What’s Jesus Worth To You?
This question has been at the forefront of my mind lately. First and foremost, concerning myself…. what is Jesus worth to me? How valuable do I find Him?….. evaluating my life, I’m realizing that I don’t value Him near as much as I want to, or near as much as what He demands of me. That sounds negative, doesn’t it? That Jesus demands me to value Him. Our ignorance of His greatness produces that pessimistic attitude in us when we hear that He demands our worship. To the carnal ear, it sounds as if Jesus is some egotistical, self-centered jerk that craves constant attention. Oh, how far off, infinitely far off, that is. If the unbelieving world would only realize that Jesus demanding us to follow Him is Jesus demanding us to do the very thing, the only thing, that can give us unshakeable gladness and wholeness.
I’ve had quite a few conversations lately that have ended up centered in on this question: What’s Jesus worth to you? I’m noticing that people avoid coming to Christ, or live in disobedience to Christ, because they are blinded to the reality of how valuable He is. The Son of God, the slain Lamb of God, crucified for the sins of His people… He’s stunningly beautiful. But they can’t see it… they won’t see it. They hear Him say, “Come to me, you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest for your souls” — but they cast their eyes downward, latch onto their sinful desires, and in doing so—whether they know it or not— stare right into the face of the God who died for sin and say, “NO. You are not worthy of me. I will not worship you. I will not believe you. I will NOT come.”
It’s gut wrenching for me to ponder on the reality of this, how unbelievers reject the gospel of God’s grace and illogically pursue their own self-centered, fruitless and empty agendas…they bypass fountains of living water and stoop down to sop water out of bacteria infested mud puddles.
But what’s even more gut-wrenching is when I realize that many times, Matt Moore responds to God’s gospel of grace in this way as well—-every single time I willingly sin against Him. And not only every time I sin in action, but also every time I sin in lack of action. When I watch porn, I’m rejecting the gospel of grace in that moment. But when I don’t share or live out the gospel, I’m also rejecting the gospel of grace in that moment. Since almost the moment I was saved, I’ve been adamant about not living the typical ‘Americanized’ version of Christianity. The “go to church, read the bible, and live a good life” version of Christianity. Yet, this is exactly where I have found myself the majority of the time. I want Jesus to be worth more to me than that—because Jesus is worth more than that.
I want to live extreme in Christ—for Christ—by the power of Christ in me. I want to see every opportunity, no matter how mundane, as a gospel opportunity. Whether that means sharing the gospel, or pursuing a relationship with someone with the goal of sharing the gospel, or just saying “have a blessed night” to the worker at Subway rather than just walking out silently…… whatever it means to live extreme for Christ, I want to do it. In each moment.
While I sincerely desire to leave the emptiness and fruitlessness of “American Christianity” behind me and really grab hold of and follow Christ, I’m also aware of how dull my heart is. How many times have I felt this kind of passion for the Lord and desire for His gospel to be spread, just to find myself a few weeks later apathetic about the whole thing? COUNTLESS times. Living a life filled with the glory of the gospel is going to take a lot more than just human will and effort…. it’s going to take the real presence of God. The past few weeks I’ve made changes in my daily life and routine in order to put myself before God— to make myself available to be filled with Him. It’s one thing to ask God for Him to fill us with Himself…. but I think it’s another thing when we actually show Him in our actions, and not merely words, that we want Him. For me personally, this was pretty practical… like going to the Bible when I’d usually go to TV. Or going to prayer when I’d usually go to Facebook. There are so many idle things in our culture… fruitless things… that we tend to be so passionate about (our time commitment to these things shows it)….. yet when it comes to the Lord we’re often too disinterested to even get off our beds and to our knees.
The more I press into the Lord… the more I want to press into Him further. The tighter of a hold I get on Him, the more I lessen my grip on the comforts/pleasures/things of this world that keep me back from Him. My prayer is that as a united body, this generation of believers would see the fleetingness of this world and grasp hold of the eternal gift of Jesus Christ….. and forsake everything to have Him.
Lord, let us not flippantly glance at Your Cross and live lives that are empty of Your glory. Let us not wallow in apathy when it comes to Your Gospel. Shake us, Lord. Shake us and get the filth of this world and our selfishness off of us. Renew in us a love for You…. a fire for You. Do not let us wink at our sin, and view it as nothing—-but let us see the enormity and grossness of our sin…. so that we would see the enormity and graciousness of You.
“And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”- Matthew 10:38
\”I’ve been adamant about not living the typical ‘Americanized’ version of Christianity. The “go to church, read the bible, and live a good life” version of Christianity.\” Boy, you\’ve got that right. The average church is no different than the world really, except they carry bibles. I was given the \”bird\” by a father driving his family into a church parking lot. Once inside he didn\’t even recognize I was the person he cut off and flipped off. I\’ve given up on the Americanized version of Christianity and started looking for passionate followers of Christ…those who \”get it\” and are IN LOVE with Jesus and race to read their bibles at night. I call it my \”Jesus time,\” because I can both read, talk, pray and dwell on him alone. When you\’re in love with someone it shows. You don\’t say, \”I\’m too busy\” = \”I don\’t want to.\” Keep being passionate. There are those of us out here who feel just like you do…
Matt,
Wow. It is amazing that this is the same exact thing that God has been dealing with me on. You expressed it better so I am using this post for my friends. Why do I sin or give into sin because I have believed that the lie that sin is better than Christ. I want to love Christ with everything. I am also trading out time on worldly things for time to know Christ by the study of the scriptures and prayer. Someone will scream legalism or etc but it is about not wanting to miss out God has for us. Our grandparents did not have all the distractions that we had so we need to make changes so we can experience Christ. I want to be a vibrant witness a advertisement that Christ is awesome. It is in all in Him and from Him that this will be possible for us.
@Matt, This post confuses me. Are you implying those Christians who go to church, read the bible, and mindful of sin in their own lives are Christ deficient? Huh? And how exactly is that American? Ok thanks
I think he is implying that many in America have bought in the idea that these things in themselves without a love for Christ is all they need but Christ wants us to make him first before everything and anyone. We can mechanically do the right things but our hearts may be far from him into something else that is our true love.
what Albert said.
[Davide]: “…Matt, This post confuses me.”
…Ah, the story of Davide’s life.
Very convicting article. I’m an older Christian and a very knowledgable-of-the-Word Christian, YET I fall far short of being a “THRILLED-with-Jesus Christ” Christian. Matt’s article here really helped me to see my shortcomings and needs in the Christian life. He really zeroed in on same issues in my own life. Thank you, Matt!
albert how do we know those people do not love Christ? By who’sauthority can we make such assumptions? Do any one of us have the ablility to read mens souls? Maybe we should look at ourselves first before casting judgement on others, no?
Davide,
You have a good point but Matt is not casting judgement on anyone but simply pointing what scripture has said so many time before about the dangers about going to God but having a heart being far from him. It does happen and yes God is definitely the one who knows this since we can fool others. The scary part is that I have been guilty of this deceived by my activity or biblical knowledge not noticing that my heart was not in love with Christ. Christ told us what the greatest commandment was and do we really follow it? Matthew 22:3 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
Albert,
Thank you for replying to me. Big thanks to Matt for writing this post–forgot to thank you yesterday.
@Albert,
I think many of us have been there: putting many things before Our Lord. But what does it actually mean not to have other gods before Christ?
When we pray, we are praying to God, right? When we make efforts to attend Mass/Sunday church services, reading sacred Scripture, or avoiding sin (being ‘good’) we aren’t worshipping anything else-duh.
I am pretty sure we all know God wasn’t joking when He said don’t put other Gods before Him. So I do understand the body of this post…but the point I was trying to make—-> Only God knows what is truly in one’s heart and knows if one is truly devoted only to Him.
Okay, we all have a wonderful chance to be Christ-like to others and help them walk the path that we are walking…and only a moron tries to fool God, no?
I still don’t have a handle on the ‘”Americanizing’ version of Christianity” but that’s okay…
Thanks Albert
Great post Matt…thank you.
Amen, Matt. You speak to my heart.
Certainly Matt is not sitting in judgement on those who do go to church, read their Bible, “live a good life” (and each of us must examine our hearts for what we personally mean by that phrase), but only sending a wake-up call to himself and us not to stop there with those good and necessary actions (works). Remember the risen Jesus’ words to John to relay to the church at Ephesus:
Revelation 2:1a, 2a, 4, 5 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:…I know your deeds and your toil and perserverance…But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you, and will remove your lampstand out of its place – unless you repent.”
This was so convicting… Wow, thank you.