Transcription
[Music] Hey YouTube family, my name is Kaylee, and thank you for joining us today. If you haven't already, please subscribe to our YouTube channel so that you can stay up to date each week. And we believe that God has a powerful word for you, so let's dive right in.
The title of my sermon is "Follow Me." Follow me. And this is kind of a a weird thing to say. I don't think I've ever asked anyone that, you know, um, um, follow me. It's kind of odd. It's it's kind of strange. And, um, I don't know. Wait, I forgot something. Anyone that knows me knows I'm a hollack. What? That's real simple. That just means when I preach, you so holler back at me. Come on. Okay. Okay. Anybody excited to be in the house of God? Come on! Give them a crazy praise break in this place. Or I can go back to my sermon. One day we won't do that. But that, but y'all will decide when that day is. Y'all will decide when that day is.
So, so Jesus said, "Follow me." And I find it as a kind of strange phrase, a phrase that that I typically wouldn't want to use. Like, "Follow me." That's a little extremist, a little strange. But Jesus said, "Follow Me." Jesus is asking us to follow Him. And I want to tell you, in life, you have to follow Jesus. And so many times, we don't want to follow Jesus. So instead, we just follow Christians. We just follow the pastor. We just follow the leaders. But Jesus is saying, "Nah, nah, nah. You follow Me." And the only time you can follow people is when people are following Me. The Apostle Paul said, "Follow me as I follow Christ." In other words, if I ain't following Jesus, you ain't got to follow me, baby. To hell, you need to submit to me only if you're submitted to Jesus. Why am I going to submit to you and you ain't submitted to Jesus?
So, so again, you follow someone as they follow Christ. But you have to know how to follow Christ for yourself. Hear Christ for yourself. Know Jesus for yourself. You cannot supplement or outsource your walk with God. It is personal, and you have to have a personal connection with God. God said, "Follow me." And I'm so glad He said that because people have the propensity to drop the ball and to lead us astray. But Jesus never drops the ball. He never leads us astray, and He hits the target every time. He is reliable. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. But people aren't on. People get flaky. People get wishy-washy. But Jesus never does. And my question for you is, church, do you follow Jesus? You follow Him. And I don't know if, if the church is following Jesus like they should because, because I believe that we have supplemented accepting Jesus for following Him. Do you know we come? Hey, if you would like to accept Jesus, come to the altar. You know, Jesus didn't say, "Hey, if you would like to accept me, you know, come to an altar." Jesus said, "I don't." He didn't even ask him to accept Him. He said, "Hey, homie, I want you to follow me." Like, follow me. Because if you follow me, you will accept me. If you follow me, you will obey me. If you follow me, you will tell others about me. And what happens is, you have people that's quick to come to the altar and accept Jesus, but then they run off and never follow Him. And we've preached that the goal is to accept Jesus and get into heaven. But what if the goal is to follow Jesus and get heaven into you? If your job is to come here, accept Jesus, and go to heaven, what are you here for? Imagine if you had to go somewhere, they like, "Hey, your job is to just like, come here and then just like, have been here and then just go back home." You're like, "Bro, why I come? Like, what am I here for?" So Jesus is saying, you're here for a purpose, and that purpose is unfolding and following Me. Some of you guys like, "Pastor K, I don't know my purpose." I know it: to follow Jesus. That's your purpose. It may get more detailed. It may be more nuanced than that. But fundamentally, we're all called to follow Jesus.
If you have your Bible, go to Matthew 4, verse 8. You guys are there? Say, "Ready." You ain't there? I'm playing. Maybe he was in first service, so you could be there. Uh, Matthew 4:18. And it says, "And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting nets into the sea, for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, 'Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.' They immediately left their nets and followed Him." Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.
I want to show you a couple things. Uh, the first thing I want to show you is this. I thought this was the first time Jesus ever met the disciples. And I thought His first request was, "Hey, follow me." That's what I was taught. Like, "Hey, Jesus, He met the disciples on a boat. He said, 'Hey, follow me.' They followed Him." Do you know this is not the first time Jesus encountered His disciples? The first time He encountered His disciples is in John chapter 1. And the first thing He said to His disciples was, "Hey, come see." Come see. He invited them to come see. Like, "Hey, come see. Like, come see who I am. See, see where I'm going. See how I'm leading. Hey, come check it out. Come see." Maybe you're in church right now, and someone invited you. Maybe this is your first time. You're just here to come see. You're come to, you're here to come check it out. Maybe you're new to to faith, and you're here to come see. The first invitation Jesus ever gave anyone was, "Hey, come see." And, and it's beautiful because everyone is at a different stage in their walk with Christ. And if you're just now getting to church, to God, you should be invited to come see. But when you follow Jesus, the path gets more narrow, more narrow, more narrow, and more narrow as you follow Him. He begins to turn up the heat. So He said, "Hey, come see." When you come to church, when you come to God, some people are sitting here, you don't even believe in Jesus yet, and that's okay. We're glad you're here. Keep coming because you're coming to see. But after you came and saw for a while, then Jesus comes and He asks you a question. He says, "Hey," well, not ask the question, but He's like, "Hey, follow Me." Hey, you came and saw. Now follow Me. Now you're invited to follow. You're invited to follow Jesus. And Jesus said, "As I invite you to follow Me, I'm going to do something so cool. I'm going to make you." I'm going to make you a fisher of men. How do you know if you're actually following Jesus? It's because you will then begin to start fishing for men. Hey, I'm going to win my family back to God. I'm going to win my spouse back to God. I'm going to win my kids for God. My coworkers for God. Hey, come to church with me. Hey, God is doing something. God is moving. Hey, I want to bless you with a Bible. Hey, hey, you want to, you want to read scripture together? And you're going back to go rescue those that's lost. You're following Jesus when you're going back to rescue the lost. He said, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." So I will show you the, the point to where you follow Jesus. If you follow Jesus to completion, you will be fishing for men. If you're not fishing for men, you haven't followed Jesus to the point of completion. And that's okay. You just need to keep following Jesus. But so many times, we have zeal and passion to follow Jesus. "Jesus, I'm following You. Jesus, I'll do anything. Jesus." And we're excited. We're following Jesus. And then all of a sudden, we get complacent. And there, and there's a great distance between us and Jesus. And now I'm following Jesus, but I'm following, following Him four stoplights back. And I'm following Jesus from afar. And Jesus said, "You were on fire. You were following Me up close." And now you're following Me from afar. And He wants you to get that fire, that passion, that zeal back so you would follow Him closely. Jesus said, "Follow Me, and I will make you." In other words, Jesus is saying, I don't want you to just go to heaven. I want heaven to come down to you. Follow Me.
Now, the question is, what stops us from following Jesus? What stops us? What stops us from following Jesus? I would say one of the biggest things that stops us from following Jesus is following people. Following people. And, and what happens is, there's so many people in the city, and you know them. They're your coworkers. They're your family members. They're your Facebook friends. They say, "I don't go to church." Why? "Because that church is just full of hypocrites." The church is full of hypocrites. So I don't go to church. My first argument will be, "Well, you can't go nowhere because everywhere is full of hypocrites, including your house." Don't go back home. Number one, your job is full of hypocrites. Want me to show you how you know your job is full of hypocrites? "Can't stand this job. I hate working here." They're lying up my nurse. "Hey, how you doing, Jerry? So glad you're here today." That's a hypocrite. But you go back every day. We all been it. So, "How do you like it?" "I just love working here. I love this stuff." "Can't stand you." You, you, you are a hypocrite. You go back. Don't go to Walmart. What? It's a new food place in town. Was it Adley or something like the Addie? Don't go there. Hypocrites there too. Because they're going to go get that no-diet food, then you're going to catch them with some Doritos in their hand. Hypocrite. So I'm just saying, if we are living to avoid hypocrites, we can't go nowhere because hypocrites are everywhere.
But look at what Jesus said to counter. Because Satan is tricky. He sees people. Look what Jesus said. Jesus said, "Follow Me." He never said, "Follow the pastor." He never said, "Follow the leader." And He never said, "Follow the Christians." Jesus said, "Follow Me." Well, the Christians are at the club. Was Jesus at the club? The Christians keep smoking. Does Jesus smoke? The Christians were drunk as a skunk. Was Jesus drunk as a skunk? The Christians mistreated me. Did Jesus mistreat you? "I got slapped by a Christian." You probably needed to be un-slapped. Um, did Jesus slap you? I didn't mean that, guys. I was joking. Um, I was kidding. But did Jesus slap you? No. So if Jesus didn't do it, why won't you come to Jesus' house? Pastor KJ, I love God. I read my Bible. I just don't fool with church. Do you know Jesus said the church is His bride? You can't say you love the groom and hate His bride. You can't say you love Jesus and hate His people. You can't say you love Jesus and hate His house. If you love Him, you will love His bride. You will love His people. You will love His house. And you should be here focusing on the King, not the people around you. I'm here because of Jesus. I'm here 'cause I serve Jesus. I'm here 'cause I worship Jesus. I'm here 'cause I love Jesus. I'm here for Jesus. So what you have to do is follow Jesus. And you have to keep your eyes on Jesus.
But Christians stop following because they stop observing Jesus. They take their eyes off Jesus and look at everything else. Reminds me of this story of this daddy came home to his lazy son. He said, "Boy, you are lazy. I need you to get up and do something around here." He said, "Dad, what do you want me to do?" Dad said, "I know what I want you to do. I need you to go outside and plow." Plow is a word you might understand saying it's like basically mowing. Okay, go outside and mow. Like, you tell your kids that, they just won't do it. Go mow the grass. They won't do it. He said, "Go outside and plow." He says, "Now, son, I need you to plow a straight line down the field." He said, "Okay, Dad, I can plow a straight line. But how will I know I'm plowing a straight line?" His dad says, "Son, it's real easy. There's a cow laying down there. Keep your eye on that cow and plow straight towards her." He said, "Dad, I got it. I can do it." And the son began to plow a straight line. All of a sudden, he got done. Dad came back. He said, "Son, what happened? There's zigzags all over the field. I told you to plow a straight line. I told you to keep your eyes on that cow." He said, "Daddy, I did. But the cow started moving." And so many times, we come to church and we look at Christians, and they start moving. We look at pastors, they start moving. We look at people, they start moving. And Jesus is saying, "I didn't say follow the Christians. I didn't say follow the cow. I said follow the cross." Because the cross will never move. It's the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. Don't look at Christians. Don't look at cows. Look at the cross. Because in a thousand years, that cross will still be standing there, immovable. Plow towards the cross. Live towards the cross. That cross will be there in a thousand years. Jesus is saying, "Keep your eyes on Me. Your focus on Me. Your guide on Me." And you follow people as they follow Me. But when they quit following Me, you quit following them. Because if the blind lead the blind, both fall in the ditch. In other words, Jesus said, "I will allow you to fall in the ditch if you choose to follow blind people." And I'm not, and I'm not minimizing or mitigating leadership. I'm just saying leadership has to submit to Christ before you submit to it. That's all I'm saying. Leadership is a good thing. I'm all for authority, officers, and, and, and political figures, and all that in this place. All that has a place. But it all has to be submitted to Christ and His cross. Oh, come on! Give Him a shout of praise!
So I'm going to say this to you. Let me think. Should I say it now or not? Give me a second. Okay, I'm going to say it now. Um, one of the biggest attacks of Satan that he will do to you is this. The, how Satan stops people from following Jesus is by this one simple attack. And here's what he does. Satan stops you from following because he makes you feel like if you follow Jesus and you're not perfect, you're a hypocrite. You're a hypocrite. "Why, I can't worship God this week because of what I did last week. I can't bless God today with my mouth because I cursed someone yesterday with my mouth." So the enemy makes you feel like you are disqualified to worship God because of what you did. It's called religion. But I want, I want to say something to you. I, I want to reverse something from you because Satan has deceived us to think something. Satan has told us that if we're out drinking, if we're smoking, partying, clubbing, not blessing Jesus, living any kind of way, then we should come to church, sit down, and shut up, and don't worship God, and don't bless God because we're not worthy and we didn't live good enough. And if we did anything in church, if we served, if we helped anywhere, we are hypocrites. But I want to say this to you: You've accepted Jesus. You've been born again. Which means you have a right to be here because of that cross. You have a right to worship because of that cross. You have a right to read the Bible because of that cross. You have a right to serve because of that. See, again, not because of your works, your deed, your perfection, your holiness, because it's like a filthy rag unto God. Because of that cross. Jesus said, "If I be lifted up on that cross, I'll draw all men to Me." So when I come to church, I could worship. I could dance. I could bless Jesus. I could have lived like the biggest sinner you've ever met, and I have the right to stand up and bless God and jump around in worship because of the cross of Christ. So what does that mean then? I'm going to show you what it means. It means that when I'm worshiping, when I'm serving God, when I'm at church, and I'm reading the Bible, I'm not a hypocrite. Because what is a hypocrite? A hypocrite is acting like something you're not. See, I am a child of God. So when I worship, I'm acting like a child of God. When I read my Bible, I'm acting like a child of God. When I serve, I'm acting like a child of God. I am a child of God. I'm acting like a child of God. I'm not a hypocrite. So you're not a hypocrite when you're in God's house. You're a hypocrite when you're in the clubhouse, in the bar house, because you're not a sinner, and now you're acting like a sinner. See, you're not drunk no more. Now you're acting like a drunk. You're not high no more. Now you're acting high. You're not a hypocrite when you come into the presence of God. You're a hypocrite when you're not in it. See, see, I just cussed everybody out. So I'm going to come to church and be real and sit here. No, no, no. You were fake when you were cussing everybody out because cussing isn't your native tongue anymore. Love is. So when you operate in that, you're a hypocrite. So I'm just coming to say something. I'm not, I'm not here to tell you you're not a hypocrite. I'm here to tell you when you are sinning, you are more hypocritical than you've ever been. And when you are worshiping the Son of God, you are realer than you've ever been because that's who you are. That's like my daughter. She acts like she's my daughter. She's not being a hypocrite. That's who she is. It's only when she acts like she's not my child, she's hypocritical because she is my child. And when you act like you're not a child of God, you're a hypocrite, my friend. So next time you grab that bottle, no hypocrite. Next time you get high, hypocrite. And when you come to God's house, no, no, you are a worthy son and daughter. You deserve to be here, and there's a place for you. Oh, give God a 10-second praise break!
So you're hypocritical when you're away from God, not near Him, because He has died for you to have a right to be here. If you have your Bibles, go to Luke chapter 14. Now I want to say this to you. If you're new to church and new to God, the message for you is, "Come and see." Maybe you've been coming for a little while. The message for you is, "Hey, come follow." It's cute, like, "Hey, come see, guys. We're so glad you're here. Come see." And if you've been coming to see for like, "Hey, guys," He's like, "Come follow. We're so glad you're here." But if you have came and saw and came and followed, we about to bust your head. We about to bust your head because Jesus busts your head. And Jesus, Jesus heats it up. The deeper you get in, it gets hotter and hotter. So here's the deal. What I'm about to read ain't for some of you yet, but it will be as you come and see, as you come and follow. Eventually, Jesus is going to ask you to come and die to self. But He didn't start there. Why? Because you would have to grow to a place where you can die to self. You would have to grow. You can't come into church and they're like, "Hey, die to self." I don't even know what self is. What? What? Die? What do you mean die? I'm trying to live. Like, you don't even have a comprehension of what this means. But as you grow spiritually, you will have a comprehension of what it's, what it means. In other words, in my house, I have a three-year-old daughter. When my mom screams, "Clean up out the house!" I know she's talking to me, not the baby, 'cause the baby can't comprehend that. When my daughter's 16 and my wife says, "Clean out the house," I'm like, "Girl, you get that side. I get this side," 'cause she's talking to both of us because we're both at a place where we can understand the demand and the weight and the cost of that demand. And if you just got here, Jesus is saying, "Hey, just come and see. Come and see what this is about. Come and see how you love. Come and see how I pursue you. And have, I have a place for you." And then, if you've done that, say, "Hey, come and follow. Come, come with me. I'm going to make you something. I'm going to make you something. I'm going to make you something." And the enemy will always tell you, "You can't follow Jesus because you're not good enough." That's like not going to the shower because you're not clean enough, when the very thing you're avoiding is designed to clean you up. You can come now. The lie of the devil is, "Make yourself, then come to God." But God is saying, "Come to Me, then I'll make you." Pastor K, I won't serve 'cause I got to get some things together. What if you served and then Jesus got them together for you? That's K.J. I want to help out with the youth, but I ain't got everything right. Well, we're going to make sure you, you're helping in a capacity that's congruent with where you are. But start now. Maybe you need to greet the door of the parking lot, make some coffee. You can start somewhere. But Jesus said, "If you follow Him, He will make you." On. So if you have saw and you have followed, now we're about to bust your head 'cause it's time for you to come die, metaphorically speaking.
Luke 14:25. Luke 14:25. And it says, "Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, 'If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brother and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.'" Wow. Jesus said, "If you don't hate your mother, your father, your spouse, your kids, and brothers and sisters, and yourself, he said you can't follow Him. You can't be His disciple." Yo, this is heavy. Like, Jesus, you're supposed to be a God of love, and you're asking me to hate people? I thought there was no hate in You. Jesus, what, what are you talking about here? And let's, let's continue to read. He says, "Can I be my disciple?" Verse 27 says, "And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple." He said, "If you don't have a cross on your back, you can't be my disciple." He says, "For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish, lest after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'" So Jesus is saying, "Here's what happens with most of you Christians. Here's why people attack you. Here's why people belittle you. They call you hypocritical and they come against you, is because you decided to follow Me. You did not count the cost." And what happens is, you started building, you didn't finish, and now people are mocking you. They're mocking you because you left them to come to Jesus, and then you returned back to them. "See, I knew you wasn't really getting saved. See, I knew you was going to come back. See, man, I knew you was going to start back drinking eventually. See, I knew you was going to come back and do this eventually. See, I knew you was going to come back." And now they're mocking you because you started something you couldn't finish. And the reason why you started something you couldn't finish is because you did not count the cost. You did not add up what it would cost to finish the project of discipleship. So yet, you're mocked. And verse 31 says, "Or what king, going to war against another king, does not sit down and first consider whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000?" Or while I mean, or else while the other is a great way off, he sends delegations and asks for conditions of peace. Like, so likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has, you forsake all that he has, cannot be my disciple. So he's saying, "Hey, in order to follow Me, you have to use wisdom." He said, "If a king was going to war with 10,000 soldiers, if he was coming against a soldier with 20, a king with 20,000 soldiers, he's like, 'Hold on, wait a minute.'" Let me put some Jesus in it. He's going to send a delegation of peace terms because he's not going to fight because he knows he's outnumbered, he's outgunned, and it wouldn't be wise to go to war. Jesus is saying, "Following Him is like a war." And you have to know that things are going to come against you, situations, problems, obstacles, and storms. And you have to consider if you're in a position or if you're ready or if you're capable of handling this. He's saying you're going to have to use wisdom. You're going to have to be strategic. You can't follow Him aimlessly. Some of you guys, "I just follow Jesus." Close my eyes. He says, "Sit down and open up your eyes, please." Because you need to be serious about this, and you need to be calculated about this. You need to be analytical about this and count the cost of what it means to follow Me.
Now, I was deceived by Christians because they said, "Hey, if you come follow Jesus, Jesus is going to love you, hug you, rub you, inspire you, kiss you on the cheek." And that's it. And then, and I went into spiritual warfare. I'm like, "Huh? I was told Jesus is going to give me a kiss on the cheek, and now I'm fighting 20 devils that I didn't even know exist. What is going on?" So, so, so you have to count the cost and know what is going on. And check this out. We know God is a God of love. This is Jesus' blueprint. Why would Jesus tell you to hate people? I'm going to answer it, but I want you to sit in that for a minute. Let your wheels turn. Why would God, and only people, why would Jesus tell you to hate your mom? My mama didn't know that scripture because she, the Bible says honor your parents, so she didn't know this scripture. No, Jesus said hate you. You know what I'm saying? That's the scripture. And I'm going to explain it, but we're going to see here for a second. Why would Jesus tell you to hate your mother? Hate your father? Okay, cool. Sometimes you're like, "I do that anyway." Jesus, cool. Um, but then He said, "Hate your wife." Some of y'all like, "Okay, I can do that." You better not shake your head to that. But then when He said, "Hate your children," you're like, "Hold on, Jesus. It's getting a little sticky. It's getting sticky here." Jesus, hate my children, brothers, sisters. Okay, I got that one down. I'm playing. Then He said, "Hate too." You're like, "Woo." Then He says, "If you don't hate him, forsake all that you have." That's the house, the car, that nice truck you got, bro. He said, "You got to hate that." All of it. Your, your savings, your 401k, all of it. Hate it. And He said, "And if you don't do that, you cannot not be His disciple, nor follow Him." Now, if you're new, He's not talking to you. We're talking to those that have came and saw and came and followed. And this is the request to come and die. Now, why would Jesus say that? I'm going to tell you why. He wasn't actually telling you to hate them. He was saying that your love for Him should be so great that when it's measured to your love for everyone else, it should look like hate. You should love Him so great that when it's compared to how you love your mother, it should look like hate. When it's compared to how you love your father, it should look like hate. When it's compared to how you love your spouse, it should look like hate. When it's compared to how you love your kids, it should look like hate. When it's compared to how you love all your material things, it should look like hate. Why would Jesus request you love Him so much? Because if you're truly going to follow Jesus, any one of those things could be a threat to you following Him. What happens when your mom says, "You need to quit following Jesus"? What happens when your cousin says, "You need to quit following Jesus"? What happens when your spouse says, "Hey, we're getting tight around here. We need to quit giving. We don't need the tithe no more. Hey, we need to quit serving that church. We don't have enough time with the kids." And all these things come against you following Jesus. He's saying, "Your love for Me has to be so great that when it's measured to your love for them, it looks like hate." Because Jesus is saying that nobody should be able to stop you from following your God and your King. I value my wife. Anything she says, I'll do. But if she tells me to quit following Jesus, at that point, I got to say, "Girl, talk to the hand." Like, I'm following Jesus. I love my daughter. Talk to the hand. I'm following Jesus. Like, nobody stopping me from following God. Jesus said, "You have an exemption, triumph card." Anyone that gets in the way of you following Him, you have the right to have a love for Him that's so great that they'll feel like you hate them. Because you're like, "I'm still going to bless God. I'm still going to serve God. I'm still going to follow God. I'm still going to praise God." I love you, Mama, but I'm praising God. I love you, Daddy, but I'm praising God. I love you, daughter, but I'm praising God. And nobody stopping me. Nobody. I will follow my husband until he stops following Jesus. And I will follow Jesus and pray for you until you come back and follow Jesus. But I will not follow you out of the will of God. I will not. And this is where Jesus said, "If you don't hate all these people," not, not, not, not physically, but figuratively, "you can't be His disciple." Because at some point, Satan will use them. Oh, you don't believe me? Let me, let me give you some Bible. Y'all just don't believe. Let me give you some Bible. Jesus is following the Father to the cross. He's following the Father to the cross. And He's saying, "I must die." And then, guess what? His favorite disciple said, "You will not surely die." And Jesus said, "Get thee behind Me, Satan." He wasn't talking to Peter. He was talking through Peter to the spirit speaking through Peter. And sometimes, I'm not saying say it out loud, but family comes to you, and you're like, "Get thee behind Me, Satan." Sometimes cousins come, "Get thee behind Me, Satan." Sometimes your mom calls, "Get thee behind Me, Satan." You got to quote that thing. "I'm going to follow Jesus all the days of my life." And my love for Him is so great compared to everyone else, my love for them looks like hate. I love you greatly, but I love Jesus more. I love Him more. And this is how you love God. And this is the devotion and the tenacity that you have to have following Jesus if you're going to finish. Many start, but many don't finish. And you get, and you, and you get mocked because you don't finish. But if you're going to follow, you got to put Jesus first. If you're going to follow, you have to put Jesus first. And if you don't put Jesus first, you can't follow. There will come a tipping point where everybody could potentially get in the way of you following Jesus. If they don't, that is awesome. You are double blessed. But if they do, you still have to follow Jesus anyway. And this is what it means to die. And, and, and sometimes you're the problem. Sometimes you're the thing that would get in the way of you following Jesus. That's why Jesus said, "Hey, anyone desires to save his life, you try to save your life, you will lose it. But if you lose your life for My sake, you shall find it." Jesus is saying, "How you going to try to go find you when you don't know where you lost?" [Music] And if you don't know who you are, how do you know when you found it? See, Jesus is saying, "Hey, hey, hey." Jesus is saying, "Let me tell you something." He shows us in the son story of the prodigal son. Jesus is saying, "You were born dead and lost." That's why the prodigal son came home. His father said, "My son has returned who was who was dead but now alive, who was lost but is now found." See, you were dead, and Jesus is going to bring you to life. You were lost, you were now found. Jesus is saying, "When you were born, you was born lost. You get born again. Now you get born found." And then you become a new creation in Christ Jesus. How do I need? How do I become a new creation? I get born again. Now I'm a new creation. And I'm found. But I have to lose the life I have, the life I have built up. And then Jesus will bring me a new one. See, if you try to save that life, you're actually going to lose your real life. W. But if you will lose this fake life, Jesus would give birth to your real life. And your real life can't be found. It got to be birthed. It got to be birthed. The Bible says, "Whoever tries to enter the kingdom of God must be born again." You have to be born again to be found. Then you become a new creation, the creation you was always created to be. And this is the gospel. This is the good news.
Now, let me show you something else. Jesus said, "Count the cost." Everyone say, "Count." Count the cost. So what does it cost to follow Jesus? What's the cost? What is the price tag? What is the cost? I'm going to tell you what the cost is. It's the last thing He listed. The cost of following Jesus is you. You're the price tag. You're the cost. You want to follow Jesus? You got to lose your life. That's the price. You're the price. See, see, see, see, my postpartum taught me this. See, my mom and them taught me this. See, my cousin taught me this. See, I always thought, see, I learn, and this is what I think, and this is how I feel about it. Jesus said, "All that has to be crucified on all that you think you are, and you think you know, and you think you've accomplished, and you think you deserve, and you think you earn." All that has to be crucified, or you can't follow Him. You're the cause. That's why He says, "If you don't hate your life, you can't be His disciple." What is He saying? This life. I don't care how much money you got, how much success you got, how many followers you got, how known you may be. If you don't hate that life you got, can't follow Him. Can't follow Him. Because what if He asked you to give it all up? Can't follow Him. See, the rich young ruler didn't hate his life. So when Jesus said, "Sell out what you have to the poor," he left sorrowful. Why? Because he loved his wealth more than he loved God. So he couldn't follow. He said, "Hey, I want eternal life." I want to follow. Jesus said, "Sell what you have to the poor." He couldn't do it. He left Jesus sorrowfully. Whatever you love more than Jesus will cause you to leave Jesus. And Satan will make sure it is. You need a relationship. He will send one and make you leave Jesus. Oh, I got to have my family. He will use them to make you leave Jesus. Oh, I got to have my money. Now he will use that to make you leave Jesus. Oh, your pride. You're not going to follow Jesus being prideful. Why? Because He said, "Every mouth shall confess, and every knee shall bow." You're going to have to drop that knee to Jesus if you're going to follow Jesus. You're going to have to drop your knee. Every knee will bow. In other words, to bow means to worship. You're going to have to be in this posture to follow Jesus. And Jesus said, "Every, every tongue will confess, and every knee will bow." My question is, are you going to bow the knee, or are you going to make Jesus bow for you? Because if you will bow the knee, if you bow it, you'll get everything. But if Jesus has to bow it for you, you lose everything. You can bow it now and gain eternal life. You can bow it later when He makes you and lose eternal life. Don't make Jesus bow your knee. You bow your own knee. Even Satan has to bow his knee to the power of our King. And Jesus, I'm not going to wait. I'm going to start right now. I'm going to bow my knee right now to You, God. I bow before You because You are my King. He says, "Every tongue will confess, every knee shall bow." So you have to bow before God. So this is the cost of following God. It will cost you. You. He said, "If you desire to save your life, you will lose it. But if you lose it, you lose your life, you will find it." You have to bow your knee. You have to bow it.
So, show you this in the scripture. If Jesus ain't Lord of all, He's not Lord at all. Matthew 16, verse 24 says, "Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves.'" Showing you the cost. You have to deny you. You have to deny yourself. If you want to be His disciple, whoever wants to be My disciple must not, maybe not, must. You must do this: deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me." What does that mean? If you want to follow Jesus, you must deny yourself. Deny your will. Deny your way. Deny what you think you know. What you think you've learned. You have to deny it. Then Jesus said, "You have to take up your cross." You have to get your cross. You have to take this cross up. And He said, "If you want to be My disciple, you're going to have to take your cross. You're going to have to carry your cross." Now, my question is, why would Jesus ask you to carry your cross? Why would Jesus tell you to carry your cross? Let me say it this way. Do you know that the cross Jesus bled on wasn't supposed to be His cross? It was supposed to be yours. You were supposed to hang on a cross. You were supposed to bleed on a cross. You deserve the, the cross. Jesus did deserve the cross. And Jesus got on a cross of misery so you can wear a crown of victory. I want you to know something. No cross, no crown. No cross, no crown. Jesus got on the cross of misery so you can wear a crown of victory. No cross, no crown. We get to wear a crown because Jesus was pinned on the cross. He was nailed on the cross. And Jesus said, "I was nailed on the cross for your salvation." But I need you to nail yourself on the cross for your sanctification, for your growth, for your discipleship, for you to follow Me. I need you to be nailed on a cross. I need you to be nailed on a cross. You have to deny yourself. You have to be nailed on a cross. And many of us don't want to be nailed on the cross. 'Cause man, I really like her, and I really want to be with her, but she ain't trying to follow. Nail her to the cross. Man, I just got this anxiety. Nail it. I just got this pride. Nail it. I just got these sins. Nail it. I just got this depression. Nail it. I just got my ways. Nail it. Well, Pastor KJ, everybody got to have a cup. Nail it to the cross. Because whatever you're not willing to nail may be the very thing that stops you from following. Your sin doesn't stop Jesus from leading you, but it can stop you from following Him. So He's saying, you have to nail it. Anything that comes against you following Christ and picking up His cross, you have to nail it. Sin, nail it. XY, nail it. Bitterness, nail it. Fear, nail it. Worry, nail it. Calamity, nail it. Bitterness, nail it. Unforgiveness, nail it. Hate, nail it. You have to nail it to the cross. And Jesus said, "Anyone that wants to follow Me must take up the cross." In other words, if you don't look like this, you're not following Jesus. Because Jesus said, "If I'm truly in front of you, there'll be a cross behind you." If I'm truly in front of you, there will be a cross behind you. You take up your cross, put it on your back, and deny yourself. This is the price and the cost of being a disciple. It's what it costs.
Now, you may ask the question, "Well, Pastor KJ, are you saying this is what it costs to be saved?" I don't know. I don't know if, if you're accepting Jesus and Him birthing you, and you're not taking up your cross. I, I don't know. What I do know is I ain't playing with that, nor am I risking that, nor am I trying to figure out how close to the line I can get and be saved. I'm trying to get to the other side of the line, to the glory, to where the Holy Spirit is, and where the presence of God is. I'm not trying to, "Well, if I could just do this and still have Jesus." Forget that. I just want Jesus. I just want to serve my King. I don't want to, I don't want to tiptoe this line. No, I want to be on the other side of it. He said, "Take up your cross. Take this up. Put this on your back. This is what is going to cost you." And what is crosses for execution? He said, "You got to execute yourself on this cross." And if you would do that, then I will show you. I will birth you. I will, I will heal you, redeem you, serve you. I would do that. But first, you have to nail you to this cross. That's the price of following Jesus. Will you pay it? Have you counted it? Have you counted the cost? Let's put this cross back. It's like my little skateboard cross. It's kind of awkward moment. It's awkward. Let's just cut this out and act like that never happened. Bag the cross in. We got to take care of the cross. Make sure it's good. Okay. Um, so take up your cross. And what does that simply mean in the lamest terms? It means be obedient. I don't know if you know how to spell the word obedient. But, but inside of the word obedient, in the middle of the word, is "die." In order to be obedient, you have to die. You have to die to self. Die to your will. Die to your ways. Die to your agenda. Die to your philosophies. Die to your paradigms and your perspectives. You have to die. You cannot be obedient without dying because "die" is what makes the word obedience. You have to die to self. You cannot be alive to your will and be alive to God's. You have to die to your will to come alive to God. You have to die. Now, He'll let you come see. He'll let you come follow. But at some point, He's saying, "Take up your cross and execute you." And what I mean by you, if you don't get it, your ways, your wills, and what you've become, you have to die and be born again. Start all the way over. And it's going to be the real you. Your real life. And you're a new creation. And you will see the fullness of God. And sometimes you got to die to sin. Let me tell you something about sin. Sin will take you further than you want to go. It will hold you longer than you want to stay. And it will cost you more than you want to pay. Let's do it again. Sin will take you further than you want to go. Hold you longer than you want to stay.
And cost you more than you want to pay. And I want you to know something, there, whatever's costing, whatever is causing you to not pay the cost of taking up your cross, will cost you more than taking up your cross. So, whatever is stopping you from paying this price is actually going to make you pay a price. Do you know you're going to always pay a price? You just got to decide what price you want to pay. Uh, I'm going to show you something. If you have your Bibles, go to Matthew 28:18. I'll be closing in like five minutes. I'm almost done, guys. Matthew 28, Verse 18. It says, "And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.'" Why? You need both to get something done. You need authority on heaven and on earth. And a lot of you guys have mastered this Earth thing down, and you need to learn about heaven. Verse 19 says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." Why? Jesus is saying, "Make disciples." He made you a disciple. Now he's calling you to make disciples. He says, "Baptizing them in the name of the Father and in and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you." And lo, "I am with you always, even to the end of the world." Jesus is saying, "Teaching them to observe." What do? How do you observe? You observe with your eyes. You watch Jesus. You see Jesus. You observe Jesus. And when you see what Jesus has done, you emulate Jesus and you do what Jesus has done. And then Jesus said, "You teach them." This is why you have to read your Bible and learn the word and learn the kingdom and how these principles work, so you can apply this to your life. Life. And then he's saying, you know, you're you're teaching them to observe and and and and and understand everything that I have done. He said, "I'm with you always to the end of the age." I am with you, but I'm sending you out to a dying, lost world. Here, here, here's how the process of following Jesus looks. John 1. We have them coming to see Jesus. So, so, so you come to see Jesus. And when you come to to see Jesus and you come to experience Jesus, what Jesus does, the moment you see him, Jesus brings you to the cross and he asks you to repent. To repent means to turn. When you turn, then Jesus said, "Hey, follow me." And now you begin to follow Jesus. Then he's like, "Hey, take up your cross. Bring this with you. Bring this with you as you follow me." And I'm going to lead you, guide you, heal you, restore you, make you whole. I'm going to make you. And after I get done making you whole, making you a new creation, making you glorified, and anoint your head with oil, then I'm going to make you fishers of men. I'm going to turn you around and I'm going to send you back into the world to go and reach all the lost people, to take them to the foot of the cross so they can repent and turn and follow Jesus and take up their cross so Jesus can make them. And then they can go back and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all things Jesus has taught taught us. And then teaching them to obey the word. And that's how the cycle of discipleship happens. But instead, we said, "Come to the church, come to the altar, accept Jesus," and then go back, back, and live like you never met him. And we tell people that's the gospel and the good news. And it's not. The gospel is, you come and you accept this Christ that died for you, bled for you, resurrected for you, and you accept this God. And after you accept him, you follow him. And even if you haven't accepted him, you come and see him and follow him, and you're going to accept him somewhere on that process. Do you know that you can follow Jesus and not believe in him? Pastor KJ, hold on. Got scripture for you. Do you know that the disciples was following Jesus and Jesus said, "Who do men say I am?" They said, "You, John the Baptist." This, they had no idea who they was talking to. And then when one got the answer right, he said, "You are Christ." Jesus said, "Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven." In other words, y'all didn't even know who I was, but they still follow God. And sometimes you start following Jesus and along that path, and maybe you knew Jesus was savior, but did you know he was healer? Did you know he was King? Did you know he was Redeemer? Did you know he was restorer? Did you know he was deliverer? Did you know that? Did you know that he's a a present help in a time of need? Did you know that he had a cattle on a thousand hills and I've never seen the righteous forsaken or their seed begging for bread? Did you know that? Did you know he anoints you? Did you know that he gives you power to trample over serpents, demons, and scorpions? Did you know that? So, whatever you think you know about Jesus, you're going to learn so much more as you follow Jesus. This is the gospel. This is the good news. Give him a praise break. Come see, come follow, come die, go lead. Come see, come follow, come die, then go lead. Yeah, this is the order of God. Uh, I'm going to do this last scripture and we're going to close. Uh, Mark chapter 10. And y'all, this is going to be good. This is going to be so good. Oh, I love the Bible. It's so good. This is so good. This is going to be good. So, when when I when I um first came to kind of see Jesus and I started coming to church and stuff, I had a wrestle for about a year. I would go back and forth. And here's why, very quickly. I knew following Jesus was right, but I felt like living in the world was better and funner and easier. So it was almost like your veggies. Just like, yeah, I should eat veggies. They good. But I want cake. Banana put in in a little Debbie that tastes better than this. And I thought like, yeah, Jesus is the veggies. The world is the the cakes. And I want I I want the cakes. What if I told you that Jesus was the veggie in the cakes and the world was poison? It was poison. He's the veggies. He's the cake. The world is poison. See, following Jesus isn't just right. It's better. It tastes better. It feels better. It's better. He's the veggie in the cake. The cake with no carbs and no sugars. And you know what I'm saying? Not the kind of cake. He's good cake. So I found out that the devil was deceiving me because following Jesus wasn't just right, it was better. Not just later, it was better now. He makes your life better now. Everything gets better now. And I know you don't believe me because you was told by one of your grandmas that you just serve Jesus, baby. You're going to go through hard times. You'll get a couple black eyes. And and maybe in 75 years when you go be with the Lord, it'll all make sense then. Like, I don't want that. Like, whoa, go through torment and then maybe next life you can smile. That's not what Jesus said. Do you know that Jesus actually promised you? And there's not no prosperity. We don't do that here. But Jesus actually promised you some of the best things. So my question is, if Jesus promised you some of the best things, why didn't he mention those things? Because when he said, "Follow him," he said, "Hate this person, hate that person, hate yourself, take up your cross, eat of his flesh, drink of his blood." You're like, Jesus, like, this is not a good sales pitch. Like, like, you know, like, like Jesus, like, if you like, if you want to make people mad, tell them to deny themselves. If you want them happy, sell ice cream. Like, what are you doing? And Jesus is saying, "No, I wanted to give you the worst upfront." And the reason why I wanted you to give the worst upfront was he was like, "I'm lowkey." He said, he said, "I gave you the worst upfront because I wanted you to follow me for the right reasons and the right motive." Yeah. See, people like, "We should preach fire, hell, and brimstone." I believe in hell, but the reason why I don't preach fire, hell, and brimstone, I'm going to preach the truth is because I'm distorting the motive of why they follow him. See, if you're just following him to get out of something or get in in or get into something, you missed it. You follow him because he's your king, and you love him, and he's your God, and he died for you, and he lives for you forevermore. If you're following Jesus to get out of something or into something, you missed the gospel. You missed it. The Bible says this, "Love and kindness that draws all men to repentance." I follow him because he's loving. He's kind, not because I need fire insurance. My God. So Jesus actually has some sweet promises. I want to show you, perhaps you never saw before. Mark 10, verse 29. And it says, "So Jesus answered and said," and this is so cool in the Bible, "Jesus answered and said, 'Surely I say to you, there is there is no one who has left houses.'" You remember he said, "Give up that stuff?" "Or brothers or sisters." Look, he's bringing it back. "Or father or mother or wife or children." Like, he's bringing it back full circle. "Or lands for my sake and the gospel, who shall not receive a hundredfold now, not later, now." When is now? Right now is right now. "Now in this life." Wow. Jesus told you to hate everybody and everybody he told you to hate and everything he told you to hate and everything he told you to get rid of. He said, "I'll give you back a hundredfold now, not when you get to heaven in 75 years after you just lost everything. Now." Said, "A hundredfold now, in this time." Then it says, "Houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecution." And in the age to come, he said, "Not only am I going to give it back to you a hundredfold now, but I'm going to give it back to you a hundredfold in the life to come, in eternal life." But many who are first will be last, and whose last will be first. Wow. Wow. Wow. Jesus said, "Hey, you need to hate all these people. You need to hate your lands, hate your properties, hate all your stuff." And it's like, whoa. And then at the end, when the disciples did that, he said, "Hey, guys, I got a promise." "I was holding out on everything that you hated and gave up for me, everything that got in the way of you following me, you went past it, it kept following me." He said, "I have an ROI." You know, not of what's an ROI? I'm I'm a I'm a business guy, so I'm really big into investing. An ROI is return on investment. Jesus said, "I have a return on investment." You know, not of now. As an investor, I invest in a lot of stuff. I invest, I have a r r i invest in a lot of stuff. I have cryptocurrency, all kind of different stocks, bonds, all these different things. Jesus is saying, "I have an ROI." You know, not of if you are an investor, if you can get a six to 10% return on something, that's a pretty good investment. Jesus said, "I have a hundredfold." The word "fold" means return. He says, "I have a hundred percent return on anything you invest in me. Invest in this kingdom. Invest in this gospel." Y'all, if anything had a hundred percent return, I would empty my bank account right now and be invested in that. Well, guess what? The kingdom of God has a hundredfold return for you. A hundredfold better than any rough r, any index fund, anything you could ever put your money into. A hundredfold return. So, what does that mean? So somebody's like, "Okay, so if I give up a house for Jesus, I get a hundred houses?" Absolutely not. Um, here's what it means. And I'm going to close as my MD comes up. Here's what it means. It means that let's say you gave up this house. Jesus is saying, "I'm going to give you a house that's a hundredfold now." That may mean a bigger house, or it may not be a bigger house. It would mean the house that you would need to feel like it's a hundredfold. Maybe that's a house of peace in it. Maybe that's a house without alcohol in it. Maybe that's a house without drama and fighting and malice in it. Hundredfold. He said, "Hey, your family that you gave up." He said, "I'm going to give you a hundredfold return on your family." What does that mean? He's saying that the shake of glory is going to come hit their house and they're going to return back to Christ. And if they don't, I'm going to give you spiritual fathers, spiritual mothers, spiritual sisters, spiritual brothers that will give you a hundredfold on everything you feel like you missed out on. In other words, he said, "I'm going to bring it to your family." And if they just don't want me, I'm going to bring you a new one. Hundredfold. It'll be a hundred times better than what you had if you would give up these things to follow me. This is the gospel. This is the good news. Oh, everybody give them a crazy praise break in this place. Come on, stand on your feet. Wow, what a powerful message. We hope that it blessed you. Make sure to share this message with your friends, your family, and even your co-workers so that they'll be blessed as well. Also, if you like to partner with us to give and invest in what we're doing here at Radiant Church, the giving link is provided below. Thank you for tuning in with us today. And also, make sure to check out our other sermons.