Passionate Commitment Series

Discipleship Matters: Passionately Committed to Jesus

Luke 14:25-35

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

Chenoa Baptist Church

04-25-2021

Fan vs Fanilow

I’ve been asked if my love for Barry Manilow is real or a joke. I can assure you it is real. When I took piano lessons as a kid, one of the first songs I learned to play was “Mandy.”

[By the way, did you know that Barry write the jingle,”Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there?”]

Several years ago, a family actually paid me for doing a funeral with Barry Manilow tickets. ?

I’m a fan. But Lori McGill is a “fanilow.” There’s a big difference.

Lori is a 50 something second grade teacher from Long Island, New York. She’s married and has one son. And she has one love - Barry.

She has seen Barry Manilow in concert more than 300 times, including every night of his Broadway run. That’s $350 per ticket!

Her classroom is covered in pictures of Barry and her students wear Barry Manilow shirts on her birthday.

She says there are three magical days in her life - her wedding, the birth of her son, [slide] and the day she got to meet Barry.

I’m a fan. She’s a “fanilow.” There’s a big difference.

The Great Commission

Two weeks ago, we began our new series “Discipleship Matters” and I said that this may be the most important sermon series I’ve ever preached.

We studied “The Great Commission,” our marching orders as a church, from Matthew 28:

[slide] “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

We learned that the main verb in this sentence is “make disciples” and we do that by “going, baptizing, and teaching.”

I proposed three declarations for our church:

We will be a church that trusts Jesus’ authority.

We will be a church that trust’s His strategy.

We will be a church that depends on His Presence.

If you missed that sermon, you can go back and watch it on our Facebook page.

In that sermon, I went through a list of characteristics that define a disciple from Pastor Dennis Rouse of Victory Church in Georgia:

A disciple is: passionate committed to Jesus Christ, they have an extraordinary love for people, they have the heart of a servant, they are sensitive and submitted to the Holy Spirit, they are governed by the authority of God’s Word, they live morally pure and they are evangelistic bold, they are engaged in Biblical community, they are just and generous, and they live their lives with purpose and on mission.

Several people said to me afterwards that this list was hard to hear because they didn’t see some of these characteristics in their lives.

So I thought we would take a few weeks and go some of this list to help us understand what a disciple of Jesus Christ looks like.

This morning, we will learn that a disciple is passionately committed to Jesus Christ.

Passion is defined as a strong feeling toward something or an emotion that motivates beyond normal living.

Humans are passionate beings. We are passionate about our sports teams and our hobbies. We are passionately about our politics and our pet causes. We are passionate about music and making money and oatmeal butterscotch cookies.

But what would happen if we were just as passionate about follow Jesus?

Turn with me to Luke 14.

Prayer

Fan or Follower?

In Luke 14, Jesus has been invited to eat at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees and he healed a man with drospy and then challenged them about healing on the Sabbath. He gave them two parables - the parable of the wedding feast and the parable of the great banquet to try to help them understand who was welcome in the kingdom of heaven.

Let’s pick it up at verses 25:

“Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them He said…” (Luke 14:25)

By this time, wherever Jesus went there were crowds around Him. Some estimate the crowds were in thousands. They were traveling along with Him.

Many were simply fans. They wanted to see Him do a magic trick. They wanted some more bread. They loved to see Him confound the religious rulers.

But there were some in the crowd that were genuine followers. Could you tell the difference by just looking at them? Not at all.

It’s the same today. There are many fans of Jesus. They go to church. They’re “good people.” But they are not followers.

What’s the difference? Pastor Rouse gives us a few:

A fan believes Jesus is Savior but lives to please themselves.

A follower believes Jesus is Lord and lives to please God.