Even If i Walk Alone

Instructing and encouraging you to live your life as a disciple of Jesus

obedience

Sacrifice

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I recently heard Pastor David Platt pose the question, “Will we sacrifice our lives so others will come to know Christ?” This is a cutting and important question. Are we willing to give up some or all of our freedom, financial security, social standing, and comfort for the sake of seeing others come to know Jesus? It’s easy to say we want the world to be saved, but when it comes down to how much it will cost us personally, we tend to balk.

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I know this is true about you because it is true of me and the evidence would say it is true of the Church at large. We who claim to be disciples of Jesus are often coming up short when it comes to fulfilling the great commission and making disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20).

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The Myth of the Sinner’s Prayer

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I grew up in churches where an invitation was given at the end of every service. As part of the invitation, people were invited to receive Christ and were led through “the sinner’s prayer”. This prayer was holy and awesome. It was the key to the Kingdom of God, after all. While as kids you might have messed around throughout the service, you didn’t dare misbehave at this point.

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Variations of the same prayer have been around for a couple of hundred years and it persists to this day, although it’s use and invitations, in general, are far less common in churches today, especially those of the mega variety. There’s nothing wrong with saying this prayer. It’s one way to confess your need for Jesus. The problem is it’s not Biblical and it’s not enough.

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Absolute Surrender

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Surrender is a word which causes mixed emotions for me. My independent and ferocious side wants to scream out, “Never! I won’t quit, won’t stop, won’t ever give in.” Surrender implies I’ve failed in some way. I didn’t complete the task or achieve the mission. I’m not one who likes to be beaten. On the flip side, surrender is the most beautiful word I know and is the aspiration of my life.

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I know I cannot win until I surrender. The mission will fail unless and until I surrender. While my prideful self resists surrender, my love for Christ demands it of me. So, in a paradoxical sense, I must refuse to surrender to ever stop surrendering to Jesus!

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Created for More

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There is no doubt we were created for more. We were created to be more, love more, give more, serve more, and look more like Jesus. None of us are fulfilling our God-given potential. I know this because I don’t think any of us can fathom all God has in mind for us. He sees us as He created us to be. We see ourselves in light of our experiences, confidence, faith, and distorted perception of our skills and abilities. Because we are polluted by sin, we are blinded to the glorious reality designed for us by our Creator.

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We are all experiencing God’s potential for our lives in varying degrees. Some are further along than others. Some haven’t even gotten started. But all of us have an enormous potential placed inside of us by the perfect and divine creator Jesus. He created us in the image of Himself. There are no limits when we surrender fully to Him.

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Personal Transformation

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We all want to make an impact for Jesus in this world. It is a mark of the true disciple. Perhaps you’ve been discouraged by your lack of effectiveness in making a difference for Christ. You wonder what is keeping you from doing more. I think Frank Viola has hit on one possibility. He said, “Our impact for Christ on others will be limited by our own personal transformation.”

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No matter how sincere our desire or intent, we will never exceed our own transformation into the image of Christ. We will never be able to replicate that which we have not yet duplicated. In other words, our impact will be limited by how much our own lives look like that of Jesus.

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