Do You Want to Cut Corners?

3/11/1990

Occasionally, when a difficult thing comes along, it drives me to a place of really ransacking all my previous thinking and all the things that I’ve gotten comfortable with, just to reevaluate. Usually what emerges from that is sort of what happened in John chapter 6, when Jesus began to say things that didn’t seem all that logical and all that admirable or anything. He began to teach things that really weren’t any fun, and multitudes just started leaving. They weren’t impressed anymore because they were in it for themselves. And as they found out that being in it for themselves wasn’t going to pay off, they began to leave Jesus. Instead of running after them, He turned to the twelve and said, “Now’s your big chance. You can blend into the crowd and leave too, if you’d like. If that’s what you want to do, you really ought to.” And out of an act of the will of their heart, they said, “No, this is what I need to do; and I’m going to go after it with a renewed fervor.”

In times of difficulty, where harvest time has come from bad seed sowing, it brought that same thing to the surface again. The thing that I’ve been thinking about for the last couple of days is basically along the lines of John 6. If there’s anybody who wants to cut corners, now’s your chance. If you want to cut corners, if you just want to be along for the ride, now’s your chance to leave. It’s not because Jesus doesn’t love you, or because I don’t love you, or because others don’t love you, but it’s because we do love you that it’s got to be real. It has to be your conviction and your heart. You have to be in it for God’s glory and not for your own satisfaction. And if you want to cut corners, if you want to see how little you can get by with and still kind of hang on and keep your reputation up, then now’s the time to hit the road.

We’ll be waiting with the light in the window when you’re ready to give it your whole heart. It’s not an insult. It’s not an antagonistic remark. But it’s just to say: if you want to cut corners, you’re in the wrong place. If you want to see how little you can get by with, and then claim “Foul, foul, foul!” when anybody asks you any questions about it… if you want to see if you can be at just the right amount of gatherings, and show up just the right amount of times, and have just enough spiritual conversation to “get by”… then what’s the point? There really isn’t any point. It’s just a self-deception. It’s just not worth it.

Now is a good opportunity. If you want to leave also, now’s a good chance. Don’t stay if you’re interested in cutting corners. If you want to see how little you can get by with without “getting in trouble,” then you’re in the wrong place. This is God’s kingdom. In the amplified version of Luke 14:33 it says, “Unless you forsake all, you can’t be My follower,” Jesus speaking. It had a little footnote with word studies, and the translation was, “Unless you say goodbye to all, you can’t be My follower.” Unless you say goodbye to all.

If you still want to hang on, if you still want to have your rights, if it’s okay with you for vanity or materialism or pride or lust or selfishness or your little pairing off in relationships, or having your own fortress of your own home and then attending-attending-attending, if your life is centered in yourself or your own belongings or your own identity or your own family, then you are cutting corners. If your life is centered in that and you merely “venture out” from your personal world - you’re willing to, but it’s a chore for you - to go and be in someone’s house even though no gathering has been called, then you are cutting corners. If that’s a “drain” on you, or if somebody sneaks up on you and calls a gathering that you weren’t totally prepared for, and that’s an insult, or you are indignant about that, then you are cutting corners.

If you are not with all of your heart reaching into all that God has, then you are cutting corners, and you are in the wrong place. You will not bear fruit that will last. It will only be self-deception. A little evangelism, a little benevolence—but it won’t be GOD, it won’t be Christ Jesus. And it’s not worth it. Consider this as a John 6 time, that if you don’t really want to give it your whole heart, but you just want to see if you can cut enough corners to get by and hang around because you don’t know what else you’re going to do, then it’s not worth it. If you don’t want anybody to be mad at you, or your spouse or whoever else is “still around,” or this is where your friends are, if those are the kind of thoughts motivating you and it’s not really your heart to follow Jesus and invest completely in His kingdom, then now is a good time to kind of slip away.

Investing completely in Jesus and His kingdom has to be your heart. It has to be who you are. It has to be your desire, and every hidden place comes into the light. Every spare moment is invested in Jesus, rather than in your own self. You are not in it to cut corners. You are not in it to see how little you can get by with, but it’s your whole heart, your whole soul, your whole mind and all your strength. And if that’s your life, if that’s your heart, you will bear much fruit, showing yourself to be His disciple, showing yourselves, for God’s glory, to be His disciple.

So think about it seriously. This isn’t meant to be a sermon. This isn’t meant to be instructional. This is meant to be just serious talk between friends. Personally, for each of you, if you are in this to cut corners, to pair off in your relationships, to “do your own things and then attend”, if it’s an external thing to you and that’s the way you want it… if you prefer God’s kingdom to be external, and you want to have your own kingdom and then attend His kingdom, if that’s the way you want it, then you are not going to make it. You’re building a tower, and you are not worth enough to complete it. That’s another Amplified footnote. You’re not worth enough, your net worth, you don’t have the value in your heart. There is not enough gold stored up in your heart and in heaven to finish the tower, if it’s your desire to cut corners.

I know it’s hard sometimes, in a practical sense, when you want to do the right thing. I know that’s hard. That’s not what I’m talking about. I am talking about what you want. Not your success rate, but what’s the desire of your heart. Not how good you are at it, but what do you want? What’s the desire of your heart? Do you want to cut corners? Or is it your heart to go all the way, to spend yourself, risk everything, even your own physical life, if necessary, for Jesus? Do you want to learn how to be that way? Is it your passion to learn how to be that way, at least?

Or, do you want to cut corners and defy anybody to cross your little 18-inch line? Because, after all, you’ve paid your dues, and you’ve done what’s appropriate, and you’ve done as much as whoever you are, in your imagination, trying to make as your role model. Jesus is the standard. He wants your whole heart. He wants all of our hearts. These questions that I’m asking you, I ask them of myself. “Is it what I want? Is that what I want? Or am I trying to cut corners?”

As I said, make that determination with a quiet, peaceful heart. Do you want to go all the way with Jesus? Is that your desire? Not how good you are, not how much you feel your “value” is, in terms of introspective thought. It has nothing to do with how good you are, or how your performance has been, it only has to do with what you desire with your heart and what your pledge to the Father is.

Meditate on that, because I think everyone here that has a heart for Jesus feels the same way. They’d rather walk with one person who cares and will spend everything, than a hundred people that are mixed and divided and are trying to sneak by. They’re erratic. They’re yo-yos of commitment. You can’t really depend on them to be loyal to you and to the cause of Christ and to the purposes of God to the Church here. You can’t really depend on that because they’re centering around themselves. They’re attending, as opposed to centering around Jesus with every ounce of their being and all that Jesus represents in His kingdom. I, personally, would rather walk with one person that I knew was loyal to the cause of Jesus in every area of their life, than with a hundred people that can sing real good.

There is definitely a time, there are continual waves of times in my own life, when I have to stop and say, “Really, who am I? On what basis am I functioning?” And to bow my knee to Jesus, a living Jesus, personally, again, in a brand-new way. I’m just inviting each of you to do that as well.

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