Enduring To The End (Mt. 24:13)

Read Matthew 24:13.

1. This is a passive endurance.  Wait, wait, wait.  Then wait some more, all the way to the end.  You will keep thinking, "This could be it."  Be realistic without being pessimistic.  It could be it, but it probably isn't.

2. This is an active endurance.  While time passes (passive endurance), so can your level of love (Mt. 24:12), if you're not careful (cf. Rev. 2:3-4).  Active endurance means increasing and guarding your love for the things of God.  What pulls on that love, to demean and diminish it, is sin.  Unfortunately, you should expect more accepting, popularizing and legalizing of sin in society.  To protect your love for Jesus, you can't be passive.  You must be vigilant and militant against sin.

3. This is a rewarded endurance.  Salvation (deliverance) is promised.

Three Questions (Mt. 10:37-39)

Read Matthew 10:37-39.

1.  Who do you love most?  To follow Jesus, He must be your first love. Is there any person or any thing that you love more than Jesus?  If so, that person or thing is an idol.

2.  What have you left?  When you weren't following Jesus, you bore no cross.  That has changed.  'Taking up your cross' means death to self, sin and the past.  You're a walking dead man!

3.  What are you looking for?  This question has to do with expectation.  Are you looking to make your life better?  How about forgetting yourself, looking to Jesus, and losing yourself in ministry to Him?  The problem is that culture, even church culture, is obsessed with winning.  Jesus calls you to lose.  Lose your self. The most lost Christians are the ones who have "found" themselves.