WHICH TEAM ARE YOU ON?

I noticed a store advertisement to join their team of employees. Since then, I've noticed the same kind of sign elsewhere. The signs are similar: "join the TEAM and enjoy a friendly workplace environment with great benefits."

Jesus invited people to join His TEAM. While Jesus had many followers who would come and go, Jesus chose a select group of disciples to become TEAM JESUS. Jesus invested in them and then gave them marching orders to continue to expand the TEAM. Though we live 2,000 years later, we are a part of that extension and also have the privilege of passing the good news on to others, inviting them to join the TEAM too.

What does it take to be a member in good standing on TEAM JESUS?
I'm not talking about being religious, the world has enough of that. I'm not talking about being a great church member either, although this aspect of your life will be affected too. I am talking about what it looks like when a person truly follows after Jesus.

Matthew 16.24 "Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.' " While people may interpret and apply this differently, there is no getting around the idea of self-denial, nor of the daily dying to self implied by "taking up his cross." The cross, though glorified now and adorned as jewelry, was a symbol of a violent death. If we are dying and denying ourselves, then what is it that we are coming alive to? The answer is God through faith in Jesus.

As we go through life, we no longer ask what we want, but what Jesus wants. No longer are we concerned with what others say, for the only thing that truly matters is what Jesus says. We will move from being concerned with what others are thinking and want to know what Jesus is thinking. No longer will we be people pleasers, but God pleasers. No longer will we live by what we see, rather by that which is unseen. To follow Jesus means we are set free from our sinful world and all that concerns the world. To be on TEAM JESUS means to be an extension of His life in ours, so that the life of Jesus may touch the world with His love, grace and peace.

We have 2 teams. TEAM SELF and TEAM JESUS. Which team are you on?
Blessings,
Pastor Pete