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Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Speaker 2: 0:20

Alright, welcome back to the Daily Blade. This is day two. We are talking about Matthew, chapter 20. We're going to talk about what it means to be great. If you desire to be great, that's not a bad thing. God put that in us. There's just a godly way and an ungodly way to be great.

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This is not an exhaustive list. All of this comes from Matthew, chapter 20. So number two is this A great man knows how to suffer, that there is a direct correlation between the amount of suffering that you can endure and the responsibility that God will trust you with. Let me say that again, a great man knows how to endure pain and suffering. There is a direct correlation between the amount of pain and suffering that you can endure and the amount of responsibility that God will trust you with. And you may say well, where in the world do you get that? Well, first and foremost, I would point you to the cross of Jesus Christ. But let's go back to Matthew 20, verse 20. We'll repeat a few things it says. Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons and, kneeling before him, she asked him for something and he said to her what do you want? And she said to him say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left in your kingdom. And here's how Jesus answers. You do not know what you were asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink Now, the cup that Jesus is talking about?

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He also refers to this later in the gospel of Matthew, when Jesus goes to the garden of Gethsemane. In the garden of Gethsemane, jesus, feeling the weight of the world upon him, he knows that tomorrow he is scheduled by his heavenly father to go to the cross to bear the sins of the entire world. In fact, 1 Corinthians tells us, not only does he bear the sins of the world, but he becomes sin. That God made him, who was without sin, to be sin for us. And the weight upon him is excruciating. In fact, he gathers his disciples and he says would you stay up and watch and pray? He gets Peter, james and John to come a little further and says boys, will you please just stay up, watch and pray. And then he prays this as he sweats drops of blood Father, if there be any other way, take this cup from me. The cup that he is talking about is the cup of the wrath of God stored up for all eternity against sinners and sin itself. And we know that he finishes that prayer by saying not my will, but thy will be done. And so to the guys that are asking or they actually had their mom, go and ask. And they sit at the right and left, they're right there.

Speaker 2: 2:46

We find out in the next couple of verses and he says you don't know what you're talking about. In order for you to be elevated to where you want to be elevated, you have to be able to suffer, like I am about to suffer. I mean, think about this. Jesus says that to follow him, we must daily take up our cross. That didn't mean put on a piece of jewelry in the first century. That means every single day that you and I are called to suffer, to lose, to take on pain upon ourself in order to follow Jesus. I mean, just think about what a follower is that, ultimately, as disciples, it's a big game of follow the leader. And where did our leader go? Our leader suffered all the way to the cross. Jesus is going to say hey, this world is going to hate you because this world hated me, so don't be surprised when it hates you. Don't be surprised when this world beats you up a little bit. Don't be surprised when you face ridicule or pain of all kinds, because we are followers of Jesus. Now, if you hadn't gotten a bloody nose from banging against the culture of this world, it could be because you're going with the flow. If you have not been attacked by the enemy lately or beaten up by this world lately, it could be because you're playing for the other team and you're not playing for team Jesus.

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Chuck Swindoll, who was an incredible expositor of the word of God, he's got this saying that I love so much. Well, I kind of love it and I kind of hate it, because it's so true. He said when God wants to do an impossible task, he chooses an impossible man and crushes him. Leave room for the crushing. And so Jesus says you don't know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink, or are you able to suffer what it means to follow after me?

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And they said to him we are able. And he said to them you will drink my cup. And you know what they actually did, that they followed Jesus through the cross to the resurrection. They saw the resurrected Christ have breakfast with the resurrected Christ. They professed Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and in Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, they were filled with the Spirit of God, and God gave them the power that they needed to be the witnesses and the followers that they were called to be, and they followed Jesus even unto death. And even these two boys were martyred for their faith. A great man becomes a great man not necessarily by doing great things, but a great man knows how to endure great pain for the cause of Christ and those he has been given dominion over.

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Thank you for listening to today's episode Before you go. If you want to Over.