GRINDIT podcast

“If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple...that's the words of Jesus. But I thought God is a God of love? Unconditional love so why is Jesus telling us we have to hate everybody if we want to be his disciple? It's all about putting him first in our lives. Who is first in your life? You? Your spouse? Your children? Your parents? Or Jesus?

Janet Jackson released a song in 1986 with the title "What Have You Done For Me Lately" and that title sums up the attitude of many people today when it comes to helping meet the needs of other people. Or we say something like this, "If I do this for you, then what are you going to do for me?" Jesus has been invited to a dinner at a Pharisee's house and he is trying to get them to learn some humility. After talking to all that is in the room, being all rich and powerful Pharisees and other religious leaders, Jesus hones in on the host of the dinner and tells him he should invite the poor, blind, crippled, and the lame; those who cannot repay the host for meeting their needs. These are people they rejected and had nothing to do with even though they "loved" God and "served" Him faithfully. Jesus ministered to everyone, regardless of their income or their social status and he never asked anything in return from anyone. We can earn a great lesson from this Pharisee’s bad example if we pay attention.

Jesus was eating a meal at a Pharisee's house when he noticed they kept trying to sit at the head of the table because they wanted to sit in the higher places of honor but when someone with higher honor than they had came in, they had to get up and move down the table to a lower place of honor and suffer the embarrassment. Jesus ends up telling them if they would just sit at the foot of the table to begin with, they may be invited to sit at the head of the table and save themselves the embarrassment. What he wanted these religious leaders to learn was humility.

Jesus gives three parables to the crowd trying to help them visualize what the kingdom of heaven is like. He uses a mustard seed that is a very small seed yet when planted, it grows into a huge tree that birds use to build their nests in. Then he uses yeast. Yeast is a catalyst that makes dough rise. In these two examples it took something that seemed insignificant to many and it became something great and it took someone to work to get it going. In the third example Jesus uses a house with a narrow door. The Master closes the door at some point and locks it leaving people outside the house and they are looking in the windows as they beg for to be let in but it is too late. The Master said he doesn’t know them and they aren’t welcomed in his house and they are turned away forever. We all have a choice to make: to follow Jesus or reject him. What’s your choice?

If repentance plays such an important role in us going to heaven, then we might ought to understand what it means! John the Baptizer’s message was to repent; Jesus’ message was to repent; and the apostles’ message was to repent. So what does it mean to repent? It is saying “I’m sorry” or is it more than that? If where we spend eternity rides on it, then we better know what repentance is! Also, Luke covers a situation where a woman who was crippled is healed in the synagogue and the leader of the synagogue is outraged! He claims Jesus had six other days to heal this woman but I think it goes deeper than that with this man. I think his anger is coming from his broken pride. I think his ego was crushed because he knew this woman and couldn’t help her and this drifter who claims to be from God shows up one time and heals her on the spot! Listen, don’t be jealous or full of envy when others are blessed, but rejoice with them!

Article cited: What does it mean to repent?

I heard a guy say, "God hates me!" because of something he was dealing with...But is that true? Luke 13 starts out with a tragedy. Some Jews had come to the Temple to offer their sacrifices to God and for some reason, Pilate has them murdered. Jesus takes this opportunity to teach the crowd, and his disciples, that death is imminent and it doesn't happen because we are worse sinners than someone else. He tells them regardless of how death comes, the most important thing is to repent of our sins and live for God. Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death…Death is separation and because of sin we are separated from God and if we die in our sin, then we are given our wage. A wage is something we earn by working and when payday comes, we receive our check. BUT...a gift cost someone else something and they give it to us. God has given us a gift!... the free gift of eternal life through what His Son, Jesus, did for us on the cross and the empty tomb! We can choose our wage or we can choose God’s gift. What is your choice?

How do we know if the Kingdom of God is our top priority? How do we know that we are putting God first in our lives? Because we will be focused on others and not ourselves which is Jesus’ point to the man in the crowd that asked him to help get his inheritance from his brother. It’s all about focus. Where is yours? Is your focus on earthly things? Are you concerned with working a lot so you can buy more stuff? Or are you focused on heaven and pleasing God? If you say, “Heaven” then are you doing what Jesus said? How do we know if we are? Jesus said if we are focused on heaven then we will sell what we own and help meet other people’s needs. Are you selfish or selfless? As Luke 12 comes to an end Jesus tells his disciples to stay prepared. Prepared for what? His coming and his words still ring true. Keep your focus heavenward so you aren’t caught by surprise when the Groom returns for his bride!

As Jesus was talking to his disciples, there was a man who interrupted him. He said, “Jesus, my brother will not give me my part of the inheritance. Will you say something to him so he will?” The Bible is not a weapon for us to use to bully someone and get our way. When we can’t control or manipulate someone, the last thing we should do is try to use Jesus, or the bible, to get our way and that is what is going here. This guy in the crowd can’t get his way so he thought if Jesus told the brother to give his part of the estate to him, then the brother would surely listen to Jesus and do what is right! Right???!!! This is hardly ever the case. People that have hurt you or have sinned against you, they know what they did was wrong. No matter how many times you throw bible verses in their face, they aren’t going to listen and most likely will not apologize. This man was focusing on the wrong thing and that’s what Jesus wanted him to learn. Don’t focus on what others are doing or not doing, instead focus on what you, as a follower of Christ are doing or not doing. As we do that, we can ask God to take care of the situation as He sees fit!

Death is coming and there is no way around it. As morbid as it is to think about, it’s still a fact. Once we take our last breath on this earth, we take our first breath in eternity. Where will you spend it? Where your fear is will give you the answer! Jesus said, “Don’t fear someone who can kill your body but fear the One who can send your soul to hell!” Do you fear God? The One who literally has our soul in the palm of His hand? He has the power to send us to hell or welcome us into heaven where he is. You have a choice! We all have fear but some of us have misplaced fear. We fear things that we have no control over for example, look at the news. People watch the news and they become full of fear, anxiety, and they worry about what is going to happen and how will it affect them. Fear can be healthy for example: I fear God because He holds my future in His hands and if I choose to reject Him, then I will spend eternity in hell never to have a second chance but if I choose His Son Jesus and His sacrifice for me, then I get to be with Him in heaven for eternity! Where is your fear?

Jesus was talking to his disciples as a crowd gathers around them and he begins to teach them to not be like the Pharisees. In chapter 11 Luke gave his version of Matthew 23 where Jesus pronounced the “Woes” on the Pharisees. What he is doing is exposing their hypocrisy. A hypocrite is simple terms is someone pretending to be something they are not. It’s a term that comes from Greek theatre where men played all the roles and they would wear a mask to pretend to be someone or something else. The Pharisees, along with the religious leaders, were pretending to serve God and to love God but in reality they were doing the opposite. They were doing everything for power and prestige, to be seen by those in their community yet they didn’t care for the people in their community at all. They felt as though they were “above” the “sinners”! So Jesus explains to his disciples that their righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees because they will soon be taking over the Kingdom of God and they will be the ones people look to for help and guidance, especially when persecution comes. I’ll challenge you like Jesus challenged his disciples, “Be real!”