Hello, and welcome to this teaching from Calvary Albuquerque. We are excited to hear from our special guest speaker, Pastor Nate Heitzig, who serves as executive creative administrator at Clavary Albuquerque. We pray that God uses this message to strengthen your faith. If he does, we'd love to hear about it. Email us at mystory@calvaryabq.org. And if you'd like to support this ministry financially, you can give online securely at calvaryabq.org/give. Now we invite you to open your bibles as we join this special service with Nate Heitzig.

Hey, turn in your Bibles to Matthew, chapter 16, verse 24. Matthew chapter 16, verse 24. And as you do that, let's open up in a word of prayer. Lord, we come before you right now expectant, eager, excited to hear your word. Because we believe what you said about your word, that it is living and sharper than any two-edged sword. And so Lord, it cuts through all the chaos, and it reveals the ways in which we need to change. And so Lord, right now, I pray that you'd open our hearts and our minds. Lord, I pray that we would leave here different than where we came, that we would transcend and we would cross that line from being a believer to being a disciple. And that you would make each and every one of us to be a true follower of you. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

Hey, before we get started, do you guys mind if I make up a word? I like to make up words every now and then, because I feel like sometimes the English language doesn't have one that really captures what I want to say. And so, you know there was a message where I made up the word lovement. I said, let's start a lovement, and stop the judgment. And you know, today I feel like it's best to make up a word to convey a truth that I want you to grasp.

And we're going to have a conversation today which, by the way, consists of both of us being involved. A conversation only works if I say something, if you respond to that. So today, if you hear something you agree with, it's OK to shout out an Amen, OK to shout out a preach it white boy-- whatever you gotta do-- there's no judgment here. But we're going to have fun today. I said this before, but even if you grew up in the Church of the frozen chosen, this morning you're at Calvary, so remind your face that you're happy, and let's have some fun. Amen?

Amen.

That was a lackluster response. Hey, we're going to have some fun today, are you with me? We're gonna have a conversation today. God's not going to strike you down if you pretend that you're happy.

[CHEERING]

We're going to have a good time. We're going to have a conversation, and in any conversation I think it's important that you define your terms, right? If you're having a conversation with somebody, you want to define your terms so you both know what you're talking about, so that there can be no confusion. Well, I'm going to be using a term today that's of my own making, and that word is followship. Followship. And as a matter of fact, our message title this morning is a lesson in followship.

Church, can I make a bold declaration right now? I'm going to do it, whether you want me to or not, so it doesn't matter. We, as a society, need less leaders and more followers. We have too many leaders. We have too many people who want to lead. We need more people who want to follow. We need more followers and less leaders.

And maybe you are scratching your head, but I think we, as a Church, need to stop focusing on how to lead others, and we need to start focusing on how to follow Jesus. I think we, as a Church, need to stop reading books on leadership until we read the original book on followship. There is no need to read any books on leadership.

You know, the Bible spends a lot more time teaching us how to follow than it does teaching us how to lead. You'll be hard pressed to find a lot of verses on leading, but you can look anywhere in the Bible and find a lot of versus on following, a lot of verses on trusting. And that's because, before anyone can learn about leadership, we first need to learn about followship. As a matter of fact, I believe that it's impossible to be a good leader if you don't first know how to be a good follower.

Man, just ask anyone who's had a bad boss. Now, I've been blessed. I've got a great boss right now. But there was times when I had bad bosses, and that was because they were bad followers. They didn't know how to be a good leader because they couldn't be a good follower. And the same is true in whatever industry you're in. You can't be a good leader unless you first know how to be a good follower.

Church, we need more followers and less leaders. Today we're going to look at a remarkable call from Jesus to his disciples, and a call to us. A call that, at just seven words, might seem simple, but it's a call that can take a lifetime to learn. It can take a lifetime to apply this lesson of to our lives and take these principles to heart.

Church, I believe that we need to get back to the Christian life as it was meant to be lived. Not this anemic, watered down, ineffective substitute that people call Christian living today, but that dynamic, fired up, affective reality that we, as Christians, we are forgiven by Christ, we are filled with the Holy Spirit, and we are called to follow God's will for our lives above everything else. Do you believe that church?

[APPLAUSE]

The Christian life is more than saying a simple prayer of fire insurance. The Christian life is following him, not only as our savior, but also as our Lord. See, he wants to not just be your friend, but he wants to be your God. In short, we need to be disciples, church. See, God doesn't need us to be dictators, dictating to him what we want, and what we don't want, and how we want our lives to operate. God wants us to be disciples following his call for what our life should look like.

You know, there's an important distinction to be made. And that is that all disciples are believers, but all believers are not necessarily disciples. And my prayers that, today when you believe, we could all together make that journey and go from just being believers to being disciples to being followers to walking the same road as Jesus, pursuing the same goals as Jesus.

An author named Richard Rohr said this, Jesus clearly taught the 12 disciples about surrender, the necessity of suffering, humility, servant leadership, and nonviolence. They resisted him every time, and so he finally had to make the journey himself and tell them, follow me. But Christians have preferred to hear something that Jesus never said, worship me. Worship of Jesus is rather harmless and risk free, but following Jesus changes everything.

Now can you really let that sink in for a second? Worship of Jesus is rather harmless and risk free, but following Jesus changes everything. Man, it's one thing to come in here and sing songs and worship Jesus, it's another thing to follow Jesus and go outside in a world that hates him, and experience a world that persecutes you for following Jesus. Let me tell you, it's hard to follow Jesus in 2016.

But that's the call that God has placed upon our lives, to follow him. Not to just be Christians who give him lip service, but Christians who give him life service, who give him everything we have, who devote our lives, who are disciples not just believers. And this is the Christian life as it should be, challenging, exciting, with purpose and direction. Does that describe your walk with God?

Or do you say, man, you know, my experience is a little different. My experience with Christ is a little dull, maybe unfulfilling, maybe even at times, boring. If that's the case, then let's look at our text and discover a lesson in followship. Again, Matthew chapter 16, verse 24. Let's read it together.

Verse 24 says, then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone desires to come after me-- hey who wants to pursue, who wants to come after God?

[CHEERS]

All right, here you go. Let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. And this morning we're going to see three things that-- if you want to be a follower of God, there's three lessons of followship that you need to take into consideration, deny, die, and decide. If each one of us deny, die, and decide, we can make that journey from being believers to being disciples.

First is deny. If we want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, we must first deny ourselves. Look at the text again, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself. Now this is a foundational issue, and we essentially have a choice in life to either live for yourself or to deny yourself, to either ignore the cross or to take it up, to try to save your life and ultimately lose it, or lose your life and ultimately find it, to gain the world or forsake the world, to lose your soul or keep it. And it seems insane to me that anyone would not choose God's choice. And yet, sadly, most people don't. Most people don't choose God's choice.

And see, the greatest barrier to discovering all that God has for you is self-- is self. If you experience that your walk with God is lackluster, that it's not exciting, that you don't know the will of God for your life, the first place to look-- the first place to blame isn't your surroundings, it's not your environment, it's not your past, it's not your parents, it's not your spouse-- the first place to look is yourself. And say, what is it about self that is holding me back from pursuing God's will for my life, from following Jesus the way that he called me to do so?

Jesus didn't tell us to love ourselves. Anywhere in the Bible, it doesn't say love yourself. Why? Because we do a pretty good job without anyone telling us to do that, right? You know, I think a pretty good clue for walking with God is looking at what society does and doing the exact opposite. So just turn on the TV and see what everyone else is doing, and if you do the opposite of that, you'll probably be OK.

And when you turn on the TV, what does society tell you about self? Well, what do ads tell you about self? Well, there's a fast food company that says, have it your way. There's a soap company that says that you should love the skin you're in. There's a makeup company that says, because you're worth it. See, the world's all about self-esteem, about self gratification, but Jesus told us to deny ourselves. Whoever desires to come after me must deny himself.

Now the word denial is really important to talk about, because you say, all right Nate, how do I deny myself? Does that mean like plausible deniability, I just deny I ever do anything wrong, and that means denying yourself? No. Denying yourself carries a deeper understanding. The word denial, in the Greek, means to repudiate, to disdain, to disown, to forfeit, or to totally disregard.

Man, can I'll be honest with you? That's hard to do. It's hard to disregard yourself. Why? Because every morning, when you wake up, all you do is regard yourself. You wake up in the morning hungry, you say, what should I have for breakfast? Do I want to have Einstein's? Do I want to have some eggs? Do I want to be super healthy any egg whites and ezekiel bread that tastes like cardboard? Probably not.

But, all we do is regard ourselves. So, to disregard ourselves, to disown ourselves is hard, because the human life is all about regarding yourself-- what you want, what you desire, where you want to go, what your goals are, who you think is hot, who you think is not. It's all about regarding ourselves. So, it's really hard to say, hey, disregard yourself. That's difficult to do.

Man, it goes a step further, to disdain yourself. Man, that seems like counter intuitive, right? It shouldn't be a walk in a life where we hate ourselves, and I agree with you-- we're going to get into this, but I did want to point out-- denying yourself isn't about walking around saying, oh man, I'm such a bad person. I'm so terrible. I'm worthless. I'm no good. It's all about saying, man I'm no good, but wow, God is great. God is great.

A proper view of self must always be in view and in light of Jesus Christ. If you ever get to a place where all you're doing is talking about how bad you are, how bad you are, but you're never looking to Jesus, that's an unhealthy habit to get into. But when you look at yourself, and you say, man, I'm bad, but then you turn your eyes to heaven, you say, man, but Jesus is great.

Then you get a proper view of yourself, because you realize that this great Jesus loves you no matter how bad you are. He cares for you no matter how bad you are. He died for you when you were yet a sinner and because of that, he sees the value and the worth, the potential that's in you, even when you're bad, because he sees the possibility of who you could become. And so we rejoice in this great God. We deny self, but we give glory to God.

Charles Spurgeon said this, the way to rise in the kingdom is to sink in yourselves. And C.S. Lewis summed it up, I think poetically, when he said, whenever we find that our spiritual life is making us feel that we are good above all else, that we are better than someone else, I think we may be sure that we're being acted on, not by God, but by the devil. The real test of being in the presence of God is that you either forget about yourself altogether, which is impossible, or you see yourself as a small dirty object.

A small dirty object? Is that how you view yourself? Man, that's what the Bible echoes. Isaiah said, I'm a man of unclean lips. And he says, woe is me, for I am undone. And man, it says that when he compared his good works to God, it was like filthy rags. I think C.S. Lewis nailed it. To view yourself as a small dirty object, is that will we hear today? This goes against the grain of what is deemed in the world's eyes, a success.

There's so much emphasis placed on self-esteem, on self-competence, on self-reliance. Our society is obsessed with self, and that's because we as humans like to think that we're basically good. Who's heard that term before-- someone's told you, well, we're all basically good, and if we could all just love each other, everything would be OK. Like let's just get a big group hug going on, and everything is going to be fine.

Yet, turn on the television, and you're going to see that sports stars are bragging about sexual conquests, politicians are talking about their abusive parents and their past, celebrities are discussing their addictions. Anything goes in our era's version of confession. TV talk shows-- having an affair with your sister? Just tell Dr. Phil. and it will all be OK.

The truth is that we don't want to stop. It's our party, and we can do what, we want we can kiss who we want, we can see what we want, but we can't stop. Is it OK to quote Miley Cyrus in church? I think as long as I'm not twerking, it's OK. No the truth is, we can't stop, we don't want to stop, and the world is not basically good. All you have to do is turn on the TV to prove that point. No, we're not ashamed. We live in a YOLO society-- as long as it makes you feel good temporarily, it must be OK.

But guess what? The sad part is, it's not just society, it's in the church as well-- this message of self worth, this message of self-esteem, and, self-confidence and self-reliance-- it's in the church. According to a survey in Businessweek magazine, it said that the book selling in Christian bookstores today are the touchy-feely ones that focus on self-esteem, self fulfillment, and self-analysis, while devotionals and missionary biographies gather dust on the shelves, so do books encouraging self-sacrifice.

So the books that are selling in Christian bookstores aren't about scripture, they're about self. And how backwards is that? What are some Christian authors saying about self? Well a popular Christian author wrote saying, Christianity is an adventure of self-discovery that helps believers become aware of their innate goodness. Another one said that self-esteem is the greatest single need facing human race today. Man, I'd beg to differ and say, Jesus Christ is the greatest single need facing the human race today. But hey--

[APPLAUSE]

I guess he has never read the Bible. One book on Christian psychology said that the Bible makes a person feel good about themselves. Many try to use it to make people hate themselves, but the Bible promotes psychological and emotional health. Hey, is that true, does the Bible attempt to make us feel good about ourselves? Does God want us to feel good about ourselves when we're living in sin?

Well James 4:8 answers that, so let's see if the Bible says what this guy says it says. James 4:8 says, cleanse your hands you sinner. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable, and mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to morning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up.

See the question, does the Bible want you to feel good about yourself, all depends on your relationship or lack of relationship with Jesus Christ. See, one of the driving factors in coming to Christ is realizing that you're not good, realizing that you don't have it all together, realizing that you're messed up, and feeling bad about it, and coming to Christ and repenting for your sins.

Let me tell you, it doesn't get any better when you come to Christ. When you come to Christ-- the closer you get to Christ, you just realize how messed up you are compared to how great God is. That's why Isaiah said that the closer he got to God, the more he realized that, man, all the things that I think are good about myself are like filthy rags. I'm a small dirty object compared to how big and how great God is.

So man, the answer is no. The message of the Bible isn't to make us feel good about ourselves, the message of the Bible is to make us realize how great God is and how, compared to God, how bad we are. And let me tell you, it's a message of hope, because it's the message that all those good things about God, and all the bad things about us-- God can come into our lives, and he can erase those bad things, and we can partake and experience the goodness of God.

Amen.


And man, that's something to feel good about.

[APPLAUSE]

If you have Jesus Christ in yourself, you boast, but not in yourself, you boast in him. You boast in his name. Church we don't need self-esteem, we need some God-esteem here in this house. We need to esteem and honor God higher than ourselves, recognizing that Christ didn't die for us, because we're of such great value, Christ died for us because we're sinners.

This obsession with self is nothing new. This was also the cause of Satan's downfall in Isaiah 14:12. It says, how you have fallen from heaven or morning star, son of the dawn, you have been cast down to the earth. You who once laid low the nations, you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven, I will raise my throne above the stars of God, I will sit enthroned on the Mount of Assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds. I will make myself like the most high. But you were brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit.

Hey did it sounds to you like Satan wanted a position of leadership? Yeah, it sure does. He should have spent a little more time focusing on a lesson in followship, instead of being worried about leadership. See leadership is not something to pursue, leadership is something that is thrust upon you when you learn to be a good follower.

Again as James 4:8 ends that whole mentality of let your laughing be turned to morning, it says, humble yourself in the sight of Lord and he will lift you up-- he will lift you up. Satan tried to ascend himself and he got brought down. See, it's when we try to find leadership ourselves that God humbles us, that God brings us down. But we're not going around looking for leadership, when we're just going around looking to be a follower-- it's incredible how we stay low, God lifts us up. If we go high, God brings us down.

So don't go out trying to pursue leadership in and of itself, and say, man, I just want that next step. I want that next bracket. I want that next promotion. I want that next place of honor. Because if you go out looking for that place, God's going to bring you down into the pit. He's going to bring you down into the grave. But if you stay humble, if you seek to just be a follower of Jesus and say, Lord, let my life's chief aim and goal be the pursuit of you, be a race running towards you, the cross before me, the world behind me, you'll be amazed at the opportunities that God will give you. You'll be amazed at the platforms that God places you on, at the leadership God entrusts you, because you're not in it for that, you're in it for Jesus.

Satan had some serious eye problems. But not the kind of eye problems that a trip to the eye doctor can solve. He needed a trip to the great physician, only the great physician can solve these kind of eye problems. See the Bible identifies the problem. And the problem is not a lack of self-esteem, the problem is the love of self. The ultimate choice in life lies between pleasing self or pleasing God.

Scripture even tells us that this would be an earmark of the last days. 2 Timothy 3, verse 1 says, but mark this, there will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, but treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Does that sound like 2016 to anybody?

This is all just an outgrowth, church, of loving ourselves rather than loving God, of trying to be leaders instead of seeking to be followers. See what happens, as I look at myself, as I realize who I am and what I have to offer, I've got to wonder why anybody would want to follow me? Instead of talking about how great I am, I need to deny myself and follow Christ, and let Christ work in me, so that my life can be a view of Christ, because the only thing good that is in me is Jesus.

[CROWD AGREES]

Nothing else.

[APPLAUSE]

And this is what Jesus is really asking of his disciples, that we would love him more than anyone or anything else, including self. Now you might be here, and you might say, but Nate, God loves us. True. And you say, so doesn't that prove our self-worth, because this great God loves us, who are so bad-- is what you're telling us-- doesn't that mean that we must be worth something if God loves us?

Why does God love us? Does God love us because we're beautiful? No, because not everyone is. Does God love us because we're lovable? Again, some are, and some aren't, and don't you dare elbow the person next to you.

[LAUGHTER]

God does love us, but not because of ourselves. He loves us in spite of ourselves. The Bible says, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. See, our value on our worth don't come from who we are, it comes from God making us into what he wants for us. It comes from what he's making us into, not in the way he found us.

You know, a diamond has value because of what it will become. When you find a diamond, it's rough, it's messy, it's dirty, it looks like a rock. And the value for the diamond is for what it could be made into if it's given to the proper gem cutter, who can cut that in all the beautiful ways, so that the light can come into that diamond and show the beauty of that stone. The diamond is not of value because of what it is, but because of what it can be made into.

Christian, you're not valuable because of who you are now, you're valuable because of who God can make you into. When he finds you, you don't look that good. But man, in the hands of the master gem cutter, using the Bible, which is sharper than any two-edged sword, he can cut off those ugly parts, he can cut off those parts that don't reflect the glory of his righteousness and his light, and he can turn you into a beautiful diamond. And your value is found in what you will become, not in who you are.

[APPLAUSE]

So man, maybe you needed to hear that because you thought you were all that a bag of chips, or maybe you needed to hear that because you don't feel like you have anything to offer God. Maybe you're here today, and you say, Nate, my problem isn't thinking I'm great, my problem is knowing how bad I am, and not thinking God can do anything with me. To you, I'd let you know, you have the capability, you have the potential to be a light source for Jesus Christ. He can take your life, no matter how ugly, no matter how broken, no matter how bruised, and he can turn you into a beautiful masterpiece. He sees you not for what you are right now, not for the way that you see yourself, he sees you for what you can become. And if you allow your life to be put into the hands of the maker, of the creator, he can do something in your life that you don't even know of right now.

So, you take hope in that fact that we serve a great God. 2 Corinthians 4:5 echoes the same truth when it says, for we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us.

Now let's look at the positive outcome of this. If we deny ourselves, what do we get in return? Well in verse 25 of Matthew chapter 16, it goes on and it says, whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Now, this word life, in the Greek, is a word psuche. And it means a lot more than just your flesh and your blood, your breathing in and your breathing out. Psuche literally translates to your soul life. So, church, how's your soul this morning? How's your soul life this morning?

Your soul life is your will, it's your ambition, it's your goals, it's your desires. The idea is that you give up your will to discover God's will. You relinquish your desires so that God can give you his desires. You give up your life so that God can give you new life. Can I get an Amen from somebody in the house this morning?


Amen.

So church, you can't experience the new life God wants to give you unless you're ready and willing to give up your old life. If you've been begging and asking God to show you his will, he's not going to show it to you until you give up your will. If you want to know what God's desires are for your life, the first thing you've got to do is release your desires and say, Lord not my will but yours be done. If you want to experience that into your life, if you want experience the life that God has to give.

See church, this is why we run to God. This is why we come to God with open hands. We don't come to him with our hands clenched tight around what we have, around who we are, around what we want and say, no Lord, this is who I am, don't try to change it. We come to him with open hands, releasing who we are and what we have, so that he can give us what he has.

And let me tell you, church, what he has is way better than what you have. See, our God created the heavens and the earth, our God holds the oceans in the palm of his hand, our God measures the universe in his span, our God owns the cattle on 1,000 hills, and the grain is 1,000 storehouses, our God holds us in his loving arms. And so when God says, hey, give up all you have to get what I have, the answer is always yes. It's always yes. When God calls, you answer. And the answer is always yes.

And that leads us to our next point. Number one, deny, number two, die. Look at verse 24 again. He says, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross. Jesus underscores the importance of commitment when he refers to the cross. See, the cross in our day and age has lost most of its meaning. Most of us don't understand what its purpose was or is. It's so shrouded in religiosity. It's become a symbol for so many people, a religious icon, an ornate piece of jewelry.

But the real cross was an ugly, hated, and despised symbol. It was the symbol of a very cruel death at the hands of Romans, reserved for the worst of criminals. It was a symbol of torture, a symbol of execution. You heard it said before, the modern equivalent might be an electric chair or a hangman's noose. A symbol of death, a symbol of shame. When a man carried his cross on the streets of Jerusalem, it was well known that that man was about to die.

It would be our equivalent of the Green Mile, dead man walking. They might not be dead yet, but they're dead. They're going to die. There's no way around it. They're a dead man walking. The convicted criminal would be driven outside the city, nailed to the cross, and set up on the roadside where everybody coming in and out would see him. So why did Jesus use such a brutal illustration? Jesus intentionally uses a radical symbol to get people's attention.

So what does the cross mean today? What does it mean to bear your cross? You know, often times you'll hear people say, well that's just my cross to bear, that's just my cross to bear. Maybe a mom who's having a hard day will say, my children are my cross to bear-- which, by the way, how terrible is that? I mean, I guess they suck the life out of you, but way to take it literally, right? I mean, come on. Or maybe the children say that of the mom, I don't know. They identify whatever problem or obstacle they have as their cross to bear.

But that's not what the cross means. The cross symbolizes one thing, dying to self-- dying to self. For disciples, this means that wherever Jesus directs, we should be willing to go, no matter how scary, no matter how threatening, no matter how death defying it is, we go because he called us to. Again, when God calls, we answer, and the answer is?

Yes.

Yes. The answer is yes. It's always yes. It's never no. Now obviously, this is not an appealing message to very many people. Satan made an accurate statement of humanity when he said, all that a man has will he give for his life. In other words, Satan knows that when the chips are down people will give up everything to stay alive, to preserve themselves. But when God calls, no matter what the call is, we say yes.

Man, Jonah had to learn this the hard way. When God called, he said no. And God said, yes, you're just not going to get there as comfortably as if you would have said yes in the first place. I don't care if you get there in a whale or on a boat, but you're going to go.

When God calls you, don't say no. You say, all right God, when? You don't get to give God an alternate plan, you just get to plug the coordinates in your GPS and go along for the ride like an autonomous Tesla, you just go with the flow, and you trust that God is taking you where you need to go. Luckily, automatic Tesla's crash, but God doesn't. So you trust God. You trust where he's leading. You trust where he's taking you.

Remember the context of this statement of Jesus. It was after Jesus announced his coming crucifixion and resurrection. In Matthew chapter 16, Jesus gets the disciples, and he says, hey guys, I've got some bad news for you. Well, it's bad news and it's good news, which one do you want first? Well first of all, I'm going to die, I'm going to be crucified, but I'm going to resurrect, I'm going to raise from the dead.

And he gives the disciples this news, and Peter responds the way that I think most of us would. He takes an authoritarian position over him, and he repeatedly rebukes him, in essence saying, Lord, avoid this unpleasant thing. Don't do it. There's got be another way. To which Jesus says, oh buddy boy, that's just the half of it. Not only am I going to die, but if you want to follow me, so do you. You're going to die. If you want to follow after me, it's not just me who's got to take up the cross, you've got to take up your cross, and you've got to follow me.

Jesus uses this as an opportunity to show that we, too, must take up our cross and follow Jesus. Now, first and foremost, this means that we need to die to our plans-- die to our plans, die to our ambitions, die to our pursuit of self-fulfillment, and instead say, Lord, not my will but yours be done. I'm going to go where you call, I'm going to do which you want me to do.

It also means we stop pretending that we know better than God. You know, I am so tired of, myself included in this, Christian's thinking that we know better than God. When God calls us to do something, we try to find a verse to somehow battle that and say, well, that can't be what God wants me to do. There's got to be a verse somewhere in there that says that. Somehow thinking we know better than God. Man, and this should come as second nature to parents, because how often do your kids think they know better than you? And then when God calls you to do something, you think you know better than God, and your kids look at you and say, hey wasn't this just a lesson you taught me yesterday?

God knows better than us, so let's stop pretending that we know better than him and trying to challenge him on every call that he places upon our lives. It means we stop trying to find ways to get into leadership and we accept our position of followship. And we shouldn't be afraid to do this, because this is where we will find life as it was meant to be lived.

It's incredible, when we give up our lives, and we experience the new life that God wants to give us, we all of a sudden experience the adventure, the joy, the excitement, the incredible wonder that we wanted in life all along. But we don't find it by trying to achieve it, we find it by following God. When we stop trying to seek life and instead seek God, he gives us what we wanted all along. When we stop trying to lead, and instead just decide to follow, then and only then will we show that we are in the right place to lead others.

Samuel Rutherford said this about bearing the cross. He said, the cross of Christ is the sweetest burden that I have ever bore. It is a burden to me such as wings are to a bird, or sails are to a ship that carry me forward to safe harbor. Church, the cross of Christ might seem scary-- it might seem scary to die to yourself, but it's a burden and like wings are to a bird. It helps you fly, it helps you achieve, it helps you soar into what God has for you.

Rutherford discovered what you, too, can know. That when you really die to yourself, you really find yourself. When you lay aside personal goals, desires, and ambitions, that is when God will reveal the desires, ambitions, and goals that he has for your life. That's what the Apostle Paul meant when he said, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

Are you bearing your cross right now? Are you following Jesus? Have you denied yourself? Have you died yourself? For some people, that might mean suffering persecution. It might mean a major change in your lifestyle, it might cost you your friends. To others in other countries, it could even mean dying for the faith. Whatever the case, bearing the cross will affect and influence every aspect of your life.

And that brings us to our last point. Look at verse 24, the end of it. If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Deny, die, and third and finally, decide. He says, follow me.

Now, this last point is so simple and yet it's so difficult for many people. The simple decision to follow Jesus. The Sunday school song says it best. It says, I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. It's so important, you've got to repeat it three times. No turning back. The cross before me, the world behind me, no turning back. Though none go with me, still I will follow, no turning back. Man, kids sing it every Sunday, and somehow us adults miss it so easily.

We make a decision that we're going to follow Jesus, no matter what. Nothing is going to get in the way of our goal of following Jesus, deciding to follow him. The cross before us, the world behind us, we die to ourselves. Though none go with me, still I will follow-- we deny ourselves, no matter who or what doesn't want us on that path, we are on it because God called us to it, we decide to follow Jesus. The simple decision to follow Jesus is the most important choice that we can make in our lives.

And not just fair-weather followers, but true disciples. See, once you've been broken for your sin and humbled, you still need to make the decision to follow Jesus. It is not enough to just deny and to die, you've still got to decide. I've seen a lot of people who get humbled-- something happens in their life, and they get humbled, they get brought low. They deny themselves, they die to themselves, and then they just get bitter. They get angry. They decide not to follow Jesus, and they harden their hearts, and they push themselves away from Jesus. If you've denied, and you died, you still need to decide to follow Jesus Christ. You've still got to make that decision to pursue him.

Look, any life change has two equal parts. Stop doing one thing, and start doing something else. If you want to lose weight, stop eating cheeseburgers and go eat some salad. If you want to make money, stop playing video games and start applying for jobs. I'm looking at you, Spectrum. If you want to find a girlfriend, stop wearing sweatpants and start dressing nice. Are there some ladies in here who can give me an Amen for that?


Amen.

If you want to change, you've got to stop doing something and start doing something else. This is also true of being a disciple. It's not enough to just not do bad things. You need to do the best thing and decide to follow Jesus.

In the Greek, the word for follow me means to walk the same road. Now this is important, because this word is in the imperative mood, which means that it's not an invitation, it's a command. And it's also-- the verb is in the present tense, commanding the beginning of an action and the continuing in it. This is why, when someone comes forward to receive Jesus Christ we say, hey, you just made a big decision, but it was the first decision. You just took a big step, but it was the first step. Walking with God is about daily, habitually walking with him, taking a step towards him. If you're not walking with him, you're walking away from him.

Because deciding to follow Jesus is a command that will carry for the rest of your life. Jesus said in Luke 14, if anyone comes after me and does not forsake all the has, he cannot be my disciple. Jesus is saying that our love for Him must be stronger than our love for anyone else. In Luke 9, Jesus called several men with the same exact word, saying, follow me. And each person had their own excuse of why they couldn't do that, with a, Lord allow me first. Lord, allow me first to bury my mom and dad, Lord allow me first to do this, to do that. And right there, a conflict arises. If he is Lord, than he is first, not us.

Hey, what's your allow me first? When God calls, when God says, hey, follow me. Hey, I want you to do this. I have to this plan for your life, what's your allow me first? Is it your job? And you say, Lord I'll follow you, but I want to build my career first, and I've got to do some shady things to get there, so give me some time. Is your allow me first your family or your school? Maybe you say, let me first wait till my parents grow old and die, I don't want conflict in the home. Let me wait until my husband or wife, or my boyfriend or girlfriend give their lives to you, because I don't want conflict in my relationships and my marriage. Lord, at a more convenient time, then I'll follow you.

See, when it comes to discipleship, we have a choice in the matter. You can say no. You'll miss out on the gift of heaven, on the peace of knowing God is with us here on Earth, of having God give you his will and his plan for your life, and experiencing the joy that comes with that. But you can say, no.

When Jesus went and delivered the demon possessed man, there were men who were there who had made their career through the sale of pigs, and they were mad that Jesus sent those demons into the pigs. And the men told Jesus, depart from us, and he did. He didn't argue with them, he didn't fight with them, he departed. When God knocks on the door of your life you say, depart from me, he will. Or we can follow.
Church, can I just say, as we come to a close, I don't want to be a leader. I want to be a follower I don't want to be a leader. I want to be a follower. There's too many leaders, God needs some followers.

And I believe God doesn't want you to be a leader, either. When I look through the Gospels, I can't find one place where Jesus asks anyone to be a leader. He realized that he doesn't even view himself as a leader, but instead in John 5, he says, the son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the father do. For whatever he does, the son also does in like manner. Jesus was a follower of God the Father. And that doesn't mean that we're not supposed to follow Jesus, but I think the reason that Jesus was a great leader is because he was a great follower.

Jesus himself said in Mark 9, if anyone desires to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all. Maybe leadership can never be sought for leadership itself. Perhaps leadership must always be a byproduct of being a great follower. So if that's the case, there's only one leader and we're all followers.

Hey, who in here has ever played the game follow the leader? You're like, it was a long time ago. We should start doing it more often. There is a version of follow the leader we do a mission trips called follow the Sherpa. And basically the premise is just like follow the leader, except you're blindfolded. How does that work? Well, you're blindfolded. And one person has the blindfold off and they have a bell. And you have everyone hear that bell, and you say, OK, the goal is to follow that bell. As long as you follow that bell, you'll be OK. But if you veer off course, you're not going to be OK, because you're blindfolded so bad stuff is going to happen. And then what happens is the other leaders on the trip get other things like pots and pans or pieces of wood and they make conflicting noise to try to distract you from the sound of the Sherpa and his bell. And the point is that with your eyes closed, you've got to try and listen for that still, small voice of the Sherpa. Try and listen for that small voice of the Sherpa calling you, of the leader calling you.

And the same is true in our own lives. There's times when we're blindfolded, and we're walking through life and it's difficult. And we think, man, if I veer off course, I'm going to fall. I'm going to crash. I'm going to get hurt. I'm going to hit a tree. I'm going to trip. Bad things are going to happen. We've just got to listen to the still, small voice of the leader calling us, and we've got to follow the leader.

When you get lost, follow the leader. When life gets dark, follow the leader. When tragedy strikes, follow the leader. When you want to quit, follow the leader. When you fall down, follow the leader. Even when there is no way, he is the way. Amen, church?

[CLAPPING]

It's time to follow the leader. Even when I don't know, there's one thing I do know, and that I've got to follow the leader, and that's enough for me. I don't need to know the rest. I just need to know the best.

Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the truth that it brings, the way in which it convicts us and draws us to repentance. And Lord, I pray that you would help each and every one of us to take the call of discipleship personally, and that we would stop just being believers and we would start being disciples.

And I pray for anyone in here right now who doesn't have a relationship with you, Lord. They have not died to self, they have not denied self, and they have not decided to follow Jesus. Lord, I pray that you would draw them to you. That, as we close, you would convict them of sin, you'd help them to realize that they are not basically good, they're messed up. and they need Jesus Christ. And as we're praying right now, as we have our eyes closed and our heads bowed, if you're here tonight or this morning, and you have never said a prayer to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. If you were to die today and you don't know that you'd go to heaven, you need to leave here knowing.

Or perhaps you're in here, and you've said a prayer a long time ago to accept Christ, but you're not a follower, you're not a disciple. You think you're pretty good, but you need to realize what you actually are, and who God actually is. If that's you this morning, and you want to accept Christ either for the first time, or for a second time, or for the hundredth time, but you're ready and willing to admit that you're a sinner, and that you need the forgiveness of God, I want you to just raise your hand right now and say, Nate, pray for me. I need Jesus Christ in my life.

Amen. Right here to my right. Several of you here in the middle to the left. Over here to my left. Put that hand up high, so I can see it. In the back, to my right. Over here, to the right in the middle. If you're in the balcony, in the family room, you put your hand up, I'll see you. Over there the family room, in the balcony. Anyone else, put your hand in the air.

If God is calling, you be receptive, you be responsible with that call. If God is knocking on the door of your life, you can say depart from me, or you can do the wise thing and follow him. If you feel that tug of the Holy Spirit, you get your life right with God. Anyone else, you raise up your hand. Over here.

- Oh, Lord, I thank you for all these people acknowledging their need for you. Lord, I pray that you would help them to take a stand for you, to be followers, to be disciples. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

Hey, will you stand? We're going to close in a song, and as we do, I'm going to ask that if you raised your hand up acknowledging your need for Jesus Christ, that you get up from wherever you are, and you come down here to the front, you say a prayer to accept Jesus Christ. Maybe you're thinking, Nate, man, I'm all about raising my hand when everyone's eyes are closed, but you want me to take a step in front of people? I do. Because if you can't stand for Jesus in a room full of people that love him, how are you going to do in a world that hates him?

And so you get your life right. You take this important step. You come down here to the front, you say a prayer to accept Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter where you are, people will move. We're excited for you. You know, when you go to the Apple store, they clap for you, cause you get on the phone. You come, you wait to hear the applause of this congregation as you get the most important gift of your entire life. You come.

[CHEERS]

Come on church, let's get loud. The Bible says, when just one person gives life to the Lord, the angels in heaven rejoice. What do you think they're doing right now? We're going to sing this song and as we do, you come. This is your moment. You come right now.

[SINGING] No turning back, no turning back. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back. No turning back.

Okay, if you raised your hand, don't let anything turn you back from this decision to accept Christ. If you're in the family room, you're in the balcony, we'll wait for you, this is your moment. Maybe you're worried about what the person next to you, or in front of you, or behind you thinks. Guess what? It doesn't matter what they think, because they didn't die for your sins, Jesus Christ did. And they can't forgive you of your sins, only Christ can do that. And you're not getting your life right with them, you're getting or your life with Jesus.

So, you come down here, you say a prayer. You say Nate, but I've got time, I'll do it next time. You don't know if you have time. If you died in a car accident on the way home, if you got a heart attack, and you were to stand before Jesus today, would you go to heaven or would you go to hell? You leave here knowing that when you die, you're going to go to heaven. You leave here knowing that your sins are forgiven.

If you think you're too good to make this decision, think again. If you think you're too bad to make this decision, know that by doing this, you're believing in God's view of who you are. You're believing in the potential that God sees in you. And so we're going to see this through one more time, and if you're still here in the balcony, in the family room, in the amphitheater, in the hub, here the sanctuary, you come now, and you say a prayer to accept Jesus Christ. We're going to sing this through one more time. You come. You come, we'll wait for you.


[SINGING] I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back. No turning back. The cross before me, the world behind me. The cross before me, the world behind me. The cross before me, the world behind me. No turning back. No turning back.

You make your way down here. In just a second. I'm going to pray with everyone up here who's come forward in a prayer to accept Jesus Christ. And we're not going to sing this through anymore. We're not going to drag this out all day. We're going to close up here in a second. But even though we're not going to sing anymore, doesn't mean that your chance still isn't there. The church is still excited. Come on church, get loud. This is salvation is happening.

[CHEERING].

I always like to give you that last opportunity, because you might be a last minute person. Maybe you barely made it to church today, maybe you walked in late, maybe you're late to work, you're late to school, maybe you're late on your taxes, maybe you're late for everything. Now, this is one decision you don't want to be late for. And there's still time right now.

So, if God, right now, is speaking to your heart and you're ready to say yes, you say yes. When God calls, we answer, and the answer is always yes. It's always yes. So if you feel that call right now, we're not going to sing this through, but you come, and you be counted among these who are saying prayer, accepting Jesus Christ. Is there any one else? Amen. Amen.

[CHEERING]

Amen I hate that we've gone so long, but I'm glad we waited. Amen? I'm glad we waited, because one more person in the kingdom of heaven is all worth it. So right now we're going to say a prayer. I'm going to lead you in a prayer to accept Jesus Christ in your heart. So, I'm going to ask you to say these words, out loud, after me.

Now, there's nothing magical about these words. You're not going to like, levitate after you do it. You're not going to get Star Wars powers or anything, but what you are going to get is Jesus Christ is going to come into your heart. He's going to forgive you of your sin, you're going to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And after this moment, you'll know that if you were to die, you're going to go to heaven. So, the most important thing about this prayer is that you say it from your heart, and you say it to Jesus. You mean these words, don't just recite them, mean them from your heart.

Let's say this prayer together. Lord, I know that I'm a sinner. I know that I've done many things that have hurt you, but Lord I believe that you died for those things, and I believe that you rose from the dead. So Lord, I ask you to come into my life, forgive me of my sin. I turn from my old life and I turn to you. Fill me with your Holy Spirit, and help me to live for you. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

[CHEERING]

Come on, church, get loud.

[CHEERING]

We hope you enjoyed this special service from Calvary Albuquerque, featuring our guest speaker, Nate Heitzig. How would you put the truth that you learned in action? Let us know. Email mystory@calvaryabq.org. And just a reminder, you can give financially to this work at calvaryabq.org/give. Thank you for listening to this message from Calvary