Guest Blogger: David Hibiske, Family Pastor, South Bay Church.
One of our core values at South Bay Church is, “We live and risk all for the King and His Kingdom.” We strongly believe that we are to live with a sense of complete abandonment for Jesus. This simply means that we are willing to abandon our comfort, will, and even desires to obediently follow Him. We are willing to lay it all out on the line for Jesus and we seek to expand His Kingdom not just our organization.This past week I was reading in Luke 9 when I was struck with a verse that immediately brought this value to mind. In Luke 9:23-27, Jesus is describing the cost of being one of His followers. He just told the disciples He will one day be killed and if they want to follow after Him they must even be willing to face death. Jesus literally tells them you must deny yourself and take up your cross daily. In case you don’t know when someone took up their cross it meant they were carrying it to the place where they would be nailed to it and crucified! Can you imagine the weight the disciples must have felt at the words of Jesus?
However, Jesus continues by saying, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will save it.” Wow! Think about this… Jesus is saying if you try to save your life you will ultimately lose it! What He is saying is this: If you are trying to save your earthly life by denying Him or seeking to be comfortable then you will end up losing both your earthly life and your eternal life. By seeking to save your life here on earth you forfeit eternal life with Christ in heaven for eternal condemnation in hell! We know this because Jesus goes on to say, “What good is it to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self (soul)? If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in His glory and in the glory of the Father and in the glory of the holy angels.”
We live and risk all for the King and His Kingdom because that is what Jesus demands from us as His followers. We must not be ashamed or afraid to follow Him, but we must be willing to follow Him even to the point of death. Obeying Jesus, the King, and seeking to advance His Kingdom is so much more important than anything else we could ever give our lives for.
Are you trying to save your life, or are you laying it all out on the line for the King and His Kingdom?
