Reality #6

Luke 9:23-27

Reality #6 - You must make major adjustments in your life to join God in

what He is doing

I. Introduction – 1955 Parker Brothers board game – Going to Jerusalem. started in Bethlehem, and you made stops at the Mount of Olives, Bethsaida, Capernaum, the stormy sea, Nazareth, and Bethany. If you rolled the dice well, you went all the way to a triumphal entry into Jerusalem. But you never got to the Crucifixion or Resurrection.

II. Adjust your aspirations (23) – What is most important in life

A. Explanation

1. To come after Jesus, you must do these three things

a. Deny himself – I often deny myself when I am dieting – I put aside my desire to eat everything in sight to receive something that I find more important (weight loss). In the same way, if we believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, we must be able to set aside our fleshly and worldly desires to place our faith fully in Christ

b. Take up your cross – The cross in that time only had one meaning. It was the most severe, torturous, and lethal punishment that the Romans used to execute a person. A cross meant certain death. In the same way, the follower of Christ must see himself as dead – To himself and in identifying with Jesus. DAILY

c. Follow me – To leave behind everything to follow Him

i. As Abraham was called to leave his family and home behind

ii. Noah left an entire society

iii. Moses left the safety of Midian to return to Egypt and confront Pharaoh

B. Application

1. What are your greatest aspirations – What do you want most out of this life

a. For many, it will be money and success

b. But, for others, it will be a relationship with Jesus that ultimately brings hope and peace

2. The things that the world desires are only a means to an end – You seek money and power to obtain peace, love, and joy.

3. What we are seeking from worldly aspirations are found eternally in Christ and in our relationship with Him

III. Adjust your aim (24-25) – The things you want in life

A. Explanation

1. You must rearrange what is important to you - What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits His soul

a. For many the most important thing would be to make something amazing of this life

b. In the end, what is most important is eternal life – Being with Christ forever or eternal separation from Christ in hell

2. In order to gain real life, you must reverse the world’s aims –

a. They aim for the good life

b. They aim for the things that are only enjoyed in this life

3. Yet, when we give up our lives for Christ to live in us, then we find a life truly worth living

4. And, in Christ, our life never ends. When our aim in life is the things of this world, they only last in this lifetime.

5. The real value of these lives

a. One is infinitely valuable

b. The other is of very limited value –

c. If he gains everything in this world but forfeits His soul, in the end, he loses

6. To gain the whole world but forfeit self –

a. In Matthew and Mark, it is to forfeit your soul – much darker

b. This is to give up the eternal future based on immediate gratification

c. Do not sacrifice the future on the altar of the immediate

B. Illustration – The Rich Young Ruler – Luke 18:18-23

C. Application

1. Our greatest aspirations as humans are life and success

2. Way too many people pursue these things without thinking about these spiritual matters

3. In doing so they pursue the temporal and forfeit the eternal

4. “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose” Jim Elliott

IV. Adjust your allegiance (26-27)

A. Explanation

1. Whoever is ashamed of men, the son of man will be ashamed when He comes in His glory

a. There are always people who are ashamed of Christ, even though they claim to be followers

b. They are ashamed when it does not meet the world's understanding of what is good and profitable

c. We hide our faith or refuse to speak of our savior when the opportunity presents itself

d. We do point people who need Him to Jesus because we might sound too religious

e. Our embarrassment reveals our true nature

f. Illustration – Romans 1:16 - “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

2. When He comes in His glory – the validation of whom we should place our faith in

3. Some will not taste death until they see the Kingdom of God

a. Some say it is about the second coming

b. The next passage is the transfigurations – which begins with “Now about eight days after these sayings…”

c. It appears to point to this as the verification of the coming of the Kingdom

B. Illustration – like a kernel of corn, it must first die and be buried in the ground before it can bring forth so much more life and many more kernels

C. Application

1. For most people in this world, their greatest allegiance is to themselves

2. Jesus brings a new way of looking at the world – We make Him our greatest allegiance.

a. We see Him as the one who is worthy of our faith

b. We see Him as the one who is glorious

c. It is another paradox of our faith – We give up our allegiance to love someone who loves us more than we love ourselves

V. Conclusion

Board Game Softens Discipleship

When I was a kid in the mid-50s, Parker Brothers came out with a game for church families like ours. It was called "Going to Jerusalem." Yourx playing piece wasn't a top hat or Scottie dog, like in the "worldly" game of Monopoly. In "Going to Jerusalem," you got to be a real disciple. You were represented by a little plastic man with a robe, a beard, some sandals, and a staff.

In order to move across the board, you looked up answers to questions in the little black New Testament provided with the game. I remember that you always started in Bethlehem, and you made stops at the Mount of Olives, Bethsaida, Capernaum, the stormy sea, Nazareth, and Bethany. If you rolled the dice well, you went all the way to a triumphal entry into Jerusalem. But you never got to the Crucifixion or Resurrection. There were no demons or angry Pharisees. You only made your way through the nice stories. It was a safe adventure, perfectly suited for a Christian family on a Sunday afternoon walk with Jesus.

It never occurred to me, while leaning over the card table and jiggling the dice in my hand, that traveling with Jesus wasn't meant for plastic disciples who looked up verses in a little black Bible. If you're going to walk with Jesus as his disciple in this world, you may need to change your expectations. After all, Jesus said, "Take up your cross, and follow me."