The Cost to Follow Christ pt. 2 - Luke 9:23-27

So some of you might be too young to remember the magic of blockbuster video.

Believe it or not, there was once a time where if you wanted to watch a movie at home, you'd have to actually get in your car, go to a store, and pick a movie from a display rack.

Sounds pretty inconvenient compared to the way we pick movies today, right?

Because now, today, we we can just pick up a remote control and watch any movie we want.

But at that time, Blockbuster Video was one of the biggest stores around.

You found them everywhere.

You looked forward to going there on Friday night to rent some videos for the weekend.

Well, in the year 2000, a relatively unknown company by the name of Netflix offered to buy Blockbuster for$50 million.

Now, at that time, that was a fairly large amount, but the executives at Blockbuster thought to themselves, this deal isn't worth it.

They thought they would pass on the deal, so they turned down the offer, believing that they were better off just running the company by themselves.

Long story short, Blockbuster would eventually go bankrupt.

You rarely see any around today.

If there is one, there might be one or two left in the country.

While Netflix, as we all know, is a it's a global giant.

It's worth hundreds of billions of dollars today.

So there's countless stories like that, not only from businesses, but also stories from individuals.

Maybe you can remember a time or two in your life where you lost out on something for making the wrong decision.

Maybe you can think of an offer or two that you regret not saying yes to.

Well, today, as we continue looking at this passage that we began last week, we will see how Jesus is showing the people what exactly they lose out on if they make the decision not to follow him.

Last week we looked at the price to follow Jesus.

And every has every disciple must count the cost of bearing their own cross if they decide to follow him.

That is the cost.

That is the price.

If you follow Jesus, you're going to have to bear a cross.

Well, today we're going to look at the price that we pay for not following Jesus, because there's a cost to that too.

There is a cost to follow him, but there's also a cost if you don't follow him.

And that's what we'll be looking at today.

The price we pay for not following Jesus.

And I want to point out three things that we will lose out on if we refuse to follow him.

Number one, you will lose yourself.

Number two, you will lose Jesus.

And number three, you will lose entrance into the kingdom.

You will lose yourself, you'll lose Jesus, and you will lose interest, entrance into the kingdom.

Let's look at that first one.

You will lose yourself.

Verse 25 again.

For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?

Now here Christ shows them the price of not following him.

Again, Luke presents these words a little differently than maybe you're used to hearing them.

A lot of times we hear this passage and we're thinking of the way Mark puts it.

Mark puts it in his gospel, what profits a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?

Here, Jesus says, and loses or forfeits himself.

Now there's really no discrepancy between the two because they mean the same thing.

The Hebrew word for soul, Nefesh, means life or even self.

In biblical times, a soul wasn't thought of as merely a spiritual thing, but as your entire being.

You don't have a soul, you are a soul.

So in light of that, Christ is saying, what good is it to gain everything in the world and lose yourself?

In other words, what good is it to gain everything and lose everything about you?

Lose who you are, both in this life and in the next?

But but why the contrast here?

Why does he contrast gaining the whole world with losing oneself?

Or why does he contrast gaining the world with following him?

Why can't you do both?

Why can't you both gain the world and follow Jesus?

What is the issue here?

Why can't you have both?

Jesus is revealing to them how difficult that is, how difficult it is to have both.

Many have set out to accomplish obtaining both, but have failed.

Christ is showing the impossibility of gaining the whole world while continuing to follow him.

And you may remember, some of the disciples are already experiencing this.

Remember back in Luke 5, Peter, James, and John left behind their fishing business to follow Jesus.

They had given up what was possibly their dream to follow him.

And remember what he told them.

From here on out, you will be catching men.

Or as Matthew puts it, you will be fishers of men.

Why is that?

Because that's what Jesus came to do.

He came to seek and save those who are lost.

Jesus is the great fisherman who fishes men out of the depths of sin and brings them into his net of grace.

In other words, Jesus was about building his kingdom.

So guess what?

Those who follow Jesus must also be about building his kingdom.

So you see, how can you be about his kingdom and also be about the world's kingdom?

It would be impossible because your time would be divided between the two.

Again, it's a question of which way are you going to follow?

Or as Christ says here, are you going to lose yourself or follow me?

Here's what else it means to follow Christ.

John 10 23.

He says, I'm sorry, John 10.27.

He says, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

So what it means to follow Christ is to be like a sheep who follows a shepherd.

The sheep know the voice of their shepherd, they listen to the voice of their shepherd, they heed to his words.

When he calls them to come into the fold, they come into the fold.

When he tells them to follow him down the path, they follow him down the path, and so forth.

Likewise, everyone who follows Christ must know and heed to the word or the voice of the shepherd.

They don't do their own thing.

They don't say, yeah, that's good advice, but I think I'll choose my own way.

That's not a true follower.

A true follower hears the voice and follows.

And where do we hear his words?

Where do we hear his voice?

We hear it in the scriptures.

We hear it in the Bible.

That's where we hear the voice of the Lord.

So simply put, to follow Jesus means to follow what the Bible says.

And if you have just a little knowledge of what the Bible says, you don't have to be a scholar to know this.

If you have a little knowledge of what the Bible says, you will know that in many places in the Bible, it is at odds with the world.

Right?

Romans 12, 2, you know this text.

Do not be conform to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

The NIV says, do not be conform to the pattern of the world.

In other words, don't live your life according to the behaviors and the customs of the world, because many times those things are at odds with the will of God.

The world will often pull us away from the things of the Lord, right?

Its riches, its vanities, its pleasures, its lusts will often draw our hearts away from God.

It's why our mind has to be transformed.

Because before we became followers of Jesus, our hearts and minds were set upon those things.

C.S.

Lewis once said, when we are doing what we love, we are most ourselves.

What does he mean by that?

Well, we typically put everything we have and everything we are into what we love.

Have you ever met someone who, or maybe you're this type of person, who is really passionate about one thing?

I love meeting these people because they are so unlike me.

I'm not really passionate about anything.

I always have a hard time, you know, filling out those questionnaires that say, What is your favorite hobby?

I don't know.

I I don't have one.

I don't, there's not a lot of things I like to do.

I like to eat and sleep, and that's about it.

But when someone is passionate about something, they pretty much live their life for it, right?

Maybe it's running, maybe it's hunting, maybe it's fishing.

They'll spend most of their time and their money on what they love.

And the choice to follow Christ or the world is truly a question about what we love more.

And for some people, their love of the world is just too hard to let go of.

When having to choose between Christ and the world, the stronger love is always going to pull them in that direction.

First John 2 15 tells us, do not love the world or the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, and the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world.

Many people believe that they can find themselves in the world, that the things of the world will bring them meaning and purpose and happiness.

This is why some chase careers, trying to find themselves in success.

Others chase relationships, trying to find themselves in acceptance.

Some chase pleasures of life, trying to find themselves in gratification.

Still others chase autonomy and freedom, hoping they can stumble upon finding themselves in whichever way their path leads them.

But as Christ says in the passage, what profit is there?

In other words, what do you gain by finally achieving those things only to lose yourself by the very things you were hoping to find yourself in?

Because many people have lost themselves, chasing a career and hopping around various relationships and indulging in the flesh?

What good is it to gain it all and to finally have it all and to finally have what you sought after when at the end of the day you still have no meaning and no purpose and no happiness?

Isaiah 55, too.

Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

Listen diligent to me and eat what is good.

The world will never satisfy our appetites.

It promises us everything, but it gives us nothing good.

It will give you sorrow for your hopes and misery for your dreams.

But yet so many work and strive and labor to obtain that empty promise of the world.

We will not find ourselves in the world because we were not made for this world.

We were made for the garden.

We were made to dwell with our Maker.

As Augustine says, our hearts will be restless until we find rest in him.

What will you gain if you finally have it all?

If you lose yourself in the process.

Learn from the countless of people that have gone before you.

Learn from those who have climbed the highest of mountains, only to be disappointed.

Ecclesiastes says that the fear of the Lord is the whole duty of man.

And until one finds themselves there, fearing the Lord, walking in his ways, obeying his commands, they will continue to seek and seek and find nothing.

His message is simple.

Follow the world and you will lose yourself.

Follow him and you will find it.

Next, not only will you lose yourself and you refuse to follow him, but you will also lose Jesus.

You will also lose Christ.

Look at verse 26.

For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

The Son of Man is a title that Jesus often used for himself, pointing to the prophecies about him that were in the Old Testament.

And he says that when he comes again, he will be ashamed of those who were ashamed of him.

Now we have to ask, what's the connection here?

What is the connection between not following him and being ashamed of him?

Well, I think the simple answer is many in that day who he was talking to refused to follow him because they were ashamed to follow him.

They were ashamed of him.

The cost was not only their comforts and not only their homes and so forth, but the cost was also their reputation.

The cost was also being spoken evil of for following and believing in such a man like Jesus, because some thought, remember, he had a demon.

Some thought he was a lunatic.

Others thought he was a false prophet or a blasphemer of the one true God.

So in other words, be careful about following him because it might cost you more than just monetary things.

It might cost you your good name.

It might cost you some friendships.

It might cost you some positions and being welcomed into circum certain circles.

And it's the same today.

Many are ashamed of what people might think if they were one of those followers of Jesus.

If they were one of those kinds of Christians, one of those radical Christians, one of those who believe in the literal word of God and who believe in a real flood and a real resurrection of Jesus.

Then there are those who are ashamed of telling their friends and family about their faith.

They're afraid of what their friends and family might think of them.

And maybe they won't like them anymore.

And maybe they won't want to be around us and they won't invite us to the gatherings, or even worse, maybe they might hate me.

No one wants to be hated.

We all want to be liked, and we're going to be hated for telling people about our faith.

And we'd rather just keep quiet about it.

We'd rather have what some call a private and a personal faith.

But when Jesus was making that call that day, there was nothing private or personal about his call to come and follow him.

Everyone would know who were his followers.

Everyone would know who was following him.

And word would get out.

You may remember when Jesus was arrested.

Peter was near the courts and people recognized him.

They say, You too.

You too were with Jesus.

You too were one of his disciples.

And there he was ashamed.

He was ashamed to admit that he was one of Christ's followers.

But he repented of it.

And we know that he remembered Jesus' words before the rooster crowed, you would deny me.

But I wonder if he also remembered these words here that we were reading this morning.

Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed.

What is Jesus saying here?

What does he mean that he will be ashamed of us?

Well, have you ever been ashamed of someone?

Have you ever been out in public with someone who was embarrassing you?

How did that make you feel?

I've been out to lunch or to a restaurant with a few people that I'm like, I don't know who this person is, you know.

I he's not with me.

And it kind of makes you feel like that, right?

It makes you feel that you wish this person, he or she wasn't around because you're ashamed of them and you wish they weren't there at that moment.

Well, Jesus being God doesn't have to wish about anything.

If he doesn't want you around, he'll make sure you're not around.

And there will be a day when he will truly say, I don't know this person.

I don't know them.

Matthew 7 21.

That everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of God, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven, on that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?

And then will I declare to them, I never knew you.

Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

This is what people will lose out on by not following Jesus.

The privilege of being known by him.

See, many people will say, Oh, I know Jesus, but what matters most is not if they know Jesus, it's does Jesus know them?

People say all the time, Jesus is mine.

But the real question is, are you his?

Does he know you and love you, as Ephesians 5 says, as his bride?

Those who are ashamed of Jesus have no part of him.

They can't claim him as their own.

They can't say that he belongs to them.

And oh, what a sad state that is to be in.

To not have Jesus as your friend, to have no access to him, to have no trust in his promises, to have no right to lay hold of the scriptures and verses like Hebrews 13 5, where he says, I will never leave you or forsake you, because one day he will leave and forsake those who left and forsook him.

As 2 Timothy 2.12 says, if we deny him, he will deny us.

So the question becomes, what is Christ worth to you?

What is Jesus worth to you?

How much do you value him?

What are you willing to exchange him for?

What are you willing to give him up for?

Do you have a price?

Are you willing, are you willing to sell Jesus for a price?

Many are willing to sell him for the price of this world.

The apostle Paul was somebody important before he came to Jesus.

He was a well-known and respected Pharisee.

You could say that he had a good name among the Jews.

But he gave it all up.

He gave his reputation and his good name up to follow Jesus.

He was willing to be mocked.

And he was willing to be ridiculed by his own people for the sake of Jesus.

He was willing to lose his name for the name of Jesus.

Philippians 3, verse 4.

Philippians 3:4

He says, Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also, if anyone thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more.

Circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

But whatever gain I had, I counted as lost for the sake of Christ.

Indeed, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ.

This church at Philippi.

They were being infiltrated by these false teachers who were coming into the church and telling people that they must continue to seek after the Jewish law and customs and traditions.

And Paul was saying, That's not what it's all about.

All those things that you're chasing, I had those.

I was that.

I was a keeper of the law.

I was important in the tradition.

I had all of that and it gained me nothing.

He begins to list out his credentials, showing who he was before he came to Christ.

He had everything that a young Jewish man in those days would want.

You can say that Paul had it all, but when he came to Christ, he realized he had nothing.

Because he says, I lost it all.

And I counted all of those things as rubbish in order to gain Christ.

In other words, all of those things I now see as worthless.

They're nothing but filth compared when I compare them to the worth that is found in Jesus Christ.

Again, notice what he's saying here.

It's not that a good name is not anything.

Everybody wants a good name, everybody wants to be respected.

That's not necessarily a bad thing.

But when you compare that to knowing Jesus, it looks like trash.

It looks like nothing.

Because knowing Jesus is so much more.

And losing him would be the greatest loss of all.

And here's the thing, it's not something that we only lose.

We think about losing Jesus forever, and that's bad enough.

But people are walking around today without Jesus.

There are many people walking around today who don't know the sweet fellowship of communion with Jesus.

They never tasted the bread of life.

They never drunk from the living water.

They've never known his peace.

They've never experienced his rest.

They've never been captivated by his love.

Instead, they sell their souls for cheap substitutes of those things.

They buy high and they sell low.

The world will mark up the price for cheap counterfeits of the real thing.

Because the world can never offer us the real thing.

It can't offer us true peace or true rest or true love.

These things can only be found in Jesus.

First Corinthians 1, verse 4.

1 Corinthians 1:4

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus.

That in every way you were enriched in Him, in all speech and in all knowledge.

Knowledge, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end.

Guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Let me just quickly point out in this passage some things found about Jesus in these few verses.

The grace of God, that's in Jesus.

Enrichment in all speech and all knowledge, that's in Jesus.

Not lacking in any gift, that's because of Jesus.

Sustaining to the end, that's because of Jesus.

Made guiltless, that's because of Jesus.

And having fellowship with him.

These are things that those who don't have him lose out on.

And if we had time, we could probably find a little more here.

Christ is an endless worth of treasure that you can mine for eternity.

And we are willing to give that up for a small bite of the world's fruit.

We're willing to sell him out for what?

For acceptance?

Not to be ridiculed?

Not to be called odd or weird, to not to be welcomed by people who will never love us like he will.

This is a strong warning that Jesus is giving here.

If you are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you.

The cost of shame, of the shame of the world is nothing compared to the cost of the shame that will come in the next.

We might think being rejected by man is hard.

But wait till you experience being rejected by Christ.

That will be even harder.

1 Peter 4 15.

But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler.

Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed.

But let him glorify God in that name.

For it is time for judgment to begin in the household of God.

And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

And if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?

Peter has a word here for those who are suffering for being rejected for the name of Christ.

Better to suffer, and better to be rejected for good than to suffer and be rejected for evil.

Don't be ashamed when you suffer for his name.

Because look, you're going to suffer anyway.

Ever since I started following Jesus, things got harder in my life.

You know, I started to follow him and I became a Christian and I started having more problems.

Things got worse.

Has if to say that all of those problems in their life came when they started following him.

When the truth is the problems were there all along.

In this world, you will have tribulation.

That is a given, whether you're in Christ or not in Christ.

But here's the difference Christ has overcome the world for those who are in him.

And he hasn't done so for those who are not.

There are a lot of things you can afford to do without, but no one could afford to do without Jesus.

And those who are ashamed of him will be without him.

If you don't affirm him, he will not affirm you.

And lastly, what else will you lose out on?

You will lose out on entrance into the kingdom.

Verse 26.

Again.

For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed.

When he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.

So Jesus seems to be connecting his coming in glory with the seeing of the kingdom.

Now, admittedly, this is a difficult passage to interpret.

Scholars have had difficulty agreeing on what Jesus means here when he says that there will be some who would not taste death until they see it.

Because if you read just, if you isolate verse 26, we would say, well, Jesus is talking about his second coming when he returns at the end of the age and in the final judgment.

But yet he adds in verse 27 that many who are standing there would see it.

Problem is Jesus, as we know, hasn't returned yet.

We're still waiting for the second coming.

So what does he mean by this?

How will those standing there not taste death until he comes in glory?

And how will they see the kingdom of God?

Well, one interpretation is that Jesus was referencing his resurrection.

Remember, the kingdom of God is the rule of God.

And Christ's victory over death, which Scripture tells us is our greatest enemy, was secured when he stepped out of that tomb, when he finally defeated and pronounced victory over death.

And that was the coming of glory and the coming of the kingdom.

Another interpretation is that Jesus was talking about his transfiguration, which we'll read about in the next passage.

There, some of you know the story, the glory of Christ was shown to Peter, James, and John, who may be the sum that Jesus was talking about here.

Still another interpretation is that Jesus was talking about the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

Years after Christ died, resurrected, and ascended, the Roman government invaded Jerusalem and destroyed the Jewish temple.

In Matthew 24, Jesus seems to be connecting his glory to that event.

Whatever Jesus means, one thing is for sure that his glory and his kingdom were ushered in at his first coming, and they will come to their fullness at his second.

In other words, there is an already, not yet, aspect to the kingdom of God.

We who are Christians live in God's kingdom now, today, as Colossians 1.13 says, we have been transferred into the kingdom of the Son, yet we await the fullness of the kingdom when Jesus Christ returns.

Jesus and the other New Testament authors speak of the kingdom as being both present and future.

So what does that mean for us today who were not standing there when Jesus was giving these words?

It pretty much means the same thing.

That if we reject Christ and if we refuse to follow him, we will not share in the benefits of the kingdom now, nor will we share within the benefits of the kingdom at the end of the age.

This is what you will lose if you choose not to follow Jesus.

You will lose entrance into his kingdom.

You will share no part of his kingdom today, nor will you share in it when it comes in its fullness at the end of the age, when he comes in glory.

Those who fail to enter the kingdom of God have no part in his righteousness or in his peace or in his joy.

These are benefits that are reserved for citizens of the kingdom.

And only those who follow Jesus are citizens of his kingdom.

There are certain benefits that belong to the believer that no unbeliever can claim because unbelievers are outside of the kingdom.

They don't share in his glory.

They don't share in his goodness.

They have no access to the Father because they refuse to come to him by way of the Son.

And you'll hear many people say, Well, what's the big deal?

I'd rather have the world over God's kingdom anyway.

Give me the pleasures of the world over the benefits of the kingdom.

I think I'd rather enjoy what the world can give me over what God can give me.

But here's one thing.

Here's one thing that they fail to realize.

You know, it's one thing to be shut out of the kingdom today or for your lifespan, for 50, 60, 70, or however long the Lord gives you to live on this earth.

It's quite another thing to be shut out of the kingdom for eternity.

Those who refuse to follow Christ will not just be kept out of the kingdom now, they will be kept out of the kingdom forever.

1 Corinthians 6 9.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaterers, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

This is that broad road that Jesus speaks about that leads to destruction.

And he says, many will find it, but that narrow road is the road only few will find.

And it's that road that Jesus walked.

The narrow road.

And it is that road that he calls his followers to walk.

So the choice is simple.

Either follow Jesus down that narrow road or follow the world down the broad road.

One road leads to death, and the other road leads to life.

Countless people will wake up in eternity wishing they can have a do-over, wishing they wouldn't have wasted their life chasing after things that brought them no eternal value.

Philip III, the king of Spain, was part of a powerful Hasburg dynasty.

And at the end of his life, while he was on his deathbed, he considered what he was about to face.

He was about to face God.

And as he considered the God that he was about to meet, he was struck with enormous fear.

And listen to what he says before he died.

Oh, I would to God I have never reigned.

Oh, that those years I had spent in my kingdom I had lived a solitary life in the wilderness.

Oh, that I had lived a solitary life with God.

How much more securely should I have died?

How much more confidently should I have gone to the throne of God?

What doth all my glory profit me, but that I have so much more to torment me at my death.

On Judgment Day, there will be many people with this same sentiment, wishing that they wouldn't have spent their life chasing success and acceptance and the pleasures of life, claiming that they would have given it all up if only they would have known the consequences of not following Jesus.

But the problem is they didn't know.

They just didn't believe.

That's a hard thing to hear.

Because if you're telling me that's what it takes to follow Jesus, that is the price, that is the cost.

I don't know if I have what it takes to give to follow Jesus.

Here's a moment of truth.

You don't.

None of us do.

And Jesus knows that.

You know, there's an interesting story in Matthew 19 about a rich young ruler who comes to Christ.

And he asks, What must I do to inherit eternal life?

He asks Jesus.

And Jesus begins to list these commandments.

You shall not murder, you should not steal, you should not commit adultery, and so forth.

And the young man says, I've done those things.

I've done those things since I was a child.

And then Jesus tells him, Well, how about this?

Go and sell everything you have and give it to the poor.

But this was too much for him.

This he could not do.

So the young man walks away sorrowful.

And when the disciples see this, they have this interesting question.

They say, Then who can be saved?

If that's what it takes to be saved, to give it all up, to give up your life, to give up everything you work for, to give up your hopes and your dreams.

If that's what it takes to follow Jesus and to be saved, who can do this?

And here was Christ's response.

With men, this is impossible.

But with God, all things are possible.

See, the reason Jesus was pointing to the commandments was not to show this man or anyone the way to God.

He was not saying that following the commandments will get you to God.

That wasn't his point.

What he was doing here was showing the impossibility of coming to God by your own strength.

That in your sinful nature, you do not and never will have the righteousness that it takes to see God.

And if you tried to follow Jesus by your own strength and with your own efforts and by all of your obedience that you can muster up, you will never make it.

It is impossible for you to do.

But it's not impossible for Jesus to do.

It's not impossible for God to do.

Here's what Jesus is saying: abandon all hope and trust in yourself and your good works and your obedience and put them all in Jesus.

Place your faith in Jesus Christ.

This is not a call to do something.

This is a call to believe something.

This is a call to believe in the person and in the work of Jesus Christ.

Because here's the truth: you will not follow anything until you believe in it.

The problem with the rich young ruler is not that he couldn't do it, it's that he couldn't believe it.

He couldn't believe in Jesus.

He didn't trust that following Jesus would offer him more than anything that this world can offer.

So he could not follow.

It's our trust.

It's being willing to put our faith and our trust in Christ alone.

It's being able to say, a life in the hands of Jesus is better than a life in the hands of my own.

So here's what I want to leave you with.

Do you trust Jesus with your life?

Or do you trust yourself more?

Have you considered what you lose if you don't follow him?

Your life?

The love of fellowship, love and fellowship of Jesus, the entrance into the kingdom of God?

Do those things not mean much to you?

Do you think that the world offers you more than that?

Don't be deceived.

Don't believe the lie of the world that says it can give you more than Jesus can because it can't.

It never will.

Let me close with this quote from the Puritan Thomas Brooks.

He says, What is honor and riches and the favor of men, so long as I desire the favor of God, the pardon of my sins, an interest in Christ, and the hopes of his glory.

Oh Lord, give me these or I die.

Give me these, or else I shall eternally die.

Amen.

Let us pray.