Helping People Love Jesus to Live for Him Every Day | Luke 9:23-25
Have you seen the movie Moana? At the beginning of the movie, everyone is happy on the island except for Moana. Even though she is the daughter of the chief, she doesn’t quite belong. She longs for adventure. So she looks out to the horizon and sings about how she’s been “staring at the edge of the water” all her life. She tries to forget about adventure and tries to just fit in with everyone else. But it doesn’t work, there is a voice inside of her that sings a different song of something more. She asks, “What is wrong with me?” Everyone knows inside of themselves that there is something more. For Christians, we know that we are meant for more than just this life. Just as Moana’s dream of sailing out to sea doesn’t mean she is crazy; it means that she was meant for something bigger. A recent study found that “living with purpose” is the number one thing high school students want out of life: above money, fame and even a happy marriage. Another survey asked 20 somethings, “What would make a dream job?” You would expect the top answer to be about money or influence or fame. But the top answer was “felling passionate about my work.” If you are a Christian, God has something more for you than just going to school, playing sports, getting a college degree, getting married, having kids, making a lot of money, and living by the beach. We all want our lives to count for something. There is a great adventure that God is calling you to that is much bigger than you: it is following Jesus. Our mission is “Helping people love Jesus to live for Him every day.” This is the mission that is bigger than us and give us purpose and direction as individual believers working together here at First Naples.
Jesus has set his face towards to Jerusalem. He tells his disciples that He would be going there to be betrayed, to suffer and die; that before the crown there is a Cross. The disciples get furious because he had another agenda, yet Jesus uses this as an opportunity to teach his disciples what it means to follow Him. Jesus teaches us that to follow Him we must deny ourselves and to live for Him we must die to the world.