Are You Following Jesus?
Notes
Transcript
Good afternoon
Good afternoon
Thank you for inviting me to speak to you.
Thank you for inviting me to speak to you.
Intro
Intro
I don’t want to brag, but I just finished a jigsaw puzzle in 4 days!
The box said 3-5 years
How many of you are parents?
As fathers, we want our kids to be obedient, right?
It frustrates and upsets us when they do not do what they are told or they know is right to do.
We have all been there.
We have all been that kid that didn’t do the right thing. That got in trouble for disobeying. I know I did! I know Lynn did!
We don’t want our kids to be obedient just to show we have control over them. We do it because we love them and want what is best for them. We don’t want them to have to go through the struggles that we did.
We do it to keep them out of trouble.
We want them to be better than we were/are.
They don’t see it that way though. They think we are being mean, we don’t want them to have fun. It’s not until they are adults that they understand what we did was for them. If they ever do get to that point.
Part of them needing to be obedient is they have your last name.
We want our names to have meaning. Lynn, when someone mentions those Bellamy kids, you don’t want the first thing that pops to someones mind to be bad things. You want it to be good things. Those kids are polite and very helpful.
That is the same thing when we say we are a follower of Christ. We are representing Him. Are we doing the things that He did, are we doing what He told us to do? Are we being good disciples? We can only answer that question if we know what Jesus tells us to do. Let’s look and see what He said.
Open your Bibles to Mark 8:34-38. Please stand as we read God’s Word.
34 And He summoned the crowd together with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what does it benefit a person to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? 37 For what could a person give in exchange for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
Jesus gives us 3 things that we must do if we are to be a follower of His. We must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and not be ashamed of Him. No problem, right?
It is not easy to be a follower of Jesus. It is costly, but the reward is far greater than the cost. To be a follower of Christ, it will cost you everything. That is the price. We no longer belong to ourselves, we are His. The disciples didn’t just follow Jesus when it was convenient, they followed Him everyday for 3 years! They didn’t get to take a vacation from Jesus. They barely got any rest. How many times did they row the boat across the Sea of Galilee? They were tired all the time.
31 He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest for a while.” For many people were coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.
They were tired. Following Jesus is a tiring task. The reward is worth it!
Let’s look at the 3 things Jesus said His followers must do.
Deny Himself
Deny Himself
This seems like an impossible task. We can’t have anything? We can’t want to have a nice job, a nice house, a family? That is not what Jesus is talking about.
Jesus is saying that we must rid ourselves of self-determination, that is we have to give up our will to live like we want to, and replace it with obedience to and dependence on Jesus.
We have to be willing to go and do what ever He tells us to do. We can not say No. If He is Lord, No is no longer in our vocabulary. In the time of Kings, if a person told the King no, they were put to death. There was no other option but obedience.
I learned this the hard way. When God called me to ministry, I told Him he had the wrong guy! I didn’t want to be up in front of people. I didn’t want to be the center of attention. I was perfectly happy assisting behind the scenes. Then God told me, how can you call me Lord of your life and then tell me no! That is when I surrendered. I knew I was wrong. I was doing what I wanted, not what He wanted. I was putting myself above Him. That is the definition of sin!
Men, we are the leaders of the church. We must be willing to leave what we want and go do what He wants. We must set the example for the rest of the church. We can’t lead with just words, we must lead with our actions.
Self denial is not a popular topic. It is not something that is taught in our culture. It is the opposite of what the world teaches. The world teaches to do what you want, what makes you happy. That is what is important. The problem with that is happiness is dependent on our circumstances. When we get what we want, we are no longer happy. We have to keep trying to achieve happiness. We can never be truly happy outside of Jesus Christ. He provides a joy that is never changing. Our only hope for lasting happiness is our Lord. Happiness is a fruit of the Spirit. True happiness comes from Christ and serving Him.
Take Up His Cross
Take Up His Cross
We must be willing to identify with Jesus in suffering. He suffered for us and now it is our turn to suffer for Him. You can’t read very far in the Bible without seeing suffering.
10 After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
God is the author and finisher of our faith! The suffering that He allows us to go through is part of that finishing process. The more we go through, the stronger our faith becomes. He refines us through the fire, just like gold.
3 And not only this, but we also celebrate in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;
We can only accomplish this if we know they are coming and we prepare for them. We do that by studying the Bible, prayer, and fellowship. Admitting that tribulations are coming, is half the battle. If you know something is coming, then and only then can you prepare for it.
Again this is an idea that is opposite of what the world teaches. The world wants you to think that tribulation comes because you did something wrong. If we are good enough, good things will happen. That is no where in the Bible.
We are promised trouble and tribulations. If our King went through them, why would we not have to.
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
The reward is worth the trouble. With all the words that John used to describe heaven, it is far more beautiful than any words can ever do it justice. We could go through a thousand lifetimes of nothing but tribulation, and heaven would still be worth all of it and so much more.
Are You Ashamed of Jesus/ Make Disciples
Are You Ashamed of Jesus/ Make Disciples
13 And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. 14 And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach 15 and have authority to cast out demons. (Mark 3:13-15 ESV) Mark 3:13-15
1. Called – Jesus called them (on a mountain!— we must go in the highways and buy ways and call people to come to Jesus— Jesus did not call his disciples within the church)
2. Came – They came to Jesus (people will eventually come but all will not be committed)
3. Committed – They committed to follow Jesus (follow Jesus by suffering for righteousness sake.)
4. Communed – They communed with Jesus (this is a commitment to follow you as you follow Jesus in an ongoing intimate relationship by practicing the spiritual disciplines and walking in righteousness) 5. communicating – They communicated the gospel of Jesus.
19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
You can’t be a fisher of men if you aren’t will to do the first two on the list. When we do this, we have already do the first two things.
To me, this is the hardest of the three.
Going up to a stranger and talking to them is hard for me.
When I think of the cross and what Jesus had to do for/because of me. I have to do it. I will not mock my King.
He did not die on the cross so we can do what we want.
Are you truly following Jesus?
