Mark 12:30 NIV
Love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your
strength.'
What Is
Your Top Priority?
I
was either nineteen or twenty. I did
drive and had my own car and although I lived at home I had the freedom to do
pretty much whatever I wanted to do as long as I did not make things tough on
my parents. A friend invited me to her
house for her party. I had a great time
dancing and meeting new people. The
music was loud and the lights were dim and the adventure of pursuing a romance
that evening electrified the moment. My
faith in Christ was developing rapidly and I was committed to following Him so
I wasn’t exactly a wild partier…I was not even a partier at all but this was my
opportunity to start. The smell of
marijuana floated about and there were coolers filled with a variety of
alcoholic beverages. Never before had I
even tasted a beer so I was walking about in a new territory. Because everyone else was drinking, I grabbed
a beer, popped the top and took a sip.
About ten minutes later I took another sip. As I mingled through the room, I held my beer
with a ferocious tenacity, refusing to let go of it but dumbfounded by its
presence. Now you must realize that I
did not have any strong opinions about drinking at the time, did not know of
any Scriptures that condemned it, was not certain if the Bible was in favor of
drinking or not and had never been warned by my parents about the dangers of
alcohol. Although I had grandparents who
died from alcoholism, I was not aware of it at the time. Yet as I danced and visited with girls and
guys I was just meeting, a gnawing certainty came over me that this was an
important moment in my life. Somehow,
without any mystical or supernatural form of communique, I knew that a line had
been drawn in the sand for me. God was
setting before me a call to loyalty and the point of determination was the beer
in my hand. Would I drink or would I
walk with Him. Of course I know this
sounds absurd and I did not have a single clear explanation for why God might
be calling me to this life-long standard but as the evening went along, I was
certain God was demanding this of me. Give
up alcohol and be His disciple. With a
room full of people who barely knew me, the Lord had pulled me into a corner
and asked me who would I serve and who would rule my heart. With no pastor to guide me and not a single
friend to counsel me, I had a decision to make on the outskirts of a dimly lit
dance floor.
It
is funny how few people are even aware of what Jesus meant when He invited
Peter and His brother Andrew to “Come follow me…” (Matthew 4: 19 NIV) Perhaps He used the same phrasing to call the
other disciples and many more even to go with Him but we can’t say because much
is left out of the Scriptures regarding particulars. We know of at least one other person who was
also asked by Jesus to come and follow Him but that man turned away and decided
he wouldn’t…at least for the moment.
This does not mean that the famously labeled “rich young ruler” did not
have salvation but he did decide not to have the sort of life God offered him. You can decide to not “follow Christ” and
still have eternal life. You can be as
rough and self-driven as you wish and the blood of Christ will wash away all
your sin if you take Jesus at His word and put your hope in Him for
salvation. Everyone who calls on the name of
the Lord will be saved. (Romans
10:13) The question before you today is
not whether or not you will have eternal life but rather one much simpler and
searching. Will you follow Jesus?
Joshua
asked a question similar to this of the Hebrew people as he came to the end of
his earthly days. A world of promise and
opportunity rose before God’s people.
They had just conquered many parts of the Promised Land and were
settling into their new homes. All
around them were pagan people who lived however they pleased. Their morality and values were not taken from
God and the Ten Commandments were not sacred to them. The Israelites could live like their
international neighbors or be different from them. It was up to them. God would not force His own values upon
them. Generations who followed would be
impacted by the decision they were about to make though and the direction they
headed spiritually could impact the course of history. Joshua stood before the fledgling nation and spoke
for God. "Now fear the Lord and
serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped
beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to
you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods
your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose
land you are living.” (Joshua 24:14-15 NIV) If that was you standing in the crowd and you
had to give an answer to this challenge, how would you reply? Joshua made it clear where he stood on
this. “But as for me and my household,
we will serve the Lord."
(Joshua
24:15 NIV) God does not demand this of
you that you serve Him. It is up to you
what you choose to do with this life!
We
have in the New Testament a fascinating peek into the personality of God. As a great number of followers of Jesus
decided to walk away from Him, Jesus asked Peter and the other eleven or so who
were standing around what they wanted to do.
“Are you going to give up on me too?”
For any of the rest of us that are broken by sin, His question might
hint at a tinge of insecurity. He wasn’t
quite sure where He stood with them. But
Jesus, who was pure in His intentions and clear in His thoughts about Himself,
asked them so they could decide if they would remain loyal to God or abandon
Him. Peter was certain of what He was
going to do. Simon Peter answered him,
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One
of God." (John 6:68 NIV) How would you have responded to Jesus’
question?
The
last great king of Judah is best known for his tragic decision to take his army
and fight against the Egyptians who were on their way to do battle with the
Babylonians. Before that however, Josiah
made the most important determination of his life. Josiah’s father, King Amon reigned only two
years but during that time he followed in the footsteps of his father Manasseh
who was probably the most wicked and dishonorable king Judah ever had.
The
Apostle Paul made a statement that is nearly always viewed from God’s
perspective but never from Paul’s. For I
am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither
the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor
anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans
8:38-39 NIV) God of course will not let
His people be kept from Him. When Christ
died on the Cross, God’s salvation became irrevocable and unassailable. Nothing could stop His forgiveness of Sin or
the salvation He provides from reaching those who turn to Him. Jesus made certain this was understood when
He declared, I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can
snatch them out of my hand. My Father,
who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my
Father's hand. (John 10:28-29
NIV)
Turn
the statement around in Paul’s direction.
Is he also proclaiming that nothing can keep him away from the love of
God that is in Christ Jesus? Demons,
angels, height, depth, what is happening now or what might happen in the future
are all not going to stop Paul or others like him from having the love of God
in his life. It is perhaps too odd to
consider this passage this way but could it not be so? Might it also be that Paul would not let
anything stand between him and God? Consider
all Paul suffered following Christ! Five
times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I
was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the
open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from
rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger
from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at
sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have
often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone
without… (2 Corinthians 11:24-27
NIV) He went through all this for one
reason. Paul refused to let anything
stand in the way of him living for Christ.
Do you have that same loyalty?
The
question is not whether or not you have eternal life. Nor is it, “Are your sins forgiven?” Salvation is settled for you by what Jesus
did when He took your sins from you on the Cross. Many Christians never go any further than
this. They never want anything more from
God than the knowledge that they have a home waiting for them after they
die. Some though want to live with
Christ now. They cannot bear to dishonor
God by how they live. They are hungry
for God, thirsty for Christ, they crave more and greater intimacy with the Holy
Spirit. Is that you? Are you all in? Will you go with God regardless of what
others do. Are you, like the Apostle
Paul, “not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the
salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile”? (Romans 1:16 NIV) Are you willing to declare your absolute
loyalty to Christ as the Lord of your life?
Take your stand with millions of other Christians across the ages and
state before God that you will follow Him wherever He leads you and go with Him
loyally wherever He takes you.
No comments:
Post a Comment