Hi and welcome to the Via Zion Sermon podcast.
We are a local church based here in Chennai, India.
We are so glad you are with us and hope that this will
encourage, inspire and instill fresh faith in you.
Our theme for the year 2024 is set apart, and today we look at
how God sets us apart to carry our cross.
Jesus was open and honest with his disciples of the kind of
life they would be called to live should they choose to
follow Him. It's not one that's easy, but
one of great fulfillment and eternal rewards.
As you listen in, would you ask God to show you how better to
carry your cross and follow Jesus, his Son, into the spaces
he leads you? High Church?
What a joy it is to bring God's word to you.
Today, as you know, we've been doing our series called DCF,
Deny, Carry, Follow. Today we're at the last part of
DCF. We're at the place where we look
at how we follow Christ. We look at how we have to deny
ourselves. We look at how we have to take
up our cross. And we also are going to be
looking at how we must follow Jesus.
To know Jesus is one thing you know.
To know him, to know of him is one thing.
To invite him into our lives as our personal saviour, that's
another thing. But to follow him is completely
a different thing. When you think of the word
follow, I wonder what you think of you may think of, I don't
know, maybe you know your Instagram or your Facebook where
you have people following you or you're following people.
My my idea of following has looked so different over the
years. I remember when I was really
young, my family, we were heading to a person's house
warming after church service and so we went with a couple of our
friends in their car. My father was coming on the bike
alone and so he said you know he'll follow our car that we
were going in with friends and he said I'll follow and come
when coming back we'll all come together.
So as he was, as we were going to that place, my dad following
us some, it was a long winded Rd.
It was almost a one hour drive. Somewhere along the way my dad
got lost and I remember in those days we didn't have cell phones,
so my mom couldn't contact him and find out where he was.
The person who was driving this car was, you know, frantically
looking for him on all the streets and things, but we
couldn't find him. So we finally located the place
we had to go to. We went and we attended the
function there. At that function there was a
landline telephone. So I remember my mum just
thinking, you know what? He's not in touch with us, but
maybe I'll just check if he's at home.
So she calls our landline up and lo and behold, my father picks
the call up and he says, yeah, I got lost and I just went back
home. You guys attended and come back
home. And I remember just thinking
when we were sitting there, just the three of us at that
function, like how could he not follow this person who was
driving? Why didn't he follow him closer?
Then he would have not got left behind.
Then he won't be alone. You know, as a little child I
had so much to grapple with in terms of someone following
someone else. Fast forward to when I got
married, my husband, Geshom. He uses Google Maps for most
places that are, you know, hard to find.
But once he gets a place in his head, he can just go there.
But the interesting thing about the way he follows even Google
Maps is as it's on our display and you know as he puts it up on
our screen, on our windshield and he's driving and he's
checking the route, he's never just content with the route that
Google Maps presents him. So he's always zooming out and
finding alternate shorter routes or the route that you know
covers the the the the time taken is less.
He's always trying to compete with Google Maps to beat Google
Maps his time taken. So it's very interesting because
that is a completely different idea of what following looks
like. And then when it comes to my
children, so our kids have by hearted all the back routes near
our house, you know, because their van apparently takes them
on all those routes. They they know all these little
tiny roads that are so narrow that just one car can go at a
time. And so one particular day my my
oldest son and I were driving and he told me, you know,
there's a shortcut to go to our house because the main road was
blocked by a huge water truck. And he said, mom, I know this
other route, just come with me, I'll take you.
And so I followed his instructions and ended up in a
dead end where our car was. I already have a small car and
the the road was the width of the car.
And I remember that I was stuck in this, this very narrow part
and I was screaming at my son saying why did I follow you?
How can you take me down this route?
And it I shouted at him the whole way home.
He's the biggest parenting fail of my life.
But I realized that following. Him.
Taking him at his word had its risks.
I should have counted that, but I didn't.
So when I look at what following looks like for me, I'm sometimes
hesitant to follow people. I'm sometimes hesitant to follow
the status quo, the things that are set in stone.
But then I also have to bring it down to how ready am I to follow
Jesus? Because sometimes the roads he
takes me on are not the huge highways with all the lighting
and all the signboards. Sometimes it's off the beaten
track. And so I want to encourage you
as we get into today's word that you will identify what kind of
follower you are. And maybe we we don't have the
the exact definition for what it should look like.
But the word is a good guide to help us see if we could follow
him better, if we could follow him closer.
If there are certain things in our following that that need,
you know, a revamp, that's where we're going to be looking at
today. Jesus talks in different parts
of the Gospels about what following look like to him, And
I want us to begin with that. Matthew, chapter 8, verses 20 to
22, says when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave a
command to depart to the other side.
Then a certain scribe came and said to him, teacher, I will
follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, foxes
have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man
has nowhere to lay his head. Mark chapter one verses 16 to 18
says, And as he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and
Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were
fishermen. Then Jesus said to them, follow
me, and I will make you fishers of men.
They immediately left their Nets and followed him soon after.
It even talks about how James and John, sons of Zebedee, were
also fishermen with their father in a boat when God, when Jesus
looked at them and said follow me and they followed him
immediately as well. John chapter 10 verses 27 to 28
says my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me
and I give them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither
shall anyone snatch them out of my hand.
So following Jesus looks so different.
It's not the way we talk about following today in today's
context. If someone's being toxic, if
someone is spewing poison on social media, we can block them,
we can unfollow them. We are very picky about who we
follow. We look up to certain people.
We like their content. We follow them.
In following Jesus, I don't get to unfollow him.
I don't get to block him. If I do that, it's probably
going to be to my detriment. I need to follow him.
And when I follow him, it implies sacrifice, it implies
obedience. It implies a listening ear.
It implies that I'm close enough to hear him.
It implies that I'm tuned into his voice and his voice alone.
Because in this time that we live in, the voices are many.
The shepherds are many. These are small s s They're not
the capital S shepherd. The shepherds are many, the
roads are many, the voices are many.
The lure is strong, and it's up to us who we will choose to
follow, what we will choose to follow.
So I want to just encourage you before we actually get into the
the, you know, the word as such that following Jesus is not as
hard as it looks. It's actually very exciting.
You know why, first of all, is that you won't have all the
details. If you're someone like me, you
need to have, you know, the entire road map, the entire
blueprint before you start. This is not for you.
He absolutely doesn't give you all the details.
He just gives you what you need to begin.
You look at the stories of Abraham and Sarah.
You look at Noah. You look at Nehemiah.
You look at Gideon. You look at all the Prophets.
They were told what to do. They had to step out and follow
and do it. They didn't see the big picture.
They just saw the now. They obeyed in the now, and
that's what makes it so exciting, because the minute you
obey and step out to follow him, he gives you more direction,
more clarity. Certain things unfold and you
start to see the bigger picture. But it all begins when you begin
to follow. The second thing is that you
will face storms. Why do I say that's exciting?
Because you will find that in every storm his presence is very
real. In certain storms, he doesn't
necessarily calm the storm. He will calm you down.
In certain situations he will actually speak to the storm
around you and calm it down. But the common denominator is
that his presence will be with you.
I love this passage in Matthew chapter 8 verses 23 to 27, it
says. Now when he got into a boat, his
disciples followed him and suddenly a great Tempest arose
on the sea so that the boat was covered with the waves.
They followed him onto the boat. Then they felt the the onset of
a Tempest. The beautiful thing is that when
we follow Jesus, the storms are not absent, they are present.
They're very much in fact. You have a couple more extra
storms that come your way. But the beautiful thing is that
in every storm you will feel his tangible presence.
That's the second exciting thing.
That's another reason why you should follow him.
The third reason is that I found this in Matthew chapter 12,
verse 15, and it really encouraged me, it said.
But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew from there, and great
multitudes followed him, and he healed them all.
The exciting thing of this journey is that he heals all who
follow him. Maybe you're saying the
particular thing that I have, the thing that I am going
through, is emotional. It's mental, it's financial,
it's relationship. It's not just physical, it's all
these other things. I don't know if I'll ever be
better than what I am today. I want to encourage you that he
healed all who followed him. If you are following him, he's
going to bring healing. It's a definite, it's a definite
he's going to heal the parts of your life that you don't even
know. You need healing.
And sometimes we just look at the physical and say I need
healing of this particular ailment.
But he's looking at me deeper and holistically and saying, no,
you actually need healing in this area.
You need healing spiritually, You need healing relationally.
And he starts bringing things together and brings us into a
place of wholeness. So that's why this life is so
exciting. It's exciting because you won't
have all the details. It's exciting because you will
experience storms, but he will be in every storm.
You will experience healing as you follow him, healing in the
most unexpected of ways. Sometimes you wouldn't have even
asked for it and he will heal you.
That's the beautiful thing about following Jesus.
And the interesting thing is that when we follow him, know
our lives. It's not just this linear
straight Rd. where you can see that you know the end of the
road of the highway. You don't just see the horizon,
but there's so much more. It sometimes goes down these,
you know, off roading. You literally go into these
hardly walked paths. He takes you down these roads
because it's in those seasons when you've.
Gone off the highway. When you're wandering down these
little desert roads that you experience him in greater
fullness, it is then that you learn to lean on him.
It's then that you learn to tune your ears to listen to him.
If it was not for those roads, we will not.
Our faith won't be built up. Endurance won't be constructed
into us. We need every twist and turn of
this journey. I love that.
You know, as life's journey progresses, transformation
really begins to happen and happens as we follow him.
If you choose to not follow him but still want to do life, you
can. But the kind of transformation
that only Jesus brings would be absent.
Following him means taking the narrow way, he says.
If you're following me, you take the narrow way.
Many take the Broadway. The Broadway is easy.
It looks inviting. It looks enticing.
You have many walking on it. The narrow way.
Very few are choosing it. But when you walk down that
road, it leads to eternal life. Will it be marked by barren
patches? Sometimes yes.
But eventually it will give way to the fruitful span.
Big, large, open tracts of land. It may have twists and turns.
It may have highs and lows, but the beautiful thing about
following him is that he is with you.
I love that imagery that we saw last week of those two, you
know, cows standing side by side in the yoke on them.
And there's that one cow which leads ahead.
And I'd like to think that, you know, in this journey I'm not
walking alone. He's the lead.
As he walks, he shares the Lord with me.
As we walk side by side. I get to listen to him.
I get to follow his lead. When he takes me off the track,
what looks like a detour to me will actually be part of the
plan. So it's so important to
understand that the most important thing of our journey
is the one we follow, Not the journey, not the destination.
The one we follow is the most important.
The miracle is not in US following him.
That's required. The miracle is the one who we
are following. I love that when you look at the
Gospels, you see Jesus in all his magnificent glory, even as a
man. She was a multiplier of bread.
He was a Stiller of storms. He was the one who treaded
water. He was a deliverer.
He was a healer. He was a teacher.
He was a creator. He was a God, man, God in the
flesh. He was a fulfiller of
prophecies. He was a bread of heaven, the
one who satisfied hungry hearts. He was the living waters that
nourished spiritually dry places.
He was the door, the way to eternalize.
He was the. Truth.
He was the living embodiment of the truth.
He was life. He was called the Light of the
World because he was coming to an area in the world which was
dark spiritually. They had no hope.
He brought light and brought hope.
He called himself the Good Shepherd because he led his
people with such compassion and such passion.
Now the interesting thing is we are following the same Jesus,
but added to what the disciples saw.
We have an incredible vantage point.
We see him as the lion and the lamb because he was the perfect
sacrifice. And yet he's the returning
victorious King. He's the King of Kings.
He's the Lord of Lords. He's the beloved Son of God who
came to earth to be our Redeemer.
He's the suffering Servant, the one who was meek and lowly in
spite of being the the King of Heaven.
He is the victorious one, the first born from the dead.
He He triumphed. Over sin and death.
He's the everlasting Father. He's a wonderful counsellor.
Mighty God. Comforter, Guide, Helper.
The one who comes alongside us. This is the God that we follow,
and I wanted to list this out and I probably just scratched
the surface because he's so. Much more that we can't put on
paper but the. Beautiful thing is.
So often in our lives, you know, however old you are or however
young you are, I'm sure you love certain aspects of this God that
you worship. You may have experienced Him to
be your family's provider. You may have experienced Him to
be your healer. You may have experienced him to
be a comforter on one of the hardest seasons of your life.
But the beautiful thing is, this God that we worship is so much
more than that. One particular aspect of Him
that we have enjoyed and the beautiful thing is that when we
do this journey with him, we start to see the different
aspects of this one God. I've told you this many times
growing up. I've experienced Him as my
healer, but as I get older, I'm finding him to be my companion.
I'm finding him to be my confidant.
I'm finding that he is the one who counsels me.
He's the one who gives wisdom. He's the one who holds me.
He's the one who convicts me. You see what I'm saying?
Our understanding of him grows and we look at him not just to
the one lens of what is what works for me or what I'm most
comfortable with, but I start to look at him in all his goodness.
I want to just leave a couple of things with you.
He is delightfully unpredictable, what he did 10
years back, 15 years back. He's not going to do the same
thing now. He's going to do it completely
different and blow your mind. He's massively powerful.
You think the kings of the world, the rulers of the world,
have power. You see them pervert justice.
You see them turn things around with the use of money.
Our God is massively powerful. He controls the kings and rulers
of the earth. That's what the word says.
He's massively powerful. He holds the sea, the sky and
everything in between. Just by the word of his mouth.
That's how powerful he is. He's infinitely creative.
You think you are creative. You think you've met a couple of
creative people. He is infinitely creative.
He is widely inventive in his salvation strategies.
You think you should save people a certain way.
You think you should do such and such as a church or an
organization. He is widely inventive.
He's constantly thinking up of ways and drawing people to him.
She is widely inventive in his restorative measures.
Sometimes we plan restoration in a certain way for ourselves or
our loved ones, but he's saying you have no idea.
What I've got in store for you. She cannot be restrained.
He cannot be controlled. He cannot be confined by our
small minds. We cannot make him fit in the
box that is convenient for us so that we can carry him wherever
we go. No, he is beyond all of that.
He's beyond all of that. He is endlessly loving of the
world he created. Sometimes we have these biases
against a certain people group, against a certain country,
against a certain city, against a certain culture.
But he says he loves all of them.
Every one of the people he has created, he loves.
He loves the world. He's unrelenting in his pursuit
of those who have wandered away. Sometimes we as humans, we lose
compassion after a while. We're just like how how many
times this person going to wander away.
But he's unrelenting in how he pursues the lost.
He is spectacular in holiness. Let's not get this wrong.
Let's not think that he's diminished in His Holiness.
He is still the Holy of Holies. He still dwells in an
unapproachable light. It is because of Jesus.
That we have. Access.
He's spectacular in holiness. That hasn't changed.
The great command that Jesus quoted in the New Testament was
when a scribe asked him what are the 2 greatest com what is the
greatest commandment? He said he quoted it from
Deuteronomy and this is what he said.
Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is 1.
Before he talked about the Great Commission was love the Lord
your God with all your heart, mind and strength.
He actually said, hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is 1,
and it's a prayer that every Jew still prays today.
But when you look at that, you understand the magnitude of what
we're going looking at right now, that this God is all of
these things. He's the shepherd.
He's the door, He's the He's the now.
He's the way, He's the truth. He's the Redeemer.
He's a savior. But all of this is just one God.
And so when I look at him, I don't look at him in this
compartmentalized person, but I look at him as one who can meet
every single need that I have. Now.
And every single need that is to come, this is the God we
worship. This is the God we follow.
And so as we look at this today, we're going to be looking at
three different ways in which we can follow him better.
But primarily, I want to leave this with you.
The one we follow is the most important.
She's the one we keep our eyes on.
And he is one He is. One, but he has his incredible
traits and and characteristics that make us need him more.
That make us love him and adore him more.
You need to experience all of him.
So in this journey that you're walking, it's very important to
understand why sometimes we slip into, you know, unbelief.
I face this. There was a season when I was
desperate for this particular kind of healing.
I was going through a particular ailment and I needed healing,
and when I didn't receive it, I just assumed automatically that
God had left me. But interestingly, in that
season when there there was no physical healing that I was
feeling creatively, I was able to churn out so much of content.
And so when I was looking at it, I realised that maybe I was
experiencing less of the healing power of God, but I was
experiencing his creativity in another plane altogether.
So you see, when I start to see this God as infinitely more than
I've imagined, I realize he's never left me.
So maybe there's a season when you've been financially dry, but
maybe when it came to your work, you were doing really well.
Or maybe there was a relationship problem that was
going on. But you enjoyed good health.
You received healing on another level.
So you realize that he's never left you.
He is working in ways you have not imagined your work.
He's working in ways you cannot see.
And because of that, we can be assured that our faith is
founded when it is founded in Jesus is a sure of faith.
He will not let us down South. Often we look at what we're not
having. We look at what prayer is not
being answered and assume that He is not with us.
No, He is still working. It requires that we open up and
see. Open up our eyes and see God,
what are you doing? And you will find there are
spaces in which He's transforming you, which is
evidence to His presence. So it's so important that we
worship. God for all.
Of who he is so that when we follow.
Him. The possibilities are limitless
right now. It doesn't just end there.
Like I said, we know the one we follow, but how do we follow him
better? How do we follow him in such a
way that it is? Really.
You know, deserve that. He's deserving of.
How do I do that? I want us to take three points
home with us in order. To worship God for who?
He is in all his entirety. Every part of my being needs to
follow. Now, what does that mean?
So often I can verbally say all the right things I could.
Physically be. Doing all the right things.
I could be in church, I could be serving, I could be helping the
poor, I could be in the in a hospital volunteering.
But a lot of times my heart or my head are far away.
And so today I want to encourage us that as much as we want to
look at God as this one being and you know, enjoying him and
following him for all that he is, all that I am has to be
committed to following him. And what does that look like?
Firstly, it looks like my heart needs to follow him.
Heart first. Second point will be head next
and. 3rd will be feet, last hands, last head, heart, hands.
It's so important to understand that we are beings that are
spirit, soul, and body. We're not just physical bodies.
We have so much more that is at play.
You will know that at any given time, you probably have a whole
jumble of emotions that are in your heart.
You have thoughts which are running at 200 mph, and then
your body is trying to cope with all of this.
So you know that these are all the different facets of your
being, but it requires that all of these learn to work together
to follow Jesus better. So what does that look like?
Point #1, Heart. First, the Prophet writes that
the heart is deceptive above all things.
It's so easy for our heart to follow after someone or
something that grabs our fancy. It's so easy for our heart to
just wander off behind the thing that looks really good on the
next best thing. But it's so important that we
come back to this place of choosing to follow God
wholeheartedly as opposed to half heartedly.
So. Often in the in Christendom, all
of us, all of us who are followers of Jesus, we have this
bifurcated approach where it's you know what Jesus.
I will follow Jesus but also pursue.
You know that that career which will, you know, really push me
and you know push me into stardom.
Or maybe it will be that relationship where I will find
my value. But the important thing is to
understand that my heart. My heart has to be so wholly
committed to following after Jesus.
I love this passage in Numbers, chapter 32 verses 6 to 12.
It talks about Joshua and Caleb, the guys who were sent with the
rest to go and spy out the land. And this is what God says about
them, He says. They weren't interested in
following me. Their hearts weren't in it.
None, except for Caleb, son of Jeff and A, and Joshua.
They followed me. Their hearts were in it.
What an amazing certificate of approval.
Their hearts were in it. When you follow Jesus, when you
say you follow Jesus is your heart.
In it, Caleb and Joshua, even though the giants were real,
even though the the area to possess was huge, even though it
looked insurmountable, because their hearts were truly after
God. They had remembered all that God
had done the past 40 years. They were so committed and
passionate about taking possession.
I loved. That Caleb even at AT said.
I'm as strong as I am was back then.
I will take the land. He took Hebron Kiryat ABA, where
there was a huge giant that occupied the land at.
AT he. Went into possession.
Men and women whose hearts are completely turned towards God
are what he's looking for. It's so important because it's
easy to have a hard heart. And the times we live in when
people, you know, buffet us and hurt us, and even in the body of
Christ we sometimes get wounded by people.
It's so easy to develop a hard heart and say no more God.
I will not open this heart up to anyone, but he's asking will you
keep that heart soft so that I can do things with you.
I can work in you to help others.
Hearts have to be softened. It's so important that the
writer of Proverbs says guard your heart with all diligence
and vigilance, for out of it springs the issues of life if my
heart is not. Guarded.
It'll be a heart full of holes. That I won't even be able to
hold. God's love in it, let alone love
people. If it's unguarded, it'll get
hard. It'll get distant.
I don't know about you, but when I read about Joshua and Caleb
and the certificate that God gave them and said they followed
me, their hearts were in it. I want that to be on my
tombstone. She followed me.
Her heart was in it. Then my heart would be in it.
How does how do we get distinguished?
As someone who's. Following God wholeheartedly.
I think it's the passion with which we live our lives.
It's not just lip service. I'm not just saying all the
right things. I'm not doing all the right
things just for approval. I'm doing it because it's my
audience of one who will respond.
I do it because ultimately he will ask me what did you do with
what I interested. I do it because he implants in
me a passion for him, his word, his people, his Kingdom.
That's how you distinguish someone who's following after
God wholeheartedly. The second thing is head next.
Heart first, Head next. Intentionally put it in this
order. Even though you know it looks
different. You know when you look at it
like this. But I purposely put head next.
You know why? The heart is the seat of all
our. Emotions, our passions, it
drives our lives. And so it's very it's primarily
so important. And Jesus himself said love the
Lord your God with all your heart.
He started with the heart and then he went into mind and then
he went into strength. So we're going to look at the
mind next, the head. Our mind has to be brought into
a mode of following Christ. Because what happens most often
with our mind is we have mind blocks.
We have old paradigms of thinking the way our family
brought us up, the way our culture has dictated, the way my
current situation with people are.
All of that dictates how I look at things, how I think of
things. My thoughts eventually go into
my heart and start to drive my actions and so it's so
important. That I deal with those mind
blocks. It's so important that I deal
with those old ways of thinking that have thus far been driving
my life and ask God, Lord, I need an overhaul.
As much as my heart needs to be restored from a hard, Stony
heart to a soft heart, my mind has to be overhauled.
What does that mean? Overhaul is actually complete
renovation because the old ways of thinking may have worked for
that old season. But now in the season when I'm
following after Jesus. I need to keep my mind fixed on
him because most often the enemy hits me in my mind.
He touches my thought first. If he messes with my thoughts,
my day is gone. The the things I should do I end
up not doing because of paralysis.
You see what I'm saying? The mind is so important.
Titus chapter one verses 15 to 16.
He talks about the detrimental effects of a mind that is
affected. To the pure all things are pure.
But to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure but
even their mind and conscious conscience are defiled.
They profess to know God, but in works they deny him being
abominable, disobedient and disqualified for every good
work. Look at that verse.
It talks about for the ones who are unbelieving and defiled
right? He says even their mind and
conscience are defiled. So how does one get labeled as
defiled or impure? It's because of the condition of
their mind. And the interesting thing is,
they profess to know God, which is what a lot of us do.
We profess to know God, but in works they deny him, deny him,
being abominable, disobedient and disqualified.
What what happens in our mind eventually gets translated into
our actions, and so it's so important to keep a watch on our
mind. No wonder the Apostle Paul says
fix your mind. Keep your mind on Jesus, he
says, the author and finisher of your faith.
Because it's so easy when things go wrong, when people let you
down that you look to them and your mind just goes down this
dark place. But instead when you bring your
mind back to Jesus and say, Lord Jesus, if you suffered, I can
suffer a little bit. If you went through hardship, I
can walk through this. Keep your eyes on Jesus.
He also says the Apostle Paul also says things, think on
things that are good, true, noble of good, report of virtue.
It's so important that we learn to renew our mind and it's a
daily process, sometimes multiple times in the same day.
It's so important to do that. And overhaul is so necessary
also because when you are following Jesus, he will ask you
to do things. He will give you dreams.
He will tell you this is what I want you to do with your life.
And if your mind is full of logic, only logic is good.
He's given us an IQ for a reason, but if logic crowds our
mind. There's no room for faith, and
logic will eventually lead to fear because you just realize
how limited your finances are, how limited your network is.
You will realize all the lack in your life because of logic
kicking in. And there's no room for faith
too many of. Us are living our lives led by
logic. God is saying, I want to
overhaul that. Keep your intellect.
I gave it to you, but I want you to couple faith with that.
So while you have the capacity to do so much, I'm the one who
brings in so much more. And that beautiful thing of
working with God when you follow him happens when our minds are
overhauled, when our minds come into this place of attaching
faith to it. It's so important that we don't
allow. Our physical circumstances to
begin to dictate to our mind how to live.
In following Jesus he will take you down these roads which will
seem so different and outside of your comfort zone.
Logic will tell you, cut loose and run, run for the hills.
But the beautiful thing is a mind that is renewed will say,
you know what? I can do all things to Christ
who strengthens me. I have more than a conqueror.
I can do this. He is with me.
He has promised to never leave me nor forsake me.
I will keep walking. I will keep following.
Do I have less? Yes.
But those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing.
That's what a mind that is renewed does.
It reaffirms what God has already spoken.
It enables us to walk and follow with greater faith.
And the third thing is our hands.
Heart first, head next, hands last.
It's so important we sing songs like, you know, where you go,
I'll go, what you say, I'll say Lord, but do we actually do it?
I love this scripture from Deuteronomy chapter 30, verses
14 to 17. It says, But the word is very
near you, in your mouth and in your heart that you may do.
It see, I have set before you today life and good, death and
evil. In that I command you today to
love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His
commandments, His statutes and His judgments that you may live
and multiply. And the Lord your God will bless
you and the land which you go to possess.
But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear and are
drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, it's so
interesting. He's talking about how the Word
is so near them. It's there.
It's it's been embedded in them. But it's not enough that the
word dwells in you. It has to move you to actually
actually act on it. And that's not all.
He says this. If your heart turns away so that
you do not hear, you will be drawn away and you will worship
other gods. The interesting thing is our
mind and our heart play a very pivotal role in either drawing
us toward God or moving us away from him.
So on the journey of following behind Jesus, the heart and the
mind are very important because they keep drawing us back to him
even when the going gets hard. And that's what enables us to
keep stepping back out in faith. It enables us to keep obeying
what God is asking us to do, even though they may not be
visible results or visible, you know, rewards.
We keep doing what we're asked to do, what God is asking us to
do, just because we are following him with our hearts
and our minds. And the important thing is that
so often some of us say, you know, what the word of God is
really doing a number on me. He's working on me.
But if I'm not going to get up and go out there and and obey
him, it will just stay in there and get soggy.
It might just get really over saturated because there's no
outlet. You and I were not meant to be
like the Dead Sea, always receiving and not giving.
There needs to be an outlet. Our hands and feet need to be
the hands and feet of Jesus. That's when our following comes
full circle. It's so important that we obey
in all completeness. Incomplete obedience is complete
disobedience. When he asks you to do
something, do it. If he asks you to stop saying
certain things, stop saying it. If he says stop complaining and
start working. Do it.
If he says stay in this job, it's not the most pleasurable,
but stay because I have a plan for you.
Stay. If he tells you to to adjust in
your current situation for a little longer because the
breakthroughs coming, do it. Trust him if he's.
Saying that, the wait is almost over.
But I want you to hold on. Hold on.
Is he saying stop visiting that particular place?
I'm not pleased. Will you stop?
That relationship is no good. I want you to cut it off.
Will you do it? I don't think this particular
Ave. of your career is good for you.
Will you quit? Will you do it?
It's important that while our heart is following him, our mind
is being renewed to follow him. That our hands and feet follow
as well. We cannot live in a place of
inertia where nothing's happening.
Life is happening all around me, but I'm just going to sit here
soaking in the word and doing nothing about it.
That's not the life God is calling us to.
Following requires avid obedience or running behind him.
If he says run with me, now you run.
If he says walk with me, you walk.
If he says lay down with me on this pasture of rest, we're both
going to rest. Do it.
Your hands need to follow. As much as your heart must
follow. As much as your mind must
follow, your hands have to follow as well.
It's so important. So, as I said, who we follow is
all important. I want you to relook at who you
follow on Instagram, who you follow on Snapchat, who speaks
the most and the loudest into your life.
Is it a parent? Is it a friend?
Is it a particular Instagram? Or is it a particular
influencer? Is it a particular author?
Who's the loudest voice in your life?
The Who is all important? Who do I follow?
I hope my answer is always going to be Jesus.
She is the one that we follow, the one true God, everyone else,
everyone else. There will be a deficit.
There will be deficiency. They won't lay down their life
for you. They won't give their all for
you. They will not relentlessly
pursue you. They will not love you in
quantities you cannot even fathom.
That's only Jesus. The way we follow him matters
With whole heart, with a renewed mind, with hands that are all in
hands that are willing to get dirty.
But the interesting thing is, it doesn't just end there.
When we follow him, something happens.
What happens when you and I follow him?
When you look at the Gospels, it's lovely to see how when
Jesus walked through the streets of Judea, when he was in
Galilee, when he went to Decapolis, there was activity
constantly going on. You know what kind of activity?
It was The power of God that had come upon the earth.
When he walked into Rome's, people were healed.
When he sat on the hillside, people were touched.
All who came to him lay down on mats, coming with terrible
afflictions. He laid his hand, healed them.
People were delivered. Of demons.
Restoration was happening all around.
He would teach them and people's eyes were opened.
They were amazed at the authority.
He carried and it didn't. It just didn't finish there, you
know. He had these twelve guys who
walked with him. These 12 disciples who he hand
picked, who went with him into these different spaces, they
were eating their fill of the multiplied bread.
They were sitting on boats. After a sea was calmed down,
they would sit with an ex demoniac who was completely
clothed and sane. Now they were seated, seated in
the homes of tax collectors and Pharisees, having meals at the
tables of these men who they never would in an ordinary
situation, actually been with. And this was the life that the
disciples lived for those three years.
Exciting because they were doing things they would have never
imagined possible. They were literally operating
out of their usual social strata, and that was because
they followed Jesus. If that happened to those 12
disciples, Jesus himself said in John 14 verse 12, is what he
said most assuredly. I say to you, he who believes in
me, the works that I do, He will do also, and greater works than
these He will do because I go to my Father.
You and I will do greater works than what Jesus himself did.
Why? Because today we have God with
us, God in US, God amidst us. He's not left us.
So when I follow him, When you follow him, we can be sure that
when we walk into rooms, the presence of God comes with us.
When we pray for people, they will be healed.
When we speak life into them, resurrection of spirits will
happen. Resurrection of their of hope.
Where hope died, hope will come back.
When we speak to people, the gospel, the power of God, will
fill that place. We can be assured that today we
carry the same presence of God with us.
The 12 disciples walked with him, talked with him, sat with
him, ate with him. We are no different.
What happens when we follow him? The things that he said we will
do, we will trample on snakes and scorpions.
We can do greater things than what he did.
That's what he's promised us. I want to ask you if you've been
living powerless. You said.
I don't have insight. I don't know what to do about my
business, my job, my children, my marriage.
Maybe, just maybe, we aren't following him as closely as we
need to. Maybe we need to go in closer.
Maybe we need to be in closer communion with him.
Maybe we need to step into that yoke right beside him.
Maybe we've been running our own track, thinking we can do it all
in our own strength. But he's saying.
Come walk beside me. I will lead you.
I will take you down the paths you need to go.
We want to plan every pit stop. We want to plan our breaks.
We want to plan the rest stops. He's saying.
Just walk with me. I will lead you every step of
the way in. Walking with him in following
him is where we will get what we need for our spirit, soul and
body. If you're worried about how this
journey is going to end, don't worry.
He's got it all figured out. You just need to come in
alignment with him. You need to start walking behind
him. Follow him.
Let him take the lead. Maybe you've been feeling you
needed to take the lead for your family.
Maybe you feel you need to take the lead in your marriage.
Maybe you feel you have to take the lead at work to make things
turn around to change on our own.
We can do nothing apart from him.
We can do nothing when we abide in Him, whatever we ask for in
prayer. He will do.
So can we just spend a few minutes?
I want to just pray for you, irrespective of what your
following journey has looked like.
Maybe you say, I love Jesus. I know Jesus.
He's in my heart, but I don't know what it's like to follow
him. I want to encourage you.
Following is threefold. Commit your heart to Him.
Commit your mind to Him. Commit your body to him.
Say Lord, here I am, committed to wholeheartedly following you,
committed to living with a renewed mind, committed to jump
in feet first, ready to take that dive, ready to do the
things you asked. Me to do.
Dear Father, we just thank you. We thank you, Lord, for your
word. We thank you for every promise.
We thank you for every command. And Lord, we just pray right now
that for every person who's watching this, every person who
is. Looking into your word that God,
you will speak to them. Help us to be followers of
Jesus, who will run the race well, who will be all in with
our heart, with our mind, with our strength.
Help us, Lord, where we are weak.
Help us, Lord, where we have checked out in our mind, where
we have hardened our heart. Forgive us if we have been
speaking. Things with our lips, but our
hearts are far from you. Forgive us if you have been
doing all the right things, but, Lord, there's no inner work
happening. Help us, Father today, help us.
Send your Holy Spirit to renew us, to refresh us, to rejuvenate
us from the inside out. We ask that we would be those
who follow you with everything we have.
Lord, I pray for anyone who has given up on you and and run a
different race. Thank you that you still wait
for them. Thank you that you're just a
whisper away. I pray they would open their
mouths right now and say Jesus save me, bring me back.
We thank you Lord, for you are waiting for us.
Thank you that Lord you are leading us.
Help us to deny ourselves every day to carry a cross and to
follow you. In Jesus mighty name I pray.
Amen. Amen.
God bless you. Have an amazing week.
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