Follow the Leader

Introduction

This morning we are continuing our study in the series that I’ve called “BASIC TRAINING.” This morning we are looking at Confession. Many say Confession is Good for the Soul.

Let me remind us where we are in our Basic Training Series:

Talking to God. We used the ACTS method of prayer—Adore, Confess, Thanksgiving, Supplication as our prayer model. Then we trained on Getting into God’s Word.

We talked about spending 7 minutes with God! 1/2 minute preparing yourself, followed by 4 minutes of reading the Bible, while asking the normal literary questions: who, what, when, where, why, how, and how much. Then we talked about asking the final question, So what does this mean to me—what should I do differently because of what I’ve read today. Finally, we finished up our 7 minutes with God by concluding with 2 1/2 minutes of Prayer using the ACTS method. I challenged you to spend 7 minutes with God!

Next we have trained on Thinking On These Things—keeping our mind focused on all that is godly, through Scripture Memory, and Meditating on God’s Word.

Next our Basic training focused on Living Simply—slowing down and experience God in the quiet moments. Finally, we talked about spending time Alone with God. Solitude, and quiet are two things many of us do not like.

Then we looked at what it meant to be Under Orders. We talked about Loving God and Loving people. We talked about our love leading to our living our the great commission.

Next, we saw that as followers of Jesus, we are to Serve God, and then we are to serve others.

We also looked at Authentic Worship, and what that looks like.

Finally, last week we looked at Confession is Good for the Soul.

Today, our Basic Training is looking at what it means to follow a leader. This is Memorial Day Weekend. A time when we celebrate those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice while serving our country.

Throughout the years there have countless stories of men and women who followed their military leader even though they were afraid, unsure, and to them, the plan did not make sense. Still, they followed the orders, and for many it cost many of them the ultimate sacrifice—their life!

The Christian life has many parallels—each of us is under the command of The Supreme Commander, Jesus Christ. The key question this morning is simply, “Are you willing to follow Commander Jesus when you are afraid, uncomfortable, struggling, don’t understand where He is leading? Are you willing to make the ultimate sacrifice by giving Him your life?

Now I know we are in church, so the “church answer” is “YES!” But before you answer too quickly, you need to slow down and count the cost!

In Luke 14, large crowd is following Jesus. As He begins to talk to them, He talks to them about the cost of discipleship. First he makes a shocking statement in verse 26, where He says:

Luke 14:26 NIV84

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.

Is there ANYTHING you love more than Jesus?

If I’m honest, there are times when I would have to answer this question, “Yes!” You see, often I love a life without problems more than I love living for Jesus. I love a life of ease—more than I love Jesus! And Jesus doesn’t beat around the bush—if this is true in my life, I cannot be His disciple! Instead, I’m a disciple of the easy life or the comfortable life.

In the next verse, Jesus drives this point home! Look at verse 27.

Luke 14:27 NIV84

And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

What is the cross that you need to pick up in order to follow Jesus?

Finally, Jesus encouraged His followers, to count the cost of discipleship! Look at verse 28.

Luke 14:28–30 NIV84

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’

How sad! He started out GREAT but couldn’t keep it up to the finish!

Luke 14:31–32 NIV84

“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.

Finally, Jesus tells His listeners that they need to count the cost of discipleship!

Luke 14:33 NIV84

In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

What will it cost you to be 100% sold out to Jesus?

You see, with Jesus it is all or nothing! You simply cannot serve two masters like God and Money.

Luke 16:13 NIV84

“No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

What master are you following?

Make A Choice!

1. What god will you serve?

At the end of Joshua’s life, he challenges the children of Israel to pick the god that they will serve. In Joshua 24:14-18 we read:

Joshua 24:14–18 NIV84

“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.”

The first decision each of us make is whether we will follow the Lord God no matter what! That day, with Joshua the people agreed that they were going to follow Yahweh. The thing is, when they had godly leaders, they did in fact follow Yahweh. But when they had ungodly leaders they stopped following God!

To me, this shows how important our choice of a leader really is. Everyone of us, needs a human guide to help us navigate this world.

2. Picking your leader!

Today there are a lot of voices out there. This morning, if you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, and you’re seeking to make Him your Lord then the next thing that you must do is figure out what voices you are going to allow to influence you.

Now, here’s the thing! As long as you are comfortable or okay with what God is doing with you, we tend to find and listen to people that will encourage us to follow God. But when we don’t like what God is doing with us; when we are going through tough, hard times we tend to find leaders that will say what we want to hear!

The children of Israel did turned against Moses (while he was up on the mountain). In Numbers 14:4 we read:

Numbers 14:4 NIV84

And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

Can you believe it? They were slaves in Egypt, and now they forget all that God has done for them, and don’t have the faith needed to follow Him any more!

It is so easy (at least for me) to forget all that God has done in the past. We need to remember the past—but look forward to the future! Israel was remembering the past, and longing for its comfort! Even though it wasn’t comfortable!

That is exactly what Jeremiah discovered. The children of Israel were set on doing their own thing and NOT living for God. Because following God was too hard! That’s when God called Jeremiah to go up against the kings of Judah, the officials of Judah, the priests of Judah, and the people of Judah—Jeremiah is going to have a message for Judah that they are NOT going to like! He is going to expose the people’s lack of love and obedience for God.

Paul warned Timothy about this tendency in people. Turn with me to 2 Timothy 4. We’ll begin reading verse 1.

2 Timothy 4:1–5 NIV84

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

Here are the characteristics that each of us should be looking in a leader that is leading us toward the Savior!

A. Preach the Word!

Preach the Word! If you are looking for a good leader, make sure the leader is preaching the Word of God. Here’s why, God Word is what changes lives!

B. Always prepared!

The phrase in verse 2 “be prepared in season and out of season” points to two things:

Be prepared!

That is the first and foremost point. Your leader must always be prepared to share Jesus into the lived of followers!

In season & out of season

In season—when people are eager and ready to hear God’s Word.

Out of season—when people don’t really want to hear what God has to say.

Correct

The leader it to take people back to a right thinking about God. The leader is to expose false teachings or false beliefs.

Rebuke

The leader is to give warnings—warnings about straying from the truth.

Encourage

The first two words: correct and rebuke can be harsh, even hurtful. But Paul tells us that it all needs to be done with encouragement! Too many of God’s leaders are discouraging! Even in Scripture, the leaders that were given the task of giving “bad news” did so with love and encouragement.

Great Patience

Careful Instruction

Finally, all three of these: correction, rebuking, and encouragement are to be done with great patience and careful instruction.

C. The Reason

Verse 3 is crucial for us to understand!

2 Timothy 4:3–4 NIV84

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

People want to hear what they want to hear. Messages like:

God will give you whatever you ask (or whatever you want).

God wants you to be happy and never suffer!

God wants you to be healthy, wealthy, and wise!

There are so many lies out there! People will find people someone to tell them whatever they want to hear. Yet, many of the messages that are out there DO NOT come from God’s Word! Instead they are messages that say what their itching ears want to hear. They are nothing but myths!

D. Leaders should be level headed

Keep your head in all situations.

E. Endure Hardships

Leading is not always fun! There are a lot of hardships.

F. Do the Work of an Evangelist

God’s leaders should be telling people about the Good News—the Gospel.

G. Discharge all the duties of your ministry.

The Greek word used here is the same word we get the word “deacon” so it has to do with serving! The leader in ministry is to be a servant just like Jesus was!

Choose Carefully!

Finally, choosing someone to be your spiritual leader is serious business! They can either lead you closer to the Lord Jesus our they can lead you away from the Lord Jesus!

Paul, one of the great “spiritual leaders” in Scripture, encourage the church at Corinth to imitate Him. In 1 Corinthians 4:16 we read:

1 Corinthians 4:16 NIV84

Therefore I urge you to imitate me.

What an amazing statement. Paul tells the church at Corinth to imitate him. As a spiritual leader, there are many times when I really don’t want someone to imitate me. But Paul doesn’t stop there! Later in the book he gives us the same idea in a different way. Look at 1 Corinthians 11:1 we read:

1 Corinthians 11:1 NIV84

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

Every SPIRITUAL LEADER must follow the example that Christ gave us! As the leader follows Jesus we ought to be able to follow or imitate him because He is following or imitating the Lord!

So What?

In an information saturated world like today it so incredibly important that we learn to be discerning in choosing to whom we listen!

I know you may find this to be a shocker, but everything on the internet is not necessarily true!

So to whom are you listening? Follow me, as I follow Jesus!

Finally, I want us to remember—each one of us is a leader to someone, so each one of us should be able to say, “Follow me as I follow Christ.”