“Christian? What it means to be a follower of Jesus”
The word is used by a lot of people, but what does it mean to be a Christian? Join us as we study God’s Word to find the answers to this question.
Christian? - “Obedience”
#1. Why obedience is important
John 14: 15 If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
I John 2: 4-5 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected/reached its intended result. By this we know that we are in Him.
Matthew 7: 21 Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
James 2: 14 What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?
“Saying I have faith, with no follow-through, is no real faith at all.”
#2. What obedience looks like
- know what God says
John 10: 27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
- believe what God says
John 14: 21a He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me.
- do what God says - living it out
James 2: 14 What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?
- do what God says - our approach to sin
Ephesians 5: 3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. (NIV)
I Thessalonians 5: 22 abstain from every form of evil.
Proverbs 5: 8 Keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house...
I John 3: 9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
#3. When obedience gets hard
Matthew 26: 41b the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
times it’s hard to obey...
- when you don’t feel like it
- when it doesn’t make sense
- when it costs
- when you are being hit hard
- when you’re tempted