The Call of Jesus
Welcome to this third video in the series called "The Call of Jesus".
In this lesson I talk about my new book and want to give you a taste of it,
give you some teaching, and so on.
I have the new book here.
It's the first time I got a copy myself.
Now we start to see the response.
We start to get response from people who have read the book
and how it changed their lives.
One of the responses I want to read here. One person wrote:
This is for every Christian.
That person wrote this on Amazon:
"Have you ever read your Bible and longed for more?
Longed to walk as Jesus did and see what Jesus saw?
What Torben writes in this book is the answer to what is missing
in what has become the "normal" Christian life.
I have ached in my soul for more, for as long as I can remember.
I will never be the same after reading this book!
This is the very simple gospel written in a way that everyone can understand.
This is a MUST read for EVERY Christian!"
These are beautiful words one person wrote on Amazon, and I want to say:
Have you longed for more?
Have you longed to live the life we read about in the Book of Acts?
Then I really believe that this book and this video series could be something for you.
I really encourage you to see the whole series
that will come out every second or third day and get the book if you can do that.
Until now we have looked at
how important it is not to build on our church culture.
We need to build on Christ and His word.
It's Christ first, and then mission, according to Him,
and then we end up with church.
Not church first, and then we put mission inside that church box,
so we forget Christ.
These are some of the things I talked about until now.
We also looked a little that the Bible says that we should obey Jesus,
as the first disciples did.
The truth is that our focus has changed.
Our way of doing church has changed.
But Jesus is forever the same.
It's really time that you and me take the time to stop doing what we are doing,
and then look at Jesus and what He has called to do.
Today we are going to look at the chapter called "Being The Good Ground".
I want to start with reading something from my book.
"Jesus' call to follow Him is for everyone,
but the sad truth is, not many are willing to take up the cross
and pay the price to follow Him.
To follow Jesus is a calling where you need to be willing to pay a high price.
This is something we do not often like to even talk about,
let alone do,
but those who are willing to pay the price..."
Yes, this is so true.
We don't like to talk about it.
We don't like to think about it, we don't like to talk about it.
We don't like to talk about that we need to pay a price to follow Jesus.
It costs everything to follow Jesus.
And it's something we need to talk about.
You need to be aware of it and be willing to pay the price.
Otherwise you will not be able to do what Jesus has called you to do.
When we talk about Jesus' call, I want to say, again,
that this is for everyone.
His call is for all of us.
If you are old, if you are young, if you are a man, if you are a woman.
Jesus has called you.
But, as we looked at before, the truth is, everyone is called, but...
It's only a few who are, actually, willing to take up the cross
and pay the price to follow Him.
If we take and look at the Bible, there are two people in the Bible,
you can see very clear, that Jesus called.
There were many people, but there were two people I want to talk about.
One person Jesus called was Matthew.
He was a tax collector. You can read about that in Matthew 9.
Jesus walked and He saw him and He called him, and right away Matthew
left everything behind and followed Jesus.
And Jesus used him mighty.
Jesus really used Matthew in an amazing way.
He was even the one who wrote one of the gospels.
Matthew was used by God.
Why? Jesus called him and he was willing and he said "yes" to Jesus' call.
But, in Matthew 19 you read about another man,
the rich young ruler.
Jesus also called him
with the same call as He called Matthew.
Come and follow me.
But the rich young ruler was not willing to pay the price
and he ended up going away very sad.
And we don't hear more about him.
So, here we have two people in the Bible.
We have Matthew and we have the rich young ruler.
Both of them were called.
But only one of them was willing to leave everything behind and follow Jesus.
And that person experienced an amazing life with Jesus.
That person experienced so many things. God used him mighty...
and the other person left sad.
And we don't hear more about him.
Who of those two are you?
Who are you?
Because the call Jesus has given was the same,
but the response was different.
This is what you have to understand, if we look at the call of Jesus,
I'm going to go through this video series and in my book,
that that call to follow Jesus is the same for all of us.
But the response people give is different from person to person.
And you need to choose before we move on
and look at what it is Jesus is saying.
You need to choose who you are.
If you are like Matthew or if you are like rich, young ruler.
Another place where it also becomes clear is in Mark 4.
In Mark 4 we read the parable about the sower.
And in this parable we see that there was a farmer who went out to sow his seed.
The seed is the Word of God.
Or, let's say it like this, the seed is the call of Jesus,
the call Jesus has given.
But the call falls in four different grounds
and gives four different results.
The first ground we read about is the ground where the seed fell on the side of the road.
And birds came right away and devoured it.
They are those people who hear the word, but it does not go down in their hearts,
so Satan comes right away and steals what was sowed in the heart.
I don't know if this is you.
Maybe you will read my book, maybe you'll see this video series,
and maybe you will look at what Jesus is saying to you,
but it will just goes in one ear and out the other.
One day you will stand in front of Him and you have not been faithful.
You have not received Him.
That is the truth.
The second ground we read about in Mark 4
is when seed fell on the stony ground
and there is not a lot of moist earth, so it comes up quickly,
but then the sun comes and scorch it, so it veins and dies.
There Jesus said that these are those people who hear the word and receive it,
but then when persecution comes in, they fall away.
They fall away because the word did not go deep enough in their hearts.
So, when persecution comes they fall away,
because they are not truly willing to pay the price to follow Jesus.
I don't know if that is you.
Many people will listen to the call of Jesus and His words,
and they say: Jesus, I want to follow You.
I want to obey You, Jesus. Jesus, I want to obey You.
But you know, as soon as you start to obey Christ, His words,
you will experience persecution.
You know, you can be in church your whole life
without experiencing persecution.
But I promise you, in that moment you start to heal the sick,
cast out demons, and especially lead people to Christ...
Satan hates it, you will have an enemy,
and you will experience great, great persecution.
And what happens?
Many people fall away when that happens.
So, before you look at the call Jesus has given you
and before you really move on, you need to stop up and say to yourself:
What ground am I?
Am I ground number two?
Will I just fall away and give up as soon as it becomes hard?
Or, will I keep going no matter what?
It's your choice. It's your decision.
The third ground Jesus is talking about in Mark 4:7,
where He says that seed fell among thorns
and thorns grew up together with the seed and quenched it,
so it did not bear the fruit.
The third ground Jesus is talking about here is the thing that is growing up around us,
and that is the worries of this world, the deceitfulness of riches
and the longing for other things.
Many people hear the Word of God, hear the call Jesus has given,
but are like the rich young ruler.
They hear the word and say: Jesus, I want to follow You.
But what happens?
There are so many things around them, like the deceitfulness of riches,
the worries and longing for other things,
and all of those things come and end up stealing that call.
They are like the rich young ruler who said: Jesus, I want to follow You.
Or say: Jesus, what can I do to inherit the eternal life?
And then he left sad.
But thankfully, there are also those people who are the forth ground,
the good ground, who bear a lot of fruit.
And those people do not only bear a little fruit, but a lot of fruit.
We are talking about 30, 60 or 100 fold.
I will ask you: Who are you?
Are you Matthew or are you the rich, young ruler?
Who are you of those two?
What ground are you, of those four?
Are you ground number one, who just hears the call of Jesus,
but never response to it?
Are you ground number two who said: Jesus, I want to follow You?
But then persecution sets in and you fall away right away
because you are not willing to pay the price.
Or, are you like ground number three: Jesus, I want to follow You.
I want to follow You. I want to be good ground,
but you also wants so many other things in your life.
And you are deceived by the deceitfulness of riches and all other things around you.
And therefore you don't bear fruit. Or worries.
Or are you the good ground who bears a lot of fruit?
What we need to understand, it's not something we talk a lot about in the church,
but we need to really understand that it's your choice.
It's not my choice. My life - my choice.
Your life - your choice.
You need to choose what ground you want to be.
And right now we are living in a time where the world is getting crazy.
Everything is shaking. The virus, economy, our freedom.
But that is, actually, not bad for the church.
That is, actually, good. Why?
Because the time like this reveals what ground we are.
A time like this reveals what is inside of a person.
If we look at the church today, and just be honest,
most people in the church today are ground two and three,
but they don't see they are two and three before...
persecution really sets in, and before the economy being shaken,
and fears and worries come,
and then it reveals what ground they are.
It reveals that many of those people have not really been willing to suffer
and pay the price it costs to follow Jesus.
So, as soon as persecution comes, they start to compromise,
and for the sake of peace, or, as soon as persecution comes,
they start to deny Christ. It ends up, actually, denying Christ.
No, no, no, no. We don't need to obey Him like that.
Or, as soon as the economy being shaken, like they are ground number three,
they say: Yes, Jesus, I want to follow You. But then it costs everything to follow Him,
and worries and longing for other things, and it reveals who they are.
That they are not that good ground.
Where are you? Who are you?
I really believe and hope that...
the book "The Call of Jesus" and this video series can help you.
I really believe, when we look at Luke 10,
that it will give you revelation what it is Jesus has called you to.
But, it's only those who take His words, and are willing, and obey it,
who will bear a lot of fruit.
So, some of you, sad to say, some of you will hear this teaching,
some of you will hear what Jesus has said
and it will go in one ear and out the other.
Some of you will fall away. Some of you do other things.
So please stop and decide, check yourself and decide -
I want to obey Jesus no matter what.
I want to be His disciple. I want to be like Matthew.
I want to be willing to take up my cross. I want to follow Him not matter what.
And if you say like that, if you think like that,
if you are willing, you will, like Matthew, experience an amazing life,
where God will use you, and you will be able to change many people's lives,
and you will stand in front of Jesus as a good and faithful servant one day,
who has been faithful in small things.
But if not, Jesus will ask you: Why do you call me: Lord! Lord!
If you don't do what I say?
Why do you call me: Lord! Lord! If you do not do what I say?
What we need to understand also is that
a disciple is really somebody who needs to deny himself and take up the cross and follow Him.
Jesus said that the one who holds on his life is going to lose it,
but the one who lays his life down for my sake is going to win it.
So, it's amazing time we are living in. I'm very excited.
Yes, we have been shaken,
but it's time to stop up, it's time to examine ourselves,
it's time to see where we are.
Are we like Matthew, or are we like the rich, young ruler?
It's time to see what ground we are.
Are we ground one, two, three or four?
Are we the good ground who bears a lot of fruit?
I will end up saying that...
when we, a year and a half ago left Denmark, because of persecution,
God spoke to us and said: Torben, the church is not ready.
You need to help the church. The church is not ready.
And I knew that persecution will come and it will be a hard time for the church,
but I did not know it will go so fast.
I did not know that the shaking will come so fast.
At the same time, with everything, like you are shocked what is happening
in the world today, I'm excited what is happening in the world today.
Why? Because Jesus is building His church.
Jesus is building His church.
Jesus is calling people back to Him and His word.
So, I hope you will follow in this teaching, when I move on in the next lesson,
where we are going to go deeper into Luke 10.
I hope if you haven't done it, get my book, read it.
You can get it for free, if you write to TheLastReformation.com,
if you don't have the money to buy it on Amazon.
And let's take this journey together,
where we together, step by step, by step, by step,
go into what it is Jesus is saying,
and we are willing to pay the price
and willing to take up the cross and willing to obey Him,
and we do this together, and then together
we are going to see amazing fruit, like we read in the Book of Acts.
God bless you! See you next time! Bye-bye!
The Call of Jesus