Imagine you are about to get onto a roller coaster. When you approach the front of the line you either get in, put the lap bar down or the over the shoulder bar, prepare yourself, ride the ride and get off after the complete stop right? If you don’t want to ride the ride, you will not do all of these steps, you’ll simply dismiss the ride. You’re not going to get on the rollercoaster and decide half way through your done riding and jump out. Nor are you going to get in and not strap yourself in, and continue to ride the ride. This is what following Jesus like. It’s either all or nothing.
DO NOT be a lukewarm Christian.
What is the most dangerous type of life to live?
The most dangerous life to live is to kinda live a life for Jesus Christ. Aligning yourself closely to Jesus can be a dangerous proposition but it IS extremely worth it.
Luke 9:57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” This passage is about Jesus and his disciples. Journeying to Jerusalem with Jesus(Luke 51). In verses 9:10–18 Jesus is walking to Jerusalem. Why? His purpose was to be crucified. “I’m going to do what I have to do for mankind.” Is Jesus aware of what’s going to happen to him? Yes. If he’s aware of the suffering and torture why does he do it? For us. So is sacrifice worth it? Yes.
In this verse the man who has asked this question has no clue where Jesus is going, nor did he ask, he just wants to follow him! Well…Jesus is headed straight for death in this case-His crucifixion. So take this passage as an example in our own lives. Before you say “I will follow you Jesus”, do you know what you’re asking for? If Jesus had to suffer why would you think human beings would have it easy when following Jesus? Jesus replies (58) “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” What Jesus’ reply is telling the man us ‘if you wanna follow me, you know I’m homeless right? I have no idea where I am going to even sleep tonight, while the man has a nice home back in his hometown, safe, warm, food available.’
Jesus isn’t promising a happy journey for the man if he follows him. He is simply stating how this road to follow Jesus will be difficult…but worth it. Jesus is saying “I can’t promise comfort I this life if you follow me. It doesn’t lead to comfort now, there’s going to be suffering before eternal comfort. I can’t promise comfort but I can promise it will be in the end”
Our bodies will return back to the dust as our souls exist forever…the point is where will your soul exist forever? In excruciating agony and separation from God or fulfillment, freedom and pleasure.
Most people spend our life working like dogs to live comfortably for the the last 10 years (retirement). Working as hard as we can to get some good money so we can travel and relax our last 10 years of life and then it’s gone. Your life is more than just 80 years, we were created to exist forever…our soul not our body. Do you realize this? It’s not worth to live your life just for the 80 years we have here on this earth. We have billions, a never ending stream of time of our life. So it is your choice to get those 10 retirement years of freedom and be happy for a moment and suffer eternally, or live your life for Christ so you can get that eternal happiness and temporary suffering along with happiness.
The World lives for the moment.
Christians live for eternity.
If this doesn’t make sense and you’r more of a technical person, here is an equation for you:
Eternity > Moment = Eternal happiness.
Moment > Eternity = Eternal suffering.
Do you realize that if you do it Jesus’ way you can have a good life in this life and in the afterlife? Verses if you don’t do it His way and have a good life now and eternal suffering in the next life. And when I say a ‘good life now’, I do not mean on the terms of emotions. I mean safe, secured, protected, blessed and with God.
Life on Earth is about planning for the future
Living life for 50 years preparing for the last 20 years doesn’t make sense.
By the way, there is ALWAYS a ‘good enough’ reason to not follow Jesus. For example, verse 61 “Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” And also verse 59, “He said to another man, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Do you see the problem here? The men are putting Jesus second. Yet the reasoning seems ok to them! One of the men simply wanted to bury his father whom just died! Now Jesus’ reply may seem harsh without context. Luke 9:59–60 “Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Yet in cultural context, Jesus is saying it’s either living for your family or live for me, be done with them and follow my path. He’s not saying you can’t go to the funeral of your father. Jesus will put you in a place where you have to choose between him and someone else. He will ask you to sacrifice things you want and to do what he wants. What will you do? It is easier said than done. He is pointing out the harsh reality of sometimes choosing Jesus will be conflicting and difficult, even painful…but worth it.
Rules to live by:
Always ask yourself when making decisions or simply doing something, “Is this good just for this life or eternal life…pick eternal life even if it sacrifices this life. Otherwise you’ll waist your entire existence here.
EXAMPLE:
A direct quote from my pastor — Pastor Josh:
“My wife and I stayed at a cheap hotel for our anniversary for a few days. When we walked into this place it looked run down, customer service was not up to par, but we didn’t have that much money, so we managed what we could. When we got up to our room something smelled extremely bad. I got down on my hands and knees to smell the carpet and what do ya know, it was the carpet. My wife was in the bathroom and she said the smell was also in there! It was so bad we couldn’t stand it any longer so I called my friend who was a contractor! I had him bring new carpet, a new bathtub, a brand new bed, it was perfect! When we were done it looked amazing and I asked him how much it would cost, he said about $40,000. I said that was fine, I’ll pay it off, I just wanted to be happy with my wife for these few days.
Now how many of you believe this story? Probably none of you. Why? Because it is absolute nonsense; just completely ridiculous to spend that much money, time and effort on something that is so temporary. This is the life we live today.” —
This was in reference to living our life just for the ‘now’ & our future ‘retirement’ and not for the eternity to come.
