Becoming a Christian. What is The FOUNDATION of Your Faith?

Do you want to build your faith because if so it's actually going to take a plan but every good plan has to have a foundation today we're going to talk about what the foundation needs to be for our faith what Jesus says it needs to be and it actually might be a little different than what you've been told watch this [Music] foreign [Music] good morning welcome back to Bible study okay um it's been way too long of a break since we put out any videos um mostly in our Genesis series we've been working through Genesis we took a long break off between Christmas and way into New Year's and uh so now we are back and the plan was always to just continue on with Genesis but then I had this crazy idea one day to come back and do just one lesson that talked about how to have the best New Year possible but that one lesson I I was shocked at this it actually started taking shape into something I had not even planned and it ended up to be what we have now a five session series called the plan and it's actually kind of A Treatise on what what being a Christian is all about what a Biblical Christian looks like and and there's things we're going to learn that that maybe you don't even know so I'm super super excited about this particular series and the reason why I want to do this is because so many people nowadays are confused as far as what does it even mean to be a Christian like I the world says something so different and every Church says something so different so we are going to talk about what the Bible actually says about that so that's where we're heading but first Happy New Year's all right for those of you that are watching us in like June and July um this is just this is our first session back before we actually um you know for the new year so anyway I always think that New Year's is kind of an interesting time because it's that time of year that we we feel really really optimistic and it's like somehow January 1st has these like magical powers and and I always say if if it does the magical powers are gone by about January 7th for me okay because let's be honest how many of you kept your New Year's resolution last year okay so need I say more so this year I decided to make very realistic New Year's resolutions and here it is I'm setting the bar really low all right so here's my New Year's resolution I'm going to drink more Dr Pepper okay I'm going to eat more you know it's coming peanut M M's all right and I'm not going to exercise any more than I did last year and I I exercised zero last year okay So the plan is to do this sit on the couch read a book study and eat an apple but even apples kind of way too healthy for me so there you go but for me that's just kind of the more realistic um resolution and hopefully I can do better from there instead of starting here and going down so there you go all right since it's the first time we're back before you know as like I said this is a new year we have no idea what this year is going to hold for us and I want us as followers of Jesus to be prepared for anything because a lot of things can change this year but we need to walk through whatever it is knowing that God is always involved he's always working in our life whether it's good or whether it's bad but in order to get to that place we have to do something in this plan we need to and what we're going to talk about today is this we need to build a foundation a very strong Foundation so I was thinking about this last year a year ago in January if you would have told me January 1st would have brought what it did that year I would have been like yeah I don't think so because at that point we lived in a house that we planned on living in Forever the rest of our life we had a cabin that we went to up north the youngest of our seven kids was still living at home with us by the end of last year and like I said at the beginning we didn't know any of this was going to happen we would have sold the cabin we would have bought a new house that we weren't even looking for we would have sold our house our baby Dusty got married and Rob and I became official empty nesters and all of those things were good but on top of that we got something bad and that was we found out our daughter has breast cancer so all that to say we just never know what a year is going to bring us and since we don't know I want our faith in Jesus to stay intact no matter what happens but in order to do that there you go we need what's behind me plan we need a plan so here's what I know is that every day you and I have a choice to do something in this plan we're going to talk about so we are going to play a video that hopefully will make sense to you watch this foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] so that should be our resolve every single day of our life as followers of Jesus to take up our cross to follow him to run the race to like fix our eyes on Jesus alone no matter what's happening around us but we actually aren't seeing a lot of Christians out there that do that these are people who claim to be Christians we don't see them taking up their Cross or or not worrying about things we don't see that but what we are seeing is that many people will walk away from their faith in Jesus when things don't go the way they want them to maybe someone died maybe their spouse left them maybe they got hurt or sick and they had prayed for God to stop all those bad things and God didn't and when they when he didn't they were just like peace out I don't even believe this stuff anymore which is a reason why I wanted to do this series so let me tell you where we're going to go for these five weeks if we're going to have a plan okay to build a strong faith a lifelong Faith every plan like I said has to have a really good foundation so I liken this plan to someone a plan for our faith I liken it to someone like building a car okay now if you're building a car you're not going to just buy a motor stick it on the ground you know put a car door next to it and just expect it to run it doesn't work that way if you're going to build a car you have to have a foundation here's a picture this is called a chassis okay this is what a car this is the foundation for a car to be built on and we'll read this the words chassis and frame are are usually used interchangeably however technically speaking the chassis tend to refer specifically to the load-bearing part of the car's frame the same is true with our faith if we say we're a Christian there has to be some kind of of foundation like what what what is the chassis or the frame of our faith what is the load-bearing part of our faith because what we see all around us is that people are building their faith on something that's false flimsy untrue and what happens is when something bad happens in their life their faith will come crumbling down eventually and the reason for it is because it wasn't built properly on the right spiritual Foundation just like the car is going to fall apart if it's not built on the right foundation and we all know people like this who walked away from their faith and it's because ultimately they had they did not build their faith on on the right proper strength of a foundation then next week we're going to talk about the Bible because if you're going to build a car you need to have an instruction manual if we're going to build our faith we need an instruction manual that will be the Bible but the problem is is that if you're going to build a car you need to feel like you can trust the instruction manual and for us as Christians we need to feel like we can trust our manual the Bible and so next week I'm going to show you why you can and it's probably one of the my favorite lessons out of this entire series because I know how much it affected my life all right the third and the fourth week we're going to talk about the power behind our Christian Life and we're going to talk about the Holy Spirit I'm taking two weeks to talk about this because there is so much misinformation out there about the Holy Spirit and people are attributing weird stuff to the Holy Spirit did this or said this and all this stuff and and we're going to see is any of that true and actually the majority of it is probably no so we're going gonna really hit heavy on that because if you have a car and you want the car to actually run there has to be some kind of you know something to make it go and either gas or maybe you know the electricity that plugs into your battery that plugs into your car whatever that works but there has to be some power behind it and for you and I the power behind our Christian faith is the Holy Spirit and it's gonna I think those two lessons will be life-changing and then the last week we're going to pull it all together because once a car is built on the proper foundation and it's filled you know it's tank is filled with with gas then it's on the move and so we're going to talk about what that looks like so today we're going to start this plan with the foundation and this is the foundation of our faith and it begins here we need to know what it truly means to be a Christian okay we that we have to at least build our faith on what the Bible says it means to be a Christian now with that being said the problem is is that this phrase being a Christian okay has been dumbed down misused overused and falsely used in our day and age somehow being a Christian isn't so much about starting our foundation on Jesus but instead we're being taught that really being a Christian is all about you all about me just you know it's about what I need God to do for me so I brought this because I um I wanted you to see what this this looks like um in reality this is God okay everything in our life should revolve around him which means our work our family our Hobbies you know our neighbors our friends everything that we should do revolves around him but unfortunately we're not being taught that we're being told that and I don't know why Barbie has pink hair isn't that weird I don't really know why anyway what were we were what we're hearing is that everything is about me everything should revolve around me God you should do what I want you to do God you need to get me that new house God you need to you know get my kid into that school God you need to do this for that everything now revolves around what I want we have completely misunderstood that following Jesus is not about us okay it's all about him everything should revolve around him but people don't like that message okay they don't and I'll tell you why I know that when we came back from Bible study when we came back to Bible study after covid it was 18 months before we could actually come back live in person um at the place that we we have our Bible study and we didn't think anyone would show up but we had about 20 new people that showed up that day and during that lesson I gave this illustration and I laughed because the following week I don't think any of the 20 actually came back and it made me realize I'm like well of course it might be because they don't like me it's a strong possibility but I think for the most part most people don't like the message that I'm saying that it's it's not about you it really is all about Jesus now I'm going to show you a video to kind of show you what that looks like um the video is called the me Church okay now in this video some of you that come to Bible study that are watching this will will laugh because the place that we have our Bible study um is very cold all right for some reason in the winter I don't think they have a heater or they don't turn it on but it is very very cold there and it's very uncomfortable just so you know that the last time we met this is what I'm pretty sure everyone this is what everyone looked like okay yep that was it but here was the cool part is that people showed up anyway that that they were intent on setting the Bible and so instead of being like it's too cold it can't come you know it's all about me they don't do that they bring their one lady brings her gloves scarf hat you know jackets like that's just what they do and it reminded me of something when when Rob and I went to China many many years ago we were taken to an underground um Seminary Bible School it was way way up in the mountains no one even really knew it existed and so what happens is you get there and you sit for hours all of the morning all of the afternoon there is no heat and it was the coldest I think I've ever been in my life I couldn't I just could not get warm and yet day after day this is what these kids did because they wanted to study the Bible they wanted to be missionaries and they wanted to get the gospel out into the world and so it we realized as we're looking at them like this was not about them everything in their life was about Jesus so watch this because it's a kind of a funny video watch this imagine a church where every member is passionately wholeheartedly and recklessly calling the shots who sets the worship Center temperature why does it have to be so cold why do you you have to be so right heated chairs are now being installed this one wants a small church but I'm afraid if it's too small they're going to make me volunteer like crazy and I don't stack chairs do I makes total sense join now and we'll let you decide the size of our church we're Millennials and we want to church this say no more any request you have will be granted immediately take me six seconds to tell you a valet service is on the way my pastor's preaching it's all over the map I say oh I don't know stick with the books of the Bible we should be only exited genital okay next week we start John chapter 1 verse 1 and we'll even start pronouncing that word the way you said it hey I'd like the sermon to be no longer than 30 minutes how does 15 minutes sound hey anybody willing to go 15 should be willing to go to 10. you drive a hard bargain but from now on five minute sermons it is now you're talking me Church where it's all about you [Music] so that is kind of where the church world is going it's like I just want you to be happy and I just want you to be comfortable and and we're just going to say what you want us to say and and the problem with that and what we're seeing is that oftentimes what's happening is the message the word of God the message of following Jesus is being compromised it just is and if you have been here any length of time you know we're not doing that okay we're going to tell you the truth of what the Bible actually says so let's start here when people say I am a Christian so often it doesn't resemble anything in the Bible because it's all mixed up and made up and culturized and religionized and people make up their own truth about Jesus I can't tell you how often I hear this my Jesus wouldn't do that what my Jesus would never send anyone to hell my Jesus would never act like that say that do that expect that from me my Jesus would let me love whoever I want to love so to make my point I want to play a portion of a Melissa Dowdery video and why it's so confusing to us because we're not standing on the truth of the Bible Melissa does these really funny videos and this one is called when people say they're Christians these days all right now it's a longer video you can watch it on YouTube but I'm just showing you one section of this but I'll tell you what happens before she's she's finishing up like a college paper Seminary paper or something and she has to interview people who you know they did a survey and they check the box like yes I'm a Christian she has to interview you know four different people and just you know find out like answer one question like who is Jesus okay now if you're a Christian she's like this will take like five seconds we'll get this done the problem is is that the first person that shows up all right um she says hey thanks for you say you're a Christian and this person said well yeah absolutely she's like well tell me who Jesus is and this person starts talking about you know Jesus is Michael the Archangel and all these things and the girls listening to her like what are you talking about and what she realized is this is a Jehovah Witness and this person would actually say I'm a Christian so what that confuses us the second girl that came in to be interviewed sat down she said now I want to make sure you're a Christian the girl said absolutely so tell me what is who is Jesus and the girl starts off well Jesus is one of many gods and the son of the and all of a sudden she realized that this was a Mormon and yet if you said to Mormons are you a Christian they would say well absolutely the third one was a new Ager and she just of course went off on her new age stuff but but still said no no I I'm a Christian and the fourth one is pretty much what you and I have to deal with today in our culture so watch this you're my last interview for the day and quite honestly uh my last hope so thanks for coming sure yeah okay okay so you said here that you're you're a Christian I hope yeah I guess so you guessed so well I'm only here because my mom checked the box for me so I'm here uh will there be a pizza party later for this uh no okay whatever my church would have had Root Beer Floats or a casserole or something all right uh let's get into it let's start with Jesus okay should be simple um who is Jesus uh I don't know I I suppose he's a really good guy he's really nice and he just wants us to be happy and wants us to follow our hearts just like he did all right okay you know what what about Sin the gospel yeah and no that stuff really makes me uncomfortable I I really don't feel right about judging someone else's Journey they're just doing what they think is right religion is just one way to see God and Jesus is always on our side I would say that other religious Christians are just so loud and obnoxious about the gospel and I think they just missed the whole point isn't that a little ironic look okay I go to church almost every week even when I stay out partying the night before and I even volunteer sometimes and that makes me feel really good about myself and look I even wear a cross and look I own a Bible I I brought it my mom made me bring it uh is this your Bible do you mind seriously look okay I think that I'm a really good person I'm a Christian but I don't judge someone else's beliefs or religion okay but what about historic Christianity the Bible as the word of God salvation I haven't really thought about it that much to be honest um but if I had to say I'm pretty sure that it's it's probably garbage come on I mean who believes that stuff anymore it's archaic the bible really doesn't agree with my lifestyle and honestly that that's really inconvenient for me I'm a Christian but Jesus really just doesn't want us to have these kinds of restrictions okay sure my pastor might quote the Bible here and there but he's got to do that if he's trying to give me some life advice and and tell me that God has a greater plan for my life or something I mean Jesus is my life coach and I just really appreciate that about him so that's why I'm a Christian okay um okay so you say that you're a Christian and you even go to church and own a Bible and wear a cross but you live the way that you want to with yourself as the authority and basically think that everyone is okay with whatever beliefs they have as long as it makes them happy and feeling good yeah exactly hey you know what you're gonna do really good on this paper um but can I go now so that is pretty much what we're up against especially in the culture that we live in and what's happening is this many people who call themselves Christians today look nothing like the men and women who truly follow Jesus in the Bible I've told this joke before but there was a man walking out of church on an Easter Sunday the pastor sees him and says buddy you need to join the army of the Lord and the man said well I already am in the army of the Lord and the Pastor said well then how come you only come to church on on Christmas and Easter and the man said quietly I'm in the Secret Service but there you go people actually think that being a Christian a follower of Jesus you can do that secretly people don't understand that that you you can't that's not what this is about a lot of people say well I don't talk about Jesus because it's a personal matter well I don't want to I don't want to talk about Jesus because it'll offend them I'm going to talk about Jesus because it will alienate them and somehow they think that's okay and somehow they actually think that that's what being a Christian is all about and it comes from being taught something that we have to be very careful of we have been taught in our churches that you should just believe just believe that's all you need to do is believe so let me explain what I mean in modern day you know Christian churches or circles we are given hand-picked verses in little tracks or or whatever on what to do to become a Christian what to do to actually go to heaven and here are some verses and they're easy okay I like these verses John 1 12. yet to all who received him to those who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of God uh it's like hey receive him believe him you're in acts 16 31 they believe they replied believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved if you're like boom I'm in I'm just going to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ Romans 10 9 that if you confess your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved and you're like Jesus is Lord I believe that's it now they stand on these verses and I get it because the Bible says so and I believe that so just so you know that but here's the problem with our American culturized churches is that so many modern day Christians stop there they stop right there at the belief part and what happens is we will stand on those verses and disregard what the rest of the Bible says so you see we can't just pull out a verse and build an entire theology around it we have to see what the Bible says as a whole so many people hear those three verses and think that that following Christ or being a Christian is just about believing the right thing I believe in Jesus I believe in God I'm good to go so then they they do that and then they just go on with their life thinking they don't have to do anything else because they just believed but here's what the problem is you do have to do something else not to believe not to follow Christ but after you follow Christ everything in your life should be changing because what you do after that after this belief proves if you really truly understand what it means to follow Christ look at James 1 22 do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourself do what it says Luke 6 46 Jesus is looking at people going because they're like Lord Lord and he's like why do you call me Lord Lord and do not even do what I say that's my greatest fear is that people aren't getting that message they're getting this flimsy little just believe in me foundation and they're not getting the truth of what what the the strength of of the foundation Jesus is trying to get through to us really is which is why we do what we do here because we are not hearing a lot of Truth nowadays what we're hearing sad to say motivational speaking come with me to my church for a quick 30-minute sermon kind of like we saw in the video on how to have your best life now or how to pray to get what you want or how to get that promotion or how to be happy and unfortunately that's the message that the churches are teaching that life is about your happiness and people think that's actual biblical Christianity and that terrifies me which is why if you come to our Bible study or for those of you that watch Us online you know this we don't do 30-minute you know feel good messages like we do almost 60 Minutes verse by verse and I figure if you're going to take time for those that drive to Bible study or if you're watching this you're going to sit down and watch us for a while then I need to make it worth your time but hopefully you know mixed in with the the verse by verse we do illustrations that hopefully help you and and really stupid jokes as you all know here's one middle-aged wealthy woman has a heart attack while on the operating table she has a near-death experience she sees an angel and and she asks is this it like is this the end of my life and the angel is like no no I got another 30 or 40 years so she recovers she stays in the hospital has a facelift liposuction tummy tuck hair dyed everything she figures hey I got another 30 or 40 years what the heck so she walks out of the hospital after the last operation she's immediately struck and killed by an ambulance so when she arrives to meet this Angel again she says I thought you said I had another 30 or 40 years and the angel said well to tell you the truth I I didn't recognize you okay there you go what I'm saying is we do really stupid jokes but we take Serious the words of Jesus and the reason I want to talk about this as our foundation is because salvation is the most important decision we will ever make in our life we need to get this right we have to get this right and and I know a lot of you people know and I know I know people who who here's what they do they're like well I believe I walked an aisle at a Billy Graham conference I raised a hand in a you know a prayer breakfast heck I even got baptized all right but here's the problem that you and I see is that beyond that baptism or that prayer nothing has ever changed in their life they don't want to live for Jesus they don't even want to read about Jesus okay they want to live for themselves they they want to you know watch TV and read books and they don't care about what the Bible has to say but they believed and they think that's okay it's so weird it's such a weird time we live in these people are not all in they're not sold out here's what happens is Jesus is a thing not the thing and Jesus tells us he needs to be the thing in our life and so what happens is because nobody understands that they go to church Christmas and Easter and they actually think they're okay but biblically what we're going to hear about today from the words of Jesus they might not be and the problem is because these people don't read the Bible for themselves they're not taught the entirety of the scriptures and so they're going to buy into this really easy message that says just believe and receive and you're good to go so the question is does Jesus himself say that that's what being a Christian is or following him does Jesus say all you have to do is receive him and confess him is that all someone has to do is that what all the Bible says and the answer is no now let me be clear that may be how your salvation started that's how my salvation started okay I prayed a prayer to receive Jesus when I was probably seven or somewhere around there at a vacation bible school but this is how I know I really got saved it's because of this what happens after that is the only thing that will prove your decision to follow Jesus was real what happens after you're not a secret servant you know a secret service Christian you know you're not just you know disregarding none of that okay when you do that you don't prove that you're really a Christian now let me explain how this works there's two sides to this camp this is the side number one that we're hearing about all the time ask Jesus in your heart be baptized you're good to go that's what you're hearing at your church come forward um sign this little card pray this prayer be baptized boom you're in this is the camp we're hearing from most this is the camp I was raised in I was raised with campus Crusade for Christ and I you know it was a great ministry great it did so much for my faith but when I would go to conferences they would literally take us and drop us off at a neighborhood give us a pack of four spiritual laws and we were supposed to go knock knock on doors read these four spiritual laws and get someone to pray that prayer and what we would do is get back together and say everyone would be like how many people you know had people pray that prayer of ten ten people were saved they're going to heaven look what you did today I would never do that today ever because I think that that's so misleading to people here's what I would do I would forget the tract I would walk to their door and I would explain to them about Jesus what he has to offer like oh my gosh salvation peace Joy like all these wonderful things that he has come he'll take away your sin he'll take away your guilt your shame all of those things but number two is this you need to count the cost you need to surrender your life to Jesus you need to get baptized the Bible says that you need to read the Bible to know Jesus better you need to live for him you need to tell others about him then they're good to go that's the whole story now that story comes from the mouth of Jesus himself but the problem was is that Jesus was faced with the same thing we are faced the me generation people showed up to hear Jesus speak mostly to get healed mostly to get a free meal very few the message of what Jesus said ever changed their life they just wanted more stuff from him but Jesus doesn't want followers like that he wants followers who are completely and utterly devoted to him who will get the good news of salvation out into this world because his message he has a message that we're supposed to tell people that will change people's lives for all eternity that's a big deal so he tells his followers what it's going to take to follow him now this particular lesson has been really hard for me this is my third time videotaping it and to get these things videotaped is a major production I've never had to videotape something more than once this one it's it this is the third time and the reason why is because I struggled with with how to teach this because the words of Jesus that we're going to read seem really really harsh it seems so difficult so before I videotape this today I sat down with my husband Rob and I said Rob these are really tough words that come from the mouth of Jesus and what it means to follow him and I said if this is true I'm the first one going to hell okay I'm like I I don't I don't do these things like of course I want to and I hope to get to that place someday but but I this is not like I don't live this way all the time and Rob said you know Lisa don't forget you have to take the Bible as a whole just like I said earlier you can't just build a theology around three verses all right in other words he was saying temper what Jesus says with the big picture and here's the big picture Jesus came to seek and save us he died on the cross so we could spend eternity with him with with him he knows that we are pathetic people like Peter okay who who three times said Jesus who okay but Jesus also knew something about the crowds that he was teaching to they weren't in it for the Long Haul they just wanted something from him so he wants them to understand long term that if they want to follow him it's not about free stuff it's not about getting the Mansion on the beach or getting your prayers answered the way you want it's not that it's serious because the message of Jesus is serious because it changes the direction of someone's life for all eternity from Hell To Heaven but in order to get that message out Jesus knew this there was an exclusive exclusive I cannot say that word exclusivity there you go okay Jesus knew that people would not like the exclusivity of this message Jesus would be coming against the religious Elite he would be coming against the rulers of Rome and he knew that if his followers would follow him they were subject to whatever he was subject to also and he wanted people to know if you follow me you're going to face hardship persecution loss of family loss of home maybe loss of life and if you don't love me first and foremost you won't persevere to the end that was his message and it isn't to believe me or receive me message by any means this is a life altering life-changing choice to follow Jesus so Jesus says this in Luke 14 verse 25 he says this large crowds were traveling with Jesus and turning to them he says now remember this is what let me tell you what he doesn't say okay he doesn't say girls and boys just believe in me just confess Jesus is Lord and you're in he doesn't say that look what he says in verse 26 if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother his wife and children his brothers and sisters yes even his own life he cannot be my disciple you're like what and I get it it's like it's like of course we have to love Jesus more than we love anyone else if we're going to make it and persevere to the end in the end you know Jesus even says in the very end you know you know fathers will turn against daughters and mothers will turn against whatever like there's gonna become a time when you're gonna have to choose Jesus over your family if they're not if they're not Christians but he's he's saying not hate like in the like you hate him he's like saying your love for me has to to look like you hate everyone else that's what Jesus is saying to follow him and to persevere to the end that's what you're going to need verse 27 he says in anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple in other words before you think about following Jesus don't just pray a prayer check a box whatever you better count the cost verse 28 says suppose one of you wants to build a tower will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king will he not first sit down and consider whether he's able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand in the same way any of you who does not give up everything he cannot be my disciple isn't that amazing are we hearing that message at church today we're not and yet those are the very words of Jesus I've told you my Africa story we went to Africa we went to a church service there um and they would say like anyone who wants to you know give their life to Jesus come forward so people would come forward they would say this they would not say pray this prayer they would say if you're serious about this come back tomorrow at three well what if you had a job if you're like why I have to work you know you got to come back if you want to if you want if you want to take this serious so they come back what few that probably did and they would say here's what you need to know is you probably maybe will lose your family your spouse possibly your children will hate you it's your job they'll probably fire you and you also could be killed you could die for this so you need to know ahead of time what the what that what this is going to cost you now are you still up for it we need those kind of preaching messages in our church today we have a friend that um that comes to Bible study and she has a pastor friend in Ukraine and we know what's going on there and um she said he he told her we probably will all die that's that's you know because they're out in the streets and helping people and doing all that and she said how do you feel about that he said well that's what we signed up for see that's what we sign up for as a follower of Jesus my life is yours do with it whatever you want and Jesus doesn't really give us a lot of wiggle room like oh everything's fine I understand he's just like no this is this is the way it is so what I realized was bothering me is this that the message of the cost of Jesus is getting lost when all we hear is just pray a prayer and ask Jesus in your heart you're fine Jesus never said that my fear is that people are believing a partial story and not the whole story because here is the deal when people heard the cost of following Jesus you know what happened that message turned turned more people away from following Jesus than actually two following him we see it all through the Bible when Jesus would teach something really really difficult people would walk away John 6 66 says this from the time from this time he just got done telling some really difficult stuff many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him that that's the reality of it when you take your faith serious people in this culture in this day and age they're not gonna like you or they're like me we moved we had a Christmas party we invited all of our neighbors and um and they came over and we showed him the house and showed them the studio and we had on our back screen like genesis and and um so when they left we gave them a bag and in the bag it had some of Rob's coffee um a a bottle of wine we put a Max Lucado book called Jesus and some of our books that we wrote and after they all left I looked at Rob and I said what do you think are we ever going to get invited to a party again and uh he said I don't know I don't know I don't know how people will react to us you know saying this is what we believe this is Who We Are but that's just part of following Jesus we see it a Bible study alcohol and Rob will be like hey our Bible study go today and I'm like well it was cool we had five new people show up but then I always say this but maybe one will come back and he said Lisa you can't take that personally which I don't by the way he said the reason why they don't come back is because you don't sugarcoat anything he said you teach the hard stuff people don't want to hear that he goes for the love you just taught an end times conference and you and Joel told everyone they're not going to be raptured out of here before the pre you know before before the seven years starts the most likely they will have to go through quite a bit of those seven years he said who wants to hear that message they want to hear a message that they're going to be raptured out they don't have no suffering no pain that's not biblical honestly I think the two most dangerous messages the churches are giving people is that you will be raptured out of here no one's going to be prepared and just pray a prayer ask Jesus in your heart and you're good to go I think those two are highly dangerous to the growth of the church because nobody is going to understand what it means to truly follow Christ but people stopped following Jesus because the message of following him wholeheartedly is very difficult we see this Jesus fed five thousand men which means probably 20 000 people he healed the sick raised the Dead made blind to see lame to walk you get it guess how many people out of all those thousands and thousands and thousands were with him at the end after he rose from the dead guess how many were left a hundred and twenty that was it 120 in the upper room waiting for him see so many people follow Jesus because they do so they want him to give them something they wanted me God I need you to give me a better life I need you to give me a better job and I'm afraid for many people that they think they're Christians and might not be and I think it's just because I think they got to ask Jesus in your heart message and not the cost of following Jesus message and honestly I don't know what God's gonna do with that especially in the United States of America because every one of us I would say have one or two Bibles in our home somewhere even if it's in the Attic that grandma gave you okay there's there's Bibles everywhere on your shelf on your wherever and they sit there with dust on it because nobody wants to open it and read it and people who say they're Christians don't open it and read it because somehow they're content with oh I just pray to prayer I'm fine and and it doesn't work that way and the problem is they don't read their Bible so they're not getting the story in its entirety and if you're going to a church that teaches fluffy goofy stuff then you know what you're not going to know it either and see our job is to represent Jesus well but but if we're not reading the whole story or if we're not getting it from the church we go to we're not going to get it see we need to represent Jesus well but he says in order to do that it's going to be hard to follow him look at what Luke 9 57 says now what happened is they journeyed on the road that someone said to him Lord I will follow you wherever you go and Jesus just said to him because just imagine him shaking his head yeah right foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head in other words unless you are prepared to sleep under the stars and not have all the Comforts of the five-star hotel okay this isn't going to work for you it's just not verse 59 then he said to another follow me but he said Lord let me go and bury my Father which means his father wasn't even dead yet and Jesus said let the let the dead bury their own dead but you go and preach the kingdom of God Jesus is saying unless you are prepared to forego family obligations a lot of times yeah this isn't going to work for us for 61 and also another said Lord I will follow you but let me go first and bid them for farewell who are at my house but Jesus said no one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God Jesus never said following him meant pray a prayer receive him confess him and you're good to go what Jesus says is very uncomfortable it sounds harsh but it's the foundation of of what it means to actually be a true follower of Christ think of what Jesus tells Peter before Jesus is going to Jerusalem on their way to Jerusalem before he is going to be crucified Mark 8 31 says this he began to teach teach them Peter and the guys that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and after three days rise again that's a tough message for these guys to hear especially when they think Jesus is going to come and you know wipe out Rome and you know they're going to get their status back so verse 32 he spoke this word openly then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him why Jesus come on that's not the message people want to hear you can't build a following that way you need to give them good positive motivational information not like hey I'm gonna go die all right verse 33 said this but when he turned around and looked at his disciples he rebuked Peter saying this get behind me Satan okay for you are not mindful of the things of God but the things of men and it was just this reminder to me am I mindful of the things of God or am I mindful of the things of everything that's going around around me and what people think I thought this was a cute a little boy had to make this decision God or himself he was invited to church by one of his friends and on the way out the door is Mom handsome two one dollar bills she said one of those is for you to go buy an ice cream cone the other one is for you to put in the offering plate when you get to church so the boys are walking along and and then this gust of wind came up and blew one of the dollars out of his hand and actually we watched it fall into like a sewer and so he didn't know what to think so he thought about it for a moment he said well there goes God's dollar [Laughter] God or us that's kind of how that works but think of the first words that Jesus preached Matthew 4 17. from that time Jesus began to preach and said repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand repent means I am walking this direction and I'm turning around and now walking this direction this is all about me there you go it's all about me repentance me oh I'm out of there now it's all about God is repentance I'm turning away from how I used to live I'm turning to the way God wants me to live we see this with Mark 6 7 calling the twelve he sent them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits they went out and preached the people should what prayer prayer confess Jesus no should repent we have to turn the way we used to be living to a new way that God is calling us to live I love what John Wesley says he says give me 100 men who hate nothing but sin and love God with all their hearts and I will shake the world for Christ the problem is we are not being taught that repentance is the foundation of of our faith along with Jesus and repentance that is the foundation we're not being told that think of John the Baptist when he came on the scene you think I'm being harsh okay he actually called a bunch of religious leaders you bro to vipers okay I'm not that mean but he does that but look what he says in those days Matthew 3 1 John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and said this repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand he didn't start his sermon with all boys and girls and men and women that are here listening Jesus is almost here and when it gets here he's going to make your life so much better if you just believe in him he didn't say that he said repent in other words knock it off that's what he said how many sermons have you had heard a pastor come up and say knock it off okay if you say you're a follower of Jesus repentance means no you cannot live in that homosexual lifestyle no you cannot get drunk on the weekends no you cannot you know have that adulterous Affair no you cannot just leave your husband for no reason like no you need to repent from that and and turn your life and do life the way God is calling you to do represent him well that's what the message of John the Baptist was we're not hearing that in many churches today we're hearing oh you're fine Jesus hates your sin but he loves The Sinner I mean that's what we hear and we have to go back to look at the words of Jesus and John where they say knock it off this isn't this in verse 8. therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance in other words show people by how you live that you really honestly are sincere about your faith it seems like Jesus and John are saying honestly like I said this is the foundation of a strong faith a true faith but my fear is that they're actually people who think they're Christians out there and and they're probably not and it's because of this they haven't considered the whole truth of the Bible and honestly I would love more than anything to stand up here and just say you know what you be your your brother's uncle's son prayed that prayer and of course he's not living the life and he's fine I would love to say he's fine I can't do that because the Bible doesn't say that and and when you come to Bible study you're going to see the only thing you're going to get here is what does the Bible say about that it's the only truth to stand on and it is not this easy believism garbage that we're hearing in the churches but why aren't we hearing the truth and this is going to sound really cynical but I think there's probably some truth to it it's very difficult to build a church to run a church to have the finances to continue a church or the same with a Bible study or any Ministry and just teach the difficult stuff it's hard because in this culture today you tell people I'm sorry you can't live a homosexual lifestyle what and then they leave you're so judgmental no we're gonna tell you what the Bible says no you can't go out and get drunk no you can't sleep around no you can't be living with your boyfriend no you can't marry that non-Christian oh what look what's wrong with you Christians no and then you have a hundred people to just walk out of your church or your Bible study because you teach the really difficult things but it's the truth and that's what you need to understand so the problem is is that that's why we get fluffy sermons and I I'm sorry for that but you're not going to get that here so all that to say is this the foundation the frame the chassis that we have to build our faith on is understanding that it's all about surrendering your life to Jesus and repenting and that is the starting line um not the finish line see the people that believe like oh I believed in Jesus they think that's the Finish Line good to go no the starting line is when you surrender your life to Jesus and now for the rest of your life it's like you're building that car on this Foundation you're building it you're reading the manual you're learning what it says to do and you're building this beautiful car that's going to honor God which brings me to understand this we have a short time on this Earth to get the message of this incredibly good news about Jesus that he is the only way to God and if you want to to go to heaven and spend eternity with him and have a blessed life on this Earth not that you get everything you want but that you know he's with you and that all things work together for good then you know what that's a good message we need to understand that we need to be excited for that but I don't think many people understand the cost of that Matthew 7 14 says this narrow is the gate and difficult is the path or which difficult is the way which leads to life and there are few who find it there are few there's a lot of people building a foundation of just just nothing fakeness falseness nothing that's real and there's very few that are building their foundation on repentance and Jesus and I am going to ask Peg plead that if today you're one of those to just pray the prayer nothing's really changing that you stop today and you get on your knees and you say I surrender I want to change God I need you to change me from the inside out we'll talk about that in three and four or next week um the next couple weeks um but next week make sure you watch it number two because this is actually probably one of my most favorite weeks because we're going to talk about the Bible because if I'm supposed to teach the Bible or believe the Bible or even read the Bible how do I actually know it's true and if you have questions about like ah Old Testament God seems me New Testament Jesus seems nice how do you pull it all together and we're going to talk about the one event that brings Genesis and Revelation and everything in between together hope this helps have a really good day [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Women's Bible Study

Views: 852

Keywords: Women's, Bible, Study, womens bible study, bible study, becoming a Christian, how to become a christian, what does it mean to become a christian, christian, faith in Jesus, foundation of christian faith

Id: BgL7i66BQyc

Length: 59min 13sec (3553 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 25 2023