Now, in John chapter 19, I want to get to a certain verse in chapter 19, which is actually verse number, let's see, verse number 16 through 19.
But, before we get there, I want to bring you up to speed in the chapter here and explain to you what's going on.
Of course, Jesus has been arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Judas placed upon him the kiss of death and identified him as Jesus Christ.
The soldiers took him away in the middle of the night because they feared the people.
And they brought him and they had a trial and they lied about him and they ended up arresting him and sentencing him to death.
Now, the Jews were not allowed to put anybody to death because they were under Roman occupation and they were not allowed to execute the death penalty without permission from the Romans.
And so they bring him to Pontius Pilate, who was the governor of that province, and that's where we are in the story here.
Look at verse number 1 of chapter 19, the Bible reads, then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him.
Now, what does it mean that he scourged him? Well, that's talking about being beaten with a whip.
Now, it's often described in the Bible receiving 40 strikes, save one.
The reason that they did that is because the Old Testament law stated that the most you could ever beat somebody was 40 times.
Because if you went beyond 40 times, you could run the risk of killing somebody or you could beat them so bad that they would never recover from it.
And so God's law said that 40 times was the maximum and they did 39 just to be safe because they didn't want to go above that and beat them too many times and lose power.
And so they would beat them 39 times.
Now, I've heard people speculate and say things about how Jesus was beaten with a cat of nine tails, they say.
Now, personally, I don't believe that.
And I'm sure you can find some history books to tell me that.
But the Bible says that they received 40 strikes, save one.
Now, if you beat somebody with a whip with nine whips on it, each time you hit them, they'd be receiving about nine strikes, okay?
And so I don't believe that he was beaten with that.
I believe he was beaten with a whip and when he was beaten with a whip, he was scourged 39 lashes.
And these lashes, each one of them broke the skin because the Bible talks about Jesus receiving strikes with every impact.
So you have to picture Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ, the Bible says that he was stripped of his clothing, so he was naked from the waist up and his hands were lifted up and he was beaten with this whip.
Now, the first time that whip came onto Jesus' body, okay, it wrapped around his body, it was ripped away and what was left was a bloody strike, according to the Bible.
Now, after this was done 39 times, there's not going to be a lot of skin left around his midsection.
That's why the Bible says in Psalm 22 that Jesus looked down and said, I may tell on my bones, they look and stare upon me.
He said, my ribs are exposed.
And so Jesus was beaten very badly to where he had stripes across his body that were exposing his bones and exposing the muscle and the tissue beneath.
And so Jesus was scourged and we can often just read over verse number one quickly and just blow through it.
But stop and think about the fact that Jesus' clothing was removed and he was beaten 39 times with a whip.
He's experiencing a lot of pain, right, he's experiencing a lot of blood loss.
Look at verse number two.
The Bible reads, and the soldiers platted the crown of thorns and put it on his head and they put on him a purple robe.
Now, platted means braided, if you're not sure what that word means.
So they basically took these thorny plants and they braided them together and weaved the crown of thorns.
Now, I don't think that they just set it upon his head, like they just kind of placed it on top of his head.
The reason why they used thorns, they were trying to hurt Jesus.
And so they got these thorns and you know there must have been some pretty big thorns.
And we live in the desert, these people lived in a desert type climate.
There are some big thorns around here.
I mean, I've seen, I have some thorns in my backyard that look like hypodermic needles.
They're about this long, okay.
And so they, we don't know what kind of thorns, but they braided some kind of thorns.
And they put this crown of thorns on Jesus' head and they pressed it into his head, okay.
And if anybody's ever been cut on your head, your head bleeds like no other part of your body.
I mean, I've had some pretty bad cuts on my head.
And you know, sometimes when you have kids, they'll be playing and they crack their head open.
It's inevitable.
And the blood starts gushing and mom wants to run to the emergency room and dad says,
it's alright, it's fine, just put a, where's a band-aid, put a band-aid on it.
Let's go to Target and buy a couple of band-aids, you know.
That's a true story, I'll tell you about it sometime.
Target is all we need and we can even go to the emergency room, it worked out great.
And I can't even see the scar from where I'm standing right now.
Although he does have a scar.
And so, boy, the crown of thorns was pressed into Jesus' brow.
And I've told this story before, what I always think of is I was crawling through the attic one time.
I've told this story before, but when I was crawling through the attic one time,
there was roofing staples that come down from the ceiling.
And I remember, I was pulling out a wire and my dad was down in the house
and I was tugging on that electrical wire and all of a sudden it came free.
And when I yanked it, my head flew up into one of those staples.
And the staple went into my head, okay.
And I still have a little bit of brain damage from it.
The staple went into my head and I literally pulled my head off the staple.
And boy did it hurt. It was this one little piercing.
It hurt, excruciating pain.
And so you can understand the pain.
Jesus had been beaten with a whip 39 times.
Now they've shoved the crown of thorns into his head.
So those thorns and those needles are piercing his brow.
And of course there's a lot of bleeding involved with that.
Look at verse number 3.
Well, first of all, look at the end of verse 2.
It says, and they put on him a purple robe.
Now think about this.
You've just been beaten so bad that your bones are exposed and you're bleeding profusely.
And lastly you want somebody to put clothing on you. Think about this.
So they put that purple robe on and you know the blood is soaking through that robe.
And so Jesus is wearing this purple robe saturated in blood
and they begin to bow down to him and mock him.
They're putting a purple robe because that's the color of royalty.
They're dressing him up like a king.
Oh, you think you're the son of God. You think you're God in the flesh.
You think you're the king of the Jews.
Let's give you a robe. Let's give you a crown.
Let's give you a scepter.
And so they put him in this purple robe and this crown of thorns.
And the Bible says that they said,
Hail, king of the Jews.
And they smote him with their hands.
They begin to pummel him and punch him in the face.
Of course another gospel explains how they covered up his head
and they would punch him and say, OK, prophesy.
Tell us who hit you.
If you're God, tell us who it was that hit you.
And then verse 4 says,
Pilate therefore went forth again and saith unto them,
Behold, I bring him forth to you that you may know that I find no fault in him.
OK, then why did you dispense beating him thirty-nine times?
Look at the hypocrisy of Pilate.
Look at the man who says,
I don't find any fault in him.
I don't want anything to do with the blood of this just person.
You take him and crucify him. You kill him.
I'm not going to have anything to do with him.
You need to beat him and scourge him to please the people.
Why? Because he's a politician, that's why.
He's just a phony.
He just wants to do what people want and they say,
Well, beat him. And he beats him.
But he didn't want to go so far as to kill him.
And so he says, I don't find any fault in him.
He hasn't done anything wrong.
I've beaten him. You've mocked him.
You've made a fool of him.
You've called him a king and planted the crown of thorns.
You've whipped him.
Can we just let him go, Pilate sang?
Let's just be done with it.
I can't even find anything wrong with him.
But it says in verse number 5,
Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.
So you've got to understand this story.
Pilate comes out to the people and he says,
Look, I find no fault in him.
Let's let him go.
Well then the Bible says they bring Jesus forth.
So he brings Jesus forth to the people with him.
And watch this.
He says, I bring him forth to you.
Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.
And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man.
Look at that exclamation point.
He's saying, Just look at him.
Look at this man.
I don't find any fault in him.
And imagine the sight of Jesus with the crown of thorns.
Blood and gourd. He's been beaten 39 times.
And he says, Just look at him. Behold the man.
When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, look at verse 6.
They cried out saying, Crucify him.
Crucify him. I mean their heart was still just burning with hatred for Jesus.
Even after they'd been beaten and mocked and humiliated.
You'd think they would have been satisfied.
But when they saw this sight of Jesus beaten and humbled and humiliated,
wearing the crown of thorns.
They cried out as soon as they saw him saying, Crucify him. Crucify him.
Pilate saith unto them, Take him and crucify him.
For I find no fault in him.
The Jews answered him, We have a law.
And by our law he ought to die because he made himself the son of God.
And Pilate therefore heard that saying. He was the more afraid.
And when he get into the judgment hall and saith unto Jesus, When's heart thou?
When's heart thou? Whence means from where.
Saying, Where are you from? Where did you come from? Who are you?
When's heart thou?
But Jesus gave him no answer. Look at verse 10.
Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me?
Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee and have power to release thee?
Jesus answered, I putest thou no power at all against me except for giving thee from above.
Therefore he that delivered me unto thee kept a greater sin.
And then on and on they begin to argue and Pilate tries to set him free again and again.
But if you would go down to verse number 16.
The Bible reads, Then delivered he him.
After they have this wrangling back and forth in the argument between Pilate and the Jews.
Then delivered he them, therefore unto them to be crucified.
And they took Jesus and led him away.
And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of the skull.
Which is called the Hebrew galditha.
Where they crucified him and two others with him on either side.
One on Jesus in the midst.
Now turn if you would to Luke chapter number 23.
Now the part that I wanted to show you there is where it says, And he buried his cross.
Now what is the word buried? To care itself.
And so in John 19 we just read that it said,
And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of the skull.
Well look at Luke 23 if you would.
Luke 23 26.
Luke 23 26 the Bible reads.
Well let's begin reading verse 25 just to give context.
The Bible reads, And he released unto them them that for submission and murder was cast into prison.
Whom they had desired, but he delivered Jesus to their will.
So he turned over Jesus to the Jews to crucify him.
Verse 26 of chapter 23, And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon.
A Cyrenian coming out of the country and on him they laid the cross that he might bury after Jesus.
And there followed him a great company of people and of women which also bewailed and lamented.
Now this is interesting. This is recorded in Matthew.
Mark and Luke all describe them taking this man Simon and putting the cross on Simon.
It's found in Matthew, it's found in Mark and we're looking at it here in Luke.
And it's interesting to note that John makes it clear that when he first turned him over to the Jews
that Jesus was carrying his own cross.
I mean they laid the cross on Jesus.
It is beaten in bloody condition.
Of course we know from the book of Matthew that before they laid the cross on him
they took off the purple robe off him once again which must have reopened all those wounds.
And then they put his own clothing back upon him.
They took off the crown of thorns.
They took off the purple robe and put his own clothing back on him.
Then they laid on him the cross and you can picture Jesus dragging the cross up a hill.
And he's lost a lot of blood, I mean he's been beaten.
But he was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross the Bible says.
And so he's trying to take that cross up the hill so he can die on the cross for our sins.
And as he's on his way to the cross he must have just collapsed on the way up that hill.
I mean think about it, he's been beaten 39 times, he's been pummeled in his face.
He's had the crown of thorns driven into his brow and so he's trying to carry the cross up the hill
and he must have finally just collapsed under the weight of the cross.
And so the Bible says that the Jews, they saw a man coming out of the field.
Now this is really interesting about this man.
Number one, this man Simon, here's what's interesting.
It says in verse 26, they laid hold upon one Simon.
Now the word one there, it's kind of like the word a.
It's kind of like a Simon, one Simon.
Simon is a really common name back then.
I mean if you notice how many Simons there are in the Bible, a lot of people make Simon.
So basically I think God's just trying to make a point to us, this wasn't any particular man.
Simon. It was just a man named Simon.
And so they take this man named Simon and he was a Cyrenian.
If you read it in the book of Mark it says that he was out of Cyrenia.
So not only was he just, his nationality was Cyrenian, but he was actually literally had come from Cyrenia.
Now Cyrenia is in Africa.
Seven, eight hundred miles away from Israel.
And so this man was a black man.
He was from Africa and he was from an area where the people were black with their skin color.
And so this black man has traveled seven or eight hundred miles to Jerusalem,
probably for the Feast of the Passover, which is about to take place on the next day.
And so he probably had come from far away to be at the Passover.
And the Bible says that as he's coming out of the country, I mean he's just walking into town.
Because here's Jerusalem, a big city.
He's coming out of the country and as he's just walking into town for the first time,
somebody grabs him and says, here, you're going to carry the cross for Jesus.
And just grabs him and compels him, the Bible says.
The word compel means forced him.
Not necessarily against his will, but forcing him as in saying you're going to do this, not would you like to.
Would you like to carry this cross?
They said carry the cross, here you.
They grabbed him, dragged him into town and said, carry the cross.
Look at verse thirty-six.
They laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, just coming into town,
and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus.
Now imagine, look at Matthew chapter sixteen, you're in Luke twenty-three.
Look at Matthew sixteen, twenty-four.
Matthew sixteen, twenty-four. It's so interesting when you read the story about Jesus dying on the cross,
and in all four Gospels, the different people that are in the story.
It's just very intriguing. There's Barabbas, there's the thief on the cross, there's Simon the Cyrenian.
But look at Matthew sixteen, I'm going to show you the first time that the word cross is ever used in the New Testament.
I mean, the first time that God ever mentions the cross, before Jesus even died on the cross.
It says in Matthew sixteen, twenty-four, and this is the first time it's ever used.
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow him.
That's the first time the word cross is ever used.
And I wonder if his disciples didn't even quite understand what he meant by that.
When he said take up your cross and follow him, what do you mean?
But later on they would see Jesus die on the cross, and before he died on the cross, they'd see Jesus carrying the cross up the hill.
They'd see him collapse under the load of the cross because of the weakness of his physical body.
And they'd watch a man named Simon, maybe an insignificant man, a stranger, somebody who was not even from town,
somebody from far away, pick up that cross and carry it behind Jesus and carry it up the hill.
You see, there's a song that we sing in the hymnal.
Must Jesus bear the cross alone and all the world go free?
No, there's a cross for everyone and there's a cross for me, the song goes.
I heard somebody say that song is unscriptural because Jesus did bear the cross alone.
Well, I guess you haven't been reading the Bible.
Because in the Bible, a man who carried the cross up the hill for Jesus.
And notice he was following Jesus.
Jesus is walking up the hill, and this man's following Jesus carrying the cross.
And here in Matthew 16, 24, he's saying,
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
You see, nothing in the Bible is accidental.
Nothing in the Bible is a coincidence or just happens to be there.
I mean, everything in the Bible is exactly the way God wanted it to be, to teach us the Gospel.
I mean, think about Barabbas.
Barabbas was a murderer and a robber, the Bible says.
He was a man guilty and condemned to die.
He was in the prison with Jesus.
He was sentenced to die on the same day that Jesus was.
He was to be crucified.
And on the Passover, they have a tradition that Pilate would let one man go free.
Anyone that the Jews desired of the prisoners of the governor, he would let him go free.
And of course, he said, Shall I release unto you Barabbas?
I'm sorry, he said, Shall I release unto you Jesus, the King of the Jews?
And they said, No, sin is Barabbas.
And what happened? Jesus, the innocent, was crucified and killed.
Barabbas, the guilty, went free.
That's exactly what salvation is.
I mean, every single one of us is condemned to die.
The Bible says, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
The Bible says, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and dead by sin,
and so dead passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
And so, we're just as guilty as Barabbas.
We deserve to die.
And after we die the second day, but of course Jesus Christ took our place on the cross and died for us.
The just for the unjust, the Bible says.
But this man Simon of Cyrene represents the Christian life.
The Christian life is the life of picking up the cross and carrying it behind Jesus.
He said, If anybody is going to follow me, if any man is going to come after me,
I mean, if you're going to be my disciple,
he said, You have to be willing to pick up the cross and follow me.
That's not what the prosperity preacher will tell you.
That's not what these charismatic on television will tell you.
They'll tell you that if you follow Jesus Christ,
life's going to be a bed of roses, and everything's going to be great,
and your marriage is going to be perfect, your kids are going to be perfect,
your finances are going to be perfect, your health is going to be perfect.
It's a lie.
Hey, the Christian life is a life of suffering.
It's a life of picking up the cross and carrying it for Jesus Christ.
It's work.
You think it was easy to carry the cross up that hill?
It wasn't easy for Jesus. In fact, he couldn't do it.
In fact, he was physically unable to do it.
It must have been pretty heavy.
If he collapsed, he couldn't do it.
And notice the man that were leading Jesus away to crucify him,
they didn't want to pick up the cross.
Think about it. They could have just picked it up and carried it.
No, they had to find somebody else because they didn't want to do that work.
They didn't want to drag that heavy cross up a hill.
And so they grabbed this man Simon and made him carry the cross.
But you see, the key here in verse number 16, you say,
what does it mean to pick up the cross and follow Jesus?
What does it mean to take up my cross and follow him?
Well, the answer is right there in verse.
Then said Jesus unto his disciples,
if any man will come after me, let him deny himself.
You see those two words?
Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow him.
You see, in order to follow Jesus Christ with your life,
in order to carry the cross for Jesus, you have to deny self.
Now we all have our own agenda.
We all have our own goals and our own plans and our own dreams.
And we have the things that we want.
There are things that we physically crave.
There are things that we physically want.
There are things that we want just in our life where we want to do this with our life.
We want to spend our time doing this and this is my goal, this is my plan.
Jesus said, you have your plan, you've got your desire, you've got what you want.
But he said if you're going to follow me, you've got to deny yourself
and take up the cross that I'm going to choose and follow me.
Now the interesting thing about Simon is the timing.
He traveled for seven, eight hundred miles.
And yet he arrived there, think about this, at the exact time
that Jesus collapsed under the way of the cross.
Think about that.
I mean, here he's traveling for hundreds and hundreds of miles.
And God knew that he was going to be the one to carry the cross.
God chose this man to carry.
It wasn't a plan, but it wasn't an accident.
I mean, the Bible was written before the world was ever created.
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
And so God knew that God had this plan.
Simon didn't know that he was going to carry the cross.
He's just going through life, he's just coming to the Passover feast in Jerusalem.
Here he is going mile after mile.
And think about how many stops he must have made on the way.
You know, you don't travel eight hundred miles without making a lot of stops.
He had to stop for the night, he had to rest, he had to get food, he had to get something to drink.
He had to do all these stops.
And just think about the timing.
Where he got there at the exact moment, at the exact time, he had to be standing there
looking like, pick me to do this horrible job of dragging the cross up a hill.
And he walked there and he got there at the exact right time.
You know, that's the way our life is.
God will guide and direct your life if you're living for God.
Now I don't believe that God is in control of the whole world.
That's not true.
Look how messed up the world is.
I mean, if God is controlling everybody's life, he's not doing a very good job.
You know, these Calvinists.
And you know, these Calvinists are so warped in their doctrine.
You know, it makes me wonder if any of them are even safe to not be able to understand the Bible at all.
And to sit there and think that God is controlling everybody like a puppet, like a robot.
Look, God's controlling everybody.
How do you explain all the perverts?
How do you explain all the murder?
How do you explain all the violence and the wicked things that go on in this world if God's controlling everybody?
That doesn't make any sense at all.
In fact, it's a lie.
The Bible says that God's not willing that any should perish.
And believe me, there are a lot of people that perish here and go into hell today.
God would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, the Bible says in 1 Timothy 2.4.
Hey, God's will is that people would live soberly and righteously if God did in this present world.
Hey, God's not pulling the strings and controlling this whole world.
He's not controlling the wicked sinners that's wrong.
But, the Bible says, in all thy ways acknowledge Him.
He says, trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.
God says if you trust in the Lord, if you're living for God, if you're saved and living for God,
He says if you acknowledge God in everything you do, He will direct your paths.
So God's not controlling everybody's life.
But, those who love God, you better know He's leading you.
If you're living for God, if you're obeying God, if you're serving God.
So many people get hung up about trying to find the will of God for their lives.
You know, they pray and beg God to show them the will of God.
And they're waiting, or people will make statements like this.
Well you know what, God just really impressed upon me.
God just told me to go start this church in Jesus.
You know, God didn't tell me to start this church in Phoenix, Arizona.
In fact, God's never told me anything, except what I've read in the Bible.
I mean, if God, I don't know, does God appear to you and talk to you?
He hasn't talked to me at all.
God didn't appear to me, and God didn't appear to you either if you say He didn't rely on you.
Because the Bible says that the last person to ever see Jesus Christ was Paul.
It says in 1 Corinthians 15, he was the last person to ever see Jesus after he rose from the dead.
And the next time anybody sees him is when every eye shall see him when he comes in the clouds, the Bible says.
And so, nobody's seen his shape or heard his voice, the Bible says.
We don't know what Jesus' will is unless we read it in the Bible.
People get these feelings and say, oh, I just know what we're supposed to do.
I remember, I went to a church and this is what the pastor said.
He said, as sure as I know that I'm saved, I know God wants us to rent the essential building for our church.
And it fell through.
You know, I was thinking to myself, are you saved?
Man, as much as I know I'm saved, he said, I know we're supposed to rent this and that building.
And they wouldn't rent it to us.
You know, and do you see what I mean how silly that is to say that?
Or people use it as a justification to do wrong.
You know, pastors will quit their church and go to some other church, you know, where the grass is greener or some bigger paycheck or whatever.
And they say, oh, God has led me to quit and go pastor this other church.
You know, and everything they do is, God led me to do this.
I've had people say, God led them to divorce their wife or divorce their husband.
I mean, people just use it as an excuse for what they want to do.
Well, I just believe that God wants me to do this.
Okay, show me in the Bible then.
Because the Bible says that God's will is not the Bible.
He says, oh, moreover, this is the will of God.
This is the will of God that you abstain from fornication.
This is the will of God that you present your body as a living sacrifice.
This is the will of God that you keep His commandments.
Hey, you don't just make something up and say it's God's will.
You obey every word of the Bible.
You follow God's rules.
You live according to God's laws.
You deny yourself.
You follow Him and God shall direct thy paths.
You see, God didn't come to me in a cloud and tell me that my wife was the right person to marry.
I didn't have some burning in my bosom that said, oh, this is the one.
Here she is.
I had a dream at night and God came to me and said, oh, Stephen, son of Raymond Anderson,
blessed our pal, marry this girl that you've been dating for two weeks.
That's all I was for.
Anyway, the point is, hey, God didn't tell me that.
But you know what?
I was living for God.
I was going solely.
I was reading the Bible.
I was doing right.
I was growing.
Was I perfect now?
Am I perfect now?
No.
But I was growing.
I was going the right direction.
I was following God.
I was taking up the cross and God directed my path.
And then looking back, I just said, wow, this is the person I was supposed to marry.
Wow, isn't it great that I came to Phoenix, Arizona?
Wow, isn't it amazing that this, and I can truly look back over my life
and say, Jesus led me all the way.
I mean, I can honestly look back at my life and things I didn't understand at the time,
but I understand them now, looking back, why things had to be the way they were.
But God didn't tell me in advance.
He just directed my path.
The Bible says the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.
You see, God orders your steps.
You just have to worry about being a good man.
OK, you see that?
You're good.
You follow God.
You trust the Lord with all your heart.
He will lead you and guide you great.
You have to sit there and ask God to show you his will.
He's not going to show you anything that's not found in this book.
And this book has all the answers that you need.
But it's not going to say, it's not going to have a girl's name that you're supposed to marry.
It's not going to have a man's name.
It's not going to have Tim B. I've never found Tim B in the Bible or Arizona.
OK?
I mean, maybe it's in one of those Bible codes or something where you've got to look at every 15 letters or something.
I don't believe in that stuff.
It's not going to describe your life in the Bible.
But if you follow God's rules in the Bible, what you do know, he'll lead you and guide you and direct you where he wants you to be.
And so this man, Simon, he didn't know where he was going.
He didn't know what God had in store for him.
In fact, he probably didn't appreciate somebody grabbing him and dragging him and loading a piece of wood on him and saying,
carry this up hill.
I mean, what do you think's going through his mind?
You know, who do you think you are?
Why do I have to carry this?
You know, they grabbed him.
They laid hold on him.
Think about it.
They just grabbed him and said, oh, you're a foreigner.
You're not.
You know, I don't know.
Is it because he's black?
I don't know.
You know?
And so they grab him and they load the cross on him.
He doesn't know why.
But don't you think he was glad afterward that he was chosen to be the man who pictured following Christ?
I mean, don't you think he's happy right now in heaven?
I mean, I'm sure he was saying, because God used him as the example of the man who's following Jesus and carrying the cross for Jesus.
And he didn't know what he was doing.
He probably didn't even know who Jesus was yet.
But I'm sure that now he's glad.
He can say, I'm the one who carried the cross for Jesus as a picture to every other Christian that would follow after him of what they should be doing with their life.
Following Jesus and carrying the cross.
And so notice the timing.
Was God's timing.
God's planning.
Where he made it intersect at the exact right time so that this man could carry the cross for Jesus.
But you see, in order to carry the cross, God's asking you to deny yourself.
We live in a society where everything is just about me, me, me.
I mean, that's what our society teaches.
I mean, people are so selfish.
And you know, if you want to really just blow somebody away, just do something unselfish.
I mean, if you do something unselfish for somebody else in the world anymore, they almost think you're crazy.
It's true.
I mean, it's shocking to people when you go out of your way for somebody.
I mean, most people don't even go the first mile, let alone going the second mile.
I mean, everybody is just concerned, what's in it for me?
What do I get out of it?
You know, people, when they're choosing what church to go to, it's all about what they can get out of it.
It's not about what they're going to put into it.
I mean, they come to church and they want to know, what do you have to offer me?
What can you offer my family?
What kind of programs?
What kind of activities?
What kind of things for the kids can you offer?
What do you offer this?
What do you offer that?
You know what we offer at Faith and War Baptist Church?
Work.
You know what we offer?
A cross.
To pick up and carry it for Jesus.
See, we don't have all the things to offer that other churches have.
We don't have a bouncing, what are those inflatable bouncy things?
We don't have one of those in the back for the kids to bounce around in.
Okay?
We don't have, what's it called?
Bouncing castle.
Bouncing castle?
It's got to have a better name than that.
Come on.
How do they sell so many of them with it?
I thought it was called a jumbo bumper.
I don't know, some fancy name.
You know, we don't have a bouncing castle for the kids.
We don't have all the activities.
We don't have all the giant teenage group for all the teenagers and all the friends
and all the fun.
Hey, we don't have all those things, but you know what we have?
We have a time that we're all going to go out and win souls and knock doors and preach
to God.
We have a time when we're going to pick up the cross and carry it for Jesus.
And that's what we have to offer at Faith and War Baptist Church.
And sure, we have fun activities and things, but you know what?
The biggest thing we have to offer is the fall of Jesus.
You see, when I go to church, and when you go to church, we ought not think of it as
time to come and get what we need.
Well, I come to church on Sunday morning and I've got what I need.
Hey look, come to church on Sunday morning and be ready to work.
Be ready to give.
And I'm not talking about your money.
Your money carries with you.
I'm talking about giving of your time to preach the gospel.
I'm talking about giving of yourself to be a blessing to somebody else, to be an encouragement
to somebody else.
See, it's not all about you.
But our society teaches us, you deserve a break today.
Or, you deserve this.
You need this.
You've got to have this.
And our society is a hedonistic society where people just want to sit in an air-conditioned
building all day.
They can't even skip one meal.
I mean, you might have heard about the stray dog that lives on our street that my wife's
been dealing with.
This stray dog that's on our street, we call the dog catcher.
And the dog catcher, you know, he weighed about 350 pounds.
And he said, we're only allowed to chase the dog for four minutes.
Because it's too hot outside.
And we're afraid that the dog's going to get too hot and collapse if we chase it for more
than four minutes.
He said in the wintertime, we could chase it for ten minutes.
But in the summertime, we can only chase it for four minutes.
This is the truth.
This is what the law says, that no dog catchers are allowed to chase the dog for four minutes.
And this guy weighs about 350 pounds.
He's not going to catch the dog in four minutes.
It's just not going to happen.
It's going to take him four minutes to get out of the car and set the door.
But our society is so worried about the comfort of this dog.
We don't want it to get too hot or tired.
But you know, people are lazy today.
People don't want to endure any suffering or pain.
I mean, think about it.
Oh, I'm sitting in church and my chair is uncomfortable.
You know, like, oh man, the service lasted for, you know, 70 minutes.
I mean, we live in a society where people become women, especially men.
And they become women.
They don't want to work hard.
They don't want to be out in the hot sun.
Or people will say like, oh man, somebody said, I'd love to come to your church, but it's just way too hot in Phoenix.
I would never want to live in Phoenix.
It's too hot.
Oh, you poor baby.
It's too hot for you here.
Oh, I feel so bad for you.
You know, we live here.
I love to eat.
And, you know, people don't want to, people don't want to deny themselves any kind of comfort.
Are you listening?
They don't want to deny themselves a meal.
They don't, like, where the humanities preached on fasting.
They don't want to skip a meal even.
Because their body just has to be indulged in everything that it craves and desires.
We live in a hedonistic society that says if it feels good, do it.
I mean, if you want to watch whatever you want to watch, whatever you want to look at, whatever you want to eat or drink, ask yourself this question.
What do you deny yourself in life?
I mean, when you go through life, there should be something that you want.
And you say, I'm not going to have it.
I'm going to deny myself that for Jesus' sake.
I mean, think about it.
When you want to watch that filthy programming on TV.
When you want to watch that R-rated or PG-13 rated or PG-rated or whatever garbage that Hollywood puts out.
All the eye candy and all the dirty pictures that they put out.
When you want to watch it, why don't you just say, hey, if Jesus can be beaten 39 times.
If Jesus can have a crown torn platter and shove him to his brow.
If Jesus can drag the cross up the hill until he literally collapses on the ground.
And can I do another step?
Maybe I can deny myself something and take up my cross and follow Jesus.
I mean, when was the last time you denied yourself something?
You wanted something and say, I want to watch this and say, I'm not going to watch it.
I'm going to deny myself because God doesn't want me to watch it.
Or what about if you're tired and you weren't feeling well.
And I'm not talking about somebody who's legitimately sick.
But let's say you're just tired and worn out.
And you just say, I'm not going to go to church because I don't feel like it.
Deny yourself.
Tell yourself no.
I'm going to deny myself the rest.
I'm going to come to church because it's right.
Because other people want me to be there.
Because God wants me to be there.
Because I need to learn what the Bible has to teach and preach.
Hey, I'm going to be there.
I'm going to deny my physical appetites.
I'm going to be there.
I'm going to deny my appetite for food and pray and fast like the Bible said.
I'm going to deny myself the rest of laying in a cool, cold bed and laying around all Sunday.
I'm going to watch the television and say, I'm going to deny myself.
I'm going to follow Jesus Christ.
You know, it never is going to appeal to anybody in the summertime to go out and knock those doors in the summertime.
That doesn't appeal to me right now.
What appeals to me right now is like an ice cream cone or something.
I mean, it was already before church even started, what was it, a hundred and some degrees outside?
Your car said it was a hundred and three degrees after, you know, it was the morning.
You've got to deny yourself and say, you know what?
The G's can carry the cross, so can I.
The Bible says in 1 Peter 2, it's going to determine what you want in 1 Peter chapter 2.
But not only just denying yourself physical appetites where it's all about just getting the food that you want
and the drink that you want and having the comfort that you want and the perfect little temperature that you want.
It's not just denying yourself back.
You know, there are some things that you may want to do with your life.
And you may have to deny yourself and say, you know what?
It doesn't matter what I want.
What does God want?
What does God want me to do with my life?
You know, I had all kinds of plans of what I'd like to do with my life.
You know, I had all kinds of dreams and plans and ideas of what I'd like to do.
You know, when I was growing up and one of the things I wanted to do is, man, I wanted to see the world.
I always wanted to travel all over the world and see the world.
I wanted to go to South America and Asia and Europe and travel all over the world.
It was all something I always dreamed of and wanted to do.
But you know what?
I decided that more important than me just having all this fun and adventure was to obey God and to do what's right with my life.
And so I decided, you know, I'm going to do what God wants me to do.
I'm going to get married.
I'm going to have children.
I'm going to plant myself somewhere and pastor a church.
You see, I'm not moving next week.
I'm not moving five years from now.
Okay?
I live here in Phoenix.
Because God wants me here, pastoring the church that I started, and not to just start something and then say, oh, God called me somewhere else.
No, I'm going to finish what I started.
I'm going to stay here and finish my course until I fall over a day.
That's what I'm going to do.
And if I ever do decide to move and God calls me somewhere else, then you can buy the CD.
You've got to buy the CD, but I'll sell CDs here.
I'll sell anything.
You get the CD for free of this morning's sermon and take the CD and cram it down my throat and say, this is when you say you weren't going to leave.
And I hope you will do that to me.
Because I'm not going anywhere.
I'm not bouncing around.
Now, in my flesh, I might say, you know what, I'd like to see the world and travel around and do all this, but that's not what God wants.
God wants me to be planted in the house of God.
God wants me to be planted somewhere and work and roll up my sleeves and go out every single week like I do and knock doors and preach the gospel.
You say, well, you're not my favorite preacher.
I've heard a lot of preachers that are better than you.
I'm sure you have heard preachers that are better preachers than me.
That's fine.
But you know what God's called me to do is to come here and knock every door in this city and to teach other people how to knock every door in this city and to pick up the cross and blow on Jesus.
Jesus said, I've come to seek in the same time which was lost.
And Pastor Steven Anderson is going to pick up that cross that Jesus carried and say, I'm going to seek and take the lost.
I'm going to do that for the rest of my life.
It doesn't matter, don't you want to try living somewhere else?
Don't you want to travel and see the world?
It doesn't matter.
I'm going to deny myself and I'm going to be where God wants me to be, doing what God wants me to do.
Period.
And I'll be a lot happier just doing what God wants me to do anyway.
You don't get anything accomplished by bouncing around and traveling around.
And so, you've got to deny yourself.
Ladies, let's talk to the ladies.
You know, ladies in today's world are brought up from the time that they're five years old in school and told, you can be whatever you want when you grow up.
You can be an astronaut.
You can be a marine biologist.
That's what they all want to be, right?
A marine biologist.
I want to be the President of the United States.
You can be a senator or a lawyer or a doctor, a CEO of a great company.
These little girls are told in the kindergarten classroom.
And they grow up and say, I believe it's God's will for me to be a doctor.
I believe it's God's will for me to be a lawyer.
I believe it's God's will. Are you in 1 Peter 2?
I believe it's God's will for me to do this or do that.
Well, let me show you what God's will is for you, ladies.
And this may involve a denying of yourself and what you want to do.
This may take you off the platform of sea world with those dolphins.
You may not be riding on the back of a dolphin at sea world anytime soon.
Because the Bible says in 1 Timothy 5, verse 14, I will therefore, this is God speaking, I will therefore, this is God's will.
He says, I will therefore that the younger women, and second, women under 60.
So you know what younger women are.
So those of you women who feel like you're getting old, if you're under 60, God said you're still young, all right?
But he says, I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give on occasion the adversary to speak approachably.
So God's will for you ladies is not for you to go out and get that master's and doctorate and PhD and credential.
Hey, God's will, you can light it or lump it, you can walk out of this church and never come back, but it's not going to change what the Bible says.
That God's will for women is that they marry, bear children, and guide the house.
Guide the house, run the house, stay home with the kids, it means.
Raise children, bring up children for God, follow God, obey your husband and serve him and have a family.
That's what the Bible teaches and you can walk out and say, well, I don't like that church, go ahead.
But that's still going to be what the Bible says at the end of the day, it's still going to be what I preach, it's still going to be what my family follows.
And so you may have to deny yourself ladies and your dreams of whales and porpoises and sea lions.
Hey, God wants you to get married.
You know, women today say, well, I don't know if I want to get married.
I think I'm just going to have my little career.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
He didn't say if you want to get married.
Look, this is the Bible, okay, I didn't write it.
He didn't say, well, if you don't want to get married, fine.
Or how about this, I'm just going to get married and I'm not going to have any kids.
That's not what the Bible says.
The Bible says, I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, God does.
You say, well, I'm going to get married, I'm going to have a kid, I'm just going to put them in daycare.
And I'm going to go out and pursue my career.
Deny yourself.
Because you know what, your kids are more important in your career.
Your kids are your career.
Don't drop them off in some daycare where who knows what's going to happen to them.
Or drop them off with strangers.
And you know what they're doing in the daycare, don't you?
They're just putting them in front of the TV.
Barney and Friends are raising them.
They're being raised by the queer wiggles and all these other sodomite little queer shows that they have on TV for kids.
I mean, the most queerest, weirdest, perverted shows on television are kids shows.
It's always been that way.
All the way back to Bugs Bunny molesting Elmer Budd.
Dressing and putting on a dress.
You know what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about Mary Melodies.
I'm talking about Looney Tunes.
I'm talking about Bugs Bunny putting on a dress, putting on lipstick, and kissing Elmer Budd.
And you start turning purple and green and red and all the different colors.
And getting uncomfortable trying to get away.
It's queer. It's sick.
There's nothing funny about that.
These kids shows are so gay.
Who's ever learned this show? The Wiggles.
Put up your hand.
The Wiggles.
You know, one of the members of the Wiggles, he had to quit the Wiggles.
Because my wife gets these little kiddie magazines they send in the mail for free about kids things and kids that.
And she was looking at it and it said one of the Wiggles had to quit because he had an undisclosed long-term illness.
Let me just translate it for you.
AIDS.
He's got AIDS because he's a queer.
Look at him.
Is that what you want your kids to grow up and walk and talk like?
You want them to wiggle out of there?
If one of my kids was wiggling around my house, I'd wiggle my way over to my belt and beat the Wiggle right out of there.
I mean, this is what you're going to send your kids to some daycare?
Who knows what they're showing them on TV?
Who knows what they're doing with them?
Who knows what's going to happen?
Hey, God's will, ladies, is that you praise your kids and train them and bring them up to the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Let me ask you this.
Does the daycare spank your kids?
No.
And yet the Bible commands us as a way of discipline to spank our kids.
So guess what they're getting down at the daycare?
Timeout.
Is that God's plan?
Is that what works?
Timeouts don't work.
I mean, these kids that are raised on timeouts, they throw themselves on the ground and flop around like a fish out of the water.
You know, kids need to be spanked.
Yes, they do.
Kids need to be up.
I see this license plate all the time.
It shouldn't hurt to be a child.
You know, and it's the state of Arizona pushing to try to, you know, give people not to spank their kids and to try to, you know, you spend $25 and you get this license plate that says it shouldn't hurt to be a child.
And money goes to the wicked CPS and all these other...
Yes, the CPS is wicked.
They're as wicked as the devil.
And you know what?
If you go work for the CPS or if you have these foster kids come into your house, you're not right with God.
We were just talking about that last night.
These people, they want to make extra money, so they take foster kids into their house and they're Christians, right?
And they say, oh, we're doing a good deed. We're helping these kids out.
No, you're not.
You're supporting a wicked organization that takes people's kids away.
Oh, the mom's on drugs.
It doesn't matter.
The Bible says, give her the child because she's the mother thereof.
I don't care if a woman's on drugs.
I don't care if she's a prostitute.
The Bible has a story in 1 Kings chapter 3 about a prostitute who was living with another prostitute.
And they had a baby in the home.
And King Solomon said, give her the baby. Give it back to her.
Don't take it away from her. She's the mother thereof.
That's the Bible.
You can say whatever you want.
The Bible doesn't condone these wicked organizations.
The CPS and all this other...
You know, don't participate in that garbage.
You see, women are designed by God to raise their own children.
First of all, to get married would be a good place to start.
Second of all, to have children.
And third, to guide and raise those children and bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Now, that may not be your plan.
But you're going to have to deny yourself and do what God is going to do and take up the cross and follow Jesus.
Or you can choose not to follow Jesus and you have that option.
You can go out and get all the college and the PhD and the BA and the MS.
You can go ahead and do all that, but it's not God's will.
You're not following Jesus. You're following yourself.
Or you can deny yourself and say, I'm going to follow Jesus.
Like I said, I've denied myself some of the things that I wanted to do in life.
But you know, God will just make you a lot happier anyway when you're following Him.
And so deny yourself.
But look at 1 Peter chapter 2.
The Bible reads in 1 Peter 2.19.
For this is thankfulness.
If a man for conscience toward God, in your greed, suffering wrongfully.
It says God is pleased when somebody suffers wrongfully.
For what glory is it when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently.
But if when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently.
This is acceptable with God.
For even here unto were ye called.
Because Christ also suffered for us.
Leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps.
Who did no sin.
Neither was guile found in his mouth.
Who when he was reviled, reviled not again.
When he suffered, he threatened not.
But committed himself to him that judged it righteously.
Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.
That we being dead his sins should live on the righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed.
Jesus' receiving of those stripes, the Bible says.
Jesus' wearing of the crown of thorns and being mocked and spat upon.
Jesus' picking up the cross and carrying it was an example that we should follow in his steps.
He carried the cross until he collapsed under the weight.
And then he had Simon pick up the cross as an example of a person who said,
I'm going to follow Jesus and I'm going to carry the cross that God has with me in my life.
Now that cross is not the same for everybody.
I mean obviously, probably none of us in our life is going to be crucified.
Now there are people in the Bible who were crucified besides Jesus.
But we're probably not going to be crucified, chances are.
But there's another cross that we need to bear, whatever that is.
Whatever it is that we need to deny ourself.
And if you want to go live for self, go ahead.
You'll be the most miserable person in the world.
I mean the most miserable people in the world are people who live for themselves.
Look at the Hollywood stars.
Look at the rock and roll stars.
They have everything that they could want.
They've got all the money.
They've got the fame.
They've got the friends.
They've got the popularity.
They've got the cars, the houses, the travel.
I mean is there anything humanly speaking that they don't have?
They have it all.
They have millions.
But they're the ones who killed themselves in their 20s.
They're the ones who get divorced five times.
They're the ones who are in the clinic for an eating disorder.
They're the ones who are in drug rehab right now.
They're the ones who are ruining their lives.
And if that's who you want to dress like and follow and aspire to be and say,
I want to have as much money as they do, then I'll be happy.
You'll be as miserable as they are.
You'll be like King Solomon.
He went out and he builded houses.
He planted vineyards.
He had all the money.
He had 300 wives and 700 concubines.
He had a thousand women at his disposal.
He had the houses and the money and the food, whatever his eyes desired.
He said, I withheld not anything from my eyes.
He said, whatever I wanted, I just took it.
Because he was a great king.
He had the power to do that.
And when he got done with it all, he said, I hated life in Ecclesiastes chapter 2.
I mean, he had everything.
And he said, I hated life.
But at the end of Ecclesiastes, he was realizing that it was all about serving God for his life.
It was all about following Jesus Christ.
You're not going to be happy indulging self.
I mean, go ahead.
Feed yourself all the food that you want.
It's not going to make you happy.
It's going to make you 300 pounds.
And you're not going to be happy today.
Go ahead and just indulge yourself in all the dirty R-rated movies.
And you may be a teenager right now, or you may be in your 20s right now,
and you like watching those dirty movies down there,
but you know what?
You don't realize that sin always takes you further than you want to go.
And it always keeps you longer than you want it to stay.
And it always costs you more than you were willing to pay.
And so today it's a PG-13 movie.
Or it'll be an R-rated movie.
Next it'll be an NC-17 movie.
And the next thing, you'll be at one of these dirty, filthy, hell-hole gentleman clubs or adult bookstores.
Nobody grows up and says, I want to grow up and hang out at the adult bookstore.
You think anybody ever says that?
You think anybody thinks it's cool to go to these dirty bookstores and dirty bars and filthy gentleman's club?
Nobody thinks that.
But it started out when they just started indulging self in porno until they got addicted to it.
Nobody says, I want to grow up and be a drunk in the gutter and lay in the gutter and be drunk and in my own vomit.
No, but it started out with a wine cooler.
It started out with a blood wiser.
And sin took hold when they said, if I want to drink one, I'll drink one.
If I want two, I'll drink two.
If I want three, I'll drink three.
Until they became a wino.
It all started when they just indulged themselves in whatever they wanted,
instead of doing what Jesus said, which is deny self.
Deny the lust of the flesh.
Deny what you want to do with your life and do what God wants you to do with your life.
That's what the Bible teaches.
And God may lay a different cross on you than he lays on me.
Some people have health problems.
There's a cross that they're just going to have to carry.
Some people have financial problems, marriage problems.
They might have whatever the case may be.
Work that God has called to do that's not easy.
It's hard.
But God says, if any man will come after me.
He says it starts out, if any man will come after me.
And the word will there is talking about wanting to.
He's not saying if any man shall come after me.
He's saying if any man will come after me, if anybody wants to come after me,
let him deny himself and pick up his cross and follow me.
You see, you have to want to follow him.
Jesus is not going to make you follow him.
You can walk out that door and never follow Jesus.
You can go do whatever you want, because God gives you the freedom to do that.
He gives you the liberty to do that.
And if you believe on Jesus Christ and you go out and live like the devil,
you'll still be saved, because God gives you eternal life the moment you get saved.
But if you will follow Jesus, then this message is for you.
You've got to take up your cross and deny yourself and follow him.
And Jesus lived a life of suffering and of work and toil.
And he lived a life that wasn't about him, it was about others.
He went about serving others, not serving his own appetites.
And we live in a day where everybody just wants to serve their own appetite,
but God is saying, you are to be different.
And you are not to serve your appetite.
You're to deny yourself and live for God and live for others.
It's not about your career.
It's not about your meal that you're going to eat.
It's about what God wants you to do.
Let's bow our hands in that word of prayer.
Father, thank you so much for the Bible.