Description

Using Mark 8:34-38, Dr. Marty Herron challenges students to move beyond having information in their heads to activating their will to make decisions for God, emphasizing that sometimes we must give up our expectations to gain what God has planned.

Scripture Text

Mark 8:34-38

Main Points or Ideas

The message is built around Jesus's principle of total abandonment, involving three imperatives:

• Deny yourself - rejection of self and personal expectations
• Take up your cross - submission to God's will (the cross brought horrific images to Jewish minds)
• Follow me - ongoing discipleship in the dust of the Rabbi

Dr. Herron provides four motivations from the text:

• You lose your life to gain it (verse 35)
• Exchange your life to keep it (verses 36-37)
• Don't be ashamed of Jesus because there will come a day when you don't want Him to be ashamed of you (verse 38)

He illustrates with the story of Margaret Seidler, a single missionary who went to dangerous South Pacific islands inhabited by headhunters, saying "I have to go, but I don't have to come back."

Conclusion

God is calling students to total abandonment - to give up their plans and expectations to gain something far better than they ever dreamed, trusting that God has something miraculous in store for those willing to step out in faith.