Cornerstone Church - Atlanta, GA

We tend to live our lives for the avoidance of pain. Because we think that suffering tends to stand in the way of our joy we find ourselves constantly longing for things that will make our lives easier and more enjoyable. While this pathway seems like the one that will lead us to joy, Jesus walks a different path. He shows us that suffering doesn't stand in the way of our joy, it is the actual pathway to joy.

Jesus isn't looking for arguments for your worthiness, He's looking for your admission of weakness.

We've all had cases of mistaken identity before. Usually, the outcome is either embarrassment or inconvenience. With Jesus, however, a case mistaken identity can be tragic. Jesus is more than a man, He is your Savior and goes to great lengths to help us see this life-changing truth.

Jesus' miracles aren't merely acts of power, but signs that highlight aspects of His character. Jesus heals a blind man in Mark 8 to show us that even though God opens blind eyes completely, He does so gradually. Jesus is a patient Savior, and that's good news for those of us who are never as far along as we think we are.

God not only sees our fatigue and hardship but he can identify with it and he responds to it with grace and mercy. The main idea of this text is providing Christians with at least 3 reasons why we can endure the race of faith till the end.

Jesus offers much more than just a remedy for our problems, He offers us a relationship. While that's great news for the man in Mark 7 that can't hear, it's better news to those of who won't listen.

Religion (as a system of trying to gain peace with God by our works) looks like it protects the truth, but it only really perverts it. It doesn't fix old problems, it merely creates new ones. This happens because religion addresses the symptoms of our problems instead of the source. In Mark 7, we see that Jesus cleans up what religious systems can only call out.

Sometimes it can seem that our expectations fall way short of our theology. We say with our lips that we serve a great God, but find that we have very small expectations. Jesus reminds us that when we approach God we should approach Him with expectant hearts. And expectant hearts witness extraordinary power.

Every story we've every interacted with is made up of a struggle between good and evil. Often, we're left in suspense, not knowing who's going win. It's easy for us to look at Jesus the same way, we look at other good guys in stories. In so doing, we miss out on the fact that he is not like other characters. He's the Lord of all. There is no struggle when he faces storms, demons, or sickness. We can go to him knowing that victory is only and always found in Him.

“Do you listen to Jesus?” In answering this question we shouldn’t be so quick to utter a yes, nor should we be too quick to dismiss it. Rather, we all should ask god to search our hearts for the true answer. In todays text Jesus will make it crystal clear that His word sorts people out into two categories, disciples or opponents. He also provides the pathway for our true joy if we would just listen closely.