On Sunday, Dave wrote a communication card that expressed a very interesting point. It said:

What do you think of this statement?

“The mark of a true Christian is not tongues, prophecy, spectacular abilities (or even simple obedience), but rather patient endurance that produces maturity.”

Then, he referenced a number of verses I’ll quote here:

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. — Heb 10:23

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. — James 1:2-4

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God… He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death… He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it… To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations… — Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 26

These are just a few of the verses he referenced.

I think he raises a very important point that perhaps we don’t deal with adequately. It’s the question of what makes for a true believer. Some have mistakenly thought that the issue relates to whether a person once saved can lose his or her salvation. However, the more accurate issue is whether the person is actually saved.

See the Bible regularly talks about people who are being saved, people who will be saved, and people who have been saved. The Bible also tells us that once a person has been adopted into the family of God, he or she can never become un-adopted. We are told that no one can snatch us out of the hand of the Father. But we are also told that those who endure to the end will be saved and those who fall away display evidence that they were never truly saved in the first place.

Of course, we could run around the philosophical and theological debates, but for now, we are still just focusing on the words Jesus himself spoke.

Hovering on these two phrases, how would you answer this question? How does endurance relate to salvation?

…but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. — Matthew 24:13

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. — John 10:27-28

BIG IDEA FOR THE DAY: How does endurance relate to salvation?

Jesus’ primary concern when it comes to the end times is not that we know all about the rapture, not that we know all about the details of biblical prophecy, or that we are living perfect lives when he comes again. His main concern is that we not be deceived or fall away. In other words, the number one concern Jesus has about the end times is that we endure to the end.

So don’t let yourself get distracted by all the little details of interpretation, the order of the end times events, and all that. Allow yourself to focus on what Jesus wants you to—whatever happens, stay faithful.

Here’s the main question for you according to Jesus’ own words. Is there any person, any miracle, any theoretical claim, any hardship, or any length of time that will either lead me astray or cause my love to grow cold? What am I ready to face?

BIG IDEA OF THE DAY: How can I train myself today so that enduring hardship, deception, and delay will be easier tomorrow?

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Yesterday was a rare day in our family. My wife was able to be in the main adult worship service. On many Sundays she is to be found in one of the KidZones teaching. However, yesterday she actually heard my message and was able to talk with me about it later on in the day.

She told me that when the message started and she began to notice I would be speaking on the “end times” she thought, “Oh, Jeff, Jesus said so many wonderful things, why would you pick that topic?” Well, it’s true. Jesus did say some pretty amazing things, but a large section of Matthew is devoted to this topic, so I thought we should at least address it. I guess the question I have is why Jesus himself thought it was important enough to talk about.

The verse we consider today is one that disturbed a lot of people in Jesus’ day. It was in fact, one of the accusations against Jesus when he stood on trial before the high priest. People were appalled that a Rabbi of Jesus’ caliber would speak ill about the temple and the temple buildings. That didn’t stop him. He clearly predicted the future destruction of the temple.

Why is that important? Simply put, we put much greater emphasis on things, buildings, and locations than God does. God uses things, buildings, and locations in human history to help us relate to him, but there is nothing special about a building in Jerusalem other than the fact that God used if for a time. Jesus, however, says that time is coming to an end.

Here’s the question for us. How much of your spiritual life is connected to things of this world—a building, a location, an object, a song, a book? God uses earthly things to relate to us and to teach us about himself, but we tend to rely on those earthly things. The temple was never important. What was important was the God who chose to use it for a time.

As we consider the topic of spiritual endurance this week, it will benefit us greatly to shift our perspective from earthly things to God himself. He never changes. He is always faithful, and even if heaven and earth pass away, we have nothing to fear if we have him.

BIG IDEA FOR THE DAY: Are there objects, musical styles, locations, or other things to which your spiritual life is tied?

Last week, we talked about the four essentials of the faith, one of which is putting God first. In light of that, I wanted to share with you a clipping from a news story I read this past week.

In this article, we read about Angelo Taylor, a US sprinter who won gold in the 400m hurdles.

Supremely talented, Taylor fell long and hard, first struggling with injuries, then finding himself with no sponsorship and a career on the brink after he pleaded guilty in 2006 to contributing to the delinquency of two underage girls. He was sentenced to three years probation, and basically was out of track, doing electrical work in Atlanta.

But he still knew he could run. So did Innocent Egbunike, a former Nigerian Olympian who was coaching in Atlanta. “I saw him and told him that he was wasting God-given talent,” Egbunike said. Taylor wanted to run, so he started showing up, and throwing up, during Egbunike’s workouts. He conditioned himself first to handle the training, then to compete. And finally to win again.

“He’s come full circle,” said Taylor’s mother, Subrena Glenn-Everett, after the race. “He put God first, and everything came into place.” By turning his life around, Taylor put himself first in Beijing, running a career-best time of 47.25 and leading silver medalist Kerron Clement and bronze medalist Bershawn Jackson to the first U.S. sweep of the event since 1960.

BIG IDEA FOR THE DAY: What does it mean for God to be number one today?

In yesterday’s passage, Jesus declares that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him, and he then does something that makes perfect sense—he gives a command. If you have all authority, you give people commands. That’s the way it works, and we understand it.

Here, however, we are told that Jesus, knowing that the Father had put all things under his power, stoops down to wash the smelly feet of his Twelve disciples… even Judas.

Now that doesn’t make sense on any level. The house most likely had a hired servant whose job it was to wash feet. If there were no servant, then each person could have done it for himself or just not done it at all. It wasn’t a life or death situation that these feet had to be washed and they had to be washed now. On top of it all, Jesus commanded all the authority in the universe. If anyone were going to wash anyone’s feet, Jesus should have been on the receiving end. On top of that, Jesus knew full well what Judas was about to do… and he washed Judas’ feet anyway!

If I had all the authority in the universe, you could find me giving commands, but you wouldn’t find me washing feet.

But I don’t. And the one who does not only did just that, but he tells me to do it for others. There is a command here. The one with all the authority has given a command, but it’s a command to show love for others the way he has shown love for us.

Here’s the bottom line. What Jesus does here demonstrates two simple principles for us.

1. Loving people is about seeing a need, however large, and initiating the action to meet that need.
2. Following Jesus is about passing on to others the love he has shown to us.

Why not do it? Today, think of one person with a need and do something to meet it. Today, think of one way Jesus has shown love to you and do something to pass that on to another.

BIG IDEA FOR THE DAY: John 13:17… Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

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God had the power to visit Moses in a burning bush, so he has the power to visit everyone in a burning bush, but he chose to only do it once with Moses. Moses was supposed to pass on the message to others.

Jesus has the power to train disciples, but he only does it with a small group of men. They are supposed to pass on the training to others. Why is that? It’s because the special examples of God breaking into humanity and taking matters into his own hands, so to speak, are just that—special! They are the exceptions rather than the rule. The exception is that God breaks powerfully into one person’s life. The rule is that whatever your encounter with God has been, you are called to pass that on to others.

Here it is in practical terms. Everything Jesus has done for his followers has been to make them into disciples—truly devoted followers who grow more like their teacher. Everything has been about disciple-making. Disciple-making is doing what Jesus did. Therefore, Jesus is telling his disciples to pass on to others whatever he has done for them.

So what does that mean for us? I’ll get really practical. Every single thing that is true about you is something God is using to make you more like Jesus, and that means that every single thing that is true about you is something God wants you to use to help others become more like Jesus. Whoever you are you are for becoming like Jesus and helping others do so too. Whatever you can do, you can do to become more like Jesus and help others to do so too. Wherever you live, you live to become more like Jesus and to help others do so too.

Your calling is to take whatever is true about your life and turn it outward into helping others become more like Jesus.

BIG IDEA FOR THE DAY: What’s one thing that you love about you? How can you use that to help others become more like Jesus?

Jesus isn’t interested in Peter’s feelings here. In fact, he actually says some things here that scare Peter and wound his pride some, but that’s not what we will be looking at today.

Jesus says something to Peter that I have often wondered about. He asks Peter if he loves Jesus “more than these.” What does that mean? More than what? More than the fish they are eating? More than Peter’s love for other people? Or is Jesus asking Peter if Peter’s love for Jesus surpasses other people’s love for Jesus? What’s the real question here?

Whatever the nature of the question really is, the intent is clear that the question isolates Peter. Jesus uses a little phrase to get Peter mentally alone with him. “More than these” is a phrase that would cause me to start speaking in hushed tones. I don’t want people to hear me talking about them. But in the privacy of the hushed voices, Jesus says words to Peter that shake him up.

1. Peter is to be responsible for feeding the multitudes of followers who will come soon.
2. Peter is going to be terribly persecuted and killed in a way that brings great glory to God.

Then Jesus puts the exclamation point on the statement by saying “Follow Me!” — This is what I’m telling you, Peter, and you must follow my instructions.

But good old Peter, never one to understand the first time around, allows his gaze to shift away from Jesus (I recall his gaze shifting away from Jesus once before on a stormy sea…) and toward a meandering John. “What about him, Lord? How’s he going to die?”

Jesus won’t hear of it. “Whatever I want to do in John’s life does not concern you. You follow me!”

How often do I want to follow Jesus the way others get to follow Jesus? How often do I wish others had to follow Jesus the way I have to follow Jesus?!

But the concern for other people is irrelevant. What’s that to me?

Jesus, pulls me aside, and speaking in hushed tones, says, “I have something for you to do. Follow me.”

BIG IDEA FOR THE DAY: Following Jesus means following him on the trail he’s blazing for you alone. Follow him his way regardless of how others seem to be following him.

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Jesus never calls this a “great commandment” or an “essential,” but he says it so often that we have to recognize this command as a huge priority for him. Simply put, it’s the command to follow Jesus.

Throughout the New Testament, the concept is repeated time and time again that the ultimate goal of the life of the human being is the imitation of Christ. Jesus is the model for what being human really is all about, so when he looks at Matthew and says, “Follow me!” he means something much more than simply, “Hey, buddy, come over here!”

It’s an old gag from the days of vaudeville for one person to say, “Walk this way” and then be followed by another person who walks not only in the same direction, but also in the same manner as the person leading the way.

It’s a common child’s game for one child to be the “leader” and the other children to follow by imitating the patterns of the first child.

We understand leadership and followership, but we fail to grasp the significance of Jesus’ words to us that we are to follow him.

Following Jesus means that we are of course to go where he goes, but also that we are to do what he does. Where does he go and what does he do? It’s really simple, actually. Jesus goes where there are people far from God and he exposes them to the powerful grace of their Heavenly Father. He speaks words of challenge and encouragement, but it’s always about demonstrating powerful grace… even when demonstrating that grace comes at great personal sacrifice.

That’s what taking up our cross means! It doesn’t mean just being willing to die for Jesus. The cross is about something far greater than simply death. The cross is about a powerful act of grace, and one person willing to live out the power of grace by giving his own life for the sake of others.

Taking up my cross isn’t about being willing to die for Jesus. It’s about being willing to die for others! Now that’s tough. But that’s what Jesus did, and I’m committed to following him.

BIG IDEA FOR THE DAY: Who will I meet today who is far from God? How can I demonstrate the power of grace to that person?

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Every time I read these passages, I am amazed that when Jesus was asked to give the greatest commandment, he replied by quoting two. The single greatest commandment in all of God’s will for us has two sides. We are called to love God, and to love people.

Now, it’s easy to understand (even if it’s hard to do) that we are supposed to love God. After all, we are supposed to love our parents for giving us life and caring for us, and God is the ultimate parent in that sense. He has given us life, he sustains our life, he cares for us and provides for us, and he really is that incredibly wonderfully awesomely holy and good and righteous and worthy of our love.

But what about my neighbor? What has he done for me? He didn’t give me life. He didn’t care for me. He isn’t all that incredible or wonderful or awesome. He certainly isn’t holy and good and righteous. He’s just a neighbor and I don’t even know him. Why should I love him?

Here are two reasons to love your neighbor:

1. God wants you to be a loving person.
2. God loves your neighbor.

One of the noisiest parts of our society is the noise that tells us to be selfish, to love ourselves, to please ourselves, and to do good to others so that good comes back to us. It’s all selfishness.

Jesus raises the point, however, that loving God necessarily requires us to become loving people, and we can’t be loving people without loving people. And since I don’t get to choose what kind of God I should love, I also don’t get to choose what kind of person I should love. I love the only God there is, and I love the people around me as they actually are. The only way to become a loving person is to simply start showing love.

If you are an emotional person by nature, spend some time with God in prayer asking him to cultivate in you positive feelings for the people around you. If you are a thinking person by nature, spend some time journalling on paper strategies for how to show other people how valuable they are.

BIG IDEA FOR THE DAY: Love others… feel it and do it.

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Our world is filled with noise. For many of us, from the time we wake up to our noisy alarm clocks to the time we turn off the noisy TV and go to bed, our lives are filled with the noise of car radios, retail Muzak, jobsite buzz, and wild children. It wouldn’t be much of a problem if we had the chance to get to a quiet place now and then to spend time with God, but we find that once we get to that quiet place, the noise in our heads just keeps going. Worries and concerns of responsibilities yet undone, projects yet unfinished, and decisions yet undecided swirl through our brains. Then, as if that weren’t enough, the “spiritual” noise of competing world philosophies, self-help gurus, and biblical interpretation all enter into the picture too.

What if we could cut through all the noise to get down to the one, two, or more essentials in life? What if we could identify and focus on just a few things well enough that the others would either fall into place or lose separate significance?

Well, that’s exactly what Jesus is talking about here. This week, we’ll consider four “essentials” according to Jesus—four things we simply must give our lives to—and to get us started, today we look at what Jesus calls the most important of them all. Jesus tells us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Elsewhere, Jesus has already said to “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness…”

In summary fashion, the point is that God must come first in every aspect of our lives. All priorities begin with the priority of putting God first. In my heart, my emotional life, God comes first. In my soul, from where intimacy comes, God must be first. In my mind, my thought life, God comes first. In my strength, how I use my resources, God must come first.

In our church, we express this priority by claiming God as our first core value, and this is what we mean by it…

Our number one core value is GOD himself. We put GOD at the top of every list, and we let him speak for himself. If he says something in the Bible, then we believe it and work to follow it. If he doesn’t say something in the Bible then we tread with great caution and do not put words in his mouth that he hasn’t spoken.

More than all other things, we want to get in touch with our creator and experience the real presence of GOD in our lives every day, and we recognize his Son JESUS, who died for us, as the only way to know him.

BIG IDEA FOR THE DAY: What will it take for God to take first place today?

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