Mark 8:34-38

34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."

- Mark 8:34-38

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What path should we take to follow God?

As Christians, what God wants us to do is to follow Him, listen to Him, and glorify Him above all else, above our selfish needs. We must love Him with our whole hearts and forget all those sinful thoughts of the world. Most of us here have the desire to follow God and become a disciple. What does that take?

Let's time travel back to when Jesus was alive. We are with Jesus in person, and he tells us, "Follow me to Jerusalem." This means we would have to leave our homes, our families and friends, and those materialistic things that we value so much. What would you do? Would you follow him regardless of how long it would take, how difficult the journey will be, or who will be traveling with you? Well, Jesus wants us to do just that if we were to be his disciples. 

Unfortunately, as humans, there are so many things that hold us back. Our minds are filled with other priorities and concerns that take over our lives. We are blinded by worldly things. Right now, we're so caught up in school work and our future plans. We want to get that 4.0 GPA, go to the best ranking school in the nation, get that "Big 4" business job in New York City, etc. We are currently holding on to so many things to the point where our hands are full. When it comes to God, we come up with excuses. However, say that God suddenly asked you to let go of all those things and hold on to His hand instead. 

What would you do? Can you do it? We have a huge vision for our future, but does that picture include God?

God wants us to make that big sacrifice. Remember God made the greatest sacrifice by sending his one and only Son to earth and having him die on the cross for our sins? In return, our sacrifice should be making God our #1 priority. We should do the best we can to learn the Gospel and spread God's word and love Him to death. How do we apply that in our daily lives? We should spend time with God and learn about Him by reading the Bible. As we try to reflect His characteristics in our own, we should use what we learned and turn it into action. Never be embarrassed to call yourself a Christian and that you follow God, Jesus says. 

When we meet Jesus, we want to make him proud. If you chose the other path, it says in the passage, "the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in his Father's glory." Do we want him to shake his head at us and be disappointed in us? I hope not.