All right, everybody. Welcome to New Life Church. How are we doing here today? Are we doing good today? Huh? Are we? All right. All right.
Well, hey, my name is Jeff Baker. I'm one of the pastors on staff here. I just want to welcome you guys. I hope that you're here because, man, you love Jesus, and/or you just want to know more about Jesus. We are a church that definitely welcomes people that are on all different areas of their spiritual journey, whether you are far from Christ today and you're discovering what it means to make Jesus your Lord and your leader, or you have been following Christ for the last many decades and you're here today because you just want to grow deeper in your relationship with Christ and you just want to know him more.
So can I just say this? Welcome to the last Sunday of the year at New Life Church. You made it. You did it. You did it. I'm looking out at some of you right now, and I'm thinking to myself, I think some of you guys have a perfect record. Some of you do, right? Some of you just do here at New Life. But nevertheless, I mean, with our online campus, which I'm welcoming everybody at all of our campuses and our online. With online, man, there is really no reason why you can't be a part of your local church every single week. Every single week.
Well, guys, look, today is a standalone day. We normally do teaching series. And I'm the one that oversees the church. I oversee the teaching team. I oversee the spiritual direction when it comes to what are we going to talk about from God's word? What do we sense God's word is trying to lead us in? Obviously, all of God's word brings life. I think we all agree with that, right? But then it's kind of like, okay, God's taking us on a journey, like he's our spiritual guide. And where is he taking us through his word through the year?
You know, if you've been around this church any length of time, that I get away in November. I spend a sermon writing retreat. I take a bunch of study and I get off to some kind of retreat center. And I just spend time writing, praying, fasting, and I just write all of the teaching series for the year. Well, when we did that, we also have some standalones, and this week was a standalone. And so as the lead pastor, I know that we have other staff members that have the gift to communicate, and I want to release that gift. And that's why you see other staff members up here from time to time, and they're communicating. Because, you know, even though I might be the lead pastor, that doesn't mean it's my job to be up here every Sunday. My job comes out of Ephesians chapter 4, which is to empower you and to empower our staff to do the work of ministry. That's really what God's called me to do.
And so I would normally have another staff member preaching today, and I just, for whatever reason, didn't have the peace to put any name in there. And we went all year with no name in the last Sunday of the year. All year, right? Until three weeks ago. And three weeks ago, I've got the pressure on me, right? The pressure's on me, like, what are you going to do? What's going to happen? Where are we going? And I'm going, God, like, how can you give us a year's worth of guidance, and we trust you for that, and we run with that, and we get to the end of the year, and we've got what we seemingly feel like is nothing.
And so we just kept seeking God's heart, seeking God's heart. So I woke up three weeks ago, and I was just praying. And as I was praying, I was like, God, I'm praying about this Sunday. And I'm going, Lord, what do you want to be done this Sunday? If you want me to speak this Sunday, you're going to have to put a word on my heart.
And guys, can I just say this to you, that you can trust the Lord that if you ask him to hear his voice, he will allow you to hear his voice. Did you know that God wants you to hear his voice? That God's not trying to keep his voice from you. God wants you to sense his heart. He wants you to sense his voice. Why? Because as we sense and we hear his heart, whether that is reading his word and his voice speaks to us, that's in prayer, and his spirit speaks to us. It's what allows us to walk in obedience to God.
And I don't know what you think about God, but I can tell you, God is a God who wants you to be able to walk in obedience to him. He's not a God who sets up a standard that's impossible for you to walk in obedience to him. He sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die on a cross so that we could walk in obedience to him. And then he sent the power of his Holy Spirit so we could walk in obedience to him.
All right, are you tracking with me on this? So then the Lord started speaking to my heart. It was so clear that I got my laptop and I went downstairs to my white sermon chair. I have this. It's just a chair, all right? Don't go to Nebraska Furniture Mart and go, hey, my pastor said he has a sermon chair. Where do you sell sermon chairs at? They're going to look at you really weird, okay? It's just this white chair, and I've come to find that when I sit down at this chair in my downstairs and I turn the fireplace on, how many of you guys like that, right? I mean, come on, the day we live in, turn the fireplace on. You don't have to cut the wood and make the whole process and smoke out the house. You can just turn it on.
And I sit there. And I just go, God, I just want to listen to you. It's like there's this download moment that takes place. Today I want to share with you one of those download moments. I just really entitled it "Footprints."
You know, when you watch old Western movies, it's amazing to me how these trackers can find the footprints of this criminal or of this horse, and then they track that person or they track that animal. Have you guys ever watched any movies like this, right? Or you're a hunter, right? And maybe you've been bow hunting, and you've shot the animal, and now you've got to track that animal to wherever it has now passed away at so that you can turn it into whatever meal you're going to eat.
I'm amazed when I watch these Western movies and these trackers, and I'm thinking to myself, the guy ran through a creek. He ran through a river, and they still track him, and I'm just blown away like it's actually real, and it's a movie, right? But there are people, because I've been around them, that understand that footprint, and they're like, I know that footprint is X amount of time old, and they've just got unique skills of the land that God has just revealed to them, and these people that can track them, why? So they can walk in their footprints.
In a similar way, all of us are walking in someone's footprints. I know you might think that you're innovative. I know that you might think you're unique. I know you might think that you're like no one else. But I've got bad news for you. You might be that in some weird way, but all of us are walking in someone's footprints. All of us are walking in the trail that has been blazed ahead of us, and those footprints are either leading you to life, or they're leading you to destruction.
Now, many of us, we walk in the footprints of our parents, and that's good. There's nothing wrong with that. As long as the footprints of your parents were teaching you to walk in the footprints of Jesus. Because I don't know about you, I love my mom and my dad, and my mom and my dad are actually in Nebraska right now. And with one church, multiple locations, they are actually at our Holdridge campus this morning. So welcome, mom and dad, not just to our online campus. My mom is like our online fan, by the way, right? But stop leaving bad reports, mom, on Google.
No, but they're actually at a Holdridge campus worshiping in person, and I'm glad they're here. My parents, they did teach me to walk in the footprints of Jesus. Maybe your parents didn't teach you that. And when we follow in the footprints of our parents, we follow in their mannerisms. Sometimes we follow in the way that they say things or they did things. And many of us, we grew up and we're like, I'm not going to be anything like my parents, right? And then all of a sudden one day, you know, someone's like, wow, you look just like your dad, or you look just like your mom, or that sounds just like what your mom would say, or just like what your dad would say, or that's exactly how your mom would act, or exactly how your dad would act. And you're like, and then you look in the mirror and you're like, okay, I've become my parent. It happens. It just happens, right?
Others of us, we walk in different types of footprints. We'll walk in very religious footprints. And I don't mean that in a relationship with God footprints. I mean that in a more negative connotation footprints. As an example, over in the Philippines, every single year there are religious zealots that walk in the literal footsteps of Jesus and they crucify themselves to a cross with nails, the whole deal, through the hands, through the feet, because they think that if they walk in these footsteps that somehow, some way, they are like presenting themselves as the most holy version that they can be. That's not what Jesus was asking for.
Just like Jesus is asking from you and me to walk in some religious footsteps where we just go to church because it's a thing that we've always done. It's a thing that, you know, my entire family always did. It's just what we do. No, that's called religious footprints. Those footprints lead to death. What Jesus wants us to do is he wants us to walk in footprints that are in a church where we're going, I'm not just coming to church to go through the religious action of going to church. I'm coming here because I am wanting to worship my Savior, my leader, my Lord.
Religious footprints. There are other footprints. How about footprints of bondage? It's unfortunate, but many people walk in these footprints. They walk in these footprints of addiction. The footprints of someone, right, that has gone before us, that modeled for us what this bondage looked like, and we adapted to it, and we decided we're going to walk in the addiction footprints of alcoholism or, you know, drug addiction or some kind of sex addiction, or we're going to walk in these footprints of anger or maybe overeating or overspending or whatever these footprints are. And again, I think you can obviously see these footprints, they lead to death.
Other people might walk in a different set of footprints, like the footprints of excuses. There's people that are here right now listening to my voice, and these footprints are just what you learn to walk in. You learn to walk in this footprint of coming up with excuses for why life just doesn't go your way, why life doesn't turn out the way you want it to. It feels comfortable to walk in these footprints because you always have someone else to blame for your problems. You might walk in these footprints and say things like, well, we've just always been poor, or no one in my family ever had an education, or my family was never healthy, so that's the reason why I'm not healthy, or my family was never healthy, that's the reason why my family, my personal family isn't healthy, or dreams never come true, so we never dream.
And they always walk in these excuses, and so what I'm saying to you is I could keep going on and on and on for the 30 minutes I have with you through the different variances of footprints that we can walk in, but what are the footprints we were designed to walk in? All these other things are distractions. Obviously, if you're here today and you've been following the Lord for any length of time, you know the answer to that. We're called to walk in the footprints of Jesus.
I think that's the reason why you're here today. You're here today because you want to figure out how to walk in the footprints of Jesus in a greater and greater way with greater and greater accuracy, sticking to his path and not varying from it. You can walk in the footprints of Jesus in a literal way. It's not what he called you to do, but you can. I mean, I've been over to Israel. If you've been to Israel, I had a guide. That guide took me many different places in Jerusalem where Jesus, they believe, walked, and he took me to this place called the Via Della Rosa, the road where they believe that Jesus walked when he carried his cross.
It's a moving experience knowing that Jerusalem's been destroyed multiple times, and you know that those are not actually the stones that Jesus walked on, but it's some variance. And I love the guides of Israel because they'll say things like this, well, if it wasn't here, it was near. And you're like, I paid you a lot of money to make that statement, by the way. I want it to be actually here, not near, right? But he's right. Somewhere in this vicinity that you can see and you can smell and you can touch, Jesus walked a path carrying a cross. Why? The Bible tells us he did.
That guide took me to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed on his last evening on this earth, right before he was arrested. And you're in this place where these olive trees grow, and they're just kind of like, man, these things are thousands of years old. They literally could have been some of the ones that where Jesus was at. It's moving. It's very moving. They took me to the Sea of Galilee where miracles took place. Jesus walked on water nearby. 5,000 plus were fed. I mean, Jesus walked to the beach where he called his disciples to come and follow him. A very moving experience to walk in the physical footsteps of Jesus.
But Jesus is looking for something much grander than you going on some Israel journey where you just walk in the literal footsteps of Jesus. Because how many of you guys know you could go walk in the literal footsteps of Jesus and still not be changed? So it's to walk in the spiritual footsteps of Jesus where we take what his word says and we lead our lives by the guiding of his spirit so that our words, our actions, and our deeds start resembling more the lifestyle of Jesus.
See, that's what we're here to talk about today. What does it look like to walk in the spiritual footsteps of Jesus? So can I just ask you a question before we move on? Whose footsteps are you walking in right now? It's a rhetorical question. There's no need to yell it out. But whose footsteps are you walking in? I mean, in all fairness, all honesty, if it's just you, Jesus, at a table and Jesus looks at you and he goes, whose footsteps are you walking in? What do you want to say? Don't you want to say Jesus? I want to say that. But if Jesus was there, he would know.
So whose footsteps would you have to say? Now, if in all honesty, in your heart right now, you're having to go, I want to say Jesus, but I have to say I'm walking in the footsteps of my old college buddy. I'm walking in the footsteps of the younger junior high version of myself. And wives are going, amen, they finally heard. If you have to say, because the conviction of your heart is leading you to say something other than Jesus, then how would you change the cadence?
How would you change your cadence? See, when I was in the military, you walked in a cadence. Anybody here was in the military and you had to walk in a cadence? Meaning you got in a group and someone had to yell out the orders, forward, march, double time, march, column, halt. And it goes on and on. Left, left, left, right, left. Some of you guys are flashing back right now and you're like, don't take me back to basic training again. But you had to learn to walk in a cadence.
So how do you walk in a spiritual cadence that follows Jesus? How do you do that? I would suggest a couple of things, just straight out of God's word. Number one, how about we just do this? How about we just follow one step at a time? Just one step at a time. Some of you, you just want to run immediately, but you weren't designed to run immediately. You're designed to just do one step at a time. We start out in our journey one step at a time and then we go, I got this, Jesus. And then that's when we start deviating off of our course.
It's like the old adage from Africa. How do you eat an elephant? Come on, somebody, tell me. It doesn't even sound delicious, does it? An elephant have no desire, right? But what if they made little baby elephants that you could have instead of puppies? How many of you guys would have one of those? Yeah, I saw hands go up. I don't want to eat an elephant, but that's... That's how you do it. Meaning, look, it's a big task. How do you conquer a big task? How do you conquer the big task of walking in the footsteps of Jesus? It's as simple as just coming back and giving yourself the freedom to walk one footstep at a time.
This is what Jesus said when he said to Peter and Andrew, come follow me. In Matthew chapter four, verse 19, Jesus calls out to them, Peter and Andrew. Come follow me, and watch what he says, and I will show you how to fish for people. Watch what Jesus is doing here, because he's still doing this to you and me. Come follow me. I'm going to teach you how to walk one footstep at a time.
Oh, but it's not just going to be me, Jesus, doing all of the ministry. Immediately, Jesus goes, come follow me one footstep at a time, and I'm going to teach you to do what I have done. Jesus is the ultimate master. He goes, come follow me. Walk in my footsteps, and then all of a sudden, I'm going to watch you now do the same things you've watched me do. This is a master at work.
Notice that Jesus isn't expecting you and me to run on day one. He's patient with his journey. Jesus went on a journey with his disciples that was how many years? Some of you guys have been around, you know, God for a while. How many years did the disciples go on a journey with Jesus? Three years. They go on a journey with Jesus for three years. Jesus is teaching them to walk one footstep at a time for three years.
Think about it with me. They're there, right, near the Sea of Galilee. 5,000 people are fed. Okay, that miracle happened because one little boy had a lunch that he brought. The disciples found it. They gave it to Jesus. Jesus multiplies the lunch and he feeds 5,000. How did that change the disciples? That changed them one footstep at a time. That was one footstep. Hey, stand here with me. Watch what I can do with, you know, a couple of fish and some bread. Their mind is blown. They're never the same again.
How about when they were walking in the footsteps of Jesus and then all of a sudden they're standing there and Jesus calls to a tomb that has a stone rolled over it with a dead man, his friend Lazarus, on the inside of it. And he says, Lazarus, come out. And the dead man comes out. How do you think that changed the disciples? See, one footstep at a time, it changes you. What happened when they saw Jesus walking on water? How did that change them? Right? What happens when they were there and all of a sudden the empty tomb and Jesus is no longer in it and he rose again from the grave? How did that change them?
See, every footstep we take with Jesus, he's trying to teach us something. How about when they were standing there and Jesus ascends into heaven? How did that change them? Changed their life forever. So what are the footsteps that Jesus, he calls his disciples to walk in? And what are the footsteps he's calling you and me to walk in?
Matthew chapter 28, verse 19, it tells us, it says, And be sure of this, I am with you always, even to the ends of the age. Jesus is saying this, I'm leaving. These are your marching orders. I'm leaving. This is the cadence I want you to walk in. I'm leaving. Walk in my footsteps. But then Jesus blows their mind away. And he says this about the footsteps he wants them to walk in in John 14, 12. He goes, look, I tell you the truth. Anyone who believes in me will do the what? Same works I have done. And even greater works because I'm going to be with the Father.
What is Jesus saying about the journey that we're on, these, the footsteps that he wants us to walk in, in his trail that he's blazed before us? He says this, I'm giving you the authority to do what I have done. I'm giving you the authority to walk in the very footsteps that I have walked in. And where is Jesus now? Jesus is continuing to blaze the trail ahead of us. What does the Bible tell us about Jesus? He sits at the right hand of the Father right now. Colossians chapter 3, verse 1, he sits at the right hand of the Father, this place of honor.
And what do we know about that place of honor? It's temporary. Why? How do we know that? Because we know that he's sitting there waiting for the Father to tell him, come back and get your church. See, Jesus is in heaven in a place where you and me will be. The entire journey of Jesus is to once again be where he is. Why do we walk in the footsteps of Jesus? So that eventually it leads us to where he wants us to be.
So how do you follow Jesus? You follow him one footstep at a time. Think about a baby. What does a baby do learning how to walk? Does a baby come out of the womb and run? It would be weird. So weird and really like not good. Think what kind of danger that kid would be in. That kid could come out of the womb and just run wherever they wanted to. Think how dangerous some of your kids are already. And if they could run on day one with no understanding of anything, like that's dangerous.
So they've learned to crawl. Right? And they crawl first. And then what do they do? They start pulling themselves up on things. Right? And that's when you have to start kid-proofing your house, grandmothers and grandfathers. And then they start doing this thing called cruising. And they kind of scoot along a couch or scoot along a table. Come on. And then they take their first steps, which looks a little bit like a monkey running. And it's really, all their first steps are this, stumbling forward. Right? Stumbling forward. And then they start walking and then they start running.
This is the journey. This is the journey that we are on with Jesus. This is the journey that Jesus took his disciples on. I'm going to suggest to you this. The disciples learned to walk in the footsteps of Jesus for three years. Three and a half years, they were running. Something happened in that half year. Something radically changed from walking to running. And let me tell you what it is. The power of the Holy Spirit.
Without the power of the Holy Spirit that shows up in Acts chapter two, that falls like a fire upon them. Not just that they start speaking in other languages. That is so minor. That they start walking in the authority of the Spirit. That they start actually seeing what Jesus told them. They start seeing the miracles that Jesus was doing. They start seeing these profound things where heaven's coming to earth, changing lives. They went from walking to running in a half a year and it all had to do with their surrendering and their obedience to the Holy Spirit in their lives.
So for you, for you, can I just boil this down to this one statement? Stop. Stop trying to run. Some of you, you're trying to run too fast for what you're designed for right now, and it keeps tripping you up. Just be comfortable walking in the next footprint of Jesus. He will eventually lead you to running. You got to give yourself the grace just to walk in the next footstep.
Let me ask you this. What happens if you're following Jesus and you get off path? That's happened for many of us. We've been following Jesus. We've been wanting to do what Jesus asked us to do, walk in his footsteps. What happens when you get off track? Well, let me make a recommendation to you. Here's what you should do. You should retreat. Don't deviate. Retreat. Don't deviate.
Let's just say you're out in the woods, and you're journeying along on this path, and it's a little dusk, and you lose track of the path, and now all of a sudden you're walking through the woods, and it's a little dusk, and you lose track of the path, and now all of a sudden seems like you're not in the right spot. Seems like you kind of got lost. How do you get back onto the path? Let me recommend to you what survivalists would say on how you get back to the path. You turn around, and you follow the footsteps that you just took back to a place that seems more common. Get yourself back onto the path.
Here's the mistake that most of us would make. Well, I'm lost out here someplace. I think the trail is going to be a little bit more over here somewhere. I'm going to deviate across through this wooded area that no one's walked before until I get back to the path. Let me help you understand something. When you're lost, you have two choices. You can either get found, or you can get twice as lost.
And what happens is that we get this kind of independent idea that when I'm spiritually lost, I will navigate my way back to the cross. And that's not how it works. You have to retreat. You have to backtrack. You have to get back to where you went before. Look, I'm a pilot. I went to flight school. Here's one of the things they teach you. When you're flying along, okay, and all of a sudden your airplane enters the clouds, and you can't see around you, here's what you're told to do. Turn a 180.
And so we practice this all the time. We put these special glasses on so you can't see out, and all you can see is the instruments. And you practice turning 180 degrees without falling out of the sky. It sounds really boring. And over time, it becomes incredibly boring until you understand why they're teaching you how to turn 180 degrees. Why? So that you can go right back to the point where you got lost. If you can fly back to that point instead of deviating, well, I don't think the clouds are over there. No, that's how you come out of the clouds, upside down, and you slam right into the ground.
You turn 180 degrees. And this is the same thing we do spiritually. If you're lost, and you were once on the path with Jesus, 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 22 says this, run from anything that stimulates youthful lust. You run from it. Instead, it says, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. That's what we want. But what we have to do first is we have to repent and retreat. Repent and retreat, flee the evil. When you do that, when you turn the 180 degrees, because that's what repentance means, repent and retreat and flee the evil. Well, then you can start following in the footsteps of Jesus again.
But if you keep making your own trail, then the Bible tells us destruction will come. Luke chapter 13, verse 5. I tell you again that unless you repent, unless you turn the 180 degrees, here's what will happen. You will perish. So if you're here today and you're outside of a relationship with Jesus, let me just say this to you. There is no other way to get right with God except through repentance. There is no other way to get right with God except through Christ. You have to repent. You have to retreat. You have to walk back to the cross and then start your journey.
And for all of us in this room, if you're spiritually lost, if you're spiritually deviated off the path, don't think that you are the one that can fix it and get yourself back. What you got to do is repent, retreat, come back to the cross, get your bearings again, and then let the Lord start leading you so that you can follow his path. Does that make sense?
So when is the best time to repent and retreat? When is the best time to repent and retreat spiritually? When is the best time? The minute that you recognize you're lost.
So again, today, I ask you the question, whose footsteps are you following in? See, if you're lost today, your move today, as simple as it might sound, for some of you that have been worshiping the Lord for decades, your move today is to repent and retreat. Come back to the cross. Get your bearings and start going again.
One more thing, though, I want to share with you. One more thing, one more thought about changing your cadence and walking in the footsteps of Jesus. Leave markers for others to follow.
Now, look, I don't know if you've ever done this before, but, man, I've climbed up 14,000 feet in Colorado multiple times. And when you get above tree level, one of the things that you discover is that others have been there before you. Oh, so disappointing, right? You're like, I'm going to go someplace no one's gone before. Nope, nope, thousands of people have actually been here, Jeff. You're not paving a journey by yourself.
And when you get above the tree line, all of a sudden you start seeing these things called cairns, right? They're rocks stacked on top of rocks. And what's it telling you? It's telling you this. Someone has gone before you, and they wanted to help you follow the path above the tree line, where the path can be very difficult to follow. And so what you do is you're at the one cairn, and you look ahead, and you find the other cairn, and you walk to that stack of rocks. And then you walk to the next stack of rocks, and then you walk to the next one. And if you keep following the cairns, with a C, by the way, not with a K. Sorry, Karens. Right? But if you keep following these things, eventually, all of a sudden, you make it to the top of the mountain.
And so what are these cairns telling us? They're telling us this. Someone went before us, and they took extra effort to care not just about their journey, but to care about your journey. So let me tell you the truth about following in the footsteps of Jesus. The more that you care about your journey, the more you can care about the journey of others.
When you focus on, I'm going to make it, I got to make it up this mountain, and it's going to take a lot of energy and effort. But I also want to make sure others come up. Then you're very deliberate at where you set the cairns. You're very deliberate at where you set the stones so that others can walk in it.
See, let me tell you what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the cairns. I'm talking about what spiritual maturity is. Spiritual maturity isn't about how many sermons you've heard. It's not about how many Bible studies that you're in. Spiritual maturity is really all about this. It's all about who you're guiding. That's spiritual maturity.
Spiritual maturity has nothing to do with the fact that you got yourself to adhere to church today. Spiritual maturity has everything to do with what are you doing with what you're here learning today. It's about, can you invest this and instill it into others? And if today you're sitting here and you're going, look, I don't feel qualified, Jeff, to lead anyone spiritually. Well, then there's a question you need to ask yourself. Well, then whose footsteps am I walking in?
Because if you're walking in the footsteps of Jesus, Jesus wasn't just expecting us just to watch him do it all. He was expecting us to watch him do it so that we could do it. So what should our spiritual journey look like? Our spiritual journey should look the same. I'm walking in the footsteps of Jesus, not just so that I survive, but that I'm leaving spiritual cairns so that others can do it.
So I'm walking in the footsteps of Jesus, can thrive spiritually. That might be your children. It might be your grandchildren. It might be somebody that you work with. It might be somebody in your family. It might be somebody that you care about deeply. But are you leaving spiritual cairns along your journey so that not just you get to where Jesus wants you to be, so that others can get there? Because that, my friends, is what spiritual maturity is.
And I would go as far as to say this, that if you claim that you are following Jesus, let me tell you, one of the greatest things Jesus is looking for in your life are others following you. And that's what spiritual maturity is. And I would go as far as to say this, following you. Yep, that's one of the things that he cares about most.
So if we say that we are following him, we're walking in his footsteps, what is the evidence of that? Are others following you?
Well, look, let me just jump straight to my conclusion. Okay? Again, whose footsteps are you walking in? I told you earlier about my parents. Right? I'm walking in the footsteps of Jesus, but I'm also walking in the footsteps of my parents who taught me to walk in the footsteps of Jesus.
Now, look, I told you, I woke up three weeks ago praying about today and the Lord put a message on my heart, and I felt like just to title it "Footprints." Walking in the footprints of Jesus. A couple days ago in my house, my parents were there, and my mom's talking about back before she met my father and before I was born that she used to sing in this little choir, and this choir recorded a record, an LP back in the day. Pretty fancy stuff, right? Records are all back; they're the thing now, right?
And my daughter Tiffany, she goes, oh, I have that record because she was at my parents' house, and my parents were like, hey, look, we got all this stuff in the basement, take whatever you want, right? And so she takes the record, and she has it at her house. So my mom is in Kearney now because he lives out in Florida, and they bring the record and a little record player over, and they play the record, and my mom gets to listen to all the songs that she's sung back in the late 60s, right? And you can see it on her face. It's moving her. It's moving other people in the room.
You're listening to yourself sing. And we look at all the songs on this record. And one of them, in fact, the last one on one of the sides is called this. No joke. "Footprints of Jesus." And of all the people in the choir, who was featured on this song? My mom.
And I thought to myself, that's not by accident. Lord, you do things like that. And as I listened to the song, I realized I'm wrapping my message up with this song. I'm wrapping the message up with this old song, this choir song of my mom singing this song called the "Footprints of Jesus."
Now, before they play it, as you listen to this song, it's going to take you way back. For some of you, and for others of you, you're going to be like, they actually made music like that? All right. So just lean in. Lean in. And I want you to ask yourself this question while you listen to this "Footprints of Jesus" song. Whose footprints am I walking in?
All right. Take it away.
It's a song like that. That's the reason why I'm walking in the footprints of Jesus. My mom didn't just sing that song; she led that life. See, that's how powerful the footprints of Jesus are. They change us, but when we walk in them, it changes others.
So you want to know what your destination is? You want to know what your outcome is? Look at the footprints you're following right now. Because if you're following the footprints of Jesus, I know where your home is. But if you're not following in the footprints of Jesus, I also know where your home is. Your destination is all determined on the next step you take. It's not how fast you run; it's all based on the one step ahead of you.
So if you want to walk in the footprints of Jesus today, if that's how you want your life to be lived, then I just want you to stand with me and let me pray for you.
Father, as we wrap up this moment of just hearing from your word and unpacking the principles of what you called us to do of walking in your footsteps, that Lord, we surrender our lives to you.
Lord, we know you gave us two physical legs, but you gave us two spiritual legs, and they can journey wherever they want. And Lord, our hearts are wicked above all things, and we get off course all the time. But Lord, today, here at the end of this year, you're calling us back to will we walk in the footprints of Jesus?
Because if we walk in the footprints of Jesus, it leads to life, and it was your wounded feet that made those footprints so that we could actually walk in a way that glorifies you, it honors you, and it actually helps the next generation or those we care about most walk in your footsteps.
It's not about running right now; it's just about the next step ahead of us. So Lord, today, as we stood, we took one step closer to you, and we said, Lord, would you lead us in your footsteps? And would you guide us by your spirit so that our life glorifies you and it honors you in all the things that we do and all the things that we say and who we are, wherever you take us?
Lord, may the footsteps ahead of us be clear. May they be clear. May the footsteps of Jesus be clear ahead of us so that we know where to walk and what to do that brings you glory and honor through our lives. In Jesus' name.
on Dec 29, 2024
