If you knew that you could get something far better if you if you gave up what you currently had, would you do it?
What if someone came up to you, asking to borrow your car for a few days, and in return they would give you a brand new car when they come back? Would you do it? That sounds like it would be a pretty good deal.
I guess in a way it is similar to a bank loan. The bank loans out a certain amount of money to an individual, and in return that individual pays back all of the money that they borrowed, plus interest. While the bank may have given up their money, they will eventually get back more than they had in the first place.
In this passage of scripture below, Jesus gives an offer that is just like the examples you just read.
Luke 9:23-26 “And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.
For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?
For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels.”
The word “Christian” means a follower of Christ and His teachings. If we claim to be followers of Jesus, Jesus tells us that we need to deny ourselves and daily take up our cross. If we deny ourselves, it means that we do not allow ourselves to do something. We do not permit it. So what Jesus is teaching is that we need to not allow ourselves to do what we, as carnal creatures, want to do. We need to not permit ourselves to sin, but to do His will instead.
It really is a small price to pay. Wouldn’t you trade 1 dollar today if you knew that a year or two from now you would receive 1 million? Wouldn’t you trade the rest of your life that you have left, whether it be 10 years or 80, to know that you could live forever?
Some people spend their entire lives working, trying to become rich and acquire as many things as they can. Homes, cars, gold and other possessions, and as soon as they can retire they plan to live the rest of their lives in luxury, while forgetting what really is important. They forget about God. Blinded by a dollar sign, they push God to the back of their minds and focus on what they can get right now.
You know, many of the old Egyptian Pharaohs would be buried with all kinds of gold and jewels with the belief that they would be able to have it in the after life, but as just as we are born with nothing, we will leave with nothing.
1 Timothy 6:7 “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.”
True riches are not found in zeros in a bank account. They are not found in gold and silver. They are found in God’s Son, Jesus. He holds the true riches, eternal life.
In the parable in Matthew 25 about the three stewards, each steward received received a certain amount of talents, one received 5, the second received 2, and the third received 1. When we read this parable we see that the first two stewards each doubled their talents thru trading and where summarily rewarded, while the third instead hid his lord’s money in the ground and did nothing; likewise, he received the reward for his unprofitableness and was “cast into outer darkness.”
Life is a gift that each of us receives upon on our birth. It is the opportunity to do something with our lives. But if we want the greatest riches of all we need to use the gift we each have been given by giving all of our time to Jesus. We need to deny ourselves each day, and follow Jesus, where the true riches are found.
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 