This is the second message in the ALL IN series. What does it mean to be ‘ALL IN’? The first half of the answer to that question came in last week’s message: to be ‘all in’ is to fully trust in Jesus Christ alone as Savior. There is no other source for what we need most… reconciliation with God and eternal salvation.
This week’s message includes the second half of the answer to what it means to be ‘ALL IN’: to fully walk in obedience to Jesus Christ as Lord. Among the many things that Jesus revealed about himself is the fact that he is our matchless King; the one who rules over us for his glory and our good. In this message, based on Matthew 10.37-39, we discover some of the implications for Jesus’ rule in our lives, namely that our loves will be re-ordered, our identities will change, and that our obedience will be rewarded.
We must love Jesus more than anyone or anything else. Thought that might sound difficult at first, it makes sense when you think that before human beings were even created and had the opportunity to love anyone, God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – already existed and perfectly loved one another. God’s eternal love is, therefore, the basis for all human love; God intended that our love in human relationships should point us toward the ultimate object of our love: Him. To have Jesus as our Lord is to have our love of him shape all our other loves.
As Jesus rules over us as Lord, our identities also change. In addition to being a sign of obedience to Jesus, taking up our cross and following him means that just as he died, so our old, sinful nature will die. In Galatians 2.20, Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ…”. We have been recreated and are to leave our old, sinful nature behind. Going forward, we are to be known as servants, witnesses, and new-selves.
Finally, we learn that our obedience to Jesus as Lord NOW will be rewarded in the age to come. We are not to seek “life” as the world defines it but we are to lose it, knowing that we will inherit true, eternal life later.
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