His Disciple or Not: What Does Your Heart Say?
(Mid-week message for House Church and individual use: preached 11/8 – 11/14/2020)
“Let us try, for a moment, to blot out from our minds all that we know regarding the history of Christianity. All of it, from the day that the Holy Spirit arrived in power on Earth to grant every Christian the ability to work and overcome the world by bringing men and women to Christ. Yes, everything that occurred after the close of that divinely given account in the Bible of the fiery hearted true disciples and ancestors of our faith, of our mutual faith in our wonderful Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Yes, yes, from the close of that period described in the Acts of the Apostles, suppose we could detach from our minds all knowledge of the history of Christianity since then. Take it all away, then take the Acts of the Apostles and sit down and calculate what would have happened throughout the history of the world if what they had begun had been continued. Indeed, we could then estimate what different results we should have had, what a different world we should have produced, and even now live in as the direct outcome of perpetual obedience to that faith that was once delivered unto us. Yes, that system of living and loving and of being truly true to our Saviour which commenced under such prophetic token, with such assumptions and professions on the part of God, the author of it all. Imagine if it had gone on to produce, as it did, at least in the first century of its existence, such gigantic and momentous results! Imagine! Without all of the failures of God’s people (and of all of our failures even today) from that time unto this, no doubt the world where this war for the souls of men commenced would have continued upon its real designated path towards victory. Organized, we would have long since subjugated the influences of evil, brought the darkness of the world under the glory of God’s light, and brought down the power of that great originator and founder of wickedness within this world! Oh yes, I can see it. Can you? From reading the Book of Acts, and from observing the spirit which animated those early disciples, and from the way in which everything fell down before them, we could have since seen ten thousand times greater results. This would have followed! This, in my judgment, this anticipation, if we had remained true unto the end to what our Lord began, then it would be perfectly rational and just to understand that this world, that we complain so much about, would have been successfully taken for Him by us.”
That was an updated version of the opening paragraph to Catherine Booth’s famously probing book called, Aggressive Christianity.
Introduction
Are you truly his disciple or not? Are you the disciple that Jesus called you unto himself to be… or not? Well, let us ask a friend of yours. Let us ask your heart. Say to your heart, “O heart, speak to me! Is the Lord Jesus everything us, or just something?”
Yes, ask, “Is he all?” And as you ask, remember that he said,
“No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (Luke 16:13 )
What does your heart say about Jesus?
I. He is everything! (Luke 10:38-39)
“Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.” (Luke 10:38-39)
What does your heart say about Jesus?
II. He is something. (Luke 10:40-42)
“But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:40-42)
What does your heart say about Jesus?
III. He is all!! (Luke 12:34)
“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Luke 12:34)
Conclusion
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39)
Behold the obstacles listed which haunt your heart: the apparitions of fear!
- Tribulation
- Distress
- Persecution
- Famine
- Nakedness
- Peril
- Sword
“As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”
Behold what you may now overcome – if you will live a life of faith in Him!
“For I am persuaded, that neither…”
- Death, nor
- Life, nor
- Angels, nor
- Principalities, nor
- Powers, nor
- Things present, nor
- Things to come, nor
- Height, nor
- Depth, nor
- Any other creature
“Shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
OUTLINE:
His Disciple or Not: What Does Your Life Say?
(A Message to Members of the Body of Christ)
No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (Luke 16:13 )
I. He is everything! (Luke 10:38-39)
II. He is something. (Luke 10:40-42)
III. He is all!! (Luke 12:34)
“And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction.” (1 Corinthians 7:35)
WORSHIP:
All to Jesus I Surrender (305)
Opening:
What a Friend We Have in Jesus (460)
Message: