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In our pursuit of God’s pleasure, we’ve discovered that this pursuit is not a leisurely endeavor, as though it were over and above the pursuit of His will, but that the two are one and the same. The pursuit of God’s heart, of His pleasure, is the pursuit of His will.
And, we’ve discovered that His will, His heart, is not a mysterious list of questions for which we must get the answers right. Simply …
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So, we are exploring how we pursue God’s pleasure. We’ve discovered that this pursuit is not a leisurely endeavor, as though it were over and above the pursuit of His will, but that the two are one and the same. The pursuit of God’s heart, of His pleasure, is the pursuit of His will.
But this discovery has not made our pursuit any easier. We are still left with the question how we can know …
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So, if we are going to do the things which speak to God’s heart, that means that we need to know what those things are, right? But how do we do that? Where do we even begin? I mean, we’re not even sure what God’s will is most of the time, much less the things that speak to His heart.
I think that there are a couple of problems here.
The more obvious one is what …
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Ok, so we have begun to think of the marks of a disciple as commitments, and key to our transformation as disciples. And we have an idea of how these might look in our daily lives.
So we begin to think, “This commitment is a good thing. And if a little is good, more is better.” In the process we turn into the spiritual equivalent of Navy Seal wannabes.
This longer, faster, higher, harder approach can …
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So, our commitments mark us as a disciple . . . or not. And the core of those commitments is the type of unconditional submission that Jesus demanded in Luke 10:57-62.
But Jesus isn’t here today, walking the earth, compelling us to literally drop everything to join Him as He treks around Israel. So, what might this kind of commitment look like in our lives?
Honestly, although we may not recognize it, we regularly encounter situations …
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Now that we are thinking of the marks of a disciple as commitments, let’s explore the relationship between them.
To review, the commitments are:
Supreme Love for Jesus – Matthew 10:37-39; Luke 14:26
Regularity in His Word – John 8:31-33
Renunciation of My Agenda – “deny yourself” – Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23
Submission & Sacrifice – “take up your cross” – Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23
Pursue His Agenda – “follow me” – Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; …
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Seven months ago, we began a journey to understand what it means to love what God loves and hate what He hates. That journey has brought us to the discovery that God’s soul has no pleasure in those who pursue life according to their own agenda. While I doubt we have arrived at our final destination, the place we now find ourselves is surprising. Not so much in the description of those with whom …
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So, we have spent the last 11 weeks reviewing the The Story, to understand the background of the warning of Hebrews 10.
As the story unfolded, we found three key developments.
Life
When The Story began, we had Life. That is, our existence had meaning.
We had an identity. We were created to represent God – to bear His image. When you look at us, you were to see Him. We were somebody.
We also had significance. As His …
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So, if I get to go to heaven simply by trusting Jesus for forgiveness, and if this discipleship-thing is so demanding, why go to all the trouble? Sure, it might make me a “better person,” but I’d rather do my own thing. And, if we’re Christians, we’re all going to end up in the same place anyway. Yeah, a really committed Christian might get a few extra perks, but the difference is not really …
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So Jesus comes as the Christ, announcing the Kingdom, and calling individuals to follow Him as disciples. How does this discipleship fit and what is involved?
Let’s begin with John’s statement that if we believe that Jesus is the Christ, we will have Life (John 20:30-31). And as we saw last week, when Jesus appeared as the Christ, He called individuals to follow as His disciples. Does that mean that we have to be His …
