"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. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple."
Good Monday Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. What a wonderful, beautiful weekend, just great.
It is Monday and the day we set aside to pray for our leaders, our veterans, military, police, firefighters, ambulance attendants, and all those who work so hard to keep us safe and healthy.
Let's put our prayers at the top this morning, before I go to the message...
Dear Father in Heaven, I love You, and I pray that all others on this line will just join me in saying that again, Father, I love You. Father, please watch over our President and all of our leaders, and please be with those leaders from our states and local governments. Lord, Thank You for our veterans, and please, Lord, take care of all of them, some, Lord, are aging and are from WW2, while others are wounded and just 18 or 19 years old. Lord, they all need Your touch. Lord, heal minds that have been bent and twisted due to wars, and Lord, please, please bring peace. Father, watch over our current military and please be with our police and fire fighters here in our great Nation. Lord, watch over those on the ambulances and those that fly the skies helping the injured. Lord, please bless our family docs and also, Lord, bless those doctors we also call vets as they take care of our animals and pets. Lord, watch over our leaders please and watch over our "little flock" as you referred to it... Father, You have given us Your Kingdom and we thank You for it. Help us to repent of our sins this day and move forward in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
A Price to Pay!: Day one: Luke 14:26 - "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. 27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple." (NIV)
Ok, I am a disciple of Jesus, I follow Him and I want to work hard for Him for the rest of my life so I must "hate" all of you! Well, that is what the Bible tells us, right? Well, not really. That word hate is a lot of word, and what it really means is we must love others as always, we must just love Jesus much, much more. Back in my days of Sunday School at the 29th Street United Brethren Church at 29th and Derry Streets, I was asked this question. Now I loved my mamma very, very much, in fact I truly was a mamma's baby (a real cute one I must say). One week in Sunday School our teacher was talking about our love for Jesus and asked if we loved anyone more than Jesus and of course little Danny said, yes, I love my mamma more. Now it sort of stumped the teacher a tad, and he said that it was a different kind of love. Folks, it really is not a different kind of love, but it is a lot deeper.
In those two great commandments and let's take a look at them right now.
Matthew 22:37 - Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment 39 and the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself." (NIV)
So we see here that the greatest commandment is to Love the Lord your God. And the second is, well, like it, but it is second and it means to love all others. But God is first, I had to love God above my Mamma, and I learned to do that. So when the Bible in Luke is talking about hate, that is a term used to show that Your love for God must be above that love you have for others such as family. Now that should make it clear, but maybe not. You see, God does not want you to hate anything but evil, and He really does want you to hate that evil. When we really decide to follow Jesus, not just stand and say it for an hour on Sunday morning, but really follow Him in the way you live then you must turn from your old way of life. Now sometimes you will need to make a choice, you will have family and all of us who want to live for Jesus want our family to be with us, and folks, sometimes it is hard for your family to follow. Here is one reason... Let's take me, I walked away from God, and in some ways, my family also. So now that I am back, and I am sure the family likes me better this way, but I think sometimes they say, so now you want us to follow you and God. I hope you can follow me on that one. I truly love each and every one of our children, I really do, and also our friends, but Jesus is first and since I put Jesus first in my life, things have gone much better. There are times when you must put your arms around family and friends and tell them what they are doing is wrong. I had to do that with my brother when that big hunk of a man, the strongest man I ever knew, called me and told me he was dying of cancer. I had to put my arms around him and tell him he had to give up daily sin. He did, and within a few days I married him and his wife.
Folks, you cannot say you are a disciple of the Lord, you are working full time for Him and then on Saturday nights you go out drinking after a night out with the guys. You don't get a day off from following Jesus. Hey, you get the day of rest, but not the day off. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE!!
This week we are going to look at some of the costs some of the things you might have had to set aside, to go to work for Jesus... Do you want to share any with me on this prayer line? When you became born again, you came to Christ, when you when to work for Him, what did you need to put aside? Let me know...
Now let's go forth and share those blessings, those wonderful blessings that God has lent to you. And gosh, I want to do this again, I just love to end on this note... Love ya, Pastor Dan.
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee, How great Thou Art, How great Thou Art.
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee, How great Thou Art, How great Thou Art.
HOW GREAT THOU ART, HOW GREAT ----- THOU ART!!!
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