Matthew 16:21-28

"Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try..."

So what are you really worth? Patrick Odum reflects on several folks who have auctioned off huge portions of their lives and property on eBay and challenges us to ask if we have done the same thing with our stuff.

"[Jesus said,] "For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father and will judge all people according to their deeds. And I tell...."

"[After Jesus told the disciples he would be killed,] Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. "Heaven forbid, Lord," he..."

When's the last time you thought about life's most important question? Phil Ware begins a four post series on Jesus' question to the disciples about who they thought he was and Jesus comes and asks us this question personally, so what will our answer be?

Christmas deny the world? Rubel Shelly reminds us that the world can deny us of many things, especially love and joy and peace and so let's use Christmas as our opportunity to deny the world it's hold on our heart.

If anything costs you your family or your faith, the price is too high! Max Lucado reminds us the real price tag for greed.

"[Jesus taught,] "...whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.""

"Jesus turned to Peter and said, 'Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view,..."

"From then on Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things..."

Inspirational illustration of Matthew 16:25 --...whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.

Doesn't discipleship involve more than just saying the right words? Phil Ware shares his second post in his four article series on Peter's confession, focusing this time on our tendency to reduce faith to words and not actions and discipleship.

What are you willing to sacrifice to achieve or find? Patrick Odum reminds us that to grow we have to stretch, reach, and sacrifice but that is more than worth the effort because Jesus gives us back far more than we can ever give.

Why would you go to all that trouble to follow Jesus? Sometimes what you need costs you everything. It will have to be a relationship with Jesus.

I didn't know there was anything you couldn't sell on eBay? Teresa Bell Kindred talks about selling our soul and eBay and what we are doing with our own soul.

What are you willing to trade in for this prize? Selling a bike for $5 (five dollars) is a bad deal, but not nearly as bad as giving away our soul for something valueless.

Without understanding the cross, we turn Christianity into another human contest about self-importance. Phil Ware shares his third post on The Question, Peter's confession of Jesus and how he had to be broken before he could really understand what his confession meant.

How have you been conditioned? So many of us have been conditioned to not see the call of the cross in our lives!

You can't have your big teeth till you get rid of the old ones. Life is like that too. Jesus promises new life. Part of new life is getting rid of the old one.

What are you building your life upon? Phil Ware continues his series on The Story by looking at Peter's confession of Jesus and how Jesus takes flawed, broken, messed-up people and builds his church that is unstoppable.

Does the connection show up in our ministry? All too frequently people claiming to follow Jesus separate proclamation from compassion, evangelism from service, but if we have a DNA connection with Jesus, both must be present.