Followability

Scripture: Mark 1:16-20; Genesis 12:1-4

Theme: Followability

Title: Followability?

Sermon focuses on the reality that great leaders are also great followers – Jesus calls us to Follow Him – let’s see what that means.

INTRO:

Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Each of us has experienced people who through personal contact, being able to listen to them or reading their literature have greatly impacted our lives.

For me, it has been the likes of John Wesley who lived in the 19th century, C. S. Lewis who lived in the 20th century and three people who are still alive today – Richard Foster, Leonard Sweet and Lois Tverberg. There have been others of course, but those five have been very important in my life.

When I looked at this week’s passage, verses 16-20, I was reminded of some of Leonard Sweet’s writing and speaking. Several times over the course of a few years I had the privilege to sit under some of his teaching and preaching.

It was at a time in my life that I was also taking a few classes that were dedicated to learning how to be an effective and efficient church leader. I would travel to Florida for a session and then travel to California for a session.

I learned a great deal in those classes. A great deal that has helped me both in the ministry and in life in general.

But it was later listening to Dr. Sweet teach about a certain style of leadership that really turned my world upside down.

It wasn’t about how to lead people per se, but how to follow Christ.

He suggested the idea that followability is where the real heart of being a leader can be found.

He then fleshed out that idea using example after example in the Old and New Testament along with some passages like the one we find this morning in Mark 1:16-20.

Jesus did not call these men to accept him. He did not pass out a decision card for them to sign. He didn’t even have them pray a certain introductory prayer.

He simply looked at them and said – Follow Me.

Let’s take a few moments and see what that means for us as individuals and as a church body. What does it mean to answer the call to Follow Jesus.

I. It means to put your trust in Jesus

That is what these four men did that day when they put down their nets, climbed out of their boats and started walking, talking and experiencing life with Jesus.

Just how radical was that decision?

Simon Peter was already married. He had a wife to take care of along with a mother-in-law. He had quite a lot of responsibilities.

Andrew had already heard Jesus speak and had been attracted to his teaching. But was he so attracted that he would pick up his nets and follow Jesus?

James and John’s family had been in the fishing business for generations. It’s all their families knew how to do. They had employees and clients that needed their product. Their fishing business was more than a hobby, it was a growing enterprise. Do they just leave all of that behind?

Trust is a big word and yet repeatedly we read about different ones in the Bible that just stepped out in faith (in trust) to follow God’s leading.

+Abraham is called to leave his ancestral family, pick up roots and go hundreds of miles away to live in the Promise Land.

+Moses is called to go back to Egypt where he was a wanted man and attempt to do the impossible – to get Pharoah to divest himself of millions of free laborers and allow them to follow the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY out of Egypt and towards the Promise Land.

+Rahab is called to trust God for the safety of her family by helping the Israelite spies avoid being captured inside the city of Jericho.

+David is called to trust the LORD even as King Saul is doing everything he can to capture and kill him.

+Mary is called to trust God by allowing God to use her to bring the Messiah into the world.

All those people – Abraham, Moses, David, Rahab and Mary were great leaders – but their great leadership was not based on their own innate qualities but on their ability to trust and follow God.

Listen to what the Bible tells us about trusting God:

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. – Proverbs 3:5-6

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” - Jeremiah 17:7-8