Night Three Worship

Last nights worship focused on the truth that following Jesus is both a great joy and a great cost. 

If all we do is focus on the joy of following Jesus (think: oh Jesus will make all your life better, you will prosper, there will be ow sadness etc) then the first time we face trials we will doubt and potentially give up. Jesus never claimed following Him would be easy. Joyful- yes, easy- no. 

If all we focus on is the cost of following Jesus (think: oh you must submit and have no fun and be solomn, and work hard at this) then we will struggle to understand why we are following. And we will have hard hearts that are obeying out of duty alone and not love. 

We read Matt 13:44 where the man finds a treasure in a field and sells all he has to own the field . He was greatly joyed by the treasure, but he paid a great price. It's both a great joy and cost to follow Jesus. And ultimately Jesus is the one who sold all He had (equality with God) to buy a field (the whole planet) for the treasure (us!). 

He also challenged our students to understand that all they own is God's. "We are owners of nothing and stewards of everything." 

All this centered around Matt 22:34-40, where Jesus gave the greatest commandments. If we were to obey these two, we would obey the whole bible. 

The challenge was for our students to not feel like every time they struggle or drift from their faith that they need to commit their lives to Christ again. But instead to encourage them to remember their commitment to Christ anew, and repent of any living that has been in contrast to it.