Follow Me
Download MP3If you have a bible, I invite you to turn to Mark chapter 1. And I do wanna once again, just a special welcome to the parents that are here for parents weekend. I also want you to know that I I don't know what your child has told you, but we have never seen them in this building before. Y'all could discuss that later, but we're glad you came today. As a pastor, I literally get an email every day, advertising some book or inviting me to some conference on how to grow as a Christian or how to grow our church.
Joel Brooks:Most of them have the word dynamic in them. I'm invited to some dynamic, church growth conference, dynamic marriage conference, dynamic worship conference. If there actually ever is a dynamic parking, I will go. Because, I could probably learn something there. They also like to sprinkle in the word vibrant a lot.
Joel Brooks:Is your worship vibrant? So I get these all of the time. Most of these are probably, you know, generated from AI or come from Russia or something, and they they just go to my junk mail, rightly so. But the truth is this, Christianity is actually pretty simple. And that's what I hope you hear this morning.
Joel Brooks:It's actually really simple. Jesus calls and we follow him. That's it. He calls and we follow him. And that's what I probably should say he dynamically calls, you know, and we whatever.
Joel Brooks:But that that's it. And that's what this text in front of us is gonna say. So Mark chapter 1, we'll begin reading in verse 14. Now after Jesus was arrested, and Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.
Joel Brooks:Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men. And immediately, they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. And immediately he called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and they followed him.
Joel Brooks:And they went into Capernaum immediately on the Sabbath. He entered the synagogue and was teaching. And now, Acts chapter 4 verse 13. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.
Joel Brooks:This is the word of the Lord. It is to your heart. If you would pray with me. Lord, our prayer is simple. But it demands the extraordinary.
Joel Brooks:Would you be so kind to move in our midst with your spirit, to call us to come and to follow Jesus. Would you speak to us, will we listen to your voice, and will we obey? I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen. So I don't know about your Bible, but my Bible has a heading over verse 14 that says, Jesus begins his ministry. This is correct. This is an accurate statement. It's something that I have certainly said before.
Joel Brooks:But I'll say this. The the more I've thought about it, the more I think you could have a a more accurate, a more full heading there. I would write, Jesus begins his reign. It's here that Jesus begins his reign as king. This is the first time that Jesus speaks in this gospel.
Joel Brooks:And just look at what he has to say. He says that we must repent. We must believe in the good news that the kingdom of God has arrived. And we need to come and follow him. Jesus says the kingdom's here because he's the king and he will have followers.
Joel Brooks:Now if Jesus was starting a school, he would have recruited students. If he was starting some seminary or PH program, he would've probably recruited some scholars. If he was starting an army, he would've recruited some soldiers. If Jesus just wanted to preach, he would have recruited some listeners. But Jesus is a king and he will have followers.
Joel Brooks:Jesus is not trying to convince anyone either. If you look at this, he's not trying to say, come on, join my cause here. He just commands. He commands Simon, Andrew, James and John, follow me and they immediately they followed him. I mentioned how last week Jesus' baptism was really, you should see it as a creation story.
Joel Brooks:He's beginning a new creation when the spirit comes and once again hovers over those waters. And here once again you see the creative work of God. Back in Genesis, God spoke let there be light. There's light. Instantly obeying his word.
Joel Brooks:Here at this new creation, Jesus says follow me. Instantly, they follow him. And a new creation is beginning. There are many things about the Christian life that we find, to be true. We, we find the Christian life at times is challenging.
Joel Brooks:It's beautiful. It's glorious. Sometimes it's surprising, adventurous, or steady. Sometimes the Christian life could be really difficult. But one thing the Christian life is never.
Joel Brooks:And that is confusing. It's really simple. Jesus calls and we follow him. And so if you feel right now that you are struggling to grow as a Christian, that, you're, you're spiritually dry, then no it's because this reason. You're not listening to Jesus and you're not following him.
Joel Brooks:The problem, whatever you think of this problem, it's not your church, It's not the leadership. It's not because of the home group that you're in. It's not because of your family or friends. It's not because of your work. It's not because you don't have enough time.
Joel Brooks:It's because you're not listening to Jesus and you're not following him. Somewhere along the line, you know, we we came into this version of Christianity that's really this kinda consumer Christianity, where where we think Christianity is this. We come and we just listen. We sit and we listen, and then we go home, and that's Christianity. And because we have that kinda consumer Christianity, what happens when we're spiritually dry is we begin to blame others.
Joel Brooks:But your lack of discipleship is not another person's problem. It's not because of anyone else's. It's are you listening to Jesus? And are you following him? If you were to compare sermons preached today, with sermons preached a generation ago, which I know is what all of y'all did this week.
Joel Brooks:This is what I do as a pastor and studying these things. I'm always reading different sermons. And I I love reading older sermons in addition to new ones. You'll you'll find some positives and some negatives of new preaching. But here's one difference that I've just started noticing.
Joel Brooks:Modern preaching tends to call people to make a commitment to Christ. Preaching a generation ago, pastors would ask people to surrender their lives to Christ. Not a call for commitment, but to surrender their lives. Which is a more accurate picture of how we're supposed to respond to Jesus. Because to surrender, it means that you recognize that you've been living in rebellion.
Joel Brooks:It means that you've recognized you've been living in your own kingdom under your own self rule. You've been battling against Jesus. You've been resisting his authority. But it's time for you to lay down your weapons. It's time for you to give up.
Joel Brooks:Surrender. And so you have complete and total control. To surrender means you give up self rule and you submit to his rule. And it is the sweetest of surrenders. Isn't it?
Joel Brooks:When when you surrender to Jesus, it's just the it's just the sweetest of all surrenders, because His king loves you more than you even love yourself. He's gonna care for you more than you could care for yourself. And you're really, you know, what are you giving up? What are you surrendering? You're surrendering your anxieties, surrendering your stress, surrendering your exhaustion, surrendering the sin that has promised you so many things, but is never fulfilled that's promises, you're surrendering all of that to one who loves you beyond measure.
Joel Brooks:And this story here, Simon and Andrew, this story of surrender, they were fishing when Jesus came into town. He approached them. And if you read Luke's account of this story, they actually just had the catch of a lifetime. They caught so many fish, they're struggling to bring it in, and it's at this point Jesus comes to them and says follow me. And they let go of their nets and they followed him.
Joel Brooks:I mean, their dreams have finally come true. You know as fishermen, they have dreamed of that day for a long, long time. That one day when they would finally catch this massive amount of fish. The the day finally came. Their dreams finally came true and Jesus happened to show up at that exact moment and say, follow me.
Joel Brooks:And without hesitation, they let go of their dreams. They let go of those record prophets. They let go of all of that, their career, and they held fast to a greater treasure. Without hesitation, they obeyed and they followed Jesus. Any of you, maybe perhaps jokingly, have prayed, Lord, I I really I want you to come back.
Joel Brooks:Maranatha, Lord, come. But first, first I'd like to do this, then you can come. My kids do it all the time. They're like, you know, Jesus, we really want you to come back, but if you come back the last day of high school, I'm gonna be so dang mad. After suffering through all of that, let me enjoy a little life first.
Joel Brooks:Perhaps, like Jesus, I really want you to return, but only after I get married. I mean, what a, what a pathetic view we have of Jesus and His worth. I mean, I want you to picture catching all of your dreams, all your dreams coming true right there before you, and Jesus calls drop it. Because he he is a far superior treasure. These men followed Jesus and they had no regrets.
Joel Brooks:Jesus, after he calls Simon and he calls Andrew, he then, he calls James and John. They were also fishing at the time. It was a family business. They were fishing with their dad. It was apparently a really well off business because they had hired servants.
Joel Brooks:Jesus said, come follow me. And immediately, they leave their father.
Caleb Chancey:They leave their wealth, and they follow him.
Joel Brooks:We'll find out later in the gospels that they still fish from time to time, but it's no longer their career. It's no longer their identity. It's no longer where they find their security. Those things are now found in Jesus. Fishing is also no longer the source of their anxiety or their stress.
Joel Brooks:Because once again, they haven't found their value or their purpose or their security in it. Jesus then gives them a new mission. He tells them He was going to make them become fishers of men. In other words, Jesus says, come follow me and I'm gonna teach you to call other people to come and follow me. So part of following Jesus is calling others to follow Jesus.
Joel Brooks:I don't know where, you know, it somehow came into the modern Christianity that we somehow now think that we can accept Jesus without accepting his mission. But that's not an option for us in scripture. You cannot accept Jesus without accepting his mission. Part of following Jesus is calling other people to follow Jesus. So if you're not calling calling others to follow Jesus, it's because you're not following Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Now, of course, these guys did not do this perfectly by any means. Jesus doesn't say come and I will, and you'll be fishers of men. He says and I will make you become. It's a process. But the longer they are going to be with Jesus, the greater they're gonna come.
Joel Brooks:They're greater they're gonna be gifted and empowered to call other people to Him. But Jesus, don't make the mistake of thinking Jesus picked these people because they were exceptional men. There's nothing exceptional about them. They were nobodies. They were simple, they were uneducated, powerless.
Joel Brooks:They were people of the lowest social class. May a 1st century Jewish fisherman I mean, not exactly like brimming with potential here. Jesus called. They followed. They changed the world.
Joel Brooks:It's not an exaggeration. 2000 years later, reading about them. The Roman Empire changed within 4 centuries. They they changed the world. I love how these simple men are described in Acts chapter 4.
Joel Brooks:In Acts 4, Peter and John, this is, of course, after the resurrection. Peter and John, they're standing trial before the the religious authorities of the day because they had the audacity to heal someone. And apparently you're not supposed to do that. So they healed someone. They're called before the religious leaders, and we we hear this word from from those authorities.
Joel Brooks:Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. I love that. I mean, I can't think of a better compliment, could you, if someone recognized that you've been with Jesus? They weren't recognized as going to Harvard.
Joel Brooks:Aren't aren't you the guy I just read about you in in the last business journal. That was so impressive what you did. That's not how they were recognized or it wasn't, hey, I didn't I see you at that, you know, that party where there was the who's who's of all of Birmingham was there? They were nobodies. They were recognized for simply having been with Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Being with Jesus gave them the the boldness to proclaim the gospel. It gave them the power to heal. Jesus said, come follow me. They followed. The world was changed.
Joel Brooks:Recently, I heard a African pastor, who's planted hundreds of churches. It's astonishing. And he said this. He he said that he has been to America, and he has been to several of our church meetings, in which we open in prayer. We have a whiteboard session for 2 hours.
Joel Brooks:And then we ask God to bless our plans. And he said, God does not care about your plans. He does not care about your plans. He has a plan. And he is inviting you to join him and to follow him.
Joel Brooks:Are you listening to Jesus? Are you obeying? And I remember I was listening to this. It was actually a little YouTube clip that he had sent me and I'm like, yeah, but but, dang, he's right. He's right.
Joel Brooks:Once again, the the Christian life is really simple. I hope you're writing like the same line over and over and over in your notes. It's so simple. We listen to Jesus and we follow him. We listen to him.
Joel Brooks:We obey him. We listen to him through his word. He will never say anything to you contrary to his word. We listen to him in prayer and then we obey. That's what surrender looks like.
Joel Brooks:We immediately obey. Listen. If you are struggling, if you are struggling spiritually feeling like you are not growing, perhaps if you're angry at God right now. Angry at God because maybe your life isn't turning out the way that you wanted it to turn out. The reason you're angry is because somewhere along the line, you thought God was supposed to follow you instead of you following God.
Joel Brooks:Somewhere along the line, we we we switch it all the time, but we're like, hey hey, Jesus. I've got some plans for my life. I've got a direction I'm going, so come along. Jesus, I wanna get into this school, I wanna go to this fraternity, I wanna go to this sorority, so so can you come along and would you please bless that? Jesus, I I got this career path that I'm on.
Joel Brooks:Follow along with me. Sprinkle your little fairy dust over my life and make everything great. Jesus, I wanna live in this neighborhood. Jesus, I wanna have these type of vacations, these adventures. I wanna have these type of comforts.
Joel Brooks:Can you please come get on board and follow me? And we're angry at Jesus at times because he's not following us. Somewhere along the line, we we we got it reversed. We don't ask Him to follow us. We follow Him.
Joel Brooks:That's what surrender looks like. When God called Abraham, we read Abraham got up and he left immediately to go to a land he did not know. When Jesus called these disciples, they got up, they left immediately to a land they did not know. When Jesus calls us, but yet we say yes, we get up, we leave, and we go. Where?
Joel Brooks:I don't know. It doesn't matter because we get to be with Jesus. We get to be with Jesus. That's Do you think these disciples had any idea, any idea where they were going? They didn't know where they were going, they just knew who they were going with.
Joel Brooks:It's like, it doesn't matter, because I get to be with Jesus wherever we're going. But do you think Peter knew where he was going was gonna be crucified upside down? Or Andrew was gonna be crucified? Or you have James who's beheaded. You have John who's gonna be sent off into exile.
Joel Brooks:Do you think they had any idea? They had no idea, but they knew they got to be with Jesus, and they had no regrets. Because they get to be with Him forever. And I love how when Jesus calls people to himself, he doesn't negotiate with them. He doesn't say, you got your calendar on you?
Joel Brooks:Okay. Yeah. Just pull that out. Because I really need somebody for, like, 40, 50 hours a week. You know, Yeah.
Joel Brooks:Well, you're gonna have to work some weekends. I'm sorry. I'll try to not make it a big deal. Like, he doesn't negotiate. Follow me.
Joel Brooks:You'll never regret it. Once again, the Christian life is simple. Intimacy with God is simple. We we act like it's so hard. I mean, we act like it's a puzzle.
Joel Brooks:I mean, like we're we're going through life and like, how do I put together this Christian puzzle of following Jesus? Like like it's a mystery we have to solve. You don't find that in scripture. Jesus, he says listen to me and follow me. So are you listening and are you following?
Joel Brooks:And the answer is always yes when he calls you. That's your answer. Yes. You don't have to know where you're going. You just have to know who you're going with.
Joel Brooks:The answer is yes. And so this is what it should look like for you. This week, I want you to listen to God through his word and through prayer and listen, really listen, and say, yes. I don't know what you're asking. Yes.
Joel Brooks:Because I wanna be where you are. And so if you open up God's word and you read how you're supposed to be a very generous person, which that's all throughout scripture. You don't have to read long before you're gonna be told. You need to be a generous person. To listen to Jesus is, you say I'm supposed to be generous, but Jesus, is there anyone today I'm supposed to be generous to?
Joel Brooks:Speak, Because the answer is yes, Jesus. And you listen and you obey. Or you read through his word and it says you're to forgive others as you have been forgiven. And you're like, okay. Jesus, is there anyone today I need to forgive?
Joel Brooks:Speak. And you listen. And you said, Jesus, the answer is yes. Whoever you told me, the answer is yes. And you obey.
Joel Brooks:Jesus, I see you you told me in your word I'm supposed to love my spouse with a sacrificial love. Is there any way today specifically I can show love? Is there a tangible way I can show love to my spouse? The answer is yes, Jesus. I'm listening.
Joel Brooks:When you hear his voice, you obey. So if you're spiritually dry, if you're not growing, just let me ask you this, are you listening to Jesus and obeying him? Listening to him through his word, listening to him through prayer? And when you do listen to him, are you saying yes? Why would he keep speaking if you say no?
Joel Brooks:You say yes, whatever it is, because I wanna be with you. Now, hear me. If you do not know Jesus, if you do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God, first, I hope you'll continue coming because I want to convince you otherwise. But but if that's where you are, I want you to know you are free to live however you want. Want.
Joel Brooks:You could do absolutely whatever you want with your life. Free to do it. However, for those who are in this room who do believe that Jesus is the Son of God, He is the risen King, you've been bought with a price. Your obedience should be immediate. You surrender your lives to him.
Joel Brooks:The one thing that no one here can do is try to negotiate and meet Jesus in the middle. You can't say to Jesus, well, yes, you're my Lord, and there's gonna but we gotta we gotta talk about that a little because there's yeah. I'm gonna follow you here, but I'm not gonna follow you there. There's there's some parts of scripture I'm I don't really like what you say, but but I'll do this, not that. That's not surrendering.
Joel Brooks:And Jesus did not give you that option. If if that's the way you're following God, your obedience is not obedience. You just happen to agree with Him from time to time. But Jesus did not come as your, as your counselor giving you advice. He came as your king.
Joel Brooks:And we lay our lives before him and we say yes. Whatever it is, yes. And we get to be with him forever. When I look back at my Christian life, the things I thought were such a big deal to give up, I look back and, like, I didn't give anything up. I'd never made a sacrifice compared to the treasure I gained.
Joel Brooks:What a joy that we get to be with Jesus. Pray with me. Oh Jesus, would you be so kind to us in this moment, through your spirit to speak, give us a heart to listen and to surrender. Jesus, our answer is yes. I don't need to know.
Joel Brooks:We don't need to know where you're taking us, what you're doing. Our answer is yes. We pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.
