Come, Follow Me...

How much pressure have you been under this week?
Been the victim of peer presure?

Matthew 4:18-22 says;

Jesus Calls His First Disciples

¹⁸ As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ¹⁹ “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” ²⁰ At once they left their nets and followed him.
²¹ Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, ²² and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. 

and Matthew 9:9 says;

The Calling of Matthew

⁹ As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John and Matthew all immediately left what they were doing to follow Jesus. Like they literally left their work where it was and got up and followed Him. Didn't even log out of Facebook or shut down their computers...
How do you think they felt about that? How would you feel about that?

Luke 14:27 says;

  ²⁷ And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 

What are these guys supposed to carry as disciples of Jesus? Their cross? What does that mean?

John 13:34-35 says;
  ³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” 

Does that give us any ideas? What then is a true sign of a disciple?

How will the world recognise followers of Jesus i.e christians? How will the world recognise that you are a follower of Jesus? What does that mean for you?

You know some of that peer pressure you might be under right now to fit in and do what the crowd is doing, whatever that might be? Jesus felt that kind of pressure. Jesus was not the kind of guy people thought He was going to be. Early in His life Jesus quit his job, didn't get married and died as a criminal without a cent to His name.
The world tells us we need to have money, be beautiful and famous but Jesus trumped all that and instead put value on love, being humble and acting in service to others. In order to be a disciple of Jesus we need to do the same, stand out from the crowd and go against the grain. Stand up for what we believe and stop trying to be another sheep.

In a world where everyone strives to follow the crowd, Jesus is the best role model for our lives.
He asks us to leave the unimportant things of our lives behind, just like he did for the first disciples of the bible and follow Him. It's totally not an easy thing to do, it is going to be a struggle, ask anyone that's been trying to follow Jesus for a long time, it's a struggle each and every single day. It's also guaranteed to involve pain too, not gonna lie...
But as a result our lives will be known for their love...

Think about it, pray about it.