FOLLOW ME

“FOLLOW ME…”

This seems like a statement that means what it says… However, one can follow and yet be following at the desired distance they determine… Their definition of following, is determined by the follower not the one doing the leading… Surely the speed of the leader can determine the rapid or slow rate of the follower… However, the follower to follow and not be lost in the way has to agree to follow the leader at the speed with which the leader leads…

The proximity of the follower is determined by the ability and commitment to follow the one who leads…

To those who play the game of follow me, are made up of 2 types of people… The one who volunteers and says, “I will follow you…” The second one says, “I will not be shaken, I will not be denied, I will follow…”

·        If you walk through the fire, so can I…

·        If you walk through the water so will I…

·        If you go through the bramble bush, count on me… I’m right behind you…

Reminds me of the story of the chicken and the pig… The chicken she’s a volunteer… She will follow for the breakfast… She will give you her eggs… In contrast to the pig he’s in it… He’s committed because no matter what you have whether it’s his bacon, his chops, his sausage, or his ham… He’s committed for life… He’s not volunteered to follow, the pig is committed…

FOLLOW ME, JESUS SAID… THE UNFORTUNATE THING IS THE CHURCH IS FULL OF VOLUNTEERS… BUT GOD WANTS TO KNOW WILL YOU FOLLOW HIM WITH YOUR LIFE??? HOW MUCH ARE WE IN???

Matt 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.      KJV

The ability to enter at the strait gate is determined on but one thing… (HOW YOU FOLLOW…)

I ask this question…

·        Isn’t it amazing that immediately after Jesus gives us his strait talk of a strait and narrow to gain entrance; HE gives us an immediate warning of (BEWARE OF FALSE PROPHETS???)

Now us following Christ and our proximity of following Christ can be effected by many things but Jesus seems to focus on false prophets…

I don’t have to say the number of places in scripture that we see the warnings of not just Jesus but the apostles… The warning is everywhere from the pen and voice of just about all… Even with the words of the OT prophets… They too had their warnings about the coming of the voices of false prophets and deceivers of the day…

The most damage that satan can do is but one thing and that is (LIE TO YOU; AND YOU BELIEVE THE LIE…)

Everything that satan does is built and or based on a lie… (TRUTH AINT IN HIM…) Jesus called him, (THE FATHER OF LIES…) The bible warns us; “to believe a lie is to be damned…”

This in part…

2 Thess 2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth,     KJV

To not believe the TRUTH and even do nothing and say that you believe nothing is to embrace the lie… Just because you don’t believe doesn’t let you off the hook… (YOU DIDN’T BELIEVE THE TRUTH…)

By one choosing not to follow, simply says… I will believe the lie…

In David Platt’s book… The book is entitled, “Follow Me…” Page 187,188

I quote from him such a lie, “a sinners prayer that is often quoted today is not found in Scripture or even in much of church history we never see anyone in Scripture saying, “bow your head, close your eyes, and repeat after me,” followed by a specific, “sinners prayer…”

David Platt went on to say, “I talk with people all the time who are looking for a box to check off in order to be right with God and safe for eternity. But there is no box.”

Mr. Platt also went on to say and I quote, “I have seen the “sinners prayer” used across the contemporary Christian landscape as people pray the prayer without ever counting the cost of following Christ.”

He went on to say that he “experienced this abuse in his own life…” “I can remember lying in my bed at night as a child and later as a teenager, wondering about whether I was really saved, and then thinking, well I just need to pray that prayer again… And really mean it this time, and then I’ll know I’m saved…”

David Platt finished this statement here… Men, women, teenagers, children are often told, “if you prayed that prayer,” you can always know that you are saved for all eternity.”

I finish the statement that he made in regard to this lie that is permeating the world.

“A prayer someone prayed is not the best or even a biblical basis for assurance of salvation, according to Scripture…”

The point is following Christ…

·        Point is there is a cross to bear…

·        There is a way of suffering with Christ…

·        There is a place in the heart of the follower of Christ cannot be satisfied at a distance…

·        There is a place of separation…

·        That is the church, the called-out ones… Romans 12:1 Paul calls it a living sacrifice holy, acceptable unto God for this is your reasonable service...  One translation says, this is your spiritual response of worship…

In David Michael Bennett’s book, The Sinners Prayer: Its Origins And Dangers

Page 26… David Michael Bennett calls out a certain group which I will leave unnamed, that goes on to say, “that in 1978 this certain group had “registered hundreds of thousands of decisions, but only 3% of the persons responding were ever incorporated into a local congregation…” Their conclusion was “that it seems highly probable that most of the remaining 97% were not truly converted…”

He goes on to say, “in the mid-1980s a booklet produced by one denomination reported that 50% or more dropout of the church in Christian community after making decisions… Again, both groups use what would be called “a sinners prayer…”

Ray Comfort reported on number of evangelistic campaigns held in the closing years of the 20^th century by “different agencies” which only small percentage of those who had made decisions seem to have become Christians. He says, “that in one case in 1991, out of the 600 that made decisions remained faithful…”

A man by the name of Jim Elliff, again noted by the book of David Michael Bennett, a critic of “sinners prayer evangelism” notes “one denomination in the 1990s showed a net gain of only five new attenders for every 100 recorded professions…  In addition he argues that many of those that are supposedly been saved, do not even get as far as baptism, so the situation is even worse than at first glance…”

David Michael Bennett also quotes a man by the name of Lewis Drummond… “It is he who has suggested that about half the members of American churches, showed no real sign of conversion. He also blames superficial evangelism for this disturbing situation.”

In addition, the subtitle of a book on evangelism by Patrick McIntyre in 2005 was the startling statement… “Why most decisions for Christ are in-effective.” He points out that a Gallup poll in 1990 74% of Americans profess to have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ, but the moral decline in the following years indicated that things were not what they seemed. The “sinners prayer” was on his list of the causes of this disturbing situation; in fact on the cover of his book says, “over half of American adults believe they are going to heaven because they repeated a salvation prayer.”

David Michael Bennett page 28 of the same book states and I quote… “It is deeply disturbing that there are probably millions of people in this world who have been assured by well-meaning evangelist that they are saved when, in fact, they are not.” “In other words, there are many who have been told they are going to heaven, when they may still be going to hell. He went on to say and I quote this is the bad fruit of the sinners prayer.”

The lies of humanity that we are seeing… The smoke and mirrors concept… It’s the light show, the programs, philosophy of men, lies and deception on a grand scale… And the explanation is “men love darkness rather than light…” Much of what we are seeing is the failure of being able to duplicate the “book of Acts church,” And the reason is, we haven’t duplicated their commitment, to GOD and each other… We haven’t duplicated their ability to follow after Christ… Some are failing to duplicate not only prayer, but time in prayer, not only in this, but also effectual fervent prayer…

So, what else is there if we cannot duplicate the results of the power of the Holy Ghost falling in our services, the supernatural presence of GOD showing up??? The “what else,” is exactly what we are seeing, the smoke and mirrors, programs, coffee bars, noise without reason and purpose of glorifying the LORD… It’s not worship, it’s not even praise not when it’s for our sake and not for the sake of the one who matters…

If you wonder where it went, I quote Pastor Jeff Arnold, “it went out with the wonder…”

Were more in awe of self and each other, than we are of GOD… See the “reality” in the mainstream today… It’s in any direction you look… Just look or miss the strait gate and the narrow way and be sucked in by the false prophets with their false ways…

The power of GOD is not hard to have in any given generation and in any given time; what is hard to have is the passion and commitment as Christ commands… “FOLLOW ME…”

THANK YOU FOR READING...