Want in Jesus' inner circle? Love Him more, Pollock tells messengers

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DAYTONA BEACH (FBW)—Forrest Pollock, in his Nov. 13 sermon at the Florida Baptist State Convention annual meeting, asked messengers and guests to re-evaluate their personal relationship with Jesus. In his sermon, "Lord of the Rings," Pollock outlined four levels of relationship with Jesus.

Everyone, Pollock said, has four spheres of relationships: acquaintances, casual friends, close friends and an inner ring of intimate relationships.

Jesus' earthly life and ministry also had the same "rings of relationships." From the thousands who heard Jesus speak, He chose 12 disciples, and spent the most time with three, Peter, James and John, Pollock said. This "triumvirate of men" was present at Jesus' transfiguration; at the home of Jairus when Jesus raised Jairus' daughter from the dead; and in the Garden of Gethsemane with Jesus. They were invited "to see what others did not see and hear what others did not hear," Pollock said.

"Did Jesus love Peter, James and John more than the others?" he asked. "No. They loved Him more."

POLLOCK

Pollock, pastor of Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, asked those assembled in the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach to honestly evaluate their placement in four spheres of relationships with Jesus, which Pollock said are "not static." He said he had "floated in and out of different rings."

"You are as close to Jesus as you want to be," he said. "Ask yourself, 'Do I have the relationship with God that I want to have?'"

The outermost circle Pollock called the "indifferent ring." In Jesus' life, the distant relationships would include the throngs, drawn by Jesus' charisma, who walked across deserts to hear Him speak and even "forgot to eat all day." The word "crowd," used 120 times in Scripture, referenced the 4,000-5,000 people who came to hear Him speak in an era before mass mailings or other publicity could have invited them. The crowds "cried bravo" at the miracles, but scattered when Jesus asked them to "take up your cross," he said.

Pollock compared the biblical crowds to those in churches who "may be saved, but their hearts have grown cold." They go through the motions and "if fire falls on Sunday, it's OK; but if not, that's OK, too."

"They are Christians of convenience, not commitment," he said. "The vast majority of our church members are right there."

The second level of relationship Pollock called the "involved ring." Several of Jesus' disciples could be placed in this classification, he said. They left their homes to follow Jesus and were involved in His ministry, but they "just didn't get it." On the eve of Jesus' crucifixion, some of His followers spent their last hours with the Savior arguing about who would be first in the King­dom. A church member in the "involved ring" will go to church regularly and may be involved, but their spiritual intimacy with Jesus is "non-existent." They are "whistling whirlagigs" of activity but without a relationship with Him.

"They are more motion that emotion, more talk than walk, and more fever than fervor," he said.

The "intense ring" of believers may include both pastors and laypeople, Pollock said. Regardless of your love for your ministry, its busy-ness may hinder a close personal relationship with Jesus.

"If my wife let me, I would be at the church 80 hours a week," Pollock admitted. "Sometimes I twirl around in my office chair and think 'I can't believe I get to do this.'"

Those busy "visiting, studying or work­ing in the nursery" must be careful to not be satisfied with activity.

"If you don't stay in Him, religion becomes a ritual instead of a relationship." he said. "A seminary degree does not guarantee a relationship with God."

Instead, he said a "holy dissatisfaction" should make a disciple unwilling to stay on the periphery with just religious activity.

Citing Exodus 19 and 24, he compared those in the outer three circles to the two million Hebrews who watched God meet with Moses on Mount Sinai. They could see the smoke and fire, but only observed the activity of God from a distance. They get halfway up the mountain, but want no further involvement. They are not willing to go into His presence.

On the other hand, Moses stayed on the mountain 40 days and nights, conversing with God as a friend.

Jesus' most intimate, "inner circle" friend, John, sat beside Him at the Last Supper. John 13 records John's leaning back onto Jesus, "where he could hear the heartbeat of Jesus," Pollock said. John also was in the very small crowd who stood at the foot of the cross. At Jesus' request, he took Jesus' mother Mary into his home after Jesus' death. It was John who recognized Jesus' voice on shore when the disciples went fishing after the crucifixion.

Pollock invited the Ocean Center congregation to "repent of being too busy with church stuff to have time for Christ." Hun­dreds knelt before the stage as Pollock led them in praying they would not be "satisfied in getting almost to Your presence."