Jesus asks different things of different disciples…
Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
Matt 8:18-22
But he always asks for the same thing, everything.
So, I guess the real question is, “what is your everything?”
For some of us it is time, maybe money, it could be security, or comfort, we may enjoy solitude, or even our “family time” Whatever it is that you hold most dear, that is what needs to be at God’s disposal. What keeps you from serving “whole hog” at your church? What keeps you from giving or spending time with the people of God consistently.
Are you a member of your church, yet you attend once a week? You might think that’s pretty good, “I go every week,” yet in the context of the New Testament, Hebrews 10 says
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another
Heb 10:24-25
They were not meeting once a week, they were meeting daily, having all things in common, praying, worshiping, serving, studying, doing… If all we do is attend once a week, we ARE neglecting our assembly. If we’re not giving, beginning with the first fruits of 10% of our increase, then our heart really isn’t in the kingdom.
“I will follow wherever you go…” as long as it doesn’t cost me _______________.
We see the same thing with wedding vows… here are the ones I usually have people recite
I take you as God’s will for my life
To have and to hold
From this day forward
For better or for worse
For richer or for poorer
In sickness and in health
To love and to cherish
With nothing but death to part us
And then, a few years in “well, we just don’t love each other anymore” “we’re not happy”
So when things get worse, perhaps someone gets sick, or money gets tight, we go back on our word “to love and to cherish, with nothing but death to part us”
Death, is the only “loophole” in marriage, yet how many of us seek a divorce on the grounds that because we don’t feel like we were treated right “well, God wouldn’t want me to…”
In the same way, what about how you serve the Lord? Are you grafted into a local body of Christ? Were you mistreated at a church “well, God wouldn’t want me to…”
Connect, worship, serve, grow, give… Follow Him.
