Standing Alone When Following Jesus Gets Costly

Following Jesus sounds inspiring until it costs you something real: approval, comfort, and the sense that everyone is on your side. We start with what we love about Jesus, that He tells us like it is. He doesn’t sell discipleship with a soft pitch and hide the hard parts. He names the conflict up front: if the world hated Him, it will hate His followers too, and sometimes the tension can cut right through a household.

We also walk through a sobering scene from the Gospels (Mark 3 and the parallel passages) where Jesus faces pressure not only from religious authorities but from His own family. With crowds pressing in and accusations swirling, they try to pull Him back, worried about what His ministry is doing to the family name. Jesus answers with a defining question: who is my family? His response re-centers everything on faith, obedience, and doing the will of God, even when it feels lonely.

From there we get painfully practical about people pleasing and fear of man. If you’re called to lead, serve, or simply obey God in a hard moment, you will eventually face the test of disappointing someone. We talk about why people pleasing is bondage, how God may even arrange circumstances that purge it out, and why that refining creates real spiritual growth and kingdom momentum. The goal isn’t becoming harsh; it’s becoming free.

If you’re staring at a decision that won’t be popular, let this be your encouragement to please God first. Listen now, share this with a friend who needs courage, and leave a review so others can find us. What’s one area where you’re choosing obedience over approval right now?

Transcript

The Cost Of Following Jesus

SPEAKER_01 0:31

There are many things that I love about Jesus. And one of them is he tells us like it is. He talks to us and lets us know how things really are. And what I mean by that is, he gives us the cost of discipleship up front. He doesn't operate some sort of bait and switch type thing where it's a soft sell up front, and then in the back side you get really punched with what it really costs. No. Jesus lets us know up front. In fact, one of the times he was reviewing the cost of discipleship, the cost of following him and being one of his disciples, he indicated that if the world hated him or hates him, it's going to hate them. And we'll take that one step further. If the world hated him and hated them because of him, they're going to hate us at some point in time because of him. And he's upfront about that. He's telling us that there's going to be some very difficult things. In fact, he said there's the potential of households being split right down the middle over him, over who he is, and who people say he is or isn't. And so in this particular podcast episode, I kind of wanted to highlight once again the fact that there are going to be times in our following Jesus as we live a life in the Spirit, as we stay in step with the very life of Jesus, we're going to encounter times where it's going to be difficult to take a stand because you're going to be taking that stand alone, so to speak. There might not be anyone else, no other living human being around you at the time. And that happened several times in the life of Jesus, in which he was in which he was opposed by the religious people of the day, the hierarchy, by lawyers, even by his own family at one point in time. In fact, we have in the Gospels, in the Gospel of Mark chapter three, Matthew chapter twelve, and Luke chapter eight, in the synoptic gospels, there's a story taken concerning Jesus and a point in his ministry in which his own family came against him. And it said that when his family in Mark chapter 3, verse 21, Mark writes that when his family heard about the fact that the religious people were upset about what Jesus was doing, and that there were these massive crowds around him, and that there were these fantastic stories about miraculous he. And bringing shame on the family name was anathema. I mean, that was really out of bounds. And so Jesus' family came to get him because there was a lot of pressure that was coming at them. And they didn't have the answer, so they thought maybe, maybe, maybe he's going crazy. Or he's gone crazy. So they wanted to find out, and someone came up to Jesus and said to him that his mothers and his brothers had arrived, and they were standing outside. And Jesus knew what the situation was, what they were going to be doing. And so, in the midst of the crowd that was around him, literally, he had just come from a time of great healing, and he sent out his twelve disciples and gave them power to heal. And he went home, and when he went back home, crowds surrounded him even then, and that's when his family came and said, In essence, you're coming with us.

SPEAKER_00 6:41

And that's when he said, Who are my mother and my brothers?

SPEAKER_01 6:49

And he stated that his mother and his brothers were those who do the will of him who sent him and who believe in him and are not offended.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

Jesus had the pressure of his family and of the religious authorities coming against him. And his disciples really didn't know what to say because they hadn't seen anything like this before. The ones that were very close to him were sent out.

Breaking Free From People Pleasing

SPEAKER_01 7:33

So he was Jesus was he was facing this crowd of people and his family alone. Sometimes that's going to happen with us. Now, granted, the scripture says that there's wisdom in counselors. You know, it's good to have people around us to provide good counsel so that we can have in our lives a balanced view of things. But also, there are going to be times in which we have to stand alone. And that can be very intimidating if you are a people pleaser. Because a people pleaser wants to please people. I mean, displeasing people is again, that's like the unpardonable sin if you're a people pleaser. You can't think of anything hardly nothing worse than not pleasing people. When in all reality, people do it all the time. By saying no, people get a little bit hurt feelings. But people that don't really have that people-pleasing mentality, it doesn't really bother them to say no and someone's feelings get hurt. But a people pleaser, if you're a people pleaser and you want to be a leader, an effective leader, there's some real refining that's going to be that's going to be going on in your life, and that's a good thing. That's a good thing. Because people pleasing is bondage, man. Pleasing the Lord, Jesus said, take my yoke upon you. Learn of me.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

My yoke is easy, my burdens are light.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

Jesus will stand with us in the midst of that difficulty. The Father will stand with us, the Spirit will stand with us, but sometimes, people, we have to learn, we have to learn to lean on Jesus instead of basing our feelings upon the approval or disapproval of other people. In fact, sometimes God arranges it so that we have to have that purged out of our life. Because without that being purged out of a person's life, we can't move forward. And the Father wants us to move forward in our lives, not to be stagnant. And here's a key concerning kingdom momentum. Moving forward is actually going upward, higher levels, moving forward. God wants us to reach higher places, to function with more maturity, to have access to things that we haven't been functioning in before, but we have been given access to because we have graduated. And part of graduation is not being bound by a people-pleasing mentality or fear of man. Fear of man.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Fear of what people are going to say. And there's no better remedy than to have things turn negative. Well, that sounds really radical.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Well, God has called us to a very radical walk. He has given us his all, and that's what he's asking from us is our all. Everything, even our sin, even our failures, they are property of Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

Hallelujah.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

And so, in our development, regardless if you're a leader or not, these things in the life of someone who is in relationship with the Lord, such as people pleasing in the fear of man, are going to be purged out. And what a great day it is when we can stand, when other people don't approve us, because some of you are facing that right now. You're faced with a decision that's not necessarily popular. Maybe within the construct of your own fellowship, you've got to do something that's different than what other people are doing. And you might even receive some negative feedback as a result of you obeying God. But which is better? To please man and disobey God, or obey God and displease people? I think that's rhetorical. It's obeying God is better.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

Displeasing people? I mean, there's life after that.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

That might be news to some people that there is life after displeasing people.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

And we don't have to be afraid of others or their opinions.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Jesus said that his mother and father were the people that he was spending time with who, number one, didn't say he was demonized, and weren't trying to stop him from what he was called to do, which his family was trying to do, stop him. They wanted what the father was offering, and they were placing their faith in Jesus, and he said, This is my family. This is my family.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

And you know what? In all reality, that is our family. Oftentimes, that becomes our only family.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

It all depends upon the circumstances we have with our biological families.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

But you get the point.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

The point is that in our walk, and this is actually good news. It has been for me, because I have been a person who has been a people pleaser, and the fear of man has been a snare in my life. But I'm glad to say that that is not the case. And how I know that's not the case now is because I have people who previously I wanted to please, currently, are not necessarily pleased with me, but I'm obeying God. And it's a test to see what I'm going to do.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

And I'm going to pass this test because I'm going to obey the Lord. Because I want to continue to grow and develop.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

I believe we all do, but sometimes when we have opposition, we kind of second guess our commitments. Like, uh really? No, really. In our call to discipleship, we're called to give all, even our fears. And so my encouragement is if you are being given the opportunity to obey God, but displease people in this set of circumstances that you're facing right now, in the ones that you're looking at right now, please God. Obey Him. Don't worry about the opinions of other people. People come and people go. God is eternal. Relationship with God is our priority. And when we have a righteous relationship with Him, everything else begins to fall into place. Jesus said it best, he said, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things, they'll be added in the right way, in the right order. But the prize, the real supreme acquisition, is the kingdom of God, relationship with God, and then after that, relationship with one another. But to obey God is better than a sacrifice.

Prayer And Final Encouragement

SPEAKER_00 16:48

It's better than pleasing people, obeying God. Let's pray.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Father, first of all, I thank you, God, for who you are, for what you're doing and how you're doing it. I ask that you'd breathe on this word and send it across the nations, Lord, to the east, to the west, to the north, to the south, that those who receive it would be encouraged, exhorted, strengthened, that Christ would be formed in us, the hope of glory, and that we'd be found faithful in obedience to your word upon your return.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

We look to you, Lord Jesus, as our example.

How To Reach Us

SPEAKER_01 17:47

Holy Spirit, we thank you for giving us the instructions and for leading us in the path of righteousness for your name's sake. And we stand here in the very name of Jesus and we declare these things to be established in our lives. So be it. Amen. Amen. Amen. Alright, folks. We love you. And if you have any thoughts, questions, concerns, please feel free to drop us a line at life around the fire at gmail.com. That's our email address. Or you can type in Life Around the Fire and look us up on the web. We would love to hear from you. In the meantime, God bless you. Adios, amigos.