Hey everyone, welcome to today's podcast. Today, we're going to be talking a little on what it really means to be a follower of Christ, okay? But first, I want to read a scripture from Jeremiah chapter 10 verse 23. It says, Lord, I know that people's lives are not their own.
It is not for them to direct their steps. I want you to do something. Open the GPS on your phone, even if you know exactly where you are or where you're going. A GPS does two things.
Number one, a GPS helps us get to a destination without getting lost. And two, for those who think, they know where they're going, even when they don't, a GPS helps them find the destination when they get lost. When you type in the destination into your GPS, usually the first question that comes up depending on what type of phone you use is, do you want directions from your current location? In other words, do you want to start where you are?
So the question becomes, where are you? Let's make this conversation spiritual. Have you gotten lost because you weren't following Jesus closely enough? Sometimes people think that they need to get their lives together first before they really come into Christ.
They want to get a few things straightened out first and take care of some personal issues. In other words, sometimes we want to start our journey of faith from somewhere else than where we currently find ourselves. Listen, becoming a believer is more than just saying a prayer. It's an invitation to follow Jesus.
When Jesus invites you to follow him, he wants you to start right now from your current location. Jesus reaches out to you with the grace and love that you need and invites you to follow him. Jesus wants you to start following him from where you find yourself. So the question becomes, what's your current location?
Are you far from home? Have you gone off-road somewhere or are you closer than you've ever been? Wherever it is that you find yourself, I encourage you to commit to follow Jesus. We're not called to be Christians.
We're not called to just believe. We're called to be followers of Jesus. We're called to be disciples and you can only learn how to follow by taking the first steps on your journey of faith. Jesus in Matthew chapter 4 verse 19 says, Jesus called out to them, come, follow me and I will show you how to face for people.
Following Jesus means growing closer to him and becoming more like him. The amazing thing about following Jesus closely is that when we do we become self-aware. Then we begin to understand that we're not like him. His character, his love and his righteousness are beyond anything that we could ever imagine or have ever seen.
If you think you need to clean up your life before you can properly begin to follow Jesus, take a look at what he said to Matthew and Matthew chapter 9 verse 9. As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector's booth. Follow me and be my disciple Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.
He called Matthew to follow him. While Matthew was in his current position at his normal daily job as a tax collector, a tax collector in the New Testament with someone who collected taxes for the Roman government. And these tax collectors were required to give the authorities a specific amount. And sometimes the dishonest ones collected way more than whether they were supposed to from people and they became rich.
So a lot of these tax collectors became a hated group, especially the Jews who cheated other fellow Jews. Now we don't know if Matthew was dishonest, but we do know that Jesus called him and the rest of his disciples while they were living out their daily lives. He called Matthew from his tax collection booth and he called out the other disciples who were fishermen from the shore. From the moment that these men accepted, Jesus called to follow him.
He began molding them, teaching them and he shaped these 12 men. He asked to follow him along the way. He didn't have any requirements or prerequisites. He knew they would be transformed while they followed him.
So don't think that you need to clean up your life first before you really start living out your life for Jesus. Because the truth is that nothing you do besides putting your faith in Jesus will ever make you acceptable to God. Jesus helps us follow because we can't do in our own. Just ask for his grace and ask for his strength to give you what you need to be more like him.
Ask Jesus to open your eyes to see that following him is more about who he is rather than who you are. So render your willpower, stop trying to be a better you and instead allow Jesus to be at work in you making you more like him. Jesus is ready to lead you if you're ready to follow him. We'll see you next time.