Secrets To Living The Best Life

GET BIBLES OUT AND TURN TO MARK 8:31

My Story:

MY STORY: OF MY 20’S

Seven Rivers

Status

Status

Civil Parish-Record Label-New Calling

Collin Outerbridge

The Well

Nona

Vista (Finally Preaching)

The Best life that we can live is the life committed to Christ.

Read whole passage and pray

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.

God has a plan, and that plan rarely looks the way we think it should be.

The messiah was supposed to come and free God’s people from the oppression of Rome

Jesus came as a baby then became a homeless man and died on a cross… Not exactly what they were looking for.

32 And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

The best life finds maximum joy in self denial

Don’t Rebuke God! He is the all knowing all powerful one!

Why is Peter so upset? He didn’t like God’s plan, he liked his own plan.

Peter was trying to fit Jesus into his plan

How many of us are guilty of this very thing

We forget that there is a way that seems right to man but its end is in destruction

Peters reaction to God’s plan was the exact opposite of what we should do, but what kind of heart should we have?

Mary's heart has been blowing me away…

34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.

36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.

37 For nothing will be impossible with God.”

38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Peters heart was to rebuke Gods plan, Mary’s heart was to say “Here I am, I’m a servant, what ever the Lord want’s I’ll do!”

Peter was trying to fit God into his plan, Mary wanted to fit herself into God’s plan.

Van Says that God is already doing something, we get to join in.

Mary had committed her life to God, and this brought God glory and her Joy, we know she had joy because the scripture says a few times that she treasured these things in her heart.

When we try to fit God into our plan, it is so kind of God to do what Jesus does next… He Rebukes Peter

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.”

The God-man Jesus rebukes peter when Peter tries to go out ahead of the plan of God.

In our lives, this is a great kindness of God, when he would discipline us to pull us back from utter destruction

Why would Jesus respond with “Satan”? Peter was showing the same spirit that Satan was in Luke 4 when he told Jesus that he could have all of the kingdoms of the world, if only Christ would bow down and worship Satan.

But Jesus didn’t want worldly things, He had His mind set on the things of God.

Gods plans often look very different from the way we would choose things to be. Jesus would have been given everything and not had to have gone through all of the suffering… You would think that the best life you could live would be a life absent of suffering and quickly getting what you want… But God has so much more for us.

Jesus tells us how to get that “So much more” that God has for us.

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

Jesus sees how Peter responds, and knows that this is a great teaching moment for all people.

We were made for maximum joy through denying ourselves

We know that those who are slaves to the sin of selfishness die in the prison of their own desire.

Think of Celebrities, they have everything, but miserable

Great reading on this is Tim Kellers “Freedom of self-forgetfulness”

We love stories of someone taking up their cross...

Jesus is saying be ready to die for the cause, take up your roman capital punishment possibility.

This would be like saying take up your electric chair today

Missionaries used to pack all of their things in coffins

Mark Batterson writes “A.W. Milne was one of those missionaries, setting sail for a little island in the South Pacific, knowing full well that the headhunters who lived there had martyred every missionary before him. But Milne did not fear for his life.  Why?  Because Milne had died to self, moving from self-control, to God in control; translated: Milne had packed his coffin!  Well surprisingly, given the threat around him, Milne’s ministry lasted for thirty-five years; in fact, Milne became deeply loved by the tribe he was seeking to reach.  And so when Milne died, tribe members buried Milne not at the edge of their village where burials normally occurred, but right in the middle of their village, inscribing on Milne’s tombstone one of the most striking epitaphs ever:  “When he came there was no light.  When he left, there was no darkness.”

We love stories of people taking up their cross for the cause of Christ. It is built into our DNA

We were made to live for things much bigger than ourselves.

Jesus also says in Verse 34 to follow me… Were going to come back to this!

The best life is bigger than ourselves

35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.

36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

37 For what can a man give in return for his soul?

Ozymandias Poem

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

For 2018 are we going to live lives that are centered around ourselves, which ultimately lead to a self built kingdom that is easily forgotten and left behind, or are we going to live lives committed to the everlasting kingdom of God? What would it profit us if we got everything we ever wanted but lost the real thing that counted… Namely our souls.

The Best life that we can possibly live is the life that is committed to Christ.

38 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.”

The best life is walking with Jesus

1 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.”

Confusing Verse/The power of Christ

Jesus said in Verse 34 to follow me

Jesus first called the disciples to follow him through a miraculous fishing experience, he was inviting them into a life filled with His power

Following Jesus is a life filled with the power of God

We have the option to see the kingdom of God come with power into our lives, because Jesus is beckoning us to follow Him. The best life you can hav is one committed to Him, then we will experience life in the power of the Son of God. The power of the Son on display in the lives of Gods people brings Him so much glory and deeply satisfies our hearts. So in 2018 will you commit and submit your life to Christ? I truly hope so, because that is the secret to the best life you can live… Lets pray.