Luke 9:23
In dealing with the younger generation, they have introduced me to the understanding of their language. And what I have found out is much of their slang are entrenched and embedded with some deep revelation and many of them are biblically sound.
Just to name a few I’ve heard statements like keep your head on a swivel, which means to always be watchful of the things around you. What’s the scripture pastor? Well, Matthew 26:41 says, Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Which means one must be watching at all times so that evil doing won’t be able to sneak up on you.
Here’s another one. Get out your chest, which means get out of your feelings. Give me scripture Pastor. Galatians 6:3 “For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.”
But there was just one that really arrested my spirit, grabbed my attention, and made me come to a standstill, and that was when I saw the acronyms DTR which stands for define the relationship. In other words, where do we stand? Where are we going from here? What is the next step of this connection? We have been shopping together, we have been to the movies together, we have had dinner, and you have even kissed me on the cheek, so now we need to define the relationship. The question here is: are we going study, are you giving me a promise ring, are we getting married, I need to know where are we going from here? I’m not going to be the side person, I’m not going to be second string, and I’m not going to be the leftovers, we need to define the relationship.
And some of you can relate to this type of conversation, because this is an official talk, the determining factor, the decisive, significant, and vital decision that takes place at some point in relationship to see the level of our commitment, our promise, our pledge and our vow to one another. In other words, where do we stand?
What they are saying is, I need to know if we have moved passed the crush, passed the probation period, and pass the infatuation period.
And this is conversation is so important, because I believe that there are too many of us who have the no strings attached arrangement with God, we have an uncommitted lopsided relationship with God. We have the, I don’t need him until I call on him. We have the, if he gets me out of this situation, I’ll get out of the next one by myself. Some of us just have a structured connection with Jesus, from time to time we just call on him when they need him, or when we are going through.
There are too many of us that are fans of Jesus, but not a follower of Jesus. Put it in scripture form. Luke 9:23 Jesus put it like this. “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me, he didn’t say become a fan of me.
Here’s the point: we must know and understand that followers deny themselves, they take up their cross and follow him. A fan is simply defined as a passionate, a fan is an admirer. And I think I need to tell somebody this morning not to be a fan but be a follower of Christ.
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As we probe and examine the scripture, we can see cases where Jesus would put people in a position where they must decide what their position is going to be with him. and he was not playing with it.
Look at Luke 14:25-27 it says “And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them,
26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. 27 And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. Now understand that Christ was not saying to hate your family because he is a God of love, but what he was saying is that he is to be the priority, over family and even self. He makes us chose.
In St. John 6:64-70 Jesus preach a sermon that would determine who in the crowd was a fan, and who were followers. In verse 64 he said “But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. 65 And he said, “Therefore, said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. 66 From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. 67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? 68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. 69 And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. 70 Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?”
And I need to tell you all that Jesus is never impressed by the size of crowd, but instead he was more concerned about the level of commitment. He’s more concern about the vows that we make, and not about how much money you make. And I’m the concern that instead of our churches becoming a community of followers, we are more like a stadium of fans. We wear our cross, but we don’t bear the cross. Some will come to church D.O.A dead on arrival, and leave D.O.D dead on departure. And may I tell you that just because we come to church, and we know the songs, and because we have color our Bibles with markers and take notes, walk out to our cars with a Jesus fish on the bumper and say grace before lunch, but that doesn’t make us a follower. Just because we can quote the scriptures don’t make us know the scripture, the devil can quote the scripture, be he’s not living one ounce of it.
The reason I say this is because, I believe that people were more fans than followers, because we confused knowing about who Jesus is, with knowing who Jesus is.
We need you to know that there is a difference between knowledge, and intimacy. Growing up I loved Jesus and I knew a lot about Jesus, but I didn’t know Jesus. I was talking about him in my day to day activities but I wasn’t listening for him to speak the directives into my life. and we better be careful who we allow to speak into our lives, and just because they call themselves our friends does not mean that they are guiding you in the right direction, you need to hear from God yourself. Don’t end up going to hell for a friend.
If we are going to follow Jesus, this natural man, this carnal man, this sinful man is going to need some changes in it.
And I know that we only think that we only need some minor changes, but the Lord is telling us that we need some major work. I know that we think that we only need a little touch up work, but Lord wants to give us a complete renovation. We just want tune-up, but we need and overhaul.
So in Luke chapter 9 and verse 23 Jesus says that if we want to follow him we must deny ourselves and take up our cross daily. But at the end of this chapter Jesus gives three instances of people who are potential followers, but are shown to be fans and enthusiastic admirers. And here’s what we find what keeps them from being followers.
In verse 57 we meet the first fan as they were walking along the road, a man said to Jesus, "I will follow you wherever you go. This is a powerful statement; he says I will follow wherever you go. Now understand wherever, covers a lot of ground. He says Jesus I will follow you without reservation.
But in verse 58 Jesus replied, before you say that understand that foxes have their holes and birds have their nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head. What Jesus sees is that this man loved comfort more than following him, and he needed him to know that the roads that he travels were not always an easy road. In fact, the roads will get rough and the going gets tough and the hills even gets hard to climb.
Because understand the call to take up our cross and follow me is a direct conflict with comfortability. We must know that the correlation of Following Jesus is not one of convenience, but it is of committed.
This man in spoke the words of commitment, but when Jesus highlighted the picture of what that commitment looked like the man seemed to back off.
In verse 59 we meet the second fan. He said to another man, follow me. But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father, and Jesus said to him, let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.
The first thing this man does is he puts Jesus second on the list. I want to follow, I really do, but not right now is not a good time. And some people are like that today you can invite them to church and they will tell you I’m coming but not this Sunday. And next Sunday turns to next month and then next month changes to next year.
When I thought about how the man wanted to go bury his father, I thought that Jesus is being a little too hard, but when I looked at this again there was a possibility that his father wasn’t even sick. What he was saying was saying, was maybe when my parents die, then I will follow you.
His excuse wasn’t enough for Jesus
And then there is third fan. The bible said in verse 61 still another said, I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family. And Jesus said, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God. In other words, Jesus is not looking for a part time love or any part time followers. The Lord says it’s all or nothing.
I don’t know about you but I’m going to follow Jesus, and I’m going to allow him to lead me and guide me along the way, because I know that Lord if you lead me, I shall not stray.
I’m crying Lord let me walk each day with thee, lead me ohhhh Lord lead me.
And I know with you leading me that the road might get a little rough.
I understand that even though you are leading me, that the going will seem a little tough,
I know that there will be some hill to climb, but it doesn’t matter because I’m still going to follow you, I’m still going to hold on to your unchanging hand.
Because if I hold on, I know that everything will be alright.
