March 3, 2018

Is Jesus Your Lord Or Your Advisor?

And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

– Mark 8:31-33

Pride. It’ll get the best of us when we aren’t even thinking about it. Can you imagine the nerve of Peter reprimanding Jesus? Oh, my! We would never do that.

Except we do it all the time.

Jesus is our Lord and Savior but how often do we place Him in the role of consultant or advisor? How many times have we “claimed” His blessing for something we wanted, all the while ignoring His teaching?

Those were some of the questions our pastor asked recently. “We can not expect to knock Jesus off His throne and still expect Him to bless us,” the Rev. Ryan Martin said. Except we do.

Martin denounced what he called the “prosperity theology” that is growing in popularity. We want something, we claim it by “faith” and demand that Jesus give it to us. That’s not biblical but it sure does draw in the crowds.

As Martin said this, I immediately thought of a man who does this regularly. He is quick to quote the Bible and offers up beautiful prayers. People look up to him as a true man of God. At least the people who don’t know him well look up to him. His life doesn’t reflect the gospel his words proclaim but it sounds good and some think highly of him because of it.

When was the last time you truly placed Jesus on His throne and worshipped Him alone? When was the last time you acknowledged Jesus as your Lord and Savior and followed Him to those scary places faith sometimes takes us?

Pride demands that we get our own way. Pride tells us it’s okay to hit our spouse, to threaten schools, to get our own way. Pride is a coward masquerading as someone who is in control and worthy of being held in high esteem.

When was the last time you let something you wanted go so you could give your tithe to the church, Martin asked. When was the last time you set aside your dreams, your plans, to follow Jesus where He asked you to go?

“You prove your faith by how you serve, what you give up, what you deny, and by what you give,” Martin said.

Faith appears awesome when it allows us to live the life pride tells us we deserve. True faith places Jesus above us all and us in the place of follower. Is Jesus your Lord or your advisor? Your actions answer for you.