Follow Me - Week 4, Pastor John Mozingo

Follow Me is a sermon series from Family Church that walks through the life of Peter, one of Jesus’ closest disciples. His bold steps, honest struggles, and growing faith show what it means to follow Jesus with a willing heart. Each episode highlights key moments from Peter’s journey and invites us to learn how Jesus shapes ordinary people into faithful followers. Join us as we discover how Peter’s story challenges and inspires us to follow Christ every day.

Thank you so much for listening to Family Church's Sermon of the Week! If you would like to learn more about Family Church, please visit our website myfamilychurch.com or follow us on Facebook or Instagram at @myfamilychurchVA.

Transcript

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Welcome to Family Church's Sermon of the Week. We're so glad you're here. Each week we share a message from God's Word to encourage your heart, strengthen your faith, and help you grow in your walk with Jesus. We hope this time blesses you and draws you closer to the heart of God.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

So, let me ask you a question. How many golfers are in the room? Last week we talked about Little League Baseball. How about golfers? Okay, I want you to look around. Keep your hands up, look around. Okay, there's a small group right there waiting to be formed, first of all. Okay, if you play golf, there's a small group for you. Okay, so look around, get those names. You know, it's time to start a golf small group. But I I just like Little League, I tried golf and I was terrible at it. And you know, you remember me talking last week about how bad I was at Little League. But I started, actually, the first round of golf I ever played, I scored a 79 best nine holes I've ever played in my life. Okay? Not not great, but best nine holes I ever played in my life. But I tried playing golf and I just, it was like every other sport. I just wasn't good at it. You know, I just and but but I I I you know kept playing. I started in high school, played a little bit in college just with friends and stuff, and eventually I got to the point where I could play a round of golf and feel good about what I did and actually enjoy playing rather than losing balls and throwing clubs. And uh um, so so I got to work, I was enjoying a round of golf, and then I moved to Palm Beach County, Florida, and I was a Christian school teacher, but a round of golf was a hundred dollars a day. So I'm like, okay, I can't afford that hobby anymore, so we'll find something else to do. And then when I became a pastor, I gave it up altogether because you can't be a pastor and say bad words. And that that was a temptation when I was playing golf. But the the best thing about golf is a thing called a mulligan. Okay? A mulligan. A mulligan is a do-over. You don't like the way your shot came out, you can go mulligan! And depending on who you're playing with, you know, you get so many mulligans. If you're playing in tournament play, I don't think you get any mulligans, you know. But but if you're playing with friends, you know, I guess they determine ahead of time how many mulligans you get. But the bad part is you don't get a mulligan on every shot. You don't get a mulligan on every shot. You don't get to do over every shot you're not satisfied. There's a limit to it. The best thing about being a follower of Jesus is you get unlimited mulligans. You get unlimited do-overs. And the cool thing is that God, you know, they say God is the God of the second chance. He's not just the God of the second chance, he invented the second chance. The entire gospel is based on the idea that we get a second chance. You know, God created Adam and Eve, he put them in the garden, and it's the Bible says that he fellowshiped with them, he walked with them in the cool of the day, and because of sin, Adam and Eve were separated from God. But that wasn't final. He sent Jesus to pay the price for our sin. So we no longer have to be separated from him. So we get that second chance. Even though we're sinners, we get that second chance because Christ died on the cross, was buried, and rose again on the third day. We can have eternal life. We get a second chance. So it is not final. Our failures aren't final, and God is all about the second chance. Look with me at Romans 5, 18 through 19. It says this. It says, Yes, Adam's one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ's one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone, because one person obeyed God, that's Jesus. One person obeyed God, many became, excuse me, because one person disobeyed God, that's Adam. Many became sinners, but because one person, Jesus, obeyed God, many will be made righteous. Many will be made righteous because of one man and his death on the cross. Okay, let me give you a quick theology lesson. Um, and I've asked this question before, but let's think about what it means to be righteous. And on a scale of one to ten, how righteous are you? Think about that. On a scale of one to ten, how righteous are you? Now, you know, if you're just kind of an average person, you might think, oh, you know, I'm a pretty good guy. I'll go with five or six, or somebody thinking, hey, you know, I work really hard at doing the right thing and I make good choices, so I'm gonna go with seven or eight. Some of you might be in here going, yeah, let's just, you know, if I don't have to tell you why, we'll just go with one or two. You know, that's how righteous I am. But here's the good news. If you have accepted Christ as your savior, you are a perfect ten when it comes to righteousness. And it's not because of anything that you do, it's because of what Jesus did on the cross. And when you accept him as your Savior, you become righteous at that point. Look at this verse, Titus 3, 3 through 7. It says, Once we too were foolish and disobedient, we were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other. But when God, our Savior, revealed his kindness and love, he saved us. Not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and a new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ, our Savior, because of his grace, he made us right in his sight and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life. He made us right. So, in other words, Jesus gave us a second chance by taking the penalty for our sins and making us righteous in the sight of God. The big Bible term there is that God imputed or credited his righteousness to us when we became followers of Jesus. When we chose to accept Christ as our Savior, he credited or imputed our righteousness, his righteousness on us. So, yes, you are a perfect ten if you have accepted Christ as your Savior. But it doesn't just, it's not just about salvation. You know, the the second chance is not just about our salvation. God continuously gives us second chances. Continually, it doesn't end with salvation. He gives us second chance, third chance, fourth chance, and he gives us an unlimited number of second chances or mulligans as we grow to be like him. And Peter is a great example of that. Peter's a great example of that. Remember, Peter was the first disciple that Jesus chose. And Jesus looked at him and he said, Follow me and I'll teach you how to fish for people. When he said, Follow me, he was saying, Come and see. Just come with me. The psalmist says, Taste and see that the Lord is good. He was just telling Peter, just come with me. Then when Peter, Peter uh put his foot in his mouth and spoke too soon, and then Christ told him, Take up your cross and follow me. Come with me, commit to following me on this lifelong journey all the way to the end. Take up your cross and follow me. Then at the at the uh the last supper, he washed the disciples' feet and he said, Follow my example. Follow my example. So this whole time he's telling Peter, follow me, follow me, follow me. And and Peter made mistake after mistake after mistake. And Peter, but the whole time Peter would say, say, you know, I'll be with you every step of the way. I'll die for you. He even said, I'll be more loyal to you than all of these disciples. I'll be more loyal to you than ever all the rest of them. But Peter failed miserably. You know, we know the story. Peter failed miserably. Jesus told him, Peter, before the rooster crows, three times, you will you will deny me before men. You're gonna deny me. So they left the upper room. They went to the garden, and and when Peter drew his sword and he cut off the ear of the servant, you know, he he he wasn't proving anything. You know, that was a failure. That was a failure. And and Peter told Jesus, you know, I will never deny you. Never. It's not gonna happen. But it did. And as Jesus was being mocked and beaten, Peter moved quietly among the crowd in the same place. And he denied knowing Jesus three times. And on that third time, he swore at the lady and said, I don't know him. And as soon as he did, the rooster crowed. And then he looked across the room, and Jesus, who had already been beaten, was bruised and bloody, locked eyes with Peter in that moment. And Peter knew that he had failed. Luke 22, 61 says, At that moment the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Suddenly the Lord's words flashed through Peter's mind. Before the rooster crows, tomorrow morning you will deny me three times and that you even know me. And Peter left the courtyard weeping bitterly. Peter knew he failed. He knew that he failed. But failure is never final with Jesus. Failure's never final. He is always the God of a second chance. And and this is this is something I I never really realized this until just a couple weeks ago when I was studying. This is, and I just think this is amazing. You know, the the there's only one brief mention of this in the New Testament, but it happened, and it says a lot about what was going on at that time. And so so it's it says that that Jesus met with Peter. So there's a safe assumption there that Jesus actually sought out Peter. This is after the resurrection. Okay. So there's there's multiple, multiple descriptions of when Jesus met with disciples and everything, you know, when and and met with other people. The first one is, you know, when when Mary Magdalene ran to the tomb, says that Jesus met her there and talked to her. And then the second one, she was running to tell the disciples, and some other ladies were with her, and Jesus talked to them a second time. Then the third one is two disciples, not of the, not disciples, not of the twelve disciples, two other disciples. We don't know anything about them except that one of them was named Cleophys. That's all we know. And it says that Jesus walked with them on the road to Emmaus, which was about a seven-mile walk. The whole time he talked with them, and they didn't know it was him. They had no idea. Just talking with him, and and and said they finally got to to Emmaus and they sat down together, they had a meal together, and then Jesus explained to them how the Messiah was the fulfillment of the Old Testament, and how how the Jesus that those disciples knew uh were uh was is the the fulfillment of the Old Testament, and then says that their eyes were open and they realized that's Jesus, and then Jesus disappeared that quick. And so those guys got up and they went back seven miles, middle of the night, went back to Jerusalem to tell the other disciples. And when they got there, they told the disciples that Jesus met with Peter. That's the that's the description. That's it, that's all it says. Paul says the same thing in 1 Corinthians Jesus met with Peter. There's no description of what was said. We don't know where it took place, we don't know when, we don't know how long. We just know that somewhere in the first 12 hours after the resurrection, that Jesus sought out Peter, either before uh he saw the women or after. He sought out Peter. He sought out, he went to find the one who denied him. And we don't know what he said, but but I can see I can see Peter just looking at Jesus and hanging his head in shame. Because he did exactly what Jesus said he was gonna do. So Jesus walked over. I can just again, I'm imagining this. Jesus would walk over and put his hand on his chin and lift his head up and look him in the eye and say, Peter, you are forgiven. Peter, you get a second chance. I am the God of second chance. So no failure is final. There's no failure that is final. And we don't know anything about what was said at that meeting, you know? We just we have no idea. And and and if you're here today, or maybe you're listening online or or the podcast or whatever, you know, what wherever you are in your life, whatever your life has been like up until this moment, you know, if if you're at a place where you feel like, you know what, I I I've made mistakes, I've failed along the way, I've failed God, you know, I think I've just missed the opportunity to be used by God. Or God would never use me because of my past. Nothing could be more further from the truth. God is the God of the second chances. God will, God will still use you no matter what you've done, no matter where you've been, whatever, God can still use you. And whatever you think is stopping you from being used by God, whatever you think is uh uh the one thing that God looks at and says, Well, you crossed the line, I can't use you anymore. God's using that. God is using that. He's using every every failure, every and every success. He's using every victory, every everything in your life he's using to conform you to the image of Jesus. You know, um many of you know my niece Bella. Uh Bella's been to church here with us for the last couple years, uh, and uh she just she just left a couple weeks ago to go to basic training in the Air Force. So she's about three weeks into it. We got a letter from her last week, and she said, Uncle Buddy, this is hard. This is hard, you know, and she was telling us everything she's going through, and it's it's hard physically, it's hard mentally, it's hard emotionally. And she said, but but every every time they get a little discouraged, she said, she and her battle buddy or her wingman they get assigned to, she said, they say, basic training doesn't get easier, but we get better. That's what it is like to serve Christ. That's what it's like being a follower of Jesus. You know, there's there's this assumption among some people that once you get saved, all your problems go away. And that's not true. That's not how it works. You know, you're gonna you're gonna still have the same issues you had before. If you're struggling with something, you're gonna keep struggling with it. If you got family problems and you give your heart to Jesus, your family problems don't go away. But God uses all of that to strengthen you and to make you more like Christ. You know, you don't, life doesn't get any easier, but you get better through those trials. Through every failure, every victory, you get better. That's the point. And Peter learned that the hard way. Peter learned it the hard way, and but but he learned the value of his mistakes. He learned the value of his mistakes later when he wrote his two letters, much later, in 1 Peter 1, uh verse 6 and 7, he said, So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold. Though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. Now it uses the word trials twice in those verses. Okay? But each time it uses them, they have a different meaning. All right? They mean something different. In verse 6, uh trials is translated from the Greek word uh pyrasmus, and that that means a it refers to a trial or a test of a man's integrity, fidelity, virtue, and loyalty. It's a test. In verse 7, it's the Greek word uh dochemion, and it carries with it the idea that something is proven by the test. It is the proof that comes from the test. So, in other words, it's saying, saying your faith will be put to the test, and these tests will be the proof of how strong your faith is. That's what that verse is saying. You're gonna be put to the test, and and your response to those tests is gonna be the proof of how strong your faith is. The way you respond to trials or tests is a demonstration of your faith in God. It's not your salvation, it's not a it's not proof of your salvation. You are saved because of what Christ did, not because of anything you did. So it's a test of your faith, your trust in God, your your willingness to completely trust, put every every everything you have on what He says. That's what that test is. So if you're if you're struggling with addiction, you know, if you're if you're struggling with alcohol and and and you know somebody somebody comes up to you and they offer you a drink, and you know I shouldn't take that drink, that's the test. That's the test. The proof is how you respond to that test. Or if you're if you you're you're just you know you're feel you're feeling depressed and lonely and feel like the whole world's against you, and your mo is to you is to to go and and take a drink or or a drag or a drop or whatever to deal with your loneliness and depression, whatever it is, that's the test. The proof of how strong your faith is is your response to that test. That's the proof. Are you willing to say, I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna deal with this without substance, I'm gonna deal with this with Jesus. I'm I'm gonna find satisfaction in him, I'm gonna find I'm gonna find healing in him, I'm gonna find release in him. Or is the choice I'm gonna find temporary peace in a bottle? Okay? Girls, it's prom season. Any high school girls in here? It's prom season. All right, okay. So, so that means, you know, you got some boy that's gonna ask you to prom, and you know, and he's gonna show up at your door and he's gonna wear a tux. He's gonna look so good, but don't let him fool you. That is the first time he's been out of the house without a hoodie since ninth grade. You know? But he's gonna look so good and he's gonna look at you and say, You are so beautiful. Oh my goodness, you are so pretty. And you're gonna think, this just feels right. This just feels right. That's the test. That's the test. Okay? And are you gonna are you gonna uh respond to that by giving in to a a moment, a wasted moment of pleasure? Or are you gonna respond to that and say, I'm a daughter of the king of kings? That's the test. And dads, you've got some skin in that game too. Okay, so when that when that boy shows up at your door, you answer the door. He doesn't see your daughter till he talks with you. So you invite him in, you shake his hand, you say, Let's sit down. You bring him over and you sit down and you look him face to face, eye to eye, and you say, You know, when you bury a dead body, if you bury it vertically instead of horizontally, the infrared scanners don't detect it. Now you have my daughter home at 1059. Okay, that'll be enough. That'll be enough. And you will encourage him to respond correctly to that test as well. So, so yeah, look, the it's it's all about the test and the proof of your faith is how you respond to that test. Peter failed at the temptation test. Peter failed at the temptation test. When he cut the servant's ear off, all that proved that he was angry and he didn't trust what Jesus said when Jesus said this has to happen. When he denied Peter, or when he denied Jesus three times, all it proved that he was a coward and he was afraid of what other people thought. That's all it proved. But his failure wasn't final. His failure wasn't final, and your failure is not final either. Your failure's not final. Look at the next time Peter saw Jesus. Uh John 21, verses 1 through 3. It says, Later, Jesus appeared again to the disciples beside the Sea of Galilee. This is how it happened. Several of the disciples were there: Simon Peter, Thomas, nicknamed the twin, Nathaniel from Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples. Simon Peter said, I'm going fishing. I'm going fishing. Peter went back to his happy place. Peter was discouraged. He had failed Jesus. Even though he had that private meeting with Jesus where Jesus probably said, Peter, you are forgiven. Peter was still discouraged because he knew that when push came to shove, he let Jesus down. He failed. And so he went back to his happy place. And some commentators will say that that uh uh well I'm getting ahead of myself. Peter went back to his happy place, and and that's an easy thing to do, to go to your comfort zone. Go to your comfort zone when things aren't going right. And and just to ride it out there. Just to ride it out there, you know? But look look at what happened. Look what happened. Look who showed up in Peter's comfort zone. John 21, 4 says, at dawn, Jesus was standing on the beach, but the other other disciples but the disciples couldn't see who it was. So Peter showed up. Or Jesus showed up when Peter was in his comfort zone. Jesus doesn't stop pursuing you when you stop pursuing him. If you've retreated to the comfort zone, you're like, God can't use me. I'm just gonna be a good guy and I'm gonna ride it out here. Jesus is gonna show up in your comfort zone. Jesus will show up there. All the disciples were there with Peter, they had all gotten In the boat with them by this point. They see Jesus. The sun is behind them, so it's casting shadows. You know, it's early in the morning, it's casting shadows. So they can't tell who it is. They can't tell who it is. And and so Jesus tells them, Are you catching anything? You know, what else is what else you're going to ask a bunch of fishermen? You know, you walk by a bunch of fishermen and you go, Hey, you catching anything? You know, and that like even if you're not a fisherman, that's the only thing you ask. Okay, so he asks them, Are you catching anything? And they they look at him and go, No, not a thing. He goes, Well, throw your net on the other side of the boat and see what happens. And they did. And it said they caught so many fish in that moment they could barely pull them in. They could barely pull them in. And then John said, That's Jesus. Not because he could see him or recognize him, but because a miracle just happened. He saw Jesus do a miracle, he said, That's Jesus. And Peter goes, You're right. And Peter jumps out of the boat and he swims and then wades and then he runs up on shore to Jesus. And I think it's so cool that you know, here's Jesus, the God of the universe, the savior of the world. Before he has risen, he serves his disciples. I think that's so cool. And then he has a conversation with Peter. He has a conversation with him. And he says, Peter, do you love me more than these? And he's referring to one of two things. He was either saying, Peter, do you love me more than these fish? Or Peter, do you love me more than these guys? Do you love me more than the other disciples? And whether it means one or the other, it's still a penetrating question. If he said, Do you love me more than these fish? He's saying, Peter, do you love me more than your job? Do you love me more than the one thing that you would rather spend every day doing than anything else on earth? Do you love me more than that? Or if he was referring to the disciples, he's saying, Do you love me more than these guys that have become your closest friends over the last three years? Do you love me more than your brother Andrew that's standing among them? Or do you love me more than the opinion they may have of you right now? Or the opinion you have of yourself? Do you love me more than that? And when when Jesus said, Peter, do you love me? And Peter responded, Lord, you know I love you. They were using two different words. When Jesus said, Peter, do you love me? He was using the Greek word agape, which is unconditional love. Peter, do you love me unconditionally? Peter replied with the word phileo, which is like brotherly love. Brotherly love. Or if Peter said said, you know, oh, I love fish, then he would have been saying phileo fish. McDonald's phileo fish. Sorry. Dad joke. I shouldn't have put it in there. Jesus asked him, Peter, do you love me unconditionally? And Peter responded, Jesus, you know I love you like a brother. And and some commentators will say that Peter responded that way because he knew because of his past experience that his actions did not reflect unconditional love. Peter wouldn't answer. So Jesus asked him a second time. Peter, do you love me unconditionally? And Peter said, Jesus, you know that I love you like a brother. You know my heart. You know who I am. And then the third time that Jesus asked Peter, Do you love me? He came down to Peter's level. He met Peter where he was, and he said, Peter, do you love me like a brother? And Jesus said, Peter said, You know I love you like a brother. So Jesus wasn't waiting for Peter to get his act together. He wasn't waiting for him to get over his feelings of guilt and shame. He wasn't waiting for him to get over that. He came to him and he said, Do you love me? And then he told Peter, here's what the rest of your life is going to be like. He said, If you love me, feed my lambs. That's your job description from now on. Three times. Feed my lambs, feed my lambs, feed my lambs. I think it's so cool that Peter denied Jesus three times and Jesus affirmed Peter three times. And let him know, I still have plans for you. God still has a perfect purpose for imperfect people. He still has a purpose for imperfect people. And he told Peter, I still have a purpose for you. I know you're not perfect. I know you're not over your shame and guilt. I know you still feel guilty. I know how you're feeling right now. Like you can't do this. You're not worthy of this. But I still have a plan for you. You don't have to look perfect. You don't have to be all that. You don't have to be some saved, sanctified soldier for Jesus, you know. You just have to be willing to answer that call. He still has a plan and a purpose for you. And then God told Peter the one thing that all of us would love to know. He told him, here's what your future is going to be like. If you follow me, if you do, if you if you accept this call and you accept the call to feed my sheep, here's what your future is going to be like. And a lot of people in here would go, you know what? I would do whatever God asked me to do if I knew the outcome. I'd go wherever he wanted me to go. I'd talk to whoever he wanted me to talk to if I just knew how it was going to end. You know, that's the hard part. You never get to know that. But he told Peter how it's going to end. And here's what he said. I tell you the truth, when you were young, you were able to do as you liked. You dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will dress you and take you where you don't want to go. Jesus said this to let him know by what kind of death he would glorify God. Peter was crucified upside down. So when it said, You will stretch out your hands, he was telling Peter, you are gonna die for me. It's gonna happen. Then Jesus told him one more time, follow me. Follow me. Jesus gives the same invitation to us. He doesn't tell us how it's gonna end. He doesn't tell us how our life's gonna end. He doesn't tell us how the circumstances are gonna end, but he gives the same invitation to us. Follow me. So if Jesus were here right now and he looked you in the eye and he said, Follow me, what would he be asking you to do? Would it be like the first time that Peter met Jesus and he said, Follow me, just just come and see. Just take one step closer. I'll show you how to fish for people instead of fish for fish. I'll show you how to fish for people. But just come with me. Just try it out. Or would Jesus look at you and say, say, you know, take up your cross and follow me. Make the commitment to follow me all the way to the end of this journey. No matter what it looks like, follow me. Or maybe maybe you've already made those commitments. You know, and Jesus is saying, you know what? You want to really do this? Follow my example. Do what I did. Respond the way I respond. Think the way I think. And that's a process of turning ourselves over to Jesus every day, saying, make me more like you. Forgive me of yesterday, make me more like you today. Help me to learn from the mistakes I made yesterday. Help me to learn from my failures of yesterday. And help me to become more like you today. So, what would your answer be if Jesus said, Follow me? Let me have every head bowed and every eye closed. I said at the beginning of the service, I said, the the, you know, the the first, the the if you're gonna follow Jesus, it all starts with making the commitment to give your heart to him and to accept him as your savior. It's gotta start there. You know, nothing else, nothing else matters until that happens. None of those other questions are relevant until you settle that one. So if you're here today and you've never accepted Christ as your Savior, just like we said at the beginning, you know, there's nothing that we can do to deserve salvation. It's because of what Jesus did. He makes us righteous because of his death, burial, and resurrection. Only because, you know, he deserves it, but he gets the credit for it, but he gave that credit to us so that we can spend eternity in heaven. If you're here today and you've never accepted Christ, it's just a matter of telling, telling God, I want to be a follower of Jesus. I want to trust in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. I want to trust in the shed blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of my sin. That's where it starts. So if you're here today and you've never accepted Christ, you can you can pray quietly during this time and tell God what I just said. Or if you're struggling to put what is going on in your heart and mind into words, you can pray something like this and just repeat what I pray. It's not about repeating the prayer. Sometimes you go to church and everybody's repeating the same prayer. It's not about that. This is about what's going on in your heart and your mind and putting it into words, and you can say, Dear Father, thank you for sending Jesus. Thank you that he came to pay the penalty for my sin. So that I can spend eternity in heaven. So today I put my trust in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus for my salvation. And I put my trust in his shed blood on the cross for forgiveness of my sin. And today I forgive I I confess my sin to you. I ask forgiveness of my sin. And I choose to follow Jesus. And if you just prayed that and you meant it, the Bible says that you you have a guaranteed home in heaven. Nothing can change that. You know, and and maybe right now, in this moment, you feel like it seems like it should be more than that. It can't be, because there's nothing else we could do. Jesus did it all. What else do we need? If he endured that brutal execution on the cross and the torture, and then he gave his life, what else could you do to compare to that? There's nothing. All you have to do is accept. So if you just prayed today and you accepted Christ as your savior, I want you to do a brave thing. I want you to raise your hand and let me know that you prayed. Let me know that you prayed today. All right, let's pray together. God, thank you. Thank you for uh the one hand that I saw. Lord, I pray that you would just bless that person. I pray that they would understand the decision that that they made today to follow you. I pray that the Holy Spirit would help them to understand that. Lord, I pray that the word of God would just become become a part of their life and that they would understand what the word says and how you're you're helping them to grow. Lord, surround them with people that will that will encourage them. God, become very real to that person so that they they know exactly what they're doing and they have that confidence, that confidence to know that they've been made righteous and they they will spend eternity in heaven. Still with heads bowed and eyes closed. If you're if you're here today and you've accepted Christ, but but you're thinking, you know what? I need it, I need to take that next step. I need to make that commitment. I need to just say, uh, yeah, I'll I'll follow you. When when Jesus says, Come and see, you know, and you just know I need to take one more step towards Jesus, if that's you, raise your hand. Let me pray for you. I'm saved, but I just need to take that one more step towards Jesus to make my life right. All right. Maybe you're here and and you've you've taken those those baby steps, but it's time to make the commitment and say, I'm gonna follow Jesus all the way to the end. If you've never made that commitment, lift your hand. Let me pray for you today. All right, hands going up, hands going up everywhere. Or maybe, maybe you've made that commitment and you just say, I need to, I need to pay more attention to following the example that Jesus set. I need to follow the example that Jesus set. Raise your hand. All right, hands going up everywhere. And honestly, all of us should have our hands up right now. All of us should be following Jesus' example. Let me pray. God, thank you for these folks that have admitted today and and and confessed. I need to take another step forward. I I I need to I need to taste and see that the Lord is good. I need I need to I need to just follow him, or I need I need to take that big step, and I need to take up my cross, and I need to commit to following him all the way to the end of this journey. Or I need to follow Jesus' example. Lord, whatever, what whatever it is, whatever the answer to that question, follow me is, or will you follow me? I pray that that you would just give the people in this room boldness and courage to take that step. Give them peace, knowing that that even though they don't know the outcome, they don't know where it's going to take them, that you're in total control and they can be obedient to you, and you'll bless them. So, God, thank you so much for everyone in this room. God, thank you. Thank you for last week, Easter Sunday. What a blessing that was to worship you and to serve you. And and Lord, we're just so grateful for all that you did that day. Lord, we pray that you would bless, bless this church, Lord. Help us to grow, help us to reach people. Put someone in our path, everyone in this room, put someone in their path this week that needs the love of Jesus. Give us the wisdom and the courage to show it. Lord, we ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 36:20

Thanks for listening to Family Church's Sermon of the Week. We pray this message encouraged you and helped you grow in your faith. If it blessed you, share it with a friend and follow so you never miss a new episode. You can learn more about FamilyCurch at myfamilychurch.com. If you are in the area, Sunday mornings at 10 a.m., we get Patriot High School. 10504.