SO, YOU WANT TO FOLLOW JESUS?!

SO, YOU WANT TO FOLLOW JESUS?! Mark 8:34 February 7, 1999 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introductory If you want to follow Jesus, you need to deny yourself There is a popular religious mentality which says to would-be followers that if you will believe in Jesus and come into His camp, the things in your life will change. Suddenly your boss will become sweeter, you’ll find yourself married to the perfect spouse, you’ll get that raise, that new job...your whole life will take on new meaning and be perfect. There’s only a thimble-full of truth there--your whole life WILL take on new meaning, but it will not be perfect until you die. Everybody wants the circumstances of their lives to get better, but nobody wants to BECOME BETTER! Maybe that’s because we all know down deep in our hearts that what Jesus says here is true. That true happiness and self-fulfillment comes through self-denial and suffering for a cause. Everybody’s looking for what one author calls a “Jacuzzi Jesus” - a faith life that will leave them relaxed, warm and bubbly, and yet, at the same time, fit and trim when the experience is over--like they’ve just instantly gotten in shape. But Jesus will never fill that bill. He knows what true fulfillment is--it is the accomplishment of a purpose higher than oneself, no matter what pain and personal cost is involved. True faith is the absolute giving up of self and all self-interest, and being absorbed by, fully infatuated with, obsessed with the will of God. The “yuppie-istic” kind of religion says that if you’ll get into this magical relationship with Jesus, and you want anything bad enough, you just claim it and God will give it to you, because He’s good and He’s rich. That sounds so appealing because we have become so enamored with comfort, having our needs met, avoiding the pain at all costs, that we have “read it into” the creed of faith. But, looks closely at this kind of religion and see it is light-years away from everything Jesus modeled and taught. His kingdom is altogether different from the me-ism of today. God’s kingdom is another way of saying “God’s rule”--an existence where He is the boss. When a person chooses to live in this kingdom (although you continue to live here on planet Earth) you choose to be under His authority. To be a Christian is to surrender yourself--to throw up the white flag and say, OK, you’re in charge. For many people, this self-denial does not run very deep. They are so culturally warped that their idea of a major commitment to God is to get to church on Sunday. To give a donation to the church is, then, a Purple Heart behavior meriting the highest of God’s respect. But this is such a childish perspective--to follow Jesus goes all the way to the point where you have surrendered all your self-will, and have said to Him, “Whatever You say, I will do! Not my will, but yours be done!” Many people have been seeking God and have failed to find Him. Why? They’ve really been looking for pleasure or a sense of satisfaction or some kind of peace and security they have dreamt of. They’ve been looking in the wrong place. God is found and known in full commitment and surrender to His will. Real fulfillment is not in finding happiness--it is pleasing the God who made you and to whom you are responsible. And you can only do that when you’ve come to the place where what you want doesn’t matter--it’s only what Jesus wants! I was reflecting on the three friends of Daniel this week. The king Nebuchadnezzar had set up a golden idol and demanded that everyone in the land bow down and worship it. Popular religion, which delights in easy fixes and taking care of one’s self, would say, “Just bow down--even if you don’t mean it, its just a secular behavior.” But not to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego--to them it was a matter of principle. And the will of God was so high on their personal agenda that their personal will and desire got swallowed up by it. They refused and got reported. This infuriated the king and he stoked the furnace seven-times hotter and gave them one more chance. Their response is the response of the one who has followed the Lord in self-denial: O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the god we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up. You know the story--they were bound and thrown into the fiery furnace which was so hot, those who threw them in were toasted. And the king was astonished when he saw they not only survived, but they were walking around in the fire. But not just the three of them--there was a fourth, who appeared like the son of God! Friends, if we want the company of Jesus in the fire, we must deny ourselves and follow Him. Life is like a single coin--you can spend it any way you wish, but you can only spend it once. You can live for Jesus, or you can live for you--but, bottom line, you can’t do both. If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself... If you want to follow Jesus, you need to take up your cross Here is a shocking demand. But it’s easy to miss. After two millennia of “Cross” imagery, our senses are dulled when it comes to what it meant. A cross is something we where as a pendant on a gold chain, or something we try to imagine at the communion table. But to the disciples who were listening to Him that day, the imagery was offensive. What they heard was something like this: “If you want to follow me, you have to pick up your own electric chair and carry it to the execution chamber, where someone will plug it in and execute you.” That’s what “taking up the cross” was to Jesus’ followers. They knew that when someone picked up a cross, it meant they were on a death march to the outside of town, and that they were condemned. They knew that crucifixion was the method of execution reserved for only the most despised of state criminals. Jesus made it clear that, if you wanted to follow Him, you have to be willing to die. In 1997 a young Pakistani girl named Saleema was arrested for converting her friend to Christianity. That girl was murdered by her own family for her faith, and Saleema was charged for this death. Her case has come up again recently in the court system, but Saleema has been unable to attend. She has been beaten by the police so badly she is unable to stand and walk. Here’s what Jesus means when He says, “If you want to follow me, take up your cross” - if you knew that serving Him meant being in a situation like Saleema is in right now, would you still do it? You see, cross-bearing isn’t some irritation in life, although people use the expression as an anachronistic euphemism - that husband of mine--well we all have our cross to bear! You want to follow Jesus? All right, are you willing to forfeit your reputation? That is, are you willing to so live for Him from this day forward that people will call you stupid and a radical religious nut, and you will no longer be known as the nice, normal, intelligent person you are now--because, even though it is not true, the on-looking world thinks that to become a Christian, you trade in your brains for a fish symbol. If you want to follow Jesus, are you willing to give up your career? That is, if doing a certain part of a job in the future meant compromising your faith, are you saying now “I will give it up if I must”? Are you willing to say, “All that I have and ever will have belongs to the Lord”? (And it won’t do at this point to say, “Well, He probably won’t ever ask me to give everything up for Him, so I’m safe”) Is He Lord or is he not? What Jesus is saying here is He is not looking for an “also-ran”, a person who is satisfied with mediocrity in his commitment. Someone who has already died to self--who has decided already that Jesus is Lord and no one else, nor no other thing, can have his allegiance. THE WORLD NEEDS PEOPLE WHO ARE LIVING FOR CHRIST BECAUSE THEY’VE ALREADY DIED... People who cannot be bought and sold People whose word is their bond, whose obedience to Jesus stands regardless People who put faith and trust above wealth and comfort People who know their God is big and they can stake their lives on Him People whose lives are larger than their vocations and a fake reputation People who will make no compromise with wrong, even in the little things People who will never sell out to the cheap principle of “everybody’s doing it” People who so believe that there is a reckoning after this short life that matters more than any hasty comfort or hedonistic fulfillment here People who believe that to serve people in Jesus name is the highest calling People who are not ashamed to stand for the truth and live for it whatever the cost People who will say “no” because of Christian principles when every one else is saying “Yes” People who will say “For me to live is Christ; to die is gain” If you want to follow Jesus, you need to follow Him In fact, this third condition is really a repetition of the first two, and a bit redundant in and of itself - “If you want to follow Jesus, you’ve got to follow Him”. But it’s very true, isn’t it? You can’t say “I want to follow Jesus” but never follow Him. There was a man years ago who came to me for some personal counsel. He wanted to make his marriage better. And I said to him, “No, you don’t!” Please don’t be alarmed at my blunt answer until I explain something to you about my previous relationship with this man. Months before he had come to me at a particularly low point in his marriage and had said the same thing, “I need some help; I’ve got to do something about my marriage.” I told him I would be happy to help him, but we would have to agree up front on a couple of parameters--that I would be a counselor, but I couldn’t do it for him - OK. I asked if we could meet weekly for a month or so - OK. I said that I would insist that he read some assigned scriptures and at least one book I would recommend to him - OK. We met two times and he broke a series of appointments we had after that. He never did read the book, nor the scriptures, as far as I know--and, sure enough, his marriage continued to deteriorate, just as he said it was doing. So, months later, when he came to me and said he wanted to make his marriage better, I simply said, “No you don’t!” A basic fact of life is this, If you want to make your marriage better, you will do what it takes to make your marriage better. If you want to follow Jesus, you will do the things it takes to follow Jesus. And if, after a short while, you find you are not doing the things you know you need to do to be following Jesus, and you say “I want to follow Jesus,” you’re a liar! If you want to follow Jesus, you will do what you know you need to do to follow Jesus. To follow Jesus, for example, you must TRUST HIM. Faith is a big part of life, you know--it takes faith to get married (marriage is only as good the promises in the marriage vows; it takes faith to get a prescription filled (pharmacists make mistakes, too even though Americans consistently say they ar Webmaster note: Remaining text inadvertently deleted.     [Back to Top]