Follow

If you'll hang with me just a little bit longer, it is customary the Sunday before Youth Week, which it was announced already in the service, the youth week stuff that Brother Lorenzo was talking about. But youth week is this week. And as the youth pastor of ABC, I am very excited and tired. But I'm very excited about Youth Week. It's going to be an amazing week and APC has a long history of building in and pouring into the next generation and I am honored to be a part of of that and I want to invite you to be a part of that this week.

But it is customary the Sunday before youth week as we're approaching it for the youth pastor to preach a sermon introducing the theme of youth week. And so today that's what I'm going to do. Did anybody notice that there is a banner in the lobby? Yeah. I didn't know if it was really gonna You're just coming in. I get it. There's a banner in the lobby and it has a big word in the middle of that banner. Did anybody notice what that big word said? Follow.

Our theme this year for our youth week is follow. We're trying to be in line. There it is right there. That's the banner actually. If you missed it, that's what it looks like. It's just a little larger maybe. We're trying to be in line with the Missouri district. Does anybody know the Missouri district theme this year? Disciple. We want to be disciples that make disciples, right? Yes. And amen. Well, youth, we we as we prayed, we wanted to be in line with our Missouri district leadership.

We wanted to continue that theme, but maybe with a word that was a little easier on the youth. I don't know if it is or not, but this is what we thought. So, we use the word follow. And we'll say it this way. We want to be followers of Jesus who help others follow Jesus. Does that make sense? We want to be followers of Jesus who help others follow Jesus. And so today, I want to preach to you something real simple, but it's the most powerful thing that you could do, and that is follow.

If you'll follow Jesus today, whatever that looks like, whether it be for the first time or just taking another step following him, it'll be the best decision that you ever make in your life. We can follow a lot of things. We can follow sports, we can follow the news, we can follow this, that, or the other, podcast, whatever. Those things might have some benefit, but the greatest benefit comes when we decide to get behind our Lord and follow him wherever he may lead. And so I want to help us understand the fullness of how we can do that to follow Jesus today.

So would you pray with me here at the outset that the Lord would bring clarity through his word and conviction through his word that we might be changed by it? Jesus, God, we bring this service before you again and we ask that you would lead and guide and direct this moment. We thank you, Lord, for your presence. We know that you're here. We know that you're moving and working. And now we pray. We pray over the word. We We know that the word is anointed, God.

But I pray that you would give me clarity of thought and speech and boldness of spirit. And I pray that every heart and every life and every mind would be ready to receive your word in all of its fullness, God. Not resistant at all. Let there be no resistance in the room today, God. Let us be completely receptive to your word. Let us be changed by it as we decide fully to follow you in the name of Jesus. And everybody said, "Amen." You can be seated.

Thank you for standing for that time. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:1, it's on the screen at least in part. This is in the New King James. He says, "Imitate me just as I also imitate Christ." And I just have to say that that is such a bold statement. Have you ever looked at somebody and say, "Just do what I do, man." Do you know? Like, I'm just saying it's a pretty bold statement. We're not always exactly used to the the the We read this in scripture.

were like, "Yeah, totally normal." Like King James, New King James language. Totally fine. But try doing that to somebody at some point. They're going to look at you and be like, "Okay, a little pride, maybe. I don't know. Yeah, just do what I'm doing. You're going to be all right." But Paul says, "Imitate me." And he doesn't say, "Imitate me because I've got it all together necessarily under my own power." He doesn't say, "Follow me because, man, I'm really smart and I got a lot of things going for me."

The reason he can say, "Hey, imitate me. Follow me. Do what I'm doing." Is because I'm already imitating somebody. And that somebody is Jesus. And so if I'm imitating Jesus and you're imitating me, that means you're going to look like, yeah, I love the basic arithmetic. Once you're, you know, if A equals B, then B equals, you know, all whatever the I don't do math, but somewhere in there is true in math terms, right? If you'll just do what I do and I'm doing what Jesus is doing, then you're going to look like Jesus.

Now, following Jesus, it's it's easy to say, well, follow Jesus. Well, we're gonna have some questions. What does it look like to follow Jesus? How do we follow Jesus? all those things and and I'm going to talk in some broader terms today, but I think when we look at every follower of Jesus, there's there's different circumstances and different nuances and things going on, but I think we can discern a four-part pattern to following Jesus. And I want to address these four stages of following the Lord.

Okay? Is that okay? So, we got four stages for the notetakers. We got four stages. The first stage is we need to encounter God. Does that make sense? We we've got to meet him, right? We've got to encounter God. The second stage is we we've got to simply obey God. We may not know everything. We may not have all the answers, but a step of faith means there's a little bit of obedience going on. We've got to encounter him. Then we've got to obey him. Well, then we have to come to know God.

This is after we've been obeying him. We've been walking with the Lord. We really get to know him. There's a richness here that begins to take place in relationship. And then the fourth stage is the stage of invitation. That's where you've had such a good walk with the Lord that you start looking around. like man other people need to have what I have. Other people need to encounter the God that I've encountered. And so the fourth stage is invitation. I I want to handle those in turn.

So let's start with encounter. Everybody starts here. This is where you get to say of Jesus, I met him. It's not someone I've heard about, not not somebody I've read about. This is somebody I have encountered. This is somebody I have met. And I love this stage. I remember being roughly seven years old on 13th and Gravo, the old building that APC used to be in. And the youth choir was singing and and I had grown up in church and so I knew what I was feeling had something to do with God.

But I I hadn't really met God in this way. But I I lifted my hands. I closed my eyes. I I began to weep in the presence of the Lord. And all of a sudden, I begin to speak in a language that I had never learned. It's what what is called the Lord filling me with the Holy Ghost. And I encountered God in a real way for the very first time. And y'all, it changed everything. I didn't know what the word hermeneutics meant. I didn't even know that there was an Old and New Testament.

But what I did know is that I had encountered the living God and something had changed deep down on the inside of me at 7 years old that has kept me all the way to 33 years old. I encountered him. Nobody starts following a God that they've never encountered. That's what we've got to start there. And and as we look throughout scripture, you're going to see patterns of this happening all the time of God revealing himself at least for step one. Look at Adam and Eve.

First pages first pages of scripture. You get to Genesis 3, and this is after they have sinned, by the way. It says the Lord would come walking in the garden where they were, the Garden of Eden. The Lord would come walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And this is even after they've messed up, even after they've they've run away from God and his commands, God wanted them to encounter him once again. Humanity's story begins there. Begins with a God who's making himself known.

Look at Abraham in Genesis 12 1-4. We're just going to read verse one right now. This is sort of an abrupt uh look at the screen. This is how the story starts. It doesn't introduce it. It doesn't do anything. It just says, "Now the Lord had said to Abraham, get out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house to a land that I will show you like no like how are you?" None of that. He's just like, "Hey, I need you to do some things."

He just shows up and he encounters Abraham in a powerful way. And that encounter with Abraham changed the entire trajectory of his life because God showed up and spoke to him. What about Moses in Exodus chapter 3? Does anybody recall Moses in Exodus 3, the burning bush story? For those that don't know the Bible, haven't grown up around the the stories of scripture. This is weird there. So, there's this bush. All right, let me just talk about it. There's this bush and it's on fire, but it's not.

All right, you're with me, right? It's on fire, but it's not. And then there's also like this angel of the Lord that's in the bush. And then God speaks from the bush. I'm just trying to show how strange this is, the strange of an encounter, right? At least to us. But it says in this holy moment that Moses turns aside and he sees this supernatural occurrence of the burning bush. It says in verse four of chapter 3, God called to him. God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses."

And Moses responded, "What else do you say to a burning bush? Here I am." I mean, I I'm just saying, I don't know what my response would be, but he says, "Moses, Moses." And Moses says, "Here I am, bush." We have all these encounters. What What about Samuel? In 1 Samuel 3, Samuel Samuel hears his name called. He's just a boy. He's a young boy laying in his bed. And it says in verse four of chapter 3 of 1 Samuel, the Lord called to Samuel. The Lord called to Samuel.

And Samuel answered, "Same as Moses, what do you say when you hear a voice in the darkness? Here am I. I'm here. I I hear you." And Samuel doesn't know it's the Lord's voice. He's actually confused in the scene. He thinks it's Eli the priest. And he goes into him a couple times. But eventually after some instruction, the Lord calls to him again and says, "As at other times." He says, "Samuel." And Samuel responds. just says, "Speak for your servant hears." What about What about Acts?

Final example. Can I give you one more one more example? We look at Paul in Acts chapter nine. He's on the road to Damascus. He's against the Christians at this time. He's traveling and all of a sudden on this road, he's very sure of himself, but a light shines down from heaven and it knocks Paul to the ground. Knocks him to the ground and he hears a voice from heaven. And it says this in Acts 9:4, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And I love this question Paul asks, I don't even know who you are.

Who are you? He knows enough to say this. Who are you, Lord? Who are you, Lord? Jesus answered. He says, I am Jesus. You understand the way Jesus called to Paul. Said, I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting. And Paul's next question is so instructive. Lord, what do you want me to do? Each of these examples, each of these historical stories are instructive for us. There has to be an encounter. But then there is a response. There's different nuances, different details, but the same experience. God shows up and makes himself known and calls to us.

Following begins when God becomes more to us than someone we've heard about, but then becomes someone who we know, who we have encountered. But encounter itself isn't the finish line. Paul doesn't only ask, "Who are you, Lord?" That's a good first step. You've got to know Jesus. You've got to encounter him. But he immediately asks, "What do you want me to do?" Because an encounter with God demands a response. You're telling me you encounter a burning bush and nothing special is going to happen. A light from heaven shines down and a voice from heaven comes out and nothing is going to be demanded of us.

No. a response to that encounter, faith in that encounter, it moves us to say, "Lord, what do you need me to do?" And here's the cool part. You don't have to understand everything to enter stage two of simple obedience. You don't have to understand everything. In fact, at the beginning, obedience is really, really, really simple. At seven years old, when I got the Holy Ghost, I already said I didn't know what hermeneutics were. I couldn't tell you Old and New Testament. I don't even know if I could tell you there are 66 books in the Bible.

Oh my goodness. Did you know that I did not know that there were four gospels? What kind of heathen pagan is God saving over here? I I didn't know here. Here's what I knew. I knew that I encountered something that felt like the greatest love I had ever encountered in my life. And that was enough to build a simple trust in me to say, "All right, whatever the one step now is, I will take that one step. I will take that simple obedience. I'll take that walk of faith and I'll do what you asked me to do.

God spoke. I believed. And so I moved. That's it. I I didn't have all the details. Look at Abraham's story. It illustrates this for us. God told Abraham to go. And what does Abraham do? Well, it tells us in verse four rather quickly. So Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken to him. That's that's obedience. That's simple obedience. He he he didn't have all the answers. Look, look what the book of Hebrews tells us about Abraham's experience that Genesis doesn't key us in on originally. It says in Hebrews 11:8, "By faith, by faith, not by answers and details.

By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance." And he went out not knowing where he was going. Not knowing where he was going. He didn't have a map or a GPS or whatever other things were using. No complete explanation, no knowledge of how this is going to work. If the Lord appears to me and it's like, you need to leave everything you've ever known behind and go to this place over here. I'm going to have some questions.

But apparently Abraham had enough faith to say, "God, the encounter was strong enough that I'm going to take this step. I I trust you enough just to give you a try, believing that you're going to prove yourself." You know, faith doesn't need to know everything about the destination. In fact, faith probably won't know everything about the destination, but it does have a trust in the one giving the directions. You know, if if I could just be honest, when when God speaks to me, I'm like, "All right, God.

I need a 10-year plan. I need to know what in the world you're up to, Lord, because I need to cross check it against my notes to make sure that what you want to have happen is the best plan." All right. And he's like, "Okay, that's great, Peter. Just follow me." And I'm like, "Yeah, that Jesus, I'm going to follow you. Of course. Of just one second real quick. Where are we going? He's like, "Peter, come on, bro." Like, just, this is how he talks to me.

He said, "Just just follow me." Cool, God. I'm going to follow. I promise. All right. But like, how's this going to work? Are we going to drive? Do I have to walk? You know what? I I think God exhales when he's talking to me. Says, "Peter, please just follow me." Okay, but what happens like after I follow you? Just follow me. And about 17 more responses after my questions have been answered with just follow me, I say, 'All right, God. I I I guess I'll just take the next step here.

That's all I know how to do. And I'll just say as a testimony of somebody that has followed Jesus, every time I have taken the next step without the road map, the destination, the details, all that stuff, I have not once, not once been disappointed in the destination that God was leading me to. The beginning of following God is often very simple. It might feel too simple. Maybe I made this joke with the youth. Maybe the Lord's just telling you to quit cussing. Some of y'all need to get it together.

All right, you got to quit. When I was seven, the Lord told me, "Quit cussing, Peter. I'm You need to quit that. You need to knock, hey, quit being so mean to everybody." Sometimes it's just simple like that. It's simple obedience, but take the next step. But here's the cool part. Something happens as you begin to take one walking step after. Something happens as you simply obey Jesus. At first, you're just being obedient because you have a little bit of trust. But after you've walked with him for a while, after you've journeyied with Jesus for a little while, you begin to know the one that you're following.

A richness begins to form. Something something a little deeper begins to happen in your walk with the Lord. It started because of a supernatural encounter. Sure, it it continued because you had just enough faith in him to take the next step. That's that's great. But somewhere along the journey, you get to know the God that you're serving. And all of a sudden, faith becomes just a little bit easier because God has a track record in your life that he has been good time and time again.

And I want to illustrate. I want us to look at Moses. Okay? I want to look at early Moses and later Moses. Early Moses in Exodus 3 through4 has an encounter with God at the burning bush. You remember the talking bush? Yeah. Bush is on fire, but not the Lord calls to Moses. I want you to look how he responds. And I'll just list and I'll read verse 13 in a moment. But Moses is fearful. Moses argues with God. God, I don't think this is going to work.

He makes excuses for himself. He even says, "Lord, I don't think anybody's going to believe me, even if I did follow you. No one's going to be cooperative with what you're trying to do anyway." He he points to his own weaknesses. And eventually, he says in verse 13, Moses says, "Oh my Lord, please sin by the hand of whomever else you may send. If you can find a donkey, send them. In other words, God, I don't want anything to do with what you are trying to accomplish in my life right now.

Please send someone else. But if we keep following Moses, we get to Exodus 32 through34. And it gets good because Moses is a completely different man. Early Moses didn't want anything to do with what God was up to. later Moses, we encounter in a scene of the Israelites falling into what's called idolatry. In other words, they start worshiping another god. And how ridiculous is that? Because God has just rescued them out of Egypt, freed them from 400 years of slavery, provided for them in a wilderness like pillar of cloud and fire.

I don't know if anybody's ever seen a pillar of cloud and fire. I have not. I haven't experienced that. They've just experienced all this stuff. And Moses goes away for a little bit. He's going to talk to God on the mountain. They see it happening on the mountain and they're like, "You know what we should do, guys? We should build a golden heer and we should worship it. Do y'all just feel the irony of this moment? Just and I get it. We're no better. We do.

We We build idols all the time. I I forget who said it. It says, "Our heart is an idol factory. We We tend to worship other things." But here's this moment of Israel falling into idolatry. And God is rightfully angry at Israel, saying, "How how in the world could you worship another God right after the amazing deliverance that was performed in your life?" But notice here, the burning bush. God's not angry at the beginning. He's wanting to encounter Moses. All this stuff here, God is angry.

But notice what Moses does or doesn't do. Moses doesn't run away this time from God, even though he's mad. Do you know what Moses does? Moses stands in between God and the people. God's like, "I'm about to strike them down." And Moses says, "Hold on a second." Says in verse 11 of chapter 32, "Then Moses pleaded pleaded with the Lord his God." He goes on to appeal to what God has done. God, you brought these people out of Egypt. They belong to you. What are you doing?

These are your people. He appeals to God's reputation. God, what do you think the Egyptians are going to say after you just plundered them and defeated them so that the people could come out and freed them? And what what are they going to say if you let these people die in the wilderness, God? And and God, what about your promises? Remember, you made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and and Israel. He's named dropping in front of God. How in the world can Moses talk to God this way?

Does anybody get uncomfortable with that sort of language? He's like, God, what are you thinking? Does anybody I get uneasy. I I don't know that I've ever talked to God that way and didn't duck. So, how can Moses go from somebody that says, "I don't want anything to do with you, God." to now he's interceding in this way with powerful language. How does that happen? Well, it happens because Moses knows God now. He knows what God has done. He knows his character. He knows his promises.

He He doesn't just know about God. He He knows who God is. He's in a deep relationship with him. And now listen to the man who once asked God to send somebody else. And he didn't want anything to do with what God is doing. He says in Exodus 33:15, "Now if your presence does not go with us, don't even move on. Don't even bring us up from here. Earlier send somebody else. I don't want anything to do with you now. I'm not going anywhere without you, God.

I can't go another step. I can't go another day. I'm not running away from you. I know you're angry, but we can work this out, God. We can fix this. We can we can figure something out here. Moses got there because he had followed God long enough to know his character. Now, he asked God to reveal his character. And I love that because Moses already knew God's character. He says, "Show me your ways. Show me your glory." Do you know what I think Moses was doing?

This is just Peter right theology. But can I share it? Is that okay? All right. Good. Thank you. I think Moses, because he's interceding for the people, I think Moses is trying to get God to voice who he is out loud so that he has grounds to stand on to say, "All right, God. You said you were merciful." I think Moses is trying to intercede in this moment because Moses already knows the Lord. He's walked with him. He's encountered him. He knows his character and he says, "All right, God, but but now show me your ways.

Show me your I want to know more about you." And you know what the Lord says? He he speaks his name over Moses and he reveals himself in Exodus 34:6. He says, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering or patient and abounding in goodness and truth." And now from that point of view, you can stand between God and the people that he's angry at and say, "Lord, I know you. I know you're merciful. I know your goodness. I I know you're patient, God. And because I know that about you, I'm not fearful to stand here and intercede and say, "Lord, would you please will you please have mercy on these people that have done wrong, I don't make excuses for the wrong, but will you show them mercy?"

The man who once had more questions than answers, and now come to know God. And that's what that's what happens for all of us when we walk with somebody long enough, we get to know them, don't we? You spend time with somebody, you learn who they are, you learn their tendencies, you you learn what to expect from them. And the longer that we follow God, the longer that anybody follows God, the more convinced they become about the character of the God that they're following. There comes a point where you've walked with God through enough stuff.

I just say it that way. Comes a point when you've walked with God through enough stuff that you begin to reach some conclusions about them. And the conclusions I've listed, the scriptural examples, they don't even count for the ones in the room. But even the ones I've talked about in the Bible, what I love is that when we look to those examples, these these aren't examples of people who made conclusions about God that had easy lives. They had a difficult journey walking with the Lord. Moses followed God through rejection.

Moses followed God through the wilderness and through rebellion, through disappointment, through all this nonsense of 40 years leading a difficult people that seemed bent on turning away from God. It was Moses's job to lead those people. And do you know what Moses concluded at the end of his life? Records it in Deuteronomy 32:4. This is what he says of God. He is the rock. His work is perfect. For all his ways, justice, a God of truth and without injustice. Righteous and upright is he. After everything Moses had been through, after everything Moses had walked through with God at his side, his verdict was, "God is faithful.

God is good, and God's ways are right, even if I don't understand them all the way." But Moses isn't alone in those conclusions. Samuel as well spent his entire ministry leading a people that repeatedly walked away from God. And the Lord kept telling Samuel, "Keep leading them. Keep leading them." And the people said, "We don't want you to lead us. We don't want you to lead us. But Samuel's conclusion at the end of it all is found in 1st Samuel 12:22. Here's what he realizes about God and obsinate people.

The Lord will not forsake his people for his great names sake. Samuel had followed God long enough to know that God doesn't abandon his own. God doesn't walk away from those. Even if they walk away from him, he is continually reaching and striving to be in relationship with them. And then there's the Apostle Paul. He gave his entire life to Christ and the preaching of the gospel. And look what it got him. It got him beaten. It got him imprisoned. It got him rejected and shipwrecked and abandoned and mistreated by his own people.

AND AFTER ALL OF THOSE EXPERIENCES, AFTER IT ALL HAD BEEN SAID and done, what did Paul conclude about God? Well, he says in Philippians 3:7, "But what things were gained to me? These I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and I count those things as rubbish that I might gain Christ. I love that he said he didn't just say I counted some things lost meaning looking at my past life there's some things that I could have got rid of.

No, he says, "I count or I consider right here in the present all things meaningless, worthless, of no value when compared to knowing Jesus." In other words, Paul is saying, "I've walked with him. I I I've suffered with him and he has sustained me and been faithful to me, and I've reached a verdict about the Jesus that I follow." And it's this. I would trade anything and everything for simply knowing the Jesus that I love. Something happens when we become convinced of that. Just like the Apostle Paul, when you've experienced God's goodness and has has anyone experienced the goodness of God in the room today?

I know that I have. Something happens when you become convinced of God's faithfulness. Has God been faithful to anybody in the room today? Something happens when you discover that Jesus really can be trusted come hell or high water. No matter what season you are in, he is trustworthy. SOMETHING HAPPENS WHEN YOU FALL INTO THE DEEP end of the pool of following Jesus. You want to know what happens? You don't just sit back and say, "Man, my life is good." No, you start looking around. You start looking at people that don't have the joy that you have.

You start looking around and seeing people that don't have the peace that you have or the calmness in your mind that you have. You start looking around at those around you and you start thinking, "Man, you've got to experience this thing. You You've got to meet Jesus like I've MET JESUS. YOU YOU'VE got to encounter him like I have encountered him and that's when following Jesus reaches beyond ourselves and you enter into that final stage of following Jesus. It's the stage of invitation. Are y'all with me today?

This is where Paul was again after his whole life story. He he loved Jesus so much he he never got over his encounter with the Lord. In Acts or Acts 22, he tells the story and he gets another opportunity to tell it in Acts 26. Just always talking about his encounter with the Lord, his story with Jesus. And Paul tells the story again and again. It becomes his testimony becomes the way that he invites people into following Jesus for themselves. in Acts 26. I I I love this moment because if we just slow down and pay attention to it, it's so shocking at the passion that Paul has when it comes to following Jesus and wanting others to follow him, too.

He's telling his story in in front of a king in his court. Just keep that in mind. He's a prisoner. He's in chains and he's standing before a king in his court telling his testimony. And the king says to Paul in Acts 26:28, "You almost persuade me to become a Christian. You almost got me, Paul. That testimony was almost good enough for you to bring me in. So close." Paul doesn't flinch. I love his response because he answers in verse 29. He said, "I would to God not only you, King Agrippa, but also all who hear me today might become both almost and all together, such as I am, except for these chains."

Think about what Paul is saying. He's standing there shackled, has no freedom of his own, and he's looking to a king. Says, "King, I wish you were like me. You think the roles should be reversed? I wish I had the authority in the throne and the riches. No, no, no, no. Paul looks at a king. Says, King Gripper, I wish you were like me. Really, Paul? Following Jesus has gotten you prison time. It's gotten you beat a couple times. It's gotten you hardships and rejection and loss.

And Paul says, "Yeah, I acknowledge that completely, but I I wish you were like me. He clarifies. He says, "I don't wish you had my chains. I don't wish you had my suffering. I don't wish you had my hardships or my problems." No. But I wish you knew Jesus like I know Jesus. Oh, that moment is so profound for me as he stands there in the court of Agria says, "I wish you had what I had. I wish you could get a hold of the encounter that I've encountered.

Uh, I wish you could walk with Jesus the way that I have been walking with Jesus. A man in chains like that can only say something like that if it was really lifechanging. Ultimately, Paul could say it because Jesus Jesus was the best thing that had ever happened to him. He'd already said it. He considered all things lost. Nothing could even compare. His walk with God had been so rich and so good that he stood before a king and said, "Man, I wish you had it."

That brings us back to Paul's rather bold statement of 1 Corinthians 11:1, "Imitate me as I imitate Christ." Seems prideful at first. Yeah, like if you just do what I do, you got it together. But Paul wasn't inviting people to just follow him or just to imitate stuff he had heard about good philosophy whatever. No, Paul was inviting those Corinthian people and all that hear the scriptures today to follow a Jesus that he had encountered that he had obeyed and learned to trust that he had been fully persuaded of.

And now Paul looks at everybody else and as we hear his scripture today, he's speaking to us, says, "Why don't you come follow me?" Truly, Paul was simply offering each of those people that day what Jesus had first offered him, a life-changing encounter with God and a relationship with him worth far more than anything this world could ever offer. And it's the same offer today to follow Jesus. If you'd stand with me, I I want to give some instruction. I want to call us to pray.

You know, when things get kind of crazy in life, all all the experts tell you to to kind of do a reset and go back to the basics. You ever heard that? When you don't know what to do, you should do what you know to do. Right? When when all else fails, go back to the basics. What I feel so heavily for this youth week and for even this moment here is that if we could just get back to this simple truth following Jesus. If we could just get back to that I I want with every fiber of my being to just follow Jesus and all the other things along the journey of life tend to work themselves out.

Jesus is still saying today, like he said to Paul, like he said to all the disciples, like he said to that whole first century church, he's still saying today, "Follow me." And maybe for you that means you need to encounter him today for the first time. You're not even on stage one. You need to encounter Jesus. That's great. Maybe you already know what he's asking you to do. Obey him. For some of you, that next step is what Peter preached in Acts chapter 2. You need to repent.

Say, "All right, Lord. I've got to turn away from myself and I need to be baptized in the name of Jesus. Y'all, baptism is simply the Lord saying, "You need to be baptized, not think about it." Said, "Hey, be baptized in the name of Jesus and you'll receive the Holy Ghost if that's what you need to do. Don't make obedience complicated. Don't don't make it sophisticated. Don't make it harder than it needs to be. That's what we need to do. We need to follow the Lord and obey him.

If you need to repent, repent. If you need to be baptized, we've got water. You can be baptized. If you need the Holy Ghost, why don't you seek after it today?" and God could fill you with the Holy Ghost right here and right now. May maybe for some of us, it's a simple act of obedience in another area. Whatever it is, just obey God. You don't need the whole map. You don't need all the details. You just need to take the next step. Maybe you followed God for a long time, but somewhere along the way, you settled for knowing about him and not truly knowing him.

I encourage you today, come know him again. Come know him in relationship. May maybe you've walked with him long enough to know some things about God, that he's good. You've got conclusions about him. you you believe some things about the Lord. I I I I I don't know if that's where you're at, but if you are, bring it's now time to bring somebody with you. If God is that good, he's too good to to not share. He's too good to keep to ourselves. It's it's time to share.

Wherever you are in the journey of following Jesus, the invitation today is the same. Keep following Jesus. Whatever the next step, whatever, whatever the next moment for you needs to be, I implore you today. Take the next step. It's worth it. That encounter, it'll change everything. That obedience, it'll get you to where you need to go. That relationship with him, it'll sustain you all the way through life. That invitation, somebody's waiting on that invitation. Somebody's waiting on the joy YOU HAVE AND THE peace you have, the goodness of God that you've experienced.

Somebody's waiting on that today. So, take the next step. Keep following Jesus. Keep following him. One of the ways that we can we we can respond is something we do here at ABC. It's called an altar call. It's at the end of a sermon. We invite people to the front of the room or really anywhere. If they want to pray, that's totally fine. But it's a moment and it's a place to stop and respond to what God has spoken because here's the truth. Perhaps especially in the American church, it is so possible to hear the word of God, to even feel challenged and maybe even inspired by the good words of scripture and then simply move on in in our day without ever taking time to consider, God, are you calling me?

God, are you speaking to me? God, are you telling me I need to take another step? And so I I implore you, don't miss this moment to take time and say, "God, if you're speaking to me, I am completely open to you. Would you show me what the next step is and I'll take it." And if you want to do that today, if you want to respond in a time of this altar call, you want to take the next step, I invite you. If you want to come to the front, they're going to begin to play and sing.

But I I I encourage you, come down and say, "Jesus, I want to follow you. I'm not content with staying in step one, two, or three. I want to go all the way. God, would you help me? Would you help me consider it worth everything? Would you help me consider my walk with you more valuable than anything, God? Oh, Jesus, for those that don't know you, I pray you encounter them right here and right now. I pray it'd be more than my words, more than a sermon, God.

More than something they read. Oh, be real to them today, God. I pray for those that need to obey you, Lord. Help them to do it. Give them boldness today. Give them boldness today, God. Oh, help those that need to grow in relationship. Strengthen their relationship with you right now, God. Oh, help them form strong conclusions through experience that you are good and faithful and true, Lord. Oh, and then embolden us, God. Embolden us not to keep it to ourselves, but to invite others. Help us to do it, God.

Help us to follow you completely and holy with everything we have, God. all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. God, yes. Help us to do it, Lord. Falling in love with Jesus. Falling in love with Jesus. Falling in love with Jesus is the best thing I've ever ever done. Falling in love with Jesus. Falling in love with Jesus. Falling in love with Jesus is the best thing I've ever ever done. In his arms I feel protected. In his arms never rejected. In his arms I feel protected.

There's no place I'd rather be. In his arms I feel protected. In his arms, rejected. In his arms, I feel protected. There's no place I'd rather be. Falling in love with Jesus. Falling in love with Jesus. Falling in love with Jesus is the best thing I've ever ever done. Falling in love with Jesus. Falling in love with Jesus. Falling in love with Jesus is the best thing I've ever ever done. In his arms I feel protected. In his arms never rejected. In his arms I feel protected.

There's no place I'd rather be. In his arms I feel protected in his arms. rejected in his arms. I feel protected. There's no place I'd rather be. Falling in love with Jesus. Falling in love with Jesus. Falling in love with Jesus. is the best thing I've ever ever done. Falling in love with Jesus. Falling in love with Jesus. Falling in love with Jesus is the best thing I've ever ever done. I wonder if we could take a moment right now and just commit to the next step.

Maybe the next step is Lord, I need to connect with you more or I need to obey you or I need to be closer to you. Whatever that next step is, just tell the Lord in your own words, "Oh God, I'm going to commit to that and I'm going to see it through." Would you lift your hands right now and make that commitment this morning, Jesus? Uh we're all called to be disciples. We're all called to follow you. And today, we make the commitment, Lord, that we're going to take that next step.

We're not going to leave here and leave your word unattended. We're not just going to be hearers of the word, but we're going to go and we're going to do what your word has called us to do. Even if that's going and inviting somebody else who doesn't yet uh hasn't taken those steps, we commit that we're going to do that today and we're going to be true disciples and we're going to be true followers of Jesus. Oh Lord, help us to take those steps, the necessary steps and ultimately to be more like you and closer to you to attain to the measure of your stature.

In Jesus name we pray. Jesus name. Amen. Amen. I think if every one of us just committed to take one step, the kingdom would advance in a miraculous and powerful way.