Loyalty

N.T.#113 "Loyalty"

July 20, 2023

Matthew 10-Part 8

LET IT GLOW

Certainly, one should be loyal to their spouse, boss, and church. Can we say we are loyal to our Savior?Can I safely say that we desire to be a loyal follower of Jesus Christ? (Why else would you be studying His Word to learn how to live for Him?) 

Charles Swindoll points gives us 4 vital qualities of a loyal disciple enlisted in the Master's service which Jesus points out:

1. Loyal disciples openly acknowledge Christ before the world. Confess means acknowledge; promise; profess; covenant. Romans 10:9-10 says, If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. Do we fully identify with Jesus in in word and action? Do you have genuine faith alone in Christ alone?
2. Loyal disciples willingly accept rejection, even from their own families. Our expressed commitment to Christ will not result in increasing peace and harmony. Instead, it will bring division, disharmony, misunderstanding, and harshest kinds of rejection and persecution. Even throughout the world, believers have been considered dead by their family when they accept Christ as Savior. (False religions do this.)

LET IT GROW

       

        3.Loyal disciples sacrificially choose their essential priorities. Jesus did not suggest that we        

           should not love our parents and our children. But we're not to love them more than we love  

           Christ.      If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and  

            follow Me. (Matthew 16:24)

  

          4. Loyal disciples experience the blessing of union with Christ. Jesus dwells in His people and  

              does not forsake them. Whenever a person receives a disciple and/or their message, it is as  

              though they are receiving Christ Himself and God the Father. (verse 40)

Rewards await us for our loyalty in serving as Christ's willing disciples. Press on! Get over being rejected, which is easier said than done. 

LET IT GO 

Use us today, Lord Jesus, to share what a wonderful Savior You are!

Mend broken hearts, set our feet on the solid Rock of Jesus.