In Touch Ministries

Dr. Charles Stanley: So the question is this: Are you a true genuine follower of Jesus Christ? Not if you're living in sin, not if you're living in disobedience to God, not if you're living in rebellion, not if you've made your own plans doing your own thing, gratifying your own flesh, satisfying your own needs.

Following Jesus is having received him as my Savior. I walk with him, follow him by believing what he says to me and obeying the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Guest (Male): Most of us are familiar with the children's game, "Follow the Leader." That simple game actually provides a glimpse into the Christian life. Those of us who are believers should keep our leader, Jesus, in sight and imitate him.

Today's edition of In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, begins explaining what it means to follow Christ. Let's listen in to Dr. Stanley's message.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Would you declare yourself to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ? And if you would, how would you define what following Jesus means when he's no longer here physically? You cannot see him, you cannot touch him, you cannot hear him speak audibly.

All of our life, most of us have heard that phrase, "following Jesus." But I wonder how many of us really and truly know what it means to follow Christ. Now, there are a lot of people who think they're following Jesus when, in essence, what they're doing is they're simply deciding the kind of lifestyle they want to live and they want to make sure that there's nothing immoral or dishonest in it.

Once they've made the decision and it looks good, then their idea of following Jesus is to ask God to bless what they have already decided they want to do. That's not following Jesus. So what does it mean to follow Christ? What did it cost you to turn your life over to him?

What real difference has it made in your life since you started following Jesus Christ? And my friend, are you deadly serious about following Jesus, or is your idea going to church, reading the Bible when the pastor reads it, giving some money, and saying some prayers, especially in trouble? Or are you deadly serious about following Jesus Christ?

Well, that's the title of this message, and I want to answer some very important questions about that. So if you'll turn to Matthew chapter four, I want us to read a very familiar passage about this whole idea of what it means to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus has been baptized, he went to the wilderness, he's been tempted, now he's come back from the wilderness, and the theme of his message is repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And then beginning in verse 18 of Matthew chapter four: "And walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, 'Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.' And they immediately left the nets and followed him.

And going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. And he called them. And they immediately left the boat and their father and followed him."

What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus Christ? Well, first of all, I want us to talk about the reality of this. How are you and I to be followers of Christ when we cannot see him or audibly hear him speak? Well, before the Lord Jesus Christ left his apostles, you'll recall in the upper room in the 16th chapter of John that he said to his apostles, "I'm going away."

He says, in fact, "It's absolutely essential for you that I go away, but if I go, I'm going to do something that will compensate for my leaving." And this is what he said. He said, "I tell you the truth in verse seven, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper, the Holy Spirit, shall not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you."

Then he says, "Here's the reason. To convict the world of righteousness, sin, and judgment. Verse 12: I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now, that is, you won't understand them at this point. But when he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak of himself or on his own initiative, but whatever he hears he will speak. He will disclose to you what is to come. He shall glorify me."

Now, the Lord Jesus Christ knew that the next day he's going to be crucified. He knew that they were going to be upset, discouraged, disillusioned, want to quit and go back to fishing. They've been following him for three years, and now he's leaving them. How can we continue to follow someone we cannot see, we cannot touch, we cannot feel, we cannot hear his audible voice? How are we to keep on doing what we've been doing?

Peter, James, John, and Andrew, all fishermen there by the sea that day, would never forget what he said when he looked at them and he said, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Well, when the Lord Jesus Christ was about to leave them, he said, "I'm going to make it possible for you to follow me just as carefully now after I'm gone as while you have been with me."

And this is what he said. He said, "I am sending to you the Holy Spirit." Now, when the Holy Spirit comes into the life of a believer, he comes to indwell on the inside of that believer. And with regard to following Christ, he has three primary responsibilities. He comes to live on the inside of us.

First of all, one of his primary ministries is to give us guidance and direction for our life. When you were saved, the Bible says your spirit was made alive. The Holy Spirit comes into your spirit, and it is the Holy Spirit living on the inside of you who gives you direction and clarifies the decision-making process in your life.

So that you and I are not left here to make up our own mind, to do our own thing, to follow our own will, to make our own plans, but we are to follow the Lord Jesus Christ by following the leadership of the Holy Spirit. That's why he came. Jesus said, "There are some things that if I told you now you won't understand them. You're not ready to hear them now. But you will be, and the Spirit of God is the one who will teach you."

The second responsibility the Holy Spirit indwelling us with regard to following Christ is not only to show me what to do, but to enable me to do it. One of his ministries is the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. Whatever God requires of us, God also assumes responsibility for enabling us to do it. Does he not say, "He that calleth thee will also do it"?

So in following the Lord Jesus Christ, we don't have to figure out what to do. He will show us. In following the Lord Jesus Christ, we don't have to ask, "Will I be able to do it?" but rather, the Spirit who gives us guidance to do whatever he's requiring of us is the same Spirit who will empower us to do whatever God requires us to do.

Now, there's a third thing and that's this. One of the responsibilities of the indwelling Spirit of God who is our guide is course correction. That is, when he sees us wavering off course, being influenced by the wrong pressures in life, it is his responsibility to convict us of that, to make us aware that we are wandering and drifting away from God's best, his perfect will for our life, and to encourage us and woo us and, if necessary, chasten us and put pressure on us to get us back on course.

Because you see, in essence, here is what following Jesus Christ is. Following Jesus Christ is obeying him. Following the Lord Jesus Christ begins with receiving Christ as our Savior and now, having received him as our Savior, walking after him, walking in his way. And how do we do that? First of all, by believing what he says to us and, secondly, by obeying him.

So the question is this: Are you a true genuine follower of Jesus Christ? Not if you're living in sin, not if you're living in disobedience to God, not if you're living in rebellion, not if you've made your own plans doing your own thing, gratifying your own flesh, satisfying your own needs. Following Jesus is having received him as my Savior. I walk with him, follow him by believing what he says to me and obeying the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

But the second aspect of following him is this, and that is, what are the requirements of following Jesus Christ? They haven't changed from what they were in the first century. Now, let's make one thing very clear. At no time in the life of Jesus Christ did he ever challenge anyone to follow him under false pretense. "If you will follow me, I'll make life full of ease, comfort, and pleasure." Jesus said, "If you follow me, this is what you can expect, and that is the cross."

At no point did he ever say, "Well, if you'll follow me, here's what I will do, and it all come out with ease, comfort, and pleasure and entertainment and pleasure." But Jesus called men and women to him to follow him, to follow his lifestyle and his pattern. Now, centuries have gone by. Things are not the same as they were in those days. Many things have changed. But, in essence, following Jesus Christ has never changed. It is always the same.

Now, when we talk about the requirements of following the Lord Jesus Christ, sometimes we want to formulate our own. But there are specific requirements that God has given us. And you see, once Jesus began to talk about the requirements, it's amazing what happened to his congregation. When he first started preaching, they saw the miracles and the wonders. I want you to turn to John chapter six.

For in this sixth chapter of John is a perfect example of the kind of response the world's most profound, greatest teacher/preacher received as a result of preaching and teaching the truth. This is what happened to his congregation. Now, in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth chapters of John, the ninth chapter, if you're going to understand the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, you need to understand these chapters.

Listen to what happened in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. After these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee or Tiberias, and a great multitude, big crowds, were following him because they were seeing the signs which he was performing on those who were sick. Now he's performing all of these signs and he begins to preach to them and teach and perform miracles. And then when he begins to talk about what it's going to cost them to follow him and what following him really means, listen to what happened to his congregation.

Verse 65: "And he was saying, 'For this reason I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted him from the Father.' As a result of this, many of his disciples withdrew and were not walking with him anymore." That is, when he's talking here early in the chapter of what it's going to cost them, the Bible says that many of those who followed him, watching the signs and the miracles and the wonders, said, "Hey wait a minute, hold it. I'd like to be a follower. I love to see the miracles. I'm excited about the signs. I'm curious about these wonders that you're performing. We love the bread that you feed us, but hey, don't give me any of this cross, shame, suffering, and death. I'm not interested," and they walked away.

In fact, so many of his congregation walked away, the Bible says he turned to his apostles and said, "You do not want to go away also, do you?" That is, are you all leaving too? Now, whatever the requirements are, they must not have been very popular in Jesus' day. Oh, as long as they could see signs, miracles, and wonders and he was feeding them with bread and multiplying the loaves and the fishes, I mean he had the crowd. I mean you couldn't count them. They were coming from everywhere to hear him. But then when he said, "This is the message. This is what you can expect if you follow me," even his apostles, it appeared, were going to leave.

Now what are the requirements? Requirement number one: sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. You see, in those days they could hear him audibly, they could see him as in this fourth chapter as they were there in their boats and mending their nets and Jesus walked by when he said, "Follow me," they knew exactly where to go. They just followed in his footsteps until they joined his side. Wherever he went, they went. Wherever he was, there they were.

They could follow him because they could see him, they could touch him. Now, as we said before in the early part of the message, we cannot see him, but because we cannot, we have to develop a very keen sensitivity to the Holy Spirit so that when the Holy Spirit, who does not shout—how many of you have ever heard the Holy Spirit shout? Well, there have been a few times when I thought I heard it so loud it was deafening on the inside. Haven't you?

God, I'm not going to tell everybody that no, God never speaks audibly today. I'll just tell you that I've never heard him speak audibly. I've heard him speak much louder than that on the inside of me so loudly I absolutely could not avoid it under any condition. The Spirit of God on the inside giving us guidance, we must develop a very keen sensitivity to him so that—listen—the sharpness of our spirit is so sharp, so needle-point sharp, that when the Spirit of God speaks, we just know that it's the Spirit of God.

Haven't you been in a situation where you said, "And then something inside of me just told me"? Well, that "something inside of you" was "somebody," who is the Holy Spirit. You've been in those situations where you just felt absolutely definitely you must. God was speaking to you. If you and I are going to follow him, we must have a very keen sensitivity to the Holy Spirit on the inside of us who speaks to our spirit. Somebody says, "I never heard God speak to me." Listen carefully. He does speak. That is, he speaks to you, not audibly, but by spiritual, strong promptings.

That is, you feel the tug, you feel the urge, you know that something's going on on the inside. That's the Holy Spirit. That isn't just your intuition. That isn't just your second nature. That is the person of the Holy Spirit whom Jesus sent to speak to you and to dwell in you moment by moment. Now, walking in the Spirit is walking by the indwelling promptings. That's what it means to walk in the Spirit.

And if you and I are following him, we're not arguing with him and weighing what he says and putting up a big front. We are saying yes, yes, yes. Sometimes it may not always be as clear because we get lots of voices, but the Spirit of God speaks. And if we're going to follow Jesus, first of all, there must be a prompting. There must be a sensitivity to the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.

The second requirement of following Jesus is service. Now, listen to what he said to these two men and then to two others, Peter and Andrew. He said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." That is, if you follow me, here's what you can expect. You can expect to spend the rest of your life, invest the rest of your life in serving me by giving yourselves away, laying yourselves down in the service of the Heavenly Father, which in essence is sharing the truth that I'm going to share with you in order that they may receive me and therefore spend eternity in heaven.

That is, he says, "If you follow me, I'm going to switch your vocation. You're no longer going to be committed to putting fish on the table, but souls into the kingdom of God." To follow the Lord Jesus Christ means to serve him. But now watch this, something else here. When he says, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men," he gave them a promise. He says, "I'm going to train you and equip you to do what I'm calling you to do."

Your ministry, your service, if you're going to follow me, you must give yourself away into sharing the gospel of the kingdom. In order to do that effectively, I am going to make you a fisher of men. I'm going to train you. I'm going to teach you. I'm going to lead you. I'm going to guide you. I'm going to show you how. I'm going to demonstrate. I am going to make you a fisher of men if you choose to follow me.

It is impossible to be a follower of Jesus Christ and close our eyes, our ears, our lips, close our hands and still our feet. It is impossible to be a follower of Jesus Christ without giving ourselves away to other people. Was not Jesus Christ a servant? Did he not come to serve? Listen to what he says in this very same book in the 20th chapter and the last few verses.

He says, "Whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many." Jesus came as a servant. He said, "If you're going to follow me, you'll have to do what I'm doing." What was he doing? He was serving. He was healing, he was multiplying the loaves, he was raising the dead, he was encouraging. Jesus was a servant, always giving himself away.

It is amazing to me how many people go to church Sunday after Sunday or sit in front of television sets or watch or listen to the radio and say, "Yes, I'm serving God," who never lift a hand to do something for someone who cannot, who never give anything to the Lord's work, who only visit church on Sunday morning and listen to sermons which they certainly hope will encourage them, listen to the choir sing and the orchestra, and say their prayers and call on God during the week in case of an emergency but know nothing of giving themselves away in service to the living God.

And I want to tell you, my friend, there is no such thing as following Jesus without serving other people. It is impossible to do so. His very life was a life of service. So I want to ask you a question. What evidence is there in your life that you're following Christ? Now, we don't all do it in the same way. Mother serves the Lord Jesus Christ by serving her family. Man who's head of his business serves the Lord Jesus Christ by serving those who work for him.

There are many, many ways to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, serving the Lord doesn't mean just simply standing behind the pulpit. A man can stand behind the pulpit and gratify his own flesh, satisfy his own needs, and never serve God one single minute. Serving the Lord is giving yourself away to other people to the glory of God in their behalf in the name of Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Guest (Male): Following Christ is a day-by-day choice believers make. As we heard today on In Touch, it requires a surrendered heart and a conscious decision to ask the Lord for help aligning our desires with his.

We'll hear more about following Christ tomorrow. Until then, our website at intouch.org can help you keep studying about how to pursue Jesus in your everyday life, or listen to this message again at the link to Today on Radio. And if you go to the bookstore page, you can order a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message, "Following Christ." Again, you'll find these resources at intouch.org or to call or text us, the number simply is 1-800-IN-TOUCH.

To write to us, address your letter to In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357. And again, our phone number, 1-800-IN-TOUCH.

Dr. Charles Stanley: It's a fearsome thing to rebel against God. Especially, for example, I think about men who've said, "Well, I know God called me to preach the gospel, but you know, I just I just couldn't do it. I was afraid, or I wanted to do something else." And now I've spent my life doing something else. I've never met a happy, contented person who's living in rebellion toward God.

If God called them to do something, and whatever their excuse was, I never met a person who had any contentment living in rebellion. When God called you to do something and you refuse to do it, your conscience is going to sting very, very badly. And the longer you go away from his will, walking in your own way, the less contentment you're going to have. You're going to become confused, frustrated, anxious, fearful, all kind of things happen in a person's life because the Spirit of God is working in that person's life and they're rebelling against Holy God who has given them a task. There is no way to escape that.

Guest (Male): The Bible tells us that godliness with contentment is great gain. Learn more about the Christian life of faith at intouch.org. Did you learn something about investing your life in eternity today? Well, tell us about that. When In Touch returns, following Christ requires sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and a willingness to serve. Be back again for three more characteristics found in a person who loves the Lord on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley.

This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.