Blessed, in Pursuit of the Master

certainly stand on its own, as
you will see. If you will, just to set the context, let me take
us back to where we began. Jesus was preaching, telling
a series of parables as chapter 18 opened, and He culminates His teaching with
this parable about the Pharisee and the publican. The proud versus
the humble. And what ensues was this scene
that seemed to irritate Jesus’ own apostles. As the sermon ended
and Jesus ends, interestingly, with the words, he who humbles
himself will be exalted. And suddenly there comes this
gaggle, this frenzy of parents bringing their children. And
Jesus is fine with it in the final analysis. But the apostles
take issue with it. They’re bothered by it. And we
looked at that and Jesus certainly encouraged the parents to bring
the children. He encouraged the children to
come forth if they were able. He admonished the apostles to
allow this to happen, not to hinder that. And that is followed
almost immediately by this approach of the rich young ruler who heard
the message that we were all supposed to come as children.
And we saw that the rich young ruler came and he fell on his
knees. So Mark’s gospel informs us he
worshipped Christ in a sense. And came to Christ and said,
good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And
we saw that it went downhill from there. There was nothing
that the rich young ruler could do to earn his salvation. That was, as we saw, the desire
of this man-made religion. It’s always the same. We all
long to be right with God. We know that there’s a God, but
we’ll come up with a hundred different ways to approach Him
and seemingly justify those in our mind. Christ opened to him
what the the means was to the law. He gave him what we call
the decrees of man-made religion, the law. Jesus said, if you want
to get to heaven, all you have to do is obey the commandments.
And He gives them the second table of the Ten Commandments.
We saw thirdly, the delusion of man-made religion that He
actually thought that He had lived up to the standard. All
these things I’ve done, I’ve kept from my youth. Jesus clarifies the demand of
manmade religion. He saw through the man’s heart.
He saw what he was lacking. And he said, one thing you still
lack, sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor
and you shall have treasure in heaven and come and follow me.
The demand of manmade religion is precision. It didn’t say that
we can grade on a curve on those 10 commandments. But if we’re
going to live according to the law, we must live according to
it perfectly. That’s what Jesus clarified.
That’s the demand. And the discouragement of man
made religion, the discouragement there in verse 23 says that when
he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely
rich. It’s the best that you’re ever
going to get from man-made religion when you realize that you can’t
possibly do it. You don’t have it within you
to live according to God’s standard to such a degree to earn the
salvation that your heart longs for. And no wonder it closed
with the disappointment of man-made religion. Jesus says, how hard is it for
those who are wealthy? He tells us how hard it is. It
is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for
a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” In other words, Jesus
says it’s impossible. And that prompts this question
from the disciples. They who heard it in verse 26
says, then who can be saved? But he said the things that are
impossible with people are possible with God. And don’t we rejoice
in that? Peter, hearing this, ever the
one to speak what everybody else is thinking. As the circle perhaps
even narrows, and now the apostles gather around Christ, where had
been big crowds and throngs of even little children, and His
audience with one rich young ruler, undefined, even enemies
of Christ, now the circle becomes more intimate. And it’s his own
precious followers that are there. And it prompts a question from
Peter. Everybody thought it, but who would verbalize it but
Peter? Pick up with me, if you would, in verse 18. Where Luke records, and pardon
me, Pick up with me, if you would, in verse 28. Peter said, Behold,
we have left our own homes and followed you. And Jesus said
to them, truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left
house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake
of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times as much
at this time and in the age to come eternal life. Essentially, Peter was caught
off guard, as were the rest of the apostles. He heard Jesus
give this stringent standard to this rich young ruler, an
impossible standard to go and to sell all that he had. And
we saw there that this was not a universal command. This was
not something that Christ was saying every believer must do. That’s not what he was saying.
He simply knew what was in the heart of this man and he knew
what was in the heart of this man was this grip on things. And the things had their grip
on him and he could not, would not let go. And Jesus knew it. He loved things more than he
loved people, and worse yet, he loved things more than he
loved his God. And Jesus knew it. And Jesus
wanted to free him. He wanted the man to possess
salvation, but knew if he didn’t release his grip, he never would. And Peter, perhaps so much like
the rest of us, heard these things and his heart skipped a beat
because Peter and his fellows really believed that they had
done just that. There’s an ad campaign running
right now for one of the credit cards. Membership has its privileges,
right? I mean, as if to say that simply
to walk in with a Visa card kind of affords you some kind of status. You know, that’s really and the
ad campaign works because we really begin to think that way.
Do you know who I am? Why, it says so right here on
my plastic card. But truly, discipleship has privileges. The service of Christ has privileges
far beyond anything that visa can ever promise. And while that
shouldn’t be our heart’s desire, our heart’s motive in serving
Christ. The truth is, the reality is
there are privileges, there are rewards in the service of Christ. The disciples claimed to have
left everything and followed Christ and their hearts probably
exalted when they heard this promise. Because they desired
to cash in, as it were. No doubt, they likely didn’t
enter into it just for the money, but when they heard this promise.
You can bet their ears perked up. I want to take us to the text.
Let’s go to verse 28, if you would. I want to look at the
nature of sacrificial service. I want to look at the nature
of sacrificial service. First of all, let’s look at the
offering of sacrificial service. What is it that we actually offer
up on the altar to God when we come to serve Christ? In whatever
capacity you’ve been called to serve Christ, Some small little
task, merely the pursuit of Christ, the following of Christ, naming
yourself a Christian, placing your faith in Christ and beginning
to walk with Him and with those who love Him. What is the nature of sacrificial
service? First, the offering of sacrificial
service. Look at verse 28. Peter said,
Behold, we have left our own homes. followed you. Now, in the Mideast, in that
day, the homes, especially for common
fishermen, you know, weren’t exactly, they certainly weren’t
according to today’s standards. In many cases, the land on which
you built was rented land. Very few were true landowners. And so to say that they had left
their homes really wasn’t all that big a thing. And perhaps
that’s even why Matthew and Mark both record a different word
here. They don’t mention houses per se. Matthew and Mark say
they left everything. And perhaps even for a fisherman,
that becomes a little more understandable for us. They walked away from
everything. They left their nets. They left
the floats that attached to the net. They left the boats, the
oars, the lures, the product that they had on hand, the fish,
the bait, whatever it was. They left it. Let me take you
on a brief tour. Of what the disciples left, Matthew
chapter 16. Check that. I’m going to just
take us to John chapter 6. In John chapter 6, Jesus said
to the twelve in the midst of great apostasy, many people deciding
not to follow Christ anymore. He said, you do not want to go
away to do you? Simon Peter answered him, Lord,
to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life. We have believed and have come to know that you are the
holy one of God. How did they believe that? How
did they come to believe that? Flip back just a couple of chapters
to John 1. In John 1, verse 35, it says, “…the
next day John was standing with two of his disciples. And he
looked at Jesus as He walked and said, Behold, the Lamb of
God!” Two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus. And Jesus turned to them and
saw them following and said to them, what do you seek? And they
said to him, Rabbi, which translated means teacher, where are you
staying? And he said to them, come and
you will see. So they came and saw where he was staying. They
stayed with him that day. But it was about the ninth hour. One of the two who heard John
speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He found
first his own brother Simon and said to him, We have found the
Messiah, which translated means Christ. He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said,
You are Simon, the son of John. You should be called Cephas.
The next day, he purposed to go into Galilee and found Philip.
And Jesus said to him, Follow me. Now, Philip was from Bethsaida,
the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathaniel and said
to him, We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also
the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathaniel
said to him, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip
said to him, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathaniel coming and
said to him, Behold, an Israel Israelite, indeed, in whom there
is no deceit. Nathaniel said to him, How do
you know me? Jesus answered and said to him before Philip called
you when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Nathaniel answered
and said, Rabbi, you are the son of God, you are the king
of Israel. Jesus answered and said to him,
because I said that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe
you will see greater things than these? He said to him, truly,
I say to you, you will see the heavens open to the angels of
God ascending and descending on the son of man. Here you have
just the beginning, the calling of those first disciples who,
when they heard Christ, saw Him and took Him for what He was,
the Messiah. And they left all and followed
Him. Peter, ever the spokesman, ever
the spokesman brings this point up. Whenever there seemed to be a
crisis, whenever there seemed to be a problem or a challenge,
it was always Peter, the one to speak up and to say what everybody
else was thinking. In Matthew chapter 16, Jesus
said, Who do people say the Son of Man is? And they said, Some
say John the Baptist, others Elijah, but still others Jeremiah.
But he said, who do you say that I am? And Peter, Peter answered,
you are Christ, the son of the living God. Peter knew deep down. But Peter also had those moments. Whereas it were, he stuck his
foot in his mouth, you remember the amount of transfiguration
where suddenly Peter wants to erect three tents and some kind
of a homage to Christ and to the two who are appearing to
them. And here, as in nowhere else in scripture, Peter sticks
his foot in his mouth. We’ve left our own homes, we’ve
left everything. And for any of us who have really
come to Christ, we know this struggle. For those of you who
serve Christ in whatever capacity, you know the struggle. We want
payback. We want to know that God’s watching.
We want to know that God’s going to take care of us and for everything
that we’ve set aside, we want God to catch back up. Peter said, we’ve left our houses,
we’ve left everything. They had left everything and
followed Christ. Let me tell you how Peter came
to follow Christ. Luke chapter 5, we saw it. He
saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake. The fishermen had
gotten out and were washing their nets. And he got into one of
the boats, which was Simon’s. And when he had finished speaking,
Simon answered and said, Master, we worked hard all night and
caught nothing, but I will do as you say. And he followed Christ
on this seemingly fruitless or fishless endeavor. And at the end of that fishing
trip, James and John, the sons of Zebedee were partners with
Simon. Jesus said to them all, do not fear from now on you’ll
be catching. You will no longer be catching
fish. You’ll be catching men. And when they had brought their
boats to land, they left everything and followed him. Some of us
have known those moments. Anybody who names the name of
Christ knows this, at least in seed form, what it is to leave
all and to follow Christ, to put everything as it were on
an altar and to look to Christ as their all. Some of Christ’s
apostles had left their calling as fishermen. Matthew had left
this public office of being a tax gatherer. James and John had
left their parents. Peter had left his home and his
family. These men made real sacrifices. They were following Christ in
this worldly destitution, this poverty that seemed to cling
to them wherever they went, and they had little earthly hope. Even though some have criticized
that these fishermen in leaving all, didn’t leave all that much. Their worldly goods were not
as great as the rich man’s. They didn’t have estates to sell,
to give to the poor, but they had left all. They had sacrificed
it all to Christ. The disciples had long since
left all because they wanted to engage themselves in the service
of Christ. And never before had they asked,
what are we going to get out of it? And so this feeling seemed
to be building in them as they see themselves struggling and
really not having even enough for their next meal in many cases. The feeling began to build, especially
as Christ began to speak of His own demise. These men were nervous,
much like you and I would be. Indeed, much like you and I are.
They couldn’t see the advantages. They couldn’t see all the blessings.
They couldn’t see all that was to unfold because of their ministries. But they were assured of the
goodness of Christ. They knew that they wouldn’t
If they lost everything else that they wouldn’t lose Christ.
And so they submitted themselves to him and they followed him
and they served him. It honors Christ. It pleases Christ
when we trust him and we serve him, even if it costs us everything. Even if it costs us our family
and our future and our retirement. There have been those, as I said,
that criticized the apostles. One said it this way. The remark
has been made that Peter and his fellow disciples had left
little or nothing for Christ’s sake. And so, in essence, they’ve
been criticized that the sacrifice is really not that big a deal.
Of course, Christ was going to get followers in these fishermen.
What did they have to lose? A few boats and fishing nets
were probably the whole amount of their worldly goods. Remember,
I said they probably didn’t even own their own home. Yet it must
never be forgotten that a poor man’s all is as precious to him
as the rich man’s palace. In giving up everything for Christ’s
sake, he makes the greatest sacrifice in his power. That was the case
with those who followed Christ. When he saw Matthew, Matthew
chapter nine, Sitting in the tax collector’s booth, he said
to him, follow me. And in such succinct fashion,
all that is recorded is that he got up and followed him just
like that. I’ve talked to Christians before.
Who said if they had it all, if they could see it all again,
they wondered whether they would even follow Christ. When they
saw all the difficulties that life brought, all the difficulties
of ministry, all the challenges and all the woes and all the
heartaches, would they do it again? I’m not sure. But they said they followed him.
They became followers of Christ. They embraced the things that
he loved, his doctrines, his truths. They submitted to his
commands. They imitated him. in exercising
grace, in discharging their duties, in self-denial, in suffering
hardship. They imitated Christ. They followed
Him wherever He went. And it’s only Matthew that records
this question that Peter asks, what then will there be for us? Only in Matthew’s Gospel. What’s
in it for me, in essence, is what Peter says. What Peter asks for here is almost
astounding. But it’s in the heart of each
one of us. It was certainly in the heart of Peter at the at
the end, after Christ had been crucified, when Peter literally
cashed it in and went fishing. And Jesus came and rescued him
from that fishing trip again and put him back in the ministry.
And at the end of that, Peter has the audacity to question
Jesus goodness as to what his plans were for John. It’s in
the heart of each one of us to demand some kind of remuneration
or recompense, some kind of payment for service. The question was in the minds
of every apostle. The thoughts that had been creeping
up, that they’d been keeping at bay, as it were, now became
so overwhelming that Peter had to make himself the spokesman They had done all that the master
had asked them to do. They’d followed him wherever
they want. The question was, what was their special reward?
What’s in it for us? You know what? It isn’t an altogether,
from a biblical standpoint, an unreasonable request. There is
a history of God, in a sense, paying those who serve him. Listen to Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy
chapter 38, verse nine. Speaking of Levi, who said of
his father and his mother, I did not consider them and he did
not acknowledge his brothers, nor do we regard his own sons,
for they observed your word and kept your covenant covenant.
They shall teach your ordinances to Jacob and your law to Israel.
They should put incense before you in the whole burn offerings
on your altar. Oh, Lord, bless this substance
and accept the work of his hands. Shatter the loins of those who
rise up against him and those who hate him so that they will
not rise up again. There is a blessing. There is a payment, as it were,
in the service of Christ. In the service of God, in that
passage. And Jesus answers. He doesn’t rebuke the question.
He doesn’t rebuke the interest. We’ve left homes and followed
you. Luke just records it and it begs the question. Look, Jesus,
we’ve done all this. Matthew says, what’s in it for
me? That’s what he records Luke saying. And Jesus doesn’t rebuke
it. Look at verse 29. Truly, I say
to you, and Jesus knows what they left. Jesus knows what they
sacrificed and he lays it out. I say to you, there is no one
who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children. No one. Not the apostles, not
the rich young ruler. If he chose that, not you or
me. Not the entire history of the
faithful who have placed their faith in Christ. Everyone, Jesus
puts into this, and Jesus knows what each one of us leave in
our dust. But let’s consider the list just
briefly. He says house, and as I indicate, they may not have
owned the physical property on which the house was built, but
often you had a great investment in this structure itself. But
what is meant here and what Christ points out is when you leave
a house, you leave the things in it. We’ve lived in California
before you move here in Colorado, and I mean, you move into a house
and there’s everything there that you need. You move into
a house in California, there’s nothing, it’s walls, you don’t
have a fridge, you don’t have a stove, you don’t have a washer
and dryer. This house is the entire body
of goods in the dwelling, it’s everything. And Jesus acknowledges
that there have been those who left everything. Or wife. Now, is Jesus beginning to advocate
here? The departure of a precious union
for the sake of ministry. Oh, God has taught me a great
deal. He’s brought me a long way. Because
when I first proposed to get marriage, I turned to my bride-to-be
and I said, my theme verse in life is 1 Corinthians 7.30 something. Let those who have wives be as
though they have none. You are not going to be a ball
and chain to me in ministry. For the last 16 years, the Lord
has been trying to humble me and constantly show me Barbara
is my best asset in ministry. Is he saying? That this precious
union that is modeled after Genesis two and three, that what God
creates for the man to be his helper, what he calls in Proverbs,
he who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from
the Lord. Is he now advocating that we
leave that? No. But certainly there are those cases. There
have been many such cases. I’ve counseled many myself where
a man came to Christ or a woman came to Christ and the husband
cannot handle that. He wants nothing to do with that
or the wife. And Paul lays out the situation
in 1 Corinthians where the unbelieving one leaves. That’s the situation. It cost him his wife. We’re brothers. How many of us who have come
to Christ and I don’t want to see a show of hands, but you
know it in your heart, if not you, somebody, you know, has
come to Christ and they have become estranged instantly. From
their most intimate family. Their brothers. Luke goes on
to record here, parents. I’ll never forget. The chasm
that was carved the day that I named Christ in my family that
isn’t healed even today. Came home and I presented the
family with the Christmas Bible, the Frasco family Bible. My dad took it and threw it across
the table. And it was there that I began
to learn. That following Christ was going to have a cost. I was
going to pay a price. There are those when it says
children, they begin to grow up and they begin to teach their
children and they long for the things of Scripture and they
want to follow and obey what Christ has for them and their
children take a left turn somewhere along the way. And these parents
cannot stop following Christ. They can’t leave off Christ and
lower their standards for their children’s sake. We are going
to have to lose. One said it this way, this clear
that this promise is for all true followers of the Lord, not
just the twelve. It is for all who have chosen
Christ above all else, even above their dearest relatives and choicest
earthly possessions. These loyal disciples of the
Lord are promised that they will be reimbursed many times over,
as we’ll see in a moment. Matthew and Mark both add to
the list that Luke has here, and it’s never meant to be a
complete list in any of the Gospels. But Matthew and Mark both add
sisters and farms. The cost that we will incur in
following Christ many times is substantial, overwhelming, beyond
all that we ever dreamed. The nature of sacrificial service,
first of all, lays out to us the offering of sacrificial service.
It can cost us everything to follow Christ. Literally everything. Secondly, look at the purpose
of sacrificial service. Jesus said, truly, I say to you,
there is no one who is left house or wife or brothers or parents
or children for the sake of the kingdom of God. You see, Jesus
wasn’t advocating here family abandonment. He wasn’t advocating
you go take up some ministry regardless of what it does to
your family. Can you imagine the charge given
to fathers that if they do not provide for their families, they’re
worse than unbelievers? And then to somehow advocate
skipping out on their families to go do some kind of ministry?
I’ve met men. I’ve met men like that. What he lays out here is the
motive for discipleship, the motive for Christian service.
The motive in this sacrificial service, Luke records it simply
as being for the sake of the kingdom of God. Matthew says,
for my name’s sake. Mark says, for my sake and the
gospel’s sake, that you blend those together and you get the
same answer. You take them individually. They
all point to the same thing. Is it for Christ and the glory
of the gospel? That’s what Christ wanted to
clarify. It’s not just abandoning family. I know many teens that did that
in their rebellious years. that endures to this day. They
abandoned their family. But it was because of the relationship
to Christ and the desire for the kingdom, the desire to preach
the gospel, the longing to be one with Christ and in service
of Him. What Jesus clarifies in doing
that is to say, you know what, look, This abandoning these things,
it’s not supposed to be done with some farsighted view of
gaining a reward someday. It’s not supposed to be entered
into in hopes that, boy, I can’t wait for payday. You know, there
were many charlatans who operated in the so-called ministry for
that very reason. They were in it for the money.
And Jesus says it cannot be so with you, it cannot be so with
his apostles, and he cannot be so with us. It’s for the sake
of the kingdom. It’s for the sake of Christ.
If it costs us everything, then we follow. Believing in Christ, professing
in His name, they don’t necessarily require parting with family,
parting with worldly substances. But many times it will. The bottom
line, as John Gill said, when these things stand in competition
with Christ, he is to be loved and preferred before them. That’s
the issue. Believers are always ready to
part with them for his sake. When persecution arises because
of the word, all these things are to be relinquished rather
than Christ and his gospel and such who are enabled through
divine grace to do so. You see what he says? You can’t
do this except by the blessing of God. Matthew Henry, the great commentator
on Scripture, said it beautifully when he said, the loss of these
things is supposed to be for Christ’s namesake. Otherwise,
he does not oblige anyone to do so. Many forsake their brethren,
their wife, their children because of passion or whim, like the
bird that wanders from her nest. This is sinful desertion. But
if we forsake them for Christ’s sake, because we cannot keep
them and keep a good conscience, we must either quit them or quit
our interest in Christ. This with our attitude and eye
to Him, this will be glory. It is that which will be rewarded.
There’s a third observation from the passage, not only the offering
of sacrificial service and the purpose of sacrificial service,
but what is the blessing? What is the payday of sacrificial
service? Read along again when Christ
says, truly, I say to you, there is none who has left house or
wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the
kingdom of God who will not receive many times as much. Many times
as much. And Luke adds this little phrase
at this time. You’re going to receive some
kind of earthly remuneration At this time. And that’s why
he adds, and in the age to come eternal life. I’ll never forget
a new believer in our Bible study one time just recounting all
the blessings of God in this life. And he summed it up with
these simple words, all this and heaven, too. I mean, isn’t
that doesn’t that just summarize it? We have the grace of God
to obey Him. We have His Word. We have His
Spirit indwelling us. We have other faithful believers
around us. We have all the blessings that
the heathen enjoy just like us. The beauty of the day. The beauty
of the sunset. The beauty of the mountains.
The food that we enjoy. All this and heaven too. There’s often times when our
Christianity may bring the loss of loved ones, the loss of a
home, the loss of friends. But when you come to Christ,
you come to a God who is infinitely good and He says will return
what you have lost. He says you will receive many
times as much It didn’t even take me long to
begin to realize that. In losing family members and,
as it were, having other faithful, godly men that God brought into
my life, much like an earthly father, who came alongside and
encouraged and nurtured and challenged. And others to walk alongside
me that Scripture and, by God’s goodness, It lays out our brothers
and sisters and mothers and sons, sons in the faith God has privileged. God blesses. God provides. One Puritan said it this way.
He will give a hundred fold in this life, sometimes in kind.
In other words, in the very things that we leave behind, that we
sacrifice. Sometimes in kind, in the things
themselves, God will raise up for His suffering servants more
friends that will be so to them for Christ’s sake than they have
left for their own sakes.” God blesses. And He blesses us
with a family. A spiritual family. You think of Scripture. You think of all the ways that
Scripture lays out the family of God. Paul said it so often. He said in Ephesians 3.15 that
we were those from whom every family in heaven on earth derives
its name. He called Mark, who at one time
was distant from him. He calls him a son in 1 Peter
5.3. Philemon, he calls him my child,
Onesimus. My child in the faith. And there were many such relations.
To Timothy, he called him my true child in the faith. Those are the blessings. But
Mark adds something. Mark adds something that we have
to focus on before we close. Flip over to the Gospel of Mark
and to chapter 10. Mark, chapter 10. Mark records this same passage where he says he will receive
a hundred times as much, now in the present age, houses. Now, how do you reconcile that?
Except that from a first-hand standpoint, we have been received
into countless houses. We have all that we need and
brothers and sisters, Luke records, and mothers and children and
farms, along with persecution. You see, the disciples, the apostles
there could have gotten real proud. They could have decided
they were ready to cash it in, ride it out until glory. The promise is a very strange
one because it doesn’t refer to believers reward in another
world, this unfading crown of glory that so often is spoken
of. It refers distinctly to the life
that now is. What he means is that the believer
is going to find in Christ a full equivalent for anything that
God obliges him to give up for Christ’s sake. He’s going to
find peace and hope and joy and all of those good things. But
on top of all of that, he’s going to find that kind of spiritual
family that he had caused to sacrifice in the name of Christ. If it’s become necessary to forsake
your earthly family, new relatives God will raise up. And on top
of that, he adds, and in the age to come, eternal life. And when he says that, he puts
everything in perspective, doesn’t it? I mean, what house is there that
would last forever? What friend? John Gill said it this way, this
is an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled and does not fade away. When all other inheritances are
corruptible and defiled and fading and perishing, houses fall, relations
die, friends fail and lands and estates do not continue forever. But God in His favored presence will bless us in eternal glory
and happiness with Him in another world forever. Hudson Taylor one time said it
this way, the great missionary, that he had never succeeded in
truly making a sacrifice to God. Because he said every time he
gave up anything, God more than returned it. If God so brings difficulty into
your life, that you are caused in the pursuit of Christ to lose
something, some person, some friend. God will more than make
up for it. Let’s pray. Father God, we know many have
left and lost and have languished in heartbreak
for many seasons. Lord, we know your Word to be
true as well, because we who have followed you have tasted
it, that you more than make up for those hurts, those broken
things. In many cases, you bring those
very people to Christ and bring them back to us in another way. Father, you are able to restore
As you said, what the locust devoured. Lord, we humble ourselves
before you and thank you. For blessing us in pursuit. Of
you. We thank you and praise you in
Jesus name. Amen. you.