Follow - Pack Leaders

I was reminded of this week I read about a woman. She wrote to a magazine to tell about an event that had happened when she was 18 months old. Her mom was out, her dad was put in charge of her and her brother who was about four. She says she had just recovered from an accident and she had been hurt.

So her family had given her a little tea set as a get well gift. And it was her favorite toy. Her dad was in a living room one evening and gross in the evening news. Her brother was playing nearby.

And the little girl as little girls who wanted to do bought her dad a little cup of make-believe tea, which was just plenty of water. After several cups of this tea and lots of praise from dad for making such a yummy concoction, the little girl's mom came home. Her dad made mom wait in the living room to watch this 18 month old bring him a cup of tea because it was quote, just the cutest thing. Her mom waited and sure enough, here came the girl down the hall with yet another cup of tea for her daddy.

Mom watched his dad drank up yet again and then asked, did it ever occur to you the only place an 18 month old baby can reach to get water is the toilet? It's not easy being a dad. We're not that bright. Next week is baptism, week.

And that means that men don't like it is every father's day, every year. The day is decision day. Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament quotes a prophecy from Isaiah when he writes to a church in Corinth and he says, listen, don't delay in this decision any longer. Quote, I tell you, now is the time of God's favor.

Now is the day of salvation. As Dan encouraged you, if you have been hanging around Menom Hills for some time and even sticking your toe in the water of the things of God, that is awesome. We have designed this church for you. Maybe you've come and you feel the love of God in this place, his spirit, his presence.

Maybe you're learning more than you have in other churches you've been in. That's great. We've come a time in all of our lives when we have to deal with this invitation of Jesus to come and follow me. And the God who ordained way of declaring that decision is through the public ordinance, Jesus, ordained that this go on of baptism, getting in the water.

And through the external witness of baptism, declaring an inward truth, that is you are publicly where Dan will be doing this. It comes with great danger. You are publicly identifying yourself with the life, death and resurrection, the new life of Jesus Christ. It's an invitation.

If Jesus could be baptized than he was, then you should be too. It's the call on everyone who chooses to follow. And we're here in week one of this talk on following. We looked at Jesus' invitation to follow.

And we understood it from a first century point of view. Jesus was a first century rabbi and he was offering an invitation to the common man, the state school kid, if you remember, to become his disciple, to follow him. Because what rabbis did when they invited a follower, when they invited you to be a disciple, was to say, I think you have what it takes to be like me. I think if you'll follow me, I will teach you my ways and then I think you'll be able to do what I do.

In fact, Jesus at one point even says that through his power, you could do even greater things than he does. He believes that you can become just like him, a fisher of men. And so with that invitation of mine, I want to jump into three very strange but interesting stories written by a man named Luke in a book called Acts. Luke, who recorded some stories about Jesus in a self-titled gospel, goes on to write about what happened after Jesus ascended into heaven in a book in the New Testament called Acts, short for the Acts of the Apostles.

In chapter 16 of this book, he tells three stories which appeared first unrelated right in a row, but I think when you see them side by side, you'll sense that Luke is trying to show us something. Let's start with the middle story. Luke wrote one day as we were going down to the place of prayer. We met a slave girl who had a spirit that enabled her to tell the future.

She earned a lot of money for her master by telling fortunes. She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, these men are servants of the Most High God and they've come to tell you how to be saved. This went on day after day. So Paul got so exasperated that he turned and said to the demon within her, let's pause for a moment, it's interesting, right?

Luke does not say that she didn't have the power to tell futures, but he does identify where the power to do that was coming from. John, I think you were telling futures yesterday, right? It could be right about that. Something to keep in mind.

This went on day after day, Luke writes, until Paul got so sick and tired of it, he turned to the demon within her and said, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her and instantly it left her. This is the first century equivalent of turning around and going, will you please shut up, right? You just can't take it anymore. Shut up and instantly, miraculously.

She's changed, she's free, she's healed, she's different. I think this is the way a lot of us think people come to accept the invitation to follow Jesus. And if you think that way, you're right. Salvation is always the work of God through his spirit and it often occurs dramatically.

God reaches people in peril, at rock bottom, in desperate need. Those are the places where we often try out to God. Another way you could look at this story is to say that God reaches people through the work of ministry professionals. After all, Paul was a big week Pharisee prior to his transformation in following Jesus and how he's leading the work of Jesus.

And so this is what ministry professionals do. They reach people for Jesus. It's their job. And people call me all the time, John, I'm my friend, he won't listen to me.

Can you take them to lunch? And so the full process of ministry professionals, they teach, they sow, they reap. And some of them know that that's true, I guess. But I can't help but notice the story that's right before and right after the quick little story is right in the wrong chapter 16.

Now remember, you've been just like Paul, just like Dan. You have been invited to follow this rabbi. Jesus, the things that you can be like him. He's calling you because he believes in you, that you can do what he does, that you can be fishers of men.

So here's the story right before that story. On the Sabbath, Luke writes, we went a little way outside the city to a river bank where we thought people would be meeting for prayer. And we sat down to speak with someone who had gathered there. One of them was Lydia.

She was a merchant of expensive purple cloth who worshipped God. And as she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart and she accepted what Paul was saying. So you have this woman, Lydia. She's a worshiper of God when Paul found her.

She was honoring the Sabbath. So she was likely a Jewish woman, a Jewish business woman. The Lord opens her heart. Remember, salvation is a work of the spirit of God and a believer's life.

We talked about that. We talked about the fact that what Paul, the ministry professional was saying and she became a follower of. Very next verse. She and her household were baptized.

Spirit of God moves. Paul, the ministry professional comes in, explains the Lydia of the gospel. But apparently something so profound, so transformative, so powerful happened in Lydia that it was not only Lydia that was saved, but as she made the decision to follow, so too did her entire household. Lydia, not a ministry professional, a woman, not all that valued in the first century, a business woman, likely a mom, when she decides to follow the yoke of her rabbi has passed on to her and she becomes like him, a fisher of men and ladies, which is important for you to hear this morning, ladies, fishing starts in our own household ponds.

Because this story at its root is about the power of the choice of a woman and a woman to follow an influence following hat in her household. And it follows, Lydia decides to publicly align with Jesus at some risk to her. This is a Jewish business woman aligning herself with Jesus. She gets in the river in front of everyone, follows Jesus' command to be baptized and what happens, her family follows her.

I'm here to tell you ladies that your decision to accept the invitation to follow Jesus has powerful resonance in your home. Your decision to follow the command of the scriptures, to follow Jesus' obedience and in baptism, it echoes into generations. Do you not think that your husband and your kids watching you make the decision at whatever cost it might be, sometimes it's just pure embarrassment, right? I mean, it's embarrassing.

I get, I'm going to walk in there and tell everybody, I'm going to have them, I should be baptized, and I get it. But do you not believe that doing so publicly will not impact them? Of course it will. We're going to study this week that showed if a child, how many people in the room, if you're the first person in your family to come to Christ and become a Christian, raise your hand.

So the few of you, right? So this will take a little pressure off of you. The statistic said that if the first person in a household to become a Christian is a child, there is a 3.5% probability that everyone else in a household will follow. Ladies, if the mother is the first to become a Christian, there is a multiple's higher, 17% probability that everyone, everyone in a household will follow.

And ladies, you were invited to follow it today, it's a decision day, and your decision matters. I want to encourage you to accept the invitation and to invite your friends and your family and your mom and your dad and your sons and your daughters come out of hiding and be baptized. Today is the day of salvation and your decision going public with it matters. Now, guys, this is Father's Day.

This is our day. Check out the next story. Same chapter. This is the story of Paul and the fortune teller girl.

He couldn't take anymore. He tells her to cut it out and the demon comes out of her and she's changed transform. But unfortunately, with no more demon then, she's not so good at telling fortunes. So the owners, her owners, which is another story, it's right.

Her owners are now losing money because nobody wants to hear from her anymore and they're ticked off. Luke writes that the owners of this girl seized Paul and silenced and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. Here's what he says, a mob quickly formed against Paul and silenced and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods. They were severely beaten and they were thrown into prison.

The jailer was ordered, make sure they don't escape. So the jailer put them in the inner dungeon, clamped their feet in the stalks. Around midnight, Paul and silenced were praying and singing hymns to God. Which is just what one would do in a situation like this, right?

And the other prisoners were listening. And you can't help, you can't help but wonder if they're having Paul's reaction of would you too please just shut up, right? But suddenly Luke writes, there's a massive earthquake. The prison is shaken to its foundation.

All the doors flew open and the chains of every prisoner fell off. The jailer woke up to see the prison door wide open and he assumed the prisoners had escaped so he drew his sword to kill himself. Why? Because if a jailer lost his prisoners, the punishment for him was theirs.

So he was going to be beaten and killed. He figured he'd avoid the beating and just take his own life. But Paul shouted to him, which is unbelievable. Stop, don't kill yourself.

We're all right here. Which again, shows Paul's faith. And trust he hasn't got right. I mean I'd be going listen, let's just keep it quiet.

I think the guys are gonna kill himself and we'll sneak out. Paul goes, I don't know, I don't do anything. Scripture says that the jailer called for lights. He ran to the dungeon, fell down, trembling before Paul and Silas and he bought them out and asked, here comes the great eternal question.

We looked at it last week. Sir, what must I do to be saved? It's the question of the rich and unruler, right? We looked at it.

Look, come, follow me. But Jesus, I got all this stuff. It makes me feel important. It provides comfort and security.

And Jesus goes, yeah, that's not gonna help you. Just come, follow me. It's the same question when Peter got done preaching and the sermon we looked at last week, when he got done talking about what Jesus had done at the cross, right? Where he melded the love of God and the justice of God and put them together.

When Peter explained it, people cried out, well, what must we do to be saved? And he said, listen, repent, change your mind, change your ways and be baptized. Here's the question again. They replied, believe in the Lord Jesus and you'll be saved along with everyone in your household.

And they shared the word of the Lord with him and all who lived in his household. To the jailer, Paul says, look, if you will repent, if you'll change your direction, change what you believe, if you'll follow, there will be something so powerful in your transformation, your witness to your family, so transformed about the testimony to Christ's power, something so persuasive about your decision, if you will follow, your family will follow too, even at that hour of night. The jailer cared for them and washed their wounds. See here you see the repentance, right?

The jailer changed the way he thought, changed what he's doing, changed his direction from flogging and shackles to healing. And then he and everyone in his household were immediately baptized. See this is what you do when you come to follow. He bought them into his house and he said a meal before him and he and his entire household rejoice because they all believed in God's.

In God? Dad's. Do you remember? I remember when I was a kid.

I was like 18, 19 rods doing how to song for every young, I don't know if you remember what you showed how old I am, but I remember listening to this song going, oh, it's so good I'm going to play this in my kid's nursery when they're young, right? And so yeah, so I have all these dreams and plans for your kids. Now some of you might have heard, I did a little track running back when I was in school. I don't know if you're aware of that.

And so when I was a kid, I thought to myself what I'm going to do is the minute my kids are born, I'm already thinking about these things. I was thinking about what I was going to do in their nursery. So I thought to myself what I'm going to do is I had this hurdle that I used in high school and I said I'm going to take a hurdle and I'm going to mount it right over their bed. So every night when my kid is looking up, they're going to see this hurdle and it'll get into their mind.

Now a couple of things happen. The first is I lost that hurdle somewhere along the way. So I stole this one from West Mars Central. Don't let anybody know.

I got to put it back before they put everything away for the winter. But my thought was I'll get them right because I want them. I have plans for them. But Courtney was my first one to run.

I went to her track meet Nate Braden and she fell over her own two feet running her first race and I said I got to come up with a better plan. This one is apparently not going to work. So then my boys came out, two boys in a row and I realized hurtling not to long way off in the future. I said but I can teach them something else because I have plans for them.

So I remember I couldn't wait. I got them a glove. I got them a glove. I remember the little vinyl gloves that you get for little kids and I had that in their crib because I was going to teach my boys how to play ball.

And so at first it's just like a little toss back and forth and as they get older I just remember and it goes so quick. But if you've got young kids it goes so quick because I remember thinking I can't wait until they can throw the ball hard and we can just whip it back and forth. And that day came. In fact, I remember we used to play baseball all the time and at first they just push it and after a while they start learning how to step and throw and they can throw it hard.

I remember looking at them going hey you throw just like me. Which one of you are going well that's like a girl but that's a whole different set. But they did because I had my DNA and I taught them how to throw. They went up throwing just like me.

So at one point in what was like the day of all days. I don't know. Caleb might have been eight or nine and John was 12 or 13 something like that. I was over at Palmer Park which is where you play baseball in low valley.

Both boys were in the All-Star game. And so Caleb was in the All-Star game for his grade and John was in the All-Star game for his grade and I was walking back and forth between the fields and I'm talking to my dad on the phone and I'm going this is the all time dad proud moment. It can't get any better than this right? Can I just tell you I'm such an idiot right?

It gets way better than that in fact I was aware of it this morning like a hurdles gone. I went out to try to find a baseball glove. The only one I could find that wasn't like rotting because no one's touched them in ten years was this one. I used to have a bucket of baseballs throw down.

All that's like this yellow softball. That's all I could bring for you this morning. Because it wasn't the best day ever. It wasn't the proudest moment ever.

For me the proudest moment ever was when each of my kids made a public declaration on their own and everyone's asked them. I never put any pressure on them. In fact I said them many times you have to come to your own faith in God. You can't have my faith.

You have to have yours. And so each of my kids the proudest moment for me has been when they made a public decision to get in the waters of baptism and follow Jesus. I remember when Caleb did it. I didn't know he was going to get baptized that day and he just took off his shirt and he almost ran into the water that day.

It was so exciting for me. And maybe some of you saw in the video you noticed that my daughter Caroline, she was in the video, she got baptized a couple years ago. I didn't know she was going to get baptized and she just came into the water on her own. And a friend captured this picture and another friend downloaded it and gave this to me.

So this sits on my desk at home. This is my proudest moment of being a dad. Guys Father's Day is the holiday with the single lowest average church attendance. Statistically Father's Day has lower church attendance than Labor Day, Memorial Day, and even Fourth of July, which is interesting because if you consider Mother's Day tends to be the day with the third highest church service attendance after Easter and Christmas.

Scott McConnell, the director of Life We Research said this, clearly mothers want to be present for the affirmation that's offered, but most families are also present knowing their attendance honors their mother. The attendance difference between Mother's Day and Father's Day is telling either churches are less effective than affirming fathers or families believe Christian fathers don't value their participation in worship service. Dads on this Father's Day, it isn't just Father's Day. I want to call you to make a decision.

Remember that study I quoted earlier, it was from the Baptist Press. It said, if a child is the first person in a household to become a Christian, there's a three and a half percent probability everyone in the house will follow. If the mother is the first to become a Christian, there's a 17% probability that everyone in the house will follow. Fathers, are you listening to me?

If you get nothing else out of this, dance with us. When the father is the first person to become a Christian, there is a 93% probability that everyone in the house will follow. Jesus's invitation to you matters. Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

As a band comes up, if you're like me, at least where I was at one point in my life, if I had been sitting in the church, I was a good guy, I believe in Jesus and all the rest, but I'd hear something like this and I'd say, oh, you know, I'm not ready to get baptized, I'm not ready to leave my kids, I'm not perfect, I mean, I'm not a ministry professional, I still have some issues, I gotta clean up at first, I don't know all the stories in the Bible. Fathers, hear me, listen to me. Matthew was a tax collector. He was lower than the sinners.

He was invited and he followed. Maybe you're here this morning and you've been a follower of Christ for some amount of time, but it's just this is a step that's hard for you, you know, it's public. Everybody's gonna be looking at you. It's hard for me to talk to my kids about the things of God, to express emotions, to talk at a heart level.

Gentlemen, I get it. I understand totally we, all 95% are complete relational rejects. Like we have no ability, but while your words are important to your kids, the verbal blessing of a father, it does have tremendous power, but do you know it has even more power? Your everyday actions and your everyday life.

It's not just about organizing family devotions. That is great. I encourage you to do it, but many of you feel inadequate. There's something more important.

Here's what God declares. These commandments that I give to you today are to be on your hearts, not in your heads, not in your notebook, put them in your hearts and impress them on your children. Talk about them, talk about God when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, not just in church, but when you lie down and when you get up, tie them as symbols on your hands, bind them on your foreheads, right them on the door frames of your houses and your gates. Your rabbi believes in you.

He chose you. He thinks you can be like he is and you can do what he does. He thinks you can be fishers of men and dads. Fishing begins in the household pond.

New believers, longtime followers, it's time to make the decision public. Look at the face of your children as they watch you make the decision to become a follower of Jesus Christ because gentlemen, if you will follow, even though you are not a professional, even though you don't have it all together yet, if you will follow, there is a pretty good chance that so will they because they tend to throw just like you. That will be a proud dad moment. They are any stupid 10 year old old old star came.

Gentlemen, it's not just Father's Day. It's decision day. And your decision matters. Father, call us and help us to hear a response.

In Jesus' name I cry. Amen.