Sell Everything! The Door to a Life of Adventure
Will you give up everything and follow this Man?
For almost three years, we have been working on a feature length documentary on the global prayer movement. This film is currently available from September 5-22 for limited advance screenings. Please, check it out and be encouraged by what God is doing in the nations.
As we interviewed over 70 believers from five nations, we were able to capture amazing testimonies of the power of extraordinary prayer: the dead were raised, bodies healed, terrorists repented and were baptized, and believers experienced joy in the midst of horrific persecution. As we listened to the stories of these amazing disciples, major themes resounded over and over.
One of the mega-themes was this: when Jesus calls us to follow Him, he asks us to give up everything.
Following Jesus starts with giving up everything. But this is just the first step. As became clear in story after story, the call to give up everything and follow Jesus is a doorway to a life of adventure.
Give Up Your Job and Follow Me
When Jesus called Peter and Andrew to follow him, it was at the cost of their business and livelihood. They are both fishermen with families, working men with hard but predictable lives.
“He said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ Immediately, they left their nets and followed him.” Matthew 4:19-20
The call of Jesus was to leave their job and follow him to become “fishers of men,” whatever that meant. I am sure they had no idea. And yet, they gave up everything they had. Luke shares the additional story of the miraculous catch of fish. They had evidence this was no ordinary man. But, they still had to act radically on that evidence, giving up everything they had known before in order to follow him.
James and John took it a step further. They were mending nets with their father in the boat when Jesus called them. They not only leave their livelihood, but also their dad.
“Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.” Matthew 4:22
The first step in following Jesus was leaving their jobs, the family business, their father, everything that was familiar and predictable, to go “God only knows” where.
Peter had no idea in that moment that he would do miracles, deny Jesus, or travel the known world sharing the gospel. He did not feel like the “Rock” of the church, nor was he expecting to be crucified upside down. He simply said “yes” to leaving everything to follow Jesus.
John, the son of thunder, had no idea he would become the “apostle of love” and one of the world’s greatest authors. He was not expecting to be exiled to Patmos for the cause of the man in front of him, saying, “Come, follow me.” He simply left his father and followed.
This was the beginning of an incredible adventure for the four brothers. Their lives went from ordinary, predictable, and even boring, to supernatural, meaningful, painful, and exciting. Likewise, for us, when we say “yes” to the call of Jesus to leave everything and follow him, we will have adventure after adventure as we continue to follow His voice.
Sell Everything and Follow Me
In Mark 10, Jesus is approached by a young man who wants to inherit eternal life. Jesus tells him to follow the ten commandments. The young man confesses he has done so since his youth.
Jesus looks at him with eyes of love and says:
“You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me.” Mark 10:21
The young man goes away sorrowful because he is very rich. Jesus marvels at how hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom. To enter the Kingdom, you have to give up everything.
Peter, rightly, connects this moment to the apostles’ own origin story.
“See, we have left everything and followed you.” Mark 10:28
We may not have started out as rich as that guy, but we still sacrificed everything we had for you. Jesus says:
“There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters of mother of father or children or lands for my sake and the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” Mark 10:29-31
In other words, if we sell everything and follow Jesus, he will reward us 100-fold even in this life and give us eternal life in the age to come. For the apostles, we see this promise begin to be fulfilled in the book of Acts, as lands are sold and laid at their feet, and the growing church becomes their new, extended family, knit together by the love of the Holy Spirit.
Let us not be blinded like the rich young ruler—sell everything and purchase the pearl of great price!
Paul described the glorious transaction of selling everything for Jesus like this:
“But whatever gain I had [before Christ] I count as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ…that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, sharing in his suffering, becoming like him in death, so that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection of the dead.” Philippians 3:7-8, 10-11
Even in this age, we will see incredible increase if we sell everything and follow Jesus. However, the greater pay-off is in the age to come, as we inherit eternal life with Him at the resurrection of the dead.
Follow Me When I Offend You
Many people want the thrill of adventure without the pain.
However, as I often tell my kids when we are on a family outing, “It’s not an adventure until you want to quit.” Enduring hardship is a part of any natural adventure, and it is the same with the spiritual adventure of following Jesus.
In John 6, Jesus goes from great popularity because of the miracle of free food to great unpopularity as he teaches that people will have to “eat his flesh and drink his blood.”
“After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.” John 6:66
Who knows what amazing disciples walked away in that moment? I’m sure they were some of the most respected. As they abandoned Jesus, those who had already “sold everything” returned to all they had left. Rather than continue the adventure to the end, they left before the story really got going because Jesus offended them.
If we say “yes” to following Jesus, there will be moments where he offends us, moments where selling all to follow Him feels like the biggest mistake of our life, moments where we feel like the Lord has tricked us and led us on a wild goose chase.
In this moment, Jesus asks his closest followers, the twelve, if they want to leave. Peter answers:
“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life…” John 6:68
I have many friends who have endured great hardship following Jesus: disappointment, persecution, physical pain, financial loss, slander, false accusation, betrayal.
Repeatedly, they bring up this Scripture as what they discovered at the bottom of the pit—there was no where else to go for them, there was only Jesus.
If we sell everything to follow Jesus, there will be moments where He offends us. Persevere through the offense. Where else can we go? He alone has the words of eternal life.
Follow Me After Your Failure
Simon Peter was the most zealous the twelve disciples. He also had the most spectacular fall.
On the night he declared his willingness to die for the Lord, on the night when Jesus needed him the most, he denied the Lord three times and ran away. His cowardice in the face of adversity is one of the greatest failures in all of Scripture. Peter was heartbroken, ashamed of his failure. He fled the fire in the high-priest’s courtyard, weeping bitterly.
After Jesus had risen from the dead, he appeared again to Peter.
When Peter first met Jesus, there was a miraculous catch of fish, leading to a simple call: “Follow me.” At this final meeting, there is once again a miraculous catch.
Peter had denied the Lord while warming himself around a fire. Now, Peter encounters the Lord around another fire. Rather than scold Peter for his sin, Jesus’s word to Peter is, “Come and have breakfast.”
Jesus takes Peter aside and asks him three times, “Do you love me?” He asks Peter to take care of his sheep. Jesus is calling Peter back into ministry. He is saying “come follow me” all over again. He is forgiving Him for His failure. Although Peter was not faithful to the Lord, somehow the Lord now entrusts the care of His own people to him. Rather than giving him a demotion, Jesus sees a humbled Peter as a man ready to lead.
If we give up everything to follow Jesus, we will have moments of cowardice and failure, both big and small. We must learn to hear the merciful voice of the Lord saying, “Come, have breakfast.” Failure does not disqualify us from following Jesus unless we stop following Him in response to failure. Jesus is calling all of us failures back to the breakfast table, back into the work He has called us to do. He is saying to us once again, “feed my sheep.”
I Gave All for You
How can Jesus ask us to lay down jobs, family commitments, even wealth and property to follow Him? Is it really fair for him to place this demand upon us? And, who in our modern world would be foolish enough to do this?
Have we forgotten that the one who asks for our all, is the same one who gave His all for us?
“Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me, and where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.” John 12:24-26
The one who calls us to leave our jobs, our fathers, our wealth is the same one who left His Father, His position, His wealth in heaven for us:
“Who, being in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped onto, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” Philippians 2:6-7
He left His Father’s house, searching for a bride who would also abandon all others for His sake, to become His one and only.
“Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Genesis 2:24
He is only asking you to do what He has already done for you.
Will you give up everything and follow this Man?
If you say “yes”, and you persevere through you offense and failure, you will not live a boring life. You will live a life of adventure, of meaning, of sacrifice, and in the age to come, you will inherit eternal life.
Check out 10Daysfilm.com and hear about the adventure of following Jesus from believers around the world.