From John Collins Ministries:
Today I’m going to ask you a question: Are you willing to die for Jesus?
How would you respond if somebody placed a gun to your head and asked “Are you willing to die for Jesus?” If you’re like most believers in Christ, you’re going to go “Yeah, absolutely.” Really? Because the majority of the people are so full of themselves and they’re hypocrites, if somebody actually put a gun to your head or threatened to cut your head off, that you would absolutely deny Jesus. Well, guess what, that very thing happens today, overseas with terrorists. They literally put guns and knives to people and say “deny Christ, and I’ll let you live.” What would you do?
What would you do? This threat more than likely isn’t going to happen to you, but what if it did? What if you woke up every morning with the possibility of facing death because of your faith in Jesus. What would you do?
I’m going to tell you what the Bible says to do. The Bible in Luke says “if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me, for whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” That’s in the Bible, that’s in Luke. I believe that a key work in this verse that gives us a clue on how we are to respond is to take a look at the phrase of take up your cross daily.
Daily.
That word tells me all I need to know. Daily. For those of us not facing a threat on our very lives, we are commanded to die for Jesus. We are not going to die in the sense that they would, you’re still going to die spiritually. Jesus specifically said we are to take up our cross on a daily basis. That means every day, all day long, it doesn’t mean 23 ½ hours. It means a 24-hour a day Christian. It means all day, as a follower of the Son of God, we are to die daily of our own selfishness, our own selfish desires, our own goals, our own dreams, and instead we are supposed to live for God’s desires, God’s goals, God’s dreams that He has for us. We are not supposed to be blaming God for everything that happens in our lives, we supposed to be praising Him, but if something bad comes, we are still supposed to praise Him because we know He is going to get us through it. He’s just testing you! He’s just trying to see what you’re going to do.
Could you imagine the apostles out there in that storm? Could you imagine in that boat where it could have capsized? Not believing that Jesus could actually stop the storm? Well, they believed Him, and the storm was stopped. The storm in your life could stop right now. Right now, today. But I want you to think about it. I want you to think about your goals and your dreams that make up your vision for your life.
Ask yourself something. Is that what Jesus would want for your life, is that what the Son of God would want for your life? What is the root of each of your desires? Most people live in their own lives, in their own little heads, they live about: “oh, I want to look better,” “oh, I want more money,” “oh, I want a better car, I want better this,” “do these pants fit me very well?” “I want to lose weight,” or “I need to put on a few pounds,” “how do I look? How’s my hair? The grey hair is showing.” – I’m guilty of that one. But we need to step back and stop and think about it, what’s in it for God, not what’s in it for us.
I know somebody that sometimes they’ll give God two or three minutes of his time, and think that’s good. That’s not good, that’s bad. And if you’re honest, if you’re honest with yourself, ask the question to yourself, would you die for Jesus? We are supposed to die for Jesus daily! Every day! We are supposed to take up the cross every day! In Matthew it says, first, we are told in scripture, we are told to be examples. We are to be examples to those in the world who do not know God. And we look around the world today, there’s a lot of people falling short of the glory of God! “in the same way, let your light shine before men so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in Heaven.” That’s Matthew 5:17. In Colossians, it says, whatever you do, do it enthusiastically, as something done for the Lord and not men, knowing that you will receive the reward of inheritance from the Lord you serve.
In John, it says the man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. I’m going to tell you something right now, there’s a heaven and a hell. A lot of people want to blame God for their lives, if they are blaming Him, that means they believe in Him. And if you believe in Him, you believe in His Son, you believe in that, you believe that there is a heaven and there’s a hell. That means you’re either going up or you’re going down, and it’s going to depend on what you do every single day of your life.
What do you want to do! Good God Almighty, what do you want to do with your life? Do you want to be that same sinner that’s only wanting to give God two minutes here two minutes there, or do you want to be the Godly person that’s going to give God all day, because God demands all day? Are you going to be that person that sits back in the chair, whines and complains and gripes and moans and says all about the pain and agony and the blues, but you don’t want a pill? Swallow that pill of sorrow. You want that pill of pride, you don’t want to swallow that pill, you want to be your own self person. You want to look better for you. You want other people looking at you. You understand what I’m saying? You want to do this, or you want to do that, but that’s not the desire of God. What does God want for you? How are you supposed to serve God if you are more concerned with what you look like, or what you want to do? Is it really a Godly thing what you want to do? Can you imagine when you go to sleep tonight looking up at the ceiling going “God did I serve you right today? Did I give you more than a couple of minutes of alone time with you? Did I carry that cross?” That cross is HEAVY sometimes. It’s a burden. It is a heavy burden to carry that cross. But we are supposed to. The Bible tells us to. The Bible tells us a lot of things that people don’t want to listen to anymore because there are too many people out there telling them that life is okay.
I’m going to tell you something right now! We are closer to the Son of God coming then the actual apostles were that followed Jesus Christ on this earth! Are you aware of that? Every minute is a minute closer, and I’m going to tell you something else right now, I believe God’s ready. I believe we are ready for that new ray of sunshine, I believe we are ready for a change in the world. I’m going to tell you something else, God never left the miracle business. God never left our sides, God never left you when you needed Him the most. You might blame Him, you might think He has, but He hadn’t. He just wants to know what you are going to do. Are you going to deny? Are you going to give up your own desires to start doing what God desires for you so that you can get into the kingdom of Heaven, because that’s where everybody ought to go, I’m telling you right now! Think about the greatest thing that you could ever think of in your mind, and that’s heaven. Think about the worst thing imaginable that could ever happen to your life and multiply it by a hundred billion and that probably isn’t even as bad as hell is. So you have to decide right now what one you want? You want heaven? Or you want hell? You want your family to be with you when you go to heaven? Or do you want to miss out on all the glory because they are there and you’re not because you decided that this world and this earth and this lifespan that you have right now, you’re going to take advantage of by doing your thing, by being lustful, by being vain, by being greedy, by blaming God for everything, by only giving Him two or three minutes of your time every now and again instead of giving Him your full attention all of the time. That’s what the Bible requires, that’s what scripture requires, and I guarantee you right now as I’m preaching to you, those apostles that followed Jesus Christ I actually believe are looking down and saying whoa, what’s he talking about? It’s about time somebody is saying something about what they are supposed to do instead of saying “everything is all fluffy all you have to do is believe because John 3:16 says so, and I’m going to get real wealthy off these people because they are going to listen to me because I’m going to make them feel good.”
I want you to feel good too, I want you to feel good about your faith, I want you to feel good about the time you’re going to start spending with God, I want you to feel good about knowing that the time is at hand, that times are about to change, there’s a new era coming, we will go back to old time religion we are going to take it back to the bones, we are going to take it back to where it was supposed to be, back before other churches ruined it all. We’re going to give it back to God, then we are going to run with it and we are going to do good things.
Think about this for a minute. Is God worth more than a couple minutes of your time, a couple of times a week? Lord have mercy if that’s all you’re giving Him, because you’re in a lot of trouble.
Pastor John Collins, Love That Cross 