Today we will explore a great mystery. One that has plagued both Christians and unbelievers for centuries. It’s a simple question, but the answer is seemingly out of reach for most of us. The question is this: What does God want? In order to know what God wants, we need to first know who God is. Because what He wants, has everything to do with who He is. And who is God? He is the King...and the king owns everything. The King does not negotiate. So what does God, the King want? The short and overly simplistic answer is...YOU. God wants you. All of you. All the time. Is that more than you want to give? God is not interested in just a little bit of your attention for an hour on Sunday. You can think about it like the old Uncle Sam poster: Uncle Sam wants you! That was a military recruitment poster and it was used to get right to the point...enlist! Now here’s the problem with that short messaging. It doesn’t give you the full picture of what your new life in the military is going to be like. I bet a lot of new recruits had second thoughts after their first week of basic training. Military recruiters spend a lot of time talking about how you won’t have to worry about a place to live or what you’ll eat. They will take care of all those things for you. You will learn a skill and even get paid a salary. What they don’t mention is what is expected of you when you are no longer in control of your life. When you sign the contract and surrender your life to the military, everything changes. It can be a shock to realize that maybe things are a little different than the recruiter said.
A lot of churches function like military recruitment offices. They are only concerned with filling the new recruit quota every week. They are much less concerned with fully explaining the fine print of what is actually expected when you surrender your life to king Jesus. Wouldn’t it be great if someone would have told us what it really means to be a disciple of Jesus? I believe someone did. It was Jesus. Let me put this thought into your head. Salvation is completely free, but it will cost you everything. This is the fine print I’m talking about. Did you know about that? Let’s look at what Jesus said about it. Luke 14:25-33 “25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” Is pastor Randall saying that being a disciple of Jesus is more than raising you hand with everyone’s eyes closed, repeating a prayer after a preacher and filling out a “decision” card? No, I’m not saying that...Jesus is the One saying that.
I know that may be different than what you’ve heard before. And that’s the problem. In America, being a christian has been watered down to the point that all you have to do is call yourself a christian and that makes it so. There is no life change necessary, no commitment and no actual turning from sin. We want to pick and choose which parts of the bible we agree with and follow and which ones we don’t. But if we do that, we are not serving God. We are serving ourselves. We have made ourself the ultimate arbiter of what is wright and wrong. We have removed God from the throne of our life and sat down ourselves. Does that sound like what Jesus said in those verses? There is no such thing as joining the army and then just doing what ever you want. There are expectations and responsibilities. It’s the same with salvation and joining God’s team. Salvation provides the freedom from sin...not the freedom to sin. Salvation is completely free, but it will cost you everything. Has anyone ever told you that? Have you ever read that passage? This is why people become disillusioned with God, the church and religion in general. They were under the impression that God was there to fix all their problems and make their life comfortable and easy. However, when that turns out not to be true, they somehow think that God is the one who has tricked them. I watched a YouTube video a couple weeks ago, with this guy who was witnessing on a college campus. This girl was screaming at him. He was convinced that she had caught him in a contradiction. She was screaming this: “You just said that if I repent, I still may have to suffer! If I’m still going to have to suffer, what’s the point of repenting?!”
She just couldn’t wrap her mind around the idea that Jesus was not going to take away all her earthly problems. And if He wasn’t going to do that, then who needs Him? Why bother to surrender? Where do you think she may have learned an idea like that? Probably in a church somewhere. It didn’t come from the bible. In the bible, God was very open about what it would mean to follow Him. Did we count the cost? Did we even know there would be a cost? How did we make such a life altering decision without knowing the ramifications it would have? Think about it like this: Let’s say, you have been a democrat your entire life and then someone convinces you that it would be better if you became a republican. All of a sudden it make sense to you, so decide to make the change. Very exciting. All you have to do is sign the political registration card and poof, you’re a republican. No entry fee or test. You just start telling people you’re a republican. It’s free, it’s easy and everything is great. But you soon realize that your new found republican identity does not line up with what your friends think. They actually, turn on you and begin to ridicule you. Suddenly those who said they were your friends are now acting like enemies. Your family can’t believe what you’ve done. How could you turn your back on years of family political tradition? The fallout is immediate. Making the decision and signing the card was free. But you have paid a very high cost relationally. If you want to be a disciple like Jesus describes, you will have to abandon your old life of serving sin and make a full decision to follow Christ every day. Let’s look at the example of the apostle Paul and what happened to him. It’s the perfect example of counting the cost.
Acts 9:1-9 “But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. 4 And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” 5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6 But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” 7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. 8 Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9 And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.” What does God want? He wants you. All of you. All the time. And if He has to knock you off track to get your attention, He will do just that. You may have thought you were serving God, but maybe you were just serving the religious system or your own church ambition. But now God has your attention and you have a decision to make. Are you ready to face the fact of what this new life might look like? At this point Saul has a decision to make. He could have just sat down and felt sorry for himself. You see, before Jesus knocked him off his horse, he had it all. He was on a mission from God (or so he thought). He had authority given to him from church leaders. He was in a powerful position. His friends and family would have admired what he was doing. Saul had developed a serious reputation. But what was he going to do now? What would his friends and family think? How could he just change his mind about all the things he had been involved with?
How could he go back and tell them he had been wrong about this Jesus guy? How could he turn around and become one of the people he was on a mission to persecute? This was not going to be easy. Acts 9:10-16 “10 Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” 11 And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” 13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. 14 And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” God tells Ananias what will happen to Paul before He tells Paul. God may be talking to someone about you, before He tells you. This happened to us 4 different times when Laura were trying to figure out what God wanted us to do next. The first time was at church when a lady came up to Laura and told her God said she was a pastor’s wife. The second was at a house church when a woman asked me if I was a pastor. I said no, and then she said “Are you sure?” The third was when a pastor told us he was moving to California and that God told him to tell us. God was revealing things to them about us.
The fourth time was when God told Keith Corwin to move us. Keith Corwin was the guy who owned the truck that moved us to California. After we had been there a year, we were feeling that we were not supposed to be out there any longer, but hadn’t told anyone yet. Then God spoke to Keith and told him to make himself available for our move. Keith came to see me and asked where we were moving to. This seemed crazy to me since no one else knew about our thoughts. But God was already letting the right people know. Could God be talking to someone about you right now? Yes, He could. When you fully surrender, God will begin moving the parts into place. Acts 9:17-19 “17 So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; 19 and taking food, he was strengthened.” God will open your eyes to His plan if you are fully surrendered. Saul Proclaims Jesus in Synagogues Acts 9:19-22 “...For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. 20 And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” 21 And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?” 22 But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.”
Saul decided to do what God called him to do, no matter what people thought about him. Serving the King was more important than worrying what people would think about him. Saul Escapes from Damascus Acts 9:23-25 “23 When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, 24 but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, 25 but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.” Remember when we asked what will Saul’s friends thing about his change of heart and sides? They took it pretty hard. They decided to kill him, but God provided new friends. Saul in Jerusalem Acts 9:26-30 “26 And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. 28 So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. 29 And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists. But they were seeking to kill him. 30 And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.” Don’t be surprised if even the church people in your life don’t understand what it means to fully surrender. Your new commitment will make them uncomfortable to be around you. They may even start to avoid you. What you are doing will look crazy to someone who hasn’t gone all in with Jesus.
There are people sitting in this service right now who thought Laura and I had lost it and joined a cult when we told them we were moving to California. We had family members and pastors who told us it was a bad idea. But we knew what God had said. We had to go. Are you tired of sitting on the shore? Are you ready to jump in way over your head? Are you ready for a life of full commitment to Christ? It won’t be comfortable or easy. What does God want? He wants you. All of you. All of the time. Salvation is free, but it will cost you everything!
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