Romans 12:14-21
Last year Tom began to take us through the book of Romans, and today I am picking up where he left of at the end of Romans 12.
You have played ‘Follow the Leader’ as a kid right? Or “Simon Says”, you know where the leader does something and then you do it too. It’s a fairly simple game and yet sometimes it can get a little tricky right? Let’s try a simple follow the leader to see how well you are paying attention. You need to do what I do. Start by putting your arms out in front of you with your palms down, thumbs out so they are pointing towards each other. Then turn your wrists so your palms are out and your thumbs are down. Put your right arm over the left and lock your fingers together – keeping your thumbs pointed down (make sure it’s right over left). Then on three, everyone rotate your hands so that your thumbs are now pointing up.
With a simple do as I do demonstration, it can be difficult to follow along. (And I admit that was a little bit sneaky because it was a “do-as-I-do” exercise, not a “do-as-I-say” exercise. But as a Christian, it is our job to follow Jesus. Our life should look like his. We should be emulators of Jesus. And unlike the demonstration with the hands, Jesus is clear on what he wants from his followers. He’s clear, but it’s really hard.
The youth have been doing a video study over the summer, and in one lesson, it brought together passages about the wide and narrow road- that wide is the path that leads to destruction and narrow is the path that leads to life, and others that talk about the difficult path of following Jesus. It talked about how being a Christian means being a follower of Christ, doing what he did. Yet many who hold profess the title Christian, consider the following part optional. Many feel they don’t need to actually do the things Christ said to do. It’s too hard, and why would someone do hard things to be like Jesus, when they could just pick out some simple life truths to live out. I’ve been hearing the phrase a lot lately “are you a fan or follower of Jesus?”
