Andy Stanley - Follow

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] well we're beginning a brand new series today called follow pretty excited about this I'm gonna welcome all of you who are joining us on television thanks for staying up late or getting up early for those of you who are joining us online for those of you who are at home hotel rooms hopefully you're driving but you're just listening out watching for those of you in the room all over Atlanta area campuses and our strategic partner churches all over the world it's pretty exciting now if you fall asleep during the message today you're thinking oh no I missed the end you can go to this website right here and get the whole thing follow series or follow series org we're gonna put all these messages from this series here as always there'll be some questions you can download so if you're tracking with us in your small group which I hope you will do that allow you to ask ask some questions and talk about this stuff because the goal isn't for you to just to hear me talk the goal obviously is for us to wrestle with this material and figure out how it applies to our lives so this will be there the whole time you can go there we'll be up there forever as long as there's an internet it will be there now to get us started today I want to tell you a little bit about my growing up in churches most of you know and pastors kids so the whole church thing I just grew up in it preachers kids we have an advantage we see Church differently than everyone else I remember you know growing up and hearing people say oh we just felt the Spirit of God in the room and I'm like no if the room was full whenever the rooms full you guys seem to feel the Spirit of God take that same group of people plop them in the dome no spirit so anyway we can be if we're not careful we can get a little bit weird a little cynical but anyway now I don't know where I got this because this is so wrong but when I was growing up especially I don't say from high school you know especially starting right then I kind of felt like the whole Christian life and all spirituality and religion was kind of a giant game of Jesus says Jesus says now you've heard of Simon Says you know Simon Says Simon Says whoops Thomas didn't say and so I don't know where I got this but I just felt like to be a Christian it was like Jesus says jump you know Jesus says go to church Jesus says pray Jesus say didn't look over there oh but have you seen her you know and and so it was just then then if you know if Jesus didn't say then then you were out and I liked being out of the game because life was easier and it was more enjoyable you know then I'd go to camp but it's like all right I need to get back into Jesus as game okay Jesus says pray Jesus says read your Bible Jesus says Jesus and the other thing I noticed about playing you know approaching you know Christianity is Jesus says is when I was doing really well like I'm winning the game here but I was having to sit down but like Jesus look um do what you say when I would see people who weren't playing I would be so judgmental like you need to play okay if I'm gonna be miserable you're gonna be miserable to get in the game and do what Jesus says this people aren't doing Jesus says you need to do it Jesus and so you know I didn't really work I was inconsistent the better I did the more judgmental I got the more mean I got and I found myself I'd sort of be jealous of people who weren't playing Jesus says because their life they seem to be having more fun and it was just it was just a disaster and maybe the reason you're not in church too the reason you dropped out of church is you grew up in a church or a religious system where it was doo doo doo don't don't don't do doo doo don't don't don't don't and you just you just weren't good at it you just weren't consistent you weren't disciplined enough to be whatever religion you are are to be a Christian so you just said you know what I'm out you know I'm out okay and if I go to hell I go to hell and I'll know people there because I'm out you know I just I just can't play the you know I just can't play that silly game so here's here here's the great news if you if you were to erase if you could somehow erase your memory banks of everything you've ever heard about God Jesus the Bible religion if you just kind of could go poop just blank here's the amazing thing if you already just start with a blank slate and you were to pick up just Matthew Mark Luke and John just the four accounts of Jesus life here's what you would be overwhelmed with and again our filters are so ingrained we all grew up some kind of religious system or anti religious system you know but if you could just be a blank slate and you picked it up here's what you would discover it is so extraordinary it's so extraordinarily relational I mean it is relational on steroids it is so extraordinarily relational in fact when G in fact Jesus said the reason I've come one of the reasons he came he said I've come so that you can understand the father now there's an insight right there in fact when Jesus talked about you know the whole religion thing and spiritual thing it was so relational in fact there were three kind of things he would he would talk about he'd say it's kind of like father and child he said I came to explain the father like who's that that's God so we can call Godfather yeah that's pretty relational he's in that reflection of your father he's the perfection the father so he would talk about it in terms of father child I mean how relational is that then one time or a couple of times he talked about it like a vine and a branch he said like I'm the vine and you're a branch okay and the vine doesn't say hey branch do this and do that the vine gives life to the branch and as you learn to abide in me then then things will happen you'll change you'll grow very relational then he talked about shepherd and sheep and for us that's kind of a bad illustration because we don't really understand that okay but in his in his culture this was like huge because they understand that Shepherds cared for sheep and one day Jesus said he said you know what my sheep they hear my voice and they recognize me it's like what yeah there's lots of sheep but my sheep the sheep that are in relationship with me all I have to do is speak and it's like oh that's the Shepherd and they move in my direction so it was just intensely intensely relational and the whole Jesus says thing that's not the right approach I don't know where I got that it wouldn't anybody's fault I just I just picked that up but intensely intensely relational which means which means if your approach to spirituality or your approach to a religion or specifically if your approach to Christianity is anything less than that or anything more than that then perhaps you've missed something because you have been invited and I have been invited to an end to an extraordinary relationship and you say okay Andy you say that all the time and how do you have a relationship with invisible God we're going to talk about that in this series but throughout the Gospels the word that Jesus came back to over and over and over and over and again is the word that we're going to camp out on in this series and it's simply the word follow follow and this is amazing Jesus extended an invitation to follow to every single kind of person imaginable to rich people poor people people who are spiritual they weren't spiritual religious irreligious all kinds of people he would just follow know just following fact I want to take you to the the first account of this and it's it's somewhat of a familiar story and if you're new to Bible study you're gonna love this story and if you're sort of an anti religious person you're gonna love this story in fact I would love for you to love the story so much you go home and read it on your own it's found in the book of Matt and it's a story about Matthew so Matthew tells us a story about himself in his Gospel of Matthew and here is where we are introduced to this whole idea the simplicity the follow here's what he says Matthew chapter 9 he says this Jesus went on from there he saw a man named Matthew he's telling us the story hey it's you yeah okay as Jesus went on from there he saw a man named Matthew sitting at a tax collectors booth because he was a tax collector now real quick you may know this or you may be new to Bible study need to know they're the only category of person I can think of that we would compare to a tax collector in terms of the emotion that it would elicit is that is you know the twenty-two year old kid hangs out behind the gas station sells drug to middle schoolers okay when they come over there to buy candy okay you think about that person you think disgusting okay that's that's probably and there may be worse ones I wouldn't even want to talk about in church but I'm telling you the idea of a tax collector in Jewish culture because they were Jewish people collecting Roman taxes they were disgusting they were hated they were outcasts they couldn't go to the temple they couldn't be a part of society they had to kind of hang out as we're gonna see and even in this story with other tax gatherers and people like themselves because the way it worked was this Rome auctioned off the right to collect taxes in all of their provinces so generally pretty wealthy people bid on the privilege to collect taxes because if you owned the opportunity to collect taxes in a region you could collect as much tax as you want as long as Rome got their share you got to keep the rest so it was an extremely lucrative business then these Roman citizens would go to these Roman and controlled provinces like Judea and they would then hire locals to work for them to collect the actual taxes and there were all kind of taxes poll tax bridge tax income tax food tax if you were at a Harbor there was a tax crossroad tax wine tax and just want property tax went on and on and on so they would hire locals they would hire citizens of that country to collect tax collect taxes and they would pay them so much it was almost impossible for them to say no but they were immediately hated by the people in those communities because they were traitors they were supporting Rome they were benefiting from Roman taxes and Matthew was one of those people so he was absolutely hated so Jesus walks up he's at this this dock basically on this big lake and he's collecting taxes and there sits Matthew and and Jesus could have said one of many things to Matthew he could've walked up to Matthew and said I bet your mother's really proud you know and that's nice you know there's other things and now Jesus hasn't really he isn't really chosen is twelve closest guys yet so he's got like a group of people traveling with him at this point he's considered a rabbi and if all the things that Jesus could have said should have said it would have been justifying justified and saying to Matthew Jesus looks at Matthew the tax collector and Matthew would never forget this and he says follow me and I would imagine the scripture doesn't tell us that there was an audible groan from the people who are with Jesus did you hear what he said yes surely he didn't say follow me follow me and you know Peters like wait wait wait wait he follows you that means he's with me and I'm not with him okay we wait he's a tax collector Jesus Jesus looks at Matthew says follow me in again there's a lot of things Jesus could have asked Matthew to do that Matthew would have said no I can't do that that's too hard are you kidding that would cost too much that would you know that would require too much Jesus looks at Matthew and says follow me and then Matthew tells us and here's what happened and he says follow me and he told it he told him and Matthew got up and he followed it and see if you're one of jesus' closest followers you know and you're hanging out with jesus wait wait it can't be that simple in fact we're gonna find out in a minute there were a group of religious people shadowing Jesus they were always shadowing Jesus trying to figure out what is he up to and they they look at this this encountered it's like wait it can't be that simple you can't just say follow me and a tax gatherer becomes part of your group and you know Jesus was a rabbi so the invitation this is important the invitation to follow Jesus wasn't hey let's just walk down the street together this was like somewhat of a formal invitation become part of my circle become part of my Posse become part of my group begin to identify yourself with me and I will begin to identify with you and here's what Jesus it and say because this is what people like me who grew up playing Jesus says would have expected him to say he didn't say now Matthew if you're willing to fill in the blank you can follow me or if you're willing to stop you can follow me if you're willing to start if you'll do this three times hey I tell you what Matthew I'm gonna give you a little assignment I'll check back three weeks and if you're you know if you put check in all those boxes you can follow me he just says Matthew follow me now here's what's significant about this is we're gonna talk about it for several weeks this is the same invitation Jesus extended throughout the Gospels to all kinds of people we're gonna see the invitation just follow me follow me in fact the question that I want you to begin to ask in the question that it would be so great if all of us regardless of maybe you're not a Christian maybe you don't ever become a Christian and we're gonna talk about that in a minute or maybe you grew up in church like me and I say John 11 you say Lazarus you know you know the Bible you didn't know that much but now you know okay John 11 Lazarus a so you may be on that end of the scale how fun and how wonderful it would be for just a few weeks for all of us just to begin to kind of tune out all the other imagery and all the other stuff and think in the most simplistic terms because it was the most simple invitation follow and to begin to ask the question not what do I know not even am i a Christian but am i following now did I go to church not that I read not that did I dude I didn't do what what if we could take what if we could take all the Jesus says approach away from religion even if you're not a Christian all the Jesus says you know I'm gonna obey God in the ten commandments or whatever it is or whatever it is you were brought up with in terms of the routine what if for just a few weeks we could just put all that to the side and begin to ask this simple question am i following now again this was this was if this seems too simple for you it seemed too simple for the religious people in Jesus day as well in fact the story continues in Matthew gives us a really interesting detail because in the very next scene here's what Matthew says happened while Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house like okay wait a minute what where the tax collectors booth next thing you know we're at his house now if you think Peter and the guys had a problem with Matthew walking around with them we're going to where well where are we going Jesus you said follow me we're gonna go to your house you're kidding and Peter's like I'm not going in this house okay hey they're like tax together or cooties okay I can't okay it's bad enough that he's with us we can't go to his house Jesus's yeah Matthew and tell you where we're gonna go this is gonna be simple for you let's just go Jesus did this all the time member Zacchaeus hey Zacchaeus where we go let's go to your house then there's this let's go somewhere familiar let's go somewhere that's even comfortable let's go somewhere that might ruin my reputation but might give us an opportunity to begin to relate let's look what happens while Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house then it gets worse many many tax gatherer collectors and sinners and this is so cool and so weird okay the tax Gathering collectors were so bad it was offensive to sinners even to be associated with them okay I may be a sinner but at least I'm not a tax collector they had their own realm it's like I'm bad but okay the bottom of the barrel is tax gathers so Matthews only friends were other tax collectors traitors to the you know to Judea into the nation tax gatherers and people who were just sinners people who were that means they were outcasts to the religious system they didn't even bother you know making sacrifices for their sin because you know it was eat drink and be merry because tomorrow we die and we're probably all going to hell so we will enjoy each other's company as long as we can so now Jesus goes to Matthew's house Matthew invites everybody he knows they're all tax gatherers and sinners and there sits you know his closest followers going on like this I don't like this now let me tell you why this is such a big big deal and if you're new to Christianity or you just explore in it or you know you were out of church for a while or you got you know kicked out of a church or your parents got divorced they don't know what to do with that and you haven't been back since or you know whatever your deal was this is this what I'm about to say this is for you this is so important Jesus was extraordinarily comfortable with people who were anything like him and apparently as you read Matthew Mark and Luke John apparently people who were nothing like Jesus were very after bowl with him now this is something I I've had to work on because I I would love you know Jesus was God in a body so imagine his self-esteem okay if it's not really good you know he was have you ever met someone they are so comfortable with themselves they make everybody else comfortable you ever met anybody like that and they they're not it's so extraordinarily good-looking that they're intimidating but they're you know there's just they are just they are so comfortable they're winsome and Jesus even though he's God in a bot okay even though he is God incarnate he is in the environment surrounded by people who would tell you if they asked him he wasn't being judgmental they were tax gatherers and sinners and people who were nothing like Jesus like Jesus and people like people who were nothing like him now we'll come back to that in a minute but that's a really big deal which means and then I'll just kind of veer off for just a second it means if you are not a religious person in fact me might be kind of anti-christian or you've got questions you're not so sure you know if you are with us and you feel anything but accepted and loved by us if you feel any sense of ant by us or I don't know about us I want you to know that is our fault that is not our savior's fault because our Savior was extraordinarily comfortable with people who were nothing like him they liked him in fact you read Matthew Mark and Luke and John I dare you they followed him every single place he went in that something Jesus would like you Jesus would not be put off by your sin Jesus would not be uncomfortable even though he knew your thoughts that's a pretty powerful thought isn't it and Jesus knowing the hearts of men and women knowing what he did last summer knowing what he did last spring nobody what he did last night knowing what he wish he could have done last night but you yeah he looks at Matthew and he says hey Matthew follow me now he's being shadowed when the Pharisees when Pharisees saw this I mean they're like what okay first of all he's invited attacks go write this down gonna make a report where are we going oh no we're going down to the the rich person district oh no now we're going to Matthew's house and Matthew's like Pharisees and you're not invited to my house okay so they're standing outside when the Pharisees saw this they asked his disciples because Jesus disciples had to you know come and go I guess he asked it asked the disciples why does your teacher eat with tax gatherers and tax collectors and sinners we were confused he's a rabbi he's the holy man we're holy people he's a law keeper we're law keepers you know he worships God we sit worship God why is it we have a lot in common with us but he didn't invite us why is it he would choose people he's nothing like instead of the people he's like and I don't even think he really likes us and we don't really like him why is that they were so confused and Jesus knows there's this disturbance now this is the really strange part of the story so Jesus I guess is sitting around a table with you know Matthew and all of his friends and they're all a little little awkward and they're trying to figure out you know what's what and who's who and Jesus knows there's because this commotion outside the Pharisees are like what's he doing in there with those people and Whitely with us and all that sort of stuff and on hearing this listen to this on hearing this jesus said I think he said it out loud I mean he's kind of sending a message hey you know James go out there and tell him check this out on hearing this Jesus it is not the healthy who need a doctor I'm a janu and you hear this but the sick it's not the hell they hate yeah she got hold on go out there and tell him it's not the healthy that need a doctor but the sick Matthews like wait wait wait wait okay you're like a guest in my house and you know I get it you're saying like they're healthy and I'm sick and you're not out there because they're healthy and they don't need you and all of me and my friends are you calling us sick I don't know how this one dad I just think Jesus smiled and said Matthew you're a tax collector of course you're sick and look at your friends and they're like oh we're all sick high five and they just go on with the dinner because now this is very important because come on let me tell let me just say something to you come on come on come on you know you're sick you know there's something wrong with you come on you don't even you're not even consistent with your own rules come on dad you've had that talk with your son you're not you don't even do what you ask your son to do you don't even keep the rules you want your daughter to keep you're not even careful with those things you want your kids to stay away from I mean you don't even do what you ask your employees to do consistently you break your own rules you know no come on you know if there's a god you've broken his rules you know there's a distance you know if there's a judgment you're in trouble you know if the standard is Jesus you fall short you know you don't need the preacher to tell you that and I think Jesus was so winsome and so comfortable in his own skin and so secure he could say out loud with the sinners and taxpayers he tell them I'm in here with the sick people because I've come for the sick high-five Matthew Matthew's like you know that's offensive but you're right I need a little help let me just tell you something only men and women only teenagers only college students only married people only single people who are willing to look in the mirror and say you know what I I need something I need help those are the prime candidates for followers of Jesus now Jesus is kind of offended the people he's with but he ain't been offended because these Jesus said listen to the rest of the message you know James is a person out there to tell the Pharisees he's like wait one more thing he shouts he says and also tell him this go and learn what this means now this is so offensive to the Pharisees because all they did was sit around and learn all that they were just good their full-time job was be good what do you do I'm just good good so what I do I say good and so they studied all the time now Jesus is about to say hey tell them to look this up in the Old Testament like they have something to learn from me but go and learn what this means and he quotes from the Prophet Hosea so that they should have known this already Quinny says I desire mercy not sacrifice and then Jesus says and if they don't understand what I'm talking about here's what I'm talking about I Jesus have not come to call come to call come to call come to call come to call this is important I have not come to call the righteous but sinners in other words I'm not content to simply be with people who believe all the right things and I'm not simply content to hang out with people who behave all the right ways I want to join with the people who believe the right things and behave the right things in order to call the people who don't believe the right things and behave the right ways who know there's something else to believe and I wish I had more control over how I behaved now let me tell you why this let me just talk to those of you who are Christians and Jesus follower for just a second if you're not you can just laugh at us and I know you think we're hypocrites we are a promise we are we're just not we're not as good as we appear to be on Sunday especially and if you see us at school or at work you you wonder why we're even here I know so let me just say something to those to the to those of is us would call ourselves Christians this is why this is so important we dare not become a church and we dare not become a group of churches that is content to gather together and believe the right things and behave the right ways and stop there because if we do we will find ourselves standing outside the very room that Jesus inhabits as he comes to call comes to call comes to call comes to call comes to call the sick and the sinners and those who need a Savior I don't want a pastor a church and I don't want to attend a church and I really don't want my family attending a church that's all about believe the right way and behave the right way and forget that we have been called we have been called to come and call come and call coming all we have been called to partner with our Savior for those who have a sneaking suspicion I need something I think I'm sick there's got to be more to this life than this life we have been called we have been privileged we've been given the opportunity to partner with our savior for those who would claim to be acknowledged I'm outside the faith but you know what as I lean in I'm hoping I'm hoping I'm hoping you have something to say and something to offer it is not enough to believe right it is not enough to behave right in fact the church the small group the group of Christians that is content to simply believe right and behave right they eventually become Pharisees they eventually become judgmental they become the ones that say as soon as you change you can be a part of us in fact that was the Pharisees message it was simply this it was change and then you can join us change and you can join us Jesus came along turned it upside down messed everybody up and if you tune out and don't hear anything else I say don't miss this Jesus showed up said no join us and you will change join us and you will change Matthew I'm not asking you to do anything except stand up and follow me and we're going to your house and the Pharisees are like but wait he's a tax gatherer is the tax collector and Jesus is like I don't run your game plan your game plan is look believe the right stuff behave the right way we'll give you a quiz and then we'll decide if you can join us Jesus says no I don't really care what you're doing and what you believe or what you don't believe even what you don't believe about me or believe about me I want to invite you to just take a little baby step and follow me but let me warn you if you follow me for very long one of these days you may look in the mirror and you may not recognize who you see not because you've been in an endless game of Jesus says Jesus says Jesus says Jesus says but because well I'm like a father I'm like a vine I'm like a Good Shepherd and I just want you to follow me so that's what this series is about it's about saying regardless of where you are on whatever end of the spectrum the invitation is for you four quick things to kind of wrap this up and the kind of movements moves in the right direction four things about follow real quick here we go number one being this is huge being a sinner does not good it's qualified supriya cuisine but this is important every single person that Jesus invited to follow him and every single person that said yes was a sinner every single and the only people that resisted following Jesus were the people who thought they were perfect the less perfect a person was the greater they were in terms their greater their candidacy was in terms of becoming a follower of Jesus so Jesus begins with Matthew I mean he's on the far end of the spectrum Jesus begins with Matthew before matthew has prayed anything before matthew has committed anything before matthew has repented of anything before matthew has promised anything he says matthew just as you are would you take a baby step and follow me and I'm gonna make it easy for you we're going to your house you don't have to hang out with all these people just invite your friends I know this is important I'm gonna move on there is no sin there is no sin there is no sin there is no habit there's no addiction there's no illness there is no problem that puts you outside the circle of those that have been invited who have been invited to follow Jesus say anyway you don't know me I don't have to know you Jesus knows you and is we're gonna see in the next few weeks he would look you right in the eye and say I want I want to extend an invitation for you to follow me what does that entail well we'll see I just want you to do it you can do follow second one and this is this is hard to even say being an unbeliever doesn't disqualify you you say any I can't follow Jesus I don't even believe any of that stuff about Jesus so listen none of Jesus early followers believe none in fact when you read Matthew Mark Luke and John it's so funny two years in Jesus does something and it says and they believed I'm like well what have they been doing for two years not believing in fact Jesus was constantly saying I mean these are the guys that are with him all the time your unbelief your unbelief he would chastise them for their lack of belief they're going we're trying to believe we're trying to believe in fact one of his closest followers was such an unbeliever he got a nickname for his lack of faith you know who I'm talking about who is it doubting who doubting Thomases some of you didn't know doubting Thomas was in the Bible you thought doubting Thomas is just an expression for maybe a fairy tale or something no he's in the Bible you know God helps us it helps themselves not their doubting Thomas he's there okay doubting Thomas he doubted so much okay and we gave him the nickname at the end check it out at the end Thomas is like I don't know I don't know might have been a trick I don't know and Jesus never said Thomas I've been with you a year you still don't believe you're out here's here's what I want you to hear me saying it doesn't matter how little faith you have even if you have no faith you are invited to become a follower of Jesus which means you don't have to believe he's divine you don't even have to believe he's historical I just dare you to pick up a Bible and read Matthew Mark Luke or John or any part to say you know what I'm just I don't even believe it's necessarily real I don't even know if he existed but I'm gonna find something to hear that that that this that this within the realm of possibility for me to do and I'm just I'm just gonna be a Jesus follower that follows maybe some of the easy teachings of Jesus I dare you to try jesus says I'll take that you don't have to believe all this stuff in fact it took the people who knew him three years in fact many of them never came to believe until Ashley rose from the dead but I mean what kind of faith does that take you see a man died buried and then he's back it's not like you have to kind of drum up faith okay I think I'm about to get there oh my gosh I mean who wouldn't believe that right but telling you it was to the very end it took some of them to the very end before they believe some tell you you can begin following you can find some little itty-bitty place like Matthew to say okay I can do that and Jesus says that's fine my invitation to follow is extend it to those who aren't even sure they believe number three the invitation to follow it's purely an invitation to relationship this is huge it's not a little it's not an invitation to the 10 commandments it's not it's not even an invitation to obedience and let me tell you why this is important if you were married to someone who obeyed all the marriage rules and you obeyed all the marriage rules you would not necessarily have a good relationship I think all of us would opt to be in a relationship with somebody who breaks the rules every once in a while but there's an actual relationship rules don't make a relationship in fact the reason I keep the marriage rules is because I am in love with Sandra I never once have gotten up and you know pulled out my list and said remember today remember today here's the five things you always do as a husband here's the five things you never do we don't even have a list like that why I'm in love and here's what Jesus knew and I got to warn you about this Vita full disclosure if you start loving Jesus you will start doing some different things but not because you got up in the morning said okay remember good Christians always bad Christians you know it's because you begin that's why that's why I'm sure jesus said to matthew and jesus said to a whole lot of people and jesus says to you come on come on because over time we're gonna have one of these and when you have one of these I mean you've been in laughs you you do different things you stop doing things you start thinking a different way that's why if you could erase all your memory banks about everything that has anything to do with religion Jesus the Bible or Christianity and you read Matthew Mark and Luke and John you would discover I am being invited into a relationship and a relationship that begins with me just as I am the Apostle Paul said it this way here's a verse that never gets any airplay he said this that is actually God's kind this that leads us to repentance I thought it was fear you know fears motivating Paul says it's not fear God's kind of do you know how you experience someone's kindness you have to be in their proximity you have to be in a relationship of some sort with them you have to be in the vicinity Paul says as you move as you begin to follow as you take baby steps don't ask me to do too much Paul says I'm just telling you the thing that leads to repentance which means change it's not the fear of hell you know that doesn't work it's God's kindness especially as demonstrated through Christ in the fourth one it's a big one following forces me to focus on where I am rather than where you are not this is why you have to follow if you do now if you're a Christian and you don't follow you're not actively following you become a Pharisee because when I wake up every day say God Michael is it to keep ten things and four things and never and always my goal today is to the best of my ability just to simply follow you then I become so aware of my responsibility I don't have time to judge you and if you felt judged by a church and kicked out by churches probably because you got surrounded by a bunch of Christians who believed everything right behaved everything right but somewhere along the way they quit following and so they just started evaluating judging the other way I say it is this the more conscious I am of the work God has yet to do in me the less critical I am of what God has yet to do in you this is what makes the body of Christ extraordinary this is what makes the church when the church is hitting on all cylinders absolutely fantastic because men and women come together and they did some know a little bit some know a lot some have been walking with Jesus a long time some walking with Jesus just a little bit of time some people have great faith some have little faith but every body to the best of their ability is moving in the same direction learning to become more and better followers G and you find yourself in a group of people like that whether it's a community group whether it's a church whether it's a Bible study on your campus and a dorm at work I'm telling you there's something so extraordinarily powerful about that so as we launch this series as we launch what I hope becomes a conversation around the dinner table in a home the question is am i following not what do I know not how well do I pray not how consistently do I attend church not how much scripture do I know not even how obedient am i but am i participle active follow and not have I prayed a prayer not even am i a Christian not have I decided not have I committed but am I actively intentionally engaged in the process of following Jesus and his invitation is extended to every single person on the planet sin does not disqualify you a lack of belief does not disqualify you because it is an invitation to relationship and for some of you that relationship actually begins with us this is why one of the best things you could do is go to a starting-point orientation and get in a starting-point group because your relationship with Jesus may actually begin with a relationship with some of his followers it's why being involved in a great church is important because being involved in a relationship with his followers is the first step for many people to being in an active relationship with him because when the Christians come together under the banner of what Christ has called us to do and who Christ has called us to be we are in essence the body of Christ the presence of Christ on this planet it's why some of you who have been so resistant to church in the past want your kids in our environments and it's why there's something about maybe parts of this place that are attractive to you and you still don't believe and you still misbehave but hopefully by God's grace his presence as he inhabits his body is compelling and maybe for you that's the beginning of the relationship that results in a relationship where every single day of your life you could get up and ask the question today am i following am i following am i following so I want you to be here every week and when you're not here I want you to watch online and I want you to listen because we are as a group of churches and as a group of Christians going to move together into this fascinating compelling amazing relationship characterized not by a thousand words but by a simple word the word follow let me pray for you father thank you so much for making it so easy for making it so simple for making it so clear please give each of us the wisdom to know what to do with what we just heard and we pray all of that in the matchless name of Jesus who has invited all of us to follow amen

Channel: Christian Preaching

Views: 4,231

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: andy stanley, pastor stanley sermon, andy stanley follow, christian preaching, the bible

Id: wXFaytXcOiI

Length: 39min 3sec (2343 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 02 2018