This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Waterford Lakes, East Orlando. Visit us online at christkingum.org for our calendar, driving directions, and more audio recordings. As Jesus is walking beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting and added to the lake for they were fishermen. Come follow me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men. At once, they left their nets and followed Him. Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee preparing their nets. Jesus called them and they immediately left the boat and their father and they followed Him. Jesus went throughout Galilee teaching in the synagogues, preaching the good news of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. Thanks for us. We are moving to the fall school schedule, so our 3rd through 5th graders are dismissed. They were with us over the summer, so they get the chance to go to their class. The rest of you are stuck here, so it's going to be exciting though. Let me just start off with, we are starting our visionizing series, and let me just say right now, if you are visiting and this is your first time here, you cannot have picked a better time to try to figure out what this trick is all about than right now. Let me just say that right up front. For those of you that Christy in church is your home, you cannot pick a better Sunday to come and be here in attendance. If you want to hear what my heart is as your pastor, what the heart is of the leadership, the elders, deacons, and staff of the church, then this Sunday and the next couple of Sundays that will follow this in particular, so I am really excited that you are here. Having said that, what I am going to call you today is and will rock your world if you decide to jump in. But let me just ask you to consider something. Would you jump in and have your world rocked if you knew it would be the very best thing that ever happens to you? If you knew that would put you in a place of the year from now, you'd be like, man, I never dreamed. I would go and do and trust the way I did this past year and experience, and there's a lot of hard stuff that happened this year, but I would never dream that God would move me and take me to the place that he has this past year if I hadn't jumped out. If you believe that, if you knew that would be true, would you do it? Even though it could be the hardest year of your life. Well, that's what we're going to be talking about here this morning. And let me pray one more time because if the Holy Spirit doesn't work and move here, then this really is a waste of time and you really should be somewhere else. So let me just ask him to move once more, pray with me. God just asks that as we draw near to you now that you would do what only your Holy Spirit can do, and that is to speak and let the Word of God come to life and apply it to our hearts and lives in a way that allows us to respond in faith. God, we need the very power and the grace of your Spirit to even give us the seeds of faith that they might grow and produce a fruit, a harvest that's honoring and glorifying to you. We're not looking for a religious response this morning, God, because that is the last thing we need or this world. We're not looking for a guilt driven and produced response because that is nothing more than a variation of religion. And God, we're not looking for something that's going to tickle our ears or help us leave here this morning having a warm feeling inside that really doesn't draw us near to you. It doesn't draw our hearts into the world that you left heaven to come to earth, to walk, to live, to die, and to rise again from the dead in order to save. So we're asking if you to work and move. I'm asking you to use me this morning for your glory and honor in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, we read this passage to Matthew chapter 4, which is a very common one, but it's verses 19, verse 19 that specifically want to focus in on. There is an outlining your bulletin if you want to fall along if that's helpful and I encourage you to do that. Verse 19 says this, come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men. We're going to focus on those first three words this week, come follow me, and next week we're going to focus on the next seven, and I will make you fishers of men. You know, if you believe you are a Christian here today, then I'm going to really ask you to question that, and I'm going to challenge you to consider, is he really your Lord, is he really your king? I'm going to hopefully make you think. I'm going to ask you some questions, going to make you to ask some questions of yourself, and I'm asking the Holy Spirit to specifically lead you to conviction and assurance of the grace and mercy of Jesus that are new every morning. I know he's been doing that to me on these past two months as we've been gearing up, as I've been personally gearing up, even the three weeks I had off that I was out of pocket here in this past week, preparing for this morning, because we're going to look at what it really means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. And if you're not a Christian here today, and I understand maybe those around you might think that you are, but even though deep down that, hey, I'm not, I really haven't bought into this Christian thing. Maybe I grew up in the church. You know, I don't call myself a Muslim or some other faith. I don't even say I'm atheist, but I really, to say I'm a follower of Jesus Christ without being stretched. If you're in that camp here this morning, you picked a great week again. I hope to help you understand better what it means to be a follower of Christ. And even if you're disillusioned and a little cynical about Christians, because you're like, thinking, hey, you know, what I see about Jesus and what I see about his followers are so broadly different here. It's got this bad taste in my mouth. If you're honest with that, I want to help you understand a little bit why you feel that way. And I want to acknowledge that you have good reason to feel that way, in many cases. But I hope that it won't cause your unbelief or cynicism to grow, but instead that your desire for the living son of God to grow all the stronger. Well, having said that, to be a Christian means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. In fact, the word itself means Christ follower, a one who is like Christ. But I'm afraid it's been reduced in recent years or times to mean or imply things like this that I'm not a Muslim, I'm not a Hindu, I'm not a Buddhist. So guess I'm a Christian or it's implied things like, well, I'm not an atheist or an agnostic, I believe in God. So I guess I'm a Christian. It might even mean in some cases that I've vote a certain way. My relatives in the past call themselves Christians, I guess I'm a Christian as well too. Or it might mean for you that you celebrate Christmas and not Hanukkah. So I guess I put you in a category of Christian. Or it might mean that I'm okay with praying before sporting event. That's I'm good with that. Or that I'm not afraid to have or identify that I have some kind of a moral compass. Maybe that's what is connected often when you think of the idea and consider yourself a Christian. Or even maybe it's something as much as saying, well, now I remember I walked the aisle one time when I was in a church maybe growing up or as a young adult or whatever it was. I raised my hand one time, I was on that retreat when they invited people to, if you prayed that prayer or maybe you prayed that prayer at some place time in your life, maybe you've done it several times and you invited Jesus Christ to come into your life or to come into your heart with whatever that exactly means. I was reading recently in David Platt's book called Follow Me. He writes this about, by the way, that prayer. He says, should it alarm us that the Bible never mentions such a prayer? Should it concern us that nowhere in Scripture is anyone ever told to ask Jesus into their heart or to invite Christ into their life? With good intentions and sincere desire to reach as many people as possible for Jesus, we have subtly and deceptively minimized the magnitude of what it means to follow Him. We replace the challenging works from Christ with trite phrases in the church. We've taken the lifeblood out of Christianity and put in cool aid in its place so that it tastes better to the crowds and the consequences are catastrophic. Multitudes of men and women at this moment think they are saved from their sins when they are not. Scores of people around the world culturally think they are Christians when bivically they are not. Pretty strong words. I think he's in pretty good standing. Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 7, a few chapters away from here, when he's actually talking to a crowd of people who are following him. Jesus says this, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my father who is in heaven. Many will save me on that day. Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you away from me, you evil doers. Jesus says only he who does the will of my father who is in heaven is a true follower of him. Jesus says, come, follow me. You know after Peter proclaims that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus responds and says this, if anyone would come after me, in other words, everybody wants to follow me. You must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. That's what the Son of God says. It means to be a Christian, a Christ follower. So are you a Christian? Are you a Christ follower? Is your life marked by denial, which is what it means to take up your cross of self? Denial of the things of this world. Is that a key distinguishing mark of your life? And by the way, can I just say something parenthetically for us as Christians? Those that we live in a non-Christian country by the way, we forget that. We are a post-Christian country. There is nothing Christian about the United States of America. I hope that's not a news shock to you. When this country and the people in and the people who do not claim to be Christians, act like people who do not claim to be Christians, they are actually more consistent with their values and viewpoints than those of us who claim to be Christians and who live no differently from them. So it bugs me more and more that we are shocked and surprised by that. Will you please stop doing that? I'm sorry, I'm talking to the Christians here. So if you're a non-Christian here, you probably would say amen at this point. If you're comfortable doing that kind of thing, I would think you'd probably agree with me. Can we please quit acting? Like they should be acting differently. And instead, ask ourselves, should we be acting differently as genuine followers of Christ? Do you embody what Jesus means when he says, take up your cross and follow him? Well, I think we'll get some answers to that as we look more closely this morning at those three words. Come follow me. I'm not getting any. Can you advance the slide, Reese? There we go. So, hey, Andy. Andy Kellogg, in fact, this is not working. So I don't know if there's a second one that does work with that or there's something we can do on that. Andy's right, by the way, I'm not picking on Andy. He makes magic happen all the time. So three important implications to this morning. Reese, you'll just have to stay with me and advancing slides. The first is this, next slide. When Jesus says, come, it means at least three different things. One, is that God is always the initiator. God is always the initiator. Now think about that. Realize that one who invites you to come wants you. Have you ever been missed or skipped in an invitation to something? If you're very old at all, I bet it's happened at least at some point. Maybe there was a party that all of a sudden was like, hey, we're going to this party. You've got an invitation, didn't you? And you're like, yeah, or maybe you were tempted to even lie about it. Yeah, but I can't do it. I got something else going on tonight. Because you're like thinking, that feeling of going, man, I wasn't invited. Maybe it was a special social or an event that's going on. Maybe it was a graduation or a wedding or a social or something, but to not be invited when others around you are, when you thought you would be or you thought you should be, can have a powerful impact. Flip the side of the coin and realize what about when you are invited and you really shouldn't be? God of the universe through his son, Jesus Christ, came to earth to say, come to you. God removes the question in the call of the gospel to Jesus Christ. Are you wanted when you hear his voice say, come.
Not only realize that you're wanted, realize he's inviting you specifically. When you hear his call to come, I remember a couple of weeks ago, actually was last month, the principal from the school that my kids go to. I was called by her secretary and she said, she said, well, the principal would like to meet with you. And the first thought was apparent, it's like, oh my gosh, great. I'm thinking it's summertime. What have my kids done in the summer? Okay, that I would need to go meet with the principal. Well, fortunately, it wasn't anything bad, but it was, you know, she wanted to talk to me about something completely different. But here's my point here, is when the principal, well, I didn't, you know, I know, I'm not really closely invite you to come. It's like, wow, that's, you know, she wants to talk to me. I cleared my schedule the next week to make sure I could line something up with a couple of dates that worked for her. Why? Because I was wanted. She wanted to talk to me. Some of you, if you track with me, I guess I had a good summer in July for stuff like this. If you're tracking with me or see the Facebook post or whatever, we're good to go now. Thank you very much, Andy and Reese. Appreciate that. I was at Panera Bread with Don Zurbian and then, then, then in walks Governor Rick Scott. And I was just like, well, there's the governor, you know, he's right over there. So, Don and I went to go hang out with the governor for, you know, a good 60 seconds or so. It was great. So, but let me tell you this, if he had asked me since I knew he was in town, he was right there in my office. If he'd asked me to come have dinner with him anywhere within reasonable driving distance or if he would find you there, I'd tell you, I would have done it. Okay, if I had a meeting with you, I would say, hey, I love you. I'm your pastor in everything here, but can we reschedule? Because the governor wants to meet with me. And let me tell you here, no matter what your political persuasion is. I'm pretty sure about this. And if not, you should be. If President Obama called you up and said that he wanted to meet with you personally, could you make such and such happen this coming weekend, I think you would clear schedule and get there to meet with him in the Oval Office. Why? He's a president. When you can have a private invitation with any president, ever, you would go, you would do it. Am I making too much of a leap here to say that when the son of God, when God himself through his son comes and says, come, something should be, you know, something should grip us on a level if we understand who it is that should radically change everything about the fact that he is initiated with us. If we understand who he is, come. He says, Jesus, son of God in the gospel invites you to come because he desires his lost sheep to follow him. A second implication. He's still not working. Second, next slide, Reese. Second implication, come implies that there is either intimacy or authority along with it. One, it could be intimacy. I remember I was growing up, I had to be 16 or 17 because I was all enough to drive. Me and my friend David Morley were driving around 285 if you're from Atlanta, Georgia, you know what 285 is, the big belt loop that goes around. We weren't carelessly driving, but we were carelessly acting in the car as we drove because we drove by some 20-something year old guys that were acting really cool, and we thought they were acting like idiots. We drove by and made faces at them and let go. You guys are idiots as much as two high schoolers could do with authority. So we were doing that on the road there. Well, these guys didn't take too kindly to it, and 285 is like six lanes per side at different places. We were in the far left lane of that, we thought hey, we can act pretty tough because we're in a car traveling 65 miles far, whatever it is, around 285. Well, these guys within front of us, and we're in the far left lane, okay? They within front of us and they slam on the brakes. They hit the brakes so hard, give them my mom's teaching kids this morning because I'm driving her minivan. They hit the brakes so hard that, you know, we can slam on the brakes, but we bump them in the back because we can't stop quick enough. Well, me and David are freaking out kind of at this point, and this guy, the driver of the car in front of me, gets out of his car, and he comes over to my window and he doesn't ask me to come. Okay, he's banging on my window. You know, he's all bowed up and whatever else, you know, and you know, and I'm ruining a good pair of pants at that point. They're in the car here because, you know, I did not have a scenario in my mind for what to do when some idiot 20-year-olds pull over and stop the car and you're left side of 285 in the middle of the day here. Okay, I'm freaking out, but he didn't ask me to come. You know, say, we know what you come here? Can we talk a little bit? He's literally banging on the window, we back up, we pull off and quickly get away as quick as we can, take the next exit and get away from there. Here's my point. Even if he had said to come, I would not have come. Why? Because there's no intimacy there at all. Right? Are you following me? I know a dumb story, but I just want you to get the picture. You don't tell somebody to come unless you have intimacy or authority and you have neither, but he definitely didn't have any intimacy at that point here, although he might have been an intimate encounter. If I had come, it would not have been a good encounter for me. I'm pretty convinced. Intimacy, a friend can ask you to come, a spouse maybe can ask you to come, a loving parent, child relationship, you can ask one another to come, but intimacy is one of the things that gives you a ground so ask somebody to come. Non-indomacy, I'm sorry, you don't get it, right? We as parents train our little kids. Hey, if some stranger pulls up and opens the car window and says, come here, you don't come. No matter he has a little puppy or candy or whatever else, you don't come. Because you don't have an intimate trust relationship. Intimacy gives you the right to do that, but intimacy is not the only thing that does. A 40 does as well, too. You're right out here in Lake Underhill? Sometimes there's a police trap. I mean, right out here, this entrance as you go out there. And I was driving quickly one morning to get to where I needed to get and the police out there with this radar gun. This is years ago because I've changed my ways, but years ago, he had the gun out there and he just did one of these. I was coming by and he had the gun and there was other people that already was kind of pulled over into the median right out here in Discovery Middle School. I pulled in there. Why? Because he had the authority to tell me. And maybe it was one of those guys on 285, I'd been like, he had the authority. Was there any intimacy there? None. He wasn't a buddy of mine, he wasn't going to give me a high five and say, what's going on? But it was because of authority. He had the right to do that. And I complied with that. He had the authority to give me a ticket, I knew what she did. He had the authority to arrest me if I didn't pull over. He had the authority to put me in jail if I was rude or whatever the case was. God has the authority to call in judgment, doesn't he? God calls you in a strange way, intimately and with authority at the same time. He calls you as those who have been made in his image and potentially as sons and daughters because he only calls people that he is planning to adopt. But he also calls with authority. And one day his calling voice will be one that every knee and tongue, every needle bound, every tongue will confess. He'll be too late for salvation at that point. But he nevertheless has the authority to do that. God has the authority to judge because of sin. But he has the intimacy and desire to come save his lost sheep, which price portrays. Second Corinthians, the apostle Paul, who knew that very well, remember the guy that grew up hating Jesus and wanting to kill anybody and punish them anything to do with Jesus till he met Jesus. That apostle Paul says this in 2 Corinthians 5, all this is from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. That's why Jesus says come in one third implication. One third implication. God, the call to come implies a change must be made. A change must be made. If you're a parent, your kids have put this to the test. If you're a parent and your child is old enough to understand your words, they have been old enough probably to at some point when you've called them to come and you've asked them, why didn't you come? Well, I don't know you were talking to me. We had six kids at our house so you really had a case to say, which one were you talking to at that point? That's one thing. Were you talking to me? Another thing they could say is that which might happen sometimes in the Puckett household there too, is that you didn't specify when you wanted me to come. I assumed it would be when this TV show is over or when this video game has reached a place where I can safely save it and etc. One of my favorites, although they don't say it this way, is that when you ask them to come, they look at you and it's like, well, my eyes are coming even though you've asked them to come. They just look, come by definition requires a change of location doesn't it? And by the way, nothing my kids have ever done to me have even come close to what I've done to the ways God, when he calls me to come and day out, day in and day out situations. I'll play the same games and worse, neglect. But he calls us to come and it requires a change of location. Think about it, Jesus calls us to come. He calls us to change our location to change. It's a change of where we are at the time. It's a change of where we were headed, but it is a change. It's always associated with the change. If you were heading the right direction and things were going good, Jesus never would have had to come. And certainly if he came, he never would have to say, come, if we were already following him. That's not the case. Where does God call us from? He calls us from being dead in our sins and trespasses. He calls us from living for the pleasure of this world and this temporal life. He calls us from our isolation from him. He calls us from our self-reliance, pulling ourselves up from our bootstraps. He calls us from being consumed in our self-hell which I preached on last month. Convicted me like crazy because you know, it's friendly and it's generally accepted at a certain level of narcissism. It's fine. No, it's not. That's self-hell and self-deception at the same time. He's called us from that. Why would he want to stay there? He's called us from our world of building self-comfort, from our world of making a name for ourselves, from our world of living under our control, or the facade that we're in control. He's called us from the American Dream which is really nothing more than the Me Dream. He's called us from a safe-nest egg for retirement. He's called us from the inoculating charitable contributions that we can do or service projects that we can give or ice bucket videos that we can make. Don't misunderstand me. I think those are beautiful sentiments and concerns that we should be cared about. But let me tell you, those have the potential to just to inoculate you and make you think, hey, you're a good guy, you're a good guy. Most of us you're probably don't even know anybody has ALF. But let me tell you, there's people that are hurting just as badly who sit next to you at school, who sit next to you in your cubicle at work or down the hall from work, who drive right by you to pull them to their driveway on your street, or relatives and friends that you already know. Make ice bucket videos. But don't let it inoculate you from being engaged with the hurting world around you. God's called you to come away from inoculation type living and we do it better than anybody on the planet in this country, this generation. You cannot follow Jesus today without leaving the place your flesh has you or wants you to go and by the thought you're born with a flesh that has you on a trajectory that's not towards God and it has you fixed on something that's not towards God. So by definition when Jesus says, come, it you must change direction. And there's not this middle ground of I'm going to kind of come and kind of not. That's just not coming. And that's just living in self deception that think you're doing something different. James chapter two verse 17, that's why James says, fate by itself, if it is not accompanied by action is dead. Thank God for James. James, the brother of Jesus by the way, who didn't even believe into Jesus and probably until after his resurrection, thought Jesus was a fraud and a hoax, didn't want anything to do with him. But then he sees Jesus risen from the dead and that kind of rocked his world and he didn't have a paradigm for that or needing to do with that. So he believed the only rational thing he could do at that point. And he gave us life and became the head of the church of Jerusalem. He says, fate by itself, if it is not accompanied by action is dead. So here's my challenge to us as a church.
Be it. Be what? Be a follower of Jesus Christ. And be it this year like you've never been at before.
Decide the day what your plan is for the year. Make every day you wake up this year, make it your goal to say, you know what I'm going to I'm going to be it. They don't misunderstand. This is not you can do it on your own. You're strong enough. We don't believe that garbage because it's garbage. Okay, and that's the world's system in the first place. Jesus is calling you to come away from that. Come away from self effort. Come to trust and rest and believe in me. That's what we mean. As far as a Christ has said, be it. Be a follower of Jesus Christ. How hard is that? You just give that other stuff up to say I'm going all in here on him. Doesn't mean you have to have it figured out. No. Doesn't mean you have to know what you're going to do about this or that. No. I want you to have great finances and a healthy marriage and great parenting relationships and good stuff going on at job and in your community. Yes. Okay. Don't am I going to preach on that this fall? No. Why? Because that can be a distraction unless it's not a fruit of following Jesus. What a 40 and I'm going to tell you to do anything with your money or your relationships or with your time and your schedule. If it's not as a result of following him. Can I just apologize for most of the churches and pastors that live in this country right now as one I'm one of them. So we have done a great disjustice to preach so much about the things you need to do differently and how you can do differently so you can have a little healthier relationships so your finances can be a little bit better and so you can have a little bit more peace in your life and this or that to say you know what we have done you a great disservice. Whether it's you've seen it on TV, whether you've seen it in a church you've been to, whether you've seen it in the books you've read. If we told you that any of that comes apart from following and taking up your cross daily to lose your life for Jesus Christ because he's the only thing that's worth anything and one day when you die you will be convinced that that is true but if that is the day that you do it you will have lost possibly your salvation and you will have lost your entire life and wasted your life your own earth. Pray anything else and we'll talk about all kinds of implications as follow of what it means for your marriage and means for your finances and all those things. There's a lot irrelevant but it will not be a part from a simple call to come and follow me that Jesus is and I'm not going to tell you here that it's going to make you happier necessarily or and certainly not it's going to make you more comfortable and that's not going to come with a high cost because it will but I will tell you a year from now if you do it I guarantee you that you'll say it was worth it. I just came up and spoke to my before church this morning and said oh thanks for sacrificing and doing this huge thing to help us support our family and our church you know what their response was it was a joy you know my fault was when it was going on I was like thinking oh there's no way I could have done that. What was this person's response? It was a joy. Thanks for discipling me this morning I needed that. Jeremy and Angel you guys are I know enough to the mission field that freaks me out all right they're going to Africa you know don't you joy say about that well you know you know I might call you to Africa well he is right there exhibit A exhibit B you know but you hear it and talk to them that they're excited about it thank you for discipling me if anyone would come after me must deny himself and take up this cross if you think this world is life your own effort has what you're looking for listen if you think this world this life your own effort has what you're looking for then you owe it to yourself to continue the course but if this world this life your self effort has let you down on multiple occasions or you peel back the onion layer to go oh my gosh this is it there's nothing here it's this shallow this empty then you owe it to yourself to not continue to live for that but to answer the call to come follow me you only got one life you owe it to yourself
well it to him really right it's our creator and the joy we get to walk with him to know him come was just the first word Jesus said the second two were just as powerful says follow me come follow me there's at least two central implications here the first one is this follow me implies a different focus than what you had before it's not following what you used to follow right follow me means that hey you were going that way now come this way there is a shift in focus something is different everyone before following Jesus according to the scriptures are following the ways of sin there's a way that seems right to a man but it ends in death the scriptures say you're following the ways of the flesh the ways that come natural the ways that come by default you're following the ways of Satan we don't like to use that word because that sounds like kind of spooky and it kind of we're like nobody wants to think they're satanic let me tell you that's one of the greatest tools of the enemy is to make you think that satanic stuff it's just sometimes weird movies or people group people out there that do this occult activity oh that's satanic you know that that's a form of satanicness for sure there is nothing more satanic than living for yourself do you know that then believing that God is not the creator in the Lord of the universe and where they do you worship with your entire life that's satanic 101 that's what Lucifer was throwing out of heaven for that's what his embodiment in the serpent there in the garden of Eden was all about did God really say you would die that's what's something very satanic you're not going to watch that in some rated art movie in a movie theater and that's not going to make you kind of want to snuggle closer to your date next to you because that's spooky that's satanic 101 doubting God doubting his word living for yourself etc etc everyone is born following sin the flesh satan in the world listen to what John writes and first on two do not love the world or anything in the world if anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him are you in the picture you can't love the world in love God at the same time let me continue for everything in the world the cravings of simple man the lust of his eyes the boasting of what he has and does comes not from the father but from the world the world and its desires passed away but the man who does the will of God lives forever cravings of simple man lust of the eyes boasting what he has and what he does it could be the cover of any magazine the United States of America on a given day
you know the most condemning thing about the church in America is that we live practically identical to the world around us yet exuded pretence of holiness let me say that again the most condemning thing I think about the church in America today is that we live practically identical to the world yet we exuded pretence of holiness well we go church or we have this value system but there is no visible difference in how we live day in and day out think about it we live the same way that those that don't follow Jesus live then one of two things must be true if we live a way that's the same as those who don't follow Jesus and either Jesus is leading the same way as the world or we aren't following Jesus those are the only two possible conclusions that Jesus is leading the same way as the world or really not following him there's nothing in the gospels about the story of Jesus that suggests that he was doing anything in the same way that the world did so ask yourself this morning do I spend my money the same way as someone who doesn't follow Jesus does is that uncomfortable question kind of personal yes it is you must ask that if you were a follower of Jesus
do you speak the same way as someone who is not a follower of Jesus do you treat broken people the same way when you encounter them as those who don't follow Jesus do you watch the same tv shows in movies of those who don't follow Jesus do you see the same to your teachers in school as all the other students do do you see the same as all the other employees do to your boss those if you have a job do you act the same way when confronted by your failures as someone who doesn't follow Jesus does your marriage in practicality really function the same as those who don't follow Jesus in their marriages parents are your parenting strategies really not any different than those who don't follow Jesus don't get me wrong this is not a condemnation right now of those who don't follow Jesus they are living consistently with their value system they're honest they're living true to what they believe it is those of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus who are not and who are in need of deep repentance and that's got where to come up here we were just saying Jesus paid it all again should be singing loud in the body oh my gosh I'm so glad he paid for that kind of stuff
he's set free from that am I as unmoved by God as those who don't believe in him is the bottom of my own question am I as unmoved by God as those who don't believe in him for him on college would say it this way he said if the Holy Spirit all of a sudden vanish from your life how long would it take for you to realize it the Holy Spirit you know the one that's guiding you day in and day out the one that's convicting you if sins day in and day out the one who you're looking to to be the one who produces the fruit of the spirit in your life how long would it take for you to realize that the Holy Spirit all of a sudden if you took the day off how long would it take you to realize a couple minutes a couple hours far too many days I've lived where I'm not sure I would have even realized it I won't rely on him I didn't need him I was living as I thought I wanted to live what was best to me at the time taking up our cross daily should mean something it has to mean something second implication of following me implies that you're not leading if you're following somebody when you follow someone else you aren't setting the direction you aren't choosing the speed you aren't choosing where to turn and when to turn you aren't selecting the destination you aren't in control practically speaking when they ask you how are you actually following Jesus when it does come relating to your finances when it does come to your schedule and calendar let me tell you right now for most of us that live in this community there are at least have it given one kid okay and those of us that don't they're involved you're still connected to this community okay you have already set because every institution out there's already tried to make sure they have set your priorities of your fall calendar already that first day at school you got dates that were handed home to you things when they're going to do expectations meaning you had to be at things you had to do oh my gosh if you're in sporting recreational activities with your kids good luck with that they have expectations and by the way there are consequences you don't meet those expectations just ask your kids they they have a passion for your life and your schedule and your agenda but let me tell you where is following Jesus fit in with that if you are and we just I'm speaking to to the Christians and the church here okay non-Christians again you guys are doing good in living true to your value system as the church if you do not feel tension strong tension with the scheduling from recreational activities with kids the demands things going on with school the expectations for things to be at they have to do they have to perform a certain levels if you're not feeling some tension with that then you I really think you should question what about your following Jesus let me just be that bold to say that if you don't say and refuse some activities right out and say no we can't do that then I really think you need to reconsider are you following Jesus as a follower Christ with what he calls in demands
something you know that we have meetings converge you read for the pastors that live in this side of town and the last month's meeting we were just talking about life and what was going on and one of them to say you know are you guys a surprise these are the senior pastors in this community and I was just one of them there are you guys as surprised as I am about how how church attendance has just become over the last few years is and people that think their regular at church are batting like 50% and every single pastor in that room you too was like yeah you too I know this is very self-serving rise a pastor meeting bring this up here right about church attendance let me just be honest with you if this is the place where you receive a healthy dose of the teaching of God's word where you get a chance to connect and rub shoulders with other people who are following Christ who are there to support you to encourage you who need you to encourage them who might have just the word you need to hear or share a story with you or back there strumming your kids back here to help encourage them and to plant seeds because they're not getting seeds for what they watch on TV to love God more or where they're at whatever that going on in the world and we are surprised we are shocked to say that the average church attender in this community 3 to 8 and surrounding church membership has gone church involvement has gone from 50% people think that's good that's good let me tell you if you value family dinner with your family do you think 50% is good if everybody can be right sitting around the family now know some of your schedules don't allow that to happen there let's just pick another time holidays if only 50% of the time your family can be gathered at the holidays you feel like we're too good that's healthy that's good or do you feel like oh my gosh only half the time we're going to connect as a family and this God calls this his body his family adopted sons and daughters of the most high God who are brothers and sisters to one another who carry the most valuable precious message that this planet will ever have the way of life in Jesus Christ you don't think we need to gather together and be committed on once a week need talk to your parents and grandparents are like oh I was growing up this Sunday morning Sunday nights Wednesday nights and etc and we think we're doing good to be 50% on Sunday mornings and I'm telling you as most other pastors in this area would say too look we're not involved in a small group most of us would all say this the pastors in this area that you're missing out on what we can offer as a church because I'm going to shake your hand here this morning we're going to talk and say some nice words but you know we're not going to get involved in each other's life we're not going to have a life-on-life impact unless we're regularly involved where we can talk and we can share what's going on and if you're not involved in our small groups this year you are missing out on it on one of the main components you will not be discipled well this year and you will not grow well at least from the ministry of this church if you're not don't think this is a message or a sermon on church attendance it's not it's on following Jesus if you're a follower Christ it's on the tools he's given us to encourage to make it possible for us to do that better and stronger and it's with each other it's coming together so how do we follow Jesus today what Jesus said it before he left this planet then Jesus came with him and said all authority in heaven on earth has been given to me therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you and surely I'm with you always even to the end of the age that's the message and the command and the commission he's given us as a church to be going and doing that to go confidently under his authority I know it's hard to share your faith and it's scary whatever else but do you share your faith under the authority Jesus says all authority on heaven and earth has been given to me therefore go and make disciples do you go in the authority that you're not going there preaching yourself you're not going to say hey be like me you're saying they're going hey look what I found who's stepping free from the curse and from my sin and from its power in my life I got a long way to go but look what I found that's what it means to share the love of Christ with the world around you and you can go in authority the God says go in my authority and my command to you to do that go proactively going across the street or around the world go committed to the disciples should being discipled and discipling others are you committed to that your walk of the Lord being discipled in him that would mean regular involvement on some important that would be being involved in a small group in this church at least we don't have sunny school or other kind of mechanisms for that are you involved in that to be discipled to make disciples are you going in the context of biblical community that's what it means baptizing the name of the father son the Holy Spirit okay is that mean check yeah I was baptized no baptism means incorporation into the body of Christ by public profession in many cases but by his covenant promises that you embrace and walk in a covenant community that's all about the being in the church that's not about did you have that ceremony done it's not about what that ceremony represents going in the context of the ministry of God's word teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you that means this is your sword really is and you're in a battle by the way no soldier is going to go without his weapon into battle or he is grossly unprepared in the sitting duck this is your sword going to power a prayer in the Holy Spirit that's what it means when Jesus says along with you always okay is he right there standing beside you in physical body no he's not so how's he with you always through his Holy Spirit that he poured out and he invites you to engage through prayer that's his calling that's what it means to be a follower of him today what does that mean practically speaking reading meditating on his word involved in your local church daily dying through the worldly ambitions and living for his kingdom purposes not taking a promotion if it's going to make it more difficult to follow Jesus saying no to activities that will make you sacrifice the greater kingdom work want to make an impact parents on your kids say no to an activity saying because there's a greater kingdom work here because they're not necessarily going to be the next American item because they're not necessarily going to be a professional you know athlete you have a greater impact so often in the same we're going to say no to this particular activity because there's a greater kingdom purpose what do you think is going to serve them better down the road when life struggles and temptations and difficulties hit when they're an independent adult using your finances your time your God giving gifts to serve the Lord not yourself my challenge be it be a follower of Jesus Christ who comes and actually follows him decide the day make it your goal every day this year to wake up and say you know I'm going to be it by his grace and mercy position yourself to set your eyes and follow him this year like never before you know we're committed to help you as a church in doing that and this Sunday next Sunday and our impact Sunday September 7th I hope you don't miss if you have to miss you know listen to the sermon recording so you can be connected with us talk to your friends say hey what am I missed last week what's going on to come in that we would come in and we would set ourselves up this year to have the impact that God has for us as followers of him to my only question is will you be it I'm going to ask the usters right now just to pass out a little reminder if you take home you guys go ahead and distribute those yes it's a piece of candy it's probably not even your favorite piece of candy it's a bit of honey and if you like it you have my permission stick it in right now and start eating it right now kids make sure you have permission for your parents if you need that I want you to taste it I want you to be reminded they were called to be it and if that's a goofy dorky way to help you remember it I mean sticking your pocket don't throw that thing away I want you to think about it I wanted to be in your pocket today because sticking your pocket a purse this week I want you to see it and go yeah I got an opportunity to decision a choice but I be
and that's a stupid way to help you remember then so be it but helps you remember I think those things are nasty but if you like them I'm glad I remember trick-or-treating as a kid and going oh dude don't give me that that a tootsie role where the worse I know I know let me tell you his scripture say his words the words of God are like the honey of honeycomb sweet I want you to taste it you like it go eat a honey grain crack when you get home and that's better I want you to taste it I want you to taste what this year could be like if you follow him let's pray God has asked that you would come and that you would remind us that you have told us to come and to follow you and there's a very specific way is that you want us to implement that as individuals I believe your Holy Spirit is speaking to our hearts even right now maybe slide it we need to ask forgiveness from or slide we need to go love on or some situation we need to trust you to be reconciled in or a sin that we need a repent of or maybe a habitual sin God that we need to be broken from and yielded to you whatever it might be would you move us and draw us to action would you remind us God as we come to your table here that you have set us free from the curse of sin and its power that we might live us true followers of Christ so would you work in our pocket we're working our midst now pray this in Jesus name amen