and then I saw a T-shirt on it and I said, bye, and I didn't see it. So I put it on and I said, bye, and I didn't see it. So I put it on and I said, bye, and I didn't see it. So I put it on and I said, bye, and I didn't see it. So I put it on and I said, bye, and I didn't see it. So I put it on and I said, bye, and I didn't see it. So I put it on and I said, bye, and I didn't see it. So I put it on and I said, bye, and I didn't see it. Good morning. It's a beautiful snowy Tuesday morning. Did you enjoy coming to school this morning? Not the raindrops falling on your head, but the snow flurries falling on your head? It was beautiful, wasn't it? Did you enjoy that? I hope all of you were able to stay on your feet and your feet did not, you know, go this way while your backside went that way. That would not have been good. All right, but I see all of you here. It's good to see here, see you, and it's good to worship the Lord. Now one of the first things we want to do this morning, do you remember that we had And you remember some of you memorized many, many, many, many, many numbers of Pi. Others of you did math competitions. And so at this time, we want to share with you the results of the winners of our Pi Day. So the Ace MC, the Master of Ceremonies, Mr. Kim himself, is going to come and share the winners of Pi Day. First of all, thank you very much for participating in this Pi Day event, and everybody did a good job, so thank you very much. The winner of the math competition test, third and fourth grade, is Shiloh Lee. Shiloh, come on down. Congratulations. Don't stand up there by Mr. Kim. You look like you're proud because you are. You did a good job. For the multiplication table 12 by 12 contest, third place is Evan Hyun. Don't be shy. Evan also got the third place for the pie memorization contest. So here is the prize. All right. Well done, Evan. Benjamin's up for second place. Benjamin, come on out. Come on. Good job. David Hwang is the winner of the 12x12 contest and math competition test. Good job, David. All right. Good job. Hey, Evan and Chad, can we switch since we've been playing? All right, Miss David, put it down, show it so that we can see what you want there. Congratulations. Record this for posterity. Thank you. All right, well done. Thank you, Mr. Kim. Congratulations to all of you. Job well done there. Let's go ahead and go to the Lord in prayer, and then we will have our music to worship the Lord. We're going to talk to the Lord, so let's bow our heads, close our eyes, and shut our mouths as Pastor Mark prays. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the gifts and the talents that you've given to each student here at Soul Christian School. Thank you for the chance to recognize Those who were able to memorize great numbers of numbers for pi or for multiplication tables. We thank you for those who were able to put their computational skills to use for these math competitions. Lord, we thank you that we do have the time each week to come together as the elementary school to worship you. And so in our time together this morning, We just see that we might see Jesus, that because of the time that we spent here together, that we might love you more, that we might know you better, and that we might trust you more because we have seen a bit of what our Savior has done for us because you love us and sent your son, Jesus Christ, to die for us. So Lord, we ask your blessing upon our time together. And we give you our hearts as we lift our voices. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, are you ready to sing? All right, let's sing. All right, good morning, guys. Welcome to Music To All. I'm kind of crazy that we're already, basically, it wasn't off of the mark, but we're getting ready to start. All right, we're going to sing two songs today. The first one is Read Your Bible. and gray every day. Most of us know this by now, well enough for you to do it while we're sleeping. But I'm going to need two people to help us just in case we forgot. I'm going to be picking someone from 1st and 2nd grade, and someone from 3rd and 4th grade. Um, let's see here. I'm going to go with... I'm going to go with Haji. Um, I'm going to go with... It's really important to do two things that help us to know God better and to grow as a believer. Those two things are reading our Bible, right? praying every day, and what happens when we do that? We grow, right? So we'll start off down here, reading our Bible, praying every day, and then we start growing, growing, growing, growing. But what happens when we forget? What happens to us? We get smaller, right? So when we neglect our Bible and forget to pray, then we shrink, shrink, shrink, okay? All right, so we're gonna go ahead and try this song together, looking at my two helpers to see the hand motions. Ready guys? One, two, three. Read your Bible, pray every day. Pray every day. Pray every day. Read your Bible. Pray every day. And you'll grow, grow, grow. And you'll grow, grow, grow. And you'll grow, grow, grow. Read your Bible. Pray every day. And you'll grow. Grow, grow. And the sad part. Neglect your Bible. Forget to pray. Forget to pray. Forget to pray. Neglect your Bible. Forget to pray. And you'll shrink, shrink, shrink. And you'll shrink, shrink, shrink. And you'll shrink, shrink, shrink. Left your Bible, forget to pray, and you'll shrink, shrink, shrink. Wow, so you guys are into the floor. All right, go ahead and have a seat. Go have a seat. Thank you, Shiloh and Haji. Go have a seat, guys. All right, the next that we're going to sing is one that some of you guys might know. It's called Be Thou My Vision. Anyone raise their hand and tell me what does thou mean? What does thou mean? Ina? Be God's vision. Be God's vision. So that one word thou, thou means be God's vision. No. Someone else, what does the word thou mean? Yes. I want to say Angela. No. Annabelle. Annabelle. Annabelle. No. No? It was a sort of half hand? OK. All right, Shia. Me. Good try. We? Good try, but no, sort of the opposite of that. Shiloh? Lord? We're getting a little closer. We're getting a little closer. Haji? God? Getting a little closer. I'm going to get one more guess from Nyan. Jesus. Not quite. Thou means you. Means you. And in this song, we're talking to God, we're saying, God, can you be the thing that I focus my eyes on? Can you help me to focus on you? Not focus on other things, but just you, God. I want to focus on you. Be thou, God, you be my vision. So I'm going to have Mrs. Kwan play through this song. Some of you guys might say, oh, I do know this song. Some of you might say, I have no idea what this song is. Great, you get to learn this song. So let's listen as Mrs. Kwan plays through it. so so All right, we're gonna go ahead and try it together. Here we go. ♪ Be thou my vision ♪ ♪ O Lord of my heart ♪ ♪ Now I wait on those who will take the part ♪ ♪ Be thou the best of my days ♪ Verse number two. All right, that's pretty good. Just curious, how many of you guys would say that was the first time you sang that song? Cool. How many of you guys would say, oh, I think I did know that song, actually, teacher. Yeah, I did know that. Cool, cool, cool. All right, maybe we'll bring that back another time. I'm going to go ahead and call Pastor Bright to come up, lead us in our message for today. All righty, good morning. It is a good morning. We've got a beautiful morning out there, sun shining with snow coming through the sunshine. I just love snow, don't you? It's cold, it's wet, but it's beautiful. You know, snow reminds me of something. The Bible tells us that even though our sin is like scarlet. Does anyone know what color scarlet is? Red. So deep, dark, staining red. Even though your sin is like scarlet, Isaiah 118 says, they shall be white as snow. As that snow came down this morning, it was fluffy, it was white, it stacked on my car windshield, and I had to use, I actually used a broom to scrape the snow off my windshield this morning. Got a lot of it off, all over the car. It was beautiful, but it was messy. Anyway, God forgives our sins. And why or how is it possible that God could make something as red and scarlet as white snow? That's only possible because our sins are painful. They are painful when Jesus shed his blood on the cross. And so today, as we're here in the scriptures, we are going to be talking about carrying our crosses. And so we are going to do this, even if I have to sign in. I guess they don't believe I'm still me. Isn't that sad? So I'll show that I'm me. I have my super secret password there. I remembered it. There we go. All right. Type that, and show the title there. And we're going to turn, as we have been recently, to Mark 15. So open your Bibles to Mark 15, and we're starting ways down in the chapter. Mark 15, we're going to read verses 16 through 32. Mark 15, verses 16 through 32. Mark 1, 5. Mark 15, verses 16 through 32. Now, you may remember, last week we talked about Jesus' trials. Jesus was tried by Ananias and Caiaphas, the Jewish high priests. He was tried by Pilate. He was tried by Herod. He was tried by Pilate again. And finally, Jesus was sent to die. And so that is what has happened. Jesus' trials have happened. And now we pick up in Mark 15, verse 16, 1-5-1-6. All right. If you're not there yet, just listen. Just listen carefully. Then the soldiers led him away into the hall called the Praetorium. And they called together the whole garrison, all the soldiers. And they clothed him with purple. And they twisted a crown of gold, of gems, of oddly, or holly and ivy? No, a crown of what? A crown of thorns. And they put it on his head. We're now on verse 18. And they began to salute him. Hail, King of the Jews! Then they both struck him on the head with a reed. That's a stick. They spat on him. They bowed the knee. Oh, they're mocking him. They worshiped him. and when they had mocked him, or verse 20 now, 2-0, when they had mocked him, they took the purple off him, put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him. They're going to put him on the cross, and they'll do that. So they're now taking him out, and now on verse 21, then they compelled a certain man named Simon the Cyrenian, the father of Alexander and Rufus, as he was coming out of the country and passing by to bear his cross. That verse says Simon had to carry Jesus' cross. In verse 22, they brought him to the place of Golgotha, which is translated place of a skull. Then they gave him wine mingled with myrrh to drink, but he did not take it. And when they crucified him, they divided his garments Casting lots for them to determine what every man should take Now we're on verse 25 2 5 now it was the third And the inscription of his accusation was written above the king With him also were crucified two robbers one on his right hand the other on his left and So the scripture was fulfilled, which says, and he was numbered with the transgressors. Transgressors are bad guys. So he was numbered with the transgressors, verse 29. And those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads, that means shaking their heads, and saying, aha, you who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself. Come down from the cross. Likewise, the chief priests also, mocking among themselves with the scribes, said, he saved others, himself he cannot save. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend, that means come down, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. Of course, they wouldn't even be dead. Even those who were crucified would be reviled. Let's pray. Lord God, we pray that you would speak to our hearts through your word this morning. Help us to see Jesus, to see the love of God and what it costs for sinners like us Help us to understand. Help us to know that we are loved. Help us to know that, Lord, we trust in your son. Not only are we loved, but we are thankful. We are forgiven. We are the children. Speak to us. Help us to understand. What it means when we say, I believe that Jesus died on the cross for us. Jesus died. You know, we call ourselves Christians. And if you spell out the word Christian, you see there's another word in Christian. What word is found in Christian? Annabelle, I saw your hand. Too late, you put your hand up. What was it? What word is found in Christian? Christ, yes. Christ is found in Christian. Christian, the I-A-N means So when you call yourself a Christian, you're saying, I'm a little tiny Christ. I'm like Christ. You see, Christians were first called Christians because they talked about Jesus Christ. They believed in Jesus Christ. And so people said, look at that. He's a little Christ. He's a Christian. And people say, yeah, I want to be like Jesus. And so that's why we are Christians. But Christ, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was a man who did a lot of good things. And we've talked about that for the past two years as we've been going through mine. Jesus was a good man. a perfect man, a sinless man. He never did anything wrong. He never lied to his mama. He never stole from his brothers or sisters. I mean, he was good. And yet, here he is, the perfect man, the son of God, being taken to the cross to die. He's he's going to die on the cross with bad guys people who deserve to die Because they've done some terrible bad very good. No good rotten things They're like the people Jesus was with were sinners So what does it mean to go to the cross, that Jesus went to the cross. You see these little crosses, I don't even answer them. It's a rhetorical question that you don't have to answer. You see people with crosses on their necklace or a cross, I mean, there's a cross right here on the podium. Why do we make such a big deal about the cross, this place where Jesus died? Is it just something that's a symbol? What does it mean that Jesus died on the cross for our sins? What is the cross? The cross was a place, for us as Christians, it's something that we look to because this is where the God we love died. But the cross for Jesus for the people who take him to the cross for the people On the cross. This is a place of great great shame in embarrassment You know if you lived when Jesus did In you were and they said you you're going to the cross. I want you to die. I That meant, number one, it meant you were not a citizen. You are not a Roman. Roman citizens could not go to the cross. They would die in another way. It was not so shameful. This was painful. It was shameful. So no Roman citizen, if you were from the city of Rome or from Italy, Roman citizens could not be crucified. The Apostle Paul later would be a citizen of Rome. He could not be killed by crucifixion. So this was a place of shame. As a matter of fact, we're told in 1 Corinthians 1 that for the Greeks, the civilized people, the people who drink, you know, tea from a teacup with one finger, you know, the dainty, civilized, philosophical, cultured people, that the cross to them was simply foolishness. You know, how foolish that God would save somebody with this shameful cross. And also in 1 Corinthians 1, 18 through 25, Paul says the cross to the Jews is a stumbling block. They refused to believe in someone who died on the cross. Why? Because the cross, according to Deuteronomy, Galatians 3.18, the cross, in Deuteronomy it says, cursed is anyone who hangs from a tree. And so it was something for criminals, for bad guys. So to be crucified meant that you were a bad, evil person, that you had no place in society. You were not a citizen. You were bad. You were shameful. This was a disgrace. You brought shame to your mama. You brought shame to your family. Your dad was ashamed of you. Your name would not be written down as someone that, you know, look at little, Look at Rapa, he was crucified. No, we're not going to talk about him because he did that bad thing. He was crucified. We don't talk about the black sheep, the bad people, right? So we see that Jesus was humiliated, shamed to be crucified. It was a place of shame. It was a place of pain. It hurt to go to the cross. Because you would actually have nails put through your hands, through your feet. That would hurt. And eventually, it would become so hard to breathe, you would have to pull yourself up by your hands. as the nails pulled on your hands to try to free you. It was very painful and exhausting. It hurt. But not only was this a place of shame and pain, I want you to see that this was also a place of shame and social loss. You see, you could make fun of someone on the cross because, you know, they couldn't defend themselves. They were bad. And so you see that as Jesus goes to the cross, everybody mocks him. Look at him! Ha ha! The soldiers who were going to kill him. This is a dude. This is what a king of the Jews is like. Let's give him a crown. And so they get a crown. And it's not one of these Burger King crowns made out of cardboard. This is a crown with thorns that pierce his forehead, that make his head. And they say, oh, a king needs to look royal. Let's give him a purple coat. give him something purple that looks like royal so that we can bow to him and hail the king. And they're just mocked. Jesus Christ, the son of man, the perfect one. He was mocked not only by Roman soldiers, he was mocked by criminals. There were two people, one on his right, this is your right, One on his left, my right, my left, right? And they were there and they were saying, Jesus, if you're God, come on down and take us with you. Rescue yourself so we can be rescued. And they're just making fun. Here are bad guys, evil guys saying, welcome to the club, right? He's mocked by soldiers. He's mocked by criminals. He's mocked by the mobs. You know, people just go admire this Gethsemane, this place of the skull. They see, oh, there's somebody on the cross. Oh, look at him. What's that sign say? King of the Jews? No way, I'm saying. Can't be. And they would mock him. At his trial, they'd been saying, crucify him, crucify him. Now they're just making fun. He's not saving himself. He's not doing anything great. He's just dying there. And they're making fun. Mocked by soldiers, mocked by criminals, mocked by the mob, all these passerbys. And that wasn't all. He was mocked by the good guys. They're religious people. It's like the pastors, the preachers. They were called scribes and Pharisees. You know, these people that you would see in your synagogue or see at the temple saying, let's read the Bible together. And these were the people saying, you know, come on down and we'll believe you. I mean, they're mocking the Son of God. And they're supposed to be worshipers of God. And as Jesus looks at them, he's thinking I Love these souls. I love these criminals. I'm going to take one of them Today he tells one of them today He cries out to God the father as these people are mocking him father forgive them He loves them and is willing to forgive them, though they are mocking him, though the soldiers have beaten him and put crowns on his forehead. His back is all bloody from being whipped. No one suffered agony like he, yet he loves those who kill him, those who mock him, those who hate him. Jesus Christ loves. Person on the cross has no social status. He's not going to be talking to kings Wearing a golden crown being with a powerful people or having a bunch of friends He has no social status no one respects him everyone wants him even Jesus clothes The soldiers take his clothes and gamble who gets Jesus' clothes. And they gamble because they don't want to tear his clothing apart. I mean, the humiliation of having your clothing stolen from you so that it can be gambled for. Do you feel the pain? Do you feel the pain of that? It's a place where you are alone. Jesus cries on the cross, my God, my God. Why have you forsaken me? He has no sense of God's presence, even as there's no one really there on his side. But notice, the cross is a place where charges are brought against a person. You are on the cross because you're a criminal You've been found guilty Two men on either side were guilty of very bad things Jesus in the middle He said you are guilty And that was a charge that was placed over his cross so it was a place of a name He was crucified. He was charged as here is Jesus Notice we see this here is Jesus the king of the Jews Now John 1 tells us Jesus came to save his own the Jewish people Here on the cross you see the Jews and the Gentiles all the way to the top Now as he dies on the cross as the king of the Jews, he gains a new title, the king of kings. He takes all our guilt, all our shame, and he urges his children, those who believe in him, that this act of The bad things you do, the bad things I do. He's King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And so the cross is a mark of guilt for the worst crimes. Jesus never sinned. He never did anything bad. He was like you and I, except one thing. He never sinned. He was in all points like us. And so because Jesus was innocent, his death could pay for our sins. His shed blood was the price paid so you can live forever with God. Finally, last thought. I try not to take too long. I'm already done. You see before Jesus died Jesus said Jesus said you want to be mine Take up my cross take up the cross and follow me I have my cross, now you take it out. You carry it. And what happens here, as Jesus was going, he had been beaten, he had lost blood, he was tired, and he starts to stumble, because he's carrying this cross beam across his back, and he stumbles, and the Romans are like, come on, this is going to take all day. You! Take his cross. Come in, get the cross. You take Jesus' cross. Yes, you, sit in. So here, I misspelled that. We see, I won't make you actually. We see that when Jesus was on the way, verse 21, that they compelled a certain man, Simon Assyrian, That was where he was from, from Syria, Cyrus. The soldier said, you carry Jesus' cross. And that man carried Jesus' cross to go with them while Jesus stumbled on. So Jesus commands those of us who believe in him to pick up his cross. What does that mean? It means sometimes when we follow Jesus, we will be mocked for doing what's right. Sometimes we will be shamed for being kind, for being good, because we belong to Jesus. Carrying that cross can mean a lot of different things, but it means We do what's right. And sometimes that means we suffer for doing wrong. And that's okay. Because what Paul says in Colossians 1 24 is, by my suffering, I fill up Jesus' suffering. Jesus suffered enough. And as we for being kind, or for other good things. Jesus says, you're doing this for me. I had to suffer on the cross, and you will suffer, because the world will hate you, just like it hated me. because you are mine. You are my child. I want to make sure that we are together forever in heaven. You will never be alone. You will always be with me. You are my God, my child, my friend. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. You are my God. Father, we thank you for the love of God. We thank you for forgiveness on behalf of Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Help us, Lord, to be willing to take up the cross to follow Jesus, whatever our cross may be. In Jesus' name.