GDLC Audio

One of the more amazing gifts connected to the fact that “We Belong to Jesus” is the gift of prayer. After all, we are allowed, invited, even expected to pray to God and seek His help, His guidance, His protection, His providence. God wants to talk to us and wants us to talk to Him...better said, to lean on Him, for all that we need. After all, “We Belong to Jesus” and as such are His sons and daughters and as His “kids” we’re deeply loved and cared for. He wants us to come to Him, sit on His lap and ask, seek and knock. Jesus calls us today saying, in every way and every day, “Follow Me to Prayer”.

One of the more amazing gifts connected to the fact that “We Belong to Jesus” is the gift of prayer. After all, we are allowed, invited, even expected to pray to God and seek His help, His guidance, His protection, His providence. God wants to talk to us and wants us to talk to Him...better said, to lean on Him, for all that we need. After all, “We Belong to Jesus” and as such are His sons and daughters and as His “kids” we’re deeply loved and cared for. He wants us to come to Him, sit on His lap and ask, seek and knock. Jesus calls us today saying, in every way and every day, “Follow Me to Prayer”.

In truth this week’s “Follow Me” probably should have been the first message in this series. People who belong to Jesus are called to a depth of faith...to be sure, always growing, always deepening their understanding of God and their love for God...but seeking the depth of faith and development of understanding that our state, our nation and our world need from those who boldly claim “We Belong to Jesus”. This week’s Lenten challenge will be to not just grow in your faith and understanding but to constantly and fervently grow in your faith and understanding as we hear Jesus say “Follow Me to Depth”.

As we embrace the fact that “We Belong to Jesus”, we’re reminded that that means loving unloveable people. Perhaps the hardest thing to do as a human being is to love someone you do not want to love or someone who has done something that makes you reticent to love them. We’re reminded in our “Follow Me” sermon series today that Jesus calls us to a higher love, a deeper love, an unheard of love...loving not just those who are hard to love, but those we simply do not want to love...our enemies. As we walk behind the Lord Jesus and follow Him into this world, we’re challenged by His love for enemies and His call to us to then “Follow Me to Love”.

As we embrace the fact that “We Belong to Jesus”, we’re reminded that that means loving unloveable people. Perhaps the hardest thing to do as a human being is to love someone you do not want to love or someone who has done something that makes you reticent to love them. We’re reminded in our “Follow Me” sermon series today that Jesus calls us to a higher love, a deeper love, an unheard of love...loving not just those who are hard to love, but those we simply do not want to love...our enemies. As we walk behind the Lord Jesus and follow Him into this world, we’re challenged by His love for enemies and His call to us to then “Follow Me to Love”.

As we enter the penitential season of Lent, we do so recognizing that while we’re called by Jesus to follow Jesus wherever He goes, we often stray the path He lays out and “do our own thing” rather than what He wants us to do. Because “We Belong to Jesus”, though we all have our own lives and families and gifts and careers, we are nonetheless all called to the exact, same thing, namely to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and yes, follow Jesus. What does that look like for you...exactly? You and your Lord know. But one thing that we can unequivocally say about being a disciple of Jesus or follower of Christ, we are called to follow Him with every fiber of our being and every day of our lives. We are invited to seek forgiveness when we stray, but we are “His workmanship”, we belong to Him. We are therefore “created in Christ Jesus for good works” which He prepared ahead of time for us to do. We are called to live for Him each day and “Follow Him with Everything” as the Rich Young Ruler was.

Jesus is giving His marching orders to those who will follow Him. He is tipping His hand and telling them what a life of being His disciple will entail and it won’t be like anything they have ever experienced in this world. Contrary to what our social groups may be telling us, society may be telling or even the world may be telling us, Jesus is offering a Better Way of living…living in a world turned upside-down by His love and grace. A world where the poor are rich, the marginalized are exalted, the sinner is forgiven, and the dead are raised to life again.