Staying True

This was my initial calling by Jesus. I was saved but everyone needs to grow. A person should not have the faith and wisdom of an 8 year old when 48 years old.

I went through the temptations of my teenage years, the learning and failures of my twenties, the struggle of my 30s with testimonies in each one.

On this side of 40 and almost 50 I recognize that the an essential element of faith is loyalty.

Loyalty to God means obedience.

It means staying walking with Jesus, following Jesus, obeying Jesus.

Yet at times, it is so easy to forget what exactly is obeying Jesus.

John 14:15 (CSB)

15 “If you love me (Jesus), you will keep my commands.

I have had people get so angry with me asking does obeying Jesus mean something like every other word that comes out of my mouth is Jesus this or Jesus that.

It’s a ridiculous statement but one a lot of people may think. As so many say in our culture, representation matters and there is almost no representation in all the media we take in of people who love Jesus and aren’t pushing for a political cause.

Yet if we read the Bible, and I so encourage you to read or listen or ask others to read with you, we see Jesus at parties, at dinners, sometimes at synagogue or temple but a lot of the time just walking from place to place. Doing what was the way of life back then.

Even after Jesus resurrected, all the apostles show lives that pursued loyalty to Jesus and even they rebuked demons who were calling out obnoxiously with the Jesus talk.

Acts 16:16–18 CSB

16 Once, as we were on our way to prayer, a slave girl met us who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She made a large profit for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 As she followed Paul and us she cried out, “These men, who are proclaiming to you a way of salvation, are the servants of the Most High God.” 18 She did this for many days. Paul was greatly annoyed. Turning to the spirit, he said, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And it came out right away.

This is a demon who went about with the annoying and patronizing “servants of the Most High God.” It wasn’t a lie, it was just annoying, can you imagine your talking to someone, introducing yourself and someone comes bellowing behind you, “

These men, who are proclaiming to you a way of salvation, are the servants of the Most High God”

That is incredibly annoying, why would Jesus, ask you to be more annoying in people’s lives?

What does it reveal about the people who tell me that to have show more of there faith, the only thing that can be thought up is the most annoying lifestyle?

The lifestyle of us is to live in the gifts that God gives us in our day to day life.

Galatians 5:22–25 CSB

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

There might be a lot to talk about there but my question to you today is what does loyalty to God really look like in your life?

Are you consistently following Jesus in your whole life? Jesus’s enemies even said He was a friend of people who rejected God

Matthew 11:19 (NLT)

19 The Son of Man (Jesus), on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton (over-eater) and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’ But wisdom is shown to be right by its results.”

Jesus talked with others. He didn’t sing all the time, shout all the time, pray all the time, but he also didn’t sin, didn’t reject God, didn’t live for himself, didn’t pursue dominating others, or possessions, or happiness, he pursued God and let those things take care of themselves.

But I get it, it takes time to figure out what following Jesus means. It takes time to listen to God through the Bible. It takes time to pray. It takes work to get to know anyone and even more work to, as we read earlier, lay down our burdens and take up the yoke of Jesus.

I woke up last night weeping over people who walked so closely with with Jesus and now appear to be as the song says, “someone that I used to know” because they found the material possession they were looking for. A relationship, money, house, the need got filled and now they no longer and it doesn’t appear they are in crisis so faith comes up again when something happens to the possession or the person they care about but only in crisis when of benefit. Is that a judgement? Yes, but they aren’t hear and It’s a universal concern for us all, a warning, will we reject God when our passions and possession are more important to us and if we are searching for God, how can we put things as more important than him?

WIll you take some time with me and voice this prayer:

Psalm 139:23–24 M:BCL

23 Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me; Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I’m about; 24 See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong— then guide me on the road to eternal life.

I want to tell you about two men who show us what faith in Jesus or a lack of faith really looks like. What does it really look like to walk with Jesus outside of church.

Peter was called by Jesus to be a leader in the church. He admitted he would be

John 13:36–38 CSB

36 “Lord,” Simon Peter said to him, “where are you going?” Jesus answered, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow later.” 37 “Lord,” Peter asked, “why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” 38 Jesus replied, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly I tell you, a rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times.

Jesus was talking about the fact that he would die on the cross.

Peter thought he was brave. It was in a conversation, a talk, a moment of calm

Then came the storm.

John 18:15–18 CSB

15 Simon Peter was following Jesus, as was another disciple. That disciple was an acquaintance of the high priest; so he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard. 16 But Peter remained standing outside by the door. So the other disciple, the one known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the girl who was the doorkeeper and brought Peter in. 17 Then the servant girl who was the doorkeeper said to Peter, “You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?” “I am not,” he said. 18 Now the servants and the officials had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold. They were standing there warming themselves, and Peter was standing with them, warming himself.

John 18:25–27 CSB

25 Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They said to him, “You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” 26 One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, “Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?” 27 Peter denied it again. Immediately a rooster crowed.

Reasonable disloyalty. He was afraid. He could’ve been killed. He could’ve been rejected.

His life, which he said He would stay with Jesus forever, became more important to Him than actually trusting Jesus.

There was another disciple who showed a different way.

John 11:1–16 CSB

1 Now a man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair, and it was her brother Lazarus who was sick. 3 So the sisters sent a message to him: “Lord, the one you love is sick.” 4 When Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness will not end in death but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that he was sick, he stayed two more days in the place where he was. 7 Then after that, he said to the disciples, “Let’s go to Judea again.” 8 “Rabbi,” the disciples told him, “just now the Jews tried to stone you, and you’re going there again?” 9 “Aren’t there twelve hours in a day?” Jesus answered. “If anyone walks during the day, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if anyone walks during the night, he does stumble, because the light is not in him.” 11 He said this, and then he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I’m on my way to wake him up.” 12 Then the disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will get well.” 13 Jesus, however, was speaking about his death, but they thought he was speaking about natural sleep. 14 So Jesus then told them plainly, “Lazarus has died. 15 I’m glad for you that I wasn’t there so that you may believe. But let’s go to him.” 16 Then Thomas (called “Twin”) said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go too so that we may die with him.”

Let’s go die with him.

That’s a whole different side to the old hymn, wherever He leads I’ll go.

We should know this truth that relationships are forged in being there during the funerals, the hospitals, the making lunch to go sit with your wife during treatment, the encouragement after the failure, the forgiveness after the hurt. We know that’s what makes love, Jesus shows us that in that he forgave Peter, He blessed Thomas. But relationship is not just in the low times, not just in the high times, they are also in the Monday work days, the grocery trips, the chores, the boring and if we seek God only for times of happy blessings we will still receive happy blessings but we will miss the relationship that can last in the darkness, that can be there in the diagnosis and the after hours phone call. And if we only show up in the championship or the hospital we miss the breakfast time illumination of the spirit, the opportunity to bless in the grocery line, and the spirit of peace on a regular Tuesday night.