Sunday Sermon … For Whoever Wants to Save His Life Will Lose it
The Get Serious About Following Jesus! continues this week as our youth minister preaches while the pastor is out of town. … He did a great job. 
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Your Majesty (I Worship You) – Great song.
He’d Still Been God – Good song, but I believe He did have to do one miracle to be God … not sin.
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Usually, if someone wants to keep something safe, they hide it from people who might lose it or tear it up. We don’t always trust people with our possessions, much less our lives. … But Jesus says that to have a life, we must trust Him with our lives. We must give our lives to Him. (v. 24)
Why, in verse 24, did Jesus say,
whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it
? … Well, commitment to Jesus starts with our desires. (v. 23; Matthew 6:21) … We try to save our lives on our own, but we can’t. … Let’s say you have a really nice car and it breaks down and you have no comprehensive knowledge of how to fix it. Do you try to fix it yourself or call a mechanic? I hope you call you a mechanic. Or maybe you somehow just received a million dollars and you have no idea of how to invest. Are you going to try investing on your own or call someone who knows more about investing? Probably call the other person. … Now let’s look at our lives. We’ve messed up big-time. We’ve sinned countless times. Our lives have broken down, but they’re worth more than anything else on Earth. We’re worth so much that two beings will do just about anything in order to have us in their camp. One of them tells us to try to fix everything ourselves. The Other tells us He’ll fix it for us. We have no clue of how to fix it on our own. What should we do? We SHOULD let Him fix and maintain our lives, but we’re often too prideful for that and try it ourselves until we finally realize we can’t. … Let Jesus have your life.
Following Jesus involves self-denial and total surrender of our lives. (v. 23) … You know the song Trust and Obey …
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
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In verse 62 Jesus said,
No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.
Why? Because we’re gonna have to leave some stuff behind when we follow Jesus. … Our youth pastor told us that he had this friend during his time at the seminary that used to be a lawyer. This lawyer and his family gave up a comfortable life for Christ. They were living in the cheapest rooms near campus. But this lawyer and was dedicated to following Christ and said that he’d rather be there, at seminary and serving God, as opposed to anywhere else. … Wow. … We see in verses 57-62 that we might have to leave behind comfort, reorder our priorities so that Christ is first, and maybe even leave our families. … Are you willing to do what it takes?
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