Admirer Or Follower
10-19-2008 Malachi 1:6-14 Matthew 19:16-30
Have you ever had someone say to you, “you know I really admire you” or have you ever told someone, “I sure do admire you.” How many of you remember one of the personal challenges that went on in the Olympics this past summer, that may have caused you to watch them more than you might otherwise have done.
My wife and I sometimes stayed up late watching the Olympics in order to see if Michael Phelps was going to win all of those 8 gold medals. We were cheering him and his teammates along from one medal to another. When he or his relay team won, somehow a piece of us won. He made us feel good inside. How many of you were talking about Michael Phelps during the Olympics. We admired Michael Phelps for his accomplishments.
Now the amazing thing is that a number of young people who were watching Micahel Phelps around the world, were thinking I want to be like Michael Phelps. I want to win eight gold medals in the Olympics one day. I am going to do whatever it takes to train and discipline my body to become a great swimmer. Oh to be like Michael Phelps is my dream. Now those person are already diving, swimming, learning new strokes, and spending hour after hour in the pool.
Those people have gone beyond admiration of Michael Phelps and has become a follower of his. They are reading what Michael did, studying Micheal’s technique, and applying what they are learning to their bodies and daily routines. They are followers of Michael Phelps. One of them is one day going to match or break Michael’s record.
As much as I admire what Michael did, I have not been moved to dive into a single swimming pool. I have not read a thing about him since the Olympics, and if he came into the church this morning, I’m not even sure I would still recognize his face. But I still admire him for his accomplishments. I still feel good inside when I think of what he did for our Olympic team. But I’m not going to change my lifestyle for him. I am just an admirer, not a follower.
John Ortberg said the difference between an admirer and a follower is this “An admirer is impressed. A follower is devoted. An admirer applauds. A follower surrenders his life. A lot of people admired Martin Luther King. Some marched with him. Not many went to jail with him. Not many got their houses bombed like he did. A lot of people admired Mother Theresa. Not many people followed her to live among the destitute and dying.”
You know we admire Jesus with the songs we sing. “Lord, I’ll never forget what you’ve done for me.” “Jesus on the main line, tell him what you want.” The Lord is blessing me right now.” “You are my strength when I am week you are the treasure that I seek. “You are a Mighty God.”
Jesus has never had a shortage of admirers in this world. People inside and outside the church admire Jesus. But you know something, you can read every verse in the bible, and you will not come across a single verse in which Jesus comes even close to saying,” Come admire me”, or “unless you admire me, you cannot be my disciple.” Nobody ever impressed Jesus because of their admiration for Him.
One of the complaints that the youth will lodge against adults is that adults disrespect them. Because the adults disrespected them, they feel they have a right to show disrespect in return. Is their anybody here who loves to feel disrespected? You wake up in the morning saying, “wow I sure hope somebody disrespects me today.” No, do you know why?
Because you have been created in the image of God, and God has ordained that his image be respected. Parents and adults, that’s why we should not humiliate and disrespect our children in front of others. Youth that’s why we should not disrespect each other or our parents and other adults. There is something inherently wrong, when we leave others with the feeling of having been disrespected. God’s image is always worthy of respect. How much more is God worthy of respect.
There were a group of people who were religious and strong admirers of God. They would bring offerings to God on a very regular basis. The only thing was, they really thought God could be deceived. Everyone knew what it was they were supposed to give. They wanted to get credit without paying the price. I know you will find this hard to believe, but there once were people who wanted all the benefits that came with being a member, who did not want to pay their fare share in the offering.
They would bring a lamb to the temple for God. But they brought the lambs, they knew was sick and would probably die next week. When they were to bring a sheep, they brought the sheep they knew was blind, and they wouldn’t be able to sell it at the going rate on the market. When they brought in a goat, they had to carry it all the way, because they knew the goat was crippled and couldn’t walk on its own. But they felt good about what they were doing because nobody really knew what kind of rip off they were doing, and after all it was just going to be an offering to God. Surely God was glad that they did give something.
God says, how can you dish me like this. How can you disrespect me like this in my own house. Now when the governor asks for taxes to be paid, how many of you would dare give him some crippled or diseased animal and think he was going to be happy about it.
If he was speaking to us today, he’d be saying how many of you would think the IRS would be happy with you, if they found out you were cheating big time on your taxes. Would your landlord be thrilled to know your rent was short $50 this month, but you really wanted to pay the whole amount? Try skipping a couple of car payments and see if the bank says that’s okay, they have made all the other payments.
Be honest with yourself. Is what you give to God in the offering, a healthy animal, (10%) or one that’s diseased and crippled (5%, 1%) Or one that’s completely dead at (0%). God took a pretty hard stand with this group of admirers in Malachi chapter 1 and said, “I wish someone would lock the doors to the temple and keep them out from bringing me this stuff. They don’t need to light any candles, or get up and sing any songs, or try to preach any messages. I am not pleased with them. I am not going to accept any offering from your hands.” God is saying, His name is too great to be disrespected by people who just want to admire him.
Everyone who has made a commitment to follow Christ, has vowed to offer to the Lord what God requires in their giving. You cannot become a Christian without putting Jesus in charge of everything that you own. There was a guy in the New Testament who tried it. He was a self made millionaire who was generous.
He came to Jesus and said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life. Jesus told him to keep the commandments. He said which ones. Jesus ran through five of them. And the young man said, “Well I’ve kept those. We think this guy was some stingy guy hoarding his wealth, but he wasn’t. Two of the commands Jesus gave him were to honor his father and his mother and to love his neighbor as himself. He said,” yeah, but I’m already doing that.” This means he was looking after others with his money and doing a pretty good job of it. He probably was more generous than many of us are today. This guy was a very good admirer of God. Jesus never said, “you need to stop being stingy. You need to stop being selfish.”
What Jesus did was to try to move him from being an admirer to being a follower. He said “Matthew 19:21-22 (NIV) 21 Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." 22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
We miss several things in this story. Jesus did ask the guy to give away his possessions, because the guy was greedy, he asked him to give them away because the guy wanted to become more righteous. Giving up the money was a sign of a willingness to trust God. Up until this point in his life, he could make things happen, because he had the money to do it.
Why do we want money? Because it allows us to play the role of god in our lives. We get to choose who gets blessed and who doesn’t. Money gives us a feeling of being in charge of our destiny. How many of us know that’s a lie. Money can’t make people love us. Money can’t guarantee your health. Money won’t make your kids make right choices or behave themselves. Money can’t keep you from dying.
He did not ask the guy to give away the money for nothing. He said give it in exchange for treasure in heaven. Suppose the rich man had invested his money in today’s stock market. How much would he have lost? Jesus was trying to give him a sure investment strategy that he would not lose out on regardless of the stock market. Whatever you invest in the kingdom, pays dividends for all eternity and it’s waiting on you to be picked up. Some of the interest falls down back upon you when God opens the floodgates of heaven. Whatever you spend or invest in this world is simply waiting for you to die, so that somebody else can spend it up. We are going to leave everything behind. Admirers don’t realize that, but followers do.
He did not ask the guy to give away the treasure and become lonely and destitute. He said give it away and come follow me. The young man had an unhealthy attachment to his money. Most of us have this problem. Jesus did not tell the young man to run from his money. He said, “take time the time to responsibly give up your property in order to get to know me.
You see, if the rich young man had simply given the money to his family, they would be in the same predicament he was in with his attachment. Jesus is saying the benefits of walking in a close relationship with me, outweighs what having money can do in your life.
What benefits are there in knowing Jesus. 1) You are free to be you, without having to conform to those around you. Forget the rat race. Forget peer pressure. Forget trying to always please others. Forget faking it till you make it. God says, in Christ, you are enough to be pleasing in God’s sight.
2) You have a Savior who loves you no matter what you have done. There’s nothing you have to be fearful before God about in your past. You have been forgiven. God has a plan for your future. 3) You are going to become a person, that others desire to be around because of the life you will bring to any situation you are a part of. People will know you’ve been changed. 4) You know that your future is secure because God is in control. People are talking about how bad things are going to get economically. God’s ability to care for you has nothing to do with the price of oil, gas or stocks.
5) You know that whether circumstances that come into your life are good or bad, you have the promise from God, I will never leave you nor forsake you. 6) You know that God can do a miracle whenever God wants to. 7) Your life is going to have far less unnecessary grief than it would have had. And 8)You know that you are going to die, and death is not going to cheat you out of anything.
These benefits are only available to followers of Christ, and not to admirers. The rich man was an admirer, and he left Jesus very sad. Imagine how Jesus must have looked when the young man turned and walked away. Now imagine if Jesus turned his head and looked at you this morning and said, “and what choice are you going to make concerning what you have and me.”
Are you saying I would rather have what Jesus has and give up everything else in the world, than to have everything the world could offer me and give up Jesus. Therefore, I will pay any price. I don’t care. I will do whatever Jesus wants me to do. I will go wherever He wants me to go. I will give whatever He says I ought to give. I will be whatever He says I should be. As of today, I’m not just an admirer anymore. I will live as a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ.
When we understand our tithe as a love relationship with God, we encourage ourselves to become even more of what God desires for us to be. When you truly fall in love, you want to offer your very best. You don’t bring the person a dozen of roses and keep four for yourself and try to pass them off as a dozen.
Young people, if you want to offer God your best tithe, you’re going to get the best grades you can in school. The best time for you to pay for college, is when you are in 9th to 10th grade. Every A & B you get is helping you to get a scholarships. You are increasing your ability to give generously to the Lord, because after you finish college, the money you were going to pour into student loans, you can invest into the orphanage ministry, or the outreach ministry, or the youth ministry above and beyond your tithe. If you offer the Lord your best tithe now, God will open doors for you tomorrow.
Choose a college that’s going to keep you and your family out of debt and allow you both to be ready to support a new ministry or vision God may raise up in the church. Choose a car, a home, clothes, cell phone plans, cable service and other things in the same manner. If something is going to keep you from tithing and being able to provide an offering for the kingdom when it’s needed, then you need to ask, as a follower of Christ, what’s another way for me to satisfy this need in my life. Should I wait a little longer? Can I do with a little less? Should I just do without this? The way we choose to give to God’s work, is a sign of whether we admire Jesus or whether we truly follow him.
There are some people who actually choose to be followers of Christ. They recognize how their choices to spend, affect their ability to spread the kingdom of God. If we asked God to please make our hearts, more like His heart, out affection for some of the things of this world would cease. We would discover we no longer have to have that, because we’d rather make a difference over here where it really counts.
Does it matter whether you buy a $50 dollar dress or a $100 dress? It all depends on what you decide to do with the $50 in between. Will you help us send it to Haiti, where five other girls will get a dress? Or will you choose to use it to buy an upgrade to your phone service so that you can text message easier? These are the kinds of questions that followers of Christ really ask.
Followers have made up their minds to pay the cost that’s involved. They actually meant it when they turned their lives over to Jesus. Yes Lord, I will do whatever you word says that I should do. If a tithe is me giving you a dime out of every dollar, I don’t care how many dimes I get, every tenth dime is going to the work of the ministry. If you’re worried about how your dimes might be spent, you should come to the leaders and ask for a budget report. If you’re satisfied, you should continue in obedience in paying your tithes. If you’re not satisfied, then you should find a church who spends the tithe you gave to the Lord in the way you think it should be spent. You are not free to say, “I’ll just hold back on my dimes” unless your goal is to simply be an admirer of Jesus.
Jesus said, not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. Only those who does of the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say what they did in my name. I will tell them, I never knew you. Are you giving what God told you to give as a follower, or are you giving what you feel like giving as an admirer?
You need to know you and everybody else in this building, and everyone who is listening to my voice either on tv, on the internet, or on a cd is going to die. At that point we will all be thrown into one of two groups. Those who are followers of Christ and those who choose to reject Him. There will be no third group of faithful admirers. Jesus is either Lord of your life now or he isn’t. You’re either fully supporting his ministry or you’re spending his money on your desires and your agenda.
The worsening of the economy is going to force us to let go of some things we use to have. Wouldn’t it be better to let go of some things, simply because you love the Lord and want to become obedient in your giving. Jesus is looking for followers today. Let’s free ourselves a little more from something we have for ourselves. Write down one thing you can give up for the kingdom between now and Christmas Eve and present it as offering to the Lord at that service to make a difference in the lives of others.
Sermon Outline Pastor Rick
Admirer Or Follower 10-19-2008
Malachi 1:6-14 Matt. 19:16-30
A. Hey I Admire You
1. Michael Phelps—8 Medals
2. Youth Who Are Inspired
3. Beyond Admiration
4. I Did Not Change
B. John Ortberg’s Definition
1. Impressed-Devoted
2. Applause- Surrenders
3. Dr. King—Mother Teresa
C. We Admire Jesus In Worship
1. Songs We Sing
2. No Challenge Given To Admire
D. All I’m Asking For Is Respect
1. Youth, Adults, Parents,
2. Created In The Image Of God
3. Trying To Pull A Fast One With An
Offering
4. Blind, Crippled, Lame, Dead
5. God Gets Dished—Try The Governor
6. Landlords, Car Dealers
E. God Is Not To Thrilled
1. Shut The Door, Stop The Service
2. God Is Too Worthy
3. Every Believer Vows, God First
F. The Rich Young Ruler
1. Nice, Likeable, Generous
2. Kept Commands—Great Admirer
Matthew 19:21-22 (NIV)
21 Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." 22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
3. Not Greedy-But Righteous Desire
4. Not For Nothing—But Exchange
5. Not For Lonely—But For Fellowship
G. The Benefits Of Knowing Jesus
1. Freedom, Forgiveness, Improvement
2. Future, Partner, Miracle
3. Less Grief, Death Can’t Cheat
4. Benefits—Followers Only
5. Saying No To Jesus
6. What Price Will I Pay
7. The Choice To Go All The Way
H. A Tithe Is Really A Love Relationship
1. 8 Roses In A Dozen
2. Tithing A’s & B’s
3. Plan Ahead To Give
4. Choosing A College
5. How To Make A Purchase
I. The Simple Follower’s Examination
1. Look At Alternatives For The Need
2. Ask Should I Wait
3. Can I Do With Less
4. Should I Do Without
5. Getting The Desires Of God
6. Does It Matter Which Dress I Buy
J. It’s Not Cheap To Be A Follower
1. Tithe A Dime Out Of A Dollar
2. Do The Facts, Do The Giving
3. Satisfied Or Leave
4. Jesus-Not Everyone Who Says Matthew 7:21 (NIV)
21 "Not everyone who says to me, ’Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
5. God’s Standard—My Feeling
6. Just Two Groups In The End
7. Changing Because Of The
Economy
8. Changing Because Of Love
Malachi 3:10-12 (NIV)
10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty.
12 "Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land," says the LORD Almighty.
