When Jesus invited a motley crew of fisherman and tax collectors to follow Him, He invited them to follow Him and “become fishers of men” (Mt. 4:19).
It seems odd that He doesn’t invite them to follow Him so they can go to heaven, so He can meet their needs, or so He can teach them great things since these “benefits of following Christ” seem to be the message most of our churches share.
Jesus does not invite us to follow Him for what we can get, but He invites us to follow Him for what we can give! We can be a part of serving, loving, and reaching the people around us!
We need to trust Jesus when He says, “If you lose your life in serving others, that is when you find your life” (Mt. 10:39).
How can we move past a more consumeristic religion into a genuine life-changing relationship?
Yes! We’re having that same conversation here in Happy Valley. I had people just this week tell me that they didn’t think their friends would be interested in hearing about Jesus “because their lives are pretty good, they don’t see the benefit.” How do we make the move from consumeristic to life-changing? I truly think we know the answer. Establish community and do life together. Eat, play, pray, worship, serve, grow, give…but we can’t do that when we’re busy and distracted, running after the next fad/gadget/trend/you get the idea.
Good stuff Eric. Thanks.
starts with vomiting on comfort.
when our comfort makes us uncomfortable enough, we will change and follow Jesus authentically.
resources are cropping up all over the place to help us “get sick” on comfort.