Leading The Way

Guest (Male): Listen to these wise words from Dr. Michael Youssef to help you identify the obstacles in your life to loving Jesus more deeply, more intimately, as he begins this episode of Leading The Way.

Dr. Michael Youssef: First, it's the inability to accept correction. Secondly, it is the unwillingness to change and grow in Christ. Thirdly, it is the temptation of confusing the journey for the destination. Let's unpack them together.

Guest (Male): Thank you for making time in your day for Leading The Way audio. In just a moment, Dr. Michael Youssef tackles common hindrances to growth in your love for and your walk with Christ. This message is part of his series, To Know Jesus is to Love Him. So listen with me now as Dr. Michael Youssef begins today's teaching.

Dr. Michael Youssef: A young boy was leading his little sister on a mountain track. When they reached a steep hill, the climb became difficult and hard because of the rocks along the way. The little girl became exhausted from climbing and exasperated with these rocks. She yelled at her brother, "This is not a good path at all. It is rocky and bumpy." Her brother said, "Sure. But these are the rocks and bumps that you step on to climb higher."

If you are growing in intimacy with Jesus, if you are growing in your love for Jesus, you will encounter obstacles and difficulties along the way. You will face barriers and derailments along the way. You will meet distractions and sidetracks all the time. But the question is this: Do these obstacles detract us from our love for Jesus and growing in intimacy with him, or do we see them as stepping stones for climbing higher and growing deeper with Christ?

Most often, when we see these rocks and bumps along the way, we let them cool our love for Jesus. We allow them to freeze the level of our intimacy with Jesus. Now, these distractions are different to everyone of us. What distracts me does not distract you and vice-versa. Everyone of us have different kinds of distractions. But you know them and I know them.

The problem is that when these distractions come, we become used to them in our life. They become part of life. Sometimes, not in all cases, but sometimes blessings, prosperity, success can be one of these diversions for intimacy with Jesus. But most often they are the illnesses, the difficulties, the problems, and the unanswered prayers.

Why? Because we have too many competing diversions in our love for Jesus. There are too many things that are competing for our passion. There are too many things that are beckoning our attention from focusing in our love for Jesus. But thank God there's an answer in the Word of God. The Bible repeatedly, again and again, said the answer is for you to remember where you have fallen and go back there for repentance and for confession and then get back on the road of loving Jesus.

There are basically three obstacles to loving Jesus deeply and intimately. First, it's an inability to accept correction. Secondly, it is the unwillingness to change and grow in Christ. Thirdly, it is the temptation of confusing the journey for the destination. Let's unpack them together.

First, what is that inability to accept correction? Some of you are probably saying, "Well, Michael, what has this got to do with my growing in love for Jesus? My inability to accept somebody's correction or correcting me. What's this got to do with it?" There are very few people who see themselves as they really are. Did you know that? We all like to think of ourselves as smarter than other people, more knowledgeable than other people, more discerning than other people, or even better looking than other people.

It's a fantasy. You see, we all like to imagine ourselves the way we want to be, not the way we are. We all have that self-pride and it wreaks havoc with our lives. Few of us have the discernment to recognize our own prideful nature. So when a good and godly wise person come along the way to point to us some of the blind spots in our lives, how we react? Our reaction to that is an indication of the level of your love for Jesus.

How do we react to that? Our reaction is very important. Why? Because we cannot love Jesus intimately and deeply in isolation. In fact, the three epistles of John were dedicated in teaching us that to love Jesus is to love his people, that our indication of our love for Jesus is the way we express love to others. That's why our willingness to accept correction from a loving Christian brother or sister is one of the greatest indication that we are growing in our love for Jesus.

Now, let me come clean with you. I do not cherish correction any more than you do. None of us do. Our natural reaction is, "She never likes me anyway. She doesn't know what I'm going through. Who does he think he is?" This is a huge obstacle to intimately loving Jesus. Since I already came clean, I might as well continue.

I'm aware of the fact, and you are too, that there are professional critics in life. These people who are consumed with a critical spirit. They just love to criticize everything, everyone, all the time. That's not what I'm talking about. These people like the Pharisees in the time of Jesus, they criticized him on every turn. He heals? Well, he did it in the Sabbath. He did this? Well, he did it the wrong way. No matter what he does, it was criticized.

It's like that art critic who was renowned for always never sees anything good in any painting. One day he was looking at this frame and next to him was the artist. He looked at it and then he said to the artist, "This is one of your most stupid and silly abstract paintings." The artist looked at him and said, "Sir, this is a mirror." Like someone said, "Don't be hard criticizing your wife's judgment. Look who she married."

There are some people who really not discerning to criticize themselves. They listen and they repeat what other people say. They just repeat it. They don't know why, but they criticize. A guest preacher was in the church preaching a sermon. At the end, he was standing there with the pastor at the end of the church as they have in that particular tradition. This man walks out and he says to the guest preacher, "This is the worst sermon I've ever heard." The man was shaken up, looks at the pastor. "This man over there, he told me this is the worst sermon he's ever heard." He said, "Oh, don't take any notice of him. He just repeats what everybody else says."

I'm not talking about these folks. I am talking about real, genuine, honest, loving, affirming correction. Why is that so important? Why is it so important that we have such people in our lives? Listen to me. Because that kind of correction drives us to self-examination. Self-examination always is going to lead you into a deeper and intimate love for Jesus.

Those real, genuine, honest loving corrections, they will build us up in our love for Jesus. Did you know that the cross is both a correction and an affirming for everyone of us who believe in the Lord Jesus? It's both. It is affirming us but it's also correcting us. When the Lord Jesus Christ stretched his arms on that tree, he was saying, "I love you. I love you enough to hang here to pay the wages of your sin."

On the other hand, it's a correction for all of us. For there he is saying, "It is your sin that hung me on that cross. It is your rebellious spirit, it is your stubbornness that hung me on this cross." So the cross affirms and corrects all at the same time.

Sometimes those loving, caring, wise, genuine folks, when they do correct us, sometimes they break us down, but they only doing that so that we can be built up. You may feel that they are wounding you, but it's only to heal you. Just like a surgeon when he cuts you up, it's order to remove the cancerous tumor. Unloving criticism can destroy people, but loving, caring correction builds people up. So the inability to accept godly correction can hamper and stop your growing love for Jesus.

Secondly, to love the Lord Jesus with all your heart more intimately, you have to be willing to grow and change. Here's the word that some of you don't like: Change. I know that not all change is good all the time and not all change is bad all the time. But the Christian life is like a seed that is planted on the inside of us. If that seed is planted, imagine that happens in real life in the land, somebody puts the seed, but then months later the plant is only few inches long, never ripen into the harvest. You say, "Something's wrong."

Something stunted that growth. In the Christian life, it works the same way. To grow in your love for Jesus, to grow in Jesus, to grow in Christ-likeness, you must let go of the past. Don't hang on the past. It will pull you back every time. I know there are some people who detest change. I know there are some people who are afraid of change. I know there are some people who want to cling to the past.

But listen to me. Our middle name as believers ought to be change. Our middle name ought to be growth. For that is the nature of sanctification. It's a big word theologians use, but sanctification is just all means growing into Christ-likeness. Growth is our middle name. Growing in Christ every day. In the Christian life, there's no such thing as standing still. Either you're going up or you're falling back. Either you go up or you fall back. There's no such thing as standing still.

I pray to God that the Holy Spirit will press that on your heart and my heart at this very moment. For some reason, you stop growing in your love for Jesus and that reason only known to you, can only be known to you. You know there are some people who dig their spiritual heels in and start singing, "I shall not be moved." I'm challenging you today. I'm challenge you as I challenge myself every time to ask yourself the question: Have I ceased to grow in my love for Christ?

Beloved, I have not only seen individual Christians who refuse to change, refuse to grow to their own spiritual detriment, but I have seen congregations who refuse to grow, refuse to change. What a tragedy that is. They love the little rituals. Don't change it. They love the little tradition. They love the little clique. They love the little fiefdom. Don't touch that. They keep on singing, "We shall not be moved." That's tragic.

Not long ago, I read before Columbus discovered America, Spain was known as the end of the world. I don't know if you knew this or not. In fact, Paul says this when he was writing to the Romans and he thought, "I got to Spain, that's it. I literally cover the world. I've gone to the end of the world." They believed that's the end of the world. On their coins, they had this printed: *Ne plus ultra*, means nothing more beyond.

Then Columbus discovered America. So they change that motto on their coinage and it says *Plus ultra*: more beyond, more beyond. My beloved, please listen to what I'm going to tell you. Because in your loving Jesus more intimately every day, you have to realize that whatever height you have attained, there's more. Whatever level you have reached, there is more. Whatever depth that you have plumbed or have experienced, there's more. Whatever length that you have gone to, there is a whole lot more.

The day you stop changing, the day you stop growing, is a day of immense spiritual danger. In fact, the Apostle Paul told the Corinthians as much. God use somebody, it's the same thing in your life as it is in my life. God use somebody to plant the seed of faith, the seed of the gospel in our lives. Then God use some other people who came and fertilized and helped that seed to grow. But only God is the one who gives the growth and the increase. That can only come from intimacy and growing intimacy with Jesus.

The inability to accept correction will hamper your growth and loving Jesus. Your unwillingness to change and grow will hamper your intimate love for Jesus. But then the third obstacle to loving Jesus more intimately every day is confusing the journey for the destination. What many Christians forget that when Jesus saved you, he did not just save you for the here and now. He saved you for eternity. He did.

In other words, Jesus came down to our world to take us out of our world. I know many of us have our feet squarely dug into this world. Many of us have their feet cemented into this world. I know that we are prone to swim in this world's water. We are prone to eat of this world's food. We are prone to drink of this world's wine. I know that. But beloved, this is one of the great hindrance to loving Christ every day, day by day, and more intimately.

What does that mean? Here it is. Listen carefully. You either see yourself as a citizen of this world with a passing interest in heaven, or you see yourself as truly passing through this strange land and it's becoming stranger and stranger every day on your way to your final destination. You either see yourself as a traveler or a settler. You either see yourself as a renter or a landlord. That's the temptation of confusing the journey for the destination.

We have these temptations forever beckoning us. But listen to me. It does not mean that you put on white robes, head for the mountains, and wait for the spaceship. No. Loving Jesus intimately means that you are keeping your eyes on your destination, but serving him here while you wait with all of your heart, with all of your life, and with all of your mind. That's what it means.

It's absolute truth. When I wake up every morning and I gaze into heaven, I said, "Lord, is it today? If it is today you're going to call me home, I have my bags packed and ready to go." I don't mean physical bags. I won't need those. But I keep short accounts with the Lord. I keep short accounts with others. So I'm packed. I'm ready to go whenever he calls me. But if you're going to spare me one more day, Lord, I want to give you my all. I want to serve you with all my heart. I want to love you with all my strength. I want to love others and serve them.

What does it mean to love Jesus deeply and intimately while you are living in this world? Listen carefully. It means loving what Jesus loves. Loving what Jesus loves in this world. What did Jesus love in this world? Gold and silver that he scattered around the earth when he made it? No. All the wealth? No. Jesus loved those whom he redeemed in this world. Jesus loves those whom he reconciled with his Father in this world. Jesus loves his lost sheep that are yet to be found in this world. He loves to lift his people up out of the mud of this world. That's what Jesus loves.

That's what it means for you to love what Jesus loves. I know there are some Christians and some believers in a different stages in their Christian walk who really want Jesus to love what they love. They want Jesus to love what they love. That is why the Apostle Paul told the Romans, "Do not conform but be what? Transformed." You want to ask Jesus to love what you love, but you love what Jesus loves.

Let me plead with you. Do not confuse the journey for the destination and end up in regret. Now, my beloved friends, don't wait for a crisis for you to realize that your love for Jesus has grown cold. Don't wait until it's too late to realize that lukewarmness is not what Jesus seeks. Say to him today, "Lord, help me to accept correction. Lord, help me to accept growth and development and change in my life. Lord, help me not to confuse the journey for the destination." I promise you on the authority of the Word of God, he will answer that prayer.

Guest (Male): The prayer of the entire Leading The Way team is that your life will be transformed by listening and lead you to seek Jesus even more passionately. You can learn more about Leading The Way and Dr. Michael Youssef when you go to LTW.org. Another way to connect further is by getting *My Journal*. Get it sent straight to your home. All you have to do is give us a call. 866-626-4356. It's a great free monthly magazine that thousands look forward to receiving that contains great insights into local and worldwide ministry happenings through Leading The Way.

As we close out this Leading The Way audio episode, I want to remind you to get a copy of Dr. Youssef's most recent book. It's called *An Unholy Alliance*. Now, it's obvious that the political and social climate of recent years has invited a wave of extremism into universities, the media, politics, and sadly, many churches. This invitation has given growth to radical Islamists and radical progressives joining to forge an unholy alliance. Their common goal is to undermine, to destroy Western Judeo-Christian values and even civilization. In Dr. Youssef's newest book, *An Unholy Alliance*, you'll discover more about this strange partnership and what it means for your faith in this time of extraordinary deception.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Hello friends. You have seen the wave of extremism on college campus, in conversation with some young people in your life, even in many churches. Two radical ideologies, once enemies, now they're marching together. They shut down debate, excuse violence, and they target biblical truth. That alliance is real, and it is deliberate. In my new book, *An Unholy Alliance*, I explain what these two radical opposed forces are, why they are working together, and I also give you the 1400-year backstory many people are entirely ignorant about that is shaping today's headlines. Get my new book, *An Unholy Alliance*. It's going to open your eyes and give you practical ways to make a difference for Christ.

Guest (Male): Here's how to get your copy, or copies for friends or members of your small group. Give us a call. 866-626-4356. And it is available online, LTW.org. Make sure you find out about this month's very special offer as well at LTW.org. And that phone number again, 866-626-4356. This program is brought to you by Leading The Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. Connect further with audio and video content at LTW.org or through your favorite social media platform.