Living a Life Worth Imitating - 1 Corinthians 4:14-21

In addition to my ministry here at Northland, as the one of our pastors, I work part time for an organization called Send Network, which is part of the Southern Baptist Conventions, North American Mission Board, helping churches to plant churches. And I was talking a few weeks ago with a young man who wants to plant a church in our city. He is working with a different church, different part of the city, but I was talking about kind of how you support your family when you're planting a church, how you start out in the beginning, in different ways that guys will find to support their families. He said, yo, I'm not too worried about that. He said, I stream video games online. And I have this pretty big following. And I said, oh, that's cool. I said, you can, like, support your family, like playing video games online. And he said, yeah, last year I made $90,000. And I said, what? You made 90,000 playing video games. It always blows my mind how people have found ways to leverage social media platforms to make money. This whole category of influencer now. Now, when I was a kid, never thought I want to be an influencer when I grow up. There's a lot of people that have a massive social media following. And it's in every way. My wife works out in most mornings, down in our basement, I go down there to work out, and she's got her phone set up, and there's some girl in some part of the world that she follows on Instagram, some fitness influencer, and she's watching some, doing some workout video that someone did. We were just in Rome on vacation and into Greece and everywhere we went. There was some 25 year old girl with their phone, like doing this, you know, smash that like button, subscribe. Everywhere you go, trying to be travel influencers. And there's a whole category here. People follow financial planning, influencers, political influencers, travel influencers, have 1000000s of followers. I Googled it this week, just trying to figure out who are the top influencers, names I'd never heard of. I was gonna share them because I've never heard of them. I probably shouldn't be. I never know what people are saying out there. I was going to get some emails or texts from you if I said these names. And so I didn't mention them. But I Googled Christian influencers. There are Christian influencers out there with 1000000s of followers just posting their daily devotions, just like, this is what God is teaching me. And they're making a living at that. Just by their social media presence. I want to talk today about what it means to be a real Christian influencer. Now, I'm not talking about, this is not my... talk on how to get a social media following, okay? How can you get millions of followers and quit your job and just post devotions every day and make a living? I'm going to talk to you today about how we make a real and genuine influence on the people around us, not your social media following. It'd be awesome if one of you did that and had 1000000s of people tuning in to hear the gospel through your social media platforms. But the truth is, all of us have people around us every day that we want to influence. People who need to hear the truth of the gospel. They need to know what it means to trust Jesus and what it looks like to follow Jesus, people who are not following Jesus, that we want to influence with the gospel. People who are followers of Jesus, the woman, a disciple in their faith. All of us have people around us, that we want to make a spiritual impact on. What does it look like to have a spiritual influence on the people around us. In the 1st century, if we were to go back in time and say, who was one of the prominent influencers of the 1st century, it would have been a man named Paul, called the Apostle Paul many times. He was a follower of Jesus, and he set out to preach the good news of Jesus throughout the Roman Empire, and through his travels through his preaching in towns and cities across the Roman Empire, the new churches that were started, and the letters that he wrote that began to be circulated, he would have been perhaps the most influential follower of Jesus in the 1st century. And even today, you might say, because of the scriptures that we have, that God led Paul to write, as the Holy Spirit gave him these words, we have still his lasting eternal influence through the Word of God. a Christian influencer. In this book that's before us, 1st Corinthians, Willie just read from it earlier in our service. We're going to be looking today, again, if you're just jumping in with us, we're working our way through this book of one Corinthian, it's a letter. It's a letter that Paul wrote to a church in a city called Corinth, and it was a church riddled with problems. There was conflict, there was sin, there were all kinds of shortcomings, all kinds of misunderstandings. And in this letter, he's seeking to influence that church in the right direction. Now, if you're joining us today, I hope you have your, as your joints, I hope you brought your Bible, if you didn't, you can grab that Bible out from under the chair in front of you, if you'll turn to page 954, you'll find the passage we're in today, in this section, he's just wrapping up a very lengthy section on the conflict that happened in the church as they were forming factions around different personalities within the church. He's going to transition next week to the next problem, and pretty much for the next few weeks every week you show up at Northland, Paul's going to be tackling a different problem in that church, seeking to influence this church. Right here in these verses, though, that Willie just read, we find 2 keys to having real influence in the lives of people. You want to see people turn from sin and follow Jesus. You want to see people turn from falsehood and embrace the truth. I want to see people live as Jesus wants them to live. What does it look like for us to have a real and lasting influence in the lives of others? In this passage, I think we have some keys that might help us. Two simple things that Paul's saying. saying to them, listen, addressed on a lot of problems in the church. There's a lot of issues that we're struggling with, but there's 2 things that he wants us to know in these verses here, and I think they help us as we make the bridge, the gap from Corinth to Kansas City. What do I do in my day to have influence on the people around me? 2 keys we're going to find here in this past. So we'll get 2 keys in here. And each one talk about some applications, kind of a two-sided coin. Okay, There's two sides to the application of each of these points. as we move through there. So let's jump in. The 1st thing I want you to see is that the 1st key to really having influence in the lives of people around us is to let love be your clear motive. Let love be your clear motive. Verse 14, jump in with me. I do not write these things to make you ashamed. But to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers, but I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. So he starts by saying, I've said some tough things to you, Corinthians, and I got a lot of tough things coming up. There's a lot more things I'm going to lay on you here. What I want you to know is I'm not writing these things to you to make you ashamed. This word shame means to cause someone to turn away in shame. I'm not writing to cause you to turn away in shame. I'm not writing to dishonor you. I'm not writing to disgrace you. I'm not writing to humiliate you. I want you to know that my true motive behind what I'm telling you is my love and compassion for you as your spiritual father. I'm not writing these things to harm you. I'm on your side. And he appeals to them as a father would appeal to his children. Paul uses language like that a lot of his writings. What he's saying is not that he did anything to secure their salvation. In fact, he said at the beginning of the letter in chapter one, he said, Paul was not crucified for you. Said, this is not about following Paul because somehow I did something for your salvation. The only way we're made right with Jesus with God is through faith in Jesus Christ who died on the cross for us. Our Father, a true spiritual Father, is our heavenly Father, that was provided through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, and we become children of God when we put our faith in Jesus. Well, Paul is saying in this language is, I did come to you and point you to Jesus. And because I shared Jesus with you, and I pointed you to Jesus, and you began to follow Jesus, in a sense, I became a spiritual father to you as I brought you to Jesus who saved you. And as your spiritual father, I have a deep compassion and love for you. And so he's turned, the tone is shifted here. If you remember last week, you read the last week, Rustin rightly pointed out the sarcasm of the preceding verses. It's kind of like a biting kind of tone to it a little bit that he's using the sarcastic language to show the absurdity of what they were doing. And now the tone shifts. From sarcasm to tenderness. And I want you guys to know he says that I love you as a father, loves his children. Verse 15. He said, you have countless guides in Christ. You have a lot of people that are trying to point you this way and that way. A lot of people are trying to offer direction in your life, but you do not have many fathers. I have become your father in Christ. Now look at that word in verse 15. You have countless guides in Christ. That word actually, in the original language, as a technical term, that referred to a slave or a hired person who would be responsible for getting children to and from school each day. And so if you're a wealthy person, a wealthy family, and you're running the affairs of your business and your house, and you want to make sure all your kids get to school, they get their lessons done, and they get back, and they do their homework, you could hire a guide. And this guide would show up and make sure that your kids got there and back. He said, there are a lot of guides out there. A lot of people are going to help the kids along the way, but there is not as many fathers. He said, I'm not some hired guide to get you there and back. I'm your father. And a parent will always care more for a child than a caregiver. I'm sure you have caregivers. You've maybe babysitters, you've hired daycares, you've sent your kids to. Maybe you send them to school and you trust that when they get on that bus, that the bus driver will get them safely there. And the staff at Chin Elementary is going to take good care of our kids, right, Andrew? We trust principal Dr. Hargis. We trust his entire team. But Dr. Hargis and his team does not care for your child as much as you care for your child. They care for your children, but a hired person will never love your kid the way you love your kid. That's what he's saying. A lot of people are going to care about you. But he said, I love you like a father loves his children. And so he's saying, here, what I'm telling you in that spirit. how much I care for you. We're going to skip a couple verses. We come back to it in a minute. Jump down to verse 18. Verse 18. Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you, but I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills. And I'll find out not the talk of these arrogant people, but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk, but in power, what do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod or with love and a spirit of gentleness? is that there's people causing trouble in the church, and I'm going to show up and deal with them. And I'm going to see how bold they are when I get there. I was reading a social media exchange the other day. Some people I didn't know, but they were kind of going back and forth and someone made kind of a pretty heavy comment and the person said, I bet you wouldn't see that to my face. You ever felt that way? Isn't that true? We'll say a lot of things on social media. We won't say to someone's face. And he said, that's what's going on here. These guys are talking some big talk because I'm in another city. I'm going to see what they say when I show up. He said, I'm going to show up. If the Lord will let me, I'm coming back to you. And guys, I'll either come with a rod or I'll come with gentleness, but I'm coming back to look after my children, and we'll find out the talk of these people, whether it's empty talk or real power of a godly life, but I'm going to come back and check on you. He comes to them, he writes to them with a spirit of love and compassion as a father would have for his children. So we understand, he's going to say some tough things. We're going to see some tough things from this pulpit in the coming weeks. They're written in a spirit of love that I want what's best for you. He's writing in a spirit of love as your spiritual father. So what do we learn from this? A couple of things at this point. Number one, I want to encourage us to offer correction. In a spirit of love. Offer correction, in a spirit of love. People in our lives need spiritual guides who care about them with the love of a parent. We have to care about people in our lives enough to tell them the truth. And when we tell them the truth, we need to tell them the truth in a spirit of love. We might not always say the right things. We might always say things how we should say them, but should always come from a spirit and heart of love. When I begin to pass through this church many years ago, I had a mentor say to me, Matt, I'm going to give you some advice. He said, as you lead Northland, people need to trust your judgment and your motive. You interest your judgment and your motive. And he said, they won't trust your judgment and they shouldn't trust your judgment. I was like, taken back by that. He said, you're 27 years old, you're right out of the seminary, you never pastor a church. You have no idea what you're doing. You're going to make a ton of mistakes. So he said, double down on motive. Double down a motive. So the people at Northland will know, he has no idea what he's doing, but he loves us. He has no clue how to pastor a church, but he loves Jesus. And he said, if they know you love Jesus and you love them, you can make a few mistakes, it's going to be all right. When your judgment is called into question, at least your motive was pure. I want to apply that to this. We need to double down on motive because we're not always going to say things the right way. We're not even going to say what we wish we would have said or should have said, and there's going to be a lot of times that what we say might be misunderstood, but let it never be questioned that the motive of our heart was genuine love and compassion for the people in our lives. How do we do this? I struggle sometimes, honestly, because when I when I'm talking to someone who disagrees with me, there, there, and I think they're on the wrong path, right? Maybe someone who's not following Jesus and trying to point him to the truth of the gospel, maybe a believer who's in some situation that I think needs correction. There is a tendency when someone disagrees that we pride begins to take over and we're more concerned with being right than really helping the person. We really want to pray, God, let me correct people, and let me point people to you. Let me try to influence people from a spirit of love and compassion, not out of a spirit of just I want to be right in the end. How do I know the difference? I just, in my own mind, have realized that it's better if I'm sad than mad? And I always want to say, Lord, make me sad and not mad. When someone's gone astray, help me not to be angry that they're rejecting the truth that I'm sharing. Let me be sad that they're on the path of error and the path of destruction. God, let us not be arrogant and prideful and wanting to win the argument with someone who is walking in blind falsehood. Let us be heartbroken and compassionate for those whose eyes are blinded, or those who are going down a destructive path. It's easy to get mad when they don't listen. It's another thing to pray for a broken heart of compassion, the compassion that a father has for his child. Speak the truth, and speak the truth in love. Now, there's another side to this, and you may need this other side, and that is, there are times when we need to receive correction in a spirit of love. We all have within us an inner defense attorney in each of our hearts that when we're confronted, jumps up to refute the charge that's just been levied against us. It's a part of human nature. You know, we live in a culture. This is true. We live in a culture that has a warped view of truth and correction. We live in a culture that sees correction and the declaration of truth is unloving. And we speak the truth, we say, you're not a very loving person. We want to correct what's wrong. Oh, you're not being very loving. That's not a cultural problem necessarily, it's a human heart problem that exists in every culture. We don't like to be corrected. We don't like to be confronted. The people of Corinth probably didn't want to read this letter, and they, some stuff's going to get named in here. They really didn't like it when this letter got read out loud. You see some things like, oh boy, I'd hate him in that guy when this letter got read out loud. But he said, I want you to hear him. I'm about to say, I want you to hear it in love. I love you as a father loves his chair. We need to receive correction and a spirit of love. Here's the reality. Love tells the truth. And when you hear people say, if you really love me, you'll let me do what I want. If you really love me, you'll let me do my own thing and not get, if you really love me, you won't meddle in my life, that's not love. To let someone go down a path of destruction is not loving, a culture that says, let people do what they want, believe what they want, live how they want, is not a spirit of love. And when we want to do what we want and live how we want and believe what we want. It's loving for people to confront us. So I want to challenge you today, listen to the people in your life who are telling you the truth right now. Maybe some here that there's some conflict in your relationships right now because someone has tried to correct you. And you didn't receive it well. And maybe this sermon here, this moment is for you to say, wait a minute, maybe that person really loves me. And maybe what they're telling me, I really need to hear. You're going to have countless guides in life pointing you in all kinds of directions. Listen to the godly voices who care about you. Listen to those who desire to be a spiritual parent to you and point you in the way of truth. Receive correction as an act of love. Second principle. We need to let love be our clear motive. The 2nd thing we really want to have influence the lives of people. We do that by living a life worth imitating. Living a life worth imitating. In a spirit of love, a heart of love. How do we then model for them the truth of God's word? Paul says, I imitate, I lived it out in a way so that you could imitate me. Look at verse 16. I urge you then, be imitators of me. That is why I sent you, Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ as I teach them everywhere in every church. You see, not only did he point them to Christ, he was their spiritual father, in the sense that he pointed them to the good news of Jesus, his death on the cross, the salvation available in him, but then he modeled for them what it meant to live like Christ. It's an interesting word, imitate. It's the word we get, the Greek word that's translated imitators, is the word we get our English word mimic from. You say mimic me. It would refer to the way a student would mimic his teacher. If you're trying to teach a student, something say, do it this way. You want to do it this the right way? do it like this, play it like this, paint it like this. Talk like this. It's the same word used for an actor in a play. I'm going to mimic the character that I'm trying to portray. And it's really a bold statement. Imagine saying that to people. Imitate me. Imagine the boldness to tell a person to live their life the way you live your life as a bold statement. So we need verse 17. Verse 16 is a pretty bold statement if we know in verse 17. Look at verse 17. A couple of observations. He said, I'm going to send Timothy to you, and he's going to do a couple things. He's gonna remind you of my ways in Christ. and how they were the same things I taught you when I was everywhere in every church. A couple observations. One, he says, he's going to remind you of my ways in Christ. It's not just about imitating Paul. It's imitating the ways of Christ that Paul has been trying to show you. So we're not just imitating Paul. We're imitating Paul so that we might faithfully follow Christ. Later, he'll say it this way. First Corinthians 11, one, be imitators of me as I am of Christ. There's a lot of ways to disciple people, to teach people the truth of God's word. This is discipleship in its purest form. First Corinthians 111 is a very short, very simple, very concise way of what discipleship is. It's I'm going to follow Jesus. And then I'm going to invite people to follow me as I follow Jesus, and if they'll follow me, if I'm following Jesus, They're going to be following Jesus because they followed me. Very simple. That's what he's saying here. Don't imitate, just imitate Paul because Paul has some really good things about him. Imitate Paul because Paul's showing you what Jesus, how Jesus wants you to live your life. Paul's life was worth imitating, because he was committed to imitating Christ. We live a life worth imitating when we imitate Jesus. The 2nd thing I want you to notice about verse 17. He says, he's going to tell you how I followed Jesus, but he's also going to tell you what I taught and how what I live matched what I taught. He said, in other words, he's saying, I'm practicing what I preached. I didn't come and tell you something that I wasn't willing to also live out in my life. And so if you want to understand what I taught you, look at my life. If you want to understand what it looks like to follow Jesus, look at my life. Are you living your life? in such a way that you can make such a claim. Can you offer your life as an example of what it means to follow Jesus? She said, hang on a minute. This doesn't sound right, Matt. This is counterintuitive. It seems a little creepy. Like, I'm supposed to say, look at me. I thought we're supposed to say, look at Jesus and not look at me. And I don't want anybody looking at me. I want everybody fixing their eyes on Jesus. Don fix your eyes on me. Listen, that's a concept of scripture that we live our life in such a way that when they look at us, they are looking at Jesus in a sense. And it's all over scripture. Let me show you. If you think, wait, this is kind of new to me that I should be like, wanting people to look at me. Look at the scriptures. Philippians 317, brothers, join in imitating me. And keep your eyes on those, not just Paul, but on those who walk according to the example you have in us. We are going to imitate Jesus. The people around us are going to imitate Jesus, and then we want you to look at those who are living that example out for you. 1 Thessalonians one.6. You became imitators of us and of the Lord. So you begin to imitate us, and as you begin to imitate us, You ended up imitating Jesus. Second, 3rd Thessalonians 3.9. We gave you in ourselves an example to imitate. I wanted you to see what it looks like to live the Christian life. First Timothy 4.12. I love that even young people. Let no one despise you for your youth. But set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, and faith, in purity. Even the youngest among us can model for us what it means to follow Jesus. Don't let your youth hold you back and be an example for those around you, Titus 2.7. Show yourselves in all respects to be a model of good works. And then finally, Hebrews 13, 7. Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you, the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. This principle here is, we influence people by the way we live our lives, and we have the opportunity to model for them what it looks like to follow Jesus. So, again, kind of two-sided application versus this. Offer your life as a godly example to others. Offer up your life as a godly example to others. People are watching you. You know how to realize that they're watching you. They're going to imitate you. Parents, you saw this even with your own kids, and it doesn't go away. People imitate the things, they mimic the things they see in you. I remember one time I was replacing the sink, the faucet in our bathroom at our house years ago. My boys were watching me and Later that day, Mason went and got his little plastic tool set. He was maybe 3 years old at the time, and I remember he got his little plastic screwdriver, and he went in that bathroom and climbed up on that countertop. I said, this is so cool. He's mimicking his dad. He's fixing the sink with his tools. But he climbed up that counter, sat, looked in the mirror, took the screwdriver, and began to ply eyeshadow with his, said, no, stop, stop. wrong parent. Wrong model, wrong example. They're picking up on things they see. is true of everyone. My parents divorced when I was little, and I didn't have in my home, a man who modeled certain things I didn't have in my parents' marriage, a model of what that looked like. And so I, as a kid, picked out men in my church. And I watched them. I watched how they worshiped. I listened to how they prayed. I got to volunteer in Bible school, and church work days, and see how a man gave up his Saturday to serve, and how a man humbled himself, to serve in his church, and even in every area. children's ministry and helping everything. And then I got to be in high school and someone told me that kids who come from divorced families are more likely to divorce when they get married. And I said, that's crazy. Why would a person who saw divorced go on to get divorced, and this person said, because you fall back on your model. when you're older, when troubles come. And so I said, I got to get some good models. And I begin to pick out couples in my church that I thought they had a good marriage. I'm going to watch them. I mean, to see how they live their life. And I'm going to say today, I'm the man I am today. Im the dad I am today. Im the husband I am today. because of the men in my church when I was young, who modeled what a godly husband was, what a godly father was. I'm gonna tell you, there's probably some young men who have picked you out of the crowd. There's probably some young ladies, women, who have picked you out of the crowd. And they just decided that you're a good example for them. I want to ask you how you're doing there. Are you are you stepping into that? This responsibility we have to model what it means to follow Jesus. As a pastor, I was always scared that people were watching my every move, and then I was gonna, like, get this wrong one way or the other. My kids, when they were little, one of them would do something wrong. Probably Kalen. Um, Probably not. And I would, they would, they would act up at church and I would, I would freeze like this. And I, I don't know what to do. If I don't do something, I'm going to be that pastor who lets his kids run wild. And these preacher kids are going around just being crazy. If I intervene too harshly, I'm going to be that pastor who's too hard on his kids. And someone's watching me, and they're looking at me, and I don't know how to act in this moment. And I was talking to some pastors about that years ago, some friends, and they were talking about that pressure you feel. And one of the guys said something that really impacted me. He said, it's like living in a fish bowl. Everyone's watching your life. And he said this phrase that stuck with me. I'm going to give it to you today. He said, I have decided to embrace the fish bowl. I've decided to embrace the fishbowl. to step into it. to say, bring it on. Watch me. And I'm going to do my best to model for you what it means to walk with Jesus, to be a godly husband, to be a godly father, to be a godly son in Jesus. I would encourage you to embrace the fish bowl. I know it's counterintuitive. We want to hang our heads and go, oh, I'm just a sinner, and don't look at me because I'm going to probably let you down. What if we said, no, wait a minute, wait a minute. Holy Spirit, give me the power to walk boldly and faithfully with Jesus, to model for Jesus, to hold my head up, to embrace the fish bowl, and to say imitate me as I imitate Christ? Let's step into that responsibility, church. Step into that responsibility. Oh, to the next generation of this church to model what it means to be able to say, follow me as I follow Christ, offer your life as a godly example of what it means to walk with Jesus. Then second, there's another side of this. Let me challenge you to follow the God, the example you see in others. Choose the right role models. Choose the right influencers. Choose the right example. Who are your spiritual guides? Whose example are you following? Yes, again, we want to follow Jesus and not people, but who's showing you what that looks like? I was talking to a young man recently who said he's been coming to Northland, he's not involved in a small group yet, one of our life groups, and we always want to encourage people to get involved in the life group, is the quick commercial break for that. If you've not gotten involved, there's a display out there, you can find those groups. And I was telling them a couple of the groups that had a lot of young adults in them that I found, I want to connect with a lot of people his age. He goes, you know what? He's honestly, I love a group that had some older men in it. He said, I'm at a season in my life where I need the godly example of some older men in my life. Could you point me to some life groups where I might be able to find that? Sandy, I love the young ladies that come to your group and how much they so often tell me about what they're learning from those older women in that group with them. We need to surround ourselves with people that we can look to and say, this is what it looks like to follow Jesus. Be the right guide. and pick the right guides in this journey that we're on together. Let me give you a couple of cautions as we wrap up our time. A couple of cautions. Number one, I wanna caution you. There must be a verbal witness with the testimony of our life if people are really going to understand the gospel. Because sometimes we hear messages like this, and we think, oh, I'm just gonna live like Jesus lived, and then everyone will see that, and they'll start following Jesus. If you live a life like Jesus lived with no verbal witness to the message of the gospel, you end up testifying to your ability to live a good life. People don't, they need to hear, my hope is Jesus. I fail and Jesus is my salvation. I struggle, and the Holy Spirit is my strength. I'm only striving to live like Jesus because of his grace and his mercy. And I'm a child of God, not because of the good things I do, but because of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross for my sins. They need to hear that message, or they'll look at your life and say, oh, Matt's a really good person. Now, that's a sinner who heard the gospel, and God opened his heart to the gospel message, and he surrendered to Jesus, and by the grace of God, and by the power of the Spirit, he's striving now to walk what it means to walk with Jesus, that's the message they need to hear. So just living a good life with no verbal witness to the gospel to the people in your life might send the wrong message. So be careful that your examples also match me. What did Paul say? My ways in Christ that match what I also taught. There's a correlation here. The same thing I would caution, please don't hear in this message, a call to moral living. This is a message for the believer of Jesus. to point others to Jesus in a spirit of love and model for others what it means to walk with Jesus. Our hope is not to try to be like Jesus. Or to be like the apostle Paul or to be like another mature believer in your life. If you could be like Jesus. If Paul could live perfectly, and then you could live perfectly like Paul, you and Paul and I wouldn't need Jesus. We need Jesus because we can't imitate Jesus every day of our lives. We need Jesus because we do fall short when we try to imitate him and others. And so what you need to hear today is your hope for salvation, for forgiveness, for relationship with God is in Jesus Christ alone. To turn from the sin of your life, to hear the truth of this message that isn't going to be popular today, that if you're not walking with Jesus, you were separated from God, today and for all eternity, your hope is to turn from your sin to put your faith in Jesus Christ, the only name by which we must be saved. And then as we follow Jesus, we now model for others what it looks like to walk with and follow Jesus. When I was a little boy, I'd go hunting with my dad. And I was always in trouble for not walking the right way. Anybody hunt with your dad and get yelled at for not walking the right way? Yeah? Any dads take your son's hunting and get really frustrated that they don't know how to walk through the woods? I was always kicking a rock, stepping on a stick, splashing in a creek, and dad would go, son, stop. You're scaring the animals away. And try to teach me how to walk, and I just couldn't get it right. I remember one day saying, the only woman get this right is if I walk exactly where he's walking. And I have this memory. Red Rider BB gun, following Dad through the woods, watching where his foot stepped and trying to hit that exact spot with my foot. Stand as close behind him as I could. And when you pick up his foot, I'd put my foot right where his was. And you take the next step and I'd step into that one, and that one, and that one, and that one? Want to walk right where he walked. That's what this is about. Let me ask you. Where are your footprints leading? If someone chose you and decided to put their feet in your steps, Are you leading them in the right direction? Are you leading them to the right place? And whose footsteps are you trying to step into? You got to lead the right, you got to lead the in the right path, and you got to pick the right path. What's God leading you to do today? Let's pray together. Maybe you've never put your faith in Jesus, and you talk, you hear a message about living like Jesus, and it only reminds you of your failure. That's a good thing. That means you see now your need for Jesus. Today, your response to this sermon might be this. A prayer like this, Jesus, I realize now there's no way I'm going to live like you want me to live. If this is up to me, I'm in big trouble. So Jesus, I need you. Your prayer is just Jesus, I need you to forgive me. I need you to take control of my life. Jesus, I need to turn from this path that I'm on. And I need to turn to you, my only hope, my only salvation is in you, Jesus. That's your prayer today, your prayer of calling out to him to be your Lord and Savior. Maybe you are a follower of Jesus. You've been rejecting the discipline, the correction that some are trying to bring your life and you just say, God, forgive me for my defensiveness. God help me to hear, to receive the loving correction that people are trying to give me. Maybe you've let people around you live their life the way they want to live it. You've felt it would be unloving to speak up, and today you see that love tells the truth. Or maybe you're speaking the truth, but it's not from a place of love, but a place of pride. And your prayer is, God break my heart. Give me a heart of compassion. Maybe you realize you've led some people astray that are coming after you. They're walking in your steps and those steps aren't going to a good place. God forgive us. Help us to be aware of the eyes that are on us, to embrace the fishbowl, to imitate Jesus. Father, I pray for the one who's never put their faith in you, that you'd convict them right now, that your spirit would cause their hearts to believe a message they've rejected, cause their eyes to see something to which they've been blind to this point. Let them turn from their sin. And trust you, Jesus. I pray for the one who needs to be corrected, that they would receive it in the spirit of love, for the one who needs to correct, that they would do it in a spirit of love. I pray for the one whose footsteps are not leading to the right places, that you'd put them on the path of following you, so that others coming after them would imitate you, Jesus. And then help us Jesus to choose in a world full of guides. help us to choose the godly ones, the ones who point us to Jesus. Let us imitate you, Jesus, so that others might follow after us and see you. We can't do this on our own. We need you, Jesus. We need you, Holy Spirit. Let us be people of influence. With hearts of love and lifestyles that are consistent. Let us point people to you this week, Jesus. We need your help. Amen. We pray for it in your name.