Come and See: Learning to Follow Jesus Daily

Those who come and see become those who go and tell. In verse 41 of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus, so he's now a follower of Jesus, was Andrew, Simon, Peter's brother. He found first his own brother, and he brings him to Jesus. Now it's interesting. The angels at the open tomb say, come and see where he was lying. And once they do, they say, go and tell. All who are called to come and see are told to go and tell. What's interesting to me is they're not even command no one's commanded to go and tell here. No command necessary. [01:18:54] (40 seconds)  #ComeSeeGoTell

When you wanna follow Jesus, he wants to know what it is you are seeking from him or in coming to him. So put this down. Here, I'm gonna ask you, what are you seeking? This is the first question in all of the four gospels that is recorded of what Jesus said. The first time he asked a question in his ministry, what is your purpose in coming to me? What is your goal in coming to me? It's kinda like this, I think, as he sees John's disciples coming to him. If you're looking for a revolutionary leader to overthrow Rome, you you need to go join the zealots. [01:08:36] (38 seconds)  #WhatAreYouSeeking

And the glory of God would actually be seen above it. But if you look at the tabernacle, surrounding it are all the tribes of Israel. They're camped around the presence of God. He is in their midst. The question is, do you know where to find where he is? Here's what Jesus said. Where two or more are gathered, you'll find me. Two or more are gathered in my name. My followers, when they get together, I am there. Remember what the psalmist said? The nearness of God is my good. [01:15:11] (40 seconds)  #PresenceWhenWeGather

And I think it's important that we realize that Jesus is saying, I am serving so that you can learn how to serve. This is why Paul writes in Philippians, have this mind in you, was also in Christ Jesus. He was God, and and he was incarnate. He he gave up the privileges of deity to become a servant and and to and to serve you. That we are to reflect that. We are to act that way, and Jesus' life becomes that example. But not only are we taught by Jesus, how to serve one another, but Peter tells us his example was also to teach us, listen, how to suffer. [00:54:13] (37 seconds)  #ServeLikeJesus

When god brings his judgment on judgment day, there's not gonna be any going, I object. I wanna appeal that decision. No. You're gonna have nothing to say. The law will close your mouth. Jesus stood in the condemned sinner's place. So he was naked like Adam was on that cross. He was silent before his accusers, not because he had nothing he could say, but because he took your place in mine. But on a practical level, when they accused him at the trials, when they said, he saved others, he can't save himself. [00:57:09] (33 seconds)  #EntrustInSuffering

Come down from the cross if you're the Messiah. When they mocked him, when they challenged him, Jesus was silent. Why? Peter says, because he kept entrusting himself to God who judges righteously. That's our example. When you're falsely accused, you say, well, I hope I never am. Me too. But guess what? Might happen. I wanna be just like Jesus. You ever thought, I wanna be just like him. Oh, dude. Then don't be surprised if someday you're falsely accused. When you suffer for righteousness sake, which is what Peter is talking about, it's an honor and a privilege, but it's gonna be hard because you're gonna wanna defend yourself. [00:57:42] (41 seconds)  #LawShowsOurNeed

The reason he was silent biblically, theologically is this. He was going to take our sin upon himself. He was being judged by his father, not just by man. God made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, and God judged our sin in his body. Why is that important that he was silent? Because here's what the Bible says. The law was given not to make us holy, but to make us speechless. The idea is the law is given not to help you become a righteous holy man, but to see you're not and to close your mouth before a holy god on judgment day. [00:56:32] (37 seconds)  #PerpetualLearner

When you get your eyes on the messenger instead of the messiah, you are one failure away from walking away from the Lord. Do you remember what Jesus said to his disciples the night he would be arrested? He said he said, tonight's gonna be fulfilling this prophecy or this saying, smite the shepherd, the sheep will scatter him. I'm going down and it's because it really it's an attack not just on me, but on you. And don't you watch that all through church history and even in our day, a pastor falls morally. [00:48:51] (34 seconds)  #FollowChristNotFollowers

No. They're not asking just to have knowledge of where he's staying. They want to change where they are to where he's staying. Let me put it this way. Our tendency sometimes is to come to Lord and pray that he would bless what we're doing. Instead, we need to say, Lord, I wanna do what you're blessing. Instead of I want you to come bless where I am, I want to be where your blessing is. Let me ask it this way. How bad do you wanna find him? We know the wise men came from a long distance to find Jesus. [01:11:16] (35 seconds)  #HumbleChildlikeFaith

Unless you humble yourself as a child, you ain't getting in. Like, oh, really? So there is something about a child and children, not all children, not at all stages of childhood, but children can tend to be, well, more teachable. They realize there's a lot they don't know. And so many times they're willing to learn from somebody who does know. And the Lord is saying, I want you to start there. Admit you have a need to learn things. That's easier. Sometimes we say, oh, I do, but do we? [00:42:52] (29 seconds)  #AlwaysALearner

I think part of the problem that a lot of people have is even coming to that place where they admit they need to follow anybody. You see, Jesus would say of a child when his disciples were arguing about who's the greatest in the kingdom? I think they were, you know, saying it's maybe me or maybe they're saying, oh, it's probably you, really me. Anyway, they were having this discussion about who's the greatest. Remember what Jesus did? He took a child. He wasn't one of the apostles, some child, and he put the child in the midst of them. And he said, let's talk about entry into the kingdom, not about who's the greatest. [00:42:16] (35 seconds)  #WalkWorthily

Come and see. You wanna know where I'm staying? Come. In other words, Jesus gives them, because they want to know where he's staying, a personal invitation, and by the way, a promise of more revelation. Instead of telling here's my address. He says, no. I want you to actually come and discover it. Heard of a Sunday school teacher and was walking around, saw a little boy writing in his bible, noticed that he was circling the word god all over the pages of the bible. So what are you doing? He goes, I'm circling god, so I know where to find him when I need him. Right there. [01:10:37] (39 seconds)  #HowHungryAreYou

James puts it this way, draw near to God, and he'll draw near to you. He's done everything necessary for you to come to him and get close to him. Do you want to? Are you asking to? Lord, I wanna be closer to you. We did a memorial service for Dee Mader yesterday. Her husband Dean, who loves Jesus, had shared with me. She she died of cancer, by the way, colon cancer. She decided not to receive chemotherapy. She didn't want her last days on earth just to be miserable, and that was her choice. [01:13:02] (45 seconds)  #OneThingIWant

But you need to want him, not just things from him. David had a very short list for the Lord. One thing have I desired of the Lord, Psalm twenty seven four, that will I seek after that I may dwell on the house of the Lord all the days of my life that I might behold your beauty. I wanna be in your presence, God. You know, when God gave instructions for the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, if if you look at a map, if you've never seen one drawn, they have them online. His presence, his Shekinah glory, of course, dwelt above the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant in the holy of holies in the tabernacle. [01:13:47] (38 seconds)  #FixYourEyesOnChrist

Give birth to my granddaughter, Cora, so she's no longer on staff. But an interesting thing about Haley is she always called children kiddos. It's just the way she refers to children, kiddos. And, it wasn't long before I realized, wait a minute. Now my son Christian always calls children kiddos. They're all kiddos at our church. We don't have children. We have kiddos. Rachel, is now leading our children's ministry, came up under Haley. She always refers to children as kiddos. [01:06:36] (29 seconds)  #GoTellAtHome

Because people thought following Jesus was joining a group, joining a church, joining a group of other followers. It's possible to be in a group of people following Jesus and be counted among them, but not really be a true follower of Jesus. Look no further than Judas. But he's not the last one who would have made that same mistake of thinking, I am because I'm with others who are, and I'm doing the things that followers do. Put this down. Learn to be a learner. Learn to be a learner. [00:40:45] (30 seconds)  #BecomingWhatHeNamesYou

Jesus changes his name, but I want you to understand it was not instantaneous. Simon, it's a good name. It means one who hears from Simeon in the Old Testament. But he says, I'm gonna change your name. It's going to be Cephas in the Aramaic or Petros in the Greek, which means rock. Now that's interesting to me because, you know, Peter is many times in the gospels anything but solid. He's way more like a sinking Simon or a simple Simon. One moment, he's right on the money. Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Good answer. [01:34:06] (37 seconds)  #KeepYourEyesOnJesus

When my son was born, my second son, we gave him a name. The name we gave him was Valor. We like that name. It's a little different, but we had heard that in a family a pastor's family, and we liked the name. So we called him Valor. You know what was interesting is that's a name doesn't make somebody anything itself. My son was not mister Courage as a little boy. I remember one time he went down to play at a neighbor's house, two doors down. He was young, probably three or four. We were I was out gardening so I could see where he was. [01:36:19] (34 seconds)  #JesusSeesYourPotential

And, he came running back crying. I said, what's wrong? He said, come. Daddy, come. Come. I didn't know what had happened. So I walked with him and he pointed at a sleeping cat. That's what it was that terrified him. Sleeping kitty cat on the grass. I thought, we gotta work on the name. He became a mighty man of valor. He loves the Lord, and he's a godly and a strong literally strong man. But my point is when Jesus was saying, I'm changing your name, it meant this is who I see you as becoming. [01:36:53] (34 seconds)