It Was Never About You
- Kingdom Kulture
- Oct 8
- 7 min read
I don't have a ton of memories from high school. I've moved on for the most part so any success or failures don't consume any real-estate in my mind. However, the first day of practice as a freshman going for the starting quarterback position on the Varsity team I'll never forget.
I remember showing up and being surrounded by college coaches from almost every major university I could think of. As you can assume, they were not there for me but rather for our superstar defensive end. He was ranked the second best high school player throughout all of America. The coaches were practically drooling over him each game and even some practices. They were willing to do whatever it took to get him to come to their school, even if that meant offering scholarships to his best friend.
A few years ago, I got a chance to catch up with my old teammate. He mentioned that soon as he got to the University of Florida, they made him change his postion and treated him like he was nothing. At first, he thought it was becase he was a new player. Later on, however, he realized they had never wanted him to begin with. They only wanted his friend.
Once he realized that he was being used, he left the program immediately. Sadly, many Christians in the western parts of the world have come to Christ with this same mentality. We have heard sermons from pastors explaining what God can or will do for us and we are extremely disappointed when we find out that it was never about us at all.
7 Not that there is [or could be] any other [genuine Gospel], but there are [obviously] some who are troubling and disturbing and bewildering you [[a]with a different kind of teaching which they offer as a gospel] and want to pervert and distort the Gospel of Christ (the Messiah) [into something which it absolutely is not]. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to and different from that which we preached to you, let him be accursed (anathema, devoted to destruction, doomed to eternal punishment)! 9 As we said before, so I now say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel different from or contrary to that which you received [from us], let him be accursed (anathema, devoted to destruction, doomed to eternal punishment)! Galatians 1:7-9 AMPC
We have been led to Christ using manipulated scriptures and the attraction of promises that only serve as gratification of the flesh. In the failing attempt to hold fast to this version of the Gospel, our homes have been left broken and our hearts void of truly having Jesus reside on inside of them.
3 For the time is coming when [people] will not tolerate (endure) sound and wholesome instruction, but, having ears itching [for something pleasing and gratifying], they will gather to themselves one teacher after another to a considerable number, chosen to satisfy their own liking and to foster the errors they hold, 2 Timothy 4:3 AMPC
The truth is, until we accept Jesus and everything He stood and died for, we have no access to God. It is only through the acceptance of Jesus and the denouncement of ourselves that we are permitted access to God.
24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself [disregard, lose sight of, and forget himself and his own interests] and take up his cross and follow Me [[c]cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying, also]. Matthew 16:24 AMPC
Much similar to the high priest in the Old Testament removing certain clothing in the presence of God within the tabernacle, we must also be willing to lay down ourselves in order to even gain access to God.
4 He shall put on the holy linen undergarment, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his body, and be girded with the linen girdle or sash, and with the linen turban or miter shall he be attired; these are the holy garments; he shall bathe his body in water and then put them on. Leviticus 16:4 AMPC
We must not only accept Jesus with our hearts but also conform our lives to the way He lived and, if necessary, to the way He died, conforming our minds to the way He thought and conforming our teachings to the way He taught, using the love, grace and mercy bestowed onto us as the bait to pull men out of the raging seas of this fallen world.
7 However, when they persisted with their question, He raised Himself up and said, Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. 8 Then He bent down and went on writing on the ground with His finger. 9 They listened to Him, and then they began going out, conscience-stricken, one by one, from the oldest down to the last one of them, till Jesus was left alone, with the woman standing there before Him in the center of the court. 10 When Jesus raised Himself up, He said to her, Woman, where are your accusers? Has no man condemned you? 11 She answered, No one, Lord! And Jesus said, I do not condemn you either. Go on your way and from now on sin no more. John 8:7-11 AMPC
Today, we see Christians all over the world accepting Christ and choosing suffering on His behalf. In the Bible, we can also see what it meant to follow Christ without the extremal threat of the government.
36 Others had to suffer the trial of mocking and scourging and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned to death; they were lured with tempting offers [to renounce their faith]; they were sawn asunder; they were slaughtered by the sword; [while they were alive] they had to go about wrapped in the skins of sheep and goats, utterly destitute, oppressed, cruelly treated—38 [Men] of whom the world was not worthy—roaming over the desolate places and the mountains, and [living] in caves and caverns and holes of the earth. Hebrews 11:36-38 AMPC
27 Then Peter answered Him, saying, Behold, we have left [our] all and have become [h]Your disciples [sided with Your party and followed You]. What then shall we receive? 28 Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, in the new age [the [i]Messianic rebirth of the world], when the Son of Man shall sit down on the throne of His glory, you who have [become My disciples, sided with My party and] followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And anyone and everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for My name’s sake will receive [j]many [even a hundred] times more and will inherit eternal life. Matthew 19:27-29 AMPC
Even during easier times, Jesus was never concerned with God's expansion of His own business but rather focused Himself entirely on the expansion of God's Kingdom.
22 Then Peter took Him aside [a]to speak to Him privately and began to reprove and [b]charge Him sharply, saying, God forbid, Lord! This must never happen to You! 23 But Jesus turned [c]away from Peter and said to him, Get behind Me, Satan! You are in My way [an offense and a hindrance and a snare to Me]; for you are [d]minding what partakes not of the nature and quality of God, but of men. 24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself [disregard, lose sight of, and forget himself and his own interests] and take up his cross and follow Me [[e]cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying, also]. Matthew 16:22-24 AMPC
It turns out that Jesus, too, was an entrepreneur focused on the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and the recruitment of loyal employees who would be willing to die for it.
We must be willing to accept Jesus not only in thought but also in action. True Christians all over the world have accepted Jesus knowing how much it will cost them. Conversely, many of us in the western parts of the world dwell on how much Jesus paid for us -- not realizing that through His torture the annunciation of our own torture, too, had begun.
22 But Jesus replied, “You do not realize what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup [of suffering] that I am about to drink?” They answered, “We are able.” 23 He said to them, “You will drink My cup [of suffering]; but to sit on My right and on My left this is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by My Father.” Matthew 20:22-23 AMPC
We understand that Jesus died for us, but we have yet to understand that Jesus died in expectation for us to surrender our desires, plans and goals to Him. In other words, Jesus died also for our own deaths. We must reconsider what we have been taught and realize that the Creator of the Universe cannot be bought or bribed into pouring out superficial blessings and callings.
3 Are you ignorant of the fact that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 We were buried therefore with Him by the baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious [power] of the Father, so we too might [habitually] live and behave in newness of life. 5 For if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we shall also be [one with Him in sharing] His resurrection [by a new life lived for God]. Romans 6:3-5 AMPC
Even through the death of Jesus, we see that it wasn't about the will of Jesus but the will of His Father. If the gruesome torture and mutilation of the body of Jesus didn't influence God to change His plans for an easier death for His only Beloved Son, how much less likely is God's will going to be discarded for us to achieve our own personal desires?
13 Behold, My [a]Servant shall deal wisely and shall prosper; He shall be exalted and extolled and shall stand very high. 14 [For many the Servant of God became an object of horror; many were astonished at Him.] His face and His whole appearance were marred more than any man’s, and His form beyond that of the sons of men—but just as many were astonished at Him, Isaiah 52:13-14 AMPC
We must understand that compromise comes from imperfect men and it is not a characteristic shown by God.
7 Do not be deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at (scorned, disdained, or mocked [a]by mere pretensions or professions, or by His precepts being set aside.) [He inevitably deludes himself who attempts to delude God.] For whatever a man sows, that and[b]that only is what he will reap. Galatians 6:7 AMPC
Question of the Day: Would Jesus say that your life has been all about you or His Father?
