Are You Just a Sunday Christian? The Truth About Discipleship | Jonathan Evans

Jesus would rather suffer than be saved by the devil many people would rather be saved by the devil than suffer for God many people would rather be saved by the doctrine of a demon than actually suffer in the doctrine of God what's going on ladies and gentlemen it's Jonathan here and listen I got a good one for you today because there was someone in the Bible who Jesus called the devil and I want to tell you why because I want to make sure that we're not living under the doctrine of demons or the doctrine of the devil just like this person was in scripture and it's found in Matthew 16 and you need to see it Matthew 1623 Peter is called the Devil by Jesus why Peter was called the Devil by Jesus now none of us want to be the devil okay but you talk about one of the most upfront discip IES who was really a follower of Jesus Christ 100% yes he wasn't perfect but he was called The Devil in this moment and the reason is simple because he was concerned about man's interest and not God's interest this was the time when Jesus was telling his disciples that uh the son of man must suffer many things he must go to Jerusalem and die and be raised on the third day all of these things and then Peter came to Jesus looking out for Jesus Peter came to Jesus and said Lord I forbid it no we're not doing that we are not dying today like we're not dying we're not suffering I forbid it Lord you're not doing that and Jesus looked at Peter and said get thee behind me Satan you are a stumbling block to me because you're not focused on God's interest you're focused on man now I need you to focus on two things number one what Jesus said and number two the fact that Peter was called the devil he was looking at Peter and knew who was really speaking okay why Peter was focused on being comfortable Peter was focused on being okay Peter was focused on everything going his way and Jesus's way and it looked like that Peter was focused in Jesus's best interest and Jesus said you're focused on man's interest you're not focused on God's interest now if I was Peter I'd be like yo how you going to call me the devil I'm looking out for you how you going to call me the devil I'm looking out for your best C I'm trying to make sure you live and you calling me the devil yes because Jesus wasn't here for his comfort he knew he was here for his calling and Jesus understood to listen to Peter and go for Comfort would make him absent or vacate his calling and a lot of people do that very same thing we live under the doctrine of the devil we live under the doctrine of of Satan that says be comfortable ignore the calling uh be okay don't do what God is telling telling you to do do things your way and Jesus wasn't having it Jesus wasn't having him walking watching him walk away from his calling Jesus knew I am the Fulfillment of scripture I'm here in other words to do what the Bible tells me to do even if it doesn't make me feel good even if it doesn't make me feel like things are going my way even if it I can avoid suffering I don't want to avoid suffering if it caus me to walk away from God word Jesus knew Isaiah 53:5 I'm wounded for your transgressions bruised for your iniquities the chastisement of my peace is upon you like Jesus knew Isaiah 53:10 he knew that the Lord was pleased to crush him making him a guilt offering so that uh his his offspring can be their days can be prolonged like Jesus knew Psalm 118:22 that says that the the stone must be rejected to become the Chief Cornerstone so he knew he he's supposed to be rejected he knew all of these different things and he knew what the Bible was calling him to to do and so he would rather suffer than be saved by Satan okay I don't know if you if you heard what I said Jesus would rather suffer than be saved by the devil many people would rather be saved by the devil than suffer for God many people would rather be saved by the doctrine of a demon then actually suffer in the doctrine of God Jesus Jesus is letting us know now when you follow God it's going to be tough when you follow God uh the the word it's it's not going to be easy but it's better to follow God than it is just to be comfortable and a lot of people are satisfied with their comfort a lot of people are satisfied with just uh being okay A lot of people are just satisfied with being out of God's will just so that they can feel safe and secure and here Jesus Is In The Garden of Gethsemane after this moment and he says not my will be done if there's any way Lord take this cup pass for me take this cup for me but not my will be done your will be done okay so if you want to be like Jesus you got to understand something we have to be a people that say not my will be done your will be done even when it causes me to suffer why because Peter didn't understand then when he was telling Jesus be okay don't die you're not going to suffer that he was actually telling Jesus to make sure everyone else does suffer if Jesus doesn't suffer so you got to understand if Jesus doesn't die everyone dies if Jesus doesn't die on the cross and suffer many things no one can be saved if Jesus doesn't do what he's called to do then everybody's on the outs Jesus is saying Peter you don't even realize that you're speaking against you because the enemy will always have you focusing on your self-interest so that no one else can be impacted by you see most people are focused on what they gain the money they make uh where they live what they drive uh how many followers they have how many likes they're getting how well their videos doing how well and there's this big self-interest when God has called you to be an impact to many others like if Jesus listens to Peter Jesus knew oh that's the devil talking because the devil doesn't want people to be saved the devil doesn't want people to be impacted the devil doesn't want uh uh people to grow from my from my life that I've live the devil doesn't want people to be um discipled the devil doesn't want people to grow in Christ the devil doesn't want people to go to heaven the devil doesn't want the devil doesn't want any of that and through the context of your suffering a lot of people will be saved the devil knows that so the devil the doctrine of the devil is oh be okay like choose your self-interest Choose Yourself make sure that you're okay make sure that that you're safe and satisfied so that everybody else can drown um that's the the doctrine of the devil um you know when you took that job and you said to yourself um I believe this is God God is telling me to move from this job to that job like I really believe the Lord is speaking to me like I need to listen I need to go then you go and you get there and you you don't like your boss you don't like your co-workers you the job wasn't quite what you thought it was all of those different things and then what do we say oh that must not have been God talking that was me talking so I need to change and do something else because I'm not happy I'm not comfortable things aren't um going e easily it's not convenient so if it's not convenient and I'm not comfortable and things aren't going easily and I'm not as happy then it must not have been God it must have been me and we trying to run out of there no what if God sent you in there because what's the point of having a warrior if there's no battles anywhere what if God sent you in there because there's somebody there that needs to be saved what if God sent you in there because somebody there needs to be uplifted by your life even in hardship what if God sent you in there to suffer many things so that other people can be lifted up what if God sent you in there not primarily for you did we ever think about that this happened in my own life I you know preaching is something people think that is easy for me no it's not easy for me I never wanted to preach I ran from preaching I didn't want to do it my dad was a beast at it I was running from it I was like no that's definitely not for me I'm not doing that because I knew that there was a lot of different struggles that I had as it relates to just learning growing up so I didn't want to read and write papers 10 page papers every week to preach sermons like that's the last thing I wanted to do and Jesus kept calling me to do it and I kept running from it because I was interested in my comfort not my calling and so because of that I spent a lot of time running and I spent a lot of time not impacting now I realize now that I'm doing what God is calling me to do that it's about the impact that he's called me to make on many people's lives with the gifts that he has given me I'm a steward of it I'm not an owner of it so I don't get to decide how I use it he decides for me so yes that causes me to work in a way that I prefer not to work go in a way that I prefer not to go uh do things that I would prefer not to do uh but at the same time I'm called to it so what encouraged me as I was walking out of the state fair with my kids I'm walking out of the state fair with my kids and I'm actually got to preach the next day so U I know when I get home I got to do a night study just to make sure I get ready and as I'm walking out thinking about the fact that I got to go I'm tired been at the State Fair all day and now I got to go get my sermon ready a little bit just to put the fine tune touches on it you know this guy walks past me and he says Jonathan and I said yes sir and and he looks at me and he just says goly I can't believe I'm walking past you at the fair I said what's your name and he gave me his name and I said and he just kind of paused and he was just looking at me he said I was in incarcerated for 10 years and 5 years ago I listened to your message in prison I was a gang banger um I was a blood I had been living a whole life of just sin and all types of things being in a gang and that day I heard your sermon and I've been serving Jesus 100% ever since now I'm married I have a family I'm serving the community serving in my church um and my whole life was turned around the day that I saw your message in prison he shook my hand he gave me a hug he asked to take a picture I said absolutely and the whole time I was thinking that's why God called me to this that's why he called me to stay up the late nights that's why he called me to do the extra reading the extra studying like that's why he called me to something that I didn't want to be called to that's what he called me for for the guy in the prison who was in a gang his whole life whose life was going downhill going downhill who would see one message and be a man of be a man of Valor for for Christ and I I couldn't I couldn't have been more encouraged to go home and keep doing what I was called to do because it wasn't just about about me um Jesus said hey you got to get off the doctrine of these demons thinking that it's just about you running from everything when it's not comfortable I mean running oh I don't like it so God changed all of a sudden the Bible says God is the same today yesterday and forever more he told you to go do something you went and did it it didn't go like you liked it so now he changed it it wasn't him no you were so sure before now you're unsure that's because the enem is in your ear like Peter was in uh Jesus's ear saying hey no I forbid it that's not for you you're supposed to be happy it's supposed to feel comfortable it's supposed to be easy you're supposed to be able to kick back sit on a beach with your legs crossed and hope for the best meanwhile the people you're leaving are the ones God sent you in there to save to be a vehicle for salvation so I I need you to understand this because this is what the enemy did in Genesis 3 when he talked to Adam and Eve he made them focus on their self-interest to disobey God you're going to be wise you're going to be like God you know what I mean it's going to be it's going to be good for you um and when she saw that it was good and that she was going to be wise and that all self-interest totally forgot about what God told them to do when you get caught into that self-interest a lot of times you'll be pulled right out of God's word Jesus wanted to do what wouldn't be interesting to him but was interesting to God sometimes it's not going to be interesting to you but if it's interesting to God it's the best for you and it also impacts other people's God is looking outside of just you and we've got to hear that we've got to know that we've got to do that because otherwise you push back from your own legacy when you're no longer here what will people say because for the person that's passed away that's sitting in the front of the church and you're at a funeral you don't speak for yourself I've never been at a funeral where the person the funeral was about got up and spoke for themselves and if I ever am at one I'm running for my life or Jesus is returning live and we getting resurrected what happens at a funeral is everybody else talks the enemy will make you live a life as if when the day you die you get to speak for yourself Jesus is saying no everybody else will speak and the question is what will they say hopefully it's the impact hopefully it's how much you gave hopefully it's that they watched you live in turmoil and Triumph hopefully it was about how you were facing obstacles like David and Giants and knocking them down and they couldn't understand it but you inspired them to do the same if you wish to follow Jesus then just watch his life it was tumultuous the whole time and he did what God called him to do he's not asking us to do anything that he himself is not already done he's the he's the first of many okay he despised the shame sheated at the right hand of the father uh Hebrews 12 says and so that's what God is calling us to so you want to think about that you want to think about about that for your own life are you living the doctrine of demons where I'm focused on my self-interest or am I living the doctrine of Jesus where I'm focused on God's interest not my will be done your will be done let's go be steadfast unmovable always abound in the work of the Lord and know that it will not go in vain like share subscribe ring the bell let's grow together leave a comment come on we got to be better and we've got to be a doctrine of Jesus not doctrine of Satan sounds good but it's not good let's go what up everybody it's Jonathan listen we want to be under the right Doctrine now we don't want to be listening to the doctrine of the devil that makes you feel good while you're going in the opposite direction from God's word okay let me see what you have to say in the comments like share subscribe ring the bell become a part of the family because we're going to grow here let's keep going let's go