Good morning. Hopefully everyone had a great Thanksgiving. And hopefully we were all able to fill ourselves with the great food and football as well. But most importantly, I hope that we all took time to truly thank God for all of His wonderful blessings. That is what Thanksgiving is all about, and I hope that we all took some time to do just that.
As we continue today, we come to our next hymn that I want to look at. In a way, it is a response to the songs that we have looked at in the first few weeks. Each week we have in a way looked at the greatest gift ever given to mankind. And that was Christ dying on the cross for our forgiveness.
This week, hopefully we all have done what this song talks about, or will else we will soon do what it encourages us to do. Before we get started though, let’s just open with a word of prayer.
The song that we look at today is a beautiful song that we have all probably had the opportunity to learn over the years of being involved in church. The version that I am going to use today is a little bit different than the one that is found in the hymnal in the pews here. But it is the one that I heave grown up with, and I think that it works best for our lesson today.
It is a song that is so simple that even a child can sing, but so difficult even an adult cannot sing. I’ve heard this song so many times growing up. Especially either right before or right after someone is getting baptized. Today, I hope that we can all understand what this song really means and be able to apply it to our lives.
The song that we will be looking at today is the hymn, “I Have Decided To Follow Jesus.” Let me start by reading Mark 1:17-18. Here in Mark 1:17-18 it says, “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed Him.”
What I want to do today is take a look at each of these verses in the song that I grew up with, and then make some application to our lives about each verse of the song. The first verse is the same as the title. The first verse says, “I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back.”
Making that first decision to follow Jesus is a really difficult decision to make in life, because it means casting everything aside and simply following Him. For the first disciple back in Jesus’ day, they didn’t have the whole story, they only had what Jesus was telling them. They had to make a decision and follow Him based on what He was telling them would happen. And yet many of them did just that and they followed Jesus, not knowing for sure what would happen.
For me, that initial decision happened many years ago in elementary school when I realized that God is too amazing to be more than a figment of my imagination. I realized just who God was, and what He did for me. That was enough to cause me to want to follow Jesus, and the decision followed.
But compared to the people in Jesus’ day, we have much more to go by. We have the Bible that records just what happened and the fact that it happened in just the way that Jesus said it would.
At some point in life, we are faced with the decision to accept Jesus, or reject Him. But one day we will all have to stand before God and be judged by what we have decided. If we have decided to follow the world, then we will probably be punished for all eternity for that decision. However, if we have decided to follow Jesus, we have eternity in Heaven to enter into.
So real quick while we are on the topic of deciding to follow Jesus: how exactly do we decide to follow Jesus? Let me just run through the plan of salvation real quick. If you are here today, and you have not accepted Christ, pay close attention to this part of the sermon, because this is the way that you make that decision to follow Jesus.
First you need to Hear. In Romans 10:17 it says, “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”
In order to believe in Christ, and to follow Him and to receive salvation, we need to first hear the word of God. This is the very first step to our salvation. And this is accomplished by attending church where the word of God is read. But it is also fulfilled through your own personal study time with the Bible. As you hear or read the word of God, you are then faced with the decision to make. The decision that you have to make is to follow Him or to turn away from Him. But the choice is yours.
Second, you must Believe. Mark 16:16 says, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Once a person has heard the message, they must then believe what they have heard. If you believe, then you will continue in the process of the plan of salvation. Each of the steps that follow are evidence that a person believes. And without believing, you cannot fulfill the rest of the plan of salvation. “Those who believe will be saved, and those who do not believe will be condemned.”
Next, you have to Repent. In Luke 13:3 it says, “Unless you repent, you too will perish.” Also in Acts 2:38 it mentions repentance as a key to salvation. When you repent, you turn away from something. In the plan of salvation, repentance is done by us turning away from the sin that we have been caught up in. It is a true change in our lives. We turn around and change the direction we are going in life.
Next we need to Confess. Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” The confession of your sins to God is important in the process, however, when it talks about confession here, it means confessing that you believe in Jesus and in the fact that He is God’s Son. So we need to confess with our mouths that Jesus is our personal Lord and Savior. This is why when a person is baptized they take a confession of faith.
Then, after all of those steps are met, you then need to be Baptized. Acts 2:38 simply says, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Emersion, or baptism is the outward act of an inward decision. It is our way of showing God and others that we believe in Him and that we have decided to follow Jesus.
Baptism is an essential act in receiving our salvation. In baptism we are buried with Christ and raised up as a new creation. It is symbolic of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The old person is us is gone, and we are a new creation, a Christian.
But it doesn’t end at baptism. The final step to the plan of salvation is steadfastness. In I Corinthians 15:58 it says, “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
You see, after you have been baptized, you need to live a steadfast life for the Lord. Now that doesn’t mean that you don’t make mistakes, but it does mean that you try to avoid them.
So, how do we decide to follow Jesus? Well, we hear the word, we believe the word, we repent and turn our ways, we confess Jesus as Lord, we are baptized, and then we live a steadfast life for the Lord. So now we know what we need to do in order to sing that first verse that says, “I have decided to follow Jesus.” Now let’s move on and take a look at the rest of this powerful song.
The next verse says, “The world behind me the cross before me. No turning back, no turning back.” In I John 2:17 it says, “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”
I think that you will all agree with me that it’s a constant struggle to be in the world but not of the world. Now this verse does not say that we need to totally abandon the things of the world and live our lives without some of that stuff. Rather it means that we need put the things of God first. We are all probably still learning to put the things of the world behind us and the things of the cross before us. It’s a gradual process, but as a piece of clay takes time to be molded into something beautiful, so we have to take it one step at a time.
If we can simply begin to put God first in every aspect of our lives, we will truly be able to sing this song. The things of this world behind me, and the things of God before me. That is what we need to focus our lives on. Living for the things of God and not the things if this world.
The next verse tells us, “Though none go with me, I still will follow. No turning back, no turning back.” Well, in I Samuel 3:10 it says, “The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for Your servant is listening.”
C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia told the story of one little girl Lucy who was asked by Jesus (represented by Aslan the lion in the story) to follow Him regardless of whether her other friends followed. I remember reading of how her friends ridiculed her and refused to follow her, saying that her stories were merely of illusion and self-delusion. One night Jesus asked Lucy to pack up her things and follow Him. Gathering her possessions and her courage, Lucy woke the others and tried to get them to follow. They refused. With tears in her eyes, she took her things and followed Jesus.
Do you realize how difficult it is to follow Jesus when no one else seems to do so? It takes a great deal of courage and strength. We are lucky to be here at church where others are following Jesus as well. So this verse is talking to us when we are maybe at work, or school, or on the ball field. When others don’t follow Jesus, do you still stand you ground.
Do you stand firm as it said in I Corinthians 15:58. A lot of times when we are around non-Christians, we tend to act like them, rather than still following Jesus. We worry about what they will do or what they will think or say. We need to be as bold as the author of this song and be able to say, “Though none go with me, I still will follow.”
Now before we look at the last verse that I grew up with, let’s take a look at how each of these verses end. Each one ends by saying, “No turning back, no turning back.” Let me read for you from Luke 14:26-27. Here in Luke 14:26-27 it tells us that, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
I first remember this verse during a Bible study session in my youth group days. It really struck home that there’s no turning back once we decide to follow Jesus as His disciples. It is the whole idea of being steadfast to our decision to follow Him. This Bible verse use to worry me a little. I though, how can I hate people when God has told me to love them. Then it sank in what this verse was saying. It is saying, that unless we love God so much that our love for other things seems like hatred, we cannot be His disciples.
Tough calling. Tough decision to make. But we have all probably realized that it’s more than worthwhile taking up our cross and coming after Jesus. The joys that we’ve felt and the numerous insights we’ve gained have more than made up for the pain and the sacrifices that we have made.
And when we think of our own pain and sacrifice, all we need to do is look at Jesus. Compared to the greatest sacrifice made – when Jesus died on the cross to take away the sins for all mankind, we have had no pain or sacrifice involved. That Jesus died for us, should be enough to make us sing, “I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.” “For there’s no greater love than when a man dies for his friend.” Well guess what? Jesus was that man.
So as we close today, I want to encourage you with the last verse that I grew up with. If you have not made that decision in your life, I want you to focus on the last verse. It says, “Will you decide now to follow Jesus? No turning back, no turning back.” I hope that if you haven’t come to that point in you life yet, that today might be the day for you to follow Him.
I was watching an Indian movie this past week. I believe that it was called, “The Missing.” Anyway, at one point in the movie an old Indian told another Indian something that I thought was neat, and I think that we all have it to deal with. He said, “There are 2 dogs that live in you, one is the old dog. Then there’s the new dog. They’re constantly fighting to have control of you. Which one wins?” The second Indian responded by saying, “The one I feed the most, that’s which one wins.”
You see, we are all sinful, and we all have a sinful nature inside of us. It is constantly fighting against God for control of us. The one that you feed the most is going to win. If you have not accepted Jesus yet, I would encourage you to make that decision today. Feed the new dog inside of you, and let the old dog die. Become a new creation in Christ. Will you decide to follow Jesus? The choice is yours and it is determined by which side of you that you feed the most.
At this time we are going to sing that song, “I have decided to follow Jesus.” As we sing that first verse, if you are a Christian, I want you to celebrate the fact that you have decided to follow Jesus, and I want you to remember that there is no turning back.
When we sing the second verse, I want us all to focus on putting the worldly things behind us, and putting the cross before us. Now that doesn’t mean that we do away with the worldly things, it simply means putting God first.
When we get to the third verse, focus on the fact that even if no one follows you, that you need to remain faithful. When you are with non-Christians, still follow in the steps of Christ.
And as we end the song, if you have not made a decision to follow Christ, then I hope that today is the day. As Christians around you, we are singing this last verse to you. Now I am going to ask you to do something that is a bit weird. But if you have not been baptized, I don’t want you to sing that last verse. Instead, I want all of us who are baptized to sing that verse to them. We all really want to see you make that decision, so as we sing that last verse, listen to what we are singing, and make a decision today.
Let’s Pray |
