Let's Follow Christ (October 22, 2023)

The speaker is discussing a passage from the Gospel of Luke, specifically verses 57-62. They explain that Luke, as a physician, received his messages from eyewitness reports. The passage features three individuals who express a desire to follow Jesus, but Jesus challenges their commitment. The first person, a scribe, is not fully committed due to the hardships that come with following Christ. The speaker emphasizes the need to genuinely desire to follow Christ, rather than just going through religious motions. They also discuss the role of scribes as legal experts in interpreting the Mosaic law. The speaker encourages listeners to understand that following Christ is not for the faint-hearted, as it may involve persecution and challenges. Good morning once again to everyone, and family, I would like for you to just go with me to the gospel of Luke, chapter 9 specifically, and for this morning, please consider along with me verses 57 through 62. It's Luke, chapter 9, verses 57 through 62. I might add, just so that we can appreciate this as we read these verses, that the physician, the beloved physician, Dr. Luke, was not an actual disciple of Christ that was walking with the Lord during his three-year ministry through the cross unto resurrection and to ascension. It was Luke who received a lot of his messages from eyewitness reports, and we thank God for a physician being in the house, hallelujah, who would write and record the reflections of others about this good news, who we have in Christ Jesus. And with that, as an additional background, let me read now verses 57 through 62 of the gospel of Luke, chapter 9. And Luke writes, And it came to pass that as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow you whatsoever you go. And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. And he said unto another, Follow me, but he said, Lord, toughen me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury the dead, but go you and preach the kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow you, but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. I pray that the Lord will bless this word to edify us, that we may be encouraged and that we may encourage one another. So family this morning, Dr. Luke here is giving us a scenario in which the Lord Jesus is interacting with three different individuals who on the surface, based upon what we read here, who on the surface appear to have a heart to follow Christ. And that can preach all by itself when you consider in real time, whether we have arrived at a point to have a desire, to have an inclination, to have a passion, just to follow Christ. That can preach all by itself. And yes, I know that we have been raised. We've been raised for the most part to go to church and to listen to what the preacher has to say. I know that we have a liking to hear the choir or the praise team sing melodious and harmonious songs that uplift our spirits and glorify God. We like all of that. We like all of that. And we're programmed to go to services when we do during the week and on Sundays and listen to this preacher and that preacher and be present in this service and that service. But there is something here to consider as we read here what Dr. Luke has written for our benefit as I would describe as the common denominator. And that is, do we even want to even follow Christ? Not the church, but to follow Christ. Not the denominational or non-denominational religious culture that fits our unique needs and we feel okay aligning ourselves with. I'm not talking about those types of things. I'm just simply directing our attention, our closer attention, if you will, to whether we have even a desire, a passion to follow Christ because we want to and not because we have to. We want to follow him because we want to and not because we have to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is easy. It is so easy to have an emotional experience and it's okay for us to want to follow the Lord Jesus when things ain't going well. You know, everybody want to come to Jesus when they're down and out, when they're broke and busted and disgusted. Oh yeah, we'll be talking about trying to find some Christ, especially if we can find Christ and then we can find some currency. That's how our mind operates. You know, when your money is all spent and you can't pay the rent, that's when you want God to work it out. That's when we want to go to him. When we don't have, it's okay for us to have this desire to want to go to Christ when there's sickness in our bodies and God forbid sickness in our minds or sickness is plaguing those who we love and they're not doing well. Yeah, in those times, that's when we can find the time to go to Christ. When the things are not going well in our homes or on our jobs or in our pocketbooks, yeah, that's when we want to call upon him. You know, we can be a type of way and so sophisticated where we don't want to tarry for Christ. You know, we don't want to go to the morning bench. We don't want to say, thank you Jesus. And if it's real good to you, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, and Mother Jessie would say the faster you call him, the better you will feel, hallelujah. But calling upon the Lord Jesus, calling upon the Lord Jesus and going to him in hours of need is not the same thing as following him regardless. Following him in the sunshine and following him in the rain. Do we have a passion to just follow Christ, him crucified, resurrected and ascended and sitting on the right hand of the Father? When you read what has been written by Dr. Luke, you will see in these verses that there are three people, once again, the first person and the third person emphatically told the Lord Jesus that they would follow him. The first person and the third person went to him and said, hey, I will follow you. And like the second person in the text, the Lord Jesus didn't go to them, but they, the first person and the third person went to him and said, I will follow you. This morning, I just want to focus on that first person. And the first person said he would follow, but obviously the Lord Jesus picked up on something. The Lord Jesus discerned something, that the Lord Jesus did not give him the benefit of the doubt. I want to just caution us this morning just to be reminded that there is nothing biblical about giving someone the benefit of the doubt. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirit to make sure that spirit is of Christ, not of the antichrist, as we talked about last Wednesday night, but that the spirit, the true spirit is of Christ. We don't need to be giving nobody the benefit of the doubt, regardless of their title, position, station in life. Beloved, believe not every spirit, check that spirit, check the spirit. We don't got people checking facts, but we need to have people who are also checking the truth. And the truth is in Christ Jesus. This first person said he would follow, but the Lord discerned something differently. And obviously the Lord knew that this person was not fully committed to live the life, the life that always comes, more likely than not, with some disappointments. Jesus knew that this person was not fully committed to walk with him in sincerity and in truth and with a commitment to just follow him. It is believed that this first person was a scribe and as a scribe, he was a person who enjoyed a good life. And because of his profession, this believing scribe would not be able to endure the hardship that comes when you align yourself with Christ. He was a believing scribe. And the scribes were basically those who had attended law school, if you will, and they were human copy machines. There was no modern day copy machines when Jesus was here. There was no Xerox copies and there was no way to scan a document and just email it to your family member, your friend, to your coworker. So there were no modern day copy machines when you wanted to copy the Old Testament Scriptures. And so you would just go to the scribe and the scribe would copy the Torah and the other books of the Old Testament. He would give it to synagogues and those who wanted to purchase, have one at the house if you needed that. And at the time that the Lord Jesus was on his way to the cross, the scribes not only supplied copies of the Scriptures to the synagogues and to other folks, but they had also become the teachers of the law. And had actually took the place of the priests. It's too sad to say this, but it's still necessarily the truth. The priests had allowed themselves to be corrupted because of that filthy lucre. And so people could no longer rely on what the priests said because for me, if I pay you enough money, you'll say it to me like this. And if I don't pay you enough money, you'll say it like that. So the children of Israel had tended to shy away from getting an actual correct interpretation of the law from the priests. So they went to, check this out y'all, to the lawyers. Hallelujah. They went to the lawyers. That's what the scribes mean. It means lawyers. They would interpret the law. And in fact, in the gospels of Mark, Luke, and John, that's what the scribes were referred to. They were referred to as lawyers and they were considered to be the legal experts of the sacred Mosaic law. I'm sure that this particular lawyer was living good. I can relate to that. He was living good. Life was good for him. And the Lord Jesus knew that and just put it out there, hallelujah, that if you want to follow me, I need to bring this to your attention, lawyer, that this walk, this commitment to me, if you want to follow me, if you want to follow Christ, it is not for the faint hearted. It ain't for the faint hearted. It's for the faith, hallelujah, hearted. It's for the faith hearted. Love costs you something, baby. Love costs you something, baby. And those who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. It's not for the faint hearted. It's for the faith hearted. And I don't know if we really want to embrace this today and accept this morning that those who live godly in Christ Jesus shall, not might, but shall suffer persecution. You got to have it fully resolved within your own mind that there is some racism that you're going to run up against. When you begin to follow the truth, there's some racism that you got to deal with. Many of us, hallelujah, hallelujah, we're okay with calling upon the Lord when we get the job, when we get the money, when we get the house, when we get the blessing, when we're too blessed to be stressed. We're okay with calling on the name of the Lord and identifying with Christ in the good days. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We can identify with Christ then. Yeah, on the sunny days, we can be down with him. But can we stand the rain, hallelujah? Can we stand the rain? Will we follow him because of who he is? Will we follow him because of who he is and not for what he does or what he will do, but just follow him for who he is? I submit today, family, that if we are really in a true and sincere relationship with Christ, if we are really going to ride with him, if you will, then we must also be willing to die with him, to die to the things of this world, the things that represent the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, if we can just die to ourselves, hallelujah, so we can be resurrected with him, then we would turn our backs on the entrapment of the eyes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's an entrapment, the entrapment of the flesh, hallelujah, and the entrapment of the pride of life. That's what we need to turn our back on, hallelujah, and we got to get to a point to understand that the Christ life, hallelujah, the Christ life, the Christ life is not a slogan, it's not a brand, it's not something that we can conveniently put on and then take off, hallelujah. We don't flip it with a switch, if you will, like we're going to turn the lights on and off. That's not about the Christ life. The Christ life is not where we can fit the Lord Jesus into our busy schedules, where we can find time to allow him to work in our lives during the week and possibly on Sundays, maybe Sunday mornings, as we're on this line right now. The Christ life is a way of life, hallelujah. It's a way of life. It's a life that is befitting unto him, and get this, y'all, just to do God's perfect will, not his permissive will, but his perfect will. His perfect will should be manifested each and every day of our lives, and possibly there's a question, a well-placed question. Well, what is his perfect will? Well, let me answer this, and let me answer it like this. If it ain't love, it ain't God, because God is love. Love costs you something, baby. We follow Christ. We follow Christ. We follow Christ every time that we lay our lives down to bless others without any expectations of return. Love, again, is not quid pro quo. I don't love you because you love me back. Matter of fact, the Lord Jesus said love your enemies, and bless them that curse you, and pray for them that despitefully use you. So love ain't quid pro quo. Love costs you something, baby. And I can hear Paul, Paul crying out to us this morning, and saying to us through the book of Romans, and in particular chapter 12, and verses 1 through 3, I hear Paul saying this, and I hope that it will bless us for the days to come. And Paul says, I beseech you, therefore, brothers, and let me add, and sisters, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Love costs you something. I believe Paul is saying this. Love costs you something, baby. And he goes on and says, and be not, and be not, and be not, and be not. That means we've got to take responsibility and accountability as we're presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice. You can't rely on the church to do this for you. You can't rely on a pastor to do this for you. But he says, and be not, hallelujah, conformed to this world, but be you transformed by renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And then he goes on and says in verse 3, so I say, through the grace given unto me to every man and woman that is among you not to think of himself or herself more highly than he or she ought to think, but to think soberly. Think, think, think, think, think, think soberly. I wish I had me a thinking church this morning. Think soberly according as God has dealt to everyone the measure of faith. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Just think soberly. Hallelujah. Think soberly. In my Christological mind, I believe that the reason why, hallelujah, the reason why we are seeing so many divorces and at the same time so many people deciding not to get married is because nobody wants to think soberly. Nobody wants to present their bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. Nobody wants to commit to the life that just follow Christ. It seems like that everybody wants to commit to a glamorous and opulent lifestyle. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about committing to the life of Christ. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Social media, you see it there, social media, social media has become a demonic influencer where pictures and words ain't nothing but fake news about broken people. Now I can spend your time all you want to looking at them photos and videos, but it's just fake news about broken people who will have you thinking that they got it going on. Based on the pictures and the videos, they appear to be living large, but on the inside they are broken. What does it profit a man or woman to gain the world? You can gain a Grammy. You can gain an Oscar and still lose your soul. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. You think they married. Hallelujah. Until the book comes out. You think they got it going on until the book comes out. You think that they're all of that and a Bentley, but the book comes out. And then you find out that they ain't been together for the past seven years. They've been falsifying a lifestyle that doesn't even exist. And don't get it twisted. I'm just making an example. I say what I say, not out of condemnation, but out of consideration, because there's some things that are going on inside the church and inside the church of God by faith. Hallelujah. So you think they're together because you saw them together, but it's just fake news sitting in the same pew, sitting in the same pulpit, but they're still not together. Sitting on the same row, sitting in the same choir stand, but not together. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, denying the love thereof, denying the truth and grace and mercy thereof. There ain't no love there. There ain't no peace. There ain't no joy. You can look at all the photos and videos, but it's just a lie. Hallelujah. And we would say, hallelujah, in the church of God by faith, that the devil is a liar. Well, I assume it. The picture is a liar. The video is a liar. The bling bling is a liar. And so as we go back to our text, our text taken from Luke chapter 9, it is interesting that the Lord Jesus, he shows us all about full transparency. Hallelujah. And in full transparency, he gives the first person, the believing scribe, a full disclaimer of what is coming. And the Lord Jesus told him that foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man, the Son of Man, the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. And basically what the Lord Jesus is telling the believing scribe is that my message ain't the message of prosperity. I hope you're hearing this with me. That's what Jesus said. I don't have nowhere to lay my head. So he was not, hallelujah, perpetuating a prosperity message. Matter of fact, when you read what he said and how he lived, his message was about adversity. Hallelujah. Not about prosperity, but adversity. He said, by this men will know that you're my disciples because of the love that you have for one another. Baby love costs you something. Hallelujah. Whenever you have to lay down your life for your friend, it's costing you something that your friend can never repay you back. So he wasn't preaching prosperity. The devil is a liar. So I have to ask now, do you really want to follow him? Do you really want to follow Christ? Family, I'm so glad this morning I have a praise report that the good news of the Lord Jesus, the good news of the Lord Jesus is not about chariots and rims. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. The good news of the Lord Jesus is not about houses and land. The good news of the Lord Jesus is not about silver and gold. That's not the good news. The good news of the Lord Jesus is far more valuable. And it is far more valuable because the good news is about you. The good news is about me. The good news is about us. And the good news is simply this. He came to save us from ourselves. I know we believe that he came to save us from sins, and I'm not saying that that's not true. I'm just trying to help us to realize that as he is saving us from our sins, he is saving us from ourselves. We tend to make bad decisions without the word of God and the spirit of God. So the good news is that he came to save us from ourselves and to heal us from ourselves and to deliver us from ourselves. When we follow Christ, when we follow Christ, we grasp that. We grasp that he came to save us from the words and from the deeds that grant the enemy permission to destroy us. As he saves us from ourselves, he moves us from I don't know to the reality of the truth, who is in Christ Jesus. He came to save us from ourselves. Matter of fact, it is written in John chapter 3 verse 17 that for God sent not his son in the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Yeah, that's the good news. Jesus came to save, not to destroy, but to save, not to beat up on us, but to save, not to make us feel bad. He's not lowering or diminishing our self-esteem. Jesus would never do what I hear and see some people do in the church. That is not of Christ. So let me just say that. That's not of Christ. Christ came to save us. And if we're not acting Christ-like, we're wrong, and we need to stop it. We need to stop it. In this hour of God's great revival, I believe that the Holy Influencer, the Holy Influencer, the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, I believe that by the Holy Ghost, the Father is awakening within us as the dry bones in the valley. He's waking us up to see and to know that his Son came to save us. And as he saves us, he sees us. He doesn't belittle us. He sees us, and he saves us. And he did so to help us to be saved from ourselves. He came to save us from, again, this dogma of bitterness to move us to the dominion of better. He came to save us, y'all, from our traumas so we can enjoy his triumph. Yes, yes. Yes, yes. A lot of times, we're still looking back, and we're still overwhelmed by the traumas that we have experienced in our lives, whether or not it's in our childhoods, in our early adulthood stages, maybe when you're 40, maybe when you're 50. But the Lord Jesus, he came to save us from our traumas, and it's okay. I believe that we can find that it's okay to go get therapy about our traumas. Matter of fact, James 5 and 16 speaks to it because James says, Confess your faults. I didn't say that. I'm just telling you what. You can go and look at it for yourself. But in James 5 and 16, he said, and James was the half-brother of Jesus, he said, Confess your faults one to another and pray for each other that you may be healed. Some of us just need some therapy for this trauma. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And you need to be careful who you go to because not everybody is licensed to give you, hallelujah, the therapy that you need in Christ. I believe that Isaiah described Jesus as the wonderful counselor. Hallelujah. You need to find you an under-shepherd who is the wonderful counselor, like the wonderful counselor that can help you with your trauma so we can move you from the trauma to the triumph, move you from the bitter to the better. Ain't nothing to be ashamed about as we confess our faults one to another and we pray. We just don't confess the fault. We want to pray about it, too, so we can move from bitter to better. That's how we follow him. That's how we follow Christ. And when we decide to follow him, we follow him with an understanding since he's given us a full disclaimer, right? We're not following him with false hope. We're not following him with false pretenses. We're not following him because of false promises because he has given us full disclosure that with his life, oftentimes comes adversity, not prosperity. But with the adversity, there also comes a peace. There also comes a praise. And I'm reminded of Prophet Jeremiah, in particular, Chapter 29, and let me say it like this, beginning at Verse 4. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, and the body of Christ, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon, and get this, y'all, and from Africa to America, build your houses, and dwell in them, and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them. Take your wives and husbands, and beget sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters, that you may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city, whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it. For in the peace thereof shall you have peace. For in the peace thereof shall you have peace. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, and the God of the body of Christ, Let not your prophets and your diviners that be in the midst of you deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams, which you cause to be dreamed. For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name. I have not sent them, says the Lord. For thus says the Lord, that after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon, after our years of completion in America, if your will, I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. For I know, for I know, for I know, for I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace, not of evil, to give you an expected end. And I love here, and as I go to verses 12, 13, and 14, Then shall you call upon me, and you shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you, and you shall seek me and find me when you shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, says the Lord, and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places whither I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive. Family, I'm hearing the Holy Spirit whisper in our ears this morning that, and you shall seek Christ, and you shall seek Christ, and shall find Christ, when you shall search for Christ with all your heart, and Christ will be found by you. If we do so, there's again a disclaimer that we may not have everything we want, but at the same time, we shall have all who we need, because in verse 12, Jeremiah says, Then shall you call upon me, let me say it like this, Then shall you call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, and you shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. Then, then, then, then, then shall you call upon the name of the Lord, and whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord, hallelujah, whosoever, whosoever, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, it's been corrupted, but let me remind us all that we serve a Father and a God who believes in the doctrine of divine inclusion. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. We just want to follow Him. In this hour of God's great revival, the Holy Spirit is beckoning to each and every one of us who will come, let us come, let us come, that's the inclusion, whosoever will come, let them come. Our God who is in Christ reconciling us back unto Himself has a doctrine of divine inclusion that says whosoever will come, hallelujah, you can come, but let's not get it twisted, hallelujah. I'm talking to my old brothers and sisters, let's not get it twisted, hallelujah. We can come as we are, yeah, we can come as we are, we can come as we are, we can come jacked up and jilled up as we are, but when the Holy Ghost comes alongside and inside, hallelujah, when the Spirit of truth comes to be alongside of us and inside of us, we can no longer stay as we are. There's a change, hallelujah. Like autumn, there's a change, there's a change, there's a change. Like the month of October, we see it in the leaves, which represents our lives. The leaves are changing, and like the leaves, the people of God all over the world are changing to become more like Christ. The called out ones are being transformed right now and in now faith by the renewing of our minds to conform to the image of Christ. There's a change because we have decided to simply follow him, and we're not conforming to the bishop, we're not conforming to the prophetess and the prophets, we're not conforming to the worship and praise leader, we're not conforming to the deacon and deaconesses, we're not conforming to the first lady, we're not conforming to the church, we are conforming to Christ, and that's who we follow. We have decided to follow him, and as we follow him, we embrace this reality that we are included in his divine purpose and his eternal plan of salvation. Paul wrote in chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians verses 9-11, because I want to hammer this point about the doctrine of divine inclusion as we follow Christ. Beginning at verse 9, Paul writes, Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. Now here is this doctrine of anointed and divine inclusion family. When we go to verse 11, it says, And such, and such, and such were some of you, and such were some of you but, Thank God for a contradiction and a contrast. And such were some of you but. You are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Today, we who decide to follow Christ Jesus, and He is inviting us to do so now. In this era of the Father's great revival, the Holy Ghost is speaking to us to just follow Christ Jesus. And as we do, we can proclaim that the best is still yet to come. Yes, yes, the best is still yet to come. To see and to hear again the whatsoever things, the whatsoever things that are true, and are honest, and just, and pure. The whatsoever things that are lovely and are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, the best is yet to come. So think on these things. As we follow Christ, let's think on this. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words. Let us comfort each other and ourselves with these words to follow Christ.