Picture Jesus and the devil standing on the top of a high mountain, looking at the world — probably a similar view to what Moses had when Jesus showed him all the kingdoms, all the power, all the wealth, all the agriculture, and all the scenery. The devil said to Jesus, “All you have to do to get this is bow down and worship me. You don't have to go to the cross. You don't have to suffer.
Picture Jesus and the devil standing on the top of a high mountain, looking at the world — probably a similar view to what Moses had when Jesus showed him all the kingdoms, all the power, all the wealth, all the agriculture, and all the scenery. The devil said to Jesus, “All you have to do to get this is bow down and worship me. You don't have to go to the cross. You don't have to suffer. You don't have to experience any displeasure whatsoever. I'll just give it to you.
Now, when has the devil ever told the truth? The real truth was, it wasn't his to give. It already belonged to Jesus. It was a temptation. I can imagine Jesus knew how hard things were going to be in his future ministry, but He walked away and said, “No.”
We've heard messages over the course of this convention and some really inspirational messages. Some have given instruction, maybe some confrontational for us as we have looked at our own lives and said, “There's a controversy between what I'm hearing and how I am living, and I'm going to have to make some choices.”
The disciples had these choices to make when Jesus gave the call to ministry that He was offering as well. They did walk away from their trade and profession. “And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed Him.” — Luke 5:11. That was following a very unusual and miraculous evening. They had fished all night and caught nothing. Then Jesus told them to cast their nets on the other side, in broad daylight, when fishing made no sense. They caught the biggest haul of their careers — and they walked away from it.
I've been fishing ever since I was old enough to hold a fishing line. They say a bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work, but when you catch nothing, it can be really disappointing — especially when your livelihood depends on it. Yet these men walked away. Friends, there's a lot in our lives we're going to have to walk away from to follow Jesus.
The Rich Young Ruler
We all know the story of the rich young ruler in that He had been doing all the right things in church and in life. He'd lived up to all the light he had been given and felt like he had arrived spiritually according to the standards of the church and his peers. But in his heart, something was missing.
He saw the works of Jesus, recognised His sinless life and pure motives, and came to Him saying, “I've done all these things — what do I still lack?” Jesus replied, “Sell all that you have, give to the poor, and come follow Me.” — Luke 18:22. In modern language that equates to just walking away from it all.
That's easy when you have nothing, but it makes it harder when you have a lot. Just think for a moment — if Jesus was standing here and said, “You need to walk away from everything you have and follow Me.” What would go through your mind?
Would you consider it to be talking about excesses? “Perhaps I could give up my boat — it doesn't even run well. I haven't used it in six years. That would be easy. But my tractor? I use that a lot. That would be really hard. My house — where would I live? My job? My career?”
But what if it's your church? What if it's your relationships that you have built up over the years? There's a lot to walk away from in order to follow Jesus if your life has not been according to His counsel. Each of us have to examine our lives, our hearts and ask the Holy Spirit to shine a bright light into every corner and show us what it is that we need to walk away from.
Not everyone of us are called to sell everything we own, but everyone is called to surrender ownership of what they do have. Everything must go on the altar. We are only managers of God's goods, not owners. Sometimes under the general call for ministry, we will get smaller calls about how to manage what has been given us. In the disciple's lives, those in the fishing industry were professional fishermen. Their nets weren't sinful, the boats weren't evil, but those items just were not to be first in their lives and when the call came, they walked away from it all.
What is fascinating about those men, is that they walked away before they fully understood what they were being called to. That's hard for the mind to grasp, because we understand the message that was for them in hind-sight — but they didn't know at that point. Jesus simply had a Spirit about Him that was irresistible. He healed people. He fed people. He preached sermons that made more sense than anything they had ever heard. They wanted more — but they didn't really know where their lives were going. They thought He was headed for kingship, and that would mean many rewards for them, but they certainly did not entertain His humiliation on the cross.
Yet they forsook all before they understood everything. We often criticise the disciples for their foolishness, wavering, and thick-headedness, but honestly, we need to give them credit for their dedication to do something very new and relatively unknown. It was a profound change in their lives. .
Counting Everything But Loss
“What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.” —Philippians 3:7–8. When you put what you have on one side of the scales and what Christ offers on the other, what you actually have to contribute is pretty small.
Philippi was a commerce town — not the biggest, but certainly prosperous. Paul was telling them, “Look at me. I don't have anything. I was in your prison.” I personally had the opportunity to sit in the ruins of what may have been that prison. I don't know for sure if it was the actual building, but it fit the story well enough for me. I sat on that rock floor with a stone wall behind me and imagined having my hands and feet in stocks in the most uncomfortable position possible — and singing hymns until an earthquake came and set them free. The other inmates and associates were deeply impressed with their God. Then they were chased out of town. They didn't have much time to share the message with the people there, except through letters and messengers, and Paul's message to them was simple: everything is worth less than heaven.
Ellen White tells us that when we get to heaven and try to recount what we've been through, the only thing we'll say is that heaven is cheap enough.
Johan in the Dominican Republic
Years ago in the Dominican Republic, I met a young man whose story slowly unfolded. I had gone to a small village called Vije — a nice little place with a small church where we were holding an evangelistic series. Before plugging in my projector, I had to repair the wiring because we were getting shocked every time we touched a socket. I grounded the system so we could actually function.
We held evangelistic meetings and medical clinics. There was a young lady named Maria with two little children. She loved the messages and wanted to attend church, but her husband, Johan, didn't like that idea. He was a traficante — a drug dealer.
Our pastor went to visit her. She said Johan wasn't home, so he came in and talked with her. Everything went well until Johan came home and said, “Who is this guy? Get out of my house and don't come back.” Afterward, Maria called the pastor and said, “I'm so sorry. He's just like that. He's a very mean, dangerous man.”
This kept happening. She would say, “He's gone today. Can we please have a Bible study?” And that's how they evangelised her. Against Johan's will, she was baptised. When he found out, he was furious, and she was terrified.
Time went on. Sometimes she came to church, sometimes she couldn't. One day the pastor got a call from Johan himself. “Pastor, I want to talk to you.” The pastor wondered what was going to happen, but went anyway.
Johan said, “I've been so angry about this whole thing, but it's plain to me that my wife has something I don't have — and something I need. Before, we fought all the time. She was rude and disrespectful, and our life was miserable. But after she studied the Bible, she changed. She's completely different. I can't stand myself. I want to be like her. I want what she's got. What do I have to do?”
The pastor said, “Let's study the Bible together.” He didn't mention Johan's job or lifestyle, because he knew the Holy Spirit would do that work.
Eventually Johan said, “Pastor, I've walked away from my former career. I've cut off all my ties with those people. But I don't know what to do for a living.” Miguel asked if he had any training. He said, “Yes, I used to be an electrician, but it's hard to find work.” Our pastor said, “I'll pray for you.”
Two weeks later, Johan got a job and began earning a living. He called the pastor and said, “I'm so happy. We have a happy family. My kids want to talk to me and play with me. My wife and I actually like each other for the first time. I don't deserve this. I was so afraid to take this step, and now I am so blessed.”
Three months later, he called again, crying with joy. “Pastor, I started another business, and it's incredibly successful. We're doing amazing. I was so afraid to follow Jesus because of what I'd give up — but look what I've gained.”
The pastor said, “This is too good not to tell.” He sent Johan to share his testimony in churches across the district. He went from being a prolific drug dealer to an incredibly successful servant of Jesus — but he had to walk away from his lucrative source of wealth. There's always a cost, but to be really honest, I think of it more as an investment.
A New Allegiance
The world doesn't just tempt — it trains. It changes how you think, how you perceive things, how you respond. It trains you to succeed in this world, but not to succeed in your experience with Jesus. Following Jesus requires a whole new allegiance. You can't follow Christ while still taking your cues from culture.
Sometimes we leave more than wealth. We leave habits, entertainment, relationships, even our identity. For some, the hardest thing to forsake isn't money, but ideas and schemes for gain — even ways of thinking. We must develop a completely new mind-set when we follow Christ. Your thoughts and feelings shape your character. The best way to change that is by changing what you expose your mind to.
Victory Over Addiction
I was dumbfounded when God gave me victory over addictions in my life. A counselor once told me, “You'll always be an alcoholic. You might be dry, but you'll be a miserable drunk.” What encouragement, right?
Yet months passed, and I didn't even want that lifestyle anymore. I had been physiologically and psychologically addicted — I couldn't live without them. Suddenly, I couldn't remember the last time I'd touched them. For years I had tried to quit every day. I would say, “God, I'll never do this again,” and then I would fail again. I would wake up hung-over, angry, disappointed, and demoralised.
But when I began studying the Word of God and reading the Spirit of Prophecy voraciously — every moment I had — something changed. Today everyone carries devices; I carried books. I realised that whenever God speaks, something happens. He says His Word will not return to Him void. When parents speak and children ignore them, their words come back empty. But when God speaks, everybody better listen — because something's about to happen.
I believe that when Jesus said, “Lazarus, come forth,” He had to say Lazarus first — or every dead person and creature would have come bak to life. That's creative power.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” When you hold God's Word in your hand, you hold creative power. The more you expose your mind to it, the more it creates a new mind in you. What you expose your mind to is what you become. That's what God did for me. He recreated my desires. And whenever I struggle now, God reminds me, “Go back to what works. You haven't been spending enough time with Me.”
Walking Away from False Doctrine
One of the hardest things for people to forsake is ingrained false doctrine — beliefs learned from parents, pastors, churches, and communities. When you hear something different, you're not just changing ideas — you're changing your future.
But Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” And in John 14:6, He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one cometh to the Father except through Me.” There is no other way to heaven than leaving these things behind and following Jesus.
Second Timothy 2:25–26 says that God grants repentance so people may recover themselves from the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him at his will. If you don't walk away from false doctrine, you remain Satan's captive — even if you call yourself a Christian, an elder, a deacon, a pastor, a teacher, or an evangelist.
Spiritualism and witchcraft are far more widespread than we realise. Even Christian bookstores carry books filled with veiled occultism. In Acts, believers burned their occult books — worth 50,000 pieces of silver — instead of selling them, so no one else would be enslaved. “Let us lay aside every weight.” — Hebrews 12:1
Examining Ourselves
I can't answer for you what Jesus is asking you to forsake. That's something each of you must wrestle with. Paul said, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith.” Are we real — or are we just playing church? What are you still holding onto because it gives you security? The hardest question of all is this: Are you willing to follow Him without knowing where the road leads?
The disciples did. They walked away from boats full of fish and never went back. They forsook all — not because they understood everything, but because they trusted the One who called them into His service.
Some people struggle to follow because they think they're unworthy. They say, “You don't know where I've been or what I've done, there is no hope.” Satan accuses to take you down. Jesus calls to build you up.
Friends, I don't know what you are going through, the assets you have that you need to give up. I don't know what stands between you and the destination God wants to lead you to. That's something Jesus and you will work out in the days and weeks ahead, be aware that God is calling, or He will call you.
We don't have much time left. In America, the religious right is pushing hard for Sunday laws. Decisions are coming for God's people across denominations. Some will join us. Some will leave us. If you're waiting for a more convenient season, there isn't one better than today.
When Jesus Calls
Jesus calls, His voice clear and kind,
Through noise of the world and the walls of the mind.
No thunder or fire, nor force or demand,
But a simple invitation: “Come take My hand.”
Some hear Him and rise, not counting the cost,
Leaving nets on the shore, all fear gladly lost.
Others linger longer, hearts willing yet slow,
Torn between what they've known and the truth they now know.
We leave behind titles the world says define
Success and position and praise of mankind.
Old friends who pull us to where light cannot stay,
Beliefs once held dear that now block the way.
For following Jesus is never the same;
It costs us our comforts, our pride, sometimes even our name.
Yet what we lay down, He restores by His love,
Exchanging our loss for blessings above.
The call still is heard, tender and strong.
It asks for a decision: to which side do you belong?
The door stands now open; the hour is late.
Will you step through in faith or turn back to wait?
We have a choice we need to make. It's a privilege, but it's also serious and profound. As we go away from these meetings, let's consider our next decision,
Our next choice, the road we'll take, and what we leave behind.
When you're on an airplane, they tell you that if there's a fire or crash and you have to evacuate, don't reach into the overhead bins. Leave your stuff. Just get out. Your life is worth more than anything you own. Yet people still grab their bags. That might work in this world, but it won't work in the kingdom of heaven. If you're bailing out of a crumbling planet, your stuff doesn't matter. Just drop everything and grasp for eternal life.
This message is from Rob McClintock’s presentation at the South Island convention on Sunday morning, January 25,2026.
