Fan Or Follower Series

Fan or Follower

Luke 9:23

January 29, 2023

Almost 20 years ago, when we lived in Michigan, a lot of the people in the church would go camping for a weekend. We’d cook out, swim in the lake, use lots of fun toys in the water. The boys went frog hunting. No frogs were hurt, just catch in your hands and release them. Then we’d have a worship on Sunday morning, enjoying God’s creation.

We had a nice 2 bedroom tent. And we had sleeping bags and it seemed like it would be such a great time. And it was, until it was time to sleep. Sleeping in a sleeping bag on the ground, wasn’t my idea of sleeping. It was not the least bit comfortable. The boys slept well. They can sleep on the floor. I can’t! After that weekend, our tent has not been used again. My idea of camping is to stay in a hotel. A comfy bed, hot showers, no bugs and breakfast - someone else prepares.

My point is, most of us like comfort. At least I do! You know, if you had to choose between sleeping on a nice mattress, you know, the ones advertised on TV that conform to your body, would you take that over a roll away cot in a hotel?

What about wearing those old shoes which know every nock and cranny of your feet or a new pair of dress shoes?

And what about a nice pair of cozy and warm fleece sweat pants on a freezing cold day, or a pair of jeans?

The common denominator is what? Comfort. We place a pretty high value on comfort. There’s a lot of money to be made on products that enhance people’s comfort. Memory foam for your bed, Lazy-boys for your living room, body pillows, technology to vacuum the house with the push of a button, so you can sit on that lazy-boy.

And --- there’s nothing wrong with being comfortable. But it can become an idol. It can be one of those things that we strive after more than some other things. There can be a danger in loving comfort too much.

It seems that as we’ve sought comfort in the world, we’ve also sought it in our faith. Again, there’s nothing wrong with being warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Having padded pews and chairs. But in some places the teaching and messages are padded to bring comfort as well. We can try to avoid the difficult passages. Yet, the call to be a follower of Jesus is not always easy / comfortable.

Remember, our main verse for this series is Luke 9:23, Jesus said - - -

23 If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. - Luke 9:23

We’re in a series called Fan or Follower? This is a key passage for us to consider the commitment we have to Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Are we fans, admirers who cheer on the cause of Christ, but fail to get involved? Or are we committed followers who are willing to get our hands dirty, doing the dirty jobs. Willing to be inconvenienced, not always comfortable for the sake of the Kingdom of Christ?

I really want us to be the people God is calling us to be. And sometimes that means we can’t be as comfortable as we’d like.

The hard part about this statement from Jesus is He places the cross right in front of us. We can’t avoid it. I mean, it’s pretty hard to avoid the cross when you’re a Christian, right? What can you do with a phrase like, “take up your cross?”

Fans find a way to make the cross comfortable. They create a comfortable idea of the cross and what it means for us today to take up our crosses. So the phrase, “We all have our crosses to bear” gets thrown around loosely, referring to menial or everyday tasks and inconveniences.

We’ve come to wear the cross as a piece of jewelry. We can also see the hypocrisy when people wear a cross, but don’t act like a Christ follower.

I’m reminded of the time I worked at the rehab hospital. It was part of the Fransiscan order and there was a convent on the campus. On Good Friday we would have a worship and they would pass the cross from person to person, and you need to remember the Catholic church has Christ on the cross. It always struck me how the nuns reacted to that cross . . . they would kiss it, they would stare at it, they would hold it with tenderness.

Most non-Catholics didn’t know what to do with the cross. But the nuns, they venerated the cross. That means they revered it, they worshiped it. We may not agree with Catholic theology, but their actions spoke volumes for how they view the cross. If you were given a cross to hold, what would you do with it?