Practicing the Way - Following Jesus

I'm going to ask you a very deeply

spiritual question. Uh, have you ever

followed someone that did not deserve to

be followed? Don't point at me. Have you

ever f Chappie was getting ready to Have

you ever followed someone that did? So,

I about a decade ago, I took my son to

this thing called anime in Raleigh. It's

an anime convention. And if you don't

know what that is, just picture a

thousand people in cartoon character

outfits hanging out in the middle of

downtown Raleigh. Um, and so we got

hungry and we were looking for a pretzel

and we got in the pretzel line. It was

like a mile long. And the person behind

me was also kind of antsy cuz they

wanted a pretzel, too. So, they kind of

tapped me on the shoulder and they're

like, "Follow me." The thing was, um,

this guy was dressed, it was an adult

male dressed like a Pikachu. And so, so

basically Pikachu just told me to follow

him. And apparently when you're hungry,

your discernment level goes way down.

Um, and so I'm like, "Sure, buddy." So,

me and Eli, we follow this Pikachu into

these back rooms. And as we're following

the the the Pikachu, he takes us into

this room where there are like 40 Power

Rangers, uh, cosplay Power Rangers, by

the way. Uh, these people were getting

ready to do some sort of a performance.

So, they were all like stretching and

warming up for their performance. So,

like the red ranger was doing like

shoulder rolls and the blue ranger was

doing like squats. And the worst thing

about all that whole experience was that

there were no pretzels where the Power

Rangers were. And the second worst thing

is that we went through a door that

locked behind us. And so now we had to

exit the convention center and walk all

the way around the convention center

just to get back to where we started.

Um, so I learned two things that day.

Number one, never follow a Pokemon when

you're hungry. And number two, much more

importantly, whoever you follow is going

to determine where you end up. Whoever

you follow is going to determine where

you end up. They're going to set your

direction. They're going to tell you

where to turn. They're going to tell you

what to avoid. They're going to tell you

how fast to move. They're going to tell

you whether or not you actually arrived

at your destination. And as John Mark

Comr says at the very beginning of this

book, whether you realize it or not,

everybody is following somebody or

something.

Everybody is following someone or

something.

So, you're going to follow voices.

You're going to follow habits. You're

going to follow algorithms. You're going

to follow the crowd. You're going to

follow your calendar so faithfully that

it should probably be ordained to

saintthood. You're going to follow your

feelings. You're going to follow

approval. You're going to follow those

urgent notifications on your cell phone.

So, the question we're not going to ask

ask today is whether or not you're

following someone or something. And

we're not going to ask whether or not

you're a disciple. What we are going to

ask is who or what am I becoming a

disciple of? Who or what am I becoming a

disciple of? Because the truth is what I

repeatedly give my attention to is going

to eventually shape the person that I

become. And so the great news for us

today is that Jesus steps into all of

that noise and he says two simple words.

He says follow me.

Follow me. Not join my fan club. He

doesn't say agree with everything that I

say. He He doesn't say fit me into that

leftover corner of your life that's

already way too crowded. Jesus says

follow me.

Th this invitation is simple enough for

a child to understand what's being

offered, but it's also powerful enough

to radically change your entire

existence if you just take Jesus up on

this offer. So, we're going to start in

Mark 1 verse 16 and we're going to look

Mark 1:16

at the fact that following Jesus is much

like an apprenticeship. So in Mark

Mark 1:16

chapter 1 verse 16

says, "As Jesus passed alongside the Sea

of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew,

Simon's brother, casting a net into the

sea, for they were fishermen." Here's

the invitation. Verse 17, "Follow me,"

Jesus told them, "and I will make you

fish for people." Immediately they left

their nets and they followed him. Going

on a little farther, he saw James, the

son of Zebedee, and his brother John

putting a in a boat, putting their nets

in order. And immediately he called to

them. And they left their father Zebedee

in the boat with the hired men. And they

followed Jesus. Friends, this is an

astonishing scene because there's no

orientation. There's no talk of a

benefits package. There's no five-year

plan. Basically, Jesus just handed them

an invitation and said, "Hey, follow me

and I'm going to reveal some details

about what that means along the way."

And they took him up on the offer. They

left everything behind. And you would

say, "Well, why would these these men do

this?" Because in this world, an

invitation from a rabbi was not just an

invitation to go attend a class. Look,

he wasn't inviting them to Sunday

school. He was saying, "Follow me." This

was an invitation to build an entirely

new life around your teacher. The the

aim was not just just know what the

rabbi knew. The aim was to become the

person that the rabbi was. And they were

faced with this opportunity. They laid

everything else down and they followed

Jesus. See, John Mark Comr says in his

book, a rabbi's teaching wasn't

justformational.

It was formational.

Not justformational. This thing is

formational. It's going to change you.

It's not just about learning about

something. It's about becoming someone

different. So, so this word disciplehip,

I get it. It's a very churchy word. And

some of you probably think it's like it

represents gold level membership in the

church. Like it's for the people that

have the highlighters and they highlight

the stuff in their Bible. It's for the

people that can spell Habacook

correctly. You know, that that's not

what disciplehip

is. A disciple means a learner, a

student, but more importantly, it means

an apprentice. I love that word because

the word apprentice means more than just

collecting information. The the word

apprentice means that I'm going to

arrange my life around the master in

order to become to to learn a new way of

living or a new way to do something. So,

if you apprentice under a carpenter, you

don't just learn the names of all the

tools. Eventually, you got to build the

rocking horse, right? I mean, I've never

apprenticed under a carpenter, but I

assume they make you build rocking

horses. I see a lot of those around. If

you if you apprentice under a chef, it's

not enough to just have big opinions

about lamb chops. No, eventually you're

going to have to cook the food. And in

the same way, following Jesus is more

than just knowing information about

Jesus. It's about it's learning from

Jesus how to live an actual life.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,

Friday, Saturday, Sunday. It's learning

how to live. It's learning how to live

in your stressed out life. It's learning

how to live your family life and your

work life and your dating life and your

online life. It's learning how to live

when everybody is looking at you. And

it's also learning how to live when

nobody is looking at you. Jesus is not

just interested in getting you into

heaven someday. Now, that's part of it,

but that's not his his only interest.

Jesus is interested in getting heaven

into you today. And so he wants to turn

us into people of love and joy and peace

and patience and kindness and gentleness

and and self-control. People that know

the truth and share the truth and love.

People that are willing to go and share

the gospel with those that need to learn

about the good news of Jesus. Formation

is all about grace.

But get this, grace is not opposed to

effort. I I really feel like some people

believe that grace is actually opposed

to effort and it's not. It's not opposed

to effort. Now, it doesn't mean that you

have to earn God's love. You receive

that. That's what grace is

through no uh you don't buy it, you

don't earn it. It's just given to you

perfectly. Um but it doesn't stop with

that. You can actually arrange your life

in a way where you can receive more and

more of God's God's blessing and God's

love. It's like if you're a sailor, you

can't control when the wind blows, but

you can sure enough put up your sail

when it does, right? Well, that's what

these practices of Jesus that we're

going to learn over the next several

weeks together. That's what these

practices of Jesus are going to do for

you. It's going to be like you raising

the sail to God's grace and receiving

more of what God wants to give you. So

apprenticeship to Jesus is very simple

and it looks like three different

things. First of all, be with Jesus.

Secondly, become like Jesus. And

thirdly, do what Jesus did. So we be

with Jesus. We become like Jesus. And

then we do the things that Jesus did.

You see the movement? This is not some

kind of a religious checklist. We we

stay with Jesus so we become like Jesus.

And when we become like Jesus, we do the

things that Jesus did. This is a a

lifestyle. This is isn't just

information. So let's start with uh be

with Jesus in Mark 3:14.

Mark 3:14

So before Jesus ever sent his disciples

out to do any ministry work at all in

Mark 3:14 he says Jesus appointed the 12

Mark 3:14

whom he also named the apostles and he

appointed them to what

to be with him. He he didn't appoint

them to go and do all the ministry work.

He didn't slap youth pastor and worship

leader and he didn't give them titles

and send them out into that context. No,

no, no. He appointed them as apostles

first and foremost so that they would be

with Jesus. Before the assignment came

the relationship. Before the mission

came the actual presence of Jesus.

Before they did anything for Jesus, they

learned to be with Jesus. And this is

where some of us, myself included,

really struggle because we're great at

doing things for God. You guys are

awesome at at doing things for God.

You're great at doing things for God.

You're going to serve and you're going

to organize and you're going to fix and

you're going to plan and you're going to

teach and you're going to sing and

you're going to preach and you're going

to bring a casserole. You're going to do

all the things.

But if I ask you to sit quietly with God

for five minutes,

Yeah.

or or if I put something out on social

media like I did last week about this

spiritual health assessment, this 20

minutes where you you fill out

questionnaire to help you with your your

spiritual growth.

Sometimes that's asking a little bit too

much, right? Because that's not work.

That's not doing things. That's simply

being with Jesus.

Suddenly your your brain starts to

remember every unfinished chore since

2009 and you close your eyes to pray and

all of a sudden that email from David

Burg just flashes before your eyes and

you're like oh did I answer his email

and then and then you're praying and

you're like well why can't penguins fly

and then all of a sudden your your

prayer life turns into a wildlife

documentary you know I understand that

and that's why we have to train

ourselves to be with Jesus. Don't jump

over the be with Jesus to get to the the

task, the immediate gratification my

wife was talking about last week. You

know, don't jump that part to get to the

the the part where you're actually

moving the mountains.

See, there's some people that can be

physically present in a room while their

attention is divided in five different

ways across five other jobs and five

other ball games and five other various

distractions that come into your head.

Friends, love begins with attention.

If you ever been in a dating

relationship, if you ever been in a

marriage, you know love begins with

attention. You cannot deeply love

someone if you're never truly present

with them. And to be with Jesus means

that we got to practice the awareness of

his presence.

Jesus called it this fancy word abiding.

He says abide with me. Nicholas Herman

defined that as the practice of the

presence of God. Abiding is practicing

being in the presence of God. It's

learning to to turn and return our

attention to Jesus throughout the day.

Not perfectly, not once, not in the

morning during our quiet time, but

throughout the day, repeatedly coming

back to him. When our mind wanders, we

come back to him. When our anxiety

rises, we come back to him. When the day

gets loud, we come back to him. It's

learning to say, "Jesus, you are here

and I'm with you." And I'm just going to

acknowledge that. And that's it. That's

it for the next 10 minutes. I'm just

going to acknowledge the fact that

Jesus, you are here with me and I'm with

you. It's learning to live your real

life in the presence of Jesus. And so

the first question of apprenticeship is

not how much can I accomplish. Sorry, I

see a lot of you. You're like, no, I

don't like this message. The first

question is not how much can you

accomplish. It's are you learning to be

in the presence of Jesus?

And number two, once you become once you

spend time with Jesus, you become like

Jesus. So in Luke chapter 6 verse 40,

Luke 6:40

Jesus says, "Everyone who is fully

trained will be like his teacher."

Everyone who is fully trained will be

like his teacher. I love the word

trained because it means Jesus is

assuming that this is a a that formation

is a process.

You're not a finished work. The day you

become a Christian is not the end of

your spiritual journey. You are a work

in progress. You're being trained to be

more like Jesus.

Because if somebody just became like

Jesus after one powerful worship

service, then when we have front porch

praise or encounter, we would be left

with a sanctuary full of flawless

saints. But that's not how it works. The

powerful worship service is part of it,

but it's a journey.

See, you can come to a great worship

service and you can be filled with the

spirit and you can sing and enjoy, but

but then sometimes you you come home and

you argue over silly things like who ate

the last bag of crunch and munch in your

house, Susan. Um,

she's way over there. I can say whatever

I want. She never listens to my sermons.

So anyway,

so don't y'all tell her.

So transformation is this process and

for most of us it happens very slowly.

It happens through grace. It happens

through truth. It happens through uh

community. It happens through failure

and forgiveness. It's getting knocked

down but get back up again because

they're never going to see. Um

sorry I had this new coffee this

morning. It's really match matcha

something. I don't know. Yeah, it was it

was pretty good. Um, so spiritual

formation properly defined. So here you

go. Spiritual formation properly

defined. And by the way, all this is in

your notes. I know it's kind of

lecture-based, but um it it's the

process by which our inner life is

shaped to resemble Jesus. All right. So

spiritual formation is when our inner

life, that's the decision-making core of

who you are. That thing, your

motivations, your desires, all the stuff

inside you that makes you do what you

do. It it's when that inner life, your

heart we could we could call it, begins

to resemble Jesus starts to looks look

like your teacher. And so here's the

uncomfortable truth. We're already being

formed.

So if you're not letting Jesus form you,

something else is. Every every habit is

forming you. Every repeated thought is

carving a path in your brain. Every

commercial is teaching you what to love.

Every talking head on your screen is

leading you somewhere. And it so it

makes me wonder sometimes, am I actually

being formed by Jesus or am I being

deformed by something else in my life?

Because Christ and the world are often

at odds. The world teaches you. It leads

you into anxiety. That's the purpose of

the news, to keep you watching. It's

leading you into anxiety. But Jesus is

leading you into peace. Our world leads

us into outrage. I can't believe they

said that. I can't believe they they did

that. While Jesus is trying to form you

into people of love and forgiveness, our

world disciples us into performance. How

good are you? You are what you do. You

are how good you are at doing the thing

that you do. That's what the world says.

But Jesus says, "No, you don't have to

prove your worth. I love you just as you

are. I love you how I made you. It's why

I died for you." Your culture says you

got to curate an image. And Jesus says,

"Let me show you who you are in reality.

You're more than what you do and you're

more than how good you are at doing it."

So becoming like Jesus does not mean

that God erases your personality. He

he's not making me just millions of

these identical Christian robots. No,

becoming like Jesus means the character

of Jesus begins to shine through you.

Friends, imagine what it would be

possible if if there wasn't this need to

protect our ego or or if there wasn't

this this this doubt that attacked our

courage or if our ambition was somehow

given to a a higher calling or if our

words could carry truth without

condemnation.

That that's not religious wishful

thinking. It it's possible through the

power of being like Jesus.

So after we spend time with Jesus, we're

going to start to be like Jesus. And

guess what happens? We get to do what

Jesus did. Mark chapter 1 verse1 17

Mark 1 · chapter mention

again. He said, "Follow me and I will. I

will make you. I will call you. I will

gift you. I will allow you to do these

things." There's a flow. We We come to

Jesus. We follow him. We We start to be

like him. And then we join in the work

of Jesus. An apprentice eventually

participates in their master's work. Now

think about this. What did Jesus do? He

announced the good news of the kingdom

of God to the people that he met. He

spoke truth with love. He he prayed. He

put others needs ahead of his own. He

ministered to the overlooked and the

undervalued and the underserved. He

empowered women. He welcomed children.

He confronted religious hypocrisy. He

ate with the outsiders. He sealed He

healed the sick. He forgave his enemies.

He gave his life for sinners like you

and me. And that's just to name a few of

the things that he did. Friends, he's

calling us to that work. We are his

apprentices. And one day we will take

part in the things that our master has

done. And if Jesus is your master, then

these are the things that you will be

doing as well. Following Jesus means I

train with Jesus so that his way becomes

my way, my response to everyday life. So

when life puts you under pressure, in

counseling we call it the heat. You have

this this unavoidable stress in your

life. That's what the heat is. And so

when the heat beats down on you, you

train yourself to respond in a way that

looks like how Jesus would respond. So

when the person ahead of you in the

coffee line at the Brewing Cafe orders

coffee for the entire third floor of the

hospital and you're in a rush, you

typically won't pause to reflect on the

teachings of St. Mark, right? Because

what's in you is going to come out in

your attitude in that situation. And so

these practices that we're going to

learn uh when life turns up the heat are

going to allow us to respond in a way

that honors Jesus to respond in the way

that he would call us to respond. It's

stuff like prayer and Sabbath and

fasting, generosity. We're going to talk

about all of that throughout the coming

weeks together. But these practices are

going to train us to live this new life

that we have already received by God's

grace. These practices are going to

begin to flow through us. And I promise

you this that our community is going to

change when we start practicing these

things.

The way is a life not a list.

Acts chapter 9 verse 2

Acts 9:2

says if he found any men or women who

belonged to

the way. This is Paul. He was looking

for Christians. This is how he described

them. while he's looking if he found

anybody that belonged to the the way.

See, the earliest Christians were not

known as Christians. They were known by

the as people who belonged to the way.

And the reason they were defined by this

is because Christianity is not a set of

beliefs. Christianity is more than that.

Christianity is a life that is built

around the teachings of Jesus. Friends,

you can believe that exercise is good

for you, but you can also have that

belief and sit on your couch all day.

You can believe that eating right is

good for you, but you can also do that

while you're scarfing down some cheese

fries. You can believe things, but not

put them into practice. You can believe

that Jesus is Lord, but still allow your

life to be discipled by your career and

your hobbies and other various

activities.

Christianity is more than a set of

beliefs. Following Jesus means we are

becoming mature in his way of life. So

the rhythm in this series is we're going

to learn a truth and then we're going to

learn how to put it into practice and

then we're going to share that journey

with others. It's not an individual

thing. We're going to do it together as

a church. And what we're going to do is

we're going to try to allow these

teachings of Jesus to move from the

notes that you're taking right now to

the muscle memory of your lives. And so

when that heat starts to bear down, you

react in the way that Jesus would have

you to react. And guess what? Sometimes

you're going to feel discouraged and

awkward. Some of these practices some of

you have never done. And so they might

feel discouraging and they might feel

awkward. But that's okay because

anything new that's worthwhile is worth

being a little awkward at. I mean, I

learned to water ski. Yeah. Yeah. And

then I got out on the boat and um Don

Lee was like, "All right, it's so

simple. Just keep your knees bent, hold

onto the rope, and let the boat do the

work." That was like the whole training

manual. I was like, "Oh, this will be

easy. So, just hold the rope, let the

boat do the work." And I He pulled me

and I I got up for about half a second

and then instead of skiing on top of the

water, I was drinking the water. I was

being pulled around the boat. I I didn't

glide across the lake. I drank or the

river. I drank the river. My skis I

remember at one point they went in two

different directions which was very

painful.

But I didn't let go cuz I'm a boss.

[laughter]

Actually, I just didn't want my kids to

see how weak I was. Look, I type for a

living. So, the one strength I do have

is grip strength. So, I can hang on even

if I'm being drugged around the lake

drinking all the catfish. Um, look,

learning something new always feels

awkward at first. That's fine. That's

part of it. So, if some of these

practices are things that you've never

done, like fasting or solitude, and you

feel really weird doing them, that's

fine because anything worth doing is

worth feeling a little awkward over.

Like the first time you try silence for

30 seconds, it might feel like three

days to you. Uh, the first time you slow

down and pray, your brain is going to go

in 12 different directions, and that's

fine.

So, as Jonah makes his way uh up here,

I'm just going to give you a little bit

of application to end the sermon today.

Uh all these are going to have some

steps that you can take throughout the

week to help you grow a little bit

closer to Jesus. And so, the practice

for this week that we're going to put

into place is learning to be with Jesus.

It's why I spent the whole summer

preaching about the Lord's prayer,

trying to train you in the way of prayer

because I knew this was the first

practice that we'd be doing and I wanted

you to be equipped and know how to

properly pray. Now, John Mark Comr get

gives us a very good practical uh

sentence right at the beginning of the

book where he says, "Start where you

are,

not where you feel like you should be."

So, don't compare yourself to Chappie.

Okay? Just start where you are, not

where you should be or where you want to

be.

So, here's the plan.

First thing you're going to do this week

is you're going to pick a quiet place.

Some of you are already like, "I'm out.

I have 13 kids. There's no way. There is

no quiet place." I I assure you, if you

look hard enough, your bathroom, um,

there is a [laughter]

There is a a quiet place somewhere. And

it could be a park bench. It could be

somewhere at work. It could be outside

of the house. It could be in your car.

But find a place that's quiet. Number

two, I want you to choose a quiet time

to pick a time to be with Jesus. [music]

Not some ideal time that may open up in

the future when life is a little bit

more calm. I want you to pick an actual

quiet time that you have in your life

right [music] now.

Maybe it's lunch, maybe it's a baby's

nap, maybe it's before bed or in the

morning, but pick that time. And then

number three, be quiet.

Like, put your phone in the other room.

I promise your phone will be okay. And

and maybe some time out for your phone.

It'll reflect on all the negative things

that it has done to your life over the

past week. And maybe it'll be a better

phone when you go and pick it up again.

But do not have your phone in your quiet

place. [snorts]

Then you set

and you breathe

and you focus because you're not in a

hurry. And then fourth, open your heart

to God. Look, you don't need fancy

words. You just need to be honest with

God. Tell him the things that are true.

Tell him the things that you're

struggling with. Tell him your

anxieties. He already knows them anyway.

Tell him, tell him your your anger, tell

him your fear, and then just make room

and listen. And he's going to speak.

Maybe it's a still small voice. Maybe

it's audible, but mostly he speaks

through his word. And so, as you read

your Bible, things will be highlighted

to you as an answer to that prayer.

So, let's pray.

Father, I know that today there might be

some people in this room that that feel

like Simon and Andrew, they are just

ready to drop their nets

and follow no matter what. I know

there's people like that.

But there's probably also some people

that feel a little bit interested in

following Jesus, but they're unsure.

And maybe there's some people that have

been around church forever, but today

they're realizing for the first time

that Christianity is not it's not the

same as apprenticeship. They have all

the head knowledge, but they don't have

the heart knowledge. They have they have

informationational knowledge, but they

don't have transformational practices.

There's others that that maybe they feel

stuck in this life that's messy and

distracted and and wounded. And so I

just want us all this morning to hear

the words of God in Matthew chapter 16

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

where he says, "If anyone wants to

follow after me,

if anyone," this is Jesus walking down

the road, he says, "If anyone, no matter

who you are, if they want to follow

after me, they can. You don't have to be

the best of the best, you don't have to

arrive this polished, perfect person.

And you can bring your doubts and your

addictions and your your questions and

your your whole complicated human life

to Jesus because he's not asking you

[music] to fix yourself up before you

follow him. He's asking you to follow

him so he can fix you up.

The good news is we don't have to climb

some religious ladder to reach God

because he came down that ladder in the

form of Jesus and went to the cross and

the grave and back to life because he

loved us. He did the work so we could

enjoy the benefits.

At the cross, Jesus entered our our sin

and our suffering and our death. And in

his resurrection, he opened the way into

forgiveness and healing and new life. We

are saved by grace, not spiritual

performance.

And the grace that saves us also teaches

us to live a new way of life.

And so today, Jesus is standing on the

shoreline of your ordinary life, beside

your nets and your schedule and your

your regrets, beside the future that you

can't control, even if you think you

can. And he says, "Come and follow me."

He says, "Be with me. Become like me and

then do what I [music] do."

Friends, this is not some short-term

challenge that we complete and place on

a shelf. This is an adventure of a

lifetime.

So Jesus, we admit this morning that we

know that something is going to sha

shape us.

And we also admit that we know that we

get to choose who we will follow.

And so this week, God, we are going to

raise ourselves. We're going to put away

the noise. We're going to receive your

grace. We're going to open our hearts to

you. And we're going to start a practice

of just being with Jesus

because we know there is no one that is

worthy of following other than you.

So Jesus, today I speak on behalf of

this church and I say we accept your

invitation.

Free us from the voices and the habits

that are shaping us away from you and

teach us to be with you. Teach us to

become like you and help us to do the

things that you did. Meet with us in the

quiet this week.

In Jesus name I pray.