A Pattern of Discipleship

Welcome to our women's Bible study on the book of Mark, which we've called Following Jesus. And today is week seven in your study guide, and what we're going to do is cover the remainder of chapter eight and all of chapter nine. As usual, I'll put a roadmap up on the screen for you that shows you the passages that we're going to cover and a little description. Today's passage is primarily about discipleship. Jesus was beginning to teach his disciples about what it means to follow him, and we're going to learn what those implications are for us as well this morning. So we left Jesus walking to Caesarea Philippi last. Remember that's the place with all the pagan gods, and Jesus took the opportunity with that backdrop to ask them, who do you say that I am? Peter was the one filled with understanding who said, you are the Christ. And you remember we said that Jesus usually asks questions because he wants to teach something, and that's what was going on. So Peter's confession opened the door for Jesus to begin to teach them about his mission and his ministry, and that's where we pick it up now. We're in chapter eight, verse 31, and he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. Let's pause and look at those four elements of his teaching. He said that his mission included suffering, rejection, death, but he would rise. Now this is new information. If we are reading this gospel through the eyes of a child or as a first timer, we would say, oh, wow, that's, don't know what that means, but that's going to be awesome. We've seen him raise others from the dead, so that would be cool, but the message would begin to unfold for the disciples that following Jesus would be being like him, and perhaps for them even experiencing the same things that Jesus did. In many ways, his mission and his ministry become our mission and our ministry in what we call discipleship. So they were still expecting this political liberator, but this was new. So verse 32, and he said this plainly and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, but turning and seeing the disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, get behind me, Satan, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. Now we talked a lot last week about different kinds of understanding. Do you remember that? We talked about having spiritual ears and spiritual eyes, and we identified that there are really only two kinds of understanding, natural understanding and spiritual understanding. Jesus was encouraging them to have spiritual understanding by opening up their spiritual ears and their spiritual eyes. These translate into two philosophies of living, whichever one you embrace in terms of your understanding, that's how you're going to live your life, okay? So if you embrace the natural, the natural philosophies, this is of the world. This is the same thing that we see in the natural world. It's under the control of the evil one, okay? So it's actually Satan's philosophy, and it means glory without suffering, greatness without serving. I came up with that. Do you like that? I thought that was really good. Maybe someone else before me said it, so I better be careful with that. Spiritual philosophy, which is not of this world, but is of God's kingdom, is suffering, which transforms into glory, and serving, which proves greatness. So they're two completely different things. So this is why Jesus came as the suffering servant. Suffering comes first, followed by glorification, okay? Whatever philosophy we accept and we practice determines how we live, how we serve. So when we see Peter rebuking Jesus for teaching spiritual philosophy, he was in that moment embracing natural philosophy. Jesus, no, not suffering, not death. And so now it's easy to see why Jesus turned to him and said, get behind me, Satan. It's not like Peter was Satan. It was just that the natural philosophy is of this world, and Satan is in control of this world. And so Jesus said, get behind me because Peter was promoting in his statement, no, no, no, no suffering. And Jesus wanted them to understand, no, suffering does come first. So this is the cost of discipleship. Okay. So this is the backdrop now for Jesus's next teaching, which was told to a larger crowd. And Jesus knew when big crowds came, he knew why they were there. He knew they were hoping for some miracle for themselves or just to see some miracle. Hey, I would, wouldn't you? You would, you would go a long way to see some of these things happening or maybe get a free lunch too. That was awesome. But Jesus also knew that as soon as he started talking about these things, the philosophy of the kingdom, suffering first, followed by glory, many people were going to disappear. He knew that. Now right here in those verses, we are pretty much in the midpoint of the gospel of Mark. We're pretty much in the midpoint of our 12 week study. This is what we call in science terms, the fulcrum. Okay. This is the point at which things pivot and turn. Okay. And so this conversation about discipleship is a turning point in our study, a turning point in what Jesus was explaining. So let's really dissect what he said in this one sentence. It's probably familiar to you. Let's take a look at the three elements here about discipleship. Number one, let him deny himself. This is the first step in suffering that leads to glory. When we surrender ourselves completely to God rather than our own agenda, that is what denying yourself means. I wrote down self-denial means letting go of self-determination. Self-determination isn't just like, oh, I'm a determined person. Self-determination is determined to do it the way I think best. Okay. So self-denial, denying ourselves means letting go of self-determination. Then the next thing he said is let him take up his cross. No one has said anything about a cross up to this point. If you're reading this for the first time, you're like, hmm, cross, nobody said anything. Now for New Testament Christians reading this, we know all about it. We know all about the cross. Honestly, they knew about the cross too. They had seen Roman executions. They knew what the cross meant when Jesus said this. And so when it says let him take up his cross or bear his cross, it means this is on the way to self-denial, on the way to death to self, the weight of carrying this. So taking up your cross means carrying the understanding of death to self-determination. You guys, that is suffering. When I have to say, when I have to put my self-determination, my self-agenda to death, I suffer because I don't want to do that. I bet you don't want to do it either. We want to do what we want to do. So this is the cost of discipleship, being able to yield. I had a granddaughter. This was many years before she was able to legally drive, but she would say to us, we asked a question one time, okay, you come to a four-way stop. She's like a 10-year-old or something. Come to a four-way stop. How do you know who goes first? Oh, that's easy. You just stop and wave everybody through. That had been her observation in life, although not good traffic rules, but that is yielding. The point of that is yielding, and I like that word to yield, to take my self-determination and to yield to the Lord's will. And then he said, and let him follow me, and this points to obedience, again, yielding to God's plan. What do we replace our self-determination with? Following Jesus means willingly putting God in charge of our lives. Now all these things I'm talking about, you're like, yes, absolutely. I want to grow in this. These are growth things. Are they not? Anybody in here got this all dialed in? No, and so we go through these Bible studies. We read this, we process this, and we're like, more growth. When we come to Jesus, when we believe in Jesus for salvation, that is called our justification. We believe he's a son of God. We believe that he can and will forgive our sins. We are now justified before God. This stuff is sanctification. And it goes on and on through our life. Okay, we are sanctified made more into the image of God, which is maybe another great definition of Discipleship. So if we live for ourselves by not following the pattern of discipleship We will lose ourselves if we lose ourselves by following the pattern of discipleship We will find ourselves. Verse 35 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man given return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of His father with the holy angels. Chapter 9 verse 1 says and he said to them truly I say to you there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God After it has come with power. So once again, Jesus's teaching to his disciples was clear Suffering first followed by glory and Jesus always loved to take his disciples on a little field trip that would better Explain his teachings and that's what happens here Let's pick it up chapter 9 verse 2 And after six days jesus took with him peter james and john and led them up a high mountain by themselves Most scholars favor this as mount herman Which is really funny. I wrote that in my notes and wouldn't you know on facebook this week? I got a picture of mount herman I should have put it up for you. But Anyway little aside and he was transfigured before them and his clothes became radiant intensely white As no one on earth could bleach them and there appeared to them Elijah and moses and they were talking with jesus and peter said to jesus rabbi It is good that we are here Let us make three tents one for you and one for moses and one for elijah For he did not know what to say for they were terrified and a cloud overshadowed them and a voice came out of the cloud This is my beloved son Lifts into him and suddenly looking around they no longer saw anyone with them But jesus only now the point of this experience with the disciples Was to get a glimpse of jesus's divine Glorified nature. That's the point of this The main point but along the way we get a little comedy and a little understanding So let's look at the comedy that we see here, which is at peter's expense It lies in his suggestion that they should make three tents Okay, and it even says in there because he didn't know what to say. I can picture peter Saying these things later. Do you ever tell on yourself? Do you ever tell a story about something kind of really dumb that you said or you did especially without understanding? That's what I picture. I picture him telling a roman audience about this. He goes. Yeah, I didn't we were all terrified I didn't know what to say. So I just said this, you know, well mark wrote it down Which is great, but the main problem with peter's suggestion Is that it would put have put all three of these men on equal footing Tent tent tent as if to make them similar a trio that was similar. Okay, so that's the problem with it The understanding that we see is who appeared with jesus In this moment when he wanted his disciples to see his divine glorified presence Who appeared it was moses and it was elijah And you studied this in your study guide Of all the combinations of old testament saints that could that he could have chosen. Hey, there's a lot of obvious choices What about abraham? He was kind of the patriarch of this whole deal What about david? like david is is The you know the coming king What about daniel or some of these others ezra? There's a lot of people that could have been But no, it was moses and it was elijah and the point of that was to purposefully represent the two sections of the law and the prophets moses representing the law and Elijah representing the prophets jesus wasn't just another bible guy in there to make a trio Okay, and that's the understanding we get when we hear the voice that says This is my beloved son. Listen to him to elevate him Above the other two see three tenths wouldn't have been any good Because what god was saying is he has come to fulfill those other two He has elevated listen to him so it was a really neat experience Verse nine says and as they were coming down the mountain He charged them to tell no one what they had seen Until the son of man had risen from the dead and the reason is jesus knew his path of suffering And he didn't want anything to block his necessary Death and atonement for the sins of mankind. So he was constantly trying to tamp down All the crowds verse 10, so they kept the matter to themselves questioning What this rising from the dead might mean? And they asked him Why do the scribes say that elijah must come? That's what they asked jesus and he said to them. Well, elijah does come first to restore all things And how is it written of the son of man that he should suffer many things and be treated with contempt? In other words, you know about elijah coming first, but you're not mentioning this other part It does say that the son of man will suffer many things, but you don't mention that But back to elijah. I tell you that elijah has come and they did to him Whatever they pleased as it is written of him. And of course he was referring to john the baptist. There was a popular expectation That john the bat or that elijah would physically show up And everyone would know that oh it's elijah, okay, that was the expectation but it was without understanding Okay, so along comes john the baptist and a lot of people missed it because of their narrative because of what they had been expecting but jesus said that um, in fact in luke 1 27 jesus said that uh, john the baptist came in elijah's power and spirit so so now Jesus peter and james they arrived back with the other disciples. We're going to move to this next section verse 14 And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them and scribes arguing with them and immediately All the crowd when they saw him were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him so you can feel the chaos, right? And he asked them his disciples What are you arguing about with them and they don't even get a chance to answer When someone from the crowd answered him teacher I brought my son to you for he has a spirit that makes him mute And whenever it seizes him it throws him down and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid So I asked your disciples to cast it out and they were not able and he answered them. Oh faithless generation How long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you bring him to me? And they brought the boy to him and when the spirit saw him Immediately it convulsed the boy and he fell on the ground and rolled about foaming at the mouth and jesus asked his father How long has this been happening to him? And he said from childhood and it is often cast him into the fire and into water to destroy him And once again, we see with the demonic presence this manifestation of self-harm The dad says yeah, it often casts him into the water or into the fire now look We see this in our present world also Okay Particularly with young people if they get involved in the occult in some ways there's often a Manifestation of self-harm in some way that goes with that I'm, not saying they're possessed by a demon, but it goes hand in hand. You've seen this, right? But that doesn't mean that every young person who attempts some kind of self-harm is Demon possessed or has dabbled in the occult because young people are notorious for seeing something and trying it out Okay, so there's a peer influence there that can happen as well. So what does that mean for moms and grandmas? We need discernment When we see those kinds of things manifest in our younger generations We need to discern it and we need to take it to the Lord and say what in the world is going on here And how can I help? Because maybe they're just trying out something that a friend has done Or maybe there's something going on in the shadows that you don't know about and it needs to be uncovered But I just wanted to kind of mention that since this is our this is our mission in life is our younger generations And so in the middle of verse 22 the father said to Jesus But so the father this is the father of the man speaking to Jesus and he says but if you can do anything Have compassion on us and help us. So what I hear him saying is, um, I asked your disciples. They couldn't do anything But if you can do something Um, it's illogical It's like these are Jesus followers, but they're kind of seem like maybe the b team and now the guy comes Maybe you can do something. Okay verse 23 and Jesus said to him if you can All things are possible for one who believes and immediately the father the child cried out and said I believe help my unbelief And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again. And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, he's dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, lifted him up, and he arose. And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, why could we not cast it out? And he said to them, this kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer. Okay, in that narrative, I see two important things for us to take a look at, and those important things are faith and prayer, really simple things. Let's look at faith. Let's look at how the father humbled himself before Jesus, and he said to Jesus, I believe, help my unbelief. He was totally humble there, is the way I read it. He didn't come off as like, oh yeah, I got the faith I need, I've got this dialed in. No, he was just like he was in front of Jesus. He goes, and he said, I believe, help everything in me that doesn't believe, help me to believe. You know what I see? The loaves and the fish. I only got a little bit here, but I see that I need a lot, so would you multiply the faith that I have for this situation, because there's nothing I want more in this world than to see my son relieved from this suffering. I love that. I love offering the small amount of faith that we do have, and expecting that Jesus is going to multiply it to meet the need, just like he multiplied the loaves and the fish, so this preaches to me. And the second aspect is prayer, which also preaches to me. It's not just the aspect of prayer, though. It is the context of this situation that kind of grabbed me this week. In verse 16, Jesus had asked his disciples, what are you arguing about with them? So the disciples, the scribes, they were arguing when Jesus arrived, and Jesus said to them, what are you arguing about? He never said something because he didn't know. He said something to open up the door for teaching, to explain to them. So that's what the disciples had been doing. Do you think that maybe Mark wrote this in such a way that we are to consider what the disciples had been spending their time doing? They had been spending their time arguing. Who has time for prayer when you're busy doing that? I spend my time on a great many things. And I had to ask myself, do I have time for prayer if I'm spending my time on all these things? Even when we see a problem, we see something that needs to be fixed in our life or in the life of those who know, we can step in and spend our time starting to fix and starting to do whatever we think needs to be done with our self-determination. Or is Jesus teaching us here that, you know what, these kind only come out with prayer. This situation is only fixed with prayer. And so you can probably process by thinking about a situation in your life that you have been, maybe you've been praying about, maybe you're convicted right now. It's like, I haven't been praying about, I need to be praying about and to consider what have I been doing with my self-determination to fix this situation? But what we need is persistent prayer. And so always convicting for me, the persistence of prayer. And I think that's a good lesson there. All right, we're gonna go to our last section, which I titled Receiving and Protecting the Vulnerable, verse 30. And they went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, and here comes number two, foretelling of his future, the son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him. And when he is killed after three days, he will rise. But they did not understand the saying and they were afraid to ask him. And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house, he asked them, what were you discussing on the way? Another question meant to open up a conversation, but they kept silent for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the 12 and he said to them, if anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all. And he took a child and he put him in the midst of them and taking him in his arms, he said to them, whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. And whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me. Now in Mark's narrative, this conversation happened right after Jesus had just relieved the suffering of a child. Maybe not a small child. He might have been more of a grown boy, a young man, but he was still a child to the father. He was still a son. And Jesus' example of serving in front of them as he healed that boy meant this. It meant that he stopped what might have seemed like important work to minister to someone who may not have seemed very important. That was what Jesus modeled for them. And this defines being a servant of all. The men had been discussing greatness on the way. That's what they were talking about. They were afraid to ask Jesus about his death and rising from the dead, but they weren't afraid to talk about who was the greater among them. And Jesus showed them that true greatness lies in looking to the needs of the vulnerable. Now this doesn't mean that Christians, every Christian should run off to some overseas mission and find the vulnerable and minister to them. Maybe if you're called to that, that's fine. Doesn't mean that every Christian woman should work in the church nursery because that is the highest calling with the vulnerable. Although they probably need more help. But it means to notice the vulnerable right between our own feet. Do you remember how we talked about where's your ministry? Your ministry is right between your own feet. So who are the vulnerable in your path? If there are little ones in your house, boom. That's the first thing. The ministry is to receive those vulnerable, protect those vulnerable, is to care for, pray for, and teach. If you have an elderly right in front of your path, your mission is to engage and minister however you are able to do that. Those are legitimate expressions of receiving a child in my name. Stopping to minister to the needs of the vulnerable. Okay, verse 38, John said to him, well teacher, we saw someone cast out demons in your name and we tried to stop him because he was not following us. But Jesus said, do not stop him. For no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us. For truly I say to you, whoever gives a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward. Sorry to keep stopping all the time, but there's some really good applications for us here. What Jesus was teaching the disciples and what we can learn from this as well. When they saw someone doing a good work, obviously in the name of Christ, but they weren't part of their group. The guy or the guys doing that weren't part of the disciples' group. The first thing that I hear Jesus saying is, you just focus on your task. You just focus on what you've been given to do and let God take care of that, okay? Don't be so quick to criticize others who clearly follow Christ but aren't part of your group. There will always be those outside of our circles that might actually do a mighty work for God. Now, this takes discernment, again, because we're not saying that we should embrace false teaching simply because they're outside of our group. It's false teaching, but hey, well, who are we to say? No, that's different, and that's why we have pastors and elders in churches to teach us about false teaching, protect us. It also doesn't mean that we embrace every single philosophy of ministry as if it is good and productive. No, we have discernment, but we can leave the outcome to God. We can leave the outcome. Jesus said, the one who is not against us is for us. Now, some people are against God and they do good things. Those aren't the people we're talking about. Some people are for God and they do good things, but they're just outside of our circle. And in practical terms, like over 35 years, Paul and I have witnessed this a lot. Like, we'll see somebody, it's like, it appears as though you're for God, that's good. Your ways are a little different, but we'll just see how it turns out. Are the things that you're doing going to bear fruit and flourish, or are you gonna depart? And we've seen it happen both ways. We have seen people, like, depart from the way of God, but God took care of it, okay? Now, in those situations, did we promote their work? No. Did we protect the vulnerable in our group? Yes, okay, but did we stop their work? No, that's God's business of how and when he's going to do that. So, I don't know if that makes any, has any relevance to your life. life, but that's what the Lord gave me. Verse 42, whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. Okay. And so Jesus referred to one of these little ones in this verse, in verse 37, one such child. I don't think we have to restrict his words to actual children like young human beings. Okay. Because he also mentioned about people giving them a cup of water as adults. So can I just say, we're talking about the vulnerable here. Okay. Or the not mature. And Jesus was explaining here the danger of causing others to stumble and the danger of them to potentially sin against God's moral law by what we do, what we say. Okay. And this is one reason for us women, why it is so important for us when we see the narratives of the age out and around there that we know are false, that we make, we do not embrace them for the sake of loving someone. Okay. So I'm talking about narratives of the age. I'm talking about gender confusion. I'm talking about marriage situations, talking about sexuality. There's all of these narratives out there. We cannot afford to embrace that because, hey, we want to love this person. We're causing them to stumble. We're causing them to either be led away from the Lord or to go against God's moral law. Now, this is really challenging because if we stand for the truth, we may be rejected. We may definitely be rejected by another person, canceled by another person. They may sever relationships. And as women, this is like the biggest part of our heart is relationships. But this is also discipleship. What Jesus was saying here when they said, what about those people doing this? Should we stop them? He goes, no, what I want you to do is I want you to look at your own life. Are you causing anyone to stumble? And so there's a lot of applications for that. Am I causing anyone to stumble? But I feel like the speaking the truth in love thing is just so relevant for our day and a good application for that. Again, it comes down to what are we spending our time doing? Are we spending our time praying over a situation or arguing over a situation? Okay. Just because we hold to the truth doesn't mean we have to argue for the truth. And then we're going to finish in verse 43. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. For it's better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. And you understand, don't you, that this is along the lines of a parable. This is an illustration. This isn't, Jesus is not saying to actually physically do these things. It's something, it's a way of cutting something close to us out of our life in order to serve the Lord, in order to not sin against the Lord. Okay, that's the point. And the last two verses say, for everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good if the salt has lost, excuse me, salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another. So we learn in that last passage, God wants us to be at peace with one another. It's a big deal when believers live happily together in God's family. We learn God wants us to have salt in yourselves, which is like, okay, maybe we should talk about that. We usually think about salt as having a preserving effect and it does, and it's true. But what about this statement when Mark says, everyone will be salted with fire? Okay, this is puzzling. It only occurs in Mark. This is the only place that we have it. But many scholars think that there's a link with Old Testament offerings, Old Testament sacrifices, and I think that that's legitimate. So I want to show you a passage from Leviticus up on the screen.

All right. So the instruction there is to have salt along with your offering, along with your sacrifice. So can I just walk us forward into a passage in Romans where we are described as a living sacrifice? Let's put up Romans 12.1.

Okay. So there used to be these real life, tangible, natural sacrifices with the instructions to include salt. Then along comes New Testament understanding. It's like, no, you are a living sacrifice. You keep living even through the fire, if we will. And so if we think about those two illustrations, okay, both of these sacrifices, salt was good and necessary. Both of these sacrifices, fire made the offering pleasing to God. It's the fire that made the offering pleasing to God. Now, if we consider ourselves a living sacrifice with a continual fire going, right, there's an element there of purification with fire, and there's an element there of perseverance. Salt has the preserving effect and the purifying effect. I don't pretend to say that salt, what Mark means here, is that salt is a picture of the Holy Spirit. However, I don't think that it's wrong to think of it that way. Have salt in yourselves. Yeah, it is the Spirit of God within me that is going to give me this, both the purifying effect and the preserving effect through the fires of discipleship, through the fires of life. And I don't mean the fire as in troubles that come upon all of us. I mean specifically the discipleship aspect, okay, that we embrace because we want to be purified. We want to be purified and useful to the Lord. So what I want to do is just wrap up today with three red letter pieces of theology, and we're going to begin with chapter 8, verse 34. I'll put it on the screen. It says, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Okay. Again, belonging to God is about more than just, I believe Jesus is God's son. I believe if I ask him, he'll forgive my sins. This understanding tells us following God is actually then denying ourselves and saying, I'm going to do the things that you want me to do. Okay. And then verse 32 says, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. You see what I'm doing here? These are the words of Jesus. That's why we call it red letter theology. What do we learn from the words of Jesus? You're not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. This is kind of a recap of what we talked about last week, about am I walking with just natural thinking? Because natural thinking is going to tell me, I want glory, but no suffering. It's going to tell me, I want greatness, but no serving. Or are we going to think, set our minds on the things of God with our spiritual philosophy, which says, okay, I'll embrace suffering because it transforms into glory. I will embrace serving because serving means greatness. And so I think that's what Jesus is encouraging there to set your mind on the things of God, the spiritual things, not the things of man. And final one is 935. If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all. We're learning a lot about serving today. And again, Jesus's example in front of them was stopping what seemed like very important work in order to minister to someone who may not have seemed very important. And that is a model for us. It's a model for us to consider. Stopping important work is one of the hardest things I ever have to do in my life. I'm task driven. I am list driven. I have things in mind that I want to do and I want to accomplish in order to stop my very important work to see to the needs of vulnerable. That's suffering. It's not easy to do, but we, as we put, as we have this understanding that this is Jesus. does model for us. I think these things kind of become part of our lifestyle then when we set our minds on the things of the Lord. So let's pray about those things, shall we? Father in heaven, thank you so much for this passage, really packed with a lot of understanding about discipleship. And Lord, I pray that you administer to each one of our hearts just that one particular aspect that you want to speak to us. Lord, I know what it is for me, and maybe my sisters here are thinking about what you have spoken to their heart. Lord, we know that we can't, we're not going to be fully conformed to your image all at one time, but it's just step at a time. So Lord, lead us into the next step that you would have us to take and to be made more into your image. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.