesus, chill out a little bit, Do you really need to say it like? You probably could have said it a more gracious way.

And he, just he goes for it.

So in this series, I'm just using it as an opportunity to go for it. Is that okay? I'm just gonna. Nobody, You're not okay with it?

All right, Well, I'm prep for it.

I'll prep for you to leave this church and never come back, But if you listen to it and what the word says, I think it'll. It'll be life-giving for you. So, okay, we're going to be in Matthew, chapter 10 today. Now, if you don't know the context of Matthew chapter 10, it's in the book of Matthew.

There's a starting point with the context: Matthew is writing to a predominantly Jewish audience in the ancient world.

A lot of scholars like disagree on when Matthew was written. Some bring it into the 50s, some take it into the 60s, some past the 70s. AD is what I mean? And when he was writing, not only was he articulating the words of Jesus as he saw them himself, but he was writing to a group of people.

So, as you, as you well know, the way that I'm going to deliver a message here is different than the way I might deliver a message at my house.

It's the same way with Matthew. He knows what Jesus said, Luke knows what Jesus said, Mark knows what Jesus said. And all of them say what Jesus said differently, for two reasons. One, they experienced it differently than the other people.

Two, they're talking to a different group than the other gospels.

You might wonder: why does it say it this way in Mark or Luke and this way in Matthew? Well, it's because they were writing to real people in the ancient world. All of it is true, but it adds color or flavor to the way that we understand the way Jesus spoke. And Matthew says something that Luke also says, but the way he says it is just so powerful.

My sermon title for today is: we are not the same, And you don't know what that means yet, but you will by the end of this message.

We're going to start in Matthew 10, verse 34. And here's your, here's your fact is a is a statement. Is it behind me? Not yet.

Good, Awesome.

He says in verse 34, I'm in the NIV version. Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace. But to say it with me just first, three rows understood it?

Can the f?

Let's do it all together. He didn't bring peace, but he came to bring a sword, a sword. The prince of peace, Lord of lords, king of kings, He came to bring a sword And- and maybe you've heard this before, Maybe you understand this passage, but I think you don't understand it fully in the context that it was written in. Because for many of us these days, we're we're so excited about this peacefilled Jesus- I said it earlier- the hippie Jesus or the hipster Jesus or the- you know, empathetic Jesus, compassionate Jesus, And he is all of those things.

The Psalms tell us that the Lord is compassionate, slow to anger, rich in love.

He is filled with all of those attributes that you think about when you think of Jesus. He is empathetic, He sympathizes with all of our weaknesses. He came, he lived a life and he was kind to people who most people in the Jewish world at that time were not kind to: prostitutes, sinners. He was kind to them when others weren't.

That is the Jesus that we all know.

But he says here: I came to bring the sword, not peace. And- and it's funny because I feel that sometimes- I don't know if you've ever felt it like you- you become a Christian or you start following Jesus, or maybe you don't know Jesus yet, but you're starting to seek something and you check out the religions and you're like, "Okay, which one of these makes the most sense" And then you finally land on Christianity, because that's the one that actually makes the most sense, the one that's not manufactured by man, And you start pursuing this Christian God by reading the Bible and trying to understand a little bit more. You might find that, yes, the words are encouraging or inspiring, but as you continue to pursue Jesus and understand who he is, you'll find the people around you. They're not necessarily vibing with it.

Today we're going to have baptisms, which is a public profession for many people, the first public profession of their faith, And I can almost promise you, when some of these people told their relatives that they were going to get baptized at a non-denominational Christian church in Buckeye that meets in a gym, some of them were like "What"?

Some of you know what I'm talking about. You recognize, the moment you started following Jesus, that your conviction to follow him was not matched by many of the people around you. And so Jesus is like: "I came to bring the sword. You thought I came to bring peace.

Now, the word there he says to bring peace or to bring a sword is the word bain, which the semantic range, if you don't know, I got.

I got to explain it. A semantic range is a word can mean various things within this semantic range. Right, so, like a road could mean something metaphorical, or it could mean something physical. You know what I'm saying?

That's, that's essentially part of a semantic range.

And so the word by lane can mean something like to throw, to bring or to force. Now, people thought that the Messiah was going to bring peace to the world, That for the people who followed Yahweh, the Jews in Judea, they thought that Jesus was going to kind of push out the Romans and that he was going to bring in this everlasting peace. Now he will. This is where it gets complex.

He will bring this everlasting peace.

But when Jesus came the first time, he says he came to bring the sword, which means he's not kicking out the Romans. He's doing something fundamentally different. And so the word balain: there it can mean to, to force, to. It's also used when it talks about people who cast nets into the sea by land.

He said: "I didn't come to, just peace".

I think we think Jesus is the, the Oprah version: You get peace, You get peace. Look under your chairs, You're going to get peace. I don't. She didn't even sound like that.

I should have gone.

You get peace, You get. I don't know how she sounds. I've never watched the show, But I think that's what we think. And when I stepped into my faith, that's not what I got.

Now there was something that happened deep within my soul that felt like I was.

I was fundamentally a new creation, I was different. But then I walked back into my world. It was anything but peaceful. I remember I trusted in Jesus the first time and, I was in Texana, Arkansas.

I know, you know I'm from Arkansas, Get over yourselves, Okay.

So I was in Texana, Arkansas and I had a friend- his name was Chris- and he preached the Gospel to me. It was a scary Gospel: You're going to go to hell if you don't trust in Jesus. And I was like: you know that feels weird, but I'm going accept Jesus. So I accepted Jesus and I went.

I went back to my house and I started processing through it with some family members and like, did you, though?

Is that really something? Immediately there was resistance to my faith. Like when I stepped out of the baptism tank, I, I got baptized when I was 15 years old, and then I went back, to where I lived at the time, which is about 2 hours from the church I got baptized at And I get there and immediately- and I can say this confidently because you don't know this person- Immediately Satan sent me a girlfriend. It's just was a joke, Kind of Kind of I mean, yeah, And immediately I, I went from the baptism tank right into resistance.

It wasn't the right type of person for me.

I'm just going to say thank you for being you, sweetie, You're so beautiful. Not for Hannah, Like she had never kissed a dude before me. It was amazing, this girl just hey, you know what's real. This is real.

And I stepped out of the tank and I was ready to follow Jesus.

I even felt in my spirit I need to move, probably from where I am, but I didn't cuz it, didn't it? Just it felt like it would have been more difficult. So I went back down there and I got this girlfriend and all of a sudden I'm doing all the same stuff I was doing before I had trusted in Jesus. It was immediate resistance And I realized that what Jesus says here is so true.

The moment you feel convicted, the moment you hear the word of God, the moment the sword of God's word pierces through and it catches your soul and starts moving you, there is resistance in your flesh and from the rest of the world.

Jesus identifies with this. If he said: "As soon as you trust in me, it's going to be great", He didn't say that That's what all the preachers said in the 90s and early 2000s. He didn't say that. He said: "I came to bring the sword.

I'm just trying to take that ethos and operate as a pastor for you all.

Right now. I'm not just trying to like poke you every single time you come in to see if you get frustrated, but I'm trying to help you understand. Hey, there's a little cutting process that happens when you step into your faith And you got to get used to it, because if you don't get used to it, you'll never know Jesus the way he can be known. He says: 'I came to force to throw to, to, to cast the sword out, the information out, to see what happens Some people are going to receive it and some people won't.

Here's how the text continues, Verse 35.

For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies will be the members of his own household. Now I'm going to pause for a second because someone reminded me I was stressed out because I planned these messages a long time ahead, Like I knew that this was going to be the text a while back. And I looked at it this week and I'm like the sword and not peace on baptism Sunday.

In fact, I didn't even realize it until someone reminded me of it.

They were like I, I showed it to them, cuz, cuz. I thought, man, they're going to think this is a crazy weekend. And then they said, said: "Why do you think this is going to be crazy". They and I said: "I don't know, What do you think".

And they said: "Oh yeah, it's baptism Sunday.

That's going to be a tough one. Bunch of people bringing their families. You going to talk about a sword versus peace. That's a it's a good Sunday to do it".

But what was happening in the ancient world is when people would trust in Jesus like their entire family system would shift.

Like you think you, you think you've got it bad, but you can't even fathom what would happen in the ancient world, Like families lived right next to each other in the small villages around Judea and up in Galilee. The people that Matthew and Mark and Luke were writing to were in different parts of the Roman Empire, potentially Greece or Rome itself, And they would have this thing called the, the Greek, or the, the Roman familia. There was the family, and then you had the extended family. And what's happening is when someone trusts in Jesus and gets baptized- because that was the public profession of faith, It was a sign that they were stepping into a new covenant with God.

You can't, you can't step into the tank and get baptized without it being some sort of public thing.

And when they would do that, that would be the moment where you know there would be mental, emotional, eternal peace. But in the present there would be a sword And Jesus says: I came to divide families. The word there, actually it means not, not just to like separate, It means to literally like pierce in two, to cut in half, Literally the word of God. The sword goes into your household.

Some hear it, some don't.

Some receive it and accept it for the rest of their life And some of them are like "I'm not tracking yet. I heard the word but it's not pierced into my soul" And immediately in your household it can be the examples he utilized: a father and a son. Now fathers and sons, we hang out. Where I grew up, We go fishing.

He would teach me how to do some stuff on the car.

He teach me how to be a problem solver. He helped me in so many different ways. But in the ancient world you're talking inheritance, You're talking taking over, as the is a petristic type system, as the paternal person in your entire family, as patriarchal back in the day. Like it or not, you know the patriarchy, not like it or not, that's how it was back in the day.

And so when someone would accept Jesus, be it a father or a son, the division you're talking about isn't we don't go fishing anymore, is there's no longer an inheritance.

We are divided until there's a difference in the state of the person who's not believing. Jesus came to break apart families And you hear that and you're like Jesus wouldn't want to do that And you might not say that, but I see it. It's like it's my family. It's my family, It's my family And I don't get annoyed about it.

I'm just going to articulate to you what the Bible tells us.

When people trust in Jesus, they're used to hanging out with their family on the weekends And now, all of a sudden, it's like God wants me to come to church, God wants me to spend time with a biblical community. Well, you don't want to hang out with us anymore, Sword. And it's not that you don't love your family and it's not that your family doesn't love you. It's simply that that you have to now reorder your entire life around Jesus.

And so there's a division and the people who haven't reordered their lives don't understand.

It's a sword. He talks about kind of this patriarchal system that they were operating in. He says between a mother and a daughter, And what that does is it connotates the relational aspect of the sword that Jesus thrusts into our family system. When the word of God falls on us, There shift in those relationships.

I don't know how your family grew up, My family.

They didn't have a bunch of friends growing up or whatever. That's why I got so such bad social skills. But, I was hoping they would laugh a little bit about that. That just makes it real.

That makes it real.

Okay, I see you, I remember that sword just piercing. But many of you, you grew up extended family, family reunions hanging out with your cousins. In the south, where I grew up I visited a couple family reunions with some of my friends. They go out in the back- I don't know if it's a barn or wherever.

They go out in the back and do stupid stuff.

They throw rocks at things and break windows, Like just the, the basic stuff that you all remember nostalgically as if it was totally okay. I'll never forget. I think we just started throwing rocks at buses one time and it, the dude, drove a bus for a living. Well, mama, throwing a rock at a bus.

And then they found out- And I grew up in the South Switch.

You know they got me for that one. You remember it nostalgically. But what happens is we all grow up into that relational core that is our family or extended family, Or maybe you grew up around the same friend groups. That that's your family.

It's just not by blood.

And when Jesus comes in and he pierces through, not only do your habits shift, but your entire way of life shifts, You start seeing the things that they're doing, not just as immature though that might happen. You see the things that they're doing as not a value ad to the life you now live- Division. And they see the things you're doing as judgment. Often it's like "Oh, now you're too cool for us that you found your God".

It's not that they don't love you, it's that they do love you.

And now there's such a radical difference happening in you that that the shift causes a divide. Jesus was real about this 2,000 years ago. He didn't lie to you and only say: "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all other things will be added". That is true.

But he was also clear enough to say: "When you do this, though, you're going to lose some family members.

When you do this, you're going to lose some friends. When you do this, when you follow Christ, the way that he's called you to, it's going to mean you might be lonely in a way that you never have before. You'll be filled in a way that you never have before, And that's where the shift has to begin to occur". And when he's writing to these people, he's he's trying to help them understand, because he because he quotes.

You might not know this, but he actually quotes the book of Micah in this verse 35.

You see how it's in quotes there: A man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies will be members of his own household. That's a quotation from the book of Micah. This is a prophetic book. In Micah, in Micah 7:6, he's writing about the end times.

It's an end times prophecy.

These were pretty common in the Old Testament. When you read the prophetic literature, It's an end times prophecy And what Jesus is actually saying by quoting this to a group of people is: on one side, it's a sword And that sword's going to divide you from people, some of the people you love most. But while it's a sword, I need you to recognize something that Micah 7:6 says that is simply a sign that the end is near. He's trying to help them feel better about the sword.

I don't know about you, but when I recognize that my, my family members who aren't quite with me in this pursuit of Christ, the family members and friends who have judged me in the past because they didn't know Christ, when I think about all of this stuff, I feel less lonely when I recognize that this is something that was anticipated from way back in the Old Testament, that Jesus articulated in the New Testament.

And another little cool cool thing about Scripture is in the book of Luke. He uses this same scene and he says that Jesus came to bring division. But Matthew most scholars think is writing afterward- took what Luke said and he said: you know, I'm going to make an adjustment here. He said I'm going to talk about the sword and I'm going to quote Micah 7:6.

Because Matthew's writing to a predominantly Jewish audience and they would have known what Micah 76 said.

So he's writing to a group of people who their mom, their dad, some of their siblings, who are full grown- When they became a believer they were disowned, They were disconnected. They might have been kicked out of the house, They might have been persecuted. Some of them may have even been killed by this point in the game in the first century. And Matthew's writing to them and he's telling them without telling them.

This is a cool part about Scripture, but also the infuriating part about Scripture is telling them without telling them.

Just remember this was foretold from the Old Testament- that family member against family member would happen when the word of the Lord is proclaimed. But just know he's coming back soon enough. And so it's your relationships. Verse.

Verse 37 says this: "Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

I want you, I want you to let that sit for a second. I've never really let that sit until fairly recently. Anyone who loves their father or their mother more than me is not worthy of me. He takes it further.

This is Jesus consistently like intensifying his argument, He starts with father and mother.

And we all, at some point in our lives, get used to the fact that, like we, we loved him when we were young. We still love him now, But now we're full grown adults, We do things on our own. We still love them, But, but like we, we recognize that separation. But then, once you get a certain age and you have kids, that's a different, not just my father and it's not me from my parents, it's now my kids from me.

What he says is: anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

And again, he said he came to bring the sword. He said it would divide, pierce through, divide- one on one side one, on another side Households. What he's saying is not just that, as you grow up and do your typical rebellion thing with your parents, they don't know what they're talking about. They grew up Republican and now I'm a Democrat.

They grew up Democrat or they're Democrat and now that I've grown up I've decided I'm going to be a Republican.

They wanted a lurggical church. I went to a non-denominational church. They went to a non-denominational church. Now I'm stepping into.

That's normal rebellion.

That's just you growing up, getting a prefrontal cortex and figuring out how life is supposed to work. But what he's saying here is that division is not only going to hit that at a more intense level, but it's going to hit between you and your kids, And so I'm going to look at like, if God doesn't work in the way that I anticipate, then my walk with God is going to is going to is going to hit my son Lucas or my daughter Micah in a particular way, And there may be a day where I, in order to choose Christ Jesus, I have to make an adjustment in my relationship with them. That's stressful to me. I love all of you with the love of Jesus, but I love them with something better, And so the idea that Jesus is telling me I've got to reorder every one of my loves to subordinate beneath him, regardless of the division that may ensue.

This is what I love about baptism- Not that it divides families, but it shows me who's willing to follow Jesus in spite of whatever division it may cause.

It's a beautiful thing. Now I want to talk to those of you who are going to get baptized or who have gotten baptized, and it didn't change every anything about you. Baptism is just a symbolic thing. Jumping into the water is swimming unless Jesus is in it.

You know what I'm saying For real.

Like, if you didn't trust Jesus, I'm just, I'm just giving you a fun like dip in semiwarm water. So it's kind of gross unless it's filled with the Holy Spirit. You never thought about it that way, have you A lot of people? I got to get baptized.

Yep, I got to get baptized.

I need to get my three-year-old baptized. Who in the world, if they don't have a relationship with Jesus, wants to get their three-year-old baptized by some older man? You know it's just a weird thing unless Jesus is in it. And so the people who choose to do it because of their faith, they're going to go and they're going to invite their f, friends and family members and they're going to be like you're going to get dipped in the water by a pastor.

And then you're going to be like, "No, actually, something happened deep within my soul.

I want to tell you about it". And then when you tell them about it, they're going to be like, "Oh, you're one of them now". You've heard it, I know you have Like, say amen if you've heard something similar from some family member or friend. Yeah, Yeah, We look stupid because, because they don't understand what we have experienced.

And he says: if you love anything more than Christ, you're not worthy.

And he says it three times. You got to recognize something in Scripture. If Jesus or anybody repeats it, that's something you should clue into. If it's repeated, read it again and figure out why he keeps repeating it.

And the word for worthy there, Oh, I just thought of something we had a conversation about in the huddle this morning.

Just remember that. I'm just going to throw that one out there. I was talking to the band right now. The word for worthy, the Greek word is axius, Axius.

Now, the image that conjures up in the ancient world, world is one of, and you don't even think I'm going anywhere with this right now.

But when it comes to value, think of it as a marketplace. When you would go and you would get food or spices on the marketplace, there would typically be a scale, because you have to have a scale to determine how much of that spice you're going to get and so how much money. The weight helps them measure how much you owe. And so what Jesus is saying he's not just saying you're not good enough for me.

What he's saying is: if you're not willing to choose me over your family, then you're measuring things inaccurately.

And I want you to for a second. If you need to close your eyes because you're ADHD like me, do it. But I want you to picture Jesus sitting on one of those two-sided scales- I don't even know what they call those. Picture Jesus on it.

And then I want you to picture yourself on the other side of it And I want you to look across that scale for a second at Jesus, And I want you to look at him and I want you to say: I know, I know the measurements are different, but I want to.

But my family, they needed me for this. He's picture him looking back at you, knowing, knowing what he did on the cross. I had this image last night. I was laying in bed.

I'll be honest with you.

I- I put a lot of work in on the front end. This week was just so crazy that I was praying and I was tying up the finishing touches to this message. I was laying in bed, My wife had just fallen asleep And I- I got to this part of the passage just one more time and I was processing through the axis, the scales, and you're on one side, saying to Jesus: "I love you, but my family needs me". And then, when I was laying there, my wife asleep- I pictured Jesus on the other side, looking at me, saying the same thing He said in the passage: "You're not worthy".

But to give you the translation, it's like then we aren't the same, Like there there's.

This is a. He died on the cross for us. He came from heaven when he was in eternal fellowship with the father and the Holy Spirit. He came down and dressed himself in flesh, with moles and wrinkles and stuff, And then he walked through our trash in sandals.

When he knew what shoes were going to look like 2,000 years from now.

He knew what it would look like. And he's just walking around. Maybe one day they'll figure out that you don't have to have thong sandals You can utilize. You can just get Jordans or something You know.

Maybe one day he's walking around in all of our stuff.

He's dealing with Pharisees who think they know, but they don't. He's looking at people who can connect with him at a visceral level, but they think they don't know, so they don't connect. And he's just wandering through, trying to deal with this group of people who don't understand what he's bringing to the table. And then they crucify him on the cross And we know from the rest of the Scriptures that he did it for you and for me.

And we'll look at him and we'll say my, my family, though, my kids.

He looks at us but we're not the same. In fact, the only way that that that you measure up is by believing in Jesus so much that not only do you look at his cross and get the feels and say, "Oh, my gosh, he loves me so much, He died for me. I'm gonna raise my hands for him, I'm gonna fall on my face before him, I'm going to do all this performative stuff that makes me feel better And yet, at the same time, I'm going to skip. When I feel like it, I'm going to do what I want to.

I'm going to.

I'm going to help my family without thinking about Christ. I'm going to fall into all these same family reunion patterns. I'm going to listen to my father, even when it disconnects from that. I'm going to go.

I'm going to go love on my kid, even when everything that this person is doing at this time is keeping me away from my relationship with Jesus.

And I just want you to understand that what he did was so weighty that it doesn't just, it doesn't just take a confession. He anticipates, it takes your whole life. Now, in the Old Testament it's a life for a life. It means something totally different.

In the New Testament, he died on the cross for your sins, regardless of what you did for him.

But what he does anticipate is when you believe that it takes everything, everything, even your family. The weight of his cross bids you come and die, to quote Bonhaofer, to come and die and give your life for him. And unless your whole life is his, it's not heavy enough. The scales don't match up.

You're not worthy.

I'm not saying you can't have eternity with God by simply a confession, like the Bible tells us. But what I am saying is that confession is the outgrowth of a recognition that my whole life is his. And if your whole life isn't his, I want you to. I want you to go work out your salvation with fear and trembling, Not with, not with guilt and shame, but with with measuring.

Like God have I given myself over to you.

And here's what he says in verse 38. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Now, you may know this, but crucifixion was the Roman penalty for sedition, rebellion, refusing to submit to Roman authority. The image of taking up your cross and following Jesus to a group of people who had never seen Jesus die on the cross meant something totally different than it does for us.

It wasn't some abstract spiritual suffering.

For them is what I'll say. It wasn't some philosophical concept or a metaphor. It was a real thing. It was a specific, historically recognizable image of a condemned person carrying a horizontal beam of his own execution through town to the place of execution, And everyone watching knew where this person was going to be going.

There was no coming back from that walk of shame.

So for Jesus to say: take up your cross and follow me was to say: follow me. In the same way a condemned man follows his sentence publicly, in full view, without any ability to reverse course or pretend you're not committed. And I'm sitting here in my bed finishing up the last touches, and I recognized something about myself, about those getting baptized. I was rebellious, I was in sin, I hung out too much in the wrong ways, I slept around.

I was an alcoholic?

I wasn't, But I've been there Like I've experienced addiction. I was. I was found out by others And ultimately I realized one day that I was found out by my creator, that he knew the depths of my soul, even if performatively I was fine. I was convicted and on the day of judgment I was going to spend eternity in hell.

But because Jesus bore the shame, because he took up his cross, now I'm not guilty And praise be to God that I don't have to pay the debt, Because Jesus bore his own cross.

He walked up Gatha, He hung on the cross until he died, He came up from the grave, He's seated at the right hand of the father And I no longer will spend eternity in hell, I'll spend eternity in heaven with my creator. I'll live an abundant life here because of what he did. There's no hell for me because the sword pierced through his side and he died for me. But now look at your neighbor.

Tell them, "But now it's my turn to walk through the city to tell others of my public shame, that I was rebellious, that I was formerly dead in my transgressions and sins, that I stumbled all the time".

And they're going to look at me and they're going to see that I'm now becoming different. They're going to see who I formerly was, are going to see me publicly bearing that cross. I was this but God, and now this. That's my cross.

My cross isn't going to an execution space and dying.

My cross is giving my life to the one who did that for me. And he walked publicly through the entire city of Jerusalem to Goltha. They threw things at him, They separated his clothing, He, He, He was up there on the cross, hanging naked for hours until they took him down. I don't have to bear that cross, But the cross I do bear is to offer my body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

The cross I do bear is to stand there in front of my family and tell them where I was and where I am and look at them and see them in disbelief.

That's my cross. I've got to tell people, essentially, that I'm crazy in their eyes and that I got to stand there and hope that my life proves it. That's what these people are about to do. In fact, if you're going to get baptized, feel free to walk out there, get changed.

But I want people to see what I've seen Christ do And I' I've led people all over the city, all over wherever I've been.

I've led them to Christ. Yet I've stood there with a relative and felt like I'm a crazy person as I tell them the story of what Jesus did. And then I'm tempted by their invites. I'm tempted by their pleas, the old habits, the guilt trips, the literal trips.

I'm tempted by these things and they'll say like: "We've always done this and now you're different".

Just because you got faith all of a sudden doesn't mean we have to change anything And you'll be tempted to pull back. But even if you lose everything, finding Christ is worth it. Finding Christ. There's nothing worth more than him.

And it's a big loss: Kids, family, in-laws.

It's a big loss, But it's not as big of a loss as the alternative to not knowing or to knowing Christ, And so I choose Christ. He says in verse 39, : "Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it". So to those of you in this room who are making your faith public, I'm proud of you. You're choosing Christ.

You're choosing to step out in faith in front of tons of people who may disagree with your new life.

You're going to post it to Facebook. Someone's going to remind you of where you were, Or you're going to feel bad to post it, because everyone who's on your Facebook knows where you were. That's your cross. When you get back to the house and you argue with your spouse, they might say: "I thought you were a Christian now".

Heard it, I've heard it.

I mean. I mean I love you, sweetie. You didn't say that. Yeah, That's your cross, Bear it.

Bear it because he bore the other one.

You bear this one And baptism. In the ancient world, it was a public moment where you first begun to bear your cross. That was where the sword cuts. Dicasso splits in two.

And I'll close with this because I've been- I've been going crazy reading God's word and amplified with it, that sometimes I go a little bit longer.

That's my cross. I got to shorten some things for you guys. But when he says "I came to bring the sword", there are two words in the Greek vocabulary that you can use for sword. The first one is a word called rampa.

Roma is like the large military broadsword.

It's a sword of war, the sword of conquest, The sword Simeon says will pierce Mary's soul, the sword of the sword of Revelations writer. And I know he's going to come with that sword one day. Amen, somebody. He's going to come and he's going to tear through and he's going to restore us all completely to him.

There will be a peace.

He's going to cast it out all over the world. There's going to be a new Jerusalem. We're going to spend eternity with him in joy, without pain, without blemish, without spot. But when he came the first time, it's not the type of sword he brought.

The second word for sword in the vocabulary is myra.

The word makyra is a short, single-edged blade used for cutting or dividing. It was a surgical precision. It's the same word used in Hebrew 4:12 for the word of God that divides soul from spirit. And when Jesus came the first time.

He didn't come with the broad sword like they thought he would.

He came with a blade that divides, And the way you end up on the right side of that blade is by hearing the word of God and believing, rather than hearing the word of God and ignoring. So, while the people getting ready to be baptized are going to come up, I just want to give you that opportunity to pray over this next worship moment. God, help me listen to your word. Father.

God, we thank you for today.

We thank you for the word that you bring. We thank you for the sword. God, that gives us a chance. If you came with the broad one, the rumpa, the first time, then most of us would have been dead in our transgressions for all of eternity.

But because you sent your son, Jesus, to come with a surgical blade to make an incision with a high level of precision, God, because of that we now get to make a decision to follow you.

So, God, help us make the right decision today And we commit right now, regardless of what our family thinks, to follow you And God. For anyone in the room right now who just made that decision, God, give them the boldness right now to make their faith public in baptism. I imagine we'll make time for them to walk out. We'll give them a shirt and they'll hop in the tank to make their faith public, regardless of what anybody else thinks.

So, God, we love you and we trust you in this time.

It is in Jesus's name that we