What is That to Thee? Follow Thou Me

Good morning, Dwayne here. Tack room Bible talk. Today is December 26. Not really on schedule, I guess, to speak, but then I don't guess I'll really make these videos on schedule, do I?

Uh, it's 60° out there right now. I was going to do this video out on the porch, but there's a breeze blowing and I was went out there and started and tried and then I was afraid that it was going to mess up the audio. So I came back inside.

Um, I want to just look at a couple verses of scripture today and just do a little encouraging for the serious Christians, the sincere Christians to help them in a little matter to stay on track. Okay.

So if we go to John chapter 21, it's the last chapter uh in the gospel of John. Now what has happened here? Jesus had been crucified. He had risen. Uh, Peter, and we talked about this in another message, had decided he was going to quit and he said, "I go fishing." And uh Jesus shows up on the beach and and uh they recognize it's him. Jesus had built a fire, had put some fish on there. He's told him, "Come and dine." And this is where he asks Peter because Peter had denied him. "Peter, lovest thou me?" and he says, "Feed my sheep." And he does this three times. This is that instance. Okay.

Uh, in verse number 18, he tells Peter, he says, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee," uh and verily, verily is just the old English um way of saying truly, truly, truly. Uh, I say unto thee, when thou wasst young, thou girdest thyself, and walkest wheither thou wouldest, but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall guard thee, and carry thee while thou where thou wouldest not. So he gives a little bit of prophecy about Peter's last days. And uh verse number 19, thus this spake he signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, "Follow me." So he tells Peter, "Peter, this is going to be what your last your end's going to look like." And he says, "But you just follow me."

Then Peter turning about seeth this disciple whom Jesus loved following, which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, "Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee?" Peter seeth him, saith to Jesus, "Lord, what shall this man do?" So Jesus tells Peter, "Peter, this is what your last day is going to look like. Uh, but you just follow me." And they turn and walk away. And he turns around and he sees John. Now, this John is John, the brother of James. Um, he's he's the one, and he always refers to himself in the book of John as the one whom the Lord loveth. He's the one that was leaning on the breast of Jesus at the last supper. Um, and uh and he's the one that had asked the Lord, "Lord, who who's going to betray you?" Uh, and so Peter turned around and saw him and said, "Lord, what's he going to do? What's his last days look like?"

And Jesus saith unto him, "If I will that he tar till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me." Jesus said, "If I want him to stay alive until I come back again, what business is that of yours? The only thing you have to worry about is that you follow me."

Then went this saying abroad among the brethren that that disciple should not die. Yet Jesus said not unto him, "He shall die. He shall not die. But if I will that he tar till I come, what is that to thee?"

Um, so Peter being Peter, okay, uh, he just goes through this whole thing with the Lord. He he had denied him. He had quit. He had been brought back to Christ. He had been forgiven. He had found the future. Jesus had told him, "This is what you're ask." But it it wasn't enough. It just wasn't enough. He trying looked at another follower of Christ and said, "Christ, what about him?" And Jesus said, "Mind your own business. All you got to worry about is you following me."

You know, I was surrendered to preach at 14. I've told you this before, and I'm 58 now, so you do the math. Uh, I was ordained in a Baptist church in 1997. Um, and so I I've seen a lot and I'll tell you, I've seen a lot of judgment. All right? I've seen a lot of judgment in the church. I've seen a lot of judgment among Christians. And I have [snorts] I've realized a couple things. Those [clears throat] who are busy and succeeding do not have time to judge others. Judgment is a job for the idol. Judgment is also a job for the guilty-minded. We cannot show that we are being profitable for Christ. So we turn around and show that we think someone else is not being profitable for Christ. So instead of our service to him, instead of our service to him being what we are looking at, what we are striving for, we have no service to him to look at. So we point to someone else's not lack of service but what we consider lack of quality and service in order to make up for our shallowness and emptiness.

In uh Romans chapter 14, Paul said in verse number one, "Him that is weak in the faith receive ye but not to doubtful disputations." Um, receive the one that's weak in the faith, but don't but not so that you can argue with him about points that don't matter. "For one believeth that he may eat all things who for one believeth that he may eat all things. Another who is weak eateth herbs." Now, I'm not saying that the Bible says that a vegetarian is weak, but that's what it says. Okay, just funny. All right. "Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not, and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth. For God hath received him. Who art thou that judgeest another man's servant? To his own master he standeth or fallth. Yay, he shall be holden up, for God is able to make him stand."

"One man esteemeth one day above another." Some people esteem Sunday to be a holy day and it's only dedicated to God and you can only it's a special day. It's uh it's above all other days. Another esteemeth every day alike. Some people esteem Saturday. They think we're still under the Sabbath rule. But some people say, "No, we all days are alike. We serve and worship God all the time." "Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, Sabbath or Sunday, regardeth it unto the Lord. He that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks. And he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord. And whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's."

Now, the problem we have in verse number seven is we totally take that completely out of context and try to make it mean something it doesn't mean. "For none of us liveth to himself, and no man die to himself." So we say look what we do uh this means there are certain things we don't do because we don't live to oursel we live affecting those around us and we do all right to a degree but we become so lockstepped into sheepology um based on people taking this verse and trying to make it say what it's not saying. We don't live unto other men those around us. There are a lot of men around me right now who do not agree with my faith. They do not agree with my approach to my Christianity. They do not agree uh with my ministry. They just don't agree with a lot of stuff. All right? And some people would say, "None of us live it to himself and no man die to himself." Well, that's true. But I don't live or die to them. For the next verse says, "For whether we live, we live unto the Lord." I live daily as I believe God would have me live. I live unto the Lord. I do not live unto a Baptist preacher. As much as I dearly, dearly adore my mother, I do not live unto my mother. Okay? My my dad who I loved and honored before he passed away. There had become thorny issues, not that were loud and contentious between us, but things that he very much did not approve of um and was unhappy about in my ministry and in my life. I honored him. I did not argue with him. I did not fuss with him, but I did not live unto him. I lived unto the Lord.

It is hard for a Christian. Hear me, okay? Maybe I can give you a little bit of ease today. It is hard for a Christian not It is hard for a Christian when other people, how do I want to say this? I had it in my head and then it just flipped on upside down. It's difficult when other people judge us, okay, and say you're wrong. I'm not talking so much strictly about disagreement and theology, okay? Uh, but everything else that goes with it, that can be difficult. All right? But it's more difficult when we judge ourselves based on the judgment of others around us. Okay, that's what I was trying to say. One of the worst slaveries a believer can fall into and especially young men who are going into the ministry is instead of living or dying unto the Lord and the Lord's judgment they get we I did for years and years and it just about destroyed me. We are very very concerned about others judgment of us and we adapt our lifestyle. I don't like to use that word because it's used as a dog whistle for everything evil and immoral out there. But their judgment of us based on what they think should and should not be becomes the judgment that we pass upon ourselves. Well, I I like that man. He's a pastor. He's a preacher. I respect him. I love him. He thinks that what I'm doing is very unbaptist. It's very uncchristian. And his judgment hurts me because I hold him in very high regard. And so, I'm going to live or die unto him. You will never be successful, God's measurement of success. You will never be successful in service to Christ if you live under the judgment of another man who is trying to gatekeep morality or the gospel or doctrine or anything else. We don't live and die unto men. We live and die unto the Lord.

Now, stop and think about it. You know, we see everything the story back there of Peter and John and Christ. You know, we're looking at Peter and we're looking at Christ, but in the background, John's the one telling the story. This happened. All right? So, he's overhearing a conversation about himself. And so Peter's asking the Lord, "Lord, tell me, tell me what is going to happen to him. What about him? What about his ministry?" Um, now imagine how many different ways John could have taken that. Okay, so I there are there are young men that I know that that are born again. I'm not talking about this internet neck beard garbage. I'm talking people I know. Seriously. Seriously. Okay. Young men who I can I can watch their service. I can see their heart. I as much as a man can see a heart, but I mean I can see and they are um they're good men and they love God and they sincerely want to serve God. Um, but they're only going to go so far because they are wrapped up in a box being judged very vigorously by other men as to whether their conduct and their dress and their clothing and their words and everything measures up. They're not living unto the Lord. They're living unto other men. Uh, they're living unto other men.

And folks, I was I came very close to being just completely shipwrecked a number of times because of my pastor at the time, different pastors. This happened more than once, three times. And I finally had to come to the place. I'm like, you know what? That man did not die on the cross for my sins. That man did not redeem me. That man did. His spirit does not follow me. I am not answerable to him. And as long as I'm looking and living and dying according to him, and he's a human. He's just a human. um I am never going to be free in Christ and I'm never going to be able to do um whatever it is that God wants me to do. My on the one hand my ministry right now comparatively speaking to what a lot of judgments that's been passed in person not online and a lot of what what my judgment in the past what used to be is very small um and I've had men of God that I very much honor and respect come to me and say, "This is not how this is supposed to be done." [snorts] But I have pointed out to them that the results and the lives change and the hearts touched on this channel um have surpassed what they have accomplished in 40 years of ministry by a thousand times. I tried to minister to people for years inside the box of the judgment of other preachers and other men. And God kept trying to pull me out of that, but I wouldn't come out. And I mean, folks, yeah, you should have seen me, man. Clean saving, nice short hair, suit and tie, um, all in the pull pit. I Hey, I was there. I was I was it, man. I was the it guy. Um, and I couldn't get anything accomplished. I couldn't reach because when you stand in the pull pit and you look like a used car salesman and you talk like a politician, the people who need the help see through that and they're not going to take you serious and you're not going to reach them. Why? Because you're not real. I mean, that's not real. Who out in the real life is like that in the real life? Who is like that? It becomes a it becomes a production. And if finally things got bad and I h I had to kick the walls out of the box. I had to kick the walls out of the box. I had to step out of the box. I'm like, God, what do you want? I don't care the judgment of others. What do you want? And then God was able to start working. God was able to start moving. Okay.

So my encouragement to you today is first off now sin is sin and man of God's job is to point out sin. We don't want to [sighs and gasps] we don't want to ignore that. What becomes a problem is when they start redefining sin. Okay? But if they have scripture and it's thus sayeth the Lord, it's their job. Okay? But the other stuff, it's not their job to put you in their box. And it is not your job to live and to die unto another man and his judgments. We're to live and die unto the Lord. Now, the problem with that is that people will use that as an excuse to not live and die unto another man. And they get into that they get into that no man's land, but they're not going to live and die unto the Lord. Okay, you live and you die unto the Lord. Okay, there are people that you can reach that cannot be reached inside the box of another man. And like Esther um brought before King Ardis Xerxes and her uncle said, "Who knoweth if you come for such a time as this?" You are what you are. Not as an excuse, not as excuse for wrongdoing, but God raises people up who are unique to step into a unique situation. to perform a unique service and the sheep to sheep who are all crowded together in the box who are living unto the judgment of each other. That's why the churches are dead. That's why the churches are dead because this world is full of 8, nine billion people and they're all different. And they're all different and they won't fit in a box. And if you want to do your part that God has for you to reach some of them, you can't do it from inside the box of the judgment of another man. So don't judge others ministry. Who knows what God has set them up for? Who knows what God has told them to do? And you don't let someone else judge you. Paul told Timothy on more than one occasion, "Let no man judge you. Let no man despise you for thy youth." All right? And he he they went and the Jews tried to get him to circumcise him and everything to match what the Jews and Paul said, "We gave way." No, not for a minute. You're not judging us. We're going to do what we know to be right regardless of what the religious gatekeepers, the boxkeepers insist that we do. "Lord, what about this man? If I will that he tar till I come, what is that to thee? Follow me." You'll shed a whole lot of baggage. You will stop putting a whole lot of baggage on others and you will actually start to be in a position where you can do something for Christ.

All right, I know going to be a problem with this. A lot of people aren't going to like it. I have the feeling I've gotten a couple of short comments. I have a feeling that Dwayne Noah has been reduced to the level of a sermon illustration on how not to believe and how not to do things in a lot of pullpits on Sunday morning around America. But what is that to me? What is that to me? All right. You follow the Lord. You don't follow the judgments of others. by follow the Lord, you be obedient to the scripture, but you make sure the scripture is saying what the gatekeepers are saying that it's saying because a lot of times it ain't saying what they're saying that it's saying. You follow the Lord. Everything else, you don't worry about it.

All right, we'll catch you guys later.