Giving up everything

[rockytopva]

So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. - Luke 14:33

Do we have to give up everything we love do? Such as hobbies? I play sports 4 tines a week but i think it could be stopping me from getting through to god. I'm unsaved and think something is blocking me from getting through to god. I try to seperate time for him but it's like i'm not doing enough. I really want to be saved but dont know what to do. I have repented and tried not to sin but i feel theres something thats stopping me.

1. If the Call of God is on your life - Then yes, sell what you have, and follow God's plan for your life.
2. If the Call of God is not on your life - You must follow the best fit plan.

1. And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.
2 And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich.
3 And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature.
4 And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way.
5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house.
6 And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully.
7 And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.
8 And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.
9 And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham.
10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. - Luke 19

Notice the case of Zacchaeus, the Lord required no more from him than an overnight stay. There was required of him no more. Zacchaeus went a step further and declared half of his goods to the poor. In which after hearing the good words from this man, Jesus declared salvation unto his house.

 

[Strong in Him]

So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. - Luke 14:33

Do we have to give up everything we love do?

No.
Jesus also told a rich young ruler to sell everything he had and give it to the poor, Luke 18:22. He said this because he knew that the man's great wealth was getting between him and God.
Elsewhere, Jesus said "see ye first the kingdom of God", Matthew 6:33. The greatest commandment is to love God with ALL your heart, soul, mind and strength.
So Scripture is clear that we need to put God first - make no other idols, etc.

I play sports 4 tines a week but i think it could be stopping me from getting through to god.

It's brave of you to say that, and shows that you have some spiritual awareness.

I try to seperate time for him but it's like i'm not doing enough. I really want to be saved but dont know what to do. I have repented and tried not to sin but i feel theres something thats stopping me.

Salvation is through Jesus alone.
If you believe that you are a sinner, that nothing you do will ever be good enough to atone for your sin and "get to heaven", and that Jesus died for you, so that you could be reconciled to God, know his forgiveness and peace and have eternal life; if you are able to admit that you are a sinner, ask him to save you, tell him that you trust him and want to give your life to him - you will be saved.
But being made holy and made into Jesus' likeness, 2 Corinthians 3:18, is an ongoing process. It might sound like a cliche, but it really is a journey, and you need to decide, every day, to walk with God, ask for his help and that he will show you what to do.

It MAY be that he will ask you to give up sport and serve him in some other way, or it may be that he is calling you to continue playing and witness to those in that industry. Who knows, maybe he even wants you to be a sports chaplain?

Even if you, or any of us, were to become paralysed tomorrow and unable to ever DO anything again, that doesn't stop God from loving, saving and forgiving us.

 

[Te're'sa]

You've gotten some good answers to your questions in the thread so far.

So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. - Luke 14:33

Do we have to give up everything we love do? Such as hobbies? I play sports 4 tines a week but i think it could be stopping me from getting through to god. I'm unsaved and think something is blocking me from getting through to god. I try to seperate time for him but it's like i'm not doing enough. I really want to be saved but dont know what to do. I have repented and tried not to sin but i feel theres something thats stopping me.

Yeah.... my avatar is a screenshot (and a recent one) from World of Warcraft. That may color how you view this answer from me, but here's why I don't believe that we must give up all the things we've ever enjoyed.

My husband and I tried that a couple of years ago, very legalistically*, just because of the Bible verse you've shown us. We gave up video games and television, which we had spent a LOT of our lives on before, and replaced it all with reading the Bible and listening to sermons. We were left feeling empty, even depressed and helpless, fearful, and useless. Bombarded by commands, powerless to keep them all.

*Legalism is following the commands in the Bible just because they're there. On the surface, there is nothing wrong with following His commands. (John 14:15) But in other places, the scriptures are clear that it's the motivation that matters more than your deliberate actions. (See Matthew 6:33, Matthew 22:36-40, and pretty much all of Matthew 23.) If we don't love God, if we don't love Jesus, we can follow all the rules we want, but it will get us nowhere.

Luckily for us, we were reading the Word during that time, and we were reminded of the truth. That anything we do - commanded in Scripture or not - that isn't motivated by the Holy Spirit, might as well not have been done at all. But. When we think about God's Word, and believe in Jesus the Messiah, we are saved. And everything else follows, because the whole point is for the Holy Spirit to guide us there.

Slowly, we introduced our hobbies back into our lives. But it was different. Unlike before, the video games didn't take over and consume our lives. We spend less time playing them, just because we aren't trapped by them anymore. (It probably helps that we didn't return to the specific games that had done that the worst. Some of them had been literally addictive to us.) I'm confident that my God isn't being neglected anymore. I don't have to force myself to follow his commandments. I just want to.

........ I probably could have explained all of this a lot better, or not at all. Oh, well.

 

[rockytopva]

I would hate to tell a guy to give up everything he has and follow Jesus. And then, months later, having him come to the door homeless wondering what he was supposed to do.

 

[ToBeLoved]

So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. - Luke 14:33

Do we have to give up everything we love do? Such as hobbies? I play sports 4 tines a week but i think it could be stopping me from getting through to god. I'm unsaved and think something is blocking me from getting through to god. I try to seperate time for him but it's like i'm not doing enough. I really want to be saved but dont know what to do. I have repented and tried not to sin but i feel theres something thats stopping me.

Jesus when He was on the earth did have a very high caliber for His disciples, but think of Jesus life. They would be poor. Constantly traveling with no place to stay and staying with whomever would offer hospitality to them. He taught constantly and it was probably very hard. Most of them does a martyrs death and after Christ’s death many of these people built His church.

We are called to pick up our cross. To be righteous as He is righteous. Sports is not unrighteous, unless it is more important than God. As a matter of fact, it is righteous to care for our body which is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

I would say that unless it is leading you to sin, there is little wrong with exercise and caring for your body and mind.

 

[ToBeLoved]

He means the attachment to the world that must be forsaken.

Paul had a job as tentmaker in order to support himself in his real ministry of witnessing to Christ so he didnt burden his life on others, we too have a wordly job so we dont burden the others.

Great point! I agree.

 

[Glaucus]

 

[Jonathan Leo]

So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. - Luke 14:33

Do we have to give up everything we love do? Such as hobbies? I play sports 4 tines a week but i think it could be stopping me from getting through to god. I'm unsaved and think something is blocking me from getting through to god. I try to seperate time for him but it's like i'm not doing enough. I really want to be saved but dont know what to do. I have repented and tried not to sin but i feel theres something thats stopping me.

No no no no no. It’s a heart attitude
If anything in your life is more important than Jesus, you must give it up.
In our God given lives, we are free to chose whatever we want, for better or worse. This is free will and God gave us this even unto the point of using our free will to rebel, reject, ignore Him. Even to the point of killing another human.
Whatever we do in life is meaningless. Everthing gets destroyed. Only those in Christ remain.
We are to give God glory for everything we have in life.
So if playing sports is something you enjoy, then go and enjoy it. Be competitive even. The problem lies if your aiming to make a career out of it and it’s taken over your life to the point it possesses you.
Another way of putting it is like this
If you are walking with God and all along it’s a good walk and suddenly you get a career opportunity that means you must put God in the background or even worse, walk away from Him. This is what you must give up. God comes first, everything else is meaningless in comparison.

Another scripture I will use to give an example is when Jesus told us, if anyone doesn’t hate his father and mother for my sake cannot be my disciple Luke 14:26
Or honour your parents is the 5th command
Now if Jesus taught love, why does He say these things?

Gods kingdom comes first even to the point of hating your own parents. If you are preaching the gospel and your parents disapprove and tell you to pick them or Jesus, we must refuse them and follow Jesus.

Jesus comes first, always and with everything. So if Jesus is first in your life, playing sports is nothing to be worried about because no doubt when you succeed, you give Him the glory anyway. Do everything in life for the glory of God.
How might one glorify God by playing sports you might ask?? When ever you receive credit for your talents and you thank God for such gifts, you are in essence being humble before God and agreeing with Him that you are nothing without Him. He created you with those skills, and when God gets glory for your free will, it praises Him and He loves that.

 

[mukk_in]

So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. - Luke 14:33

Do we have to give up everything we love do? Such as hobbies? I play sports 4 tines a week but i think it could be stopping me from getting through to god. I'm unsaved and think something is blocking me from getting through to god. I try to seperate time for him but it's like i'm not doing enough. I really want to be saved but dont know what to do. I have repented and tried not to sin but i feel theres something thats stopping me.

Its more about giving up our right to ourselves, i.e., our will or right to choose. That pretty much encompasses everything we are or want. Only then Christ will be the true Lord and Master of our lives. Peace in Christ.

 

[Kit Sigmon]

So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. - Luke 14:33

Do we have to give up everything we love do? Such as hobbies? I play sports 4 tines a week but i think it could be stopping me from getting through to god. I'm unsaved and think something is blocking me from getting through to god. I try to seperate time for him but it's like i'm not doing enough. I really want to be saved but dont know what to do. I have repented and tried not to sin but i feel theres something thats stopping me.

Like this... Philippians 3:
7But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
8More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

12Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
13Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

15Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; 16 however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.

17Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.
18For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, 19whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.
20For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; 21who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

 

[lastofall]

[for me anyway] it is a matter of that although we are subject to all things in this world, that we should not be brought under the power of any: we may make use of a hand-held device, or partake in a sport, or some other thing; but any thing in this life is not where what we value most is: Why? How? because we seek those things above, and set our affections on things above, not on things on the earth.

 

[Andrew77]

So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. - Luke 14:33

Do we have to give up everything we love do? Such as hobbies? I play sports 4 tines a week but i think it could be stopping me from getting through to god. I'm unsaved and think something is blocking me from getting through to god. I try to seperate time for him but it's like i'm not doing enough. I really want to be saved but dont know what to do. I have repented and tried not to sin but i feel theres something thats stopping me.

Well if you are unsaved, then how do you know what he wants you to give up?

Some other people are going to disagree with me. You need to determine for yourself what the truth is.

Many of the prophets and the followers of Jesus, were all rich. Many were poor as well! But many were rich.

The idea that those verses mean you have to like ditch everything in your entire life, and become a homeless beggar on the street, is not really supported by the Bible.

What those verses do mean, is that if G-d calls on you to give something to him.... that's part of being a Christian. What will he ask you to give up, for his Kingdom? I don't know. None of us knows.

The point is, you have to let all that go, *IF* that is what you are called to do. Anyone that says to the Lord, yeah you can have everything..... EXCEPT this thing I hold dear, and I won't let you have it.......

Guess what... that doesn't work. You have to give him everything that he asks for. Obviously there are wealthy Christian people. This was true in the Bible. Jesus himself was buried in the tomb of a rich man who was a disciple. Some of the disciples stayed with wealthy followers in their trips. Some of the apostles themselves were rich.

I don't know what G-d has called you to give up. But if you want to be saved, you need to turn whatever it is, to him. Does that mean you'll lose everything? I have no idea. But that is what trust in the Lord means. I say you should go for it. Go read the stories of Christian sports heros.

 

[timewerx]

I don't know. None of us knows.

Actually, I know.

We are all called to do one thing -- believe in the one God has sent - John 6:29

And the proof that one believes is in John 14:12

 

[NothingIsImpossible]

For me its always been about giving up worldly things. Or things that I don't really need. For example I don't own alot because I give alot away to people (that and I am thrifty). What I have I use and/or give. Including my talents Hes blessed me with. I've also given up some worldly things I was into doing like swearing for example.