Failure to follow Jesus will always get you lost

Failure to follow instructions will invalidate warranties. Failure to follow GPS directions will get you lost or maybe even cause you to drive off a cliff or into a lake. Failure to follow orders can get you fired or court-martialed. These are all bad. But, failure to follow Jesus will have even more disastrous consequences in this life and that which is to come.

Jesus Calls His First Disciples

Jesus calls his disciples to leave everything and follow him. This was true when he walked the earth and called the twelve. He didn’t call them to add him to their circle of friends. He didn’t call them to join him for a weekly meeting. He didn’t call them to occasionally follow him. He called them to leave all and follow him. Failure to follow like that, would have missed the kingdom of heaven.

Passing along by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you into fishers for men.” Immediately they left their nets, and followed him. Going on a little further from there, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who were also in the boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them, and they left their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired servants, and went after him. (Mark 1:16-20; Matthew 4:18-22; Matthew 13:47-52; Luke 5:1-11; John 1:35-42)

Peter began to tell him, “Behold, we have left all, and have followed you.” Jesus said, “Most certainly I tell you, there is no one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or land, for my sake, and for the sake of the Good News, but he will receive one hundred times more now in this time, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and land, with persecutions; and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last; and the last first.” (Mark 10:28-31 WEB)

Jesus calls you — failure to follow will cost more than you want to pay

Jesus called his disciples to leave everything and follow him. He is calling you the same way. He doesn’t call you to add him to your contacts. He doesn’t call you to add him to your schedule. He doesn’t call you to include him in your activities. He calls you to leave all and follow him. Failure to follow like that, will probably end in hell.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. (Matthew 5:6; Psalm 1:1-6; Luke 6:20-23)

“Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which doesn’t satisfy? listen diligently to me, and eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Turn your ear, and come to me; hear, and your soul shall live: and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. (Isaiah 55:1-3 WEB)

Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14 WEB)

But, just like we need to drink from the water Jesus is offering, we need to take his yoke upon us. Failure to follow these instructions results in failure to obtain rest.

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At that time, Jesus answered, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in your sight. All things have been delivered to me by my Father. No one knows the Son, except the Father; neither does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and he to whom the Son desires to reveal him.
     “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:25-30; Luke 10:21-24)

Failure to follow starts off little by little and ends up broken, and snared, and taken. Won’t you hear the word of the LORD today.

For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken. (Isaiah 28:10-14 KJV)

And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together, husbandmen, and they that go forth with flocks. For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul. Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me. (Jeremiah 31:24-26 KJV)

Now on the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink! He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of living water.” But he said this about the Spirit, which those believing in him were to receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus wasn’t yet glorified. (John 7:37-39 WEB)

Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee. Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:1-7 KJV)

Failure to follow can be fixed before it’s too late

If you have not left all to follow Jesus, you can turn around today. If you have not given Jesus full control of your life, you can confess your sins and be forgiven by the only savior. Don’t let your status remain “failure to follow” him. Return to him today. Consider Peter, who denied Jesus in the most awful way possible, yet Jesus called him to follow again. He is calling you to follow him again. But, failure to follow now may harden your heart permanently so you can’t ever follow.

Therefore, even as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, like as in the day of the trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested me by proving me, and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was displeased with that generation, and said, ‘They always err in their heart, but they didn’t know my ways;’ as I swore in my wrath, ‘They will not enter into my rest.'” (Hebrews 3:7-11 WEB)

If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, our life, is revealed, then you will also be revealed with him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-4 WEB)

Jesus called Peter twice. First in Mark 1 and finally in John 21. He has called you over and over. I pray that you have answered that call. But, if not, why are you staying in failure to follow mode?

So when they had eaten their breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I have affection for you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I have affection for you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you have affection for me?” Peter was grieved because he asked him the third time, “Do you have affection for me?” He said to him, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I have affection for you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.
     Most certainly I tell you, when you were young, you dressed yourself, and walked where you wanted to. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you, and carry you where you don’t want to go.” Now he said this, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. When he had said this, he said to him, “Follow me.” (John 21:15-19 WEB)