Follow me…no, not Jesus, follow me…


I hope the title caught your attention and caused you to read, please keep reading.

In the sermon series that I am currently preaching “World Changers” I am talking about people God has used through the years to make a great impact on the world. We are spending four weeks looking at the lives of John Wesley, Charles Finney, Charles Spurgeon, and D.L. Moody.

The thought came to me that people would wonder why we are taking so much time to talk about people and not about Jesus, so let me explain.

The Bible teaches us as Christians we are to follow Christ. Matter of fact we are to follow Christ to such an extent that others can follow us. Look at Philippians chapter with me for just a moment.

Philippians 3: 7-21 NLT

7 I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. 8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. 10 I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, 11 so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!

12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

15 Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. 16 But we must hold on to the progress we have already made.

17 Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example. 18 For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 They are headed for destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth. 20 But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. 21 He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control.

Paul said his greatest desire was to know Jesus Christ and the power of His resurrection. His focus was on Christ, his conduct was to follow Jesus Christ. He had decided there was no value in anything earthly, only value in Christ. Based on this Paul said, “Follow Me”. Or follow my example. Paul stated he was not perfect but he was striving to be like Christ and so should we.

We as Christians should be able to look at others and say follow me because I am following Christ. This is not being prideful in any way. We are not to hide our good works, Jesus said not to brag about them. We are not to hide that we give, we are not to do it for the praise of people. We are to let our light shine for the world to see and then invite others to follow us. Remembering all the time that we will make mistakes, we are not perfect, but we are forgiven, followers of Christ.

By the way, when you follow me, you should be following the one I am to model.

Follow!

Ronnie

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