so last night I was reading this verse 14 from Luke chapter 8 and it just so happened to cooccur with a fairly recent pair of endof year summary and New Year resolutions from a prominent and well-known person I don't want to
mention that person's name even though there is a uh a minor chance that he might see this video this would be an increment of improvement That's too great for him to handle at this point and that's unfortunate because his life is well known enough public enough that this would be a pretty rich example to learn from but it would be a negative example
as in things to avoid so we'll just keep him anonymous any who so this person posted all these things that he's achieved this year and it's impressive from a material perspective it's impressive but also his work could be seen as helping people and again I'm just staying as general as I
can and the the only reason it's not just to protect him from an invitation towards Improvement that he's not yet willing to accept but it's it's also the the more General this example is the easier it will be to apply to your own life and that's the real point of this video so I invite you as we're going through this to think about how this might apply to you
because I I promise you that there are aspects of your life where you're holding back from God in ways that might not be perfectly visible to you but they will be as we talk about them and they affect you and they affect the people around you and so I'm going to encourage you literally to to impart courage to you in in standing taller to more fully follow the
instructions and example of Jesus Christ okay so back to Luke 8:14 I was looking over this person's accomplishments for this year and his goals for next year those are two separate posts and I thought to myself not one thing on these lists would be possible if he had not well the language we're going to use
is is what the scriptures use If he if he wasn't ashamed of the word of God now let me tell you what I think about that but let's let's get into Luke so this is verse 14 of chapter 8 and this is from the parable of the of the se but I just want to read this one verse you can go back and read the whole thing if you'd like but you're probably already familiar with it and that which
fell among thorns are they which when they have heard go forth and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to Perfection now we have to break this down and in order to do this efficiently I'm going to have to artificially constrain some of the ideas that are
referred to here and I will invite you to go to upward.org and look up some of these words for yourself to see what I've said about them in the past but just briefly the first thing I want to talk about is the word that's what they've heard they've heard the word that's that's like that song the bird is the word which I won't sing to
you right now but that that comes to mind they've heard the word what is the word it's not just things that you say or read words are ideas and it gets even deeper than that so Paul talks about how the only way we can hear the gospel is if the gospel is preached well a much
better well it's not better let me backtrack a very important way that we can quote hear the word is to have it demonstrated to us Jesus Christ is the word before the Earth was created he was the word and he was with God and he was God that's from John chapter 1 so he is the
demonstration of what the father would be if the father were here that's his mortal life was exactly what the father would do as a mortal man it's his character it's his nature it's his it's what he thinks it's what he feels it's what he does the word is every choice of God and why it's the what it's
the why it's all this it's our example to follow and so from this perspective it's it could also be thought of as an invitation to think feel or do differently than you otherwise would it's to be better it's to to
improve improve yourself improve everything around you it's to be more like God okay so that's what's being heard and and the seed that fell among the Thorns are they who hear that invitation and they go forth but they're choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life
and bring no forth no fruit to Perfection so what does it mean what does it look like to be choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life well if you've ever planted anything from seed you know that that when a seed Sprouts you know it's it's just a little Sprout and there's Sprouts
usually come out pretty strong if you've ever done like beans are are really good for this you you can do a project with a little child and you can soak some beans in water and then you you put them in a jar with or without dirt and then they can see the Sprout coming out of the bean and at first it's it's it's a it's a vibrant thick Shute but what happens is in the
subsequent time frame it becomes quite sensitive and the the Sprout will thin out and it's at this point the things start to go wrong and that's when it becomes very important for the plant to be in a good environment that there is sufficient water but not too much water that there's sufficient light but not too
much light that there's sufficient heat but not too much heat and if these conditions aren't within the range of of where they need to be then what happens is the plant gets very thin it dries out it shrivels up it dies if you if you've ever planted a tomato from seed tomatoes need a lot of light and if you don't give them enough light they get leggy which means that they they grow into
these really thin and Tall stalks and the problem with that is it's too frail to support any weight and even if you nurse it through if it's if it's too skinny it'll it'll never recover and you you can't have fruit on a a skinny plant it'll it'll never even get that far because it can't even take the weight of the leaves which are the next
phase of growth so with people we grow towards God through our reactions to invitations to improve these are opportunities to do and be better than we did or were before the cares and riches and pleasures of this life all inhibit our
willingness to fully emulate Jesus Christ to truly do with with full heart might mind and strength what we sincerely believe he would in our place to sincerely feel how he would in our place to think as he would so what are our motives what are our beliefs what are
our desires all of these things are wrapped into this and you know what we're all a lot smarter than we think in some ways in some ways we're a lot dumber than we think and we tend to focus on this which is probably good but there's another side of this coin it's it's very important to see ourselves as we really are and in a lot of ways we don't do that but keeping this Focus to
intelligence often we think that we're a lot dumber than we are and you know you might not be actively thinking to yourself gee how can I deviate from the example of Jesus Christ today GE how can I do less than he would how can I feel worse than he would how can I think more poorly than he would
what beliefs are true that I can manipulate into something less true and follow that instead no one thinks that way and yet almost everyone does this almost every day now let me explain what I mean you know since you were a very little child you you've been trained every day to
anticipate how other people will react to what you do or don't do you you did this so thoroughly that you probably don't even think about it except in rare cases today you know you might have a situation from time to time where you think if I go to the right this is what the person I'm in front of will will do and if I go to the left this is what
they'll do you have these options before you and you might actually think well especially if you're in sales if I do this they'll be more likely to do what I want them to do if I do this other thing they'll be more likely to do this thing I don't want them to do and you make your choice but what you don't realize is those calculations are happening inside of you
subconsciously all all the time it's just like do you have to think about breathing probably not unless you're running really fast it's it's just the rare cases where it's not your normal situation that you have to think about it do you have to think about walking probably not unless you had a stroke or something right why because you walk all the time it's subconscious it's it's driven deep into
you through years and years of practice well do you think it's any different for your expectations of how other people are going to react you are primed over years of training to constrain how you think how you feel and how you act just to make it totally clear it's not just what you do
and don't do you are primed to limit how you feel and how you think based on how other people will react do you not believe me do do you think that there are situations let's say that you're a young single person are there situations where you have to hide how you really feel about someone even if you really really really like them well of course if you if you see a random
person on the bus and you confess your undying love at first sight to them that's not going to go well right or you could take it the other way let's say you hate somebody's guts you have been trained since you a young child to hide that now whether there's Merit in this ever or whether it's always bad is not my point that I want to make
today my point is that in many cases these subconscious filters actually encourage you to do evil whether that's actively through doing bad things or whether it's through omitting good things and I think the omitting good things is probably a better one to spend more time on
today so what are the motives for these filters it says right here the cares and riches and pleasures of this life what's the effect of the filter it says right here bring no fruit to Perfection we're going to dive a little deeper into that but let's just make sure we squeeze the out of the the
motive first a lot of times you feel or think or act differently than than Jesus would in your place according to your understanding so let me say that better A lot of times you think and feel and act differently than Jesus would in your place according to
your understanding simply because you know again probably subconscious ly that the temporal things in your life will not go well if you fully live up to the example he's given now we have to make this explicit because Christianity has been so warped
by people over time that we we actually have to explicitly state if you follow the example of Jesus you can expect to be treated the way he was this idea that Jesus suffered so we don't have to is absolute rubbish he led the way so we could follow in the way when we follow his example it will go for us as it did for
him and the closer we are the closer our experience will resemble his and that's why there's a conflict that's why the word is choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life because they're contradictory to one another now that that doesn't mean that we use suffering as a beacon necessarily we don't we don't manufacture it
artificially there's plenty of real suffering in the way you don't have to look for it but we do have to avoid staying out of the way or leaving the way because we are trying to protect our riches and pleasures and and how we'll see seem to others now back to this individual he makes lots of money he's
worked like a maniac for many years to get to where he is and that's good it's admirable he's he's risked a lot to get there and yet the riches that he derives from the things that he does and the fame that he has because of the things he he has done he would lose it all in a minute if he lived up lived up
to what his intelligence has the ability to understand in other words he's used his intelligence to extract riches and Pleasures but he stopped short of doing what God would do in his place because he has all sorts of things that he will absolutely not think because he knows
where it will go lead to and he has absolutely a lot of things that would absolutely destroy it I'm not saying this well if he there are things that are shut off from him being able to be concerned about them that's the feelings component he refuses to look into things he refuses to have a position on things that he knows will be too controversial
for him to maintain his status in society and because of that he will never say anything about those things he'll come up so far but he'll stop I would go so far as to say he's probably confronted with things like this every single day and every single day he turns away because the word is
choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life and so what does it mean to not bring fruit to Perfection the idea of fruit that's something we could talk about for a long time again you could search that Perfection you've probably heard other people talk about it's to come to the complete purpose of or the fullness of it's to realize the potential of that's the scriptural meaning of the
word so fruit to Perfection it's to grow all the the potential that you have to its fullest extent potential to be as good as you can be and to do as much good as you could this is worth pausing on for a minute because many times those subconscious
limitations they become conscious limitations and we'll realize that we're holding back and you know what happens one of the primary defenses to this is but I'm doing so much good and I wouldn't be able to do that good if I went full bore if I really lived up to what I actually think and feel and I really did what aligns with
that there is a time and a place for strategy but it is so dangerous to make this excuse you need to realize you're walking on a Ledge and it's a ledge that regularly crumbles be extremely careful most people don't have deep enough honesty to navigate that ledge well and so you see this all the time
with people who for example will stay in a church that they don't believe the the central tenants of they say but I'm doing good I'm persuading people to be better than they would are you where's the fruit where's the fruit in the best case the only thing you can do is help people to derive the maximal
value of the system that you have come to not believe in and that's probably highly limited really your fruit could probably only be measured in the number of people that leave the church that you want because of what you've said or done does that make sense and so if if all you're doing is is having people tolerate what you say from time to time you're not doing much good at
all and and most of the time the fruits of that kind of work will say that performance that's a better word because you're you're you're being dishonest you're putting on a show the fruits of that performance are usually non-existent what's the real result of
what you're doing and and notably what you're not doing so more often than not the real reason for doing something like that is you're comfortable where you are and you don't want to change that's the real reason there are so many costs unseen costs to that kind of
performance you just don't realize the the tentacles of dishonesty they run through your life in ways that you can't trace it's it's only after you get rid of it that you see just how far it it affected you in ways that were outside of your control this is the button that you push or don't push but what happens afterwards will will will it spreads out
far beyond what you think it would and and this is one reason why it's worth losing riches and pleasures of this life because what you gain is so much more than that maybe that's a good place to transition here well the final point is you'll never get to the completion of
your potential you'll never even get close while you're holding yourself back by not doing what God would do not not feeling how he would feel and not thinking how he would think if you're holding back because you're afraid of what other people people will do or not do then you will never get even close to your potential your potential is
denominated in the character of Christ to the extent you turn away from any of that you're turning away from the good that you could do and be and consequently from the joy that you could have so now let's transition to Mark 8 so this will start the story here where Peter rebukes him because Jesus starts describing the kind of suffering he's going to have to go through and why
he says in verse 31 the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and of the chief priests and scribes and be killed and after three days rise again I want to pause here I should talk about this for much longer than I can right now but it was vital for all of the leaders to reject
him do you see the the elders the chief priests the scribes all three contingents of the leadership had to reject him that was part of his mission and there are many reasons for that and again we can't get into it but the the point here is that part of his mission was to be rejected and not just rejected by the common people and so
consequences are going to come with that in this case he told Peter that he would be killed so often coming back to the well I need to stay quiet or I need to not do what I would otherwise do or I need to just color within the lines because otherwise I can't do the good that I'm doing coming back to that
argument very often it's at least as important to God that your example is rejected as it is when it's accepted and that's something that's not commonly understood you know it's much easier for God to find someone who's willing to be accepted and he says I have a mission
who wants to go on it everyone's going to listen to you or you'll be you'll be showered with evidence that you're doing good that's received by and valued by others and all the hands go up but when he says someone has to go and be an example of how I am to a people that will reject them and hate them for it far fewer people say Here I Am send
me you look at when Isaiah was the the description of Isaiah's calling in the book of Isaiah and God basically says I need a volunteer Isaiah says here I am and he says what what do you want me to do of course I'm paraphrasing all this and God says well you need to go to a very hard-hearted people and they're going to reject you and you're going to just show them again and again and warn them again
and again and no one's going to listen to you and eventually Jerusalem will be destroyed because they reject the warning and they're terrible people and Isaiah says well how long do I need to preach and and God says this really uh ornamental language about until the until the cities crumble kind of a thing I could pull it up but you can look it up he basically says well it's it's
going to be longer than you want it to be and it's going to be terrible and it doesn't say anything in the text but you can sort of Imagine Isaiah's countenance just following when he's hearing this like oh great what did I sign up for and again I'm I'm being quite free with with imagining all of this right but you you can put yourself in that sort of situation and think about
it God has all kinds of people he can send into situations that have positive feedback but there are very few people that trust him enough to do his will when the end result is everyone hates you and they treat you terribly so anyway Peter's reaction to this and and there's no doubt he he had
not yet wrapped his head around the fact that that's how it goes and this is what he is a disciple to is this path you know he it's funny well I'll just read the verse first and he spake that saying openly and Peter took him and began to rebuke him but when he had turned about and looked on his disciples he rebuked Peter saying get thee behind me Satan for thou savest not the things that be of God but
the things that be of men you see going back the cares and riches and pleasures of this life why because they cannot bring fruit to Perfection it's either or these things cannot coexist you either choose God or Mammon and Mammon doesn't just mean money you either choose God's way or
Babylon you choose the things that be of God or the things that be of men and if you choose the things that be of God you need to realize that you're choosing a path where most people will hate you you say well most people don't hate most Christians because they're not real Christians they're not on that path they don't do what Jesus does in their place
they brag about how they don't have to because of what Jesus did so Peter is is fighting and saying Jesus you don't have to do this you don't have to lose your life you you know there's another way and Jesus rebuked him why well first off Peter wasn't arguing here for the sake of Jesus he was arguing because he didn't
want to be killed as well now he finally came around so we're not going to pick on him and did much better than most other people would so we're not going to pick on him but that's the fact so in 34 he continues whosoever will come after me
let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for whosoever will save his life shall lose it but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospels the same shall save it for what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words there's
that words again in this adulterous and sinful generation of him also shall the son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his father and with the Holy Angels you have two paths to choose from the one is where you get as much as as you can the scriptures call that to get
gain the other path is to give as much as you can and that's the path of following Jesus and in that path it's going to be taken from you an awful lot will be taken but that's the price for everything else that the Lord will give you and maybe what he gives you has some tempal value but it certainly has
Eternal value maybe it will cost you the whole world but you'll gain your soul you'll gain eternal life the price of eternal life is all things the details of how that lays out are different in the life of each person that takes that path because our circumstances differ but the price is
everything and Jesus didn't mince words about that there are many passages that say that now I want to zoom in on verse 38 and I want to talk about explicitly what does it mean to be ashamed of Jesus and of his words it means to deviate from his example in any way in any way if you're not doing what he would do if you're not thinking what
he would think if you're not feeling what he would feel as far as you understand him to be be you are ashamed of him and he will be ashamed of you when he comes in the glory of his father with the Holy Angels does this refer to an event yes but it also refers to a process going back to something I already said here your progress in the
gospel is determined by how you react to invitations to improve that's how he sorts between the sheep and the goats there was a game on Price's right that I refer to often enough that I should know the name of it and I don't but it was a a a board of pins and they dropped a like a pingpong ball or something in the top and as it fell from the force of gravity it would hit these
pins and then go left or right and so as it fell through all the the rows of pins the ball might end up in a in a place very far away from the same Left Right distance it was dropped so they drop it in the middle it might end up way far on the left it might end up way far on the right might end up anywhere in between and that's how we are and the pins are life the pins are
invitations to improve and with each one you either do what God would do in your place as far as you understand or you don't now the the pin situation is a half and half it's a 50/50 but in life the invitation to improve stratifies a lot further why because to do what you believe is
best that's one choice and anything else is to turn away from God and there are many anything else is so it's not a 50/50 it's a straight and narrow way the right choice is is is very rare if you're just picking randomly it tends to be the hardest thing that's one way you can find it but that the topic of what is good that's a
very large topic so he comes in his glory as in the glory of the his father that refers to the second coming with the Holy Angels that refers to the second coming but figuratively that's happening all the time because he's coming in the glory of his father with the Holy Angels in every
invitation you have towards Improvement sometimes quite literally there is a Holy Angel showing you how to be better and you get to decide how to react but more often than not you're you're not aware of all of that and it just seems like a chance to pick up trash off the ground or a chance to arrange your schedule so you have a
little bit more time with your kids every day or a chance to arrange what you do with your kids so it actually helps them become better people instead of just entertaining yourself or them maybe the invitation is taking a minute to think about what you eat and when and why and to reorient that at least slightly for for greater long-term Joy maybe it's while you're doing a set
of bench press at the gym and you realize that you're just not trying as hard as you could you see it's in every moment and this is why Jesus says on several occasions he says pay attention because you never know when the master is going to come back he wasn't just talking about the second coming
every moment has the potential to draw you nearer to Christ depending on how you react to it are you paying attention are you doing the best that you can the best that you know so coming full circle now to close this up think about your life and think about
all the little ways and maybe big ways that that you're ashamed of Christ in every moment do you live fully up to your potential or are you scared of what other people might do or not do if you did start having greater courage to walk as Jesus would
and you'll find that he becomes a much more obvious companion to you in your life while you actively reject him that will not be the case but as you draw near to Him He will draw near to you and so I hope that you think about that today and tomorrow and to continue
to do that and it's likely that it's going to cost you something and also a great deal but that's the price for things that are worth much more than whatever you lose