There are some things you have to go...

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There are some things you have to go through!

Mark 8:31-38

A lady who had just lost everything after a fire destroyed her home explained, “I have lost everything; but I’ve got my life. I’ve never been through nothing like this before, but thank God I’m on the other side of it.”

Dealing with depilating disease, and death will cause emotions to get out of control but when you get to the other side.

Wouldn’t it be nice if parents could just bypass the 9 months of pregnancy, skip labor and delivery, and just get a nice healthy baby? But you’ve got to go through it to get to it.

It’s one thing to go through a devastating experience, another to get to the other side.

Jesus was trying to explain to the Disciples that his

Suffering was necessary

Scourging was necessary

Sacrifice was necessary

He would tried by the Sanhedrin, be killed and after 3 days, come back alive.

He was letting them know that what he had to go through

Peter was an outspoken seaman. Peter took the great liberty to chastise Jesus for making such a statement.

For Peter, Jesus had already proven that he was the Messiah – he had already divinely catered food five thousand, cast out demons, cured leprosy, and called the dead back to life.

Peter could not comprehend that Jesus had to do any more – or go through that kind of suffering – to prove that he was the Messiah – it did not make sense to Peter. So Peter tried to rebuke his Rabbi Jesus in remonstration.

Here is a lesson Jesus is trying to teach Peter:

“Peter, your mind is not on sacred things, but on social things, you have no idea how God works.”

“Peter, your mind is not on holy things, but on human things, you have no idea how God works.”

There are messages for us too:

1. You have to go through the process, if you’re going to make progress. You have to go through some things to get to where God wants you to be. We live in a world where we are often pressured to take shortcuts to save time and cut costs as much as possible. However, if you're not a skilled and experienced in managing, the wrong shortcut could end up costing you a lot more. When you try to take the shortcut, you are prone to miss some lessons that will be beneficial to you down the road.

Beverly Sills said “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going”

Gary Buses said “If you take a short cut you get cut short”

You have to go through the struggle!

Dr. Martin L. King said Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable;

Every step toward the goal requires sacrifice, suffering and struggle!

We will struggle

Maybe during the conversation in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was asking God: “Is there a shortcut to what I have to go through?” But God was saying, no you have to go through betrayal, denial, crucifixion – you’ve got to go through it to get new life.

2. Jesus will guide you to the goal. Jesus tells the disciples: “Don’t run from suffering – embrace it! Take up the cross. Follow me and I’ll show you how to go through it!”

Bros and Sisters, a whole lot of us in here this morning – admit it or not – are going through something. An illness, no job or a bad job– and let me caution you to keep the bad job until you get the other job. A family in crisis, a downward emotional or psychological spin, or just a bad time/place in your life.

Somebody in here is going through something this morning.

The promise of Jesus is that, if we lose ourselvesfollowserve him, he will show us how to get through it. And the way he shows me how to get through it may not be the way he’ll show you how to get through it – but if you hold on to him, lose your life in him, he’ll show you how to get through it.

Jesus Promise us

Hebrews 13:5 (NRSV)

5 "I will never leave you or forsake you."

Hebrews 13:5 (GW)

5 “I will never abandon you or leave you.”

One of the things I’ve learned is that God’s grace and mercy has gotten me through every turn, every trial, every tribulation.

God was not always in the places where I thought He would have been, but in the moments and places where I thought God would be absent, I am a witness that he’ll be there –

He may not have showed up when I thought he would have showed up

Whatever burdens you’re bearing or have been through, His strengthpowergracemercylove is sufficient to get you through.

In his footsteps you must walk every day. When the storm clouds rise in your life, when disastersicknessdeath follow you – don’t fight it – Jesus said “EMBRACE IT, and I’ll show you how to walk through it.”

“Embrace it” – that’s a tough lesson to learn. It’s not a lesson that says “sit on your do-nothing and do nothing.” Or “Pray, go home, go to bed, pray some more.” It’s a lesson that says: “Do everything you can do by the example of Christ.” Christ never stopped. He knew what was ahead, he knew he had to suffer, but he kept on healing and saving lives, until he got through it. He prayed he fought the devil and prayed.

Lou Holtz “Winners embrace hard work”

Prov. Teaches us to embrace then to refrain from embracing

3. Because He was Victorious, you will be victorious!

I like the fact that Jesus does not end the text on a sour note. He says “I gotta go through some bad times.” But like the woman who had lost everything but her life, there is the other side. I skipped over the part of the text where it says – “…and after 3 days, I’ll rise up ALIVE.” The scripture is saying: Jesus had to go through it to rise up and go to it!

I don’t know about you, but I know that God does work in ways that are mysterious to us. We ought to stop telling God the way to bless us; we ought to stop telling God what the other side is supposed to look like, because God knows what we are going through. And God has prepared a brighter day, and a better way. God has already opened the door and made a better way, and there is a bright side for you. So don’t give up, don’t throw in the towel, don’t hang it up, don’t you stop until you get to it!!

Whatever you are going through – there’s nothing too big or too small to take to God. Whatever you are going through, it’s just a season. It’s YOUR season to go through it. If you’re not going through something now, you may have been spared, but YOUR season is coming to go through something. Know that whenever – or whatever – you are going through, there is a better/brighter day coming. You must know that God is going to make way.

2 Corinthians 1:10 (ESV)

10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.

2 Chronicles 16:9 (ESV)

9 For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.

In 1973, a 18 year old teenager, Arthur Hinkley , lifted a 3,000-pound tractor with his bare hands. He wasn’t a weight lifter, but his friend, Lloyd Bachelder, 18, was pinned under a tractor on a farm near Rome, Maine. Hearing Lloyd scream, Arthur somehow lifted the tractor enough for Lloyd to wriggle out. Love motivated him to do it.

Our Father in heaven heard the screams of lost humanity, crying out for deliverance. He sent His one and only precious Son to the cross so that our sins could be lifted off of us and on to Himself. Love motivated Him to do it.

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