Disciple: The Cost of Discipleship and the Power of the Cross - Cecily Feldman

Jesus said yes to the cross so that we could say yes to him. The same Holy Spirit who strengthened Jesus in the garden and transformed Peter is available to us. Our discipleship comes down to what we set our minds on, what we spend our money on, and whether we let Jesus have our schedules. Scriptures: Mark 14:32-41, Acts 2:14, Romans 6:3-5, Galatians 2:20, Colossians 3:1-12

Show Notes

Jesus said yes to the cross so that we could say yes to him. That is the thread running through this message, and Cecily Feldman traces it from the garden of Gethsemane all the way into the everyday decisions of our lives.

She opens in Mark 14, with Jesus on the Mount of Olives, deeply distressed, asking the Father if there is any other way. And the answer was no. But Jesus did not go to the cross alone. An angel came and strengthened him. He needed help, and help came.

Then she jumps to Acts 2. The same Peter who kept falling asleep in the garden, who couldn't pray for one hour, stands up 60 to 90 days later and preaches to thousands. What changed? The cross happened. The Holy Spirit came. That same power is available to us.

From there she walks through Romans 6, Galatians 2:20, and Colossians 3. The old self is dead. We have been raised with Christ. And now Paul says, set your minds on things above, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature, and clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

Cecily lands it in three honest questions:
When am I letting convenience determine obedience?
What does my spending tell me about my priorities?
What does my schedule reveal about who is actually in charge?

Come join us at C3 Orange County on Sunday mornings and bring your Bible.

Scriptures: Mark 14:32-41, Acts 2:14, Romans 6:3-5, Galatians 2:20, Colossians 3:1-12

What is C3OC Church?

We are a local Church in Orange County California who are passionate to witness lives being renewed in Christ, strengthened through discipleship, and to thrive in the fullness of living for Christ.
Get connected to us by visiting www.c3oc.com or emailing us at [e-mail]

Okay, so we're going to start here today in the book of Mark. If you do not have a Bible, I would really encourage you, don't be embarrassed, one outside and go get one, because we're going to focus on two or three passages this morning, not individual verses, but actually whole passages. And I'm going to be speaking not from notes as much as from the Bible itself and what the Bible says about some things. So the first passage we're going to look at is Mark chapter 14. It is Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane starting at verse 32. And while you're looking that up, I just want to give a brief history, this event that takes place in these verses over here. If you can put onto the screen actually from verse 32 all the way through to verse 41 so that we can scroll it up, okay? These events here take place at a place called the Mount of Olives. If you have been to Israel, or even if you've never been to Israel, the Mount of Olives is something you would have heard about, and the Mount of Olives is outside Jerusalem. It is a It's a place that Jesus frequented, frequented with these disciples to teach them to pray, to teach them about the Word. So in the Bible, there's a thing, there's a way of interpreting Scripture called the Law of First Mention. So when a topic or a concept is mentioned in the Bible, you understand it by what happens in the first time that it was mentioned. So for example, let's take the concept of sacrifice. That sacrifice was, and the power of the blood was a means to absolve people from sin, for example. So in the law of first mention that goes all the way through that same concept. Every time you see sacrifice and you see the blood, it is to some extent pointing to Jesus. So in the book or in the Old Testament, the first time the Mount of Olives is mentioned is actually related to David. And David had to escape for his life barefoot in his pajamas, whatever they were at the time, from his son, Absalom, who had was in the process of initiating a rebellion and stealing the kingdom from him. And so he fled Beifut in his pajamas from his palace in Jerusalem and he fled to the Mount of Olives. And so we see from the law offense first mentioned there that the Mount of Olives was a place of anguish and a place of where the soul is overwhelmed, place of great difficulty. And so when we look at this passage, it is on the Mount of Olives that this passage is taking place. So Jesus agonizes in the garden, verse 32, they went to a place called Gethsemane. Gethsemane is at the foot of the Mount of Olives. It is an olive grove for generations. The olive trees grew at the foot of the Mount of Olives and Gethsemane simply means olive press. So Jesus said to his disciples he was going to this place because this is what he knew, this is where he frequented, sit here while I pray. He took Peter, James and John along with him and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. So we see Jesus in the Mount of Olives deeply distressed and troubled. My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. He said to them, stay here and keep watch. Who's he speaking to, Peter, James and John? Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. Abba father, he said, everything is possible for you. take this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will." Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. Simon, he said to Peter, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for me one hour? Watch and pray that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak. Other translations say the flesh is weak. Once more, he went away and he prayed the same thing. So again, he talked to the Lord about the cup that he was about to drink. When he came back, he again found them sleeping because the eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him. I think if Jesus comes to you three times and finds you sleeping, you'd also not know what to say. Returning the third time, he said to them, oh, he was still sleeping and resting. Enough. The hour has come. Look, the son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go. Here comes my betrayer. Okay, so this passage is gonna be the context for what we speak on today. I'm speaking on the cost of discipleship and the power of the cross. So this story has three main characters. The first character is actually the writer of the story, which is John Mark. Mark was, John Mark was not a disciple. He was the son of a woman by the name of Mary who had a house in Jerusalem. And her house was a hub for Christians. She was a woman of means. And so they would do Bible studies there and they would pray there. And I don't know if you remember the story in the book of Acts where Peter escapes from prison and he goes and he knocks on a door. And Rhoda opens, Rhoda is so surprised he's there. She runs back inside and she doesn't open the door. That was John Mark's house that they came to, okay? So there is John Mark. John Mark was the interpreter for Peter on Peter's missionary journey to Rome. So he was obviously an educated man, he must have spoken Latin, because he interpreted Peter's messages to the people. And so his account of the gospel is actually seen through the eyes of Peter. It is actually Peter's gospel, so to say. It's Peter's messages. So John Mark wrote down all the details when Peter was preaching, and then eventually this was turned into the Gospel of Mark. And did you know that Matthew and Luke wrote their gospels out of the Gospel of Mark? Isn't that interesting? So this is a very important character in the story because it was Peter's voice. And Peter does not mind that he gets badly represented in the story. Now, this is important. This is very important. You must listen to this. So Peter three times. The other character in the story is, of course, Peter, a fiery character fiercely loyal to Jesus. We should not judge him based on his actions alone. He was fiercely loyal to Jesus. Remember, just a few hours or days before, Jesus had been talking about his suffering. And while talking about his suffering, Peter was like, no, not gonna happen. This is not gonna happen. And Jesus turned around and rebuked him. Said, you don't know what you're talking about. Said, Satan, get behind me. This is not a nice thing when Jesus says to you, Satan, get behind me. Okay, but Peter puts that in the gospel. He allows it to be written. He talks about it as part of his journey. So you have Peter, Peter is impulsive. We have him making all kinds of confessions about how he's going to die for the Lord Jesus, and Jesus has some words even for that in the story. And then the third character here is Jesus himself. And so here we have Jesus. This is the Son of God who has come to earth as a man. So in the garden, we find him as a man. He is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords that has come down from heaven, the exact representation to mankind of the Father. He has come down to earth to show us the Father's love, but his express purpose was not just to do miracles. His express purpose was to die for the sins of the world. in the garden we see Jesus wrestling with his purpose. We see somebody who is playing and wrestling with the fact that he is going to be executed. He knows what's coming down the pipeline. He's going to be executed on a Roman cross and the Romans were known for their cruelty. they were known for the motivation, especially when it came to anybody that they perceived as a rebel against the Roman system, as it were, because there was one emperor, for example, that crucified 2,000 Christians, and then put their crosses all down the roads. What is that four, it's to intimidate people into submission and so that was part of what was going to happen here and so Jesus as a man cries out to his father. He's aware of his purpose and he says, father, above father, if there's any other way, if there's any other way to do this, he knows what has to be done. The sins of the world are going to be put on him and he's going to die as the representative man for all mankind. And he prays and he said, if there's any other way and then he says, but father, not by world, but yours be done. What gives somebody the capacity to do that. The Bible in the book of Luke, Luke was a doctor and in the book of Luke it says that Jesus never actually did that alone. He made that decision but it says that an angel came from heaven. The father sent an angel to help him because as a man in himself he could not alone take those steps towards the cross. He was willing, but he couldn't face what had to be done. And the Bible says that an angel came and strengthened him. He needed help. And so it also says of Jesus, he was so stressed. There's a medical condition. I asked Gary to look it up for But he didn't do it. There's a medical condition that under great stress, people actually sweat what looks like drops of blood. And so Luke records that detail in his gospel. And so we have the situation here where Jesus is not able to go to the cross on his own. He needs assistance, and then we have these disciples. They are just not able to provide any support whatsoever. Peter is flunking out, Jesus says to Peter, the spirit is willing, I know Peter that you want to, I know that you want to, I know that you want to stand by me, I know that you want to pray with me, but the flesh is weak. And so Peter was running into his own limitations here. He was running into, I want to, but I can't. And for all of us, when we go to the cross, there is the same thing. The spirit may be willing, but our flesh is terribly weak. We want to serve Jesus. We want to do what's right, we want to be alert, we want to pray, but it just doesn't play out like that. We're asleep on the job, okay? All right, so that's the story of Gethymani. Let's bounce over now to Acts chapter two and we see something different happening. So in Acts chapter two, the scenario here, this is just verse 14 that we're gonna read over here. In Acts chapter two, we fast forward now. The cross has happened. The sins of the world have been put on Jesus. There's been a period of time here, there's 40 days. The disciples are all in the upper room and the Holy Spirit has come down to the earth. And so they've all been baptized. The people praying in the upper room noticed Peter was not sleeping this time. He was praying and the Holy Ghost came down upon them. Now let's look at Peter, verse 14. So they're all praying. They're praying in different tongues. And people are saying you've had too much wine. Verse 14, then Peter stood up. Men, I love that, this is your ear-cutting, sleeping on the job, fiery, I'm going to die for you, cannot do anything right, Peter, same Peter. Peter stood up, I love it, he stood up with the 11, raised his voice, addressed the crowd, fellow Jews, All of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you. This man by the power of the cross and the Holy Ghost, remember that the cross had happened, the Holy Ghost had come. The same man by the power of the Holy Ghost was supernaturally intelligent in this moment. No one had told him, no one had taught him about the Holy Ghost, really. No one had taught him about what had happened, he got up and he said, let me explain all this to you. Hallelujah! So he gets up, he preaches a sermon and 3,000 people get saved. Listen, this is a pretty big deal. This is a big altar call. We in America do 3,000 people come out and get saved Because Peter could get up under the power of God, put the Old Testament scriptures into the context of now, speak and prophesy to the people, and if you read the passage, he wasn't even polite to them. It was just like you Jews, you people. You know, we teach our children, don't ever say to someone, you people. a derogatory Peter did not care at that moment. He was busy explaining the gospel. Hallelujah. All right, so what did happen? Let's break it down. What exactly did take place here? What accounts for the dramatic change that took place in Peter? So let's go. Romans 6 I believe is the next place we're going to go. So Peter using him because he's a kind of archetypal figure, he's a representative man of what we all go through as believers. How many of you can say, man, I've got more fire for God than I ability. Yeah, all of us can say that. We run into our own limitations all the time. We have such good intentions. We mean well. But when it comes to accomplishing something for the gospel or living out our discipleship or living out our Christian life, that is where things start to go horribly wrong sometimes. Okay, so what we're going to look at now is what did exactly happen? What what does account for the transformation of Peter? How could he be this one personality at one moment and not more than about 60 to 90 days later, he's a completely transformed person. So let's look at Romans chapter 6. This is now Paul speaking. Paul was amazing at being able to identify the nitty-gritty of the work of the cross. What actually happened? What was accomplished in the spirit realm? What is accomplished in our lives? So Paul teaching then, he says, what shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means we died to sin, how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the father, we too may have a new life. You know, in one of our past lives in churches, it fell to staff members to prepare people for baptism. And it was one of the greatest joys actually, because we would always be dealing with relatively new converts and what our assignment was to help them to understand what the physical act of baptism actually is. And then secondly, to help them prepare their testimony. So the way baptism was done was always done in church in a Sunday night service. And every person that came up to be baptized had to give the testimony. They had to give the A testimony. And so part of what we were responsible for is to coach them in this. So it would be a case of, well, where were you before? What happened? And where are you now? And so essentially that's what Paul is teaching on here. saying that when you were baptized or when Jesus died for you, you died with Him so that I can't have good intentions, the flesh is weak, bad habits, anger, addiction, proclivity to certain temptations, that man is dead. I've got good news for you. That man is dead. That's what the Bible says. There is an exchange that took place at the cross. He took all of me and he gave me all of him. Dead man, you're a dead man walking, except that the Spirit of God has come to live on the inside of you. So it says, if we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection. When we come to faith in Christ, our relationship with sin changes. united with him we have died to sin's control and dominion. It does not mean that you won't have temptation. The sinful patterns that you had in the past are no longer in control of you. That man has died. It does not mean that we are no longer capable of sinning. But we can offer our bodies to the power of the Holy Spirit. Instead of offering ourselves to sin, we have the choice. Before that we never had the choice. We were in bondage to whatever sinful temptation came upon us. But now we have a new life. Galatians 2 Galatians chapter 2 verse 20, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of god who loved me and gave himself for me. Listen, this is Paul talking. He was a murderer before. He says that murderer is crucified with Christ. I put it on the cross. I take his life instead of my life. Those temptations, those weaknesses, those limitations, those bad habits, those addictions, they don't disappear, but I have the choice to put them on the cross. Jesus, for the joy set before him, what was the joy set before him that motivated him in the garden? It was your freedom. It was my freedom. It was children in the household of God free to serve the king instead of serving a sinful nature. Okay, so that's all good and well. We know that our proclivities are changing. Let's go to Colossians verse 3 chapter 3. So in Colossians Paul again is speaking. Notice in Galatians just before we go to Colossians in Galatians 2-20. The thing I love about that scripture is Paul when he speaks about Jesus going to the cross and he says, I have been crucified with Christ. The life I live, I live by faith in the Son of God who died for me and And then he says, who loved me, who loved me and gave himself for me. Jesus doesn't do all this just as a technicality and as an legal reality. He does this for us because he loves us. When Jesus was on the cross, he loved me then, and he loves me now. And he loved you then, and he loves you now. It's out of his great love for you and I that he went to the cross. Very important, it's such a beautiful scripture. He loves me every time I read it. He loves me, succinctly. Doesn't matter, doesn't matter whether a form or don't perform is gonna help me. He loves me and he loves you. Okay, so in Colossians, Paul starts to break down the work of the Holy Spirit and how this functions in our lives because we can actually help ourselves or we can make things more difficult for ourselves. So let's start in Colossians chapter 3, we're going to read and just point out a bunch of stuff all the way through to verse 12. So since then we have been raised with Christ, first instruction, set your hearts on things above. Where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. So what we choose to think on where we choose to go, what we choose to dwell on, what we choose to think about, this is important for the Christian believer. If I'm going to sit and watch Squid Games, then this is not exactly setting my mind on the things above. Is there anything wrong with Squid Games, well, I would say plenty, but for many people, they would say it's just a show. But the gratuitous violence is anti-God. So if I'm going to be setting myself, setting my mind on violence, I'm not helping myself and I'm not helping my capacity to grow in God. If I'm going to hang out with unbelievers because I need their approval and I'm going to the bars with them, and is there anything wrong? Well, I can convince myself that I'm being a witness to them, but they're probably being more of a witness of their lifestyle to me. Because notice, we are not in church, we are not somewhere where I can actually witness to them in the bar and I'm engaging in getting drunk along with them. I don't, that's not becoming all things to all men. There's a world of difference between what that is going to do to my spirit and going out to dinner with another Christian couple or going out to dinner where there is fellowship the word is talked about where Jesus is exalted. Now you can say, you know, that's a boring lifestyle. Well, if that's how you feel, that's telling me about where you're at and what your loves and your likes and your dislikes actually are, where your proclivities are. You're needing some help here. So where I set my mind, another issue, for example, is we find ourselves, and this happens even in church, we find ourselves, someone has offended us. And then what happens is we find ourselves offended and we're not able to get past the bitterness of that. And I've seen people the entire Christian lives its shipwrecked over the stuff that went down in church. But it's not the stuff that went down. It's my attitude to the stuff that went down. I have to set my mind on the things above. I have to set my mind on what God might be working out in me. I have to walk in forgiveness. So it comes down to the nitty gritty of our lives. Paul says, set your mind on things above, not on earthly things, for you died. And your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ is your life appears, then you will also appear with him in glory. So Paul is being very strong, what you focus on. And we got a Bible study that goes on Tuesday nights, sending the book of Rees' house. And one of the big scriptures is in the prayer group is if you abide in me and I abide in you. And so the whole concept of, and Pastor Joe preached on this, I think two, three weeks ago, the whole concept of what are you abiding in? What are you abiding in? Are you abiding in anger? What is your inner life? Is it anger and unforgiveness? Or is it fellowship with the Holy Spirit? Do you have, is your heart cleansed by the cross? Some of us need help in these areas. So now here, this is Paul. He's saying, this is what you need to do people. Put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature. Okay, we all have an earthly nature. The side of heaven that does not leave us, but it is nailed to the cross. Paul is saying, you gotta put that to death. Sexual immorality, impurity, last, evil desires, greed, idolatry. You know, one of the things that's so sad to me is people that have served the Lord for 70 years or so and have achieved great things in the Holy Ghost, great ministries, and then they die, and you find out they had a extramarital affair all the way through their life. That diminishes everything that they achieved. So many great ministries of the last 20, 25 years where there's been sexual immorality, I have to put that to death. It does not mean that I won't be tempted. The devil's a liar is looking, he's going around like a roaring lion. He's gonna wanna put temptation in front of you because he wants to derail you. But I make a choice. Paul is saying, yeah, what you must do. You must set your mind on the things above and you must put to death your earthly nature. When you see it coming, run away. don't still entertain it. Last, evil desires greed. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. So there are some sinful bandages mentioned here that Paul says the wrath of God is coming. They offend God. They are not just lifestyles. they are sinful behaviors that offend God, you need to walk in these ways. You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived, but now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these, anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language. That's the standard God is calling us to his disciples. he's not calling us to just come to church, he's not calling us just to profess that we are Christians, he's calling us to a different standard, faulty language. You know, my eldest daughter spent a lot of time on hinge and she's married now praise God. But she spent a lot of time on hinge and she said it was amazing to her how she would go out with guys and they would profess on hinge to be Christians and they go to this church and you know they've got this Christian legacy that goes on for years and generations, and yet they cussing at the dinner. They speak, they have filthy language. What is that? What is that? You're not fooling anybody, and at that point she would cut and run. She's like, okay, I know who you are. I'm done. End of the dinner, the bull, I'm going home. And so you should. So you should. And I would say that to both girls and guys that are in the dating game. If people are not living up to this, not to say that we have to have grace for people, but if you're calling yourself all these things about how Christian you are and how spiritual you are, listen, this is what Paul says, it comes down to those guys. This is our spiritual you are. When you put to death the work of the flesh, Paul says, do not lie to each other. That's what's going on in those dating games. You just lie. Do not lie to each other. Since you have taken off your old self with its practices, the old self has practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge, in knowledge of the Word, in knowledge of God, in knowledge of the Holy Spirit, in the image of its Creator. There is no Greek or Jew circumcised, uncircumcised, Paul speaking here to racial differences, barbarians, Scythian, speaking to educational and cultural differences in the church, slave or free, economic differences, but Christ is all and is in all. So we're level at the cross. Doesn't matter whether you're wealthy or whether you poor, it's level at the cross and one standard of behavior is being requested of us. Amen. Therefore, as God's chosen people, that's you. Holy and dearly loved by Jesus, that's you. Clothes yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. So the Bible is giving us a clear picture of who we ought to be, what our discipleship is like. In the book by Rhys Howles, he mentions it says, good deeds have wings. So when I'm in the workplace, I am a later the Bible says that people are reading. My discipleship and my attention to detail and my humility before God is a letter that people are reading and Jesus intends for that. He intends for you to be read as a letter through your Christ likeness. Be with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another, forgive as the Lord forgave you, and over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. So I just wanna speak for a moment on discipleship in America. Now we live in a Christian country. Some would argue. Our Constitution provides us with religious freedom, and our Constitution has certain Christian values. But I would not say, I am an immigrant to the United States, and I would not say that we live in a Christian country. And what this does is, if we believe that America is a Christian country, we live in an illusion of what Christianity actually is. So in countries like Nigeria, to be a Christian will cost you your life. There are many countries in the world where to identify as a Christian will cost you your life to the Jews of the early church. When they became Christians, did you know that nobody would employ them? So they suffered intense displacement, loss, and frequently were put in prison. That is not the country that we live in. We have freedom so we can gather freely on a Sunday morning to worship and open our Bibles. These freedoms are a gift, but the comfort of them and the comfort can make every day demands of discipleship easy to avoid. So we we think of ourselves as Christians and that we are good Christians because we just go to church and we read our Bible. The Lord is calling us all to our higher standard. Our Christianity can gradually become a cultural identity and our faith fits around our preferences, It fits around our schedules and our preferences. In South Africa, Gary and I grew up under the apartheid era and he went to the military and trained as a doctor and I trained as a teacher and worked in the public school in South Africa. South Africa, with all its extremely brutal race laws of the apartheid era and everything you ever read about it is probably true, it was a fascist regime. It called itself Christian. And in fact, we had to teach in the schools what they called Christian national education. we had to teach the Bible. Gary was Jewish, he can tell you, in an assembly every morning, they sang Christian hymns. The Jews were excused because they were Jewish, so they were allowed to leave. But every morning they sang the great hymns of the church, and so people were kind of indoctrinated into a Christianity that was in name only. And when we went, he went into the military, there was one event called vividly where we went to church, and the pastor there was in the military as well, and he was preparing for his sermon the next day, but it's a cigarette in one side of the mouth and a beer bottle in the other. This is serious stuff. This is serious stuff. because the judgment of God does come on it. God has to correct that because that does not represent the cross, it does not represent the Holy Spirit, it does not represent the life of God that is being portrayed here. So we need to ask ourselves today. When am I allowing convenience to determine obedience? So let's go back to COVID for example, where churches were shut down and all church actually was on video, or Zoom. Now Zoom changed America, I mean it will change the world, because at the time when it started, Zoom was a mess. But now they improved Zoom to such a degree that you can do almost anything on Zoom now. Board meetings, Bible studies, there's so much technology available. But there's a scripture, COVID's finished now. And there's a scripture which says, for sake, not the gathering together of the saints. And why is that? Because the Holy Spirit cannot be felt through Zoom. And so now that it's COVID's over, I hear so many Christians say, oh, I'll just zoom in. Why is that? You never went to church, but that's a very poor representative of church. Because see, when there's the gathering of the saints, where there's two or three, Jesus said, I will be in the midst. And so I need to hear little praying. I need to see Madison lead worship. This is not transmitted. This is the power of the Holy Spirit. It's limited in its transmission through technology. But more importantly, I have not connected with any other believer. and we are a body. We are not alone. We don't make up the body of Christ, I, me and my Zoom. It's my relationships. My sanctification is gonna take place through my relationships. You have a different opinion to me. I have a different opinion to you. I'm going to learn to die to self as I connect and engage and become integrated with other people. So we have to ask ourselves here, do we just do what's convenient? Another one, what does my spending tell about my priorities? This is a big one. Is my spending given to the Lord? Is my income given to the Lord? Does he determine what I spend my money on? Or does Amazon? It is so easy to just spend money. It's so easy. I've got Uber Eats, DoorDash, Amazon. Now Lowe's, I see, is doing drone deliveries in the Southwestern part of the United States. So you're doing a home improvement, you know, repair and you run out of paint trays, just call those. They'll drop the paint trays at your house. But all these things, they are fantastic technology, but we have to determine where we spend. something we do as we go through the credit cards, and we look, at least I do, the others do the spending, I do the looking, and we look to see, well, where did that money go? And do you know how many times we find subscriptions on the credit cards that we inadvertently signed up for because we had to have something from Uber Eats, we had to have something from DoorDash, and we've been paying for it for three months and we didn't even know that it was there. We have to be accountable to the Holy Ghost for what we spend because God wants to build His church and He needs resources from us. Next one. What does my schedule reveal? is the big one. What does my schedule reveal about my priorities? Does Jesus control my schedule? Is my schedule made in cooperation with him? Or do I just put anything on the calendar that anybody asks me for? We have to stop and we have to pray. So what does this all mean for you and are practically speaking. The worship team can come up. It means that daily I say yes to the things that are important to Jesus. Jesus said yes for me in the Garden of Gethsemane. Today we want to say yes to Jesus in the things that are important to him. So when I start my day, it is important to build into your daily life, surrender and opportunity to meet with the Holy Spirit and His Word at the start of the day. And I know for myself if I don't do that, I'm a desperate man. No, really, because when I get to work, those phone calls, that phone is gonna ring. And what's on the other side of that phone? Oh, very grumpy patients, a lot of the time. They are grumpy because they never got the medication refill, they never got the durable medical equipment, they're not sleeping, they need to see a doctor, this, this, this, this, this, even was the insurance didn't pay for it, and the insurance weren't to prove it, And it just is on and on and on and on. And that, I'm telling you, is gonna bring out the very worst in me, the very worst. Cause it's overwhelming. You can't, you can't deal with it. But if I will come to the Lord at the beginning of the day, and I will pray, and I will ask the Holy Spirit to help me, surrender my day to him. Make Jesus Lord of the day. Jesus will show up. The Holy Spirit will show up for me like he showed up for Peter, like he showed up for Jesus in the garden. He will show up for me when you're faced with a cranky mother-in-law. I'm not saying mother-in-laws are cranky, but we all have cranky family members. We can't get rid of them. They are our mission field for life. We can write them off, but they are our mission field for life. Thanksgiving's coming up. Man, there can be so much strife and crankiness around Thanksgiving because of just unbelieving family members, political divides, but God's called us to a different standard. He's called us to walk in love. We have to bring those things to Him and surrender them to Him and pray because no matter what my good intentions are, I'm going to react unless the Holy Spirit comes and strengthens me. So let's pray this morning. We want to say yes, we want to say Jesus in those moments of anger, in those moments of temptation. want to say Jesus you said not my will be done and today I'm surrendering my will to your help in my life. Let's pray together this morning. Father I thank you today that Jesus paid the price and did everything needed for us to walk out our salvation with fear and trembling before you. We come before you this morning lord and we pray that you would touch our hearts with the things that need to change. When frustration and anger arise will not be like Peter and react impulsively and selfishly we bring it before you and we thank you for the power of the Holy Spirit that is a love on the inside of us that works in us to will and to do according to your good pleasure. I thank you today Lord that we do not have to defend ourselves, we humble ourselves before you. We want to be, we want to do the right thing Lord. We let go of our resentments, our resentments to be towards people who we feel may have failed us in the past, resentments towards parents, resentment toward family members towards a boss, The promotion we didn't get, Lord, help us to choose what is right, and we pray, Lord, that you would help us take the next steps in our walk of discipleship with you. Lord, that you show us what we need to do to correct those situations. If we need to apologize, that you show us Lord who we need to and what we need to do. We humble ourselves Lord, we don't go telling people all the things they did wrong. We just go and apologize for what we did wrong. We can only speak for ourselves. Lord, we walk away from temptation in those moments of temptation. And I thank you, Holy Spirit, that you are with us, that you help us, Lord. Our life is hidden, it's hidden in Christ. We can face these moments, these moments of temptation and difficulty. We can face them with confidence, knowing that you have provided a way of escape. Lord for those of us that are exhausted that Peter was, just exhausted from trying to do the right thing, exhausted from trying to serve you and yet not being able to carry it out. We make promises, we say we're gonna do it, and then we encounter weakness again. And Father, I thank you today, Lord, as we come to you, Lord, We speak your word, it's not by might, not by power, but it's by your spirit. My might doesn't do it, I can try, I can want to, but it doesn't do it. My efforts will not stop angry reactions, but I thank you Holy Spirit when you arise on the inside of us like a mighty man of war. It is you that's the helper that you help us this morning. For each person here, you are the helper and you help us this morning. He thank you for it in Jesus' name, amen.