Are you following Jesus? #11

Many times when we follow Jesus we ten to get the "I" problem.....I did this and I did that, we must be very careful of that because when we are in the Lord we do all things through Christ as we have no power in ourselves. I want us to think about this in the context of our salvation this morning.



As a Christian I have a responsibility, a decision of following Christ or rejecting Christ. When the Holy Spirit calls I have to respond! Yes or No, pretty simple really. So when folks say I did something in receiving the Lord, in reality the Lord does it we just choose rescued by Him.



For an example as far as salvation, look at these verses:



Luke 15:1-7 The Parable of the Lost Sheep

15 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

3 So he told them this parable: 4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.



As you know we are the sheep in this story and Jesus is the shepherd is Jesus. Sheep are dumb, wander off, and get lost. That's us! We wander off from where God wants us. Jesus comes after us, nothing we have done deserves that, just Jesus love for us! So the sheep can not say look what I have done for Jesus to come find me and save me! No all we can do is thank Jesus for finding us when we were lost, and bringing us home! He does all the work! Now as a sheep we can run from Him, we have a responsibility to either allow Jesus to pick us up or we can reject Him and run off!



Oh what a beautiful picture of Jesus coming for us! "I" did nothing, Jesus did everything! When one of the lost sheep come home there is a party in heaven! Has that party been thrown for you? It can be...allow Jesus to rescue you! It's that simple, then follow Him the rest of your days!



I hope you get the point here, it's all Jesus not "I"!



Tom