Value
If you value what the world values, you will get what the world gets. If you value what Jesus values, you will get what Jesus gets.
Romans 8:14-18 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
The "suffering" Jesus and His disciples talked about is entirely related to living "sanctified"...set apart from the world. This is a necessary experience for every son or daughter of the kingdom.
It is painful to live outside of the value system the world holds. The condemnation of the world disagreeing with your value system is tangible for a little while. The tension of the true RISK of actually believing your value system... giving instead of saving, loving instead of protecting your heart, serving instead of being served, praying instead of rising up in your own strength... is capable of actually carrying you is tangible for a little while. The wisdom of living set apart is not immediately apparent. If you are really doing it, you will live differently than the world, and the difference should be obvious and feel risky.
The easiest way to see if you are living in increasing sanctification is to take a peek at your calendar and your checkbook. These are your most tangible gauges of your value system. If your calendar and bank statement look like everyone else's, you are likely not valuing what heaven values. If the world would say your value system is foolish, you are probably onto something. Living different than most of the people around you is uncomfortable. That means it takes FAITH to live set apart. This causes a temporary suffering. It is SUPPOSED to work this way! The suffering is evidence that you are really coming out of the world's inheritance. Without this reality of feeling the transition, there is no reality of the "coming out."
I Corinthians 6:9-12 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
Because of love, everyone gets what they want. You can love Jesus in any degree you like, or not love Him at all. You can sincerely love Jesus and still value what the world values, that is an option. This is what Jesus calls "lukewarm."
Lukewarm feels comfortable right now because it still values what the world mostly values. Not too cold that anyone would notice you are really valuing what the world values, not too hot that anyone would notice you value what Jesus values. Enough of both to feel comfortable. This is deadly, because the world is losing ownership of creation soon, it is a sinking ship. This is obvious and prophesied. Those gripping the world will feel enormous pressure to go down with the ship, and the false captain of the ship has a strategy to take you down with him. He will manipulate the world by controlling their comfort.
Most of the world is fighting to keep their lives comfortable. Jesus is not at all interested in comfort now. Jesus believes that without Him ruling and reigning on earth, that the earth is not a place of comfort. Comfort now is only truly found in His presence, which requires valuing time with Him above every other thing that might bring comfort:
Luke 9:57-58 Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Jesus wasn't trying to talk the potential disciple out of following Him! He was saying "yes, but know my value system is different than everyone else's!" Jesus does not value comfort now. In fact, He disagrees with it if it isn't based on His presence. He believes the Holy Spirit is the comforter! Jesus is not for a balanced life. He is for WHOLEHEARTED love for God. This is very unbalanced living. Very uncomfortable and risky.
Revelation 3:15-20 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
The reason Jesus hates lukewarm...the reason He will spit those who value comfort now over wholehearted unbalanced red-hot love for God...is because any earthly comfort now that is not based simply on being in the presence of God is not true. Jesus cares about true. Jesus is THE truth.
Comfort now is an illusion...a treadmill that never takes you anywhere. Most people work uncomfortably hard trying to achieve a false dream of comfort. This is a distraction...a false trail in the maze of life...keeping people from true comfort. God created the world...He owns it...but many seek to establish security in their lives the way the world does...saving, strategizing, planning, withholding help from those in need to protect an imagined future of self-provision. This is not true security! This sort of thinking is not based in reality, it just looks that way 'cause everybody is doing it...in and out of churches!
Luke 12:16-21 Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” ’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
The truth is that agreeing with God about His economy of giving and serving is the only true security! The problem in seeing this reality is that the world doesn't value it...they don't believe it. It is not tangible or readily apparrent. You have to try it to see it. Therefore, Most of the world won't agree with you about it! But the world is inheriting a lake of fire...for real.
Everyone who values what Jesus values is inheriting comfort in His city!
John 14:1-3 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
Jesus is bringing His city...He is bringing true and lasting comfort...to earth for all who have chosen His value system ON earth:
Revelation 21:2-5 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”
God values TRUE and lasting comfort, based on the truth of ownership of creation. To value what He values takes a constant conversation with Him. My heart is so slippery...it really wants to slide into comfort!
I can give time to the Sunday School to try and bring balance to my life, to look the part, add some warm to my cold, or I can do it as an expression of wholehearted love. I can lead a church as my job, to provide a living for myself, or make a name for myself, or I can do it as an expression of wholehearted love. I can write a book, or a facebook post, or sing a song on a stage so people will think I know God, or I can do it as an expression of wholehearted love. I can can give my money away extravagantly for lots of reasons...to feel like I love God, so people will think I must really love God, or as an expression of obedience that flows out of wholehearted love.
Only me and God can know my true motivation, but that motivation...that true value system in my heart...comfort now versus red-hot wholehearted unbalanced love now...will determine everything about my true comfort for trillions and trillions of years! Do I really believe it? It is true either way.
Romans 8:14-18 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
The "suffering" Jesus and His disciples talked about is entirely related to living "sanctified"...set apart from the world. This is a necessary experience for every son or daughter of the kingdom.
It is painful to live outside of the value system the world holds. The condemnation of the world disagreeing with your value system is tangible for a little while. The tension of the true RISK of actually believing your value system... giving instead of saving, loving instead of protecting your heart, serving instead of being served, praying instead of rising up in your own strength... is capable of actually carrying you is tangible for a little while. The wisdom of living set apart is not immediately apparent. If you are really doing it, you will live differently than the world, and the difference should be obvious and feel risky.
The easiest way to see if you are living in increasing sanctification is to take a peek at your calendar and your checkbook. These are your most tangible gauges of your value system. If your calendar and bank statement look like everyone else's, you are likely not valuing what heaven values. If the world would say your value system is foolish, you are probably onto something. Living different than most of the people around you is uncomfortable. That means it takes FAITH to live set apart. This causes a temporary suffering. It is SUPPOSED to work this way! The suffering is evidence that you are really coming out of the world's inheritance. Without this reality of feeling the transition, there is no reality of the "coming out."
I Corinthians 6:9-12 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
Because of love, everyone gets what they want. You can love Jesus in any degree you like, or not love Him at all. You can sincerely love Jesus and still value what the world values, that is an option. This is what Jesus calls "lukewarm."
Lukewarm feels comfortable right now because it still values what the world mostly values. Not too cold that anyone would notice you are really valuing what the world values, not too hot that anyone would notice you value what Jesus values. Enough of both to feel comfortable. This is deadly, because the world is losing ownership of creation soon, it is a sinking ship. This is obvious and prophesied. Those gripping the world will feel enormous pressure to go down with the ship, and the false captain of the ship has a strategy to take you down with him. He will manipulate the world by controlling their comfort.
Most of the world is fighting to keep their lives comfortable. Jesus is not at all interested in comfort now. Jesus believes that without Him ruling and reigning on earth, that the earth is not a place of comfort. Comfort now is only truly found in His presence, which requires valuing time with Him above every other thing that might bring comfort:
Luke 9:57-58 Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Jesus wasn't trying to talk the potential disciple out of following Him! He was saying "yes, but know my value system is different than everyone else's!" Jesus does not value comfort now. In fact, He disagrees with it if it isn't based on His presence. He believes the Holy Spirit is the comforter! Jesus is not for a balanced life. He is for WHOLEHEARTED love for God. This is very unbalanced living. Very uncomfortable and risky.
Revelation 3:15-20 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
The reason Jesus hates lukewarm...the reason He will spit those who value comfort now over wholehearted unbalanced red-hot love for God...is because any earthly comfort now that is not based simply on being in the presence of God is not true. Jesus cares about true. Jesus is THE truth.
Comfort now is an illusion...a treadmill that never takes you anywhere. Most people work uncomfortably hard trying to achieve a false dream of comfort. This is a distraction...a false trail in the maze of life...keeping people from true comfort. God created the world...He owns it...but many seek to establish security in their lives the way the world does...saving, strategizing, planning, withholding help from those in need to protect an imagined future of self-provision. This is not true security! This sort of thinking is not based in reality, it just looks that way 'cause everybody is doing it...in and out of churches!
Luke 12:16-21 Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” ’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
The truth is that agreeing with God about His economy of giving and serving is the only true security! The problem in seeing this reality is that the world doesn't value it...they don't believe it. It is not tangible or readily apparrent. You have to try it to see it. Therefore, Most of the world won't agree with you about it! But the world is inheriting a lake of fire...for real.
Everyone who values what Jesus values is inheriting comfort in His city!
John 14:1-3 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
Jesus is bringing His city...He is bringing true and lasting comfort...to earth for all who have chosen His value system ON earth:
Revelation 21:2-5 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”
God values TRUE and lasting comfort, based on the truth of ownership of creation. To value what He values takes a constant conversation with Him. My heart is so slippery...it really wants to slide into comfort!
I can give time to the Sunday School to try and bring balance to my life, to look the part, add some warm to my cold, or I can do it as an expression of wholehearted love. I can lead a church as my job, to provide a living for myself, or make a name for myself, or I can do it as an expression of wholehearted love. I can write a book, or a facebook post, or sing a song on a stage so people will think I know God, or I can do it as an expression of wholehearted love. I can can give my money away extravagantly for lots of reasons...to feel like I love God, so people will think I must really love God, or as an expression of obedience that flows out of wholehearted love.
Only me and God can know my true motivation, but that motivation...that true value system in my heart...comfort now versus red-hot wholehearted unbalanced love now...will determine everything about my true comfort for trillions and trillions of years! Do I really believe it? It is true either way.
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