Going After Christ

Thank you, Mr. Adams. Happy Sabbath! It's always a joy, and I always say this, but it's so true. It's always a joy to come down to Kentucky and visit with you guys. We are commenting on the way how beautiful your state is. We are just right across the river, and so it's not like we're coming from my Canada or something. I recognize that, but it's always a joy, and we thought before if we moved to Northern Kentucky, it would be a nice place with the hills and everything. So, it's always a joy to come down, especially in the spring and on a beautiful day.

A couple weeks back, Laura shared with me a first-person account. This person's a shepherd, and she shares a lot of her personal one-on-one experience in a write-up here. I'd like to read a few of the excerpts. It's titled, The Shepherd and the Sheep, and it's by Margaret Dady. It's D-A-D-Y. She starts off by saying, I love my little flock. I know them all by name. We have eight ewes, lambs that come and go, and then, of course, there's him. I assume this is her ram. It's spelled H-Y-M-N. She calls him him. Almost all the sheeps are pure Jacobs, having beautiful, thick, off-white coats with deep brown spots. The lambs are little pandas because they have black patches around their eyes. They grow either two or four horns, and the ram has spiral horns that become magnificent over the years. Through my sheep, I have learned many spiritual lessons. She goes on to say, The shepherd is known initially by giving or providing food. I can walk among them with a bucket and put food in several troughs to give them all fair chance of feeding. They will ignore it and keep following me. Only when they see I have no food left will they return to the bucket where they know the food I gave earlier is still waiting. And then she talks about further and hear the sheep know the shepherd. They will not listen to, answer to, or be led by a stranger. If a stranger goes amongst them, they will scatter and chaos ensues. If I go out and call them, however, they know my voice and will answer me and come. If a stranger is with me, they prefer not to come unless I really persist. When the shepherd has to go away and a temporary shepherd is brought in, the flock will not trust him or her. Even if the temporary shepherd leaves food in the usual places, they will not follow him nor show interest in the food. So this is just part of some of the excerpts from her. She goes on with a lot more information. It was insightful to just read through and understand better because I'm not a shepherd. I'm the gardener type. I always joke with my family. They like to go hunting and stuff, and I'm the one that grows vegetables because you can't just have all meat, right? And so it's interesting when you read through another person's account and to understand a little bit better about what they go through in life and the lessons they've learned from something they go through. Just a week ago, just a little over a week ago, we came out of the days of Unleavened Bread, and prior to that we had Passover. And we spent a lot of time focusing on the words of the true shepherd, Jesus Christ. And our great shepherd not only provides and he cares for us, but he left us great instructions on how we are to live our lives and how we are to follow him. So today, I'd like to share with you just one scripture. We will jump around some others, but one primary scripture that we'll look at and we'll take some time examining ourselves as followers of the great shepherd. Followers of the great shepherd.

Some like titles. Sometimes I give titles because they help kind of get the point across. Sometimes I leave them out because they're just something some people like to ask for. In Cincinnati, they always make us give one each week. But for the title for today's message, it's titled, Going After Christ, Desire, Deny, Take Up, Follow. Going after Christ, Desire, Deny, Take Up, Follow. Some may already be picking up on the scripture. There's a scripture that mentions all these things. And if we turn to Luke 9, verse 23, we'll go ahead and read that scripture.

Luke 9 and verse 23.

It's a short one verse, but as we've seen so many times in our own personal Bible studies, one verse can have a ton of death of me and stuff that we could study for all day. And so we're going to focus on this one scripture. We'll look at others as we go through today, but this is the primary scripture we're going to look at. Luke 9 and verse 23. Then he said to them all, If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.

Pretty simple, right? Don't me it was that simple sometimes. But it's pretty simple, the words in the verse here for us to review. In this passage, we can see it's actually broken up into four points already, so it makes for an easy four-point sermon for me. And so what we'll do is we'll take time looking through each one of these little sections and seeing what we can extract out and how we can apply this verse to our lives to follow Christ more thoroughly. So the first part of this verse after it says, and he said to them all, If anyone desires to come after me, desires to come after me, immediately from the get-go we see that Christ offers a choice. He doesn't say everyone has to come after me. He actually gives a choice. Do you desire to come after me? And this was given to the disciples, but in turn it was given to all Christians. If anyone desires, other Greek uses of the word desire can mean to choose or to be inclined. So that's where we understand that to be a choice. It's not just a feeling of wanting something, but it's choosing. We actually get to choose. Being a disciple, a follower or learner of Christ, is a personal decision. We were never forced to follow Christ, and He will never force anyone to follow Him. It is a choice. While God does call and He draws people to Him, which in and of itself is a miracle. It's truly a miracle of God that we and others can be drawn to Him and to be given this choice where we get to make it. But mankind and us in turn, we were all given a choice, and we are given choices daily of how we're going to follow Christ and follow God. In that baptism, we agreed to come after Christ in good times and in difficult times, similar to marriage for those who are married. We agreed in those for more money or for less money, good times, and I like the difficult times. I like the word difficult, not bad, because it's a struggle at times. But it's the same way with our Christian walk. At times, it goes kind of on an easier path, it seems. But then, sometimes, because of our own choices, sometimes not, we hit that difficult path. And we agree to follow Christ. We agree to maintain close to God through the good times and the difficult times, because we did have a choice, one where we counted the cost, and we chose to accept Christ as our sacrifice to follow God.

So, after counting the cost, why did we choose to come after Christ?

Kind of a question I had asked myself. Why did I choose to follow Christ?

I know, personally, I knew the outcomes that I was on in my life. I knew the choices I had made at times. I made the choices I didn't want. I saw outcomes that hurt, outcomes that disappointed me, and I just realized, I can't go down this path anymore. I can't keep doing the same thing. I can't keep beating my hand and my thumb with that hammer. Eventually, you just realized, I don't have the answers. That's what I came to, and I needed help. Let's turn to John 14, verse 6. Because we all had a choice, and we're all choosing to follow God.

John 14, and we'll look at verse 6. We were all called, and we chose a better way, a happier way, a more satisfying way. And, in fact, we chose the way, and we'll read that here in John 14, in verse 6.

So, not only did we choose the way, but we also chose to bury the old man at baptism. I'll reference Romans 6, verse 6. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. We chose to walk away from our old ways. We chose to walk away from our old stuff. Does that mean that the path is easy and the old man never shows back up? No. At times, the old man does come back. But we have, we were given a choice, and we chose to follow this path that we are all on, and it's a great path.

There's a quote that I found interesting in my study. It's attributed to Christine Mason Miller, and the quote reads, At any given moment you have the power to say, this is not how my story is going to end.

I think we all kind of hit that point where, when one way or another, we felt this way, that we decided, you know, if I keep going down the path, I'm going, I know where that leads. I've done that enough times. I've banged my thumb with the hammer enough times to know where that's going to go. And we all eventually came to the point, through the calling, through God's calling, that we didn't want our story to end the way that our human nature wants it to go. We want to submit and to follow God and to give to Him. We chose that this is not how my story is going to end.

This decision to bury the old man naturally leads us to the next part of Luke 9, verse 23. But first, let's consider a question. At the end of each one of these four sections, I'd like to leave you with a question. These questions, actually, I printed out and I had in my car over the last couple weeks because they were good questions for me to continually keep in my mind.

So I'll just share these questions with you. So the question for the first section is, how much do I desire to come after Christ? How much do I desire to come after Christ? So the second section, let's look at the second part of the passage now in Luke 9, verse 23.

If you're still there, if not, I'll go ahead and read it here. First, we read, if anyone desires to come after me, the second part is, let him deny himself. Let him deny himself. At first glance, you could think maybe or think as I do that I only had one donut at work yesterday as the day got started. I denied myself that second donut. So I'm doing pretty good now.

I only had the one. But that's actually not the type of deny that Christ was talking about here. The Greek use of this word can also mean to disown, to reject, to deny utterly. It's interesting, if we were to turn to Luke 22, verse 34, this use of the word deny is the saying that Christ said to Peter when he would say that Peter would deny him three times.

Same use. And we know, well, I'll just reference Luke 22, verse 34. He said, then he said, I tell you Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know me. And we all know from that account that Peter didn't just say, I'm not really sure who that guy is. He said, I do not know that man. He separated himself completely from Jesus. And we all know that story. And that's the type of the use of that Greek word, word crisis, you must deny yourself.

He says to disown, to reject. And that's what we're asked to do, to separate ourselves, our human nature from who we are now, and to utterly deny ourselves. Because we chose to follow our Christian calling, we must develop within us the spirit of self-denial. We must strive to rid ourselves of self, to separate ourselves from ourself, to reject completely, but to live with Christ in us always.

You can put in your notes Luke 14, verse 33. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple. Another one talking about forsaking ourselves, denying ourselves. We must strike hard against our own nature and not to indulge our desires for sinful things of the world, because if we are taken in self, how does Christ live in us if we are always taking in of ourself? Is there room for self and for Christ in us both at the same time?

It's a question I've had asked myself before, because at times I've tried to squeeze both into my life. My way and God's way. But is there truly room for both ways in our life? It's a tough question that we each had to ask ourselves. And this aspect of totally surrendering ourselves to God is one that we've heard many times before, and we may have even heard it in the Passover in the Days of Unleavened Bread. You may have heard some of the messages talking about totally surrendering ourselves.

And this is so easy, right? Like, we all do this, we don't even think about it, right? Is it really that easy? Totally surrendering ourselves to God into His way? It's a constant struggle for me. It is a constant struggle for everyone, because human nature is part of who we are. It's ingrained to us, and we are to separate ourselves.

But so many times that old man wants to come back and wants to grab hold of it, apparently. He wants to get back in charge. He wants to start saying, I want to start making these decisions. It's a constant struggle. It's a constant struggle. Another aspect of that struggle is that that denying self hurts.

All right? Does it feel good to deny ourselves when we want that second scoop of ice cream? Is that enjoyable? It's not for me. When I have to say, now I'm just going to have the yogurt, the frozen yogurt, because it's better than the ice cream. That actually hurts. I'm like, come on, it's just ice cream. I can have the ice cream, right? But it is true. It's a saying that we sometimes have to think through, and we justify just a little self won't hurt, just a little bit, just so a little taste of it come back. But the truth is, and if you're like me, you've been hurt by your own self more times than you can count. And we allow ourselves to come back in, and then more times than not ends up hurting ourselves. This aspect of denying self and the discomfort associated, it is similar to many things that we take on in our life, difficult things that we try. Maybe it's working towards a race, some kind of thing, some kind of accomplishment that you have to work towards that's tough. Or maybe it's saving up money for something that you want to buy, this big purchase, and you're cutting corners. And instead of getting that double scoop of ice cream, you just pass the ice cream store because you're saving your money. Or maybe it's like finishing school, or something big that you want to accomplish, this struggle that you're trying to work with. And then it takes work, takes effort, takes sacrifice and focus and determination. And many times our bodies tell us that I'm not having a good time making these sacrifices. I'm not really enjoying myself right now. Many times the character traits it takes in order to follow through on these things, they're just not fun denying ourselves. It's not really satisfying at that exact moment. I mean, like, how many people enjoy waking up and going for a 15-mile run?

No. Or saving up money to buy something that's important for your family. And maybe other people already have, and you just think, I'm tired of saving. I'm just going to go out and buy it, put it on credit because it's important to me or I need it. And we can give in to those internal feelings of just saying, I'm just going to go do it now. But when we deny ourselves to do the things we need to and we should do, it's normally not fun. Let's go ahead and look at Galatians 2 in verse 20 or start to turn there. A lot of times it's no different when we deny ourselves for righteousness sake. When we choose to follow God, sometimes on our human nature side, it says, I'm not having a good time. But our calling demands that we do it because we are all in a spiritual training mentality right now. And as always, we're doing this always in our lives.

We've made it to Galatians 2, verse 20. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who lived but Christ who lives in me in the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Our Savior lived and died a life of complete sacrifice for God's will, but also for us. Everything he did was for the will of the Father. And all of this was, like I said, for you and me, each one of us. Let's not forget what Christ denied so that you and I can have the wonderful hope that we do, the hope of our lives today and the hope of the future with God. Another aspect of denying self is with choices. We kind of talked about that in the first section. We get to choose if we're going to follow Christ. But here in denying self daily, our life presents before us choices. Am I going to have super salad today for lunch? Am I going to buy? What color car am I going to buy? Or what color tie do I feel like I'm going to wear to work this week? We are given choices, but we're also given the choice, choose life or choose death. And it really is that blunt of a choice, isn't it? Because you can't choose the other because if you choose one, you're automatically not choosing the other.

You can put in your notes Romans 13 verse 14 where the scripture reads, but put on, notice, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. It's a decision that we get to make. Romans 13 verse 14, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. And a similar type of use of put on is also in Galatians 3 verse 27 that you can put in your notes. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Put on Christ. It's a choice. It's a decision that we get to make, to put on Christ. Choose to put on Christ or choose to put on self. It really is one or the other.

Let's look at Luke 9 verse 24 and I'll turn there with you.

Luke 9 verse 24 because we were just focusing, we're focusing today on Luke 9.23. And so these are the verses that immediately follow. And there's some wisdom and some knowledge here that we'll also gain from Christ on this decision of denying self, of making the choice.

This is in Luke 9 verse 24 and we'll read 24 and 25. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and is himself destroyed or is lost?

Once again, it's the same two choices. It's very clear that we get to choose one or choose the other. Deny ourself or don't deny ourself. We can indulge in the things of this world and it would be easy for us to do because they're all around us. It would be easy, but if we in the process we lose our life, then what does it really matter? I mean, we could choose to be at Churchill Downs today.

Maybe some, it may be it would even be enjoyable to be at the horse race today, but we didn't choose that. We chose to be here and that's an important choice that we made and one that we should realize that we are making these types of good choices to be here to be with, to learn from God's words, fellowship, to worship Him.

Let's think back on that quote again one more time from Christine Mason Miller. At any given moment, you have the power to say, this is not how my story is going to end.

We are presented, as I've said several times, a choice to either deny ourselves or to not.

The takeaway question for this section is, how much do I desire to utterly deny myself?

How much do I desire to utterly deny myself?

And like I said, at least I've been asking and looking over these questions myself over the past few weeks because these are important questions for me to consider, too.

Looking at the next part of Luke 9 verse 23, if you're still there, we'll consider, and I'll read through 9.23 and get to the third section. This section of the verse probably spoke very deeply to the disciples' hearts because, being in Rome, they were all very familiar with what Christ was talking about here in bearing your cross and what it meant to lead to crucifixion. Being under Roman rule, they had each seen their own eyes, the personal event of crucifixion, the spectacle that was made of a criminal bearing their own cross, which in turn would be the instrument that would actually end their lives. The disciples saw this firsthand, and this was done to deter any type of insubordination against Rome and to signify everyone's complete submission to Rome's power. This asked the horrible torture of crucifixion. That's why the Romans instituted it, so that very few people would want to cross Rome. And if you did, you're going to be made a spectacle. Everybody's going to see it. You're going to have to carry or bear your own cross, and it's going to take your life. And so the disciples, as Christ is reading this and sharing this, not reading it, but sharing it with them, understood what this meant. So why would Christ use this as an example? Is there a parallel He wanted them and us to understand? There is. It's a big parallel. When we accepted Christ as our personal Savior, we're baptized. We handed our life over to God. In this, we agreed to submit to the authority of God the Father and Jesus Christ over our lives and to forever seek righteousness and righteous behaviors. Let's look at Matthew 10, verse 38.

Matthew 10 and verse 38. Some background, because we're going to talk about... it's going to reference taking up His cross again, but this is not the parallel account to what we're reading in Luke. The actual parallel account here is in Matthew 16. So we can see, this is prior to the parallel account of taking up your cross, but Christ references it because a second time, this is being the first in the Matthew account, because it's so important. Matthew 10 and verse 38. And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He who finds his wife will lose it, and he who loses his wife for my sake will find it. It's a repeat. He didn't just talk about this one time in his ministry with the disciples. He mentioned it, as I've seen, twice, two times, two separate times. Right now, in our nation, it's rare for someone to have to give their life for being a Christian. But our submission to God needs to grow to the point that if we're ever asked to give our life, we would. But for today, we are called to give our life spiritually for the great calling before us. The sacrifices we make daily is what we're being asked to do.

This is an aspect that applies to each and every one of us here, baptized or non-baptized, because we all make sacrifices. We all make choices.

We take up our cross when we sacrifice ourselves. When we choose righteousness instead of sin, we're taking up our cross. In time or resources that we devote to others, like in service acts, or to pick up a phone call, or to fill out the cards like we're doing, we're bearing and we're taking up our cross. In showing fruits of the Spirit, when others are pushing on us to do things that we shouldn't be doing, and we say, nope, I'm going to follow God, we're taking up our cross.

Maybe it's a Sabbath conflict or a job conflict, or maybe an interpersonal relationship with someone at home or somebody you work with or someone you know. When we strive and we strive for righteousness and we choose to follow God, we are bearing our cross.

Each one of us gives, and each of our walks are different from each other. They're also very similar in the ways that we are tested in this world. And taking up our cross is unique to each one of us, but in many ways it's similar. Our common calling requires that we each bear through our difficulties that come from a different walk than many around us. And we're not called out from this world to be separate from the world, but to exist in it. And we're required to function as part of society. You can put John 17 verse 15 in your notes for this one little point. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. That's Christ praying over disciples, but in turn praying for us that we are not taken out of this world. We are, but we are to function as part of it. But God is with us. He's guiding us, and He is leading us. God knows what we can give. He knows how far we can go and what we can give. He also knows what we do give. They don't fall short on God. He doesn't forget that yesterday we made a self-sacrifice that we bear at our cross, and He just goes on with life. He remembers those things when we do give. Sure, we may get pushed to give more than we think we're able to, but God knows what we can give, and He knows what we do give. So each one of us, everyone here, we all take up our cross when we go against the flow and we stand for God in our lives. And some here today may be bearing a weighty cross today. We could be going through difficult lives with specific trials or things going on. The prayer lists that we see and handed and pass through, they just don't seem to get shorter, do they? People who are going through some weighty trials, and even if they do go shorter, there's always new people that are being added to them. Others are going through work difficulties. Others are going through personal relationship issues. Some may be waging that battle with the old man today, trying to grab hold of the pant leg and pull us back. Some of us are like that. And I know I don't take, I don't say this part lightly, but I'd like to give some encouragement, because we all need that encouragement when life gets heavy on us, and when we are bearing our cross. Life is hard at times. I'm not, I'm not going to joke around and act like that. Those are just words I'm sharing. We've all gone through trials. Life is hard at times, but you're not the first, I'm not the first, to ask to bear my cross, and nor will I be the last. You can put in your notes 1 Timothy 3, 12. These are the ones I asked you to put in your notes. These are shorter scriptures. 1 Timothy 3, 12. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. It's not really my most favorite scripture in the Bible. Those who desire to live godly in Christ will suffer persecution. It sounds like we're getting the short end of the stick, but this, oh, 2 Timothy, I'm sorry, 2 Timothy 3, 12. But we're not getting the short end of the stick. This is here to be an encouragement to us, because when we sometimes make choices in our lives and we reap our consequences, well, we can see that that was because of our own hand. But sometimes we make, we choose right, and yet we still suffer persecution. And the scripture is here to say, you know what? It's going to happen, but that not to give into it, not to quit.

And we're not alone when we share in our trials and our difficulties with others here, others in other congregations, because people go through all kinds of difficulties in life. And God gives us a family here that can relate, that can pull together and encourage each other because we all have the Holy Spirit working in us mightily. And that Holy Spirit can prompt us to interact and to say things, to be compassionate, to be empathetic, if we allow it to, because some of us have walked your walk, but some of us have not walked your unique walk. But the Holy Spirit has that prompting, that power that could help us to relate, that encouragement that we need, that we can sit down and bear through some of the trial with you. We can't take it on ourselves completely, but in sharing in our trials, we share in the Holy Spirit allowing, allowing, we share in allowing the Holy Spirit to work with us, both of us.

And we are to maintain that sense of joy while we're going through these trials, while we're bearing across, both in good and bad. And this joy cannot be extinguished because our hope in God is never extinguished. Our hope is always out there. Our joy is because we know there's something better in this life, something better than the trials we go through, something better even than the good times we experience. This hope into the future, this hope of being with God. Let's look at 1 Peter 4 verse 12. 1 Peter 4 verse 12. 1 Peter 4 verse 12. Beloved, do not think it's strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you, but rejoice to the extent that you partake in Christ's suffering, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.

As I mentioned before, what we go through in this life is not lost on God. He knows the trials, the fiery trials that we go through. He knows the things that's happened to us. And when we strive and we bear our cross, and we overcome, that's not lost on Him either. It's not in vain that we struggle through our difficulties. Like I said, I don't say these things lightly because we have had our trials. We've had our health difficulties. We've seen family members. We've seen people in our congregation go through these things. You all have seen these same exact things. And we must be here and encourage each other. We must find encouragement from others, whether you're a large group or whether you're a small group, whether you know people intimately or whether you don't know them that well. But this is an opportunity to come to their need and to help them.

A similar scripture is in Psalm 34, verse 19, which reads, Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. That's a super encouraging scripture when we think that there are trials that come on us. It comes on the righteous. It doesn't say that many afflictions are on the unrighteous.

That would make this scripture a little easier to read, wouldn't it? Because it makes a little more sense in our human minds. But that's not what Psalm says. It says, Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. So this section's question is this.

In my current life circumstances, how am I taking up my cross daily? In my current life circumstances, how am I taking up my cross daily? And as we begin to wrap up today's message, let's consider the last part of Luke 9, verse 23, where Christ says, And follow me. And follow me.

We have in Mark 1, verse 16, what appears to be, and we can go ahead and start turning there, Mark 1, verse 16. We have what appears to be Christ's first interaction with some of his disciples.

Mark 1, verse 16. And as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon, this is Simon Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting the net into the sea, for they were fishermen. Then Jesus said to them, Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men. They immediately left their nets and followed him. And when he had gone a little further from there, he said he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who also were in the boat mending their nets. And immediately he called to them, and they left their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the higher servants and went after him. These were the first words to Peter, Follow me. And if we were to flip to John 21, verse 22, we don't need to turn there, but we would see that these were also his last words to Peter, Follow me. I found it interesting that his first words to Peter were Follow me. His last words to Peter were Follow me. This is an important part of the Gospel message that we must put into our own lives. Peter never stopped following Christ. And while he never grew to complete perfection, just like we will never grow to complete perfection, he never stopped following Christ. But if we turn to Mark 10, Mark 10, verse 17, we will review a counter example where someone was asked to follow Christ, but the person couldn't make the commitment. This is in Mark 10, verse 17.

Going back to that whole decision of making choices that we get to choose, were called, but we ultimately get to choose. Mark 10, verse 17. Now, as he was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before him, and asked him, Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit in eternal life? So Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good? No one is good, but one that is God. You know the commandments, Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and your mother. And he answered, and he said to him, Good Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth. Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, One thing you lack, go your way, sell whatever you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, take up the cross, and follow me. But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. This rich young ruler couldn't make that choice to follow Christ, to take up his cross, and to follow him.

This is that choice that we reviewed again. And this is important for us as well, because as Christ extended to the disciples, and to all of us, an invitation to follow him, God has called and is working with every one of us here. He's working in my life, and he's working in your life as well.

And when he started working with us, he said in a similar manner, Follow me. And we have been asked to follow him to the end of our life.

Once again, two simple words, right? We keep talking about how simple this verse is. Two simple words, follow me. But it's not always that simple. It takes choice. It takes sacrifice.

If only our human nature would just stay out of the way. It could be that simple. It really could.

But that human nature of ours sometimes works its way back in. And what are some of the things that do get in the way? Do we ever want to follow our own desires?

Do we ever want to follow what others think is best?

Do we ever want to follow people we know, or people we look up to?

What are some of the things we choose to follow? Our thoughts? Do we choose to follow our securities or our comforts? Do we choose to follow our money? But all these things lead continually, continually lead us away from God. They continually lead us further away from the path that we should be on. And this is why we must remain steady to always follow God, because at any moment we could choose to stop following, couldn't we? We know others, others, we know that did choose to stop following Christ. We all know that. Let's go ahead and turn to John 6, verse 60, because there's an account of others who were following after Christ, but then they stopped. For reasons only they know.

Others who were in Christ's presence, and they stopped following. There's this an account in John 6. We'll also look at John 6, verse 60.

John 6, verse 60. Therefore, many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, this is a hard saying. Who can understand it? This hard saying is a sermon in itself for another day. But Christ had just expounded that he is the bread of life, and those who by faith feed upon him shall live by him. That is that hard saying that they were struggling with. And but if we skip ahead to verse 66, we see, from that time any of his disciples went back and walked with him no more.

These are people who were in the presence of Christ, who were learning firsthand from his teachings. They're referenced as his disciples, yet they went back and walked with him no more. They went back. They went back to their homes. They went back to their old jobs. They went back to their old vites. They went back to their stores. They went back to their old religion. They went back.

But not all did. Let's keep reading in verse 67. Then Jesus said to the 12th, Do you also want to go away? But Simon Peter answered him, saying, Simon Peter said, Christ said, follow me. But Simon Peter answered him and said, Lord, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life. Also, we have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

They had a choice, too. These 12 had a choice. And they chose to continue to stay with Christ and to follow. And like we said at the beginning of this message, following after Christ is ultimately a decision that is left to us to make. The 12 did not go back to their old ways of life, but they maintained, committed, and steadfast to continue in their discipleship with Christ.

We have each maintained, committed to Christ and His words of eternal lives in our lives today.

I'd like to leave you with one last aspect of follow me. As Christ says, follow me, there are times in our life where we are right and step behind Christ. I kind of am visualized, like we're walking through the woods with Christ. And Christ is blazing the trail. It's a heavy woods. And He's blazing that trail. And we're following in right on His heels, following right behind Him. We're following Him in our actions and in our deeds. We're following Him in our service, in our obedience, and in our love. But there are those times that we get distracted and we get off that trail. We're not following right behind Him. When we end up in the thorns, we end up in the briars. But we're not alone, because He calls out to us His sheep. And He says, I'm over here, and we turn and we come back to Him. And He calls out. We can, if you're still in John, you can flip ahead to John 10 verse 27. John 10, a few pages in my Bible, John 10 verse 27. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. Those moments when we're in lockstep right behind Him, we're following Christ. When we get off into the briars and get caught up in the thorns of life, and He calls out to us and says, come back over here. I'm over here. And we turn and we come back to Christ. We're following Him again. That's how He loves us, and we're not left alone.

He is our shepherd, as we reviewed at the very beginning. The way that that shepherd loves and cares for her sheep, the way she knows Him intimately, the way that she takes care of Him, this is the great shepherd that looks after us, even when we get ourselves into those thorns. When we get ourselves into the briars, because we weren't following right after Him, He still calls out, and He draws us back to Him. And this is so encouraging, because I find it really also encouraging, because as we... I'm going back... I'm a visual person. I like to paint pictures in my mind. And so, as we're following through Christ in the woods, we eventually come to a clearing, because you're not always in the woods. And it's a pleasant opening. There's grass and flowers in the field. There might be even a lake to one side. And it's a beautiful place, and it's peaceful, and it's calm. And I sometimes think it's like a father who's blazing a trail. Like if I was blazing a trail, and I asked my family to follow behind me, and they were following, and steps right behind me as I whacked through the woods and everything else, and they followed. And then you get to that opening. Would I just continue just marching on ahead, or would I slow down and maybe take them each by the hand, and start walking? Because it's a pleasant... it's a calming aspect. And while Christ says, follow me, I think there's times where, as He did with the disciples, He wants us to accompany Him now. Not just right behind. He always wants us in the lockstep behind Him as far as our hearts, but He wants to also teach us. He wants to share first person, because you've all been on trails, and you're trying to have a conversation with the person in front or behind you, and it's difficult at times, because you're right behind Him. I think there's times in life where, as Christ did with the disciples, where they walked along the road, and He taught, and He shared them, that they were accompanying Him. They were following, I'm sure. And we never lose sight that Christ is our Lord and our Master. We are never on the same level as Christ. Never. But I believe there's times where He wants to have that intimate relationship with us. He wants to draw us close to Him. And in those moments, when you're in that clearing, and it's pretty, and it's calm, and we can accompany Him, He wants to have that relationship with us. He wants to share stories, and for us to understand His Word more deeply, and to interact in our lives. And that's a wonderful place to be. We're always following Him. We never lose sight of that. But we get an awesome opportunity. And that's what I think is so encouraging at the end of this verse, that we actually get to also accompany Him at times as a Father, as a who would lead His family.

It's just really neat.

Kind of wrapped all that up in my notes. I can skip ahead a little bit. Let's turn to John 15, verse 13.

John 15, verse 13.

And sure, following Christ involves all the things that we've already discussed. Denying self, taking up the cross. But then we get to the part where we are invited to follow Him.

We're invited to accompany Him. He wants to know our feelings. He wants to know our thoughts.

He wants to know our concerns about things that are going on in our lives. He wants us to share our heart with Him. And as we follow Him, this leads to that lifelong relationship with our Lord and Savior. And that is what He wants with us. And that's what we ultimately desire with Him.

So the concluding question today is actually two questions.

Do I hear the voice of my Shepherd? And how well do I follow Him? Do I hear the voice of my Shepherd? And how well do I follow Him?

So with the Days of Unleavened Bread ending just a week ago, let us think about Luke 9 as we continue putting more of Christ into our lives. Let us consider our desire to go after Christ, to deny ourself, take up our cross, to follow Him. In the closing scripture, I'd like to read Romans 8, verse 16.

Romans 8, Romans 8, verse 16. The Spirit self bears witness with a...