Why Jesus Wants Us to Follow Part 2

Lonnie Brooks

Why Jesus Wants Us to Follow (part 2) • Sermon • Submitted 8 years ago

0 ratings

· 3 views

Notes

Transcript

Sermon Tone Analysis

Emotion

Language

Social

View more →

Introduction

Last week we began talking about the topic of why Jesus wants us or desires us to follow Him.

And if there is one summation for that entire sermon it is this: Jesus does want us to follow and it is a must that we do follow.

Jesus said himself in , He is the vine and we are the branches, If we remain in Him and He in us, we will bear much fruit. So you see it is essential that we follow. Jesus says himself… apart from Him we can do nothing.

So the question that presents itself is this one.... do you follow?

Are you a follower of the Lord Jesus?

In every day and in every part of your life are you a follower of Jesus.

Now just to refresh our memory's a bit, we considered a couple thoughts last week.

The first was this one thought, we desperately must follow because the sin separates us from God.

Sin is that one evil device the devil uses to cut us off from God, to keep us from being the person, the family, the ministry that God wants us to be...

But Jesus came and gave His life as a ransom for sin, a gift given to restore us to our God.

Secondly, we looked at the idea that it was important to follow Jesus so that we would know that His grace is sufficient for every part of life.

And from there we went and examined the idea that the grace of God was sufficient for hope and sufficient for life.

And now this morning I want us to continue that thought — Why Jesus wants us to Follow.....

So lets begin today...

Jesus wants us to follow Him so that we....

1. Live under the power of the Holy Spirit....

As a child of God you have the awesome, and yes I said awesome opportunity to live a Spirit filled life. A life that is empowered by God’s Holy Spirit.

So what does that mean?

First off we must understand when Jesus said He was going away, and in doing so, He would send a comforter, a helper - the Holy Spirit.

John 14:16 ESV

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,

So who is the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit is a person, He is the third person of the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

And what does it mean to live under His power and influence… First off, if you are a child of God, you are filled with the Holy Spirit. He comes immediately when a person accepts Jesus as Lord in Savior.

We do not earn his presence, we do not have to find Him, Praise be to God, He comes to us.

So when we find Jesus as Lord and Savior, and ask Him to be our Savior, He comes into our life.

Now as we follow Jesus, we can live under the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul tells us then in this truth...

Ephesians 5:18 ESV

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,

Here Paul calls us to “be filled with the Spirit” now that phrase in the Greek literally means “keep being filled”

What does this mean? It means that you are consciously, continuously and voluntarily placing yourself under God’s leadership, direction, influence and control.

Here is a question, does your life belong to you or to Jesus? If you say, its my life… you will only go so far..

But now, if you have given your life to Him (Jesus), He can take your life and do more with it than you every thought or dreamed of.....

But

Now here is a

And here is the best truth… as we live under the power of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit frees us from the old ways and empowers us to a new life, a new life that loves Jesus and desires to be pleasing in his sight.

The Holy Spirit is so wonderful to us.... Scripture tells us that He intercedes for us in prayer...

Romans 8:26 ESV

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

How wonderful, when we live under His power, He intercedes for us....helping us pray.

The Holy Spirit leads those who are His...

Romans 8:14 ESV

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Now yo might ask yourself why do I need to be lead by the Holy Spirit, well my answer might be over simplied.... but here is the truth, I do not know the way, but He does...

The Holy Spirit will also teach us....

John 14:26 ESV

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

John 14:26 ESV

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

And He will also empower you

Acts 1:8 ESV

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Think about those moments after the resurrection,

A filled life is an empowered life....

Jesus wants us to follow my friends so that we can filled and empowered by God’s Holy Spirit....

Now lets consider another thought....

2. So that we Can be conformed into the Image of the Son of God.

To be conformed means literally means to be made into the likeness of the Son.

I really love this idea.... Why, because I think it should be the dream, that which inspires us… our goal is to be like Jesus.

Let me share two verses with you....

Romans 8:29 ESV

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

This is a difficult verse, for we do not like talking about predestination, but Here is a thought… God dos foreknow… He knows each of us, I believe He knew me before the foundation of this world… so what does this mean.

He knew me… His plan was to enter into a relationship with me through salvation… and from there, with the power of the Holy Spirit we are made like Him..

Now let me share this other passage with you

And the second is

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

This passage is one of my favorites…

Romans

This passage is one of my favorites…

The challenge is to abandon this world. and with it the “prince of this world.” My friends at the heart of this world is the devil, he drives the world, influences the world and destroys it.

As a child of God we have to abandon the world, its thinking, its actions and its living...

Instead we are to renew our mind.

What does that mean, Renew our mind?

To renew our mind means we are called to be different, and rightly so, we are not citizens of this world, but of heaven.

Philippians 3:20 ESV

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

Abandoning this world and the ruler of this world requires us to put our eyes on that which is above

Colossians 3:2–3 ESV

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

says

My life is in Jesus and as such, this world should have no appeal to us, instead our desire his Jesus, and all that is His...

So while the world is wallowing in mud of this present age, while the world is trying to get humanity to squeeze into its mold, we are told to be different. We are called to be Holy for he is holy, and as such, we must be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

A. renew your mind.

says “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”

And in doing so, we take the higher road so to speak.

Now there are two words we need to pay attention to here…

Transformed and Renewed and both speak to change…

1. let’s begin with the first one… Tranformed.

Transformed… this word only occurs two other places in the NT… One is / where Jesus is being transformed in front of the three disciples up on the mountain.

The other place is

2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

In both cases, that took place in Jesus’ life upon the mountain and for Paul describing the believers life as they walk with Christ, is not something that happens from without, but it is what came about from deep within..

“And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

it happens as we walk with Jesus and are made into His image.

So the call for us to be transformed is a radical change that begins deep within the human heart.

Be transformed (into the likeness of the Son) not conformed (into the image of the world and its ruler), that is the call and the obligation of a child of God my friends.

Now consider the word renewed....2.

So that we can walk in the calling God has for our lives, so we can know His will for our life and so we can fulfill our mission in this World.

And that mission begins with us being salt and light, to purify and enlighten the culture of this world we now find ourselves in today.

2. Now the second world is Renewed..

Renew means to make over in a sense.

A renewed mind is one that is concerned with the issues of life that are of lasting importance.

The old nature and our old minds tend to focus on the things that do not last, the temporal. The things that Jesus said would never last; instead a thief would steal them, or where moth or rust destroys.

But the renewed mind focuses on the things of God, the eternal and thus the most important things we can come to know in this life, like the salvation of others, helping the needy, ministering in His name to others…

The transformed and renewed mind are the necessary ingredients for transformational living. and it happens as we follow Jesus....

You cannot accomplish this being removed from Him.

A transformed life from within and a renewed mind enable is to know and do the will of God.

You see unless we are transformed, we cannot do His will in our lives.

And these lead us into my last thought today friends… you see all these things are necessary parts of a larger picture.

A transformed life from within and a renewed mind enable is to know and do the will of God.

Now one last thought today.... Jesus wants us to follow so that.....

3. So that we can Share the Goodness of the Kingdom of God.

Think with me for a moment all the good things you have received because of your walk with Christ....

Don’t you want others to enjoy this as well. I hope so..

We take time to share everything else.... think of a good cup of coffee, a good recipe, a trustworthy mechanic, a good doctor....

We share so many good things, but do we share Jesus?

Jesus wants us, desires us to follow so that we will share..

Look at

Acts 1:8 ESV

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

So what do I want you to pay attention to from this passage...

A. You will receive power....

This has already happened in your life if you are a child of God. You are empowered by the Holy Spirit.

So my friends, with the presence of the Holy Spirit you are called to be His witness...

There is an old lie out there that I believe the devil has used… People say there are two things we should not talk about, politics and religion… bologna...

Listen you are commanded to talk about religion, our faith.

Yet friends, we are only the vessel, God does the work, We are to but open our mouths and let God do the talking...

B. We provide the witness… The word witness has a rich meaning..... Share what it means......

So we bare truth to the blessing of God, the good things of God, the joy of Jesus in us and that is it...

we let God do the rest.

But we cannot do it once, no there is a plan to ensure it gets all around the world, we are to tell the world about Jesus.