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Imagine Jesus walking through your workplace today. Not the sanitized, stained-glass version we've created in our minds, but the radical rabbi who turned the world upside down. Picture him stepping onto a construction site, watching skilled workers frame buildings, and saying to them: "Come follow me, and I will make you builders of people."

Or envision him walking the corridors of a hospital, observing nurses caring for patients with tireless dedication, and inviting them: "Come follow me, and I will make you caretakers of the soul."

Perhaps he'd visit a botanical garden, approach the gardeners tending their plants with careful attention, and call out: "Come follow me, and I will make you tenders of hope."

This is exactly how Jesus operated. He had a remarkable way of entering people's everyday spaces and transforming them for the Kingdom of God. He took what people already knew—their skills, their passions, their daily work—and showed them how to apply those same principles to something infinitely more significant: drawing people into life with God.

## The Mission That Changes Everything

In Luke 9:51, we encounter Jesus at a pivotal moment: "Jesus let nothing distract him from departing for Jerusalem because the time for him to be lifted up drew near, and he was full of passion to complete his mission there."

This passage reveals something profound about Jesus's character. He was a man on a mission—not wandering aimlessly or waiting to see what might happen. He moved with intentionality, passion, and courage toward Jerusalem, fully aware of what awaited him there. He knew his life was about something bigger than personal comfort, success, or safety.

His mission? To draw people into life with God.

And here's where it gets personal: Jesus made it clear that those who follow him share that same mission.

## The Cost of Following

Jesus never sugar-coated what following him would require. In Luke 9:23, he laid it out plainly: "If you truly desire to be my disciple, you must disown your life completely, embrace my 'cross' as your own, and surrender to my ways."

This isn't a one-time commitment. It's a daily choice to lay down our lives for the sake of others being saved. It's about joining God in what he's already doing in the world around us.

But let's be honest—this is challenging. We live in a world that constantly pulls us toward other missions:

- The mission of comfort and security
- The mission of financial success
- The mission of appearing successful in others' eyes
- The mission of having everything we want
- The mission of ensuring our families turn out "right"

Some of these aren't bad things in themselves. But they become dangerous when they replace or distract us from the primary mission Jesus has given us.

## Believing Versus Following

Here's an uncomfortable truth: we've made it far too easy to believe in Jesus without actually following him.

You can believe Jesus existed. You can believe he loves you. You can believe he died for your sins and rose from the dead. You can believe he sits at the right hand of the Father. But believing these facts doesn't automatically mean you're following him.

As one pastor put it: "The greatest danger to Christianity today isn't atheism, it's a version of Christianity that believes in Jesus, but doesn't follow him."

Following requires something more than intellectual assent. It requires action, sacrifice, and daily surrender.

## The Three Distractions

Later in Luke 9, we encounter three men who approached Jesus, each representing a different obstacle to following him fully:

**The first man** enthusiastically declared he wanted to follow Jesus. But when Jesus explained it wouldn't be comfortable—that following him meant having nowhere to lay his head—we never hear about this man again. His mission of comfort won out.

**The second man** was directly invited by Jesus to follow him. He agreed, but added, "but first..." He had commitments that seemed to take priority. His mission of prior commitments distracted him.

**The third man** also wanted to follow Jesus, but he had something else he needed to do first. His competing mission pulled him away.

These three responses reveal how easily we can be sidetracked from the mission Jesus has for us. Comfort, commitments, and competing priorities constantly threaten to dilute our calling.

## What Following Actually Looks Like

Jesus made a startling statement in Luke 9:24-25: "For if you choose self-sacrifice, giving up your lives for my glory, you will discover true life. But if you choose to keep your lives for yourselves, you will lose what you try to keep. But if you gained all the wealth and power of this world, and all the things it could offer you, yet lost your soul in the process, what good is that?"

This is the paradox of the Kingdom: we find life by giving it away.

Following Jesus isn't primarily about:
- Attending church services
- Using your talents in ministry programs
- Taking notes during teaching
- Being a "good person"

While these things may be part of following Jesus, he's inviting us into something much deeper. He wants to move into every space of our lives and completely transform them for his Kingdom and glory.

## The True Measure of Faithfulness

The measure of our faithfulness isn't how much we know about Jesus or how strongly we believe certain doctrines. The true measure is how closely we follow Jesus.

And Jesus laid down everything—his comfort, his reputation, his very life—to draw people into life with God.

If we're honest, most of our lives would tell a different story than what we claim with our words. We may say God's mission is our mission, but our calendars, bank accounts, and daily choices often reveal other priorities.

## An Invitation to Something Deeper

Jesus isn't about creating a following—people who admire him from a distance, like fans of a celebrity. He's about making followers—people who walk where he walks, love what he loves, and sacrifice what he sacrificed.

Simply saying you'll follow him isn't enough.

The question isn't whether you're called into this mission. If you're a follower of Jesus, you are. The question is whether you'll actually live out that calling.

Will you let Jesus transform your workplace into a mission field? Will you allow him to use your skills, your relationships, your everyday interactions to draw people into life with God? Will you follow him with the same passion and determination he showed on the road to Jerusalem?

The mission is clear. The invitation stands. The only question that remains is: will you follow?