Consumer Or Follower, Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.

If you've never heard this before, you can hold your ears if you never want to hear words like this, but here is the world view they had that we have. More is better. You ever heard that? Do you know anyone who believes that in our country?

Anybody? More is better. You've got to get more. And when you get more, you want more. And you get that, you want more. Because more is better.

But there was another thing in their culture. They believe, like some of us do in Evangelicalism, that if you have more, it's because of God's blessing in you. And if God blesses you, you get more. And prosperity doctrine all the way back then. The idea is that when you get more, now you can't say I got more through tax collecting or prostitution, that would not be, a good Jew wouldn't believe that.

But they do believe that if you got more, you were blessed by God. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. You know, in that same book, I remember Hawkins saying something that was just stunning to me. He said 30, 40 years ago in America, you would view the people who attended evangelical churches as sheep who wanted to follow the shepherd and their under shepherd. But today, he said, we term them shoppers. That's what they do.

They shop. I want to find out who has something for me. I want to find out what church has it for me. That's what I want. I have an agenda. Can you meet my agenda?

The trouble with that is you move from follower to shopper. Anyway, Jesus rebukes it on the harshest terms possible. Notice Peter started out and he said exactly the right thing. He said what all of us would say. You're the son of God. You're the Christ. You see, but notice where he ends up going. He actually rebukes the son of God.

It's hard to imagine. Jesus says, look, let me make this clear. Verse 34. And he summoned the crowd and the disciples and said to them, he said, look, don't think for a moment I'm just talking to Peter and don't think I'm just talking to apostles. Bring the crowd in. I want everybody to hear that.

That includes you and me. He said, let me teach something here. He said, if anyone wishes to come after me, that's a follower. If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross.

Follow me. Now, they were aware of what this meant. This meant two things to them that must have really bothered them. These people have all seen people crucified. The most famous way of dying in their world, the most horrible way of dying in their world. They saw people crucified. It's a shameful, terrible thing to be crucified. But it's not just the pain of the crucifixion. It's the shame that comes by being crucified. You see, when you were going to be crucified, what the Romans would do is that strip you naked. Then they'd put whatever crime you committed against Rome around your neck. Then you would take the cross beam of the cross and you would carry it through the town to the site where you're crucified. The shame was unimaginable to the Jew. That's why Jesus said you have to take up your cross.

Luke writes daily. Now, he didn't say you have to get up on the cross. He said you have to take up your cross.

You have to be willing to experience the shame of being a follower of Jesus Christ. You also have to be willing if you're going to follow him that I'll follow him everywhere, even to my grave, if I have to. But I will follow him. His point in verse 435 is whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake in the gospels, he'll save it. He said, look, what there's a profit a man to gain a whole world loses soul. The best option in life is to follow me.

Now, you don't think that. You think it's your agenda. I've got my life to live. I've got my plans. I know what I'm going to do and I want Jesus to help me with my plans. I'm going to make a career myself. I want to be somebody.

I want to accumulate a lot of stuff. Listen, you won't take one thing with you to the grave. There will be no stuff. In a generation or two, you're completely forgotten that you were ever alive. That's reality. That's what Jesus is saying. That's reality.

Don't think for a moment. Why would you think that's life? That's not life. He said, you want life, lose your life for my sake.

That's life. That's the difference that Christ says. That's the difference between a follower and a consumer. What's interesting to me is the Apostle Paul understood this. He understood that following Christ is not sacrificial.

Following Christ is beneficial. Go with me now to Philippians chapter three. Philippians chapter three in verse four. Now, understand the context. Paul wrote this. You have to understand what it's about and where he wrote it from. He's in prison. And he's waiting for the emperor of Rome to decide whether he lives or dies.

He'll either give him one of these or one of those. That's it. Now, here's the theme of the book. It's not what you and I would make it.

You and I would make it, woe is me, woe is me, please pray, please pray, woe is me, woe is me. The theme of the book of Philippians is joy. Paul said, I have total joy. Oh, wait a minute.

You could be dying. Yeah, I have total joy. Now, remember, Paul's not a consumer. He's a follower.

So, notice what happens here. Paul says, although in verse four, I myself might have confidence in the flesh. He said, if anyone has a mind to put confidence in, I far more. Look, if you want to talk about living life out there in the real world, I have unbelievable confidence. I can brag about it. You see, I can really brag about my life.

I could do that if I wanted to. He said, let me explain. He says, I want you to understand, I've been circumcised on the eighth day. Male Jewish boy, typical of the Jews.

But guess who that eliminates? All the Gentiles in the world. I'm a Jew. We're the chosen people of God. Gentiles are not. I'm Jewish.

But he doesn't stop. He said, I'm of the nation Israel. I'm of the tribe of Benjamin.

Now, you've heard me say this before. If you're the tribe of Benjamin, you're from the best tribe in Israel. The Benjamites are considered the elite. They're the ones who lead Israel in the battle.

They have a great reputation. He said, that's me. I'm from Benjamin. That's my heritage. I'm not just Jewish. I'm from Benjamin.

But he's not done. He said, I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. You can't be more Jewish than me, Paul said. If being Jewish means something, I'm the most Jewish man you'd ever meet. He said, I'm a Hebrew among the Hebrews. And then he goes on and he said, and asked the law. He said, I'm a Pharisee.

Now, you hear me say this in the past and some of you may not have heard it. If you were a Jewish mother at this time and you had a little girl, you would pray she would marry a Pharisee. Now, they have a bad reputation because we look back over the centuries in history and see what they're like. If you were Jewish at the time, these are the most righteous men in Israel from your point of view. These are moral good men. And he said, yeah, I was a Pharisee. But he's not even any Pharisee. In fact, in another passage, he said, I was the Pharisee of all the Pharisees. Because you got to understand, I was trained by a rabbi. His name is Gamaliel.

You want a modern day equivalent? I got my MBA from Harvard. Where's yours from? I went to Harvard. You see, I have the best credentials you could have. I was trained by Gamaliel, the greatest rabbi in Israel. He trained me to be a Pharisee, to keep the law. He goes on and says, and as the zeal, I was a persecutor of the church and as the righteousness which is in the law, I was found blameless. No one ever came up to me and said, you violated the law.

I never did. And I know he's a sinner, but that's a different issue. He said, I was blameless in the law. He said, so if you want to say you should really invest in this life, he said, I had it all. But notice then what he says, whatever things were gained to me, these things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things.

And I count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ. That word rubbish. It's not a great word.

The word it really is, is even less great. It's dung. You can use any colloquialism you want, but Paul said, that's what I think of my former life. He said, Look, you understand, I walked away from my heritage, my family, my education, my career, my position in society, my agenda. I walked away from all of it, but I'm not I'm not unhappy.

I walked it away. I count that all but dung. Everything that we say is life indeed, he said, that's not life. Now, you have to understand here, he has a piece that he explains beyond all comprehension while he's in prison. He has a joy that has nothing to do with the circumstances. And then if you look over Chapter four, verse 13, he makes a life verse there. And in verse 13 of Chapter four, he says, I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

There's this power right before that, by the way, guess what he says? I learned how to be content. He said, You know, when I'm content, always. You know, when I'm joyful, always.

When do you have peace always has nothing to do with circumstances. I've learned a secret of contentment. You see, with a secret of contentment.

Yeah. He said, Look, if you put me in a palace, I'm content. You put me in a prison.

I'm content. Does that describe you? You see, does that describe you? Because that describes a follower of Jesus Christ. I've learned a secret.

What is it? I can do all things through him who strengthens me. You see, that's what Paul was saying. I've learned that secret. I am a follower.

And that's difficult for us, I think sometimes to understand. Let me show you how hard this can be. Go with me now to Matthew Chapter 19, verse 16. Matthew writes, as he said, And someone came to Jesus and said, Rabbi, what good thing shall I do that I obtain eternal life? What would you like me to do? I'd like to go to heaven.

Who wouldn't? And he said to him, Why are you asking me about what is good? There's only one good. And if you wish to enter eternal life, Jesus is playing with them. Keep the commandments. By the way, what does Jesus know? Nobody keeps the commandments.

But he said, You want to go? You want to have eternal life? Keep the commandments. Then he said, Which ones? The inference, I think Jesus would say, I think all.

But Jesus just plays along with the game. He said, You shall not commit murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You need to honor your father and mother and you shall love your neighbors yourself. All the horizontal commandments, you need to do that.

The young man said to him, All these things I've kept. What am I still lacking? No self righteousness here, is there? I got it.

I think I got it. Jesus said, OK, let's see. If you wish to be complete, go and sell all your possessions.

Give them to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come. And here's the words. Follow me. Follow me. Go ahead.

Oh, you can't tell a consumer this. I've got an agenda. I got money. You see the neighborhood I'm living in? You see the car I'm driving? There's this.

Have you seen my 401k? What are you talking about? You said, I just want you to follow me.

You see, go ahead and do that. Well. Young man heard this statement, he went away grieving. He owned a lot of property.

The consumer. I'm not going to follow. You're not telling me I have to give up my agenda. Jesus said to his disciples, Truly, I say to you, it's hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I'll say to you, it's easier for a camera to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Why is that? Because a rich man thinks he's found life. A rich man has his own agenda. See, a rich man thinks I got it. I'm highly educated. I make a fortune. You see, I've got everything I could possibly want. I have all the security and all the significance a man could ever need. Because look at my wealth.

Look what I have. And Jesus says the term. Look, it's really hard for this to happen. It's like trying to get a camel through the eye of a needle. It's a Jewish colloquialism means virtually impossible. Now, I've read all the stuff, you know, and now there's a little door by the gate and we try to force a camel through the door.

If you squirt them through the door, that's how hard it was. That's the Jews view. This is almost an impossible statement. And the statement didn't wasn't invented by the Jews. The Persians had a statement 500 years earlier, except they didn't say a camel through the eye of a needle.

They said an elephant through the eye of the needle. But it's the same idea. This is like impossible. Why is that? Because someone who is that consumer oriented about his own agenda does not want to follow Christ. He does not. He wants Christ on his terms, but he doesn't want the Christ in the reality of who he is. And so what he says here then is interesting to me.

He says, when the disciples heard this, they were astonished and they said, well, then who could be saved? Wow. Why did they say that? Because they had a worldview just like you and I carry from the world we live in. OK, you know it. If you never heard this before, you can hold your ears if you never hear words like this.

But here is the worldview they had that we have. More is better. You ever heard that? Do you know anyone who believes that in our country?

Anybody? More is better. You've got to get more. And when you get more, you want more. And you get that you want more because more is better.

But there was another thing in their culture. They believe, like some of us do in evangelicalism, that if you have more, it's because God's blessing you. And if God blesses you, you get more. They had prosperity doctrine all the way back then. The idea is if you get more. Now, you can't say I got more through tax collecting or prostitution.

That would not be a good you wouldn't believe that. But they do believe that if you got more, you were blessed by God. So the people that God loved the most in the Jewish culture were who? The rich. And who gave the most money in the temple? The rich there. So that that's why the disciples said, well, then, wait, if a rich man can't be saved, who is there? The most spiritual people we know.

Kind of funny looking at them. Jesus said, look, OK, with people, this is impossible. With God, all things are possible. Let's move on from here.

God can save anybody. Trying to make a point. Then Peter, here we go again. Peter said to him, behold, we have left everything and followed you. What's in it for us? Wow, this is Peter.

What do we get out of this? Well. We'd never do that, wouldn't we? Lord, I've been to church like seventy one weeks in a row. Come on, answer my prayer.

I'm doing stuff for you here. Jesus does not rebuke him this time. Jesus does not rebuke. Jesus just goes on and basically gives a teaching.

He reacts to what Peter said. Jesus then says this. He said, truly, I say to you that you who have followed me in the generation when the son of man will sit on his glorious throne, you shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. He said, when I come into my kingdom, you all have your throne.

That's future. Then he says, and everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms, for my name's sake, will receive many times as much and will inherit eternal life. Wow. What's Jesus saying? You're not sacrificing anything. Don't pretend you are. In Mark Chapter 10, a parallel passage, Jesus says, look, no one has ever given up anything for me that I haven't given them back 100 times as much.

When he said in everything in life now, hope, joy, peace and a messianic kingdom, the disciples in eternity. He says, you can't go wrong with this. You see, this isn't sacrificial on your part. This is beneficial to you.

You get everything. I've come to give you life and to give it to you abundantly. You see, I've come to do that. I can mark your life that way if you'll follow me and you don't have your own agenda.

Think of these words of Jesus as they apply to you. In my father's house are many dwelling places. He said, if it were not so, I'd have told you. He said, I'm going to go and prepare a place for you so that where I am there, you may be also.

I've always been stunned by that. You've heard me say it. There's a place there right now on the door. It says Bill. This is Bill's place and your name's on the door.

Not because of anything I've done or you've done, because of who he is. We get blessings in this life and we get blessings in the next one. So what are we sacrificing here?

You see, what are we giving up? That's Jesus whole point. Notice the last thing he says is for many who are first will be last and the last will be first. The people out there that you think are success stories will not be successful.

And the people in here that say we don't have any success will be. He said, that's the truth. You see, do you want the truth with this? Because it's that truth that makes such a difference to a follower of Jesus Christ. You see, are you a consumer or a follower? Followers are dedicated to the Lord's agenda rather than their own. Followers are willing to pay any price to follow Christ. Followers are illustrated by the Apostle Paul. And followers are blessed in this life and the next. Who wouldn't want to be a follower of Jesus Christ? The sad part is maybe most of us.

We'd rather be a consumer. You have a relationship with Jesus. You look to him for help and comfort and direction. But all the focus of your life is your life.

And you want him to help you with your agenda. But if you're a follower, the relationship with Jesus is the most important relationship in your life. It defines everything you think and do. I think the best way to describe a follower of Jesus Christ is someone who looks at Jesus and says, I'll do anything, anytime, anywhere, at any cost for you. If you do that, you're a follower of Jesus Christ.

Let me close with the words of John MacArthur. John says, the believer in Jesus Christ will have blessings now, blessings in the millennium, and blessings for all eternity. To be poor for the sake of Christ is to be rich indeed. And then he says these words that are very famous.

Jim Elliott, missionary martyred by the Alca Indians in Ecuador, whom he was seeking to reach for Christ, wrote shortly right before he was killed by them. He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Let's not be fools. Let's be followers of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, I'm afraid that one of the problems that we run into, especially, is that we find ourselves being consumers and not even realize it.

We still think of our own agenda. We still tap into the resources of your spirit and your word and the Lord Jesus himself to help us achieve what we want to achieve for ourselves. What Jesus is saying is, look, you have to deny yourself and say yes to him. You have to take up your cross daily and you need to follow him. And don't think for a moment that you're just making all these sacrifices for him because it's not true.

You're simply following him and receiving all of the benefits that a follower has. Everyone in this room wants to have a life that's marked with hope and peace and joy, no matter what the circumstances are in which they find themselves. And, Father, that comes through being a follower of the Lord. I pray, Father, your spirit will convict us where need be for your glory and, more importantly, for our good.

In Christ's name, amen. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called OnePlace.com. That's OnePlace.com and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.