Following Jesus

What makes someone a follower of Jesus? Going to church? Donating money to good causes? Trying to be a good person? The answer is actually much simpler—all you have to do is follow the Leader. In this message, Dr. Stanley outlines exactly how to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, beginning with surrendering your life and mirroring His life of prayer, service, and sacrifice.

If I should ask you a simple question.
Are you a follower of Jesus? How would you answer that?
Are you a follower of Jesus?
Well, if I asked that to some people, they would say, uh do you mean uh do I believe in God?
No, I just said, are you a follower of Jesus or they might respond?
Well, I know about him that, that, that’s not the question.
And oftentimes they would say, well, I do attend church that that’s, that’s not the question either.
Or they might say when I go to church every once in a while they observe communion and I participate in that.
No, I ask you if you are a follower of Jesus.
Well, I give to good causes. That’s not the question.
Well, I think I’m a pretty good person. I didn’t ask you that.
Um I try to live a good life. I don’t drink. I run around on my wife.
I didn’t ask you that. I pray.
Uh when I feel like I have a need of it, then ask you, then ask you if you are a follower of Jesus.
It’s amazing having that people have different answers.
And then I do consider myself a religious person. I didn’t ask you that either.
Well, my parents were very religious and I didn’t ask you that either.
And the truth is all of those answers, any one of them, or all of them together were not equal, whether you’re a follower of Jesus or not.
And many people think if certain activities are true in their life, certain experiences, then they, they must be a follower of Jesus.
They must be a Christian, not necessarily.
So and so I want you to turn if you will to Matthew chapter four.
And uh look at this uh 18th verse, are you a follower of Jesus?
Listen to what the scripture says, the 18th verse of Matthew four.
Now as Jesus was walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers Simon who was called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea.
So they were fishermen and he that is Jesus said to them, follow me and I will make you fishers of men and they immediately left their nets and began to follow Jesus.
Where does Jesus Christ fit into your life?
And so when I think about that, that’s gonna be the title of this message following Jesus.
So what I’d like to do in this message, I’d like to give you the activities, the experiences of a true follower of Jesus so that you can decide whether you are not because there are certain things that are absolutely essential to a follower of Jesus.
Many people think they are, many people are not sure many people know they’re not and many people truly are followers of Jesus.
So the purpose of this message is simply to clarify that.
So I hope you have a pen and a pencil or a piece of paper.
And I want you to write this down because when somebody says that you’re a follower of Jesus, you can say yes, specifically if you know how to say yes.
And I want you to examine your heart and ask yourself the question not, do you go to church?
Not? Have you been baptized? Not have you taken communion? Not have you done all these things?
But I’m a true follower of Jesus. So what does a true follow of Jesus look like?
What does it sound like? What are the evidences? What are the experiences of a true follower of Jesus?
So I trust that you’ll write him down now to be a follower of Jesus.
Step number one, you must be born again.
John 33 says, truly, truly, I say to you unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God or enter the Kingdom of God.
So the first basic step of being a follower of Jesus is being born again.
So forget the church basis baptism and all that stuff.
It’s being born again, which is a matter of confessing your sins.
Surrendering your life to Christ, accepting his forgiveness of your life and beginning to walk in his ways.
First of all, being born again, have you ever been born again?
Jesus could not have made it more clear when he said being born again, not just being better, not just improving, being born again as a result of your confession, repentance and surrender your life to Christ as Savior, Lord.
Step number one. Did you get that say? Amen? Step number two.
And that is if you’re a follower of Jesus, you’re gonna be a person who prays listen to what he says.
An example of Jesus in Luke six verse 12, it was at that time that he went off to the mountain to pray and he spent the whole night in prayer to God.
Or somebody says, well, I pray. How often do you pray? Well, once in a while?
No, if you’re really a follower of Jesus prayer is a major part of your life.
In fact, how do you start the day off of living in this world without talking to God?
And how do you go to sleep at night with perfect security without talking to God.
How do you face the issues in life without prayer?
That is prayer should be a habit and not only a habit but a very important part of our life, pray about what pray about everything.
And Jesus prayed about many things. But what I want you to notice is this.
He watch this, this is the Son of God. He began his day alone with God.
How many times have I mentioned that to you about starting the day with prayer and getting alone, having a quiet time.
If you’re gonna be a follower of Jesus, a follower does what the leader does, right?
So first of all, you’re born again and secondly, you’re going to make prayer a very, very vital habit in your life.
So I would ask you this question. Most of you consider yourselves followers of Jesus.
Uh where does prayer fit in your daily life?
Is it something you do when you get in trouble, when you have a need, when you get sick, if you think about it or you almost had an accident, you thank God.
But prayer pray without ceasing the scripture says, Jesus began his day and not just in this verse, but other verses began his day alone, talking to the Lord and of course, the disciples, they couldn’t stand it.
So they had to find him and interrupt him. But prayer is the second very vital part.
Thirdly, if you really and truly are a follower of Jesus, you’re gonna listen to him in Matthew chapter 17 verse five, listen, what the scripture says while he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them and behold the voice out of the cloud said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.
Listen to him. That’s the scripture.
And I believe one of the greatest weaknesses among believers is failing to listen to God.
And if we are just really honest, how many people here get up in the morning and you look at the clock and you said I better get busy, you get busy doing things that are absolutely essential in order for you to fulfill your responsibility for the day.
But I wonder how many of you really and truly began the day talking to the Father asking Him to give you direction, to protect you, to watch over you care for you, enable you to be obedient to Him.
Whatever goes on in your life make you sensitive to people around you who need Christ, who are going through difficulty, hardship and pain.
Where does prayer really fit in your life? Lost people pray. This are making a difference. Not really.
God’s not listening to people who live in a rebellion toward Him.
God is the sovereign God of this universe.
Lord master over all things who requires our obedience, surrender and our acknowledgment of his rule as God in this society and in this world.
How many of us are listening to Him?
When is the last time you got on your knees or you got by yourself in your particular place to pray?
And just said, Lord, today, I’m not gonna tell you anything. I just wanna listen to you.
Well, you say, well, I’ve listened to God and he didn’t say a thing.
Do you know why the attitude wasn’t right? Yeah.
The sovereign God of the universe who loves you enough to send Jesus to die for your sins is always available to hear the prayers of his Children who come to him in sincerity.
It doesn’t mean we have to come to him all confessed up because sometimes we come to him in order to confess and repent of our sin, whatever it might be.
But a follower of Jesus is a person who prays and the person who listens to God as well as talk to God.
So I would ask you the question. Have you been born again?
What place does prayer have in your life?
And how often do you take time to listen to him?
Or do you all do all the talking and many people pray like this, Lord, I’m coming to you today for my needs, you know, all my needs and I’m trusting you to protect me, watch your men care for me and you know what I’d like to have, you know, the things in life on my prayer list.
And I’m gonna trust you to take care of me today in jesus’ name. Amen.
That is all about me, myself and I not all about or any of all about worshiping holy God who deserves our allegiance and obedience to walk faithfully before him.
Number four, if I’m gonna be a follower of Jesus, I must believe him, this simple verse for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life, trusting him, faith in Him.
John 3 16, for example, that verse is absolutely essential in order for us to follow Him.
If I don’t believe Him, I’m not gonna do what he says.
If I don’t believe Him, I’m not going to obey him.
If I don’t believe him, I’m not gonna walk in his ways.
If I don’t believe Him, I’m gonna live my life centered around what I want when I want it.
Whatever that might be. Can you honestly and truly say I live by faith.
I trust God for my needs. I trust God for my difficulties, hardship, pain. I trust God.
When I’m in a sense of facing temptation, what part does faith have in my daily life in a practical kind of life?
I don’t mean praying. Well, I went to church that doesn’t mean you have faith.
Evidence that you have faith is when you find yourself crying out to God, believing Him for something that you know, that you can’t do without him.
And Jesus made faith a priority of his life because that’s who he was and prayer was a part of that.
So if a person says to you, are you a follower of Jesus?
I don’t know what you would have said.
But you, you could say, well, I have trust in Christ as my savior prayer is a vital part of my life.
I’m listening to him, whatever he wants to say.
And I’m, I’m, I’m trusting him for what he says in my life. Oh, watch this.
All of that is just a simple vital part of being a follower of Jesus.
If you were going to eliminate any one of those, which one would you eliminate? Not any of them.
So number five, if I’m a follower of Jesus, I’m going to obey Him.
I’m going to obey John A 12 says I am the light of the world.
He who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.
That is who follows me, who obeys me.
If I’m really and truly a follower of Jesus obedience is absolutely essential.
And besides that, it’s the desire of my heart.
If I understand who Jesus is, I would be absolutely foolish not to obey him.
The Bible says the wages of sin is what that’s pretty weak.
The wages of sin is what death, right? Why do I want to sin against God?
If I know that ultimately, there’s gonna be death, not just physical death, it could be death to my true, to love somebody.
It could be death to my opportunity from God to be blessed financially because I’m disobeying him financially and we can go right down the line.
Obedience is absolutely essential to being a follower of Jesus.
And you say, well, why do you spend all that time on that? Let me ask you a question.
Why did you spend most of those early hours and days of your children’s lives saying that here’s what you must do it.
I want you to grow up to be and you were teaching your Children to do what to obey you because you wanted them to grow up and be the best they can be.
If you follow Jesus, you obey Him.
If you don’t obey Him, you thank Him for sending you enough heartache and troubles and trials to correct your sense of misdirection in life.
Obedience to Him is absolutely essential. And people don’t like to talk about obeying God.
They want to talk about how good God is. Well, sure God’s good.
And you know, one of the reasons He’s so good is because he teaches us to obey Him who is the source of every good thing that comes our way.
Now, I hope you’re writing these down and I’m trusting you when you, before you go to bed tonight.
Check yourself out. In fact, it’d be a good idea if you had this list right by your bed.
So you would say, ok, Lord, I know I’m a follower of you. So I know I’m born again.
I, I I’m praying and listening in other words, check yourself out.
A true follower of Jesus Christ is gonna do every single one of these so far. We’re right. Correct. Amen.
That’s pretty weak. But you’ll wake up in a minute, you’re gonna obey it and then you’re going to love him.
If you’re gonna follow him, you’re going to love him. Listen to Mark 12 30.
You should love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
Look at that, love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, not a divided heart, half in the world and half with God, all your heart, with all your soul.
That is all your very being, your whole personality.
And he says with all your mind, that is if I love it, watch this.
If I love God with all my mind, I’m going to be careful what I place in my mind, what I think about who I think about and the kind of thoughts I have.
If I’m a true follower of Jesus and love him with all my heart soul in my mind, I’m going to be very careful what I place in my mind.
You can listen, you cannot love the Lord, your God with all your heart and sit and watch something on television that absolutely messes up your mind challenges your sense of obedience, challenges your sense of spirit in your heart.
Now, if you really and truly love Him, and we come to this whole issue of loving him, that love is going to affect what I think the way I think where I go, what I say, what I do loving is going to affect every aspect of our life.
So when I think about people saying, oh yes, I’m a believer, I’m a follower of Jesus.
And yet they’ve not even thought about how their activities indicate whether they’re a follower or not.
Now think about this. This is a full course in living the Christian life in 1 30 minute period.
And most people will live their life and never be able to tell you what’s involved in living a Christian life.
They went to church, they got saved, they got their name uh on the roll. They’re members of the church.
Nobody says to them that when you come to church, you bring a Bible.
So I’m not gonna ask you to hold yours up because 99.9% of you have one, there is not a single person who can go to church and remember everything the pastor said or even the essentials that he said and never write anything down and walk away.
How many of these points there?
None of them, by the way, how many of these points would you remember if you did not write them down?
Not many because when you leave here, you’re going to eat bride and that’s going to change your whole perspective on your environment.
We’re talking about true followers of Jesus are so wrapped up in who he is and what he’s like and who he is within us and what he’s doing within us that we don’t sit in church and never take a note.
You can’t remember that much. I can’t remember that much.
That’s why I have a few notes because I don’t want you to miss anything.
When you walk out of this service, you should be able to know in your heart.
You have heard exactly what is involved in being a follower of Jesus then share him that is tell somebody else about him.
Listen to what he said in Matthew 28 19.
You know these verses go there and make disciples of all the nations that is spread the word.
Get to the truth of the word of God to all the nations, the people who love us, the people who hate us.
And I think about how that verse is taking place today all over the world.
There are people who risk their lives 24 hours a day.
They get the simple truth of the gospel to the people around them.
Jesus sent his disciples into a world of hatred, bitterness, animosity, and death, but it is our responsibility to get the word out.
So that means I’m to tell somebody. But let me ask you a question.
When is the last time you deliberately willfully singled out somebody that you knew really and truly needed to know about the Lord Jesus needed to be saved.
When is the last time you said something to them, maybe just a little something inviting them to anything in order to get them to the place that they’re saved and begin to follow Jesus.
He said that to his disciples. But he meant for us all to do that.
Go into all the world and preach the gospel. Yes.
But we can tell them how one on one, they didn’t have television, radio or microphones or anything, but they transformed the world of their day.
And today we have the privilege of penetrating every single piece of earth upon which you and I live.
We have the ability and the capacity to get it there. But here’s the truth.
I’m not too sure how authentic I would be if I were not interested in somebody.
It’s one thing to say everybody what?
But somebody, everybody knows somebody that you say something to at least spark their tension about their relationship to God.
That’s what a true follow of Jesus.
In other words, we follow Jesus, not blind, we, but we follow Jesus sensitive to people around us who are not following him, who desperately need him.
Every single one of us knows somebody today who needs Christ in their life. A true fo watch us.
A true follower doesn’t shut their ears or their eyes or shut down their feelings.
We are sensitive to somebody else around us who so desperately needs him.
Then of course, number eight serve him if I’m a true follower of Jesus, I’m gonna serve you in some fashion.
Listen to what the scripture says in John 12 26. If anyone serves me, the father will honor him.
That is crystal clear. If anyone serves me, the father will want him.
You want to be blessed by God. That’s the shortest, one of the shortest promises in the word.
Listen, if anyone serves me, the father will honor him.
All of us have the capacity to serve the Lord in some fashion.
Well, how do you serve the Lord by serving somebody else in some way?
There are many, many ways to serve the Lord.
But the is the issue here I think is that he wants us to give ourselves away to others.
Think about this is that not what he did. He came into the world 30 years.
He lived those working years as a carpenter.
And then those last years he spent preaching the gospel, sharing the truth and dying on a cross for you and me.
What was he doing? He was serving the Father and every time you and I do something that is Godly, that’s wise, that’s helpful even in what we say or what we do, what do we do?
We are serving him. So that’s what, that’s what true believers do.
Followers of Jesus are not self centered, followers of Jesus, look around them.
Followers of Jesus are able to hurt where the people are hurting followers of Jesus are able to discern when someone around them is hurting and nobody else seems to care or understand.
Followers of Jesus are willing to serve others by giving to them, by encouraging them in some fashion, by presenting them with the truth of the gospel or presenting them with the truth of the gospel.
When they don’t wanna hear it, followers of Jesus make a difference.
And then of course, this is one we don’t like followers of Jesus suffer for him, are willing to suffer for it.
Philippians 1 29 is a great verse for you.
It has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in him but also to suffer for his sake.
Now you say, well, I don’t know why I have to suffer to be a Christian.
You may not ever have to suffer to be a Christian.
But if I’m going to follow Jesus, I’m probably gonna suffer in some way.
You say, well, pastors don’t suffer.
You haven’t lived in our shoes and other people that well, yeah, if you follow Jesus, you’re gonna suffer what you’re gonna suffer rejection by some, you may suffer financially.
You may suffer job, job wise, you may suffer in relationships.
If you’re a true follower of Jesus, some people don’t want you in their, in their circle.
You know why they don’t want you, you make them feel uncomfortable because there’s something about your personality that doesn’t fit who they are they love the world.
You don’t, you don’t drink what they drink, go where they go dress like they dress.
And so there’s something about you that you, you don’t fit.
But the scripture says we’re to suffer for him.
That is where to be, where we need to be, whether we were accepted or not.
We’re to do what we need to do, whether they like it or not.
We’re to share the truth of the gospel when it’s acceptable or when it’s rejected true followers of Jesus.
Now, think about this for a moment.
Now, I want you to, don’t look at your pay, you look at me and I want you to listen a true follower, Jesus and see, see how you respond emotionally immediately just in an instant.
Are you born again? Do you pray regularly? Do you listen to him?
Do you believe him? Do you obey him? Do you love him? Do you share him?
Do you serve him? Do you suffer for him?
Simple non scriptures, simple non phrases of how to walk and to do what to follow Jesus.
That’s not too hard for anybody.
And if I were a father and my pastor had told me this, I’d get this done.
And I, the first one of the first things I would do with my Children, I’d say, well, we, we have a new lesson.
Don’t give it all to them at one time. Just one at a time today.
We’re gonna talk about being born again.
You made another, wait another week before you get to number two or number two tomorrow or sit down and go through the whole thing.
People don’t understand. Oftentimes the simplicity of what God has said to us, what we are required to do, what it, what, what should be true of us because there’s not a single one of these things we can say.
Well, well, I, I believe in most of those but um this obedience, business or this sharing or this suffering, this suffering doesn’t fit me.
Yes, it does. These are no simple attributes, activities, expressions, experiences.
That would be true for every single true genuine follower of Jesus.
And if not, which one would you leave out another one?
Now if you’ve written those down, which I trust that you have but a mother by the bedside of your house and but tonight before you go to bed, just look over them, you know, to say everything I said, just born again.
Pray listen, believe, obey, love him, watch this.
When you write before sleep, go over something like this and you go to sleep with that in your mind.
That’s the last thing you’re thinking about all night long.
Your mind is working that truth into your thought processes when you wake up in the morning, if you simply went over all those today, and you simply said, Lord, I want to be a follower of Jesus today.
Thank you that I’m born again and pray and so forth and go right down the list.
It will not take you very long.
You’ll know them all by heart because your mind has been programmed to think the way God wants you to think.
And what happens, God transforms our life without even realizing what’s happening.
And that’s my pray for you. Do not keep this to yourself.
It’s very simple, very plain. Who in here did not understand this? Anybody?
That’s right because the gospel is not to be complicated.
It is to be heard, believed, acted upon this simple message will transform your life.
If you will read it before you go to sleep, read it.
When you wake up, here’s what will happen before very, very long.
You’ll find yourself automatically saying something to other people and you’ll bring up one of these and before long here’s what will happen.
You’ll be preaching to people and they won’t even know what you’re doing.
So now you’re here this morning and maybe you just dropped in as a visitor or maybe you’ve been coming several, several Sundays, but you’ve never been born again.
You’ve never trusted Jesus Christ to save you and surrendered your life to him. That’s step number one.
And I would encourage you because you see the rest of this doesn’t count what?
Mm mm mm Forget the rest of them till you deal with the first one because everything else is a step up on the first one.
And if you are willing to ask the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins, and you’re surrendering your life to him today and you want to build upon this foundation of your faith in Christ, he’s willing to forgive you of your sins and he’s willing to start with you today, living the most awesome life you could ever imagine.
Amen. Amen. Let’s stand if you will Father, how grateful we are that in all of your infinite wisdom, you made truth simple enough for all of us to understand and know that we could walk in obedience to your will, etch these truths into all of our minds and hearts.
Father, I pray that you’ll bring to every single person’s memory tonight before they turn off the last light to read these over and they ask you to work them into their heart and after they turn on the light tomorrow morning to read them again.
And lord that you would bring them to their mind, one of them or all of them during the day as they meet other people listening to their heartaches and problems and burns.
We are followers. Lord, we want to be true, genuine life changing followers of Jesus.
And we thank you for that in Christ’s name.
Amen.