(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

So part of the chapter I want to look at was there in verse 19, where the Bible read, and he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And the topic that I wanted to preach on tonight, or the title of my sermon, is following a man. Now, there's a lot of things that come to the mind when someone says that phrase, following a man. I think most of the time people think of it very negatively. They think that it's kind of a bad thing to follow a man. But we're going to look at what the Bible says about the good things when it comes to following a man and the bad things. But what does it even mean to follow exactly? I looked up in the dictionary at the word follow, and the first definition says to travel with. I think that's kind of an interesting thing to think about, traveling with. Now, I think when most people think about traveling, they don't think of it as a negative thing. And when you go traveling, you probably want to go with someone. I mean, I don't think many people like to travel by themselves. They like to go with other people. They like to go and have that companionship, have somebody to go with, maybe a spouse, maybe a brother, maybe a friend, anybody. But to travel with someone is very positive. And you know, when you're traveling with someone, it's not like you both have to take the exact same steps. Imagine one person was traveling up a mountain, let's say, and you wanted to follow them to the mountain. You don't have to literally put your foot into their footprints. I mean, you can follow behind them and take different steps. I mean, you can be both going to the same place, but it'd be a little bit different. It doesn't have to be the exact same. You don't have to make the same movements. It's not a copycat. You're just going in the same direction as that person. You know, and you just basically have to stay on the same path. I like to think of that about church. I mean, there's a lot of different people in the church. We're all hopefully headed in the same direction. I mean, we're all headed to heaven one day. We're all trying to get rewards in heaven, but that doesn't mean we all have to do the exact same thing, have the exact same job, just have the exact same schedule, do the exact same thing. So following doesn't have to be a copycat. It doesn't have to do exactly the same thing. It just means you're both headed in the same direction. And even if we're thinking about following people, what if the race in the Christian life was all just one mountain and we were all heading to the top? There might be a lot of different paths that could get to that same top point. And now, of course, when it comes to salvation, there's only one way of salvation. But running the Christian race, I mean, there's lots of churches you can go to, there's a lot of pastors that you can listen to, there's a lot of Christians that you could follow that are trying to run the Christian race. But you know what? It's the direction that you're headed that's important. And so we see, you know, you don't have, when you're following a man doesn't have to be a copycat. You don't have to be doing the exact same things. But why not just chase after the guy that's going the hardest? I mean, if you really think about it, if you're trying to get to the top of the mountain and you want to get the highest up there, you want to get there the quickest, wouldn't it make sense to follow the guy that's just, you know, sprinting up the mountain or going very quickly up the mountain? So I think that's an important point when we think about following somebody. Why would I choose, who should I choose to follow? One thing to consider is, you know, I want to follow the guy that's going to go up the mountain the quickest. I want to go up the way the guy that's going to go the, you know, a good route, a safe route, a route that can endure even. Maybe not the guy that's sprinting and just going to burn out in, you know, five minutes or ten minutes, but this guy's headed at a good pace and he's just headed straight for the top. I want to follow that guy. And whenever I was, I don't know, young 20s, I had this thought a lot of times of, if I could go back into the Bible, at any time in the Bible, when would I go? You know, it's kind of a fun question, maybe you think about it, would you want to see Noah? Would you want to see the beginning? Would you want to see Abraham? Would you want to see David? I mean, there's a lot of cool stuff to see in the Bible. But I always immediately was like, I want to see Jesus. I would just want to walk with Jesus. I would want to follow Jesus. I would want to be right there. I mean, no questions asked following Jesus. And I always thought about that and then one day I kind of like woke up to that thought and I realized, no, I wouldn't, no, I wouldn't follow Jesus if I lived in that time because of my life. I'm not even following any church really. I'm not even going to church consistently. I'm not even reading my Bible consistently. And I think that I would just be the guy following Jesus Christ. So then I said, well, Jesus, you know, he's infinitely created all things. He created me. There's a purpose for me being on this earth. If I really would have followed Jesus, wouldn't you put me in that time? I mean, if that was when I was going to really do the biggest works for God, when he was going to really use me the most, wouldn't he put me at a time? But he didn't. He put me in today. So if I really would have followed Jesus Christ, I just immediately realized I would follow the greatest man of God on this planet today. I mean, if I truly would follow Jesus Christ, if I would have been given forsaken everything and followed him, then I would, if I was going to do that today, I would probably follow the greatest Christian on this earth. I would probably try to find who is most Christ-like and I'm going to go follow that guy. If I want to even try to be realistic about that vision, if I want to even try to be realistic about that thought, if I don't want to just be a hypocrite and say that. So then, you know, why did I come to Faith Board Baptist Church? I felt like Pastor Anderson was the greatest guy that I could find that was following Jesus Christ. So I decided I want to follow this guy. You know, I think a lot of people in this room, maybe you've had a family member or you've had a friend or someone criticize you and say, oh, you're just following a man. Oh, you're just following some guy. Amen. I'm just trying to find a guy that loves Jesus Christ, that wants to do the things of Jesus Christ and I want to follow his example. I want to follow the things that he's doing. It's a good thing to follow a man and we're going to see some examples of that. Go to Matthew 23, I want to show you something. So how can you tell if you're following a man that's good or bad? I mean, that's kind of the question, right? Because obviously following a man isn't always good. It isn't always something that we should be doing. But when you're picking a guy, this is how you know when you're following a man's right. When you're reading the Bible and the Bible is your final authority and you're finding a guy that's matching what the Bible says, you say, well, what does the Bible say I should be doing to find somebody to follow? And then you find the guy according to what the Bible says and then you follow him. But the opposite of that is when you find a guy that you really like, that you like his personality, you like what he says and what he says doesn't line up with the Bible. It goes against the Bible and you decide to just follow him anyways. You say, well, I know that he's not teaching the Bible, I know he's getting contrary to the Bible, but I'm still going to follow him. That's following a man in a bad way. I was thinking about Matthew 23 verse 9, the Bible says, and call no man your father upon the earth, for one is your father, which is in heaven. We see a lot of people that they are following the Pope and they call him his father. They say, hey father, but guess what, that's contrary to the Bible. So following a man that's going to go against the clear scripture is going to go against God's word is not the right example of somebody that you should follow. You shouldn't be following that man. You should be going to the Bible and saying, what does the Bible say? What does the Bible teaching me the person I should be following and then finding the guy that lines up with that because the thing that's the best about this is the Bible never changes. So if you know what the Bible says about following somebody, even if that guy were to fall away, then you just find the next guy that matches up with this book says, and you can just always be grounded by following the guy that the Bible's telling you to follow. But if you're following just one person that's against the Bible, when he changes, everything falls away. Now you're stuck and you have nobody to follow. You don't know what to do because you were following just a person you weren't actually following what the Bible said. So of course I'm not teaching that you should elevate man above the Bible, but the Bible does teach a very positive example that we should follow a man. So let's look at some examples in the Bible before I get into my sermon of following a man being good. Go to 2 Kings chapter 10, 2 Kings chapter number 10, and we're going to look at some examples where the Bible shows us where people were following a man or were following another guy and it was a good thing, it was a positive thing. Look at 2 Kings 10 verse 15, the Bible says, and when he was departed thence he lighted on Jehonadab the son of Rekab coming to meet him and he saluted him and said to him, is thine heart right as my heart is with thy heart? And Jehonadab answered, it is, if it be give me thine hand. And he gave him his hand and he took him up into the chariot and he said, come with me and see my zeal for the Lord. So they made him ride in his chariot. We see this guy, Jeku, he was talking to Jehonadab and he's like, come see my zeal for the Lord. And he grabs the guy and he pulls him in his chariot and they go and he's going with them. Sounds like traveling, right? Sounds like following. He was following, Jeku was setting a good example. He was showing him his zeal for the Lord. The Bible says iron sharpens iron. We see that we should be, you know, finding other people that are zealous for God and saying, I want to follow you. Give me some of your zeal. Why don't you rub off your zeal onto me so I can be even more zealous for the Lord Jesus Christ? We see, I mean, only one person can be the most zealous person on fire for God at one time. So why not find him so he can sharpen you and make you zealous and then you can make him zealous. And we see that following somebody is not a bad thing. Following somebody can be a good thing. Go to 1 Kings chapter 19 now, go back just one book in the Bible. I'll read for you in 1 Chronicles 11, said in verse 10, these also are the chief of the mighty men and David had who strengthened themselves with him and his kingdom and with all Israel to make him king according to the word of the Lord concerning Israel. Now David was arguably one of the just greatest men in the Bible. He was very strong. He was a great leader, but you know what? He had a lot of mighty men and you know, you could have been in that time and just said, Oh, I don't get to be David. I don't get to be the king of Israel. I don't get to be the greatest and just have a bad attitude and never do anything for God. Or you could have been like all these mighty men who went and served David and they got a lot of mentions in the Bible for being mighty men, being men of renown. Not everybody can be the leader. I mean, sometimes there's just one leader, but you can be a mighty man. You can do a lot of great things. And we see if David had no followers, he wouldn't have been great. David wouldn't have won all those battles by himself. He needed those other guys to be with him, to support him so that he could be a leader. You can't be a leader of nobody. To be a great leader, you got to have followers and in order to have followers, people have to follow a man. We can't just follow just some man or just go out on our own or be a lone wolf. No, following a man is very important. It's a good thing. Go to First Kings 19 verse 19. The Bible says, so he departed thence and found Elisha, the son of Saphath, who was plowing the twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelve, and Elisha passed by him and cast his mantle upon him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said to them, go back again, for what have I done to thee? And he returned back from him and took a yoke of oxen and slew them and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen and gave them to the people and they did eat. Then he arose and went after Elijah and ministered unto him. So we have this great story of Elijah meeting Elisha for the first time. He runs into this guy and God had told Elijah that he should, you know, go and find Elisha and then he cast his mantle on him and then Elisha immediately says, I want to follow you. We see him and Elisha becomes one of the greatest prophets of the Lord. He has a double spirit, a double portion of the prophet Elisha. Why? Because he followed a man. Because he learned from a man. Because he got the wisdom and understanding by following Elisha. By pouring the hands on Elisha, by being his servant, he gained invaluable experience by following a man. And guess what? He forsook everything too in the process. He just said, hey, you know all these oxen I got, I'm just going to slay them all. I'm just going to get rid of everything, sell it all, sell the farm, and I'm just going to follow the man of God. I'm just going to go wholehearted after the man of God. Say, you're just going to sell your house and quit your job and just go move somewhere and follow some guy? Absolutely right. I'm going to find the man of God and I'm just going to follow him because it's invaluable. It's invaluable to find somebody that's on fire for God and to follow that man, to learn from him, to see his zeal for the Lord. We don't see Elisha saying, well, I don't know, maybe I should keep a couple oxen back. No, he just kills them all. And then he goes and follows the man of God. Go to Joshua chapter one. We need to be more zealous in our life. I mean, our life is really short. Why hold anything back? Why not give everything to God? Why not go wholehearted after the Lord Jesus Christ, the things of God? I mean, the things of this world, they're just vanity, they're just going to vanish away. There's no real substance in them. There's no joy. There's no fulfillment. Slaying those oxen, I mean, he didn't even think about that in hindsight. He never thought, oh, that was a bad decision, oh, I wish I hadn't done that. No, he knew what was most important in his life and Romans 16, I'll read for you another verse. It says, Greek, Priscilla, and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus, who have for my life laid down their own necks, unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. We see in the New Testament, Priscilla and Aquila, they thought Paul was so important. They were following Paul so much. They were willing to risk their own lives just for the benefit of Paul. Just to keep him alive. Just to make sure that Paul, you know, was safe and could continue the work of the ministry. They didn't value their own lives more than Paul. They actually valued his life more important than their own. They were willing to lay it down. That's following a man. That's following a man to say, hey, you're more important for you to succeed than me. I'm willing to lay down my own life just for you to succeed. I mean, that's a big step. Look at Joshua 1 verse 16, before I had to turn. And they answered Joshua, saying, All that thou commandest us we will do, and whithersoever thou sendest us we will go. According as we hearken unto Moses in all things, so will we hearken unto thee. Only the Lord thy God be with thee, as he was with Moses. Whosoever he be that doth rebel against thy commandment, and will not hearken unto thy words that all that thou commandest him, he shall be put to death. Only be strong and of a good courage. We see the whole group of the children of Israel, they were so dedicated to following a man that they said, anything that Joshua commands, if we forsake it, we're going to put that person to death. If somebody forsakes Joshua's commandment, this man, we're just going to put him to death. That's how committed they were to following a man, to following the man of God that was going to lead them. That was how loyal they were to their man. They said, anybody that's going to forsake our leader, let's put him to death. I mean, that's the kind of zeal that the children of Israel have. We need that kind of zeal as Christians today, as Baptists today, to support our leaders so they can be fearless, so they can be strong, so they can have that support, so they can have that courage. We see here the man of Gideon, a great warrior. He needed some confidence. He needed some encouragement from the people around him. But he's still a man. I mean, even the greatest leaders sometimes, they need that encouragement. They need to know, hey, these guys in the trenches with me, they laid down their life for me. They're willing to go with me to the bitter end. They said, we killed all the oxen. We sold the farm. Hey, we're going to lay down our lives. We're in it to win it. We're going to follow you. Lead us. Show us the zeal for God because we want to go after God. So we see there's a lot of good examples in the Bible following a man. This isn't a bad thing. I mean, I can't even show you all the examples of following a man in the Bible. There's just so many. Go to Hebrews chapter 10, if you would, Hebrews chapter 10. John chapter 8, the Bible says, And he that sent me is with me. The Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please him. We see Jesus Christ always our perfect example in every way. Jesus Christ, guess what? He was following God the Father. So we see even Jesus Christ has submitted himself unto the Father. We see that following is a good thing. Christ was following what his Father told him. He was doing those things that pleased the Father. So why should we follow a man? I have three points why we should follow a man, why it's good to follow a man. Hebrews 10, look at verse 24, the Bible reads, And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching. So it's crystal clear in the Bible that we're supposed to go to church, right? I mean, that's just a command of God that we're supposed to go to church somewhere. Go to Hebrews 13 then, go a couple chapters over, Hebrews 13, look at verse 17, the Bible reads, Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves for they that watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. So the Bible says it's a command to go to church, and guess what? It's a command to obey the ruler in the church. So by default, it's a command of God to follow a man. I mean, you can't get around it. You have to go to church somewhere, and in that church, someone's in charge, and you're supposed to obey them, so ultimately, you're supposed to follow a man. It's a command of God that we should be following someone. Now the Bible doesn't say who you have to follow. It doesn't say you have to go to Faith Ward Baptist Church, you have to follow Pastor Anderson, you have to go to Verity Baptist Church, you have to follow Roger Jimenez. The Bible doesn't say that. So you have to use a discretion, you have to use the Bible to see what does the Bible say, who should I be following? What kind of guy, what kind of leader, what kind of man, what kind of church should I be following? And then with the Bible, with the lens of God's word, you can find, oh, this is the guy that I want to follow, this is the man that I want to be under, this is the man that I want to obey. I mean, it's just kind of like marriage, I think. I mean, women are supposed to submit themselves under their husband, so you probably shouldn't marry a jerk. You probably shouldn't marry a derelict and a loser and some guy that's mean and harsh. I mean, if you're going to pick somebody to obey, don't you want to pick somebody that's going to treat you well and going to love you? And you say, well, that's just women, what about men? Don't we pick where we're going to work, who we're going to serve? Ultimately, in America, you get to pick whatever job you want, you get to pick whatever company you're going to go work for, and guess who you serve? Hopefully it's a man. Sometimes you can have a woman boss. But ultimately you're going to be following a person, you're going to be following a man. You can't get around it. You're going to be following man no matter what you do in this life. You're going to be having to follow somebody. So why not use the Bible and use discretion and use God's word to follow the right man, to follow the guy that actually cares for you, loves you, wants to lead you, wants you to succeed? Because that's the point of a good leader. Go to Matthew chapter 8, if you want, Matthew chapter 8. You can't escape having someone over you. You know, some people get this weird idea, well, I just want to follow Jesus. I just want to follow the Bible, I just want to follow the book. Well, it made it clear that it's a command of God to actually follow a man. So if you actually do want to follow Jesus, if you do want to follow what the Bible says, you're going to go to church and you're going to submit yourself unto the elder, to the bishop. Matthew chapter 8, look at verse 19. It says, And a certain scribe came and said unto master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath not where to lay his head. And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead. So Christ makes it, there's so many examples, go to John chapter 8, of Christ saying, follow me, follow Christ, follow after Jesus Christ. But Jesus Christ isn't in the flesh on this earth anymore. So if you really want to follow Christ, you're going to have to follow a man of God. You're going to have to follow a man that's going to follow Jesus Christ. I'll read for you a couple other places. Matthew chapter 10 verse 38, the Bible says, And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. Matthew 16 verse 24, the Bible says, Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Look at John 8 verse 12, the Bible says, Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. So we see Christ, I mean, there's so many examples of Christ telling us to follow him, to follow his example, to follow that, what is that, that's the Bible. So of course, the first thing that we should follow, the most important is this Bible. But guess what? It's instructing us to follow a man. So if you're going to follow Christ, you're inevitably going to have to submit yourself unto the man of God, unto the guy that's going to teach you and preach you the Bible, unto the bishop. Go to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, I'm going to read for you a couple more verses, and John 10 verse 4, the Bible says, And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice, and a stranger will they not follow him, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers. You say, how do I know which guy to follow? Well, if you know the Bible, if you're looking for the Bible, you're not going to be following the stranger, you're going to be following the guy that's preaching this word, that's speaking the words of God. You're not going to follow some, you know, the pope, you're not going to follow the Mormons, the Jehovah's Witnesses, you're not going to follow the liberal, lame, limp-wisted Christian pastor up there with the jeans, that's not even preaching the word of God. If you know the Bible, you're going to find a guy that's preaching the Bible. It's just inevitable. And in 1 Corinthians 11, I think this is one of the most important verses for this sermon, this is what Paul said, he said, Be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. So it's important to follow a man when he follows Christ. That's the caveat. So you say, how do I know which guy to follow? The guy that's following Christ, the guy that's doing what the Bible says, that's the guy that you're supposed to look to, that's the guy that you're supposed to follow. Look at verse 13, it says, For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when ye received the word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus, for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews. So he's saying, look, y'all are followers of the churches of God. Why? Because they're following the word because they received the word of God. The reason why I want to go to this church, the reason why I want to follow Pastor Anderson is because he's following Christ, because he's doing what the Bible says. And hypothetically, I don't believe it'll ever happen. But if he did fall away from Christ, if he did forsake the Bible, then I just follow the next guy that's following the Bible the best that I can. Go to First Thessalonians chapter one, if you would. Go back one chapter, I'll read for you from Philippians chapter three, it says, brethren, be ye followers together of me, and mark them which walk, so as ye have us for an ensemble, for many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you, even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. He said, look, be a follower of me, but he said, mark them that walk a different way. How do you know who to follow? The guy that's following Christ. You always have to let the Bible be your determining factor, be your compass, be the lamp unto your feet to guide you into that man of God, and the people that are walking contrary, mark them, have nothing to do with them, forsake them. We shouldn't be following the guy that's not following Christ. I mean, the guy that gets out of church and isn't soul winning and isn't living for God, you want to mark them and not follow that man. You want to follow the guy that's steadfast, that's in the faith, that's following Jesus Christ, that's preaching the Bible, that's the guy that you want to follow. First Thessalonians 1, look at verse 4, knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as ye know what manner of men were among you for your sake. And ye became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Ghost, so that ye were in samples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God were to spread abroad, so that we need not to speak anything. For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and now ye turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. So notice this in verse 6, he's going to tie this together. You say, I just want to follow Christ, well he ties it together and says, if you want to follow Christ, you're going to follow man. Look at verse 6, and ye became followers of us and of the Lord. Why? Because if you're following Christ, you're going to follow the guy that's teaching you Christ. So he got these people saved, he turned them to God from idols, he's preaching in the Bible, and guess what? Now that they're following him, they're in samples to even other believers, to other churches. They're being in a sample. Look at verse 7, so that ye were in samples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. Everybody, I mean, it's not like one guy is leading, and then there's just this flat line of millions of people behind. No, it's usually a line. So there's a person following a person, a person following a person, there's a lot of people following in an order, in a line. And the person that's following right behind the leader, a lot of times people are looking at him too. It's not just the pastor that's the only person that anybody ever looks up to, that's the only example in the church, no, there's other men in the church, there's other believers that people can look to and say, I want to be like that guy, that guy's always going out soul winning, that guy knows the Bible, that guy's reading his Bible a lot, he's a great example of somebody I want to follow, of somebody I want to travel with, of somebody I want to go out soul winning with, I want to talk to, I want to have fellowship with. I mean, look, Pastor Anderson can't have 350 best friends, I mean, there's like 350 people in our church, he can't be best friends with every single person, right? So there needs to be a lot of people that say, hey, I'm willing to be a mighty man, like David had mighty men, where people can look to me and say, this guy's a good example, I'm going to follow that guy. So it's not just following the pastor, it's not just following one person, look, the Bible gave us teachers and apostles and deacons and all these people that have offices that we can follow, evangelists, I mean, Brother Garrett is one of the best people to look to for being an evangelist, if somebody wants to be an evangelist, look to Brother Garrett, look to somebody that's successful, you say, who do I want to follow? I want to follow someone that's successful, I don't want to follow someone that's not successful. So that leads me into my second point, my first point is it's a clear command of God to follow a man, you can't get around that, you can't argue against that, if someone's going to accuse me of following a man, I'm going to say, amen, I'm going to follow the man that's following Christ, that's what I'm going to do for the rest of my life, unless for some reason I become a bishop, you know, one day I desire that, if I become a bishop, maybe I'd be the leader in my church, but I'm still going to have men that I can look to, that I can follow after, that maybe I can travel with, that we're all headed the same direction. We're still headed towards Christ, go to Matthew 4 if you would, I'll read for you from Mark chapter 1 and verse 18, the Bible says, and straightway they forsook their nets and followed them. So the Bible says, look, I mean, Jesus Christ is this great example, and when Jesus Christ came to him, he said this, go to Matthew 4 verse 19, he said, he saith unto them, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets and followed him, and going on from thence he saw all their two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, and a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them, and they immediately left their ship and their father and followed him. So the second reason why we should follow a man, we should follow the man of God, is because he wants to help you. He wants you to succeed. The greatest man of God is going to want you to do good things. That's why Jesus Christ said, I will make you a fisher of men. He wants you to succeed. He said, why are you coming to this church, why are you coming to Pastor Anderson? He admits he wants to train guys in the gospel, he wants to teach people how to go soul winning, he wants to train men to go out and start churches, he wants to help people succeed. So I want to follow the guy that just even says that. You know, back home, I had the same desire to be a bishop, and so I was talking to my pastor back home, and I said, hey, look, I desire to be, you know, a pastor one day, I'm wanting to train, I'm willing to do anything, how can I help in the service, I'd like to start soul winning, I do soul winning these times, what can I do, and he's really just trying to put on the jets, like try to cool me down, be like, yeah, it'll probably take a while, I'm kind of a hands off type of person, you know, the only thing I can really do is I can, I preach a really good sermon, so maybe you can learn a few things from that. But I mean, it was just like, okay, I'll just give him a little bit of time, he's kind of new to the church, month goes by nothing, two months go by nothing, three months go by nothing. I mean, the guy's not willing to do anything. I mean, I'm saying, I'll do anything, what do you want me to do, how can I help? A church of 500 people, and you can't even use somebody that's just begging to do some help in the church. So one day, he asked me to preach a five minute sermon. That's the only thing he ever had me do for almost a year. For a whole year, I'm in this church just begging this guy to do something, and the only thing he wants to let me do is a five minute sermon. And you know, he had said at the beginning that his one strength was preaching. Well, a few months after we've been going to this church, he gets up in front of the whole congregation and he says, you know what, I'm really nervous about preaching the Bible, so I'm just going to start reading my sermons. So he literally, I am not joking, he literally reads a 15 minute sermon. That's it. He just sits there and looks at his notes and just reads a 15 minute sermon. I mean, there was a hearing impaired person that sat really close to me, and one time I got really close to the guy, and look, he had a printout of the sermon, and I watched his finger go across the line as he was reading with the pastor of the sermon. I mean, what a joke! He said, I want to follow a man, I don't want to follow that guy, I want to follow the guy that's willing to teach me. That's successful! That's going to show me how to be a successful pastor. Not somebody who's afraid to get up and preach a sermon. I mean, an independent fundamental Baptist church and the pastor won't even preach a sermon? Wow! Go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. It's so important to find people that are successful. That's why college is such an epic failure today, because all the college professors, they're failures. They're not successes, they're not successful in the profession, they're not the ones going out and doing the work, so you go and learn from all these failures and frauds and pontificators who can't do any of the work. They just think they're so smart, and they're going to teach you how to fail. If you want to learn how to fail, go to the college and learn from all the failures. But if you actually want to learn how to do something and be successful, find someone who's successful, and then learn from them. Learn from that person. Why do I not want to go to Bible college? Because I don't want to sit in a classroom and learn from some woman how to be a great man of God. How does that make any sense? You think some woman educator is going to get up and teach me how to be a great pastor? That's a joke! That's a fraud! The Bible says, let the woman learn in silence with all subjection, but I suffer not a woman to teach nor usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. I'm not going to learn how to be a great pastor by going to some Bible college and learning from some woman. That's a joke. That's a fraud. It's not to say that women don't have their place, that they're not valuable, that they're not just as equal as a man, but that's not how I'm going to be great by learning from a woman. I need to learn from a man of God. Look at 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 5, and the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ. Now we command you brethren in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after the tradition which he received of us. For yourselves know how you ought to follow us for we have behaved not ourselves disorderly among you. Neither did we eat any man's bread for naught, but wrought with labor and travailed night and day that we might not be chargeable to any of you, not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensemble unto you to follow us. He's saying, look, we understand the important, Paul's saying, I understand the importance of what I'm doing here. I understand that y'all are following me. So I want to set forth the greatest example. I'm only going to teach you the things that the Bible's teaching. I want you to follow those things though. You need to follow the traditions that I'm teaching you. You need to follow my commandments and the brothers, even the saved and the church that decide I'm going to go against the elder. I'm going to go against the bishop. I'm not going to receive the doctrine and the court options of the church. You're not supposed to have any company with them, have nothing to do with them. Why? We're supposed to follow the man of God. He's watching over our souls. We're supposed to be entrusting to him and trust his leadership and say, Hey, you know what? I'm going to follow this guy. He knows what he's doing. He understands the importance of his job and he's going to be my sample because he knows that I'm following him. So my second point is that the reason why we should follow him is they're in samples. They're teaching us how to behave. They're wanting us to make us successful. They're wanting to teach us things. Go to Matthew 19. My third point is for rewards. It's interesting. It says in John chapter 12 and verse 26, the Bible says, if any man serve me, let him follow me and where I am, there shall also my servant be. If any man serve me, him will my father honor. By following Christ, you're going to get rewarded by God. If you're a humble servant, if you're doing the Lord's will, he's going to honor you. Matthew 19 verse 28, the Bible says, and Jesus said unto them, verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me and the regeneration when the son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. Christ is saying, look to his disciples, you that are following me, you're going to get great rewards in heaven. Go to Psalms 101 and Hebrews six. I'll read for you. It says in verse 12 that he be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises for when God made promise to Abraham because he could swear by no greater. He swear by himself. It says, look, don't be slothful if the person, the person that doesn't want to follow a man is lazy. That's the reason why he doesn't want to follow a man. He doesn't want to go serve somebody. He doesn't want to be his laborer. He's just slothful. He's lazy. He's proud. And the Bible says, don't be slothful. Follow them. Why? Because then you get to inherit the promises. You get the rewards of God by following a man. Look at Psalms 101 verse four, a froward heart should depart from me. I will not know a wicked person who so privily slandered his neighbor, him like it off, him that hath a high look and a proud heart will not I suffer. Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land that they may dwell with me. He that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me. He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within mine house. He that tells lies shall not tarry in my sight. I will early destroy all the wicked of the land that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord. We see in this, this a Psalm, it's a great Psalm to learn, to get memorized. He's a dichotomy of two people, the faithful of the land that your eyes should be upon. The guy that you want to serve with, the guy that you want to be a part of, the guy that you want to dwell with, the guy that you want to travel with, the guy that you want to follow. And then you see the wicked guy, you want to have nothing to do with him. The guy that's proud, the guy that thinks he's so special and so awesome. Don't even have anything to do with him. Don't suffer. Don't be around him. Be around the faithful. Find the guy that's going and being faithful, being a humble servant of God and follow that guy. So we see that there's, there's three really good reasons to follow man. There's some things to avoid though, when choosing a man to follow. So I'm going to look at some of those ones. Go to first Timothy chapter five, verse Timothy chapter number five. Here's three points or three things to look out for when following man, because we're supposed to follow man. Does that mean we should follow every person? We should follow every bozo that gets up. I mean today on YouTube, you can find a million pastors or preachers or guys that want to get you to follow them. So should we follow all these guys? Well, the Bible says, no. Look at first Timothy five, verse 22, lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins. Keep thyself pure. Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities. Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment and some men they follow after. Now verse 24, I mean, it kind of perplexed me for a long time because I had it memorized, but I wasn't really understanding it. And this last week, I mean, it was like my eyes were open with this versus saying, it's saying there's literally preachers that are just an open sin, like what they're doing or what they're preaching or what they're saying is just obviously contrary to the Bible. Right? Because they're charismatic or because they have good leadership or because they're friendly, people will still follow them. I mean, they'll just go against the clear scripture, they'll just go against the Bible. They just have no fear. They're just going to follow this guy, even though he's an open sin. So one of the things we should avoid is the guy that's just an obvious open sin. I mean, if this guy is just an adulterer, if this guy, I mean a divorced pastor, I mean, just avoid that guy. Don't follow this guy. Don't follow this loser. What about a guy that just self-ordains himself, that wasn't sent out from a church? That's just an open, obvious sin. I mean, you can just look at the guy, don't follow that guy. But of course people will. Some men follow after these losers. I mean, I can't even, it's hard to even understand sometimes, but the Bible is true and the Bible knows that men would just follow after these guys. Maybe there's a falling out and a guy decides, well, all these people are following me, so I'm just going to lift myself up and make a church. My name is Joseph Smith, my name is Muhammad, I'm just going to make my own church because all the people are following me. But wait a minute, is he an open sin? That's something we should just always avoid. Just avoid the guy that's an open sin. Go to Proverbs 12. I'm going to read for you a couple of other verses on this point. It says in Exodus 23 2, thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil, neither shalt thou speak in a cause decline after many to rest judgment. Proverbs 29 12 says, if a ruler harken to lies, all his servants are wicked. Those people that are following after this guy, they're wicked too. Don't don't give them a free pass. Don't let them off the hook. No. If they're going to follow this guy in open sin, they're wicked too. That's right. And you know what? The Bible gave us, you know, the, the, the qualifications of a pastor, of a deacon of these things for a reason. They're not a joke. They're not just a suggestion. It's not like a speed limit suggestion. No, I'm just kidding. Speed limits are, you should follow the speed limit, but I'm just saying, look, the qualifications of a Bishop are clear why? So that we know how we should behave ourselves in the house of God. So we should know the man to follow because the guy that has no regard for the qualifications of a Bishop, he's not going to be a good example to you. He's not going to care for you. He's not going to show you how to do the things of God. He's not going to care for you. Not the guy you want to follow. Verse chapter 12, my second point, look at verse 11, he that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread, but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding. So the second thing that we should have looked to avoid in following man is a person with bad character. Just, this guy's got a lot of character flaws. We should just avoid this person. And he said, what is, what is this saying? It's saying he that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread, but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding. What is it saying? This guy is lazy because the guy that's prudent is telling the land he's working hard. The other guy, he just wants to follow, he wants all these shallow people to be around him to just lift him up and tell him he's great. He doesn't want to be humble and just go work in the field. He doesn't want to get, you know, his satisfaction in life from just working hard. He just wants to have people around him that are just going to lift him up. That's where he's going to get his satisfaction in life. Not from being a work, a hard worker, not from doing the work, not from being a laborer, but just surrounding himself by shallow, foolish people that will just lift him up and tell him he's a great person when he's not, when he's not working hard, when he's a lazy derelict bum. Go to Proverbs 28, we'll see, get a little more clarity from this verse, Proverbs 28. I'll read for you, Ezekiel 13, the Bible says, let's say the Lord God woe unto the foolish prophets that follow their own spirit and have seen nothing. Look at Proverbs 28 verse 19, it says, he that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread, but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough. So that gives us a little bit more indication of what that verse was trying to tell us. He's saying, look, the hard worker is going to go work in the field and he's going to be able to eat. The guy that's just following all his friends, they're going to have poverty. Look, you got to work hard, you know, get some money to have food on the table. You can't just surround yourself with all these vain people that are just going to puff you up. Oh, I'm just this great person. No, you need a real friend to give you a kick in the pants and say, get a job, go to work. Why are you hanging out with me all the time? Don't you have a job? Don't you have a family? Don't you have to do some work today? Are we just going to sit around and, you know, navel gaze and drink and just tell each other how great we are? So the second point is when we see a person with bad character, someone that's not willing to work hard, that's not humble, that's not surrounding himself with the right people, that's making himself a companion of fools, that person we want to avoid. And my last point of something to avoid is the word sect. Now I looked up the word sect in the dictionary and it says the second definition is a group regarded as heretical or as deviating from a generally accepted religious tradition. So a sect is like a smaller, it tends to be what we think of as a smaller group or a faction of people that kind of divide themselves against a very traditional or the common doctrine or just what's normal. Now just because something's a big religion, like let's say the Catholic Church. I mean they would say, well everybody else is a sect because look how big we are. But they deviate from the Bible. They're following a man. And I think the better definition of what a sect is, is following a man contrary to the Bible. It doesn't matter how big or small the group is, it's just when a guy, when you can't read the Bible and understand their doctrine, you have to go ask them, hey, will you explain to me what you're teaching? Because I can't get it from this book. That's how it's a sect. That's what the Bible is preaching against. Go to Acts chapter five. You know, there's a person in my family, when I was going to this really liberal, non-denominational church, we were talking about our pastor, we were talking about the pre-trib rapture. And my dad has never believed in the pre-trib rapture. He's always said it was a fraud. But I never, I didn't really believe that. I didn't agree with him because he never told me what the rapture was. He just would say I'm against the pre-trib rapture. And I'd be like, well, what is it? You know, what do you really believe? I just don't believe in the pre-trib rapture. And our pastor always taught it. So I actually believe it. I believed the pre-trib rapture for a long time. I believed it, though, from an argument of silence. I said, well, all the other views are wrong, so the pre-trib rapture must be right. Which is a really stupid way to base your doctrine on anything. But there was a person in my family, when we were having this argument, and I was trying to use the Bible, I was trying to, you know, have a logical argument. She said, well, I just believe whatever our pastor says is always right. And I mean, I was like, what did you just say? And she said, well, look, I mean, he has this really nice house. Look how big our church is. Look how much money he has. There's no way that God's hand of blessing isn't on him. So it's just everything that comes out of his mouth is just going to be right. I mean, that is scary. That is some, that is a really bad mental attitude to have. That's when you're saying I'm going to lift up a man above what the Bible says. When you can't be corrected by the Bible, you have a problem. That's a big problem. That's a sect. Acts chapter 5, verse 17, it says, then the high priest rose up and all they that were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees, and were filled with indignation. Skip down to verse 34. So we see the Sadducees are called the sect, why? Because they believed a bunch of weird goofy stuff. They were against the resurrection. They believed all this weird stuff that you couldn't get from the Bible. Jesus is always rebuking them with the Bible. He's like, have you not read? I mean, God's the God of the living, not of the dead. Look at verse 34, though, it says, then stood there up one of the council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had a reputation among all the people and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space, and he said to them, ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men, for before these days rose up foodies, boasting himself to be somebody, to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves, who was slain and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered and brought to naught. After this man rose up Judas of Galilee, in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him, he also perished, and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed. And now I say to you, refrain from these men, and let them alone, for if this council or this work be of men, it will come to naught. But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it, lest happily be found even to fight against God. Now, Gamaliel, I don't even know if this guy was safe, but he has a really good idea here, he has the right thought. Look, if it's of God, it's going to succeed. If it's not of God, if it's just of a man, it's going to fail. And we see a really crucial thing when we're thinking about following a man, look, if you're following this guy and it's not going to succeed ever, it's just going flat, it's not of God. The Bible has power, God's Word has power, the Gospel has power, and even though people might forsake it and fall away, and they might come back down and we might have a refining process and go back to a few men, we know that the faithful are always going to be successful. God's going to be with them, the Gospel's going to go forth, people are going to get saved. But when we see the guy that's just going after himself, he's just rising up and there's this small faction of people that draw themselves away, they're going to fail. I don't want to follow this guy that's going to fail, I want to follow the guy that's going to be successful. So if I know what this Bible says, if I'm letting this Bible help me pick the man, then I'm not going to pick a loser. I'm not going to pick some guy that's just going to draw a faction away from a church and do nothing with his life. Because look, outside of the church, you're going to do nothing for God. You're going to stop ghost solely winning, you're not going to live for God, you're not going to read the Bible, you're not going to do the things of God, you're just going to fail and fail, and the Bible says for the wages of sin is death. You're going to just die. I don't want that. I want to follow the guy that's going to succeed. I want to go to the guy in church that's following the King James Bible, that's going soul winning, that's going to lead me. And if you ever follow some guy outside of the church, you need to just repent and get back in the church. And follow a man that's doing what the Bible says. Not follow some loser, some guy that's going to go contrary to the tradition that you've received of the man of God. That's what we need to do. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 11, we'll close there. In Acts chapter 24 I'll read for you in verse 5 it says, for we have found this man a pestilent fellow and a moverous addition among all the Jews throughout the world and a ringleader of the sect of Nazareth. So even Paul was accused of being in a sect. So just because someone's labeled being in a sect, that doesn't necessarily mean it's bad. But we need to avoid the guys that are contrary to the Bible. And I'm sure, how many people have called Pastor Anderson a cult? Or called people to go to this church a cult? Just because someone labels you that doesn't mean it's true. But we need to follow the people that are successful. We need to follow the people that preach the gospel that are successful. We need to follow the people that are good preachers. I want to follow that guy if I want to be a good preacher. I'm not going to go to some failed Bible college and learn from some loser that can't preach. Look at 1 Corinthians 11 verse 1, be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ. Why should we follow a man? Because it's a command of God. Because therein samples unto us how we should be following Christ. And if we want to be rewarded, God said you need to follow the guy that's following me. That's how you follow Christ is by following the guy that's following him. We need to watch out for the guy that's an open sin. We need to watch out for the guy that has bad character, who's lazy, who's prideful, who's following after vain persons. And we need to avoid the sex of the people that are just, we're all just going to follow this guy outside of the church that's against the Bible. But you know what? It's a good thing to follow man if he's following Christ. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Thank you Father for your word. Thank you for rising up righteous men that we can follow. Thank you for your work that it can be a lamp under our feet so we can know it's men to follow. That we can always look to you first and that you can guide us to follow men that iron can sharpen iron. And thank you for the men that take the great responsibility of being an overseer of our souls, being an overseer of our lives. We pray that you just continue to give our pastor wisdom as he leads us and that we would be faithful followers of him. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.