Here’s a message that I did from 3-28 at CBC Youth: Straightforward
Reckless Obedience and Sacrifice: The cost of discipleship
Okay, I’m going to start off right off the bat with a juicy story… the story of how Kat and I got together. So girls, you can get ready to “awww” and guys, you can take notes.
- Meet
- Crush
- Mr Sunny Hills
- Prom
- Summer/College
- (more info than the baptism) The decision…
And she said, “I think God wants me to take a fast.” And I’m thinking okay, cool, the Holy Spirit is talking and she’s listening!! So I say, “hey cool, like food or chocolate?” “No, He wants me to take a fast from you.” “Oh…. Oh I see. So how long we talking about? A week or 2?” “No… more like to the end of the school year.”
That’s like 2 months! God was asking us to be obedient and to sacrifice something for Him, namely our relationship.
Well, I’ll tell you how this tale went at the end of the message….. so you have to stay awake through the message to find out.
But that’s what I want to talk about today… Obedience and Sacrifice. So turn with me to Matthew 26:36 and the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane
PRAY
Let me ask you a question. Did Jesus intend to die? Did Jesus plan from the beginning of his childhood to die on a Roman cross for the sins of the world? We tend to think about Jesus in just this light, the death and resurrection. And to be sure, its very important. We just celebrated Good Friday and Easter last weekend. And this is important. But like Pastor Gary said last Sunday, it was not just so we could feel good about ourselves and go to Heaven. Jesus’ mission saved us from our sins, but his death and sacrifice exemplify and make possible our freedom from sin, oppression, and the power of Satan. In the same way, I think Jesus’ purpose was more than simply dying on the cross.
If we look at his life, at the opening of His ministry he begins to cry out to the people “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” Here we see Jesus, 1) Calling people to repent and 2) Announce the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God. What else does he do? Well, he heals the paralyzed and those with leprosy. And with this, he has compassion on those in need. Where does he get this? Well, from God, but we must also remember he read the Jewish Bible, what we would consider the Old Testament. He teaches the proper way to live out the law, with love, grace, and peace. Jesus understood the overarching themes of the God’s story and so he taught them to the people and most importantly, he lived it out. This was all His mission here on Earth.
But to propose an answer to the question of did He intend to die on the cross? I would probably say not at first. I don’t think as a kid Jesus knew he would die in his 30s, crucified. Joseph and Mary probably didn’t approach Jesus and ask, “So Jesus, what do you want to be when you grow up?” They probably expected him to say, “I wanna be like you dad and be a carpenter”, but instead getting, “I need to get arrested and killed on the cross!” Probably not. I don’t think, as we see in Luke when he’s with the Jerusalem teachers and told them, “Oh hey, by the way, God wants me to be crucified to save people including you guys from their sins”. For one, this type of thing wasn’t even on the Jewish cultural radar and it probably would have freaked out the teachers. And I also don’t think when he was baptized by John in the Jordan river, “Well, alright, I’m baptized, now how am I going to die so I can save people, especially those living in 2008, from their sins”. It’s not all that Jesus did, though that’s what we focus on. As it says in the Gospel According to John, Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. Now I could be wrong, feel free to debate me later, but I don’t personally feel like this was Jesus’ mission right as he saw it.
So then if Jesus didn’t necessarily intend to die, why then did he? Let’s look back at the Garden of Gethsamane in Matthew (start on 39)
3 times Jesus asked God if God would find some other way. He asked if he could avoid the painful death. But ultimately, Jesus obeyed God. He said, “but your will be done”. He was obedient to God. And that’s what ties all of jesus’ actions together. Obedience. He was obedient to what God wanted. What did God want? Compassion. Mercy. Healing. Restoration. He wanted Jesus to proclaim the Kingdom. To show the people how to live. And ultimately, HE wanted Jesus to die on the cross. And Jesus obeyed.
Now I chose the account in Matthew for a very specific reason. I could have chosen Luke or I could have chosen Mark which has the naked dude running away at the end. Its like the Greased up deaf guy in Family guy. “Goodbye Jesus! You’re being arrested so I’m outta here”
But anyways, Matthew shows Jesus begging God 3 times. And I think this shows how human Jesus was. We kinda have it in our heads that Jesus was like a superhuman. But Jesus was fully human and fully God. Jesus can sympathize with our temptations. We see him tempted 3 times in the desert directly by Satan, but I don’t think that its unsafe to say that he faced other temptations during his life that the Bible does not mention. I’ll bet he had hormones raging in His body as a teenager. I’ll bet he was tempted to compare himself to his friends while growing up… Or maybe he was tempted to judge his crazy cousin John the Baptist who had weird eating habits and no fashion sense. Jesus probably faced the same temptations that you are I had to face. Hebrews says in 4:15 – For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.
And in the Garden of Gethsamane, Jesus was tempted to run away and wouldn’t you be too? Matthew says he begged 3 times. And we do that all the time, “God, can’t I please fantasize or gossip or lie, just this once (which really turns into many time” ,“God, please don’t make me tell the truth about what I did.” “God, do I really have to forgive my friend.” For Jesus, it was “God, please, do I have to die on the cross” “Do I have to go through with this” “Can you please find another way?” But God had a plan and Jesus obeyed. You see, Jesus trusted God would vindicate him. He trusted that God knew what he was doing and he trusted enough to give God his own life. That’s pretty frickin’ reckless! Therefore, we can too. Because as we know God came through and raised Jesus. And we have that same promise
Now I hope none of us ever have to beg God to let us live. But it could happen. Would you obey? And will you obey in the smaller things like forgiving those who’ve hurt you. Doing good to people. Having patience. Being generous. Worshipping with your whole heart. Acting Justly, Loving Mercy, and Walking Humbly with God. Loving God and others. Those who are faithful in the small things will be given more.
See, Christ is the perfect model of obedience to God. He was obedient to the point of death. As His ministry developed, jesus realized that part of His mission was to die. This was all why he was sent.
For us though, it might be a little bit harder. It might take a little, recklessness. Because the world would say, do your own thing! Do what you want! Its about you anyways! I was in a Toys R Us the other day and there was a new brand called “Totally Me!” We prize individualism. And its good to be unique, to be an individual. But not at the expense of disobeying our creator. In the end, it must be Totally God. And so, it would be reckless to obey God, to abandon our desires for ourselves to do the will of an invisible deity. We’ve talked about a lot of reckless stuff in the past few weeks. Reckless imagination. Reckless community. Using your own story recklessly Reckless Time. Reckless Relationships. Reckless Love, Reckless hatred of sin, reckless action, reckless foolishness.
But see, in the end, reckless should no longer be reckless, at least not for you. It shouldn’t be so out of the ordinary. Rather, reckless becomes obedience. Your reckless life is one of obedience. Doing Reckless things for God. God can have you do amazing things for His kingdom! Will you obey? God will ask you to do something huge! It might be crazy, but if He asks, will you do it?
And don’t get me wrong, I disobey God constantly. We all do. But that’s where Grace comes in. Jesus’ death on the cross, as we all know, gives us grace when we disobey. But as a response to that, we need to persevere and continually refine our commitment to obedience. I would challenge you, when God calls, adopt a lifestyle of obedience. If He has a plan for you, then how can you fail. Trust God. Trust Him recklessly.
I think it’s vitally important to know ourselves. It’s okay to have difficulty obeying some things. What is important is that you’re honest about those things. Be honest with yourself. If you’re not, you’ll end up just fooling yourself and end up in a worse spot than you were. Be honest with your friends and family. And most of all, be honest with God. You can trust Him to protect you, to care for you, and listen when you just need to be blatantly honest about your life.
SMALL GROUP BREAK – (okay to disagree with things)
God wants you to show Him who you are, soul bared, with all your strengths and weaknesses, all your perfections and flaws. And He loves you all the same. And He wants to do amazing things through you. Do you want that? I hope you do… but I warn you… great things for the Kingdom of God might require Sacrifice…
Sacrifice goes hand in hand with obedience. As I’ve said before, we need to be obedient in our honesty with one another and carrying each others burdens. We must be willing to sacrifice our own pride and be vulnerable and let others carry us sometimes. And on the other side, we must be willing to sacrifice our own time and energy into our friends that really could use a listening ear or a helping hand.
But most people don’t like the word sacrifice… it means giving something up. It means losing something. And we don’t like to lose things, especially things we like.
But let’s look at someone who sacrificed something of her own accord.
Story of Jesus and the woman (Luke 7)
The woman’s’ sacrifice was huge. She served Jesus. Even though she was wretched and detested by many, she knew Jesus was one worthy of sacrifice. Now we don’t know for certain what her profession or sinful life was, but the most common idea was that she was a prostitute. Probably that jar of perfume was the same one she used to attract customers. So by pouring that out, it was like a sign of giving up that life. She was sacrificing her sinful life. In a way, she gave it her all. All of herself poured out to Jesus. When was the last time you truly poured yourself out to Him?
If you study some Jewish customs, washing feet and serving the guest is what a host would normally do. But Simon did nothing. It was traditional Jewish custom to do this for an honored guest, like Jesus, a traveling teacher. But Simon didn’t… some say this is like giving Jesus the middle finger. But the sinful woman showed true dedication and devotion to Him. And this is how we should sacrifice. Extravegently and with humility. For the woman knew her own sin, her whole life. But she acted in faith. And she was forgiven. This is the kind of life we need to live. Our gifts to Jesus need to be heartfelt and sincere spurred on by our faith. How often are we giving back to God with a grudge or even with anger?
ACT OUT à Rob Bell’s example of old ancient sacrificial religions. Sacrificing if good, sacrificing if Bad. Never knew where you stood with gods. Jesus/God = trust
Now I really don’t want to guilt trip you Christ’s sacrifice and how it was so amazing and humble and now you need to do it out of Asian gratitude. I suppose that’s one way of looking at it, but let me try to focus it another way.
First, I would say that not all sacrifices are huge sacrifices. God doesn’t call everyone to give up all their possessions and wander around shouting Repent for the Kingdom is near. Nor does God call us to give up everything that we like. I think there’s been this idea in the church that if it feels good, God must not want that for us. Like our desires are NEVER aligned with Gods or God has simple made us to suffer. However, we must be WILLING to give up that up if God calls. Let me give you an example.
Story: Kat and I had to be willing to let each other go in case we were called to different parts of the world. Now that we have let go, a huge burden was lifted.
Rather, let’s see sacrifice as a model to live by. Jesus lived a life of sacrifice and indeed died a death of sacrifice. Paul sacrified his original life and reputation for the sake of the Gospel. The Bible is littererd with accounts of people living lives of sacrifice. So more than out of guilt or even gratitude, we should be living lives of sacrifice because that’s the kind of life of the Kingdom of God. Part of kingdom values is the life of sacrifice and sacrifice for others. Jesus modeled that with His obedience. That’s the kind of life we need to live. A life of service. A life of compassion. A life of humility. Generosity. Reconciliation. It’s the same life that Christ lived.
Maybe you have already sacrificed something in life for God. Maybe a relationship. Maybe you sacrifice time for others. Or some of you own money for others. And if you have, God wants to affirm that in you. If he asked you to obey and you did, He is proud that you’ve taken that step of faith.
Or maybe there’s something in your life right now that you know God wants you to give up, but its just hard to… Maybe you love money way too much. Maybe you desire something, like clothes or the latest styles. It doesn’t have to be material. maybe its your pride. Maybe its your jealousy or envy. Or maybe a sin like lust. Whatever it is, I pray that God would work in your life to help you let go. Not for the sake of letting go or “being a good Christian” whatever that means. But know that by letting go, by letting God take over, he will bless your life because of it. You will become more like Christ. Following Christ means sacrifice. Letting go say of your love of money can make you more generous. Letting go of your worry about time can make you more patient
To the world however, following Christ and living a life of sacrifice is.. you guessed it… reckless. Turn to Mark 5. –
See the people in Gerasenes saw that Jesus had sent the demons into the pigs and the pigs ran and died. And that destroyed the livelihoods of the pig farmers. Now Jesus did a wonderful thing! He freed a man from the oppression of demons. That’s good right? Brandon’s mom and Ms Joann and Luini were recently at the Love LA homeless ministry and witnessed an exorcism. Yes. It happens. Now you’d think the people there would say, hey Jesus! Thanks for doing that for our buddy. Come, stay with us, teach us, can we follow you? But no. They say, leave. Why? I’d treat the guy to dinner! I think when they saw that those pig farmers had lost their way of life, the people were afraid. Afraid of the sacrifice they might need to make. Maybe they thought, “Oh man, what about the crazy lady who hangs out in the town bar? What’ll happen if Jesus helps her? What’ll that cost us?” or “If Jesus helps the other demon possessed around town, it might mean we’ll have to give up this or that! I wouldn’t want to follow a troublemaker like that, even if he does chase away demons!”
The cost of discipleship might be great, there is a cost. The Christian life is not supposed to be easy. No it is not. Paul was beaten, stoned, hungry, and eventually killed. Most of the apostles were too. Christianity today is more unpopular than ever. The things we teach make no sense to the world, like remaining abstinent until marriage, little or no drinking, going to church, living lives of compassion and generosity. Makes no sense. Its tough. But its good. And at the end, God will say “Well done good and faithful servant”. There will be cost to following Christ, I’m sorry there will be. Its part of the Christian life. Pastor Ken Fong of Evergreen Baptist called 2 Corinthians 6 the “fine print” of following Christ. It included beatings, imprisonments, hard work, hunger. Man what a downer. I would dare say that if your Christian life doesn’t cost something at some point you’re either always in tune with God’s will so there doesn’t need to be any change or you’re holding on too tight to something. The people chased Jesus away when they realize the cost. We too must understand that there will be cost. But will you ask Jesus to leave? Or follow him wholeheartedly.
But know that those sacrifices won’t be in vain. We already gained so much. God has given us the tools and model to live by to live moral, upright, just lives for His Kingdom. And He’s given us eternal life. All we have to do is follow and God will do amazing things through us. And when we do, not only are we guaranteed those things, but we can trust that God will do the work of His kingdom, and that is the greatest privilege in this world.
End with what happened in the story. (I had to be willing to take that risk, to sacrifice and obey)
Recklessness is sacrifice. To do crazy things for the Lord no matter what the cost. Do you want that? Do you desire God to use you? When you turn recklessness into obedience and obedience as your life, God will do amazing things through you. You have been sent to be ministers of the gospel! All of you. Some of you might end up doing it as a vocation. But most of you will do other things, but still you will be called to embody the gospel wherever you go. And at the end of the race God will say, well done good and faithful servant. God might call you to take a job in ministry. He might ask you to be extrememly generous with your finances. He might ask you to move away and be a missionary to another country. He might ask that you tackle issues of justice like hunger, poverty, or human sex trafficking. Will you listen? Will you obey?
Honestly, its not as hard as you might think. Visiting a friend in the hospital. That’s obedience and sacrifice. Buying a meal. Honoring your parents. Being patient. Putting others before you. These are all good things or commands of God. That’s obedience and sacrifice. And you will have some bigger decisions in life. But when you trust God, ultimately, it will be a lot easier than you might think. We can do this. Living a life of sacrifice is following Christ’s model. Indeed, it is worshipping God and you will bear fruit for his Kingdom. Like the sinful woman, when we express our love for Jesus, we have to give our all. Romans 12:1 says 1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual[a] act of worship.
