R1159 Follow Jesus’ Example

In this day and age, following, whether it's following on social media or just keeping up with someone, following's an important part of what we do.

And so it's a very important decision to decide who are we going to follow. Now this is the obvious time for me to say, you need to be following Dr. Don Wilton, I sure do, and I'm blessed by it, or follow our ministry at www.tewonline.org, you'll see all the socials. But our important concept is we need to be following Jesus and following His example.

That's today's topic, follow Jesus example. We head to Matthew chapter 3 in just a moment with Dr. Don Wilton, well known author, evangelist, seminary professor, and pastor. And today as we open God's Word, know that we're open to pray with you anytime. 866-899-WORD is our phone number.

That's 866-899-9673 or online at www.tewonline.org. And now, Dr. Don Wilton. Our Father, we are coming into your presence today and we are sensing a real presence of a living God. Father, we don't want to try and explain what is going on. We know, Lord, right here today as we worship you, right from the outset, we just sense the powerful moving of God's presence. We know, Lord, that Jesus Christ has an encouraging Word for every single person because Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God, the One who came in full and complete obedience to the Father, gave His life for us that we might have life.

And Father, today we just believe with all of our hearts. We know that you are here by your Spirit and you're moving. We don't want to interrupt your presence. We don't want to get in the way. Lord, I don't want to get in the way. I don't even want to say anything or be anything or think I am anything. I want to be out of the way so that you can be in the way.

We don't want to be about the business of thinking and doing and being. We just want to be obedient to you because we love you today, because you love us. We could never love you the way you've loved us. You died on a cross for us. And when we came to you and responded to you by repenting of our sin, by putting our faith and our trust in you, the grateful Lord Jesus. Lord, I'm so grateful today for Bobby sitting on death row, just 29 years of age, about to be executed, right now, who this week gave his heart to Jesus, listening to the encouraging word that came from this place in his state into that prison cell on death row. Guilty of crimes against humanity, but pardoned by the Son of God. At this moment, people everywhere crying out to you, marriages on the rocks, people who have been married for 40 and 50 and 60 years, who are looking for meaning and purpose, single mothers crying out for somebody, some way to help them, homeless people who have nowhere to live and to lay their heads at night, people recovering from addictions.

Right now, there's someone right now, stuck on heroin, addicted to pain tablets. Lord, we celebrate recovery in Christ. And today, as we come into this place, we've come to worship you. We've come to call upon your name together. We've come to cry out to you for mercy. We have people today who are coming to follow you in believers baptism for no other reason than you did it.

You led the way. We follow you in baptism for no other reason than we love you and we're obedient to you and we identify with you. Bless this time of worship. May it be a hallowed experience because of the hallowed presence of our hallowed Heavenly Father, which art in heaven. We hallow your name together. All because of Jesus in whose name we pray these things.

Amen. Take your Bibles, reach out, get your Bible. We're going to be in Matthew chapter three.

I want to just simply say this to you. Jesus arrived on the earth. He was born in Bethlehem.

And then he grew up as a boy. And he began his ministry and the very first thing that Jesus did, the very first thing that Jesus did was he went and was baptized. Have you been baptized the way Jesus was baptized?

Now everybody, I want to say this to you. I have given my heart to Jesus. I've been baptized and I want to do it the way Jesus did it. Anything less would have been given to me by what Jesus did. I'm a Jesus follower. Jesus lives in my heart and I love him.

I can't imagine why he would love me. Why would Jesus, the Son of God, who is God, why would Jesus go and be baptized by immersion by John the Baptist, who was an awfully smelly fellow? Surely if anybody could have done it some other way, Jesus would have done it. And he didn't need to get baptized because Jesus is God.

But everything Jesus did was an example for us. And I read to you in God's house what the Bible tells us. In Matthew chapter 3 and beginning at verse 13, Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, I need to be baptized by you. And do you come to me? Jesus replied, let it be so now.

It is proper for us to do this in order to fulfill all righteousness. The us he's talking about is the four of them. He's talking about four persons there.

That's who the us is. And we've got a picture of all four of them. Person number one is God the Father. And we hear from him, from heaven. Picture number two is God the Son. We see him being baptized. Picture number three is God the Spirit. We watch him according to the scriptures, descending like a dove. And picture number four is sinful man, John the Baptist.

The us refers to all four persons. And baptism by immersion incorporates man into a holy and triune God. Look what happened. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that very moment, men was opened. And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. And a voice from heaven said, this is my son, whom I love. And with him, I'm well pleased. May the Lord write this word upon our heart.

I love that passage of scripture where Jesus said, suffer the little children to come to me and forbid them not, for such is the kingdom of heaven. Please forgive the interruption. We'll be back with the rest of today's message from Dr. Don Wilton. Follow Jesus' example. But Dr. Don wants me to remind you, this is not just a presentation.

It's a conversation. Already, we've been praying with friends, both via on the website at TEWonline.org and via the phone line at 866-899-WORD. I pray you have those as resources. Store it in your cell.

Jot it down. 866-899-9673. We'll connect with one of us. Happy to connect you with wonderful resources like what you'll find on our website right now by Dr. Wilton's friend, Charles Colson. It's a book called My Final Word. It's a powerful opportunity to connect with a resource that will strengthen your faith on our website right now at TEWonline.org. Or if you just need someone to pray for you, we're here as well at 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673. And if you haven't heard about the latest book from Dr. Don Wilton, it's a powerful, powerful book called Saturdays with Billy. Hello everyone. I'm Don Wilton, and I know that most people in the world would identify Dr. Billy Graham as the man who preached the gospel to millions of people around the world, friend of presidents and prime ministers, queens and kings. But what was Mr. Graham like in person? I had the extraordinary privilege and honor to know Mr. Graham as both a friend and as his pastor. Over the years, I would drive every Saturday to visit him right there in his home in North Carolina.

We'd sit and walk and talk about families, politics, sports and faith, all the things friends share with each other. My friendship with Mr. Graham changed my life. And it is my hope that some of the stories in Saturdays with Billy will bless you as well. God bless you.

Again, that's one of many great resources you'll find on our website at TEWOnline.org. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. And just a word, by the way, to all you moms and dads out there and some of you that have a big question mark right now, because you might have a teenager or a college student and quite frankly, you've got some serious questions about them and their relationship with the Lord. Bible says you train up a child in the way he or she should go. And when they are old, they will not depart from it. By the way, that word old doesn't mean when they get to my age, which means you are sentenced to another 40 years of wandering.

No, the word old there literally means when they are come to their years, when they get to that point, they will not forget the things that you have instilled in them concerning the Lord Jesus. Parents, I love you and I thank God for you. And I thank you for the time and the effort and I encourage you to keep on keeping on loving, insisting your children are in church, bring them, keep teaching them, living out Christ in the home. It's a wonderful, wonderful privilege. Well, some of you may not be fully aware of this, but we have a wonderful ministry in our church called the Sunshine Club. And the Sunshine Club is a ministry to adults who have special needs. And sorry, folks, I get choked up when I think about this ministry. I'm just telling you, we've got some of the most precious people in our community that have family members who have very special needs and circumstances in their lives.

And there are some parents who for years and years and years have brought up sons and daughters who are still in their home and that they care for and love that have special needs and circumstances. And we have a wonderful ministry in our church called the Sunshine Club and they meet in worship every Saturday and it is really quite remarkable. And yesterday we had a baptismal service in our Sunshine Club with some of our very special friends who have trusted Jesus and who have asked to follow the Lord Jesus in believers baptism. And if you have someone that you know is out there, that maybe they don't even know that there's a place for them, please tell them about Larry, about this incredible ministry. And if any of you would like to come when the Sunshine Club meets, I promise you, you'll be greatly blessed. I mean, you're talking about worship folks and it's very special.

And I forget there were six or nine or ten something like that baptized yesterday that followed the Lord Jesus and thank you so much. What a wonderful joy. This is what you're a part of, folks.

This is what you're doing. This is what God is doing through God's people and it's very precious. Do you know that all over the world there are people following Jesus obediently in the waters of baptism? All over the world, as you've worshiped the Lord with us, there's still time for you. That's what the Bible tells us.

Believe in the Lord and be baptized. Jesus did it and we follow his example. When you follow his example, you're doing what he did. You're identifying with the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

And I tell you what, I could really unpack all of this for you. The bottom line is just obedience. It's just obedience. In our prayer meeting with the ministry team this morning, I made a statement. I said, it's like falling in love with that man or that lady saying, I love you and I want to marry you or I want to ask you to marry me, but I don't want to identify with you.

I don't want to spend any time with you. And Jesus, who gave his life for us, stood in the water, took John a sinner. He identified with John, the sinful man, and Jesus led the way. God spoke from heaven and said, you see this? That's my son.

You see what's going on? This is pleasing with me and we are called to obey him. I just want to please the Lord, don't you? Folks, I'm telling you, I'm at that point in my life, I just want Jesus to count. I just want the Lord to be pleased with me. I just want to give everything to him.

How about you? I'm going to invite you today to trust Jesus as your Savior. I'm going to invite you to give your heart and life to him. I'm going to invite you to step out for him. I'm going to invite you to follow him in believer's baptism. And I'm going to encourage you. I want to encourage you, not because of Don, but because of what Jesus did, because of what the Word teaches, because of what God calls us to do.

You can do this. Don't put it off. For many people, folks, this is the missing link. You know it. It's the missing link.

Don't leave that out. Follow him and trust him. Love him. Be sold out to him. The joy that you receive is unsurpassed. We've celebrated the presence of the Lord in the beauty of his holiness. We've come together to worship him and to lay our lives before him. And today in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I invite you to rise up and walk. I invite you to turn your life over to Christ. I invite you to make Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior. Trust in him because he loves you. He died for you and he cares for you. I invite you to follow him in all your ways. Acknowledge him.

He will direct your paths. Folks, we are building orphanages in South Africa. There are hundreds of thousands of orphans all over Africa, millions of them all over Africa and South Africa. And this area, do you remember the statistics? Not off the top, but it's like two, three hundred thousand. I mean, it's huge. And we are building these small orphanages there that house about six boys and girls working with Hoppy Polman.

And we've been over probably five or six times already, already have built a number of these. And God is doing, this is part of the team that's about to leave and go. They wanted me to come to interpret for them, but I'm going to prisons. I'm going to I'm going to be with our young. I'm going with our young people. I need an interpreter with the young people, by the way.

I need someone to help interpret for me. So we'll just have a good time together. But boy, we love them. They got a long flight over there. God's going to give them great fruit. And we can't wait to get all the response back. I hope they take you to a game park. Possibly.

All you got to do is look at one of those lions and say, remember Don Wilton? And then you got to run, buddy. And you got to run. All right.

You got to run like crazy. I promise you. So today, when we pray, we're asking the Lord to watch over you, keep His hand upon you, give you wonderful grace and peace and fruit for your ministry.

You're going to absolutely love it. And I'm telling you to work over there with those people. Those are the Clauza people. Can you all say that? Clauza. No. Clauza.

Everybody say this with me. Clauza. Clauza.

Did someone spit at me? Clauza. X-H-O-S-A. Clauza. Clauza.

That's why you say, say, Clauza. Clauza. No, not Clauza, baby. Clauza. Clauza. Say Clauza. Clauza. Clauza. No, not Clauza. Clauza. Not Clauza. No. I'm working on it. I'm working on it.

Clauza. Do you just say it with one ... it's like... No. I tell you folks, there's something I'm good at, but I'll never teach this boy how to talk properly.

Never. Let's stand for prayer, shall we? All right. Father, thank you so much for just incredible time today. What a wonderful time of worship, and Lord, all of that is about worship. Everything we do in the church is about worship. Everything we do, doesn't matter. We're worshiping you because everything about the church is to do with you.

It's only about you. And Father, today we are praying, we're celebrating, we're thanking you for Ben, for his leadership. Keep your hand upon him. This incredible team, I wish I was going with them, Lord, but Father, what an incredible thing to think we can pray together. We think of those little boys and girls without parents, and what a difference one church can make. We thank you today. Bless them, and guard them, and keep them.

Watch over them. We pray, Lord Jesus. Now part us with your blessing. In Jesus' name. Amen.

You've heard the powerful teaching of Dr. Don Wilton. The pulpit as he stepped into the studio opened your heart to what he wants to share next. You know, perhaps just a moment ago, you prayed with me to receive the Lord Jesus Christ into your heart and life. I rejoice with you, but there again, maybe you hesitated just for a second, and that second divides you from all time and eternity.

Do it now. Pray with me right now. Dear God, I know that Jesus loves me and that he died on a cross for me. I give my heart and life to you by faith. I repent of my sin, and I receive you into my heart, and I pray this in Jesus' name. My friend, if you've prayed that prayer, I just welcome you with the love of Jesus.

You'll see a number on the screen. You can call. You can connect in with us through our web.

I want to be able to extend that right hand. You are my brother, my sister in Christ. God bless you today. You need to know that Dr. Wilton's commitment to connect with you is passionate. The very first thing we did when we began this ministry years ago is Dr. Don said we must have a phone number that people can call, and it must be answered 24 hours a day.

And we do. 866-899 word is answered 24 hours a day. Happy to pray with you and for you. Happy to connect you with resources that will help you grow in your faith. And if today you gave your life to Jesus for the very first time or today you rededicated your life to Christ, Dr. Don Wilton has special resources he wants you to have absolutely free if you'll call us. Our number again is 866-899 word.

That's 866-899-9673. Or you can connect on our website as well at TEWonline.org. That's TEWonline.org. And while you're on our website, I want to encourage you to sign up for the daily encouraging word email from Dr. Don. It is a powerful bit of insight about a nugget of God's word and will literally launch your day or put a bow on the end of your day whenever you decide to read it in the most wonderful way. Again, you can sign up for the daily encouraging word email from Dr. Wilton on our website at TEWonline.org. And before we get away, closing thoughts from our pastor and chief encourager Dr. Don Wilton. Thank you for your partnership with the encouraging word.

God's doing great and wonderful things. And I want you to know that I pray for you. I want to pray for you right now.

In fact, you can see that number on the television screen. We've got people 24-7 praying for you. You can call in your prayer requests at any time. Let me pray for you right now. Dear God, I want to pray for my precious friends right now and for someone especially in need of prayer. Lord Jesus, please touch them, touch their lives and be a blessing to them today in every way. And I pray this in the strong and wonderful name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. Our time's gone through today, but oh, tomorrow Dr. Wilton has a powerful message in store from the book of Acts chapter 26 called the power of a personal testimony. It will be life changing. I hope you'll not only join us, but invite a friend to join as well. You'll discover all the ways to connect on our website at tewonline.org. That's tewonline.org.