Crazy Faith Series "Jesus wants my help?"

Matthew 8:18-22 “Jesus wants my help?”

Vrs 18 Jesus slipped away from the multitudes of people. Why would He do this? I think if we examine this entire text we see that a possibility is that He knew they were following after Him for the wrong reason…to get their immediate needs met.

As we continue through this passage the “crazy faith” part about it is that Jesus does not want you to follow Him just because He can do something for you. He wants you to follow Him because you can do something for Him. Eph 2:10

That is crazy that I can do something for God? Not only is that crazy but He wants me to make Him the most important thing in my life and when I do, He will provide.

A promise that we can rely on from the Word is that in following Jesus we will have what we need. Notice I did not say what we want.

There is a difference between following Jesus and following Jesus. Some only follow till things don’t work out or their immediate needs are met, or a problem happens with the other people who are following Jesus.

Are these true followers of Jesus? Only God knows the answer to that question and it not my job or yours to judge that. If a person trusts in Jesus as their Savior the Bible says they are “sealed for the day of Redemption” Eph 4:30 that means they are eternally secure.

Lets get back to the text…
Vrs 19 -20 A scribe (teacher) told Jesus “I will follow you wherever you go” now Jesus’ response was not what I would expect. I would expect something like “cool that’s why I am here to recruit people”

Vrs 20 His response What??? “Foxes”
We learn a lot about the true heart motive of the questions or statements made toward Jesus by how He answers.

Jesus realized this was a prideful statement.
1. A follower must have Humility; Jesus shows how the Father provides for the smallest of creatures, but He has no where to lay His head. He was showing the lowly state that He came to serve us. If you are not humble you are not going to be the right type of follower. Jesus was humble. Philippians 2 (gospel)

Humility in service is something that we have to pray for. Pride will seep into your life if you are doing things for your own glory. This teacher was speaking out of pride I can do it, look at me Jesus I am loud and vocal and I will follow you. Others were following Him already but he had to tell Jesus because He wanted to be better.

Reminds me of the door to door salesmen that sold hundreds of products with this line… "Let me show you something several of your neighbors said you couldn't afford."

Many times we get full of ourselves, the way I do it is better, we criticize and say or think that we can do things better. I am a good Christian, look how bad others are doing, when you start thinking like that you have to wake up and realize you are a sinner and only by the grace of God are you doing even half way decent.

Lets take it another step, if you are serving in the church or a ministry and you think you are doing a great job that attitude will come out and guess what? No one like it.. including God. Pro 6:17 Lord hates pride
Pride is the only disease that makes everyone sick but the one who has it.
Remember Pro 16:18 pride goes before the fall.


Think about your job, everyone likes encouraging compliments when you do a good job. Don’t let it go to your head. If you did a good job, realize it is only by the grace of God that you can do a good job.

Abe Lincoln said in a presidential address
Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.
Be humble and give the credit to God
David Rhodes said
Pride is the dandelion of the soul. Its root goes deep; only a little left behind sprouts again. Its seeds lodge in the tiniest encouraging cracks. And it flourishes in good soil: The danger of pride is that it feeds on goodness.
The teacher had a good statement but Jesus was saying I desire humility.
The second thing is Jesus knew this man thought that this was the good life.
2. A follower will suffer; He is homeless gives us the idea of suffering, your suffering will validate your testimony. People will say you are crazy if you follow Jesus under those circumstances.

Without a promise of health, wealth and success. They will say why follow? What is in it for you? This will actually validate that you really have faith before all those people who say that. Because if the promise is that you will suffer, you will sacrifice, things will not always go the way you want them to. your “crazy faith” will turn heads.

You know why what some are calling the prosperity gospel is so popular? It is not crazy, believe in Jesus and everything in this life is gonna be alright. That is a crazy statement to believe but no one would say you are crazy to find hope in it. They would say if that’s what gets you through then good for you.

That is why you often run into people who say things like Christianity did not work for me, it is because they were lied to, they were only taught the prosperity part of the message. Which obviously there are prosperity promises like, peace, hope, joy, love fulfillment and so on, but it is only half the message and Jesus warns of that.

Someone asked C.S. Lewis, "Why do the righteous suffer?" "Why not? They're the only ones who can take it."
If you are suffering right now and it is not a direct consequence of sin, God knows you can handle it.
Lets look at all the apostles and how they died
The only apostle’s death the Bible records is James' (Acts 12:2). King Herod had James put to death “with the sword”
Peter was crucified, upside-down on an x-shaped cross, in Rome, in fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy (John 21:18).
Matthew suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia, killed by a sword wound.
John faced martyrdom when he was boiled in a huge basin of boiling oil during a wave of persecution in Rome. However, he was miraculously delivered from death. John was then sentenced to the mines on the prison island of Patmos.
James, the brother of Jesus (not officially an apostle), the leader of the church in Jerusalem, was thrown over a hundred feet down from the southeast pinnacle of the Temple when he refused to deny his faith in Christ. When they discovered that he survived the fall, his enemies beat James to death with a club.
Bartholomew, also know as Nathanael, was flayed to death by a whip.
Andrew was crucified on an x-shaped cross in Greece. After being whipped severely by seven soldiers,
Thomas was stabbed with a spear in India during one of his missionary trips to establish the church there.
Matthias, the apostle chosen to replace the traitor Judas Iscariot, was stoned and then beheaded. Paul was tortured and then beheaded by the evil Emperor Nero at Rome in A.D. 67.

When I see that it makes me say they were “crazy” to follow, but then I realize they were willing to follow despite the cost, their lives.

So bottom line Jesus said, “hey do want to live a life in which you don’t even know where you are going to sleep tonight, then follow me.”

Following Jesus is tough but it is so worth it. 2 Cor 8:9 “He became poor so we can become rich spiritually” and He will provide for your needs if you do follow. Notice I said needs not wants.

So if we follow we have to be willing to suffer.

Vrs 21-22 Let me take care of business, This mans father was not dead but the man was waiting for his father to die so he can collect on his inheritance.

Two things this man is saying
1. “I would like my service to you to be comfortable let me get my inheritance this way I will be comfortable” Maybe he heard the response to the scribe and he though, this money could help us out, Jesus has no home.

You will find enjoyment in ministry but the Bible never tells us that if there is only little enjoyment I should move on. I was reading something from a Pastor who said to people in his church “there are plenty of ministries out there just find one you like” you know what people do with that, they bounce from one ministry to another because they find something they don’t like about it. There is no consistency and therefore they never truly reap the benefits of consistent long term ministry.

Getting involved in Night Light Kids, VBS, Kids club, the cleaning ministry, helping on work days, greeting, set up and clean up, youth ministry, worship. All great and enjoyable ministries but there will be tough times and that’s when your “crazy faith” pulls you through or you just cave and move on to the next ministry. Realizing Jesus wants my help, He does not need it but He wants it.

Disclaimer
Don’t neglect your family, this passage is by no means suggesting that. This man wanted to stick around and wait till his dad died so he can get the inheritance.

As a believer your first priority after God is your family.


2. He made excuses, I have to do this first
We let everything else get in the way of our service and following the Lord. We make excuses, I don’t have the time, I don’t have the abilities, I don’t feel like it. The mistake we make is we don’t pray and ask God to help us stop making excuses and follow Jesus.

Vrs 22 Jesus’ answer the spiritually dead bury the physically dead.
What are you waiting for??

Are you crazy enough to believe that Jesus wants humble people that are willing to suffer and make no excuses. And when you are willing to be that you can help Jesus.