Lord, we do thank You for the marvelous privilege we have had this morning, as we are drawn to Your Word to consider You, Lord, and to lift up Your marvelous name in a spirit of worship, praise, and adoration.
Thank You, Lord, that we can remember Your acts, and we can remember Who You are. We thank You for Your power and Your might. Lord, we thank You, too, that You are a God Who so loves to speak to His beloved children.
We come now, Lord, presenting ourselves unto You, that You could speak; that there would be a specific anointing and strength for this time; and that there would be hearing here to really know what is upon Your heart for this hour.
We confess that we are dull of hearing. We get distracted. Would You capture us this morning in a fresh way, that we could be drawn and continue in the very presence of the living God? We bless You, Lord, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
These days that we are living in, I think most of us would agree that things get pretty complicated. These are days of complexity, and it is like the spirit of this age loves to lead us away from the Lord and draw us in to be captured by the spirit of this world.
There is a verse in 2 Corinthians 11 that often gets mentioned on Wednesday nights at prayer time, as we consider living in this day and the time that we are at. We see that the enemy has a plan too. He has had a plan ever since Adam and Eve, and he is very active even in the days that we are living in. I believe this will continue to intensify as we go on.
If you look at 2 Corinthians 11, let us read verses 2 and 3. This really speaks of Paul’s heart and his jealousy toward those in Corinth:
For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy:
for I espoused you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness,
your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ.
The phrase that caught my heart was how the enemy is trying to lead us away from the simplicity and purity of our devotion to Him. I am not even talking so much about the world, because we know the world would do it. But even within Christendom, things can get so complicated.
We can make this Christian life into, “In order to do the Christian life, you have got to do this, this, this. Look at this. You have got to do that. Listen to this teaching. Here is a ministry over here.” You get this whirlwind of stuff going on in the name of the Lord, and we are just like, “Lord, when You were around, there was peace. There was rest.”
But as we get caught up in all this stuff, we are exhausted. What is going on? If we can allow the Lord to show us that the enemy is subtly leading us away from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ, particularly in these end days, then we will know His voice and go on.
There are many things out there in the name of the Lord, but are they Him? As we maintain this simplicity in a place of rest, we will know His voice.
One of the things that has encouraged me over the years is a little phrase in Scripture. It is the first recorded words that our Lord said to Peter, and it is also the last recorded words that He said to Peter. There is a simplicity about it, because it spans the whole of our Christian life.
Sometimes we fall into this trap: “Okay, I am at this level. Now let us go on to something more. Let us go to something more.” We think of going up, up, up to some higher teaching. But brothers and sisters, the progression of the Christian life is not higher; it is lower.
We may think, as an assembly, that we are going to move on to another level, and unconsciously we think we are going up. Actually, if we are really moving on to another level, we are going down. We are returning to that simplicity and purity that there is in Christ.
Turn to Mark 1. Peter and his brother were fishing by the Sea of Galilee. Look at Mark 1:16:
And passing along by the sea of Galilee,
He saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net in the sea;
for they were fishers.
And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after Me,
and I will make you to become fishers of men.
This was the Lord’s call to Peter: “Follow Me.” The simplicity of that.
Look over at the end of our Lord’s life upon this earth and the conversation He has with Peter, as recorded in John 21. Peter had fallen away, and the Lord had wonderfully restored him. Now the Lord is getting ready to leave and ascend to the heavens.
If we look at John 21:19-22, after speaking of the death by which Peter would glorify God, the Lord said to Peter:
Follow Me.
Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them. Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, and what about this man?” Jesus said to him:
If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?
Follow thou Me.
As we look at Peter’s life, the bookends of it are this phrase: “Follow Me.” This is a real key to our whole Christian life. The Lord is calling us simply to follow Him.
This is what He said when He went to Matthew: “Follow Me.” He called the disciples, “Follow Me,” and He calls each one of us, “Follow Me.” Even at the end of Peter’s life, this was His continued call, because there is a continual following in this.
For the sake of the Greek scholars in this room, there are two words translated “follow Me” in the New Testament. One means to join Me as My companion on the way.
It is as though the Lord says, “I am going a certain way. I have a specific goal in mind, and I want you to come and join with Me and be My companion along the way. In that, I will teach you.”
The religious word often used for this is discipleship. But it is learning of the Lord. The disciple looks to his master and learns from him. How does the disciple learn? He keeps his eyes on the master. He sees what the master does and learns what the master is trying to show him.
The Lord says, “Join Me as a companion on the way. Be My companion on this path that I have.” The other Greek word simply means, “Come after Me.” He is going before us, and we come after Him.
Following is not going before. If someone says, “Follow me,” you do not go before them. He goes forth as King. He is leading on, and we come along behind Him and follow where He goes.
When we are following someone, we are not even coming alongside them as if we are going to walk together in our own strength. He says, “You come after Me. You follow after Me,” as He leads us on.
Turn for a moment to Exodus 33. The children of Israel had come out of Egypt. Moses had been on the mountain; the people had made the golden calf; Moses came down; and the Lord judged and settled that issue. Now they were ready to continue on.
Moses comes before the Lord in Exodus 33:12-15. One of the first things Moses says is, “Lord, show me Your ways.” They had just seen man’s ways in the golden calf. Moses says, “Lord, we want to know Your ways.”
The Lord later showed Moses His ways. It was a marvelous answer to prayer. But as we continue in Exodus 33:14-15, we read:
And He said, My presence shall go, and I will give thee rest.
And he said unto Him, If Thy presence go not, carry us not up hence.
Most translations add “with you,” but that phrase is in italics. Literally, the Lord says, “My presence shall go, and I will give thee rest.” That is following the Lord. He goes, and as He goes, we have rest.
Then Moses responds and says, “If Thy presence does not go, we are not going to leave here.” Is the Lord leading? It is not merely the Lord with us as we go our own way. It is a fine distinction, but an important one.
We can subtly think that the Lord is our buddy and that we are calling Him alongside us to go through life together. But the Lord is saying, “Follow Me.” He is leading us on. When His presence goes, then we go too, and there will be rest for our souls.
When He says, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” it is because His very presence and life are there. We can enter into rest that we have never known before.
In our natural selves, brothers and sisters, that is totally uncomfortable, because most of us are control freaks. We like to be in control of our situation. We do not like to go out as Abraham, not knowing where we are going.
We want to know where we are going. We want to know what we are going to go through. Then all of a sudden the Lord says, “No, you follow Me.” We find ourselves having to enter by faith into what He calls us to.
When He says, “Follow Me,” He is simply wanting us to come to Him in a very personal way. Certainly, there are experiences with Him and blessings that we enter into. But what He is calling us to is a personal relationship with Him: to get to know Him.
In these days, there are many voices. How are we going to know His voice if we have not come to know Him? The testimony in John 10 is that the sheep know His voice.
Someone else can walk in and try to get the sheep to do something, but the sheep will not respond. The shepherd says one word, and the sheep respond because they know his voice. They have entered into relationship with him.
The Lord, in the hour that we are living in, is calling us to return to the simplicity of knowing Him. We can know so much about Him. We can know His teachings, and all those things are good. But He wants us to come and know Him in a marvelous and wonderful way, because it is His life that will lead us on.
There was a story about those who work for the FBI. As part of their training, they learn to identify counterfeit dollar bills. They take the genuine bills and learn the paper, the watermarks, the pictures, the wording, and all the unique features of each bill.
But during their training, there is one thing they never look at: a counterfeit dollar bill. They never look at a counterfeit because if you know the real thing, then when you see something else, you will say, “Wait a minute. That is a little odd.”
Brothers and sisters, there are many counterfeits. We know there are antichrists in this hour. When we hear voices saying, “Follow me,” we need to be sure who is calling us to follow him. We need to know His voice and know Him in a marvelous, wonderful way.
If I came in and said, “I want you to follow me,” that is not a complicated, rocket-science thing. This afternoon, some of us are going down to Edith Mosley’s place on the river. Edith turns eighty-six tomorrow, so send her a card; she would love it.
Some of us are going to caravan down there, so some will be following us. The ones who are following are going to stay close. They are going to stay close.
How do you stay close to the Lord? It simply means abiding in Him. Abiding in His Word, abiding in fellowship with one another, and abiding in prayer.
As we enter into these aspects of life with Him—prayer, His Word, and fellowship—we get to know Him in a greater way, and a closeness develops.
Also, as you are following someone, you keep your eyes on them. You do not get distracted. Whoever is going to be in this caravan will be looking ahead and keeping their eyes on the one they are following.
There are so many distractions. We read in John 21 how Peter got distracted by John. “What about that?” And the Lord said, “Do not worry about all that. You follow Me.”
We can get distracted by our work and by the pleasures of this world. We can get distracted by so many things that are trying to tug us away. But the Lord is simply saying, “Follow Me. Keep your eyes on Me. Do not be distracted.”
Do not worry about who won the race last night, who ran out of gas, or who ended up winning. Some of you know what I am talking about. The Yankees are only two games up now; they are all right.
There are so many things pulling us away. Good things, bad things, worldly things—whatever. Martha was even distracted by her service. She was so caught up in serving.
Martha gets a bad rap sometimes. Martha was serving her heart out. Would that we served as much as Martha did. But she got distracted. Do not look down on Martha too much; most of us are not even at her level of serving. But she needed perspective.
Let us stay close. Let us keep our eyes on Him. And really, let us trust Him. If somebody says, “Follow me somewhere,” you may not know where they are going, but you trust that person. You believe them and allow them to lead you on to the fullness of what they would have for you.
One time, we were in Los Angeles, visiting Poinsettia Valley. We were driving from the home where we were staying to the meeting place, traveling on the LA freeways. We did not know how to get there, so the brother said, “Follow me.”
We were right behind him. I probably was not being a very courteous driver, because nobody was going to get between us. We were staying close, and I was focused.
Then there was one big curve, where you get off one freeway and go to another. Off to the right was a huge rock quarry. I took my eyes off the car I was following and looked over at the quarry. When I looked back, there were two exactly identical vehicles in front of us.
The people we were following had a white Mazda MPV. When I looked back around, there were two white Mazda MPVs in front of us. Both had four people inside: mother and daddy up front, two kids in the back.
How did we tell the difference? Not by the license plate—I am not that smart. They looked exactly the same on the outside, but inside, we knew the life within one, and we did not know the life in the other.
Brothers and sisters, there are many things out there that appear in the name of Christ. But if you look within, is His life there? First, we have to get to know His life. Then we can recognize His life—or recognize that something else is there.
How we need to get to know His life, because it is His life that we follow. As Moses prayed to know His ways, so as we follow His life, we see not only His acts but His mighty ways. We get to know His heart.
Think for a moment upon our Lord when He was upon this earth. Following Him means following the way He walked. He was born in Bethlehem, a place of humility. He lived hidden years in Nazareth. He was rejected by the very ones to whom He came.
Then He went to Gethsemane: “Not My will, but Thy will, be done.” Then He went to Calvary, to the cross. Let us be realistic about this life. We can tell cute little stories to make a point, but as we follow Him, we go through the same way that He calls us to walk.
Look at Matthew 16:24. The Lord says to all the disciples:
If any man would come after Me,
let him deny himself,
and take up his cross,
and follow Me.
If anyone desires to come after Him—if anyone has that desire from the heart—let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Him. One aspect of following the Lord is the way of the cross.
Every day when we wake up, there are two paths set before us: a pathway of life and a pathway of death. Oftentimes we think, “I want to do the right thing. I do not want to do the wrong thing.” In one way, that is good, but that is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The Lord wants to bring us into the fullness of knowing His life. He wants us to take up the tree of life, that we may go on the pathway of life, following His life and knowing Him in a marvelous way.
If we are honest, most of us want to go on both paths. We want to follow the Lord, but there are things we really like doing, and we want to do those things too. Trying to straddle both paths is simply the pathway of death, because it leads to destruction.
The Lord is calling us, as we follow Him, to go through the cross. When we think of the cross, what do we think of: death or life?
The Lord would have it that, when we see the cross, we think more of life. It is a life issue. Yes, there is death involved, but if you stop at death, you miss the whole beautiful picture of the cross.
There is life that comes out of it. There is an overcoming life that He calls us to enter into. As we follow Him, there is death to our own self and to many of our own desires, but we enter more and more into His life and what He is calling us to.
Where does this desire come from? Do you desire to go the way of the cross? In our natural selves, there are not many volunteers for that way. We may try it, but we will soon find that our natural energy will not allow us to go the way of the cross.
But brothers and sisters, there is a way. There is a Lord Who has called us, and as He reveals Himself to us, He puts that desire in our hearts. It is His life.
As we behold the beauty of the Lord, we sing all these marvelous choruses. But what captures our hearts in those choruses is the beauty of the Lord Himself.
When we think upon Calvary, what do we see? One way I like to look upon Calvary is this: there, the Lord sang an eternal love song to each one of us.
The enemy thought it was death, but the Lord came and sang a beautiful love song to all of us. As we respond to that love song, desire captures our heart, and we follow.
Then we have the desire to follow Him. It is by His grace that we receive this desire. We cannot work it up. But as we see Him, there is a response. There is a grace by which we receive the desire to follow Him, because He sang a beautiful love song to us.
The world is also out there singing a song. It reminds me of a story from mythology about the Sirens. They were on an island in the Mediterranean, and they would sing songs. As sailors went sailing by, they were attracted and turned their ships to hear the beautiful music.
But when they turned their ships, they crashed upon the rocks and died. The Sirens would plunder their ships. It was a song leading to death.
Then one day, a man named Orpheus sailed by. He was a musician, and he started singing. Orpheus sang a more beautiful song, so that his crew members were not distracted by the Sirens’ song. They listened to Orpheus and sailed by contentedly because he sang a more beautiful song.
Brothers and sisters, I share that because the world we are living in is singing a song. It can be very attractive, but it is a song that leads to death.
But praise the Lord, at Calvary our Lord Jesus sang a more beautiful love song. Have we heard that song? Do we know that song? Has it captured our hearts?
There is that song: “Lord, I am captured by Your beauty.” Are we captured by the love song of our Lord, or do we find ourselves still listening, enchanted and enthralled, by the love song of this world? It is a song that leads to death.
As we look at Matthew 16, what was the setting? Peter had just had this marvelous revelation concerning the Christ, the cross, and the church.
We share much about our desire for the church to be built. The Lord said, “I will build My church.” How does the Lord build His church? By us following Him.
As we follow Him, He will do the building work. As He leads us alongside a brother or sister who may be difficult to live with—nobody here like that, of course; this is for the tape people—He brings us alongside them and says, “Live with them.”
We cannot do it. That is the marvelous thing about the work He has done. One of the greatest obstacles to entering into the building work of the church is that we keep trying to do it ourselves.
But as we follow Him, as He leads us on, and as we allow His life to work within us, we get built together. We get built together by looking vertically, not horizontally.
You can look at somebody you think you like and love, but then you start noticing all the little pimples, quirks, and bumps on their head. But the Lord, in His marvelous way, does His work. If we follow Him, looking unto Him vertically, He does the building.
The marvelous thing about the Lord is that He is so practical. We say, “Lord, I want to follow You,” and He takes us at our word. He brings us alongside others, puts us together, and then we can enter into what He is doing.
Earlier, we said that one of the principles of following the Lord is staying close to Him. We know that later in Peter’s life, he denied the Lord.
How many in this room can deny the Lord? Do not raise your hand. But in reality, we should all have our hands up. If you do not think that within yourself you could deny the Lord, you are deceived. We are no better than Peter.
Except by the grace of God, there we go. If we ever look down upon Peter for denying the Lord, it simply means we do not know ourselves. There is self-preservation in the self-nature. When it comes to a choice, in ourselves, we are going to choose “I,” not Him.
But praise the Lord, Peter did that, and we know the Lord restored him. It is interesting to note that, before Peter denied the Lord, the Gospels say, “Peter followed at a distance.”
I got my order wrong before—it was a test to see whether you all got it. Before Peter denied the Lord, he followed at a distance. He was withdrawing. He was pulling back. And as Peter followed at a distance, then he denied the Lord.
When we are going through tough times, we can find ourselves pulling back. But those are actually the times when we should pull closer.
What was our condition when the Lord first met us? We were sinners, yet He first showed and shed abroad His love in our hearts. Peter followed at a distance, was led into temptation, and ended up denying the Lord.
When the going gets tough, when we begin focusing on our insecurities and inadequacy, that is not the time to shrink back. That is the time to draw nearer, closer, and more intimately to Him, and allow Him to lead us through.
Peter denied the wrong person. He denied Christ and said yes to his own life. We know from history that later Peter denied his own life and said yes to the Lord, and ended up being martyred. Peter learned the lesson there. Would we also learn the lesson of really following Him?
Turn back to John 21. Here we have the beautiful picture of how the Lord fully restored Peter. After restoring him and commanding him to feed the sheep and tend the lambs, the Lord says, “Follow Me, Peter.”
As soon as the Lord says, “Follow Me,” what does Peter do? He turns away and looks at John. He gets his eyes off the Lord.
It is interesting to note that Peter was not distracted by something bad. Who would not be distracted by the apostle John? But if the Lord is there, and we have a choice between the Lord and John, we keep our eyes upon the Lord.
Peter says, “Well, what about this guy?” The Lord had just told Peter that he would suffer a certain death. Peter looks at John and essentially asks, “How come he does not have to do this, while I am going to do this?”
The Lord says, “What is that to you?” In a modern translation, we could say, “Peter, mind your own business.” Peter, this is the call and walk I have for you. Do not get distracted by the way other people are walking.
Do we ever get distracted because so-and-so gets to do something, but we cannot do it? It is marvelous that the teenagers in our midst never say that. It is only the old adults who say, “How come they get to do this, and I cannot?”
But the Lord says, “It is really none of your business what anybody else is doing. This is what I am calling you to do. You follow Me.”
The Lord looks upon each one of us, and He has a specifically designed path for each one of us. He knows what it will take for His life to be formed within us. Some walk one way, and some walk another way.
We can become so distracted: “How come they are this or that?” No. What is that to you? You follow Me.
“Lord, this brother, he is such—” I will not say it. But the Lord says, “What is that to you? You follow Me.”
As we follow, that building work continues on. The analogy is often used of running a race. If you look around and get distracted, you stumble and end up out of the race. But we follow Him, keep our eyes upon Him, and do not look around.
As we go through this Christian life, do you ever feel lonely? Do you ever feel that you are alone? “Lord, I feel like I am the only one. It is a lonely path.”
Brothers and sisters, we can be encouraged. It can be lonely upon this earth, but in spiritual reality, we are not alone. There is a great work being done.
We talked about following the Lord as the pathway to the cross. If that were the end of following the Lord, perhaps that would not be the greatest sales pitch in the world. But turn to Revelation 14.
In Revelation 14, look at the second part of verse 4. Here is the scene in heaven: one hundred forty-four thousand before the very throne of God, worshiping the Lord and singing a new song.
Who are the ones singing the song?
These are they that follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.
Do not get distracted by when all this occurs or by who the one hundred forty-four thousand represent. The issue is that the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes end up before the very throne of God, worshiping Him.
They are the ones singing that new song. They have learned to sing in harmony, and they are singing together. They have learned from the Master. They have learned from Him how to sing. There is a oneness and unity there.
They may have thought they were walking lonely upon this earth, but brothers and sisters, we are being built together. When we look upon this earth horizontally, we may think the Lord is not doing much. But if we could glimpse spiritual reality, we would see the Lord doing a great work.
In the time of Nehemiah, you could look around and see only shambles—not much going on at all. But Nehemiah saw beyond. When he was tempted to go out into the field, he said, “Oh no, I am not going,” because “we are doing a great work.”
Nehemiah saw beyond. He saw it was a great work. As we keep our eyes upon the Lord, we can see the great work that He is doing. As we follow Him, we see this marvelous work.
If we look upon ourselves, it may not seem like much, because we see with our natural life. We see dimly now. One day we will see in a fuller way. But in reality, brothers and sisters, it is more real than here and now. The Lord is doing a great work.
These ones learned this new song. They had His name written upon them because they followed the Lamb wherever He goes. As they followed Him, He brought them into oneness.
When I was in the military, I was on a precision drill team. We would march with our rifles and bayonets, doing parades and drills. We prided ourselves because we marched as one man.
As we marched along, we would start a certain drill at a certain moment. The way each one of us knew the right place to be was not by looking around at the others. Each one of us knew our relationship to the leader.
I knew that, when the leader was at a certain point, I was supposed to be here. When the leader was there, I was supposed to be there. Each one of us knew where we were to be in relation to the drill master.
That is how we continued to stay in unity. When you start looking around at one another, you do the old wavy lines and get all out of sync.
Brothers and sisters, how do we march on in our Lord? How do we follow the Lamb wherever He goes? How do we allow Him to bring us into the oneness that is there? By keeping our eyes upon our Master, allowing Him to lead us on, and allowing Him to form His life within us in a greater way.
This ends with a beautiful scene before the throne. We can hear much about ruling and reigning with Christ, but do not make it lofty. How do we come to rule and reign with Christ? Follow the Lamb wherever He goes.
Sure, there is humiliation like Bethlehem. Sure, there will be hidden times like Nazareth. Sure, there will be times like Gethsemane, when we say, “Not my will, Lord, but Your will.” Sure, there is the cross of Calvary working within us.
But brothers and sisters, it does not end there. It ends at the very throne of God, with Christ being formed not only within us individually but within us together.
It is not just here. Throughout this whole universe and throughout time, the Lord is calling a people to Himself. May we be those who return to the simplicity and purity of our devotion to Christ.
Things can try to become so complex. “If you want to be a Christian, you have got to do da, da, da.” Oh, brothers and sisters, return to the simplicity. His call at the very beginning of our Christian life is simply, “Follow Me.”
Jerry shared about these different callings last week: follow Me in salvation, follow Me in service. These ones followed Him in overcoming; they were before the throne. But it comes back to following Him wherever He leads us.
One of the prayers of my heart is based on this statement: “If anyone desires to come after Me.” I pray for a greater desire.
I can say that I have seen something of the Lord, a little bit, and I have a desire to follow Him. But I pray for a greater desire because I see how easily I get misled, how easily I fall because of my own selfish desires and distractions.
Would He give me a greater desire? I know that comes by the grace of seeing more of Christ. Would that we would all have that cry to see more of Him.
My brother shared in the announcement that we are inquiring on Sunday nights. Our desire is to see the Lord.
In one way—and I hope this comes out right—we are not coming together merely to pray for Christa’s healing, even though we all desire that. We are coming together to see the Lord and to inquire of Him.
As we see the Lord, whatever He has and whatever His ways are, that is what we desire. It is that way in every aspect of our life, brothers and sisters. As we see Him, we will know in a mighty way the wonderful way He is moving.
Would He give us a glimpse, even of that throne before the very throne of God, that we could really know the fullness of His heart and His desire? Let us pray.
Lord, we really thank You so much for this call that You have upon our lives to follow You.
Forgive us for making it so complicated at times. Forgive us for trying to go ahead and take things into our own hands.
Lord, forgive us, too, for responding to the song that the world sings. Would we hear Your love song in a fuller and greater way? Would that capture our hearts in fullness, Lord?
We worship You, Lord. We thank You for how much You are for us. Lord, You gave Yourself completely.
Lord, we want to be those who respond to Your love and allow You to lead us into a fuller knowing of Your marvelous Self. In Jesus’ name, amen.