The Power of the Cross

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. So we are in week 5 of the Upside Down Kingdom, and doesn't it right now feel like everything has been turned upside down? And that's the new normal. Yeah, this is the week I think for many of us that the COVID-19 pandemic, I know that's a scary word, but it's still the reality of what we're dealing with in some ways, but where it became much more real. We got into the habit of social distancing, it became a more of a normal. I could tell by the one time that I went out to the grocery store and people were kind of settling into that. Because it's also the week it became more real for many of us because we started to know people who were infected with the virus, some isolated at home and others who are hospitalized. Now last week when we talked about this Upside Down Kingdom, we looked at the upside down nature of how one enters the kingdom, and Jesus said, unless you become like a little child, you will never enter it. Two weeks ago we looked at the upside down nature of goodness. The fact that what is the good life? Who leads the good life? And how God gives the good life to us through his son Jesus Christ. It is a free gift of God. Three weeks ago we even looked at the upside down nature of greatness, where the greatest are actually the least and the first become the last in the kingdom of God. Today we're going to look at, I think, the passage that, well, for me was the inspiration for this entire series in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 10, starting at verse 32. And we're looking at the upside down nature of power once again, but this time it's positional power or authority and how one uses their position for the sake of the kingdom versus the way the world uses it. Now before we get into this, though, I do want to reiterate some of the things Hunter so eloquently said in our introduction, because I know some of you didn't get here quite at the beginning of this video and this live streaming, and I want to reemphasize how important it is at a time like this when we have to stay socially apart, physically apart, for the sake of our community and world, we still need to be close together and connected. And that's why Hunter and I have set up these different Zoom huddle calls and Zoom huddles for our congregation, not just for the family at Thrive, but for anyone you may know that wants to grow in community, who needs encouragement, support, growth, a connection, we'd love for you to join in with those. So we have them, and you can see them here on the screen, Mondays at 7, Tuesday at 1 p.m., Tuesday at 7 p.m., Thursday at 7 p.m., and Saturday at 9 a.m. Now if none of those times work, let us know, we'll try to set up one that works for you, but we also encourage this, you can set up a Zoom huddle yourself with friends, relatives, family members, whomever. Yesterday I had the privilege of getting together with I think over a dozen of my cousins on the Roth side of the family, stretched from California through the Midwest to Florida, and it was just such a blessing to be able to hear an update from them and to pray with them, and some of them I think might be watching this morning right now here, and I appreciate that as well. So consider doing one of those as well. Now also last week we started on Wednesday night another live streaming event, and this is as Hunter and I discuss in more of a podcast format, would you say, Hunter? I know I'm, pardon, conversational format, I'm looking over here at him, he's well away from me right now, in a conversational format, the book of Philippians, and why? Because of all the New Testament books, this one was written by Paul when he was in confinement, he was socially isolated in some ways, he was still in prison, probably in Rome, and he wrote to his church that he loved so much in Philippi, in Greece, and shared joy and encouragement in the midst of struggles, and I think we all need that now, so tune into that on Wednesdays at seven. And then finally, this Monday, again, we're going to do a Thrive Drive-By, where you stay in your car, you put food in the trunk of your car, non-perishable food items, and you come through, we have a little drive-in area next to our church here on Estero Parkway, and you can drop it off by just opening your trunk, we'll take it out, and then roll down your window, stay in the car, we can have a little conversation, and actually get to see each other more in person than online, and I think it's just been a great thing that we've started to do. When I dropped off the items from last week, Tuesday, at the Interfaith Food Bank here right in Estero Park, boy, I'll tell you, they were thrilled, because the demand has gone up as the supplies have diminished, so you can make a difference by serving this community in that way. Now, we're going to get into our text, okay? And this is from Mark chapter 10, sta...