Leading The Way

Dr. Michael Youssef: Listen, you cannot earn your salvation. You can never buy your salvation with all the trillions of dollars. Salvation is a gift of God, is by faith alone, by grace alone. Once you are saved, we cannot serve God on the cheap. And Jesus said deny yourself, take your cross. What does it mean take up your cross? Identify with Jesus, identify with His suffering, and follow me every day.

Guest (Male): Thank you for making time in your day for Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. You know, the Bible tells us about the multitudes traveling far and wide just to get a glimpse of Jesus. And yet, even after watching healings and seeing miracles and hearing life-changing teaching, many of these people just settled into mediocrity.

Today on Leading the Way, Dr. Youssef reveals specifically what happened when Jesus asked His followers to suffer for the Kingdom. Listen with me to this powerful message from the pages of Matthew by Dr. Michael Youssef.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Matthew chapter 8, verses 18 to 22. Same thing found in Luke chapter 9, verses 57 to 62. It has to do with Jesus saying, "Let the dead bury their dead," and then also saying that "no one puts his hand on the plow and looks back is fit for the service in the kingdom of God." And what Jesus is saying to those three people, two in Matthew and Luke adds a third one, is that the reason people run away from the truth is because the truth exposes a sin in the life, a sin that they are unwilling to give up.

In John chapter 3, verse 19, John tells us, "Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light. Why? Because their deeds were evil." All of our deeds were evil before we came to Christ. Everyone who does evil, that is continuously do evil, hates the light and they would not come into the light for fear that their deeds would be exposed. So what is Jesus doing here in Matthew 8:18-22 is that He is revealing the things to these people that are keeping them from being thoroughly converted to Christ.

Here in Matthew chapter 8, we see two different people with two different barriers that are keeping them from being God's men. And the third one is in Luke. First, it was the man's personal comfort that was keeping him from following Christ, from being a true converted to Christ. The second one is personal wealth. Neither personal comfort nor personal wealth or relationships, as in the case of the third one, are evil in themselves. What Jesus is saying is that if these things become the focal of life, if they become the focus of our devotion, if they become the idols in our lives, they will serve as a barrier from being thoroughly converted to Christ.

Look at the first person, he is a scribe. This scribe came and said to Jesus, "I want to follow You wherever You go. I'm going to be with You. I'm going to be Your companion." Is that not wonderful? Is that not great? Churches are full of followers of Jesus. But before I get to that, I want to give you an understanding of who the scribes are. The scribes are the people who are the authority on Jewish laws. They were closely connected with the Pharisees. They were highly educated people. They were fiercely loyal to the religious system. They were teachers and leaders. They were not followers.

For that man to come and say to Jesus, "I want to follow You, go wherever You go," was a big deal. He obviously recognized the uniqueness of the power of Jesus, the uniqueness of the miracles, the uniqueness of the healings, and the uniqueness of Jesus's own teaching and life, and he wanted to be associated with Jesus. Lots of people want to be associated with Jesus. To have one of those scribes to come and be part of the disciples is a feather in Jesus's cap.

In our church, we love to display celebrities when they become Christians. Those movie stars and those famous stars when they become Christians, we just put them on the platform. We brag about who we've got and who we know and all that stuff. But not Jesus. He couldn't care less. Jesus knew that a strong profession does not always mean a strong commitment. Anyone can claim anything. Anyone can claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ. But what counts is his life. It is not how high can you jump for Jesus. It's how straight you walk when you land.

And so what did Jesus say here? "You silly boy, do you know what you're talking about? You're not sincere in your request. You're a superficial guy. Shouldn't you count the cost?" No, Jesus didn't do this, thank God. He said, "Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man," this or the Messiah, this is a title that Daniel gave Him hundreds of years before He was born, "the Son of Man, the Messiah, has no place to lay His head."

What is He saying? He is saying before you rush into claiming to be my follower, you need to understand that I don't have even the most basic comforts of life. I think we all know and value, especially if you're traveling and sleeping in different beds, how wonderful it is to go back into your bed. But Jesus had no bed at all. Jesus spent many a night under the star communing with His Father. To be sure, those who traveled in Israel know that there's a room there in Peter's house where the Lord Jesus stayed many nights. He stayed with Lazarus and his two sisters, but most of the time He slept under the stars.

What is Jesus doing? He is saying to this brilliant scholar, "Think of what you are asking. Words are cheap. Claims are a dime a dozen. Impressive words do not impress God. Affirmations are easy to make. Wanting to be associated with me because of my temporary popularity is a big mistake." Jesus knew as only Jesus could know how fickle human nature is, how self-centered human nature, how changeable people are.

Listen, you couldn't have ministered in one place for 25 years as I have without experiencing firsthand how some people come in with a great deal of enthusiasm and they leave just as fast as soon as the cost of discipleship is spelled out. They display eagerness, oh but I've watched the speed by which they took off once the cost of discipleship, once the authority of the scripture, once the claims of Jesus are explained.

People were attracted to Jesus even during His earthly ministry in variety of ways for variety of reasons. Some saw the crowd and they thought this is the in thing to do. It's a popularity or glamour or healing or miracles or feeding. They wanted a piece of the action. They want to jump on the bandwagon. But whenever things went sour for Jesus, they were pushing each other off the diving board. It's going to cost me to follow Jesus? I've got to give up my what? My comfort? My security, my reputation?

It's like the young person who sees the athletes in the Olympics and says, "I'm going to win a gold medal," and they never count on the sweat, blood, and tears that goes into exercising and training. Some young person who sees a Marine in uniform and likes the uniform and says, "I want to be a Marine," they don't understand the bloody battlefields. The Lord's word here hit the scribe in his most sensitive nerve. He really did. Oh, he wanted to be loyal to Jesus all right, but not at the cost of his comfort.

I am sure most of you know this. There's a whole mess of preachers around who sugarcoat the gospel. Some of them actually know they are sugarcoating it. They say, "Michael, you don't understand, I've got to get them in. I've got to smooth it over." Believe it or not, Jesus never sugarcoated the message. Never. I remembered as I was thinking about this some years ago, in this place we had a member and he really was having a hard time with my straight talk. Every time I preached on the gospel, every time he would come to me and he says, "You know, Michael, my mother used to say that you can catch a lot of flies with honey than with vinegar."

Well, those of you who have read my books, you know I always struggle with quick temper and quick response. I'm still learning. I really am. I'm just in the process of sanctification. Thank God it's not finished yet. But I remember after a few times like that, and I just said, "You know, I'm not in the business of catching flies. Let them go down the street."

You know, Jesus toward the end of His earthly ministry, in fact all along, He always told them the truth. He said, "Behold, I send you as sheep among wolves." What kind of a motivational speech is that? I mean, what kind of a gospel is that? What kind of a prosperity gospel is that? What kind of incentive is that? Toward end of His earthly ministry He warned them. He said to the disciples, "They will throw you out of the synagogues." Imagine being thrown out of church because you believe in Jesus. I've been thrown out of some myself. I know what that's like. He said, "They will kill you thinking they are serving God."

The scribe was not willing to pay the price. Please hear me right. Jesus was not looking for warm bodies to fill the pews. Jesus was looking for willing people who are ready to obey no matter what. But this scribe wanted the excitement. He just wanted the thrill of following. He wanted to be able to drop the name, "I've been with Jesus." This guy wanted the sheer association, he wanted the mere identification with Jesus, but not the cost that goes with it. As soon as he heard the price tag, he said, "I'm out of here."

The second person, he comes into Jesus in verse 21. In fact, this one is described as a disciple. Let me give you a Youssef translation here. He says, "Jesus, don't get me wrong. I really, really, really and sincerely want to follow You. But I've got to go and bury my father first." I am sure the average American or Western person reading this, and our culture today is bulging with sentimentality, with emotionalism, with tolerance and political correctness, and people judge the Bible. I've heard them with my ears. And I'm sure the average person would read this and they would say, "Well, I'm offended at Jesus. How can He be so loving if He wouldn't let this man go and bury his father? How harsh of Jesus to not let this man go and bury his father. How can He say to him, 'Go let the dead bury their dead'?"

Here's what you need to understand. In the Middle East and in the Jewish culture particularly, even Middle East today, people use this language, "I bury my father," not meaning that he is dead or dying. It did not mean that his father was in ill health. He's really kind of toward the end and therefore he needs to go and organize his estate. A Westerner would look at this man's father who looks so healthy and strong physically at least and he says, "What's wrong with this guy? What is he talking about, burying his father? Father looks healthy to me."

You see, in the Middle East they don't embalm. Still today, they don't embalm. They bury right away. In the Jewish culture and in all of the Middle East cultures, they bury within 24 hours. They immediately bury the dead. Although in the Jewish culture, there is that time prescribed after the burial where a person spends time in mourning. It varies from place to place, 30 days, 40 days in other cultures. But this is not it either. He's not going to go and spend this time mourning for his father.

This man, like all men of his time, understood that if he left home before his father's death, even if it took 40 years for his father to die, he will miss out on the inheritance. That's the bottom line. So what is he saying? He's saying, "I've got to hang in there until I get my hands on my father's estate, then I'll follow You, Jesus. I've got to hang around my father until I get the money and then I'll follow You. I don't know how many years it's going to take, Jesus, 20, 30, 15, whatever. However long it's going to take, I've got to hang around there. I may die before him, but I've got to hang around. As soon as I get my hands on the money, I'm going to follow You. Jesus, surely You must understand. I'm not going to give up what is rightly mine, right? Surely Jesus should be understanding, shouldn't He?"

What stood in the way of this second disciple from following Jesus, being thoroughly converted to Christ, was his inheritance, his earthly inheritance. He wanted to follow Jesus, but that was not his primary focus. He wanted to follow Jesus, but only if it's not going to cost him anything. In fact, both these men, the scribe and the disciple, vanished as soon as they saw the price tag.

Listen, I don't need to emphasize this here in this church, but just in case somebody here or watching does not understand, let me just clarify. Let me make sure you understand what we teach in this church. You cannot earn your salvation. You can never buy your salvation with all the trillions of dollars. You cannot buy it, you cannot earn it. Salvation is a gift of God, is by faith alone, by grace alone. Once you are saved, we cannot serve God on the cheap. And Jesus said deny yourself, take your cross. What does it mean take up your cross? Identify with Jesus, identify with His suffering, and follow me every day.

But then in Luke 9:61, Luke tells us about a third disciple. This one said to Jesus, "Jesus, I will follow You, but first let me go and say goodbye to my family." Again, with our sentimentality and emotional thinking, we say, "Well, what's wrong with that? Why would Jesus be against this man doing the right things and going to say goodbye to his family? What kind of a harsh master is that? Isn't that only the courteous thing to do?"

But what Jesus saw in this man was a divided loyalty. We see it all the time. You see it today, you see it on television. People want to follow Jesus and say, "I'm a follower of Jesus," but only if He answers my prayers the way I want them answered. "I will follow Jesus if I succeed in life. I will follow Jesus when He does exactly what I ask Him to do. And if He does this or does that, if things go right, then I will follow Jesus."

And Jesus said, "No one puts his hand on the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." Back then, there was a saying that goes something like this, "You cannot plow a straight furrow when you're looking back." Imagine looking backward and the donkey or the mule or whatever is pulling that plow. I mean, they'll be going all over the place because your eyes are off the plow.

Should I live in fear, terrified that this God is going to ask me to give up something? No. That's not the Christian life. The Christian life is lived in a daily joy that you and your family can put Christ first in our lives. One of the saddest things in America today is that we have churches that are filled with people who claim to be followers of Christ as long as it costs them nothing, as long as they keep feeding self, as long as they keep living for self, as long as they keep their cherished sins, as long as they are not convicted, as long as they are not asked to repent.

Listen, Jesus said in John 6:37, and I want you to focus now, "All that the Father draws or gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will never, never, never drive away." But you know the problem with those three people was? They had one problem. They were drawing themselves to Jesus. They were not drawn by the Father. They for whatever reason they were attracted to Jesus. And that is why they could not be thoroughly committed to Jesus.

You can say all the positive things about Jesus. You can hear people talk about all the nice words about Jesus and they can say all of the admiring things about Jesus, but without a total commitment to Jesus, it's all in vain. Coming to Jesus on your own term is not Christianity. It's some other religion, but not Christianity. Coming to Jesus insisting on your own way is not Christianity. It is not really coming to Jesus at all. It's coming to some religion that has Jesus's name in it.

Listen carefully. The Lord may never take away your comfort. He may never take away your money. He may never take away your relationships. But all these things and even life itself must be willingly given to Him every single day. If we are a disciple of Jesus Christ, if you're God's man and God's woman, you need to place everything at His disposal. And that's the only secret for true blessing in life. And I'm so glad I lived long enough that I can testify to that. Can we bow our heads in prayer for a moment?

There may be someone here or somebody watching who would say, "Michael, I have been always afraid of coming and giving my life to Jesus because I really misunderstood this." Today, you can say, "Lord Jesus, I give You my whole life totally because I know that it is only in Your hands is the safest place for my life to be. Your hands are the safest place for anything I have to place in Your hands, my possessions, my relationships, my family. Your hands are the safest place of all."

Father, in the name of Jesus, Your Holy Spirit said in Your word that authored by the Holy Spirit, that Your word will not return to You void. So I thank You in Jesus's name for every life that has been dedicated and committed. Father God, when we put things in Your hand, You not only multiply them and You bless them and You return them with great joy to us. Father, in the name of Jesus, here we are, we are Yours. Take us, do whatever You want with us. In Jesus's name, amen.

Guest (Male): Miss part of today's Leading the Way episode with Dr. Michael Youssef? Don't worry, you can catch up at ltw.org. Just click the listen link. You can also subscribe to the Leading the Way podcast or download the Leading the Way app. Ltw.org is always the place to learn more.

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