Feb. 08, 2026

Background:

• Being part of a team is something that is deeply ingrained in human nature, especially on a winning team
• We always want to be a part of something bigger
• No one wants to be alone - we tend to be picked on or ostracized otherwise
• Sometimes the people we follow would lead us down the wrong path
• Our youth today has more problems due to social media and A.I.
• If we want to follow someone it should be Jesus
• Sometimes the people need to hear something that they have not heard yet

Key Sermon Points:

1. What kind of person does Jesus call to follow Him?

• They were already disciples who happened to be fishermen (John 1:35-42)
• They were brothers that worked together to be fishers of men
• Sometimes God is calling us to do things and we do not know how or why he is calling us
• God knows what he has in us and what he can call out of us
• They weren't slackers and would have to give up their livelihood to follow Him
• Two brothers were frugal and gave up their father and their business to follow Jesus
• Matthew gave up all his acquired wealth to follow Jesus
• God does not use things that we think are important to accomplish his will
• He just needs us to be faithful
• We do not have to be right to follow Jesus
• We have to come to Jesus as we are and he will turn our lives around

2. What are you willing to give up to follow Jesus?

• The disciples gave up family, jobs, and wealth to follow Jesus
• Each of us is fully known and we can not hide anything from him- he knows our past, present, and future and loves us anyhow
• He still wants us to follow him even with all of our flaws
• When we decide to follow him it will not be easy
• We should not think that the devil will not pop up because we become followers of Jesus
• Scripture tells us to submit to God and resist the devil and he will flee from us
• We may have to give up some friends- trying to take us down a path we decided we no longer want to go down
• We may have to give up some family- trying to bring up our past and who we were
• We are not supposed to be men-pleasers
• The hardest part for all will be the battle between spirit and flesh (Galatians 5:16-21)
• When it jumps up in our face will you resist the devil and make him flee?

3. What can help me to better follow Jesus?

• We fall down and repent asking God to forgive us so we can get back up
• It will take more than 1 day a week to be a true follower of Christ
• We should be saying and doing things to show Christ to a dark and dying world
• We must be different than we used to be
• What is stopping us from following Jesus?
• Sometimes we need a different view of a Christian person
• Do not think that whatever we were into is to the point where we can not be forgiven (e.g. Moses and David)
• We must become a little more like Jesus and a lot less like ourselves:
• We must walk bearing God's nature- the fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23)
• We must crucify our flesh trying to take us down that road (Galatians 5:24)
• We must walk in the spirit with our heads held high (Galatians 5:25)
• We must love like Jesus loved (Galatians 5:26)
• The only way to get into Heaven is by accepting Jesus Christ