Sunday Words of Encouragement March 13, 2022

Today we were ministered to by the Youth. They had wonderful, welcoming message signs and encouraging smiles. The music was upbeat – if a beat beyond some of us. The eldest grandson (a man of 30 or so) of one of our former pastor's shared the message.

The young minister shared how he learned a rote response in church as a pastor’s kid. Then after a year of college and bad choices, God captured his heart with a word from Psalm 131. He admonished the young and old to stay planted in the Lord. Psalm 92.

The Sermon Message was centered on Luke 14. He noted that he always believed that Christ followers are to model Jesus. But he found himself questioning his own behaviors, especially when he thought that about the phrase: “God wants me to hate...”

We know that God wants us to Love. Jesus tells us in Matthew 22:36-38: ‘Love your God with all your heart, your soul, and your mind’ as originally stated in Deuteronomy 6:5.
God wants me to love Him with my whole being.

Jesus goes on to say: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Matthew 22:39-40. See Leviticus 19:18.
Have you ever thought to wrap your skin around another person so that you could share their pain just as if they were you?
Christ followers are encouraged to a radical way of living. We are to be Christ's hands on earth.
God wants me to love my neighbor as myself.

In the beatitudes, Jesus tells us that God wants us to love our enemies. Matthew 5:43-48. Note how Jesus approaches these religious principles: Jesus prefaces his comments with ‘You have heard it said... but I say….’ Matthew 5:21-48.
God wants me to love my enemy.

Paul speaks to young people in Ephesians 6:1-3 (based on Deuteronomy 5:16): ‘Children, obey and honor parents.’
God wants me to honor my parents.

Now we move to Luke 14:25-34. Here, Jesus tells the crowd that if anyone wants to be disciples, they are to hate everyone else, including their own life.
God wants me to hate everything else in comparison to my love for Him.

How many of us find ourselves following Jesus without fully knowing where he is going? Without truly counting the cost and make a choice to surrender everything to God?

We are warned that we must think about what we are doing before we decide to follow Christ. Are we prepared to ‘bear our own cross?’ Are we prepared to surrender our own will to God’s Will?
God is calling us to more.

Are we willing to let everything else go to pursue Him or is the price more than we are willing to pay?
To be a true follower, we must make everything else (family, friends, career, dreams), second to God.
We each need to reevaluate ourselves and ask God to refine me.

Here is the song video I chose for today: Completely

Verses for Today:
Luke 14: 25-27 NIV
The Cost of Being a Disciple
25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

Lord, refine me - help me to surrender my will every day!