Jesus Teaches Me About Sacrificing for Faithfulness

From Matthew 19

God seems to really value the quality of sacrificial faithfulness. Look at marriage in v 3-9. When the Pharisees wanted to challenge Jesus on his stand regarding divorce, Jesus reminded them that marriage is about a man and woman discovering that their oneness grows out of their faithfulness to each other and that a hardened heart will not sacrifice for their spouse and this kind of heart will lead to unfaithfulness.

Jesus says in v 28-30 that those who sacrifice and are faithful will be rewarded greatly.

The rich young man (v16-24) was not willing to sacrifice and missed the reward of God because he would not follow in faithfulness.

In the middle of this chapter is a puzzle, a teaching on children (v13-15)

Children require sacrifice and faithfulness on the part of parents and other adults. Adults (especially when they are not the parents)often look to dismiss and discount the children as unimportant to them personally. Parents know of the sacrifice and faithfulness children require but they grow weary of the demands. Children live completely dependent upon the sacrifice and faithfulness of their parents and other adults. Even when they are disobedient, they still look to their parents for love and care.

When the disciples of Jesus were not being faithful to the children, Jesus rebuked them and received the children to bless them.

My heart must be willing to sacrifice for others if I want to be known as a faithful person. There can be no real faithfulness without sacrifice, and the more we sacrifice the more faithful we become. Jesus promises that sacrificial faithfulness leads to real and lasting rewards. I suspect it is the ones who have nothing left (the "last" in verse 30) are the ones who come out the real winners.

I am glad Jesus said that "MANY who are last will be first" - at least we will be in good company!

My Barriers to Growth

Growth is an evidence of life.
When I think about growth, I think about how there is “old” growth and “new” growth.
Old growth is like the trunk of a tree that continues to get bigger around with more bark every year but is a growth that is hardly noticeable except when it gets really old and is obviously a big tree; and that is really all that is said about it “that’s a big tree!”. Old growth was once “new” growth but has now become hardened with age and it’s glory has faded into the past. It now becomes the home of insects and parasites, another part of the food chain. “Old” growth has an important role to play in the “new” growth that the “new” growth is dependent upon. The “old” growth provides resources, protection and stability for new growth that is vulnerable. The “old” growth provides wisdom of how to weather the storms and challenges that the “new” growth will encounter.

New growth is where the fruit happens. In my garden, I look for the new growth, the evidence that the plant is healthy. I planted things for the new growth, for the flora, for the fruit. Where the old growth is sentimental to the heart the new growth brings joy to the heart.

Both are necessary for the fruit to set on, but some “old” growth trees support very little new growth and bear little fruit. My life is a combination of both “new” growth and “old” growth...

What keeps me from developing new growth?
Here are 10 things that can be barriers to my growth

1. New growth is costly -
        growth requires time and resources
        have to be willing to pay the price

2. new growth takes attention
        have to think about new growth
        new growth needs nurturing
        the inclination is to focus on “old” growth that will not produce

3. New growth takes intentionality and planning
        I have to make room for new growth
        I have to anticipate the requirements of the growth

4. New growth takes work
        I have to do something if I want to grow. New growth takes change
        I have to do things differently
        respond to a changing environment / culture

5. People around me can limit my growth
        growing people help people grow
        positive people help people grow
        informed people help people grow
        
6. Loneliness limits growth
        little grows in a vaccuum -
        too inward focused

7. Information can keep me from growing
        not knowing what to do leads to bad decisions
        wrong information leads to wrong decisions
        
8. Perspective can keep me from growing
        desiring stability and security over joy
        desiring comfort and ease produces little fruit

9. Unrealistic expectations will hinder growth
        expecting a forest to spring out of a desert - over night
        discouragement is a growth killer

10. More fear than faith
        fear of failing - loosing sight of future growth
        not taking time to hear from God
        unwilling to respond to God

Jesus prays for you

Read:
John 17:1-26

If anyone’s prayers are to be answered, Jesus’ prayer to the Father is sure to be. Jesus asks to be glorified by the Father, to be able to fully express His goodness, to fully express God Himself. When God glorifies another it is always to demonstrate God Himself, not the individual.

Jesus had done all He was sent to do, and now Jesus was dependent upon the Father to do all that God desired to do. To truly be a sacrifice Jesus had to place himself completely into the hands of His Father.

Jesus’ concern is not for himself as he faces the cross, but for His disciples, and you, and I, and all His followers. Jesus prays for our protection from the evil one, by the power of His name. He asks that we be set apart, made distinct, by God’s word of truth. Jesus also prays that we be brought to unity, together with Him.

Our unity is not with the world, though we are not taken out of it. But our union is with God Himself. It is in an extraordinary relationship with God that the world will know His love that is only experienced through Jesus and was established through His sacrifice.

Just as Jesus placed Himself into the hands of His Father, will you trust him too, faithful to obey what He calls you to do?


Prayer:
• Thank God that He answers Jesus’ prayer for you.
• Confess your need for His protection.
• Listen to His truth as He distinguishes you from the world around you.
• Ask Him to display His love through the unity of your life with Him and others.
• Thank Him for the incredible gift of displaying His glory through your life.

Meditate:

John 17:22-23
I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

The trial of eternity

Read: John 18:1-11; Luke 22:66-23:25; Mark 15:16-20; Matt 27: 32-56

Jesus was arrested and His trial immediately began very early in the morning. The trial of all eternity, that took place in three courts, was over by mid-morning. Jesus allowed rulers that He had established to condemn Him, soldiers that He had knit together in their mother’s womb to beat Him mercilessly then nail Him to a tree that He created, and carried to the hill.

Jesus experienced the rejection of His followers, the pressure of arrogant men, the pain of senseless beatings, the humiliation of a naked crucifixion, but His heart breaks and he cries out because He is separated from His Father (Matt 27:46) for the first time in His existence.

Restoring your relationship with God is the reason He went to the cross. The pain of the brokenness of that relationship is what cost Him his life. There is no life apart from the Father, because He is the source of all Life. When Jesus died, the earth shook to exclaim, “He was the son of God.”


Prayer:

• Thank God that He loved the world so much to send His son to die for it.
• Confess that your sin required Jesus’ death on the cross.
• Listen to His spirit as He shows you the cross He died on
• Ask Him to help you never loose sight of the cross
• Thank Him for loving you so much.

Meditate:

Isa 53:5-6
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

A covenant of hope!

Read:
John13:1-20; Matt 26:17-30; Mark 14:27-41; Luke 22: 24-62

God had made a covenant with His people long ago in a desert where He gave them the Law, the unattainable Commandments for them to live by. A covenant was established by God with Moses and sealed by the sacrifice of blood. However, this old covenant only lead people into the guilt of their sin for breaking God’s Commandments. Breaking the covenant required new sacrifices.

Jesus establishes a new covenant that fulfills the old one and brings hope to us today. His life became the sacrifice required. In His death, His flesh was broken and His blood shed for the forgiveness of our sin. This is a covenant of forgiveness that is sealed by His blood and is symbolized in the act of communion. It is in a relationship with Jesus now that we find our hope.

Even in this, Jesus continued to demonstrate the importance of humble service as He washed the feet of the disciples. He brings strength to our weaknesses as He prayed for Peter (Lk 22:32) though He knew he would deny Him. He demonstrates His control over the situation as he walks into the hands of His accusers fully aware of what lay ahead of Him.

He wants His followers to believe in Him. Not blindly, but connecting His sovereignty with the realities around us (Jn 13:19). He is at work in the world around you today. Do you recognize the hope He brings to your life today?


Prayer:
• Thank God that He desires to bring hope into your life.
• Confess your dependence upon Him for your hope – to make it through the doubts and darkness that your days can bring.
• Listen to Him as He calls you to commune with Him in this covenant of hope.
• Ask Him to be your strength today and to fill your heart with the hope that only He can provide.
• Thank Him for being your only source of hope.


Meditate:
Heb 6:19-20
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf.

God Glorifies His Son through Sacrifice

Read:
John 12: 20-50; Matt 26:1-16

Jesus knows now is the time for which He has come. This is the culmination of His time on earth. God is about to glorify Himself, through His Son, in an astonishing way to demonstrate the extraordinary love He has for His creation. Jesus reinforces the values of the Kingdom of God that He has spent the last 3 years building into His followers. Values of self-sacrificing service, giving up ones own life for the benefit of others (v 25-26). God Himself confirmed Jesus’ life, message and purpose once again. The Father is pleased to multiply His Glory upon His Son and Jesus declared that as He is lifted up, on the cross and in our lives, He would continue to affect peoples lives for the rest of time (v32).

Even after such a great confirmation by the Father, Jesus remained under complete submission to Him. He continues to show that He is in the world as one who had been sent (v44). Jesus also acknowledges the level of His submission to the Father, for He never spoke on His own, God always told Him what to say and how to say it (v49). If Jesus, as God’s son, was that submissive to the Father, how much of your life are you willing to submit to God’s control?

Prayer:
• Thank God that Jesus demonstrated self-sacrificing service on your behalf to enable you to come into Gods presence even now.
• Confess the times you have not been willing to submit your speech, actions or attitudes to Gods will.
• Listen to the things He wants to change in you.
• Ask God that He forgive you and help you live the self-sacrificing life that Jesus demonstrated for you, so that you will become a “son of light” (v36)
• Thank God for the love He has shown you through His son Jesus.

Meditate:
John 12:49-50
For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say."

Faith and Prayer

Read:
Matt 21:18-22; Mark 11:20-33; Luke 20:1-19

Jesus teaches His disciples a lesson about faith and prayer. He knows what lies ahead for all His followers and they will need both the strength of faith and the power of prayer in the coming days. God works through people who are relying on Him alone, expecting Him to do things only He can do, for His benefit and glory.

Jesus teaches us that all of nature is to respond to God and bear fruit to His glory, and that prayers to this end can move any mountain we face. Through our faith in Him we can see Him respond to our prayers.

Often, Jesus’ authority is questioned. He was doing things that could only be done because He was God, and yet some were still unwilling to believe He was who He was. Sometimes we think “this is too hard for God, He would never do this in my life” and we opt for the easy way out, saying “we don’t know” just like the teachers who challenged Him. Will you let Jesus be God in your life and give Him the authority to do what He wants to?



Prayer:

• Thank God that He is able to do anything He desires
• Confess the times you have not believed He was who He said He was in your life.
• Listen to Him tell you how He wants you to trust Him today.
• Ask Him to increase your faith as you commit to obey Him.
• Thank Him for being faithful even when you are not.

Meditate:

Luke 20:17-18
"'The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone'?
Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed."