Being a disciple of Christ
Matthew 4:19
Jesus called out to them, “ Come and be my disciples, and I will show you how to fish for men.”
Pray
After hearing how My god was beaten over and over. How could I not serve him. After hearing how my God was whipped with the cat o nine tails, how could I not be his disciple.
The cat o nine tails was a whip about seven feet long and was typically made with lead, bone, and glass on the end of it.
After I heard how the Son of God was whipped with that, how could I not serve him.
After I heard about how the Roman soldiers put a sharp crown of thorns on His head, piercing through the skin of his head , blood pouring down his face, how could I not serve Christ.
After I heard how the soldiers put Jesus on a splintery cross, drove nails deep in his hands, then drove nails deep in his feet, how could I not be a disciple of Christ.
Most people don’t know but in the middle of the cross, there was a piece of wood which pushed your back out to make you suffer a lot more.
After I heard how they brutally crucified my King, how could I not serve Him
It amazes me how people all over the world heard about the spotless, sinless, savior and what He’s has done for us, and not want to serve him and experience the most joyful gift that could ever be given, a gift that can only be given by God.
When Jesus said, Come and be my disciple, he was telling us, come and enjoy the best thing that will ever be given to you.
Come and enjoy something that you cannot Gain except by follow my footsteps and teachings. The blessings of Eternal life.
God is calling us to separate ourselves from this world and focus on Him, putting him first in all of our doings.
He is telling us that we must love ourselves less than we love Him.
God calls us to be like him.
Paul writes that we should be imitators of Christ. We have to die to ourselves everyday.
Well some of you may be thinking, well J.R., Jesus was perfect and I am nowhere near perfect. There is no way I can be an imitator of Christ.
And you know what, its true, Christ is perfect and we will never become perfect. But we can keep striving towards perfection. We can let the Holy spirit lead us in our everyday struggles.
Hebrews 12:1
Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us.
The cares and worries of this world is just dead weight that really amounts to nothing once we get to heaven. The only thing it does is holds our soul down instead of going upward, holds us back instead of pushing us forward.
It is so easy now to get distracted and take our focus off of Jesus.
We could be in the very middle of speaking to God and all of a sudden when we don’t even realize it, we get distracted.
During worship have you ever just heard the words but not worshiped? Instead of worshiping your just singing the words while you look around at all of the people here, watching them worship. And before you realized it worship was over and it was time for the offering.
The Bible says love God with all your heart, all your soul, mind, and strength.”
Sometimes it will be hard not to get distracted, but God is with us. He promises us that it will not be easy and sometimes we must fight the devil physically to win the battle against our souls.
Love is the leading affection of our soul. With love towards our God it will engage us to hate sin and love the Lord.
Love for the Lord will empower us to look at the Devil straight in the eye and tell him to go back to the Hell he came from and that we want no part in him.
Being a true disciple, or Christian, or Christ follower, is not just going to church
being a true Christian is saying:
I am a part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have Holy Spirit power. The dye has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of His. I wont look back, let up, slow down, or back away.
Mt past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure. I’m finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals.
I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotion, plaudits, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on his presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power.
My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few, my guide reliable, my mission clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.
I wont give up, shut up, let up, until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, preached up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus.
When I get to Heaven I want Jesus to say well done my good and faithful servant. I don’t want God to say, well you did ok, you barely got through by the skin on your teeth. Well I guess you can come in but you better be on your best behavior.
When I get to the pearly gates of heaven and meet with my savior I want Him to be giving me a standing ovation, telling me how good and faithful I have been while I was on earth as a foreigner.
I want to know while im on my deathbed that I have given everything to God as I could have, not holding anything back.
I want to use an analogy for a second.
Lets say you owned 100 acres. After awhile you decided to sell every single piece of land except for the one acre in the exact middle of your other land. If that happens then the government will make you designed a road to get access to that particular piece of land that you own, regardless of how you want the road. It can be a dirt road, a gravel road, a stone driveway, it really doesn’t matter.
I say all of that because when you decide to come to Jesus you must give him every fiber of you mind, body and soul, because if you keep that one little piece than the Devil will find any way possible to get to the one place and destroy the rest from working inward.
When we come to Christ we must learn to put our hands to the plow and not look back to our old life.
Luke 9:62 says that if we look back we are not fit for the kingdom of God. That doesn’t mean that we must forget where God has brought us from, It just means that we shouldn’t return to our old ways. When we accept Christ, we are crucified with Him.
If we look back that means that we are not ready to accept the gifts He has for us.
Tomorrow is not promised to anyone. When God tugs on you heart, you don’t know, it may be your last chance.
We shouldn’t say, well God I want one last puff, or one last drink, or one last premarital affair. When God calls us we should answer.
Matthew 10:38-39
“ If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you cling to your life, you will lose it: but if you give it up for me, you will find it.”
In taking up the cross we must follow Christ’s example. And if we follow him faithfully then he will lead us through our sufferings to Glory with Him.
As Christians we have to live a life of self denial to our flesh.
We must learn how to endure hardship daily. When we meet with hardships, we cant handle them by ourselves, but we do have to pick them up, carry them, and make the best of it until Christ decides to totally take that particular circumstance from us.
At that time when we learn to worship God during every situation including hardships, is when our character is built up in us.
If you remember in the book of Job Satan threw every test at Job that he could. Satan took away Job’s children and just about everything He owned. But in the midst of his problems Job dropped to his knees and praised the name of the Lord.
Job knew who his God was and knew that Gods plan was more than he could see.
When we drop to our knees despite our darkest hours, that is when we show trust in our Lord. That’s when we show our God that he is our Jehovah-Jireh. That no matter what circumstance God will provide for us.
When we learn to worship God with everything that we have a certain anointing will come over us.
Its is when Joseph gave his all to God and stayed focused on him did God raise him for a jail cell to the second in command in Egypt.
It is when Moses put all his faith in him did God use him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.
When Moses Gave all to God, that was when God gave Him the ten commandments.
It is when Moses was totally obedient did he split the Red sea.
In Joshua it says when their feet touched the water, the flow of water stopped.
So in Joshua’s faith and obedience did he lead the Israelites into the promise land even when there seemed to be no way.
Through David’s worship to God did he finally become King.
Through Jesus’ obedience he died a sinners death though he was sinless, to save our souls.
And through our obedience to Christ can we receive the gift freely that God has to give us.
The second part of Matthew 4:19
“And I will show you how to fish for people.”
One of the last things Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 28 was
“Go and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given to you. And be sure of this, I am with you always, even until the end of age.”
Jesus wants us to learn ourselves but also teach others to be disciples.
The salvation God wants us to preach is that it is obtainable through anyone. God wants us to preach to everyone in all nations.
It is a direct command to us from God, He said go.
Lets put it this way, If your boss was to tell you to go and get him something, you would do it.
In that same way God tells us to go, be obedient, and make disciples.
Some of you may say, well I get nervous and I am not that good of a speaker.
Well after He commanded us to Go and make disciples, He gave us an encouraging word, fear not, for I am with you always, even until the end of age.
God will always be with you always. He will give you the words to say and the boldness of when to say them.
True discipleship is passing it on. We should be teaching others to teach others. That will be the only way the Gospel will spread.
Acts 6:7 states how the number of disciples increased due to the preaching all over the lands.
The pastors of the churches are not the only people that are supposed to be spreading the Gospel to people, we all are supposed to.
If only the pastors spreads the Gospel then our walk with Christ is pointless.
There are certain people in here that can reach other certain people that I couldn’t, or pastor couldn’t.
We are called to be followable.
Paul writes in Corinthians follow me as I follow Christ.
In that I believe that Paul is saying two things.
one- that we must teach other.
Two- that noone can follow us past the point in which we are.
If we are going to try to give other people and our children more than what we have, we must first lead by example. We must first get their ourselves.
Have you ever heard the saying, “ do what I say, not what I do?”
That is the absolute dumbest saying I have heard in my entire life.
If Jesus went around preaching one thing but doing another then noone would want to be a Christian.
It is so important to lead by example. If we don’t lead by example than our children and the people around us will not want Jesus.
If our walk is transparent and we sincerely want the anointing and power of Jesus, that is when we can touch people’s live.
We can only impress far away, but we can impact close up.
We have to take time to disciple the people around us.
We have to show the people around us that we do the right thing and not just say the right thing.
Ephesians 4:11-12
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