This past Sunday we had the opportunity to worship with High Street Worship Center in Burlington. Below is the introduction and a link to the sermon from that service:
A few weeks ago I was at a conference where the speaker began his message by briefly sharing his testimony of surrendering to Jesus. While he was sharing he said something I had never heard before, he said “I said yes to Matthew 10”. Matthew 10 is a chapter that describes how Jesus sent the apostles out for ministry the first time, it is filled with promises of persecution and protection and makes some very bold statements, the most difficult being in verses 34-39 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be of those of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” This is a passage of Scripture that is of incredible importance and most of us have heard is preached from many times but I have never heard anyone say that they “said yes” to it. We have tried to explain it, sometimes we have tried to take the edge off of it and we have tried to understand what it means to “take our cross” but I’m not sure that we have simply read it and then given an answer. The apostles were being sent out, they understood these were their instructions, this was Jesus’ command to them, it was the way they would go or they were not going. Today we are going to study a parallel passage, the first time the Jesus ever spoke of the cross, His or ours and gave us the command and invitation to deny ourselves, carry our cross and follow Him. Today I want us to hear the words of Jesus and honestly ask ourselves, “what have we said yes to?” I believe that what we will find is that until we have said yes to what Jesus said yes to we have not followed Him and if we have not followed Him we have not yet entered into the full benefit of being the adopted sons and daughters of God. Turn with me to Mark 8 and we will read Jesus’ words together and then ask ourselves, is this what we have said yes to?
http://hswc.us/uploads/Yes_to_Matthew_10.mp3