Such games as:
• Pin the donkey tail
• Hide and Seek
• Treasure hunt
• Simon says
• Spin the Bottle
And many more…
Illus: A certain fellow in this church by the name of ________________use to love to play spin the bottle.
You know how it is played. Boys and girls sit in a circle and they take a coke bottle and spin the bottle.
If it pointed to a girl when it stopped, the girl could either kiss him or give him a dime.
By the time____________was 14, he was able to buy a bicycle and for himself and his two sisters.
But let me tell you about a game children and adults love to play. IT IS CALLED FOLLOW THE LEADER!!!
You know how children play this game:
Illus: One player, the Leader, begins moving around doing all kinds of ridiculous things that the rest of the players must immitate.
Everything the leader does the followers must duplicate—
• Including wildly flailing their hands in the air.
• Or furiously scratching their heads
• Slapping their faces
• Sticking their tongues out
• Making weird faces
Whatever the leaders did the followers did the same.
In fact, this game it is played more than all the other games put together by children and adults.
For example, we have those today who follow the leader:
• If someone gets a new car they get a new car.
• If someone gets a new house they have to get a new house.
• Whatever they watch on tv, they watch!
• Whatever the way the world thinks, they think!
• Whatever the world wear, they wear!
• If some one gets a ridiculous hair cut they follow the example.
• If a kid wears his pants where it looks like they are about to fall off they do the same.
• If a kid get tattoos they get tattoos.
But the Lord wants us to follow Him and get others to follow us as we follow Him.
Let me ask you a QUESTION…IF ALL THE CHURCH MEMBERS OF THIS CHURCH WAS LIKE YOU WHAT KIND OF CHURCH WOULD THIS CHURCH BE!!!
• I look across this congregation and I gladly say if everyone was like THEM this would be a great church.
When I look at some in this church I wish I could clone some of them!!!
• However, if everybody was like some we can be thankful they were not a twin.
Illus: Mickey Mantle, the former New York Yankees center fielder and a member of baseball’s Hall of Fame. However, he had a very serious problem with alcohol. Because of that he said at a news conference he had squandered a gifted life and warned admirers he was no role model. He said “God gave me the ability to play baseball. God gave me everything,” he said. “For the kids out there, don’t be like me.”
Today one of the big problems our young people have is the ROLE MODELS they have chosen to follow.
The apostle Paul was one of the greatest men who ever lived on the face of the earth. Perhaps next to the Lord Jesus being the greatest!!!
He did not squander the gifts God gave him.
We all like examples of people to follow.
Illus: Makes me think of the dad who took his seven-year-old son’s baseball bat to smash the slick coat of ice on his driveway.
He got cold and went inside for a cup of coffee before attempting to clear the ice off the car.
Several minutes later, his son, who had been outside with him, came in.
• “Dad,” he said, “I got the ice off the car.”
• “How did you do that?” his father asked.
• “Same way you did,” the boy shrugged, “with the baseball bat.”
Paul gives us a good example of following Christ.
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 11:1 Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
Now notice when Paul said BE YE FOLLOWERS OF ME he quickly added, EVEN AS I ALSO AM OF CHRIST.
• Dads can you say to your children be like me as I follow Christ.
• Mom can you say to your children be like me as I follow Christ.
• As a chrstian can you say to your neighbors and co-workers follow me as I follow Christ.
Let’s follow Paul as he follows Christ.
First, we need to consider his…
I. HIS LOVE
Illus: Pastor Rick Crandall a Baptist preacher has a daughter named Katie that is twenty eight years old.
When she was eight years old she wrote a letter to her dad and on the outside it said, "Keep forever."
And on the inside it said, "I love Dad. I love Dad. I love Dad. I love Dad." Twenty-four times! -- "I love Dad!" Then "P.S. she wrote -- It's true."
This father never got rid of this letter and he would often read it.
I believe our heavenly Father also love for us to tell him that we love Him.
Illus: Mike Reagan was the adopted son of former president Ronald Reagan. Because he was adopted he grew up thinking he was not love like his brother and sister.
He was expressing this one day to someone that his dad never told him he loved him.
The man he was expressing this to said, HAVE YOU EVER TOLD HIM THAT YOU LOVED HIM?
He thought about it and he came to realize he never had.
He made up his mind he would tell his dad he loved him when he saw him.
He did and from that time on he would tell his dad he loved him and his dad would tell him he loved him.
Later on when the president was stricken with alhemizers Mike and his wife was visiting his dad and Nancy at their ranch home. After sometime they were ready to leave and Mike told his wife he was going out side to get things ready in their car for them to leave.
Nancy walked them out to the car and they were fixing to leave and mike’s wife told him to look at the front door of Reagan’s ranch home.
Mike looked at the front door and the former president in his weak condition hardly able to stand was standing with his arms outstretch wanting Mike to come give him a farewell hug!!!
I do not know about you but I tell the Lord frequently what a great HEAVENLY FATHER HE IS AND IAM SO PROUD TO BE ONE OF HIS CHILDREEN AND I TRULY LOVE HIM!
Illus: R.A.Torrey said “If loving God with all our heart and soul and might is the greatest commandment, then it follows that not loving Him that way is the greatest sin.”
It is important that we tell Him we love him, but it is equally IMPORTANT THAT WE SHOW HIM WE LOVE HIM.
Illus: Years ago, some geography students were studying the Seven Wonders of the World, and the teacher asked their opinions about the wonders of the world.
Almost everybody agreed on places like the Great Pyramids in Egypt, the Taj Mahal, the Panama Canal and the Great Wall of China.
Then the teacher noticed that one girl hadn't turned in her list yet.
The girl told her teacher she couldn't quite make up her mind, So the teacher said, "Tell us what you have, and maybe we can help."
The girl hesitated and then said, "I think the Seven Wonders of the World are to touch, to taste, to see, to hear, to hope, to laugh, and to love."
A hush settled over the room as the truth sank in, and a wise man later said, "It is far too easy for us to look at human exploits and refer to them as 'wonders,' while we overlook the amazing things God has put into our everyday world. . . Life itself is wondrous, amazing, and miraculous! Count your blessings, and give all the glory to God!”
That is a good answer!!!
Paul must have felt the same way as this student. He loved the Lord and expressed that love in many ways.
This is why he could say, FOLLOW ME AS I FOLLOW CHRIST!!! He wanted everyone to come to know this WONDERFUL SAVIOR THAT HE SERVED!!!
Let me show you how He showed the Lord he loved him.
For approximately ten years Paul criss-crossed the world of his day:
• Evangelizing the lost,
• Discipling the saved,
• Organizing churches.
Illus: He makes me think of some of these teen agers THAT HAVE FALLEN IN LOVE and they climb these tall water tanks and spray paint on the side of them JOHNNY LOVES MARY!
Paul crissed-crossed the world because he wanted God to know he loved him but also he wanted the whole world come to love him.
Illus: Dr. Odell Belger said he was talking to a lady by the name of Lucy Martin years ago.
One day and he asked her how her and husband met.
She said, “Preacher, when I met my husband I fell in love with him immediately and when he asked me to marry him I was THRILLED!”
• She said he gave me my engagement ring and I walked down the side walk and when I saw someone coming in my direction and they got close I would start scratching my nose BECAUSE I wanted them to see my wedding ring.
• And when I past them I would rub the back of my hair in case they look back at me when I past them so they could see my wedding ring.
Listen, we all who know something about love know exactly what she is talking about.
We want everyone to know we have found the love of our life.
Paul loved the Lord and he wanted everyone to come to know this wonderful Savior. HE SAID FOLLOW ME AS I FOLLOW CHRIST.
Listen, when you love someone enough to marry them, if you truly love them that love will get you through the GOOD TIMES AND BAD TIMES.
Paul went through some rough times as a child of God but His love for the Lord got him through the rough times.
Look at 2 Corinthians 11:23-28 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
What a tremendous price Paul paid in spreading this gospel.
WHAT MADE HIM TO ENDURE SUCH SUFFERINGS?
As we read about Paul in the New Testament, it is obvious that this man SERVED THE LORD BECAUSE HE LOVED THE LORD.
He did not walk around just saying “I love the Lord”, this man LOVED THE LORD JESUS!!!
Illus: We often see in every large town the cults going door to door spreading their false religion.
Do they do this because they love the Lord?
No, they do this because they have been taught in order to go to heaven they must do this.
We as born again Christians who know we are saved by grace, not by our works, go door to door witnessing for Christ because of three reasons:
(1) We do it because He commands us to evangelize the lost world.
(2) We want our neighbors, family and friends to come to know the Lord Jesus as their Savior.
(3) We do it because we love the Lord.
Paul loved the Lord!
But if Christians had this kind of love that Paul had, You also would have a church that looked like they love the Lord.
Illus: In many churches there must be a un-written poster that tells people as you enter this place of worship, PLEASE WIPE THE SMILE OFF YOUR FACE!
Illus: You ever watch some congregations singing O HOW I LOVE JESUS! Looking at their facial expressions it looks like they are having a gall bladder attack.
Illus: One of the greatest compliments:
• A preacher can receive is to hear someone say, YOU PREACH LIKE YOU BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU PREACH!
• And I think one of the greatest compliments that can be said of a teacher is that YOU TEACH LIKE YOU BELIEVE WHAT YOU TEACH!
• And I think one of the greatest compliments that can be said of a singer is that YOU SING LIKE YOU BELIEVE IN WHAT YOU ARE SINGING.
Once Paul became a believer everyone who knew him, knew he loved the Lord.
Illus: We are told that a dog can tell if you love him or not. I do not know if that is true or not, but the Lord knows if we love Him or not.
It is also important that a lost world know we love the Lord if we are going to an effective witness for the Lord.
HOW WE SERVE THE LORD MAKES A DIFFERENCE!
But let me show you another thing we learn as we follow Paul, we learn about…
II. HIS HUMILITY
HE SERVED WITH HUMILITY
Look at Acts 20:19, “Serving the Lord with all humility of mind....”
Not all sin is created equal. While all sin is equally offensive and wrong in the eyes of God they are not all equal.
Yet there is one sin so vile, so pervasive, and so powerful that every person who has ever walked this earth has struggled with it.
It is the worst sin, the father of all sin, it is the sin that ruined angels.
Every sin, every wrong action can be traced back to this one particular sin. Pride.
Let’s see what the scripture says about pride in Proverbs 6:16-19 . “These six things doth the LORD hate: yes, seven are an abomination to him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood. A heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that are swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and him that soweth discord among brethren.”
What is the 1st thing in question here? “A proud look.”
If anyone had a right to be proud, the apostle
Paul did because of two reasons:
(1) HE WAS WELL EDUCATED
How do we know that?
Look at Acts 22: 3, “I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.”
Today this would be equivalent to having a degree from Harvard.
Also…
(2) PAUL WAS A MEMBER OF THE SANHEDRIN
This would be equivalent to being a member of the U.S. Supreme Court.
But yet the Bible said he served the Lord with “…humility of mind.”
Illus: John Ruskin once said, "I believe the first test of a truly great man is his humility."
Illus: Lk 18:10 Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
• Lk 18:11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: God, I thank you that I am not like other men robbers, evildoers, adulterers or even like this tax collector.
• Lk 18:12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.
• Lk 18:13 But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
• Lk 18:14 I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
Illus: A teacher was giving a lesson on the circulation of the blood.
• She said, “Now, class, if I stood on my head, the blood, as you know, would run into it, and I would turn red in the face.”
• “Yes,” the class said.
• “Then why is it that while I am standing upright in the ordinary position the blood doesn’t run into my feet?”
• A little fellow said, “Cause your feet ain’t empty.” (Source: Unknown)
It doesn’t take much to make some folks to be proud.
• Everything they have is better than what others have.
• Everything they do is better then what others do.
Illus: Do you make things about yourself more than you should?
Dr. Odell Belger was visiting with a married couple. And he had a hard time talking to this couple because the husband kept the conversation about him.
To get the conversation to change he would ask his wife about her family.
And only after she said a few things he would turn the conversation about himself what he liked or did not like.
One day during the conversation that he was talking about himself she got up and walked behind him and without him knowing it she bald her fist up like she wanted to smack him in the head.
There are people like this
Paul had every right to be proud as for as the world was concern.
But he was a man of humility!!!
In II Cor. 3:5 he tell us, Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.
Yet throughout history there have been those who regarded themselves as superior to others.
Illus: The worst example is in Nazi Germany, where Hitler taught his people that they were a superior race.
No one voted that he was more superior than others but he convinced himself.
• When we walk in the mindset of PRIDE, we are more like Satan than at any other time. Remember, he was so proud that it led to him being thrust out of heaven.
• When we walk in the mindset of HUMILITY, we are more like Christ than at any other time.
We live in a very PROUD SOCIETY.
The Bible does not teach us that we should not think HIGHLY OF OURSELVES, but it does teach us in Romans 12:3, that we should not think MORE HIGHLY OF OURSELVES THAN WE OUGHT TO THINK.
Again it is worth noting that ‘pride’ is different than ‘self-esteem’. We have self-esteem – meaning a good opinion of ourself.
THIS IS NECESSARY!!! Why?
• One of the commandments is that “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Matt 22.39)
• Implied in this verse is that we have to have a good opinion of ourselves if we are going to have a good opinion of others.
Paul says in Ephesians 5.29 “no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it.”
Pride comes when we start to over evaluate ourselves.
Anytime we think we are BETTER THAN SOMEONE WE THINK TO HIGHLY OF OURSELVES.
You might have more:
• Degrees than someone else
• More money in the bank than someone else
• Live in a bigger house than someone else
• Drive a nicer car than someone else
• Wear nicer clothes than someone else
But none of us are no BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE.
What a wonderful world this would be if people
could walk in HUMILITY instead of PRIDE.
Paul who had so much to be proud about walked in LOVE AND HUMILITY.
He could say, FOLLOW ME AS I FOLLOW CHRIST, everybody can not say that.
Paul served the Lord with LOVE, HUMILITY but also we need to look at he served the Lord with many…
III. TEARS
Acts 20:19, “Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and WITH MANY TEARS,....”
Notice the words MANY TEARS. He was a man of many tears.
In this proud nation of ours many can not remember the last time they shed ONE TEAR!!!
Paul was not the only one who shed tears, look at Luke 19:41 And when he (Jesus) was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it.
• When a shoe salesman see a man he looks at his feet.
• When an optometrist see a man he looks at his eyes.
But when we become like the Lord Jesus we see a man we see a man who is going to heaven or hell.
Paul shed many tears and he said, FOLLOW ME AS I FOLLOW CHRIST!
Illus: Dr. Odell Belger had a good friend that had a funeral home. He would sometime do charity funerals for him.
One day they were together and this man that owned this funeral home gave Dr. Belger a look from the feet to top of his head.
Dr. Belger jokingly said “I know what you are doing, you are measuring me for one of those caskets back there, don’t look at me like that!!!.”
Paul served the Lord with many tears. Now let me ask you something:
• Parents if your children follow you will they end up in heaven or hell.
• Your neighbor if they follow you will they end up in heaven or in hell.
• Your co-workers follow you will they end up in heaven or in hell.
The church today has forgotten how to weep over reaching the lost for Christ.
Psalms 126:6 He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
Conclusion:
Paul said FOLLOW ME AS I FOLLOW CHRIST.
Illus: John Smithson tells the story of a young girl who grew up in California during the Great depression. When she was 10, her family was so poor, they lived in a tent. Her home life was horrible. Her father was an alcoholic, and her sisters were prostitutes.
But one day a man and woman came and invited that girl to church. Then they started taking her to church. After church, they would also take the girl home with them to feed her and visit with her. They showed this young girl the love and mercy of Jesus Christ, and because of this, she eventually came to know the Lord.
John Smithson told that story and then said: "This little girl was my grandmother and because of the love shown her 55 years ago, every one of her descendants are Christians and working for God. Because of her, I am here. All three children pastor churches, three grandchildren pastor churches, plus music leaders and Sunday School teachers, a whole army of Christians from one person!"
Wonder how big the army is that followed Paul as he followed Christ.
How many will be in heaven because they followed you to heaven!!!
I. LOVE
II. HUMILITY
III. TEARS
Invitation hymn - Where He Leads I`ll Follow
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