Fan or Follower?

We come to our time of congregational prayer that we prioritize each and every Sunday morning, like Michael said. And now that I hear other people starting to say it, that must mean that our church is starting to finally get it. We do not want to be a church that prays. We have to be a praying church. Right, Miss Becky? We’ve got to be. Man, if we are not a praying church, we will not be a vibrant church. We will not be a missional church. We won’t be a sacrificial church. We do a lot of great church things. But unless prayer is driving and fueling everything we do, then man, like what are we going to do?

So we’ve been praying all month for hour one. It’s somebody that is close to you who is not yet close to the Lord. You might have a name in your mind. You might have a face in your mind, maybe a spouse, a friend, another family member, a neighbor, a co-worker, just a community member, whoever it is. What we want to do for the next few moments is just take them to the Lord. Just pray for them by name. Ask that God would get a hold of them, that He would draw them close to Himself, that He, in kind of churchy language, would save them. Let’s do that for another next few moments. I’ll put a bow on it. You grab a neighbor. Go ahead and lift up these folks to the Lord.

Holy Spirit, thank you so much for today. Time of getting to worship You by singing, by listening to the choir, getting to hear all the great things that You’re doing here at Sauldam. You are an awesome God. Pray for some of us in the room this morning. We would learn how to get carried away before we get carried away. Or as the choir was singing about, Father, that we would let go of whatever obstacles or restraints are between us and a fully devoted, exuberant, excited life of worshiping You with everything we’ve got. God, that we would reflect on the goodness of God chasing after us all of our lives, just like David wrote in Psalm 23. We would recognize that surely goodness and mercy are following us all the days. And because of that, we get to live these lives of worshiping You, loving You, being fully devoted to You, being reckless and wild and ridiculous for You.

Lord, I pray that You would do that for my one. He’s a good guy. He’s a really good guy. He’s kind. He’s smart. He’s generous. He’s gentle. He’s loving. He has yet to actually give his life to You. I’m scared for him. I’m scared that he’s going to pass through all of this life wanting something real with the spiritual and the divine. And it always being at an arm’s length from him because he’s not yet receiving the gift that You have for him. He’s actually holding You away, Lord, while he’s pursuing drugs, while he’s pursuing Buddhism, while he’s pursuing all these other things. God, please, just save him. For anybody in the room right now this morning who has yet to call on You as Lord and Savior, would You please wake up their souls to You? Call them to You. Save them this morning, please.

Holy Spirit, You and I, we have worked together this week to craft this message. I’m confident that this is what You want me to share with Your people. Please supercharge this, Holy Spirit. Get a hold of this. As people listen to me preach, they would actually hear God Himself speaking to them. I need You to do that. I need You to transform us. I need You to work in us. I need You to save us. I need You to convict and encourage and empower us. I can’t do any of that. We need You, Lord. We love You. It’s in Your name that we pray. Amen.

I trust there are a few others in the room exactly like me. And right now, on August 23rd, you are counting down the days until the most glorious five months of the year. College football is almost back. Right? I take you back to November 30th, 2013. Becca and I had been dating for just a couple months at that point. Though she already knew that she wanted to marry me. So I definitely fell in love with her first. It’s the story. You got to hear it another time. But anyways, we are back in Lexington hanging out with some of her friends and family. And it’s Thanksgiving weekend. And every good Southern college football fan Knows what’s happening Thanksgiving weekend. It’s all these rivalry games. The most preeminent among them is when South Carolina and Clemson play. I’ll make a bold confession to y’all. I push the envelope in here all the time. You need to know this about me. I was raised a USC fan. And until I die, I’ll be saying, “Go Cox,” okay? But if you want to buy me some Clemson paraphernalia, I will wear it in shame.

We are sitting at her friend’s house watching the Carolina-Clemson game. 2013 is the last year that Steve Spurrier, coaching South Carolina, beat Clemson. It’s the last year. If you remember, as I do so well, he had whooped Clemson like five years in a row. Anybody else have fond memories of those five years? The golden age of South Carolina football, and we’ve been chasing it ever since.

Y’all, I am sitting on a complete stranger’s couch. I’ve been dating Becca for all of four months. I am in a home enjoying a hospitality I did not deserve. And I was the only Carolina fan. And I was insufferable. Oh, man, I remember this one time Carolina scores. I jump up. It’s like, “Yeah! Take it!” And I’m looking at the host the whole time. And I, gosh, guys, I was terrible. I was, I have no idea why Becca ever brought me back to those people ever again.

You could say when it comes to football, specifically USC football, I have passed the status of fan. And I am still a recovering, devoted follower. I’m reading Carolina stuff all the time. Anybody else here with me? Maybe not Carolina, but you are so aggressively yearning for college football to come back. Or maybe it’s NFL for you. Or they’re, thank you so much, Amber. I appreciate that. Amber, who’s your team? Appalachian State. Go Mountaineers. Okay. We got some horns over here. Horns for Texas. Okay. This is fun. Who, who, who else roots for somebody outside of our state? Cody. Anybody else want to venture the team? Huh? New England, the Patriots. Okay. The fighting Tom Brady’s. Sir. I knew that God called me to this barren wasteland, man. I got to reel this in. I’m sorry. Turn to John chapter one.

All of this is to say when Jesus came on the scene, He was not intent on gathering a crowd of fans. You see, we as fans, we’re fickle. We get real excited and we rah-rah our team whenever they’re having some success. And we’re like, “Man, I’m a big believer in Shane Beamer year one ’cause he’s having some unfounded success.” Now in year five, I’m ready to turn on the guy. He’s probably very nice. He might be the nicest coach in all of college football, but I’m ready for somebody else ’cause I’m a fan. I’m ready for something new. My emotions, they vacillate so much. I am not actually that committed. I mean, I don’t invest any money into the welfare of the program whatsoever.

Jesus had this issue. As He is teaching and preaching and ministering, flocks and crowds of fans would pop up at each one of His stadiums, ready to wave the foam fingers whenever He was doing the cool stuff like healing lepers and raising the dead back to life. But whenever Jesus did some of the provocative, offensive things, saying, “Hey, in order to follow me, you’ve actually gotta take up your own cross,” people are like, “What?” Whenever Jesus said, “I didn’t come to bring peace, but a sword that I would divide families in half,” people were like, “What?” Jesus was not intent on recruiting fans. He was intent on building a devoted following. In the Bible, we call these disciples.

John chapter one, verses 43 through 51, He is calling disciples, numbers three and four. Read it with me. The next day, Jesus decided to leave for Galilee, and He found Philip, and He told him, “Follow me.” In fact, just say that with me. “Follow me.” Now, Philip was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. Those were the two disciples that Jesus called last Sunday. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and so did the prophets, Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.” “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Nathanael asked.

Let’s pause right here for a second. Nathanael’s interesting. If you were to go into the other places in the gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and look at the rundown of the 12 disciples, or if you’re going to jump over to the book of Acts and look at the list of the 12 disciples, Nathanael only comes up in another one of those lists one other time. In those other lists of the 12 disciples, you don’t read the name Nathanael. You would instead read the name Bartholomew. Modern scholars believe that Nathanael was just another name that Bartholomew went by, just another way that he was known by some people.

It’s similar to last week. We saw Jesus change Simon’s name to Peter, which is also Cephas. In some environments, Peter, when he’s speaking to Greek people, he would introduce himself as Peter. That’s a Greek name where it was. When he was in a Jewish environment, he would introduce himself as Cephas because it meant the same thing, but that was a Jewish name. It makes sense. It’s known by different names to different groups of people, but it’s the same name.

Nathaniel comes on the scene, and I love Nathaniel. If you are practically minded, if you are not skeptical, or if you are skeptical, maybe a little less gullible, then you probably empathize with Nathaniel because his friend Philip says, “Hey, we have found the awaited one. We have found the guy. He’s come from Nazareth.” Look at verse 46, what Nathaniel says. Man, can anything good come out of Nazareth? In a few minutes, Jesus is going to say something, and Nathaniel’s going to look at Him and say, “How do You know me?” Man, for the skeptical in the room, you can really connect with Nathaniel.

Verse 47, Jesus sees Nathaniel coming toward Him and shouts, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” We get the line, “How do You know me?” Nathaniel asked, bearing all of his skepticism before Jesus. “Before Philip called you,” Jesus responds, “When you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” “Rabbi.” Just like that, he switches. Nathaniel replied, “You are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel.” Jesus responded to him, “Do you believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? Oh, you will see greater things than this.” Verse 51, “Then He said, “Truly I tell you, “you will see heaven opened “and the angels of God ascending and descending “on the Son of Man.”

Let’s get a little bit more context before I share what the main point is driving at here. Philip, whenever he invites his buddy Nathaniel to come and meet this guy named Jesus, look at what verse 45 says. Philip says, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, “and so did the prophets.” Philip is referencing back to the book of Deuteronomy when God spoke these words through a guy named Moses. “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me, like Moses, from among your own brothers. You must listen to Him. This is what you requested from the Lord your God at Mount Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not continue to hear the voice of the Lord our God or see this great fire any longer so that we may not die.” The Lord said to me, “They have spoken well.” Verse 18 of Deuteronomy 18. “I will raise up for them a prophet like Moses. I will put My words in his mouth and he will tell them everything I command him.”

“Ever since Moses took his dying breath, the people of Israel have been waiting for another prophet that would speak with the authority of Moses. Ever since Moses died and was laid in a tomb, the people of Israel have been yearning for a day when a central leader would speak on behalf of God to His people. Ever since Moses passed away, the people of Israel have been waiting for someone to come on the scene, who will provide direction and be an ambassador for God, giving them God’s word.”

Philip has heard what John the Baptist has said. Philip probably has already spoken with Jesus and gotten to get it from the guy himself. Philip goes to his buddy, Nathaniel and says, “I found Him. He’s here. All the waiting, all the searching, all the yearning. He is here.” This would be a pretty big moment. The Son of God, the King of Israel, the Lamb of God is on the scene. How tempting would it have been for Jesus to just amass as big of a movement and a gathering as possible, as quick as possible. It would have been so easy for Jesus to go to the temple, go to the very pinnacle and just kind of float above it. Gently float down to the ground in front of everybody, drawing so much attention to Himself. How easy would it have been for Jesus to flex His divinity and just like raise the buildings up in the sky? How easy would it have been for Jesus to show that He was God in the flesh and build something fast and just microwave this thing? But Jesus is not interested in that. He’s not interested in a crowd of fans. Jesus is interested in recruiting devoted followers. If you’re going to write anything down this morning, this is what I want you to write down: Jesus deserves followers, not fans.

Even the word follower is a bit funny for me to use in 2026. For those of us who are on social media, the moment you like somebody’s picture, you become their follower, you know? And different companies will recruit different social media influencers to their company based off of how many followers they have. If you’ve got 100,000 followers, they may pay you this much money. If you’ve got 300,000, they’ll pay you this much money. So even the idea of being a follower is a little broken in this sense in 2026 because you could treat it just like you treat a sports team. That person posts something I don’t like, I will unfollow them. That person says something that’s offensive, I will try to cancel them, whatever it may be.

But in this sense, when Jesus is looking at these people and He calls them and He says, “Follow me,” He’s saying, “Put your allegiance on me. Base your life on mine. Everything I say, I want you to meditate on, internalize, obey, and share with somebody else.” Jesus deserves that. Jesus doesn’t deserve fans. Jesus doesn’t deserve somebody that’s going to get very excited when He does the miracle, but walk away whenever He says the offensive thing. Jesus doesn’t deserve a crowd of people who will not walk with Him for the entirety of their lives. No, Jesus deserves followers.

This is what it looks like, actually. Fans will take the Bible and they say, “I respect the Bible. I’ll even post about it on my Facebook page. I’ve got a coffee mug that’s got scripture written on it.” But whenever the Bible calls me to make a sacrifice for God, I’m not so confident about that one. A follower takes the whole thing, says, “Man, offensive and comforting, it’s all mine.” A follower will look at the Bible and say, “Man, I’m going to drink from this book every day. I’m going to live in this thing because man does not live by bread alone, but by what? The words of God.”

How about when it comes to faith? A fan will look at Jesus and say, “I will do the safe acts of faith for you. I’ll go to church a couple times a month. I’ll probably put a little bit of money in the offering plate. Man, every now and then I might post something on social media that will out me as a follower of Christ or a Christian.” But a follower of Jesus, a devoted follower, what He’s looking for, man, those are folks that will take genuine risks where success is not guaranteed. A fan will stop at discomfort. A follower will follow through into uncertainty.

Let’s get real offensive. How about it when it comes to your obedience to the Bible? I said this a second ago. Let’s just step on it even more. Man, fans of Jesus are partial obeyers. If the Bible says to do something that they already agree with, they’ll do it. But you take a fan of Jesus and you confront them with all of the Bible and they’ll start cherry picking and saying, “I will do that. I won’t do that.” Man, followers of Jesus, to the best of their ability, say, “I am going to totally obey you.”

Becca and I were members of a church during seminary and something that they would say that I love, they would say, “Put your yes on the table and let God take it wherever He wants it.” Decide right now your answer to God is yes. Whatever it may be, go ahead and tell God, “God, whatever You’re going to ask me to do, my answer is yes. Now, what do You want me to do?”

Man, oftentimes we treat God like a tutor for a subject we’re not that strong in. And we say, “Okay, just brush me up a little bit. I basically got the basics. You just help round me out.” When God is actually like, “Hey, no, I’m more of like a military commander and you have no business saying no. Whatever I say, you do.” In fact, when Jesus introduced Himself to people in the military, they oftentimes understood that obedience had to be total more than the religious leaders. The religious leaders were like, “No, this doesn’t make sense with what I already believe about the world.” The military guys, they’re like, “Huh, you’re the boss. You’re in charge. Whatever you say, I’ll do it, commander.” That’s not you. That’s not me.

This passage presents four reasons Jesus is worth you following. You came into church this morning and maybe you already are a follower. You are striving to live in total obedience. You are trying to get into the Bible every day. You are trying to take genuine risks for the Lord. Man, what I hope this next few moments does is just put fuel into that for you. I hope that the sail of your life just gets blown into and you’re just able to go a little bit faster. I hope that your enjoyment of the Lord just gets to grow a little bit as you see what God has done for you.

If you are not yet a follower of Christ, you may have come in here as a fan, possibly been baptized, possibly have put some money in the offering plate, have grown up around or in church or maybe not. What I hope happens for you this morning is that you see four reasons why Jesus is worth you giving your life to Him, and that you would begin that journey today.

Reason number one: follow Jesus because He humbled Himself. Follow Jesus because He humbled Himself. Look at verses 43 through 46 again with me. The next day, Jesus decides to leave for Galilee. He finds Philip, tells Philip to follow Me. Philip finds his brother or his friend, Nathanael, and says, “Hey, Nathanael, we have found the one that we’ve been looking for. He is from Nazareth.”

Where was Jesus born? Be brave, be bold. Where was Jesus actually born? Bethlehem. But Jesus lived as a child in Nazareth. If you were going to be the rescuer of the world and you are looking to get a group of followers together in your mission to redeem the world, wouldn’t you put your best resume forward? Wouldn’t you put your best credentials on the table and say, “Trust me because of this”? That’s not what Jesus did.

It would have been really strategic for Jesus to claim Bethlehem as where He was from. But we don’t call Him Jesus the Bethlehemite. We call Him Jesus the Nazarene. We need to understand the difference between Nazareth up in the north and Bethlehem down south. Bethlehem, guys, was less than five miles from Jerusalem. Bethlehem would have been in the buckle of the Bible belt. Let’s put it that way. Bethlehem was so close to Jerusalem that all of the civil, all of the spiritual, all of the government, all of the churchy attention that’s on Jerusalem would have spilled a little bit into the town of Bethlehem.

Bethlehem is where David was from. Man, if you are trying to say that you’re the Savior of the Jews, you would at least claim some sort of closeness or proximity to David, right? Jesus doesn’t do that. Jesus claims Nazareth as His hometown. Y’all, Nazareth is so obscure and so irrelevant, it’s not mentioned in the Old Testament. We, as followers of Jesus and readers of the Bible, don’t learn about Nazareth until the Gospels. Man, Nazareth is this small nothing town tucked away up in the region of Galilee.

Let’s get to it a little bit more. Y’all, we’re going to cover a lot of Bible history in 20 seconds. God calls Abraham, says, “I’m going to make you the father of a nation. I’m going to give you all these people and I’m going to put you in a promised land.” That promised land, what we now know, is called Israel. God, as He is settling the people of Israel into the land we now call Israel, puts His spiritual headquarters in the city of Jerusalem.

When the people of Israel start sinning grievously against God, these other foreign, non-Jewish, non-Israel nations would come in and deport the people of Israel back to where they’re from. Assyria, Babylon, those things. Then they would eventually bring the people of Israel back in to resettle after they had nationalized them in their own religion and ways and language. All of the people that were still devoted to Yahweh would resettle in the south near Jerusalem. Everybody else was resettled up north around the Sea of Galilee.

To be from Galilee received a fair amount of skepticism from every other Jew living in the south because you were viewed as spiritually and ethnically impure. Not only that, whenever the Greeks came in, they came around the north shore of the Mediterranean Sea. So most of their influence on the people of Israel was tucked away in the north around the Sea of Galilee. For Jesus to claim that He was a Nazarene, for Him to say that He was from Nazareth, was Him saying no to all of the honor that was due to Him and Him willingly embracing the shame that He did not deserve.

Take it forward, not just His hometown, but also His ministry. Who did Jesus spend the most of His time with? Lepers, prostitutes, drunkards, sinners. Man, His opponents called Him a drunkard. Jesus spent all of His time with the worthless people of society. And in my view, that makes Him very worth my love. Because Jesus also loves me, the worthless of society. Jesus loves me when I am stuck in my sin. Jesus loves me when I am stuck in my shame. Jesus loves me when I am stuck in my mistakes. How could I not love Him? If Jesus would willingly trade the honor and the glory that He is due for my shame, how could I not love Him too?

Will you embrace the shame of following Christ? Will you embrace the shame of having clean speech in the workplace whenever all of your co-workers are cursing and making vulgar jokes? Will you embrace the shame of saying no to buying all the stuff that you want to buy so that you could donate to church and spend your money on serving the poor? Will you embrace the shame of using your words to tell others about the Savior, Jesus Christ? No matter how awkward it makes the conversation. Will you embrace the shame of having counter-cultural romance choices that don’t follow what the world says, but you are striving as best you can to follow what this says?

Follow Jesus because He humbled Himself. Man, follow Jesus too, write this down, because He came looking for sinners. You know what Jesus says whenever He meets Philip? Follow Me. You know why Jesus would leave His throne in heaven and inhabit the body and the life of a man here on earth? It’s ’cause Jesus was looking for you. Man, Jesus was looking for you, for you, for you. He’s looking for you. Jesus came pursuing sinners. He came looking for the lost. Jesus was not content to stay in heaven and be separated for all of eternity from the people He loves and He made. No, Jesus left heaven so that He could come and be with us, to be with you.

Some of us in the room have not yet been found. I’m gonna use this language. You’re here. You’re listening to a sermon. You listened to some great songs. Maybe you helped sing the songs. And you are still trying to find your own way. Still looking for life and wisdom and direction in all the wrong places. And Jesus is right here. He said, “I came for you. I’m here for you. I’m here. I’m right here. The reason you’re at church today, the reason that you pray before you eat, the reason that you can breathe, I’m here. Would you let Me find you?”

Man, anybody that’s ever played hide and seek with, let’s say a two-year-old, knows what this is like. You find the two-year-old in the closet and their eyes are still shut. You haven’t found me yet. Uh-uh, I got you. And I’m standing there over the closet like, “I got you. I’m here.” And the child refuses to be found. How many of us are standing before the Lord? Uh-uh, you don’t got me yet. And Jesus is just looking down. It’s like, “I’m right here. Would you just let Me find you?”

Man, if you have not yet given your life to Jesus, if you’ve not yet let yourself be found, what I’m about to say isn’t magic, but if it comes from your heart, it could be powerful. What you would simply do is admit to God that you are lost. You say, “God, thank You for finding me. Thank You for sending Your Son for me, Jesus. Thank You for living and dying and resurrecting for me. Here’s my life.” You just pray that prayer. In fact, would you just ignore me for the next few minutes while I continue to preach? Would you just close your eyes? Would you just pray that prayer? If you came in this morning not yet confident that you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you can walk out of here a found worshiper and follower of the Lord.

Follow Jesus because He came looking for you. Third reason, follow Jesus because He gives us His holy identity. He gives us His holy identity. Verse 49, when Nathaniel is convinced that Jesus is more than just a man, he says, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel.” Verse 51, Jesus tags on the third title, the Son of Man. The Son of God would describe Jesus’ likeness. He was like God in every way. He could be like God while still being a man. The King of Israel described His authority as the ruler of God’s people. And the Son of Man described how He was going to bring those two things together through His own self-sacrifice and suffering. Jesus, His identity is a divine sacrificial ruler for God’s people. That is who He is.

Jesus came on the scene not as a teacher, not as a sage, not even as a miracle worker. Jesus did come teaching and doing miracles, but Jesus came as the ruler of the universe who would flex His authority by laying His life down. Because no one could take that life from Him. But He would lay His life down to redeem and to buy back a people who have gone against God’s way.

As Jesus does this, Jesus takes His identity and gives it to us. Jesus sends us to the store with His credit card. He says, “Hey, when you are at Walmart, you are acting as if Me. Everything you do, it’s on My credit. Everything you need to purchase, it’s against Me, not against you.” So Jesus sends you, Becky, into the world. Not as Becky, but as a representative of Christ and His kingdom. Jesus sends you, Michael. Not as the guy that’s grown up here that knows everybody, but as an ambassador for the kingdom of God here in Ravenel and beyond.

Jesus sends us with His identity because He has given that identity to us. We don’t have to make God happy with our behavior. No, Jesus says you’re adopted as a child. You don’t have to work your way into my family. Jesus says you don’t have to try to become something that you’re not. I’ve already made you something that you aren’t. A son or a daughter of God.

The Bible says that when we take our first breath as children, we are born spiritually dead as enemies of God. And the only way that God the King takes rebels and makes them into His army and into His citizens is through the sacrifice of His Son applied to your heart through the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus does that for you, transforms you, so you are no longer an addict. Jesus does that for you. You have freedom in Christ. You are no longer slaving for the approval of man. You already have the approval of the only One that matters. You no longer have to become something you’re not because Jesus has already made you something you’re not. A friend of God. And if that’s not a reason to get you excited about following Christ, I’ve got nothing for you.

But this is what Jesus does for us. Do you have this identity or do you still see yourself as someone who has to earn God’s favor? If I don’t give enough money, God won’t like me. If I don’t pray hard enough, God is going to smite me. If I don’t show up to church today, then man, God’s going to make something bad happen in my life. And God’s in heaven saying, dude, I could have done that already. I could have finger zapped you when you were one. But my goodness has been following you all the days of your life. Are we, is that correct or is that a lie we sang? It’s correct. It’s truth. God loves you. And through that, He gives the holy identity of Jesus Christ to you. He says, be holy as I am holy. Put off your old self. Take on this new self. You’re a new creation. You’re an ambassador of my kingdom. You can be born again.

But man, we fight that as followers of Christ. I confess I fight that. God calls me to be holy and my temptation is to tolerate, minimize, or justify my sin. God tells me to put off my old self and I’m looking at God and say, it’s just my personality. I can’t change. God calls me to be an ambassador for His kingdom. And I say, man, I really want to live for my comfort though. God says, Jeremy, you’re only born again through faith, accessed by my grace or by grace, accessed through faith. And I say, no, God, if I don’t preach hard enough, if I don’t pray hard enough, if I don’t visit Hard enough, then I think you don’t like me. God looks at all that and He says, “Phooey, rubbish, trash. I like you because I made you and I’ve set my affections on you.” Don’t you dare get it twisted, Jeremy Simmons. Don’t get it twisted, Clarence. Don’t mess it up, Mr. Sonny. Miss Lee, God loves you. We don’t have to earn God’s approval or His affection. He’s already put it on us in Jesus Christ. Follow Jesus because He gives you His identity.

Finally, follow Jesus because He involves you in His mission. Look at verses 50 and 51 again. This is wild. Jesus responds to Nathaniel, “Do you believe because I told you I saw you under a fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” Then He said, “Truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

If you’re familiar with your Old Testament, you might recognize a moment that Jesus is alluding to. There’s this guy named Jacob. Jacob, he’s a trickster. Literally, his name means trickster. He’s done one too many tricks. He’s run away from family. He finds himself in the desert all alone, praying to God, “God, why have I done this? I’m in a mistake again. I’ve ruined my life again.” God opens his eyes to be able to see what’s actually happening.

Right there, there where Jacob is all by himself in the desert in the midst of what he thinks is spiritual barrenness and dryness and God’s punishment, Jacob sees angels coming down and going back up on this heavenly ladder, Jacob’s ladder. Jacob names that place Bethel, Beth-el, house of God. And he realizes any place could become a house of God whenever God’s work is happening in that moment. This could become God’s house. Walmart could become God’s house. Waffle House could become God’s house.

Whenever you are witnessing God’s work in front of you, Jesus says, “I am going to involve you in my mission. I’m going to invite you into my work.” Here’s the deal. Everywhere Jesus went, heaven met earth. Every single place He went, every conversation Jesus had, every time Jesus shared a meal with people, heaven and earth were meeting in Him. And when Jesus ascends and goes to heaven and He sends the Holy Spirit to dwell inside of us, that presence of God that Jesus carried singularly is now supposed to be carried through us, plurally.

So when God—sorry, when people interact with us, when they talk with us, when they share a meal with us, they ought to be having a heaven meets earth experience. That’s what Jesus wants for you. In fact, He told the disciples, “You will do greater works than I do.” The mark of the early church meant God was doing miracles through them. God was performing incredible signs through them. But God does not have to raise the dead through you for you to be a touch point with the divine.

Now, I got to get real careful with my language because there’s like some funky stuff in Christianity going on right now. But what I really am trying to say is that when people meet you, as Pastor Al says, you may be the only Jesus they ever meet. Man, when people interact with me, they ought to see Jesus in me. When people, when I walk into the room, people ought to say, “There’s a little slice of heaven right there.” Not just because Becca thinks I’m a total stud. Thank you for your pity of laughter. I appreciate that. But I really mean it. God put—Clarence is still laughing. God puts His Holy Spirit inside of you. He indwells you. What? He indwells you. He lives with you.

Man, you’re no longer just clocking in for your job. You are no longer just rocking the baby in the middle of the night. You are no longer just caretaking for your aging spouse or parent. You are no longer just making a meal for your family. You are no longer just cold calling clients. No, you’re not doing any of that. What you are doing is providing access for broken people to engage God through you. Isn’t that incredible? Man, how much purpose does that give to your life? How much weight does that give to your transactions? How much importance does that put on your conversations? How much influence does that have on how you spend your time? When people meet me, they ought to walk away saying, “There was something different about him.” That’s God’s plan for your life. That’s what Jesus is inviting you into. Man, follow Jesus because He wants to bring You into His mission. Curious, are you following Jesus close enough to see what He’s up to? Are you following Jesus close enough to see what He’s up to? Or every time somebody out there says that, “I saw God do this in my life,” you’re always saying, “I never see that. Man, I never hear God speak to me. I want God to use me like that. Man, why don’t I have any cool gospel stories? Why am I not sharing, or why am I not helping lead people to faith in Christ?” Man, like followers of Christ. Man, like God’s plan for you is for you to be this worker for Him, to be an instrument of Him.

At their core, a fan says, “What can Jesus do for me?” While a follower says, “Jesus already gave His life for me. How can I not give my life for Him?” Man, my encouragement this morning, whether you came in as a fan or a follower, is the same. Look at Jesus. Look at what Jesus has done for us. Look at how He traded His honor for our shame. Look at how He loves to find lost sinners. Look at how He loves to give us His holy identity. Look at how He wants to bring you into His mission and give yourself to it. Why would any of us settle for boring, mundane, godless Christianity when Jesus is offering us the adventure of eternity?

I got an invitation and a challenge. If you came in as a fan, my invitation to you: believe and follow. I’ll be up here at the front during the final song and at the end of our service, and I would love to pray with you that you would begin this life of following Christ as a disciple of His, that you would trade your sin and your shame for His honor and His freedom and forgiveness. I will pray with you gladly.

And if you came in as a follower, I’ve got a challenge. I’m going to be obnoxious about this over the next four to six weeks. I am challenging every person in our church to commit eight weeks to joining discipleship here at Sauldam. Starting September 13th, men’s and women’s ministries are going to kick back up. I am challenging every man and woman to sign up and commit to be part of men’s and women’s ministry. Man, if you’re just checking out Sauldam, you’re off the hook. If you’ve been here for any length of time, the challenge is for you. Now there’s a place for everybody. It’s a place for every man in one of those groups. There’s a place for every woman in the women’s ministry. I would love for so many of us to sign up that we’ve got problems and we’ve got to solve those administrative problems. I pray for problems all the time. I am praying for that one. Eight weeks. Just commit. Just say, “Yes, I’ll do it.” Now, how do I do it? More details over the next few weeks. But if you are already a follower of Christ, that is my challenge to you.

It’s not just for the adults. Students in the room, I’m challenging you. Eight weeks. Give eight weeks of saying yes to being part of our student ministry. Man, I’m going to show up on Sunday mornings. I’m going to show up on Wednesday nights, starting the first Wednesday of September. I’m going to come. I’m going to participate. I’m going to bring my Bible. I’m going to do stuff. Cody’s real smart. He leaves four of his Bibles here at the church building scattered throughout, so he’s always got a Bible here at church. It’s very intelligent. I applaud you for that. You might need to take one of them home. That’s okay.

Kids, your life is largely dictated by your parents. I want you to annoy and bother your parents so much they start bringing you to church more often. All right? This is permission from the pastor to annoy your parents by taking you to church. Okay? You’d say, “Please take me. I want to be there for Sunday school. I want to be there on Wednesday nights. I want to be part of what Kim and her incredible team are doing.” Eight weeks.

Let’s pray. Father, thank You. Thank You for sending Your Son to live the perfect life that we can never live and to die a sacrificial death that we deserve, but because of Your kindness don’t have to. Jesus, thank You for trading Your honor for my shame. Thank You, Jesus, finding me when I was lost. Thank You, Jesus, for giving me Your identity so I don’t have to persist in life just as this bumbling fool, but I’m actually a son of God and a friend of Christ. Thank you, Jesus, for involving me in Your work and Your mission, giving me a purpose so much bigger than anything this world could ever offer. I pray for the people in this room that don’t yet know You, Jesus, as Lord and Savior, and I’m begging that You would awaken their souls, that You would help them to go from just a mere fan to a devoted follower. You would take their shame. You would take their sin, their mistakes, and You would give them total freedom instead. God, I’m praying for those in the room that are already followers of Christ. They’ve been born again. They’ve given their lives to You. They are trying to live for You and with You. And I pray that You would help them with this eight-week challenge. I pray that You would help them to say yes, to do whatever it takes to get to one of those groups, to be part of what we’ve got going on. Until You call us home, we are Yours. It’s in Your name we pray. Amen.