Mission and Values - passion over comfort
Passion over comfort: the calling is worth the cost
“Passion” connotates an intense, driving, or overwhelming feeling. If you are truly passionate about something, you’re willing to push through pain and sacrifice for it. Jesus’s passion was to see us saved from wrath and be redeemed. His death on the cross was nothing compared to the depth of His love and compassion for us.
Passion Over Comfort means we believe the calling is worth the cost. How does Expectation Church demonstrate that value?
Understanding that “passion” means “intense, driving, or overwhelming feeling” when used in Scripture, what are you passionate about? Does your life reflect Jesus’ passion for others? How so?
In Mark 5-7, we find The Sermon on the Mount, sometimes referred to as “The Ethics of the Kingdom,” where Jesus teaches His disciples how to live a life dedicated and pleasing to God, without pretense or hypocrisy, modeling His love and grace, and filled with wisdom and discernment. Initially, Jesus addresses His disciples, but as He speaks, a crowd gathers (Mark 8:34-38), and as His audience grows, His message moves from instruction to the disciples to including the crowd too.
Jesus tells them if they truly want to follow Him, they need to deny themselves, pick up their cross, and follow Him, a statement that would have been shocking and offensive to his audience. Crucifixion was reserved for non-Roman citizens and considered a humiliating way to die.
To deny oneself is to say no to yourself and yes to God. Instead of living a life chasing your own dreams and desires, you surrender yourself to God’s will and His plan for your life. Instead of being defined by our race, gender, or accomplishments, we find our identity in Christ as we strive to be more like Him.
What does “denying yourself” look like to you? What areas of your life are you saving for yourself?
To take up our cross means to live every day as if it were our last. Condemned prisoners had to carry the horizontal beam of their cross to the place of crucifixion, pushing through the pain and humiliation. They are singularly focused - one foot in front of the other, thinking only of where they’re headed. Likewise, as disciples, we should be singularly focused on the mission God has given us - Expectation Church exists so that people far from God can experience faith in Christ.
What does verse 37 indicate about what God values compared to what people value? What is the implication of this difference?
From an eternal perspective, what does verse 38 reveal about the role of Jesus as the Christ in the matters of your life?
If someone were to observe your daily, moment-by-moment life, what would they say you’re trying to find life in?
That singular focus encourages us to follow Jesus alone. In John 14:6, Jesus says “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” and in Matthew 16:24-26 He says, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life[a] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”
Human nature leans toward comfort. We want to live our lives in a way that is pleasing to ourselves and makes us look good to others. Yet, Jesus closes His lesson by cautioning us, “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” If we are going to live as Jesus did, placing passion over comfort, we must follow Him all the way to Glory.
Why do we do all these things? Because of Colossians 1:24. “Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.” We live a life unashamed of the gospel, and place passion over comfort so that people far from God will experience faith in Christ.
The calling is worth the cost.
What does this unashamed life look like for you this week? What adjustments do you need to make? Where is Jesus leading you that you have been unwilling to go?
What is your one takeaway from this week’s message?
Make a Move:
What areas of your life are refusing to deny yourself and let Jesus will be done rather than your own? Ask God for the boldness to live a life that demonstrates the calling is worth the cost.
Prayer Prompt:
Father, give me the courage to lay down my life for Jesus’ call to follow Him. Help me to deny myself, placing passion over comfort, so that as I become more Christlike, the lost will be drawn to faith in You.
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Worship Set: You Keep Hope Alive I The Gathering I Land of the Living I Here Again