There’s a classic story in the Bible about a most unexpected person who had to clarify his values before accomplishing his life mission. Although Hebrews 5:8 hints at this, few people realize that, like us, he had to clarify his values by walking through some serious temptations. Fast forward to the time when he showed up on a beach one day and called out to a group of fisherman to follow him. What would compel them to instantly drop their nets (financial security), abandon their families, and follow him? The answer is at the end of this post.

According to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus’ first temptation involved turning stones into bread. We all struggle with this, right? Walking into your house to grab a bite to eat, you kick the stones under your feet wishing you could turn them into M & Ms. Of course not, and I've never been that hungry before either!

But what if this temptation is about something much deeper—instant gratification perhaps? Do what you want to do, for you, right now. Gratify your desires, run your own life, do your own thing, do whatever necessary for immediate gratification. Until we are able to deny our basest desires and choose wisely based on something greater, we will not discover our true life purpose or become someone worth following.

In the second temptation, Satan took Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and told Him to jump off. Again, can you relate to this? Have you ever wanted to put on a superman cape and jump from the highest church steeple in town?

No, that’s never been a temptation for me, either. But what if we’re missing something deeper here? Consider this about Jesus. He had come to be a Messiah for his people. What better way to announce and prove himself (and certainly establish himself as Messiah!) than by jumping off the temple in front of all the religious top guns!

So here’s the temptation as it relates to us: use our God-given gifts, abilities, or talents to show off and make a name for ourselves—get famous! Use our power for personal glory! But again, this inward focus will certainly not result in discovering true life purpose or make us people worth following.

And the third temptation? Satan tempted Jesus to bow down and worship him in exchange for the kingdoms of this world. In other words, take a shortcut to success. We’re all tempted to take shortcuts. Cheat on our taxes (so we can give more to charity!), bypass the proper channels to get what we want, run over others to accomplish our goals—all these shortcuts will diminish our life purpose and prevent us from becoming people worth following.

So why would a few fishermen abandon everything to follow Jesus? Because he had qualified his values, making himself someone worth following.

[Click here for a values worksheet that helps you figure out and write down your core values. You can then plug them in to your purpose or mission statement accessible through a FREE online course found here ].