Follow Me
Follow me!” Jesus said these words to twelve men over 2,000 years ago and it changed the world! Today, we are given the same invitation: “Follow me.” Its an invitation to real life, the life God created us to live, and it’s the secret of fulfillment in life. Following Jesus takes trust and courage, and it is the answer for those who are tired of just existing.
In order to truly follow Jesus as a believer, we must recognize His leadership. He is Lord and all authority belongs to Him. He is in charge and we are His followers. This means we have to settle the Lordship issue.
1 Corinthians 6:19-29: Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
When we made Jesus our Savior, He also became our Lord. As this text states, “you are not your own.” We now live our lives for Him and not for ourselves. To follow Jesus then means to go where He says to go, and to do what He says to do.
Two things come to mind when I think of following Jesus:
1. To follow Jesus is to obey Him (John 14:23-24).
2. To follow Jesus is not always going to be easy (Matthew 16:24-26)
There is this perception out there that to be a “Christian” means that you said a little prayer at some point in life, you go to church fairly regularly, and that, overall, you are a good person. Pretty easy, right? Well, Jesus I think is speaking against that attitude and trying to make the point that following Him is a counter-cultural lifestyle that Jesus asks us to take on as we follow him.
Luke 9:23 NLT: Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.
When it comes to priorities, it is one thing to say, “God is my number one priority in my life,” and a whole separate issue to really live it. Priorities are hard work. When we take a look at our time spent, it will show us the priorities that we are living by.
For the month of October we will be spending time discussing what it means to follow Jesus. Please join us Sunday morning’s as we get into depth of what Jesus meant when He said, “Follow Me”.