We're just gonna ask David if a red light means and I'm on and apparently does. Well good morning and it's great to be here and it's a real blessing and a privilege and we're just so thankful for your support of the working inverness and I wanna share a couple of stories. We're gonna be in Mark chapter eight this morning but before we go there and before we begin our stories let's just ask for the Lord's help as we gather. Father we're so thankful this morning.
Lord just thinking of this song that we've sung about the cross and Lord, Father we're just so thankful for what that means to us, O God. And Lord, even life from death. And Lord, how we bless your name. Father as we would come to your word in a few moments Lord we pray that you would speak to our hearts as only you can do.
Lord we would hear your voice. And so God I pray that you administer to us and that you would just bring a blessing to us O God and that you would change us even this morning. Let as we go from this place O God we would be different than when we came in. And so Lord we thank you for our time together.
We thank you Lord for all that you're doing in this world. We thank you Lord that we can have just the privilege Lord to gather here this morning to be a part of it. And so Father we just pray you would challenge our hearts and Lord help us to seek your face we pray. And Lord that we would just lift up and exalt the name of our savior this morning in all that we do we ask in his name, amen.
So in Renes Community Church so just briefly we are just encouraged in the work there and we're seating about 40 people now on Sundays. So after two and a half years starting with a dozen it's really just been a real blessing to see people coming. And we still are an older group of believers. So we don't have a lot of young people we don't have a lot of young families.
So pray with us that the Lord would not only send us young people and families. We have a couple of small kids in our Sunday school but there's actually a family in North Carolina that are thinking of relocating to work with us and youth ministry and young families and so that would be a real blessing. So it's just a real area of need for us in Cape Breton. We do have young families in the town but we're not reaching them the way we need to and so that's a real area of concern for us but the Lord is good and we've just been blessed together up there we're greatly encouraged and so we thank you for your support and we couldn't do it without you and we just appreciate that very much.
A couple of questions were asked of me during the break about our Catholic friends and neighbors and how we are reaching out to them, how we relate to them. As you may recall, Inverness is about 99.99% Catholic, Highland Scots and we have the short answer is we have a very good relationship with our Catholic friends. Our approach is we are not out there to attack their faith, we're not there to attack their church or their beliefs but rather we're presenting Christ and Him crucified and you need to have a relationship with Him. And so sometimes our Catholic friends are expecting a fight or expecting us to take issue with them, we don't do that because really those are side issues.
The most important issue is do we know the Lord regardless of what church we happen to attend. And so that's what we focus on and we've had some Catholic visitors. In fact, last fall I'll share the story with you briefly. A man called me, don't connect master and he said, Mark, I'm a deacon in the Catholic church.
I'm training to be a deacon in the Catholic church and he says my bishop requires me to attend a non-Catholic service would it be okay if my wife and I come out this Sunday and I'll just need to kind of write a report on what I see and ask you a few questions after. I said, come on, come on out. And so after the service, he and his wife were there and after the service he's kind of talking to me a little bit, asking me some questions and his questions were very intense and very sincere and he was like, how do you decide what to preach? He says, Mark, the message was so good this morning.
How do you do that? And I said, well, I mean, I'm just kind of an outflow of my own reading and studying when I feel the Lord would have me to share. He says, oh, he says, it's so good. He says, in our church, he says, it's just boring.
He says, the priest just repeats himself on a three-year cycle. He says, and the music is so good and you've got young people here, like we have kids, some small kids and we don't have any of that. He says, our music is terrible. Anyway, he was really keen and he was really, really blown away by what he experienced.
And he said to me, and he says, can we come back? And I said, anytime, you're welcome to come. And so that was just one experience. And a few weeks ago, one of the folks in our church, they're relative of their, the lady's sister, is a Catholic woman.
But the way this lady talks, you'd almost think she's born again and maybe she is. But she plays music, and Kate Breton, that's a big thing. And so we thought, well, let's, maybe we'll just invite her to play a few songs and we'll get her out for a meeting. So I went to see her and I said, would you like to come and play?
She does that in public and she said, sure, I'd love to. And I said, well, what are you going to say? She said, well, it'll be good. Spiritual songs, Mark.
I said, OK. And I'm going home and saying, Lord, please not have Amaria. You know. But you know what?
She's saying really good, you know, good worship songs. And she stayed for the service. In fact, she was kind of surprised. She was, we were sending out chairs and she was a little bit like, you're going to fill all those.
And that day we had to add extra chairs. So after the service, she came to me, big hug. She says, Mark, that was just wonderful. I just love the message.
I just love what you're doing here. And so these are kind of the interactions that we've been having with some of our Catholic friends. And it is definitely a journey. But you know what?
We have common ground in this. And I think it's important for us as we think about reaching out to people with the gospel as what common ground do we have? And how can we bridge that? Our Catholic friends confess that Jesus is the Son of God that he died on the cross, that he was raised again the third day, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Now, they may not know him, a lot of them him personally, in a relationship. But we have those basis in common. And we can build from there. And so I don't have to try to convince my Catholic friends that Jesus was the Son of God that he died on the cross.
They confess that regularly. Not a problem, right? So we have to look for that way that we can bridge the gospel and just share with people about the importance of that relationship of knowing the Lord personally. So that's just a couple of quick stories.
But the Lord is good. And we're really excited. And yeah, come and visit us. We've had some of you have come to visit.
And come on any time. And yeah, I mean, lobster will be coming off the boats here Wednesday, Thursday. So I can see the boats coming in. And I, well, boy, that's my promise to you if you come.
So anyway, that's a little update on Inverness. And let's just take a look here at Mark Chapter 8. Mark Chapter 8, it's a challenging passage that we have here. And I'm at Mark 834 to 38.
And it's a challenging passage. But let's go through this. Calling the crowd along with his disciples, he said to them, if anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it.
Whoever loses his life because of me and the gospel will save it. For what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and yet lose his life or his soul? Or what can anyone give an exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me?
In my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels. It's kind of a tough passage. I don't know about you, but sometimes when I read passages like this in the gospels, it makes me kind of shudder and tremble a little bit and, frankly, prefer not to read it. Because it brings out things that are challenging to my heart and can remind me sometimes of some of those failures in my life.
And you know, as a believer, since I was a young person, having been saved now for when was that? I think like 1974, whatever the math is. I can tell you this, standing before you, that for most of my life, as a Christian, I was ashamed of the name of Jesus. And I did not hardly ever share my faith.
So when I would read passages like this, I'd read over quickly, because I don't want to dwell there, because that was me as a Christian. That's pretty sad testimony, but it's the truth. And so this is a challenging passage for us, but that's a good thing, because the Lord is so good. And he's addressing the crowd, not just his disciples.
I want you to notice that. He's talking to the crowd along with his disciples. He's got everybody there, his own, and those that don't know him, and he makes this amazing statement that if you want to follow after me, if you have a desire to follow me, you must deny yourself, and you must take up your cross and follow me. And it's challenging, right?
Because Jesus sets this before us as kind of an ultimatum, if you will. In other words, I cannot follow Christ in my own way, or in my own device, or choosing. And oftentimes today, people can look at the Lord and they think, well, he was a very nice man. He was a great guy.
He did wonderful things. We agree with all that. And they kind of want to have a little bit of Jesus in their life, or he's kind of like, we just want him there on the shelf, when we need him. But for the rest of it, I just want to live my life, the way I want to.
I don't want to surrender control of that to Christ. I like him. He's good. But I'm going to do things my way.
I'm ultimately going to live my life my way. And Jesus will just have to conform to that. And God will just have to accept me, because this is who I am. And yet the Lord comes to us and says, if you have a desire to follow me, if you want to, you're going to have to deny yourself.
And some people say, well, I can't change, because this is who I am. This lifestyle that I'm engaged in. That's my identity. That's who I am.
Jesus says deny yourself. You cannot hang on to those things. You cannot hang on to your own life if you're going to follow Christ, whether in salvation, or even in discipleship, we're going to have to deny ourselves and follow him. But it begins with desire.
And what is the desire of my heart anyway? I mean, I even wonder that sometimes as a believer. I know the Lord. I'm saved by grace.
And we kind of go through the motions. And we're good Christians. We're faithful. We've got all the meetings.
And we put our offering in the plate. And yet, where is my heart? And what is its true desire, even as a believer? Jesus says, if anyone desires wants to follow me, and even as a Christian, is that really my heart's desires at my goal?
For most of my Christian life, that wasn't it. It was career and other things that I was really had the majority of my heart. But we're going to have to deny ourselves. We're going to have to take up a cross to follow him, the cost of discipleship we're thinking about here, the cost of surrender, the cost of knowing the Lord is very high.
It will include, in fact, denying who I am and laying it all down, and taking up my cross. We'll talk about that in a minute to follow Christ. The cost is everything. You know, no man goes to war.
The scripture says, without first counting the cost, see if I can defeat the enemy who has 10,000 with my 5,000. First we count that cost. And I think that's where some people struggle. When the gospel is set before them, when they finally clue into what is going on here, that cost is very high.
And I've seen that I've seen people walk away and tell me with their own mouth, the cost is too high. If I follow Christ or if I give my life to him, my wife will leave me, my parents will forsake me. I'm going to lose this or I'm going to lose that. And they weigh that cost and they say the cost is too high following Christ.
I will take the here and the now, the temporary and the short term, and things that are right in front of me versus eternity. And they turn away and they walk away from the Lord. That's a very sad and sobering thing. And for us as the Lord's people, what is the desire of our hearts?
Do we, in fact, as we know him and as we are saved by grace, do we then want to go on and following him in this life? Do we want to truly deny ourselves and lay it all down in his service? That's a good question for us to ask. And it's a challenging question.
But the Lord knows our hearts, doesn't he? He knows exactly what's going on at all times. We can't fool him. Sometimes we think we can.
I say, well, if I just go around that over there in the corner in that dark place, he won't really see what I'm up to. I can put on this facade. And yet, the Lord really knows my hearts. And ultimately, there's nothing hidden from him.
He reads this like an open book anyway. We might as well just be honest with him. He knows what we're up to in this life. He knows what we want.
He knows what our desires are. But if we're going to follow the Lord, we're first going to have to deny ourselves, and then we're going to have to take up our cross. It's only after this that we can follow him. And Jesus says in verse 35, whoever wants to save his life will lose it.
But whoever loses his life because of me and the gospel will save it. That's quite a statement. Because really, in this world and in this life, and in the ways of the world, we're actually kind of designed to save my life, to preserve it. And there's so much effort these days on safety, and personal safety, and keeping ourselves safe, and all that.
I mean, that's cool. That's OK. I'm not advocating recklessness in life. But sometimes we go so far with the safety that we're willing to give up far way to your things.
I mean, post 9-11, the world has changed. That almost seems like ancient history now, and we say 9-11. But things have changed so dramatically like in our world when it comes to traveling by air. I used to travel a lot in business right from the 80s right through to six years ago.
And I can tell you, traveling in the 80s and 90s, pre-9-11 was a whole lot more fun than it is today. They didn't have all this security stuff. You could run up to the plane while they were boarding and just get in. It's tough now to fly.
I don't really like it anymore. The security measures are extreme, right? And we're focused on safety. And people are, they want safety.
They demand it. We spend a lot of effort trying to keep ourselves safe. And our kids are safe. And it's the effort of this world.
And sometimes even as Christians, we almost give the impression that our physical safety and well-being is kind of like the most important thing in life. And it isn't beloved. Nothing like I say. I'm not advocating recklessness.
I'm not saying don't buckle your kids up in the car. But sometimes we put so much emphasis on this. It's like this is the most important thing. And it's not because here's the truth, France.
And I hate to bring it out this way. But everyone in all of us in this room will die. Unless the Lord returns first, we will face death. There's nothing that you can do to prevent that.
And I'm not against healthy eating. Well, maybe. I'm not against healthy eating. I'm not against physical fitness.
I think it's a very good thing. But we can sometimes put so much emphasis on that we forget the spiritual reality that you will still die. You cannot prevent it. Everyone will unless the Lord returns first.
This is the truth. This is the reality. This is the sobering truth. And brings us back to this focus on what Christ is setting before is here that if you want to follow me, you're going to have to deny yourself.
You're going to have to take up your cross to follow me. And what is that cross? We know what it was for Jesus. It was death.
And for us as Christians, the cross represents that death to self. And we say, yes, Lord, from this point on, I'm going to lay down my life. I'm going to give control of it to you. And you are to be the Lord of my life.
And I'm giving you that control. And that's a cross for us that we are willing to deny ourselves to lay everything down, to surrender control, to give the reins to Him, no matter what the cost. And I really believe, as the Lord's people, as the church today in North America, as we see our culture disintegrating around us and almost like madness setting in in some of the things that we're seeing, that what this world desperately needs is not Christians who are perfect in their theology, but Christians who are sold out for Jesus Christ, no matter the cost. And that's not to downplay theology and doctrine.
It's important things, but sometimes we focus so much on that beloved, we have forgotten the great commission. And we pat ourselves on the back and we gather together and we just say, oh, aren't we so wonderful. And meanwhile, there's people out there dying and going to a lost eternity. We're not even attempting to reach them because we're so focused internally.
And we need to get back to this commission and understand our calling in Christ is to deny ourselves and to lay down our lives for His sake and for the gospels. And I commend this assembly for what you're doing on the streets of Halifax. Praise the Lord. There's very few people who do that.
And I've been invited repeatedly to come down and learn from you guys. And I'm going to do that this summer. I said to David, we just got to make a date and I'm going to come and join you guys on a Friday night. Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord. We need to reach a generation for Christ. We're all going to die. Nothing can prevent that.
And Jesus says, look, if you try to save your life, you're actually going to lose it. If we hang on to control, especially if we don't know the Lord, if we refuse to acknowledge Christ, if we refuse to give our hearts to Him, if we refuse to accept Him as Savior, we will ultimately face separation from God. And the Bible talks about that. It's a place called hell.
It's not good. It's very bad. And Jesus is not just some good guy that we can put on the shelf and ignore. A day of reckoning will come.
It's appointed to every man to die once and after this, the judgment. And that's just the sobering truth of our situation. But Jesus offers us forgiveness and eternal life. If we will come to Him, and if you hear this morning and you don't know Him, consider what He offers to you and His warning that if you try to keep your life, you will lose it.
And yet we're thinking of the here and the now. And I'm thinking of what comes next week and next month and I'm forgetting about eternity. And that's a long time. If you try to save your life, you're going to lose it.
Even for us as Christians, as we try to retain control, even as the Lord's people, we'll miss out on the best that the Lord has for us. I just really believe that. I know that's true in my life. And it may sound cliche because it's been said so much.
But I really do believe that the Lord does have a wonderful plan for my life. But His wonderful plan for my life may include persecution. It may include suffering greatly for His name. It may include martyrdom.
As many of our brothers and sisters around this world face. Even today, as we gather here in freedom, our brothers and sisters are dying for their faith in Christ. That's God's wonderful plan. But He has a plan for me.
And as He calls us to be saved, He also calls us to lay down control and to enter into His calling on our life, whatever that is. And that's different for all of us. We're called to different things. The Lord has a place for us.
And He has something for us to do for Him. He didn't save us so that we could just come and just enjoy the blessings of fellowship, for example, as good as that is. And that's a good thing. We should enjoy fellowship together.
It's a beautiful thing. But you know He called us to serve in different ways, in different methods. And if we try to retain control of our life as believers and we don't enter into what the Lord has called us to do, we're going to miss out, friends. We're going to miss out.
And all the Lord could have done through my life had I surrendered it to Him. He does have things He wants us to do. I'm convinced of that. He has a purpose and a plan for each one of us.
We're all members of the body. We all have different gifts and abilities. We come together as a church. We exercise those.
It's a beautiful thing. We go out for ministry together to share with the lost and dying world this incredible news that we have. We call the gospel the good news of Jesus Christ. If you want to save your life, you will lose it.
But if you lose your life because of me and the gospel, you will save it. And when we think about salvation, of course, we know that's incredibly true, isn't it? But as we surrender our lives to Christ, He gives us eternal life. And we want to do that.
We want to surrender to Him. There's nothing better than that. I can say in my life and kind of work through things with me. I mean, saying, Lord, your will be done can be a very scary prayer to pray.
I confess that to you because I don't know what that's going to bring. But I can guarantee you this, that if you ask the Lord to, sincerely, Lord, your will be done in my life. Oh, yes, there's a prayer He's going to answer. But sometimes the consequences of that prayer might cost us something in this life.
And that's where the trouble comes for us. It came for me for many, many years as I resisted, as I resisted, as I resisted. Lord, the cost is too high. Lord, I can't afford that.
Lord, that's going to interrupt my plans. As if somehow my forescore in 10 on this earth is better than what He has for me in eternity. I think of Stephen in the book of Acts, a relatively young man who preached one great sermon. And he was stoned to death for it.
We might look at that and say, what a waste of a young wife. Oh, no. Oh, no. This was God's plan for Stephen.
This is what God called Stephen to do. It's a preach that incredible message that He did and then to lay down His life and enter into glory. There's no waste. As we serve the Lord, there's nothing that we have in this life that we're holding on to that is better than what Jesus offers us, even as His people.
He has so much more for you and for me. And if you've ever felt the calling of God in your life for anything, whatever it is, maybe it's just to talk to someone that you know or share something with a family member or whatever it is, call in to missions. Don't resist that call. Don't resist that call of God in your life or whatever He calls you to do.
Seize the opportunity. Whoever wants to save his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life because of me and the gospel will save it. For what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and yet lose his life?
Or what can anyone give an exchange for his life? What could possibly compare with all that the Lord has in store for us? As we think of eternal life and the glory of God, the peace of God, the presence of God, what is it possibly in this life that could be better than that? I was visiting a man a couple of weeks ago.
I've actually been visiting him since last fall. He's a Roman Catholic man. He's a miserable old sod. And I tell him that.
His hands are all crippled out from rheumatoid arthritis. He has no friends or family in the world. He's literally living in government-assisted housing in squalor and just basically waiting to die. So I've been visiting this guy.
Just knocked in his door one day. A friend told me about him. He said, you've got to go visit this guy. He's just waiting to die.
And he's got no hope. So I just knocked in the door. So hi, I'm a Christian. Can I come in?
Sure, why not? Nobody else comes to visit me. Anyway, as one of my recent visits with him, I was just asking him, I said, you know, John, like, do you believe in life after death? Yeah, I said, well, do you believe that there's rewards and punishments or that there's punishments or rewards only?
Talk to me about that. He says, well, one thing I know with this Mark, he said that when I die, I will definitely not go to hell, because I'm living hell right now. This is my hell. And for a lot of people, that's true, right?
A lot of people you minister to here, they're living in hell on Earth now in the sense that their lives are incredibly broken and messed up. And they know what brokenness and pain is and hopelessness. And yet somehow, the flesh wants to hang on to that, is if that is better than submitting to Christ. And when he offers us peace with God, forgiveness, like joy, that complete release of shame and guilt that is upon our lives before we know the Lord.
And I've seen this time after time where young people, I remember visiting a couple of years ago, Hugh and I, for those of you who know Hugh, we visited a young woman who had come to Bible camp, she had made a profession of salvation. And here she had kind of left her family and got pregnant out of wedlock and was living with a guy who's a drug dealer in squalor. And as we shared with her and talked to her about her past, she really didn't want to talk about that anymore. And her boyfriend, he only came out after about a half an hour.
You guys coughs? No? Okay, okay. That's the kind of situation, right?
And we left there thinking, what is it in the heart of man that will choose that as if somehow this is living, this is the good life, that's the heart of man, the desires of our flesh, the deception that is in this world through lust. And we think that there's something better out there. We think we're gonna be more fulfilled. We're gonna be successful in this world and do something really important and impactful outside of the Lord's call in our life.
And there's nothing more impactful than what the Lord has called you and me to do, just like Stephen, he laid down his life at a young age. He's in the presence of the Lord now. I often think of Lazarus, you know, here Lazarus, the poor guy he dies, you know, it was a terrible thing. His sisters were in trouble and Jesus comes along and he raises them from the dead, but I always think of Lazarus, now he's gotta die again.
I'm sure he was willing to do that because that was the Lord called on his life. Can you imagine being in the glory and the Father saying, well, Lazarus, I got some news for you, you're going back and I'm like, what? I gotta do this again. What is better than Christ?
What does this world offer you and for me that, you know, I mean, I was talking to a guy two weeks ago, I went to visit late 50s, a very nice man. Thankfully, he's seeking the Lord, he's open, he's got a Bible, he's reading it. We prayed together, we talked, you know, but he was just diagnosed with lymphoma and now he's facing, you know, not that old of an age, but he's got a possible death in a horrible way. We just don't know what a day brings forth, but we think we got things figured out, we think we got the retirement plan, and we got everything just kind of planned and we're gonna just have it the way we want it, but we don't know what a day brings forth.
We don't know when the cancer diagnosis comes, we don't know when the car accident comes. I'm sure those hockey players up in Saskatchewan weren't expecting that. We don't typically do it. What could be better than what Christ offers us?
What could we possibly gain in this life? What could we possibly lose that could compare to the gospel, to being saved to knowing Christ, and as his children, what could possibly compare to his will for my life, whatever that is. But that's a hard place for me, it was. You get to a place in life where I could say, okay Lord, whatever your will is.
I remember when I first started praying that prayer, the Lord was just working on my heart so powerfully, and I remember saying to Janet, I went home, I used to ride a bike, it used to be a lot lighter than I am now, and I'd be taking these long bike rides, and I'm praying and just, you know, Lord, I just really want your will, and I am meant it. And then I went home and I said, Janet, I said, I just wanna warn you, I asked the Lord's will to be done in our life today, so we need to be prepared. There's implications, you know, the Lord knows our heart, but I think if we wanna do business with Christ, if we are at that stage even as Christians, where we know that we've been retaining control, we've not been surrendered to Christ, everything can begin new right now, it doesn't have to continue. I can get, even as a believer, I can get right with the Lord in the sense of letting him be Lord of my life now.
Surrendering all control and saying, Lord, you're will be done, this is what Jesus said before the cross, as he was in agony, in the Garden of Gethsemane, and he contemplated what he was about to do, you're will be done, whatever it is. And the joy and the satisfaction of knowing that, doesn't mean it's gonna be easy or enjoyable at the time. Think of the Lord when he was in the beginning of his ministry, right, and he's called out into the desert for 40 days and 40 nights with nothing to eat or drink. And you know what the Bible says there?
The Spirit of God led him there. It was God's will that his son should not have anything to eat or drink for 40 days, think of that. And what was Jesus' response? Absolutely.
If my father has called me not to have anything to eat and drink for 40 days, so be it. That's not an easy thing to do. I mean, our Lord was God, he was also man, fully man, fully God, yes. But he had hunger pains, just like the rest of us as he was here in, and dwelt among us.
And Jesus by the Spirit of God is led to a lack of food and water, do we say the Father's uncaring? No, but he had a purpose for his son to demonstrate to the universe of who he was as he faced those tests and those trials of Satan 40 days later and declared to be the son of God with power. And that was God's will for his son at that time. It was ultimately his will that his son should go to that cross.
And so who am I to thank the God's will for me is always going to be health and wealth and just good times, rock and roll. No, it may include something very difficult, but you know what? The Lord will give us grace and he will lead us through it. And there's nothing that can be compared to that.
If you don't know the Lord this morning, what could possibly compare to what Christ offers you, the forgiveness of sins, peace with God, joy. Eternal life in the presence of God. There's nothing better friends. Verse 38, for whoever is ashamed of me and my words and this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.
You know, like I said, I used to be ashamed of the Lord and I would try to hide my Christianity. So I was pretty successful in a business career and I climbed up the ladder and all of that stuff. You know, and when I was there, I would really try hard to keep my faith a secret. Now I went to church faithfully every Sunday.
In fact, had I been a part of this assembly and I was in the assemblies at the time in Ontario, you would have thought, oh, you know, let's get them on the eldership. But I was ashamed of Christ and I would hide my faith and I would keep it a secret hoping that nobody would find out, avoiding the subject at all costs. You know, there was a few times where I would, I testified over the years with very few. And you know, in 1997, in 95 to 97, I took a master's degree in business at the University of Western Ontario.
And boy, I'll tell you with that crowd, I really kept it under a good secret, nobody knew success. This past summer, I was contacted by a lady from my class through the internet. She'd found me, I hadn't talked to Janice in 20 years and she's like, Mark, we're having our 20th reunion homecoming this year at Western. We've joined it, so we'd love to get the class together.
It's been 20 years since we graduated. And I said, well, you know, that's wonderful. I really appreciate that, but I just can't. I'm out here on the East Coast.
I mean, I just can't do that. I can't afford it, can't, I don't have the time. And she just kept pressing and pressing and pressing and she finally said, Mark, look, I can see on the internet that you're, you know, you're a preacher now and I'm sure I don't know, but that probably doesn't pay well. We're gonna pay for this trip, we want you to come.
And we wanna hear how you went from business into ministry, like that intrigues us. So the class is gonna put the money together and we'll just come on out. And so I went and that was last September. And, you know, a lot of my classmates today are some of Canada's biggest business leaders.
Like one of my teammates, Linda Hassen-Fraj, she runs Leno Mark Corporation. She's the president and CEO of a $40 billion company. And so anyway, you know, these guys are movers and shakers in my class. And so we get there and there's probably 20 of us.
We had a dinner at one of the schoolmates homes and then we had some events at the university and we had a couple of days. It was really good weekend reconnecting. And I had like three of them, that were I had like three to four hour conversations. They wanted to hear none of them are Christians.
They wanna hear Mark, like we know what kind of Wacko business guy you were 20 years ago and how like, you know, committed you. We're like, what happened? And they wanted to hear the story. What happened in my life?
So I got to share with them. And one of them said to me, you know, not everybody was happy with me by the way. One of my professors was there. He's retired now and he goes, so Mark what are you doing now?
You know, like, you know, because everybody else is like running $40 billion companies, right? Oh, well I'm a preacher. He looks at me and goes, oh. So as well, I suppose that's probably the most unique thing that's ever happened to one of our graduates.
He was not impressed. I would waste a $50,000 degree on that, right? So anyway, but most of them were, a lot of them were very interested. Christian 20 years ago and you were in class with us.
And I just confessed. I said, yeah, I said, but I hit it. I didn't want you to know. And he said, what happened?
So I shared with him. But it was so good to just go back after 20 years of hiding my faith from these folks and just being able to not care what they think and just share openly. And I did, you know, praise the Lord. One of them actually, he runs a pharmaceutical company in New Jersey.
No, Philadelphia. And he even said to me, and you know, we haven't even thought about it yet. But he says, Mark, like, would you and your wife come and spend a weekend with me and Philly? We'd like to hear more.
So please come and stay with us. And you know, so just amazing opportunity that I gave up 20 years ago. But the Lord and his grace gave me an opportunity to make up for that. But there's nothing that could be compared friends with serving the Lord, you know?
And in terms of money, at the height of my career, I earned $170,000 a year. And today, I won't even tell you how little it is. But you know what? I don't care anymore.
I just don't. Because that life is not about how much we make on our paycheck and how big our house is. Those things really matter nothing. And you know, when we pass into the presence of the Lord, our bank account, the Lord will, he doesn't care at all.
Do you think he's going to be impressed how big our house is or our job titles or our blood pressure? No. He wants our hearts. He wants all of our lives.
And that's my encouragement to you today, as the Lord's people is to surrender to him to let him truly have control. And you know, it's kind of a heavy message. And I apologize for that. But it's a burden for my own heart.
And it's a burden that I have for the Lord's people that we would just really engage with the Lord and let him have control, let him use us, as he would choose to do so. Whatever the cost might be. And to just be willing to deny ourselves and to lay it down in his cause. You know, there was a time when we lived in a big executive home.
And I really was so filled with pride. And you know, on my street, business executives, like me, lawyers, doctors, business owners. And I remember when some of my kids, my adult kids, were looking at their first home. And I never said it to them.
But I was sick and I'm only like, ooh, I wouldn't live here. That's way beneath me. And then the Lord, in his grace, when he called us into ministry in 2013, we went for three years. We didn't have a house.
We had no place to live. In fact, we bounced around literally Christians in the Maritimes and different places. We're giving us a place to live for six months at a time. And all of our stuff was in storage for three years.
We lived out of suitcases. And I tell you something. And I think the Lord did that on purpose in my heart to teach me a very valuable lesson. Because at the end of three years, when you don't have your own place to stay, trust me, at the end of that three years, you praise the Lord for any roof over your head.
And he had to do that in my case to change my heart. It wasn't easy, but he had to do it. My family had to suffer through that with me. But praise the Lord.
It's not about this life. And so I would just challenge you with that and leave that with you today. If the Lord is speaking to your heart, and if he's put a call on your life, do not ignore that call. Because whatever the cost is, whether it's in material possessions or if it's in relationships or if it's in my plans for my life or, it's worth it beloved.
There's nothing better. I tell people now, and I told my friends on university, I've never earned so little and been so incredibly joyful. I wouldn't trade it for anything. And we've been tested a couple of times since we decided to make the move to Cape Breton and plant a church there.
I've had some big child offers, six figures and all that, but not even interested anymore. Can't even imagine. Now that's just for me. That's not to say you can't have a good paying job, but please don't misunderstand what I'm saying.
All I'm saying is that for us as the Lord's people, we need to be doing whatever it is the Lord has called us to do. And to use that, by the way, did you know, that whatever job you have right now or whatever your situation that's a gift from God to reach people? It's not for you to get rich. You know what I mean?
Like it's not for you, it's to bless others. And that you have an opportunity and an area of witness and ministry to reach into people's lives, like nobody else does and the places that you work and the things that you do. Everything is a gift from God friends. He gives all things and their debuts for his glory.
The food that we have in our fridge is not mine. The car that I drive is not mine. It is the Lord's and it's to be used in his service. So may the Lord challenge our hearts.
May he help us, but praise the Lord as David shared this morning in the first meeting. And I love this about the Lord and Jesus, you know, talks about this in the gospel that the Father is for us. As we are in Christ Jesus, he is for us. He is not against me.
I am his child and there's nothing that can separate from me from his love. And I know that, you know, even though for 20 plus years, I didn't really live the life that the Lord had called me to in his grace and mercy. He brought me around, you know, and he had to slap me a little bit, but he brought me there. And in his grace and mercy, he is a forgiving and gracious God, and he is for us.
He loves us with the same love that he loves the sun. We are in him. And so yes, we may get off track and we may do something that is not right before the Lord, but we are his. And we are recipients of his grace and nothing can separate us from his love.
This is good news. And that's what I love about the Lord. You remember talking to a guy a while ago and this was actually in the States. And he was sharing with me of all the things he'd done wrong in his life.
And I said, friend, I got good news for you. It can all start at new rate this second. Because as we come to the Lord, as we surrender to him, as we ask for forgiveness, he grants it immediately. He's not like us saying, well, I want some payback here.
No, no, he freely forgives and restores and will use us and engage us and do something wonderful through us for his namesake and for the gospel. So may the Lord help us to understand that he is better on every level and whatever he has for you, whatever he has for me, let's serve him faithfully. We're so thankful this morning for the Lord Jesus, for what he did, for each of us at the cross. And Lord, you've called us to lay down our lives and serve us to you, God, to deny ourselves.
And Father, we just pray you would give us grace to do that. Lord, you know our frame, you know that we're dust. Father, we're children of weakness. But Father, we thank you that your power is made perfect in weakness, O God.
And so we come to you today and we pray, Lord, that you would just speak to our hearts once again. The Lord, you would renew us and refresh us in Christ. The Lord, you would give us opportunity in these days, Lord, to serve you. O Lord, help us to count the cost.
I pray, Father, bless your people here. encourage them together, Lord. I build them up, Lord, grow this church. I pray, Father, as they reach out on the streets of Halifax and in this neighborhood, O God, that you would do something wonderful, that many would come to faith, O God, we pray.
So Lord, we thank you for your rich love and mercy. We bless your name, we thank you in Jesus name, amen. Praise the Lord, thank you for coming, good to see you. And I hope to see you again soon.