GYC 2025: Follow Me

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Sebastien Braxton

I’m Not Following

We have not come to hear the words of a man, but we have come to hear the Word of God.

We pray that you would use this man who is nothing before you But dust Father may you speak through me and may you speak to me that Christ may be lifted up and that all men may be drawn unto him.

And may we not resist the drawing power of his love and his cross.

We love you and we thank you for these gifts.

And we offer this prayer from our hearts in the mighty name of Jesus.

I wanna challenge you to start this sermon by saying, don't be a Doug.

Now you say, Brother Sebastian, what is that?

That's some new TikTok thing I don't know about?

Doug Hanson in 1996, Maine, for the second attempt in his life, he was trying to ascend to the summit of Mount Everest.

He had failed the first time because as he was getting into the danger zone, Mount Everest is 29, 000 feet high, over 29, 000, over 8, 000 meters.

The last 900 meters is called the danger zone because the oxygen is low, because there is high risk for weather changes that can sustain winds higher than any hurricane that has ever made landfall in America.

And Doug, he wanted to ascend the summit this time.

They were told that when you're climbing Mount Everest, at 2 p.m.

If you don't reach the summit turn back But Rob Hall who is this leader rope tied to rope to the other individuals in his team on his expedition Rob was not a Sherpa He was not a native of the Himalayans.

He was not familiar with the summit as the locals were, but he had successfully led 39 people to the top of Everest and back safely.

But you see, Doug, when Rob said, you know what, we are in the danger zone, oxygen's getting dangerously low, we need to turn back.

But Doug said, I didn't make it last year.

The council said to go back, and unfortunately, you're not gonna make it this time again but Doug he wanted to persist and by the time he got to the summit of Mount Everest it was 4 p.m.

And a blizzard began to hit With winds over 100 miles an hour, the temperature dropped to negative 40 degrees.

You couldn't see and find your way back Because the leaders and the Sherpas and the guides would leave footsteps in the in the snow so that you knew the path to take to avoid falling over a crevice or shaky ice and The leader would say Follow me Walk in the steps that I'm walking in.

But you see this time Doug said I don't want to follow the protocol, I don't want to follow the council, I want to get to the summit of Mount Everest.

Not only did he lose his life, Rob Hall, who didn't want to leave him, tried to save him, but he had frostbite in both his arms and legs.

Doug Hansen passed out and his body is still on Mount Everest to this day.

Rob Hall went a little bit further, called his wife, gave her a comforting message, and then he died.

A Doug is an individual that even though they should follow the leader, their personal ambition gets in the way.

Because of their desire to achieve, claim to fame, recognition, maybe personal pride, whatever was driving Doug, he lost his life just to stand on that mountain.

But I have some news for you GYC and Andrews That we're trying to summit something much more difficult than Everest We're not trying to ascend a physical mountain We're trying to ascend a spiritual mountain in which the prophet of the Lord says, higher than the highest human thought can reach is God's ideal for His children.

We're not talking about 29, 000 feet, we're talking about a mountain in which most lives who have tried have died.

Jesus doesn't say follow us, he doesn't say follow them, he doesn't say follow her, He says follow Me.

There's only 1 heavenly Sherpa that can get you to the top of the summit.

There's only 1 guide that can get you to the mountaintop, And that guide is Jesus.

And through this dangerous, treacherous path, as Dr.

Taylor adequately reminded us, this call is within the context of a great controversy.

We're not worried about hundred-mile-an-hour winds of hurricane force physically blowing.

You see, this call is a reminder to us this weekend that when Jesus says, follow me, the first audit and inventory that the individual must make is to recognize that in order to follow Jesus, I may be denied something that I want.

The moment will come where like Doug, in order for me to follow the leader, I have to sacrifice an ambition.

I have to give up something that I would want in order to follow him.

Because following Jesus is not following me.

Following Jesus is not following my ambition, my desire for wealth or recognition, my desire for a position, my desire for financial stability.

If you have your Bibles, I want you to turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 4.

If you're not there, just say have mercy.

Matthew chapter 4, beginning in verse 18.

The Bible says in Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee saw 2 brothers Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea for they were what They were fishermen.

Then he said to them, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

They immediately left their nets and followed Him.

I want to submit to you tonight that when Jesus calls a disciple and He says, follow me, we are entering into a covenant agreement and that covenant agreement of discipleship is built upon a very simple exchange of responsibility and that simple exchange is you do the following I do the making do you see that in the Bible yes or no yes or no so Jesus says follow me that's your action that's your job and he says what will I do I will make you what fishers of men So Jesus is essentially establishing based on the rule of first mention.

Jesus's job is to transform you as you follow him.

But for many of us the call to discipleship has become something else.

That the very establishment of this relationship with Jesus was not that I do the making and Jesus does the following.

This is our vision and what we see throughout the gospels as we're going to explore tonight.

There's a lot of people physically walking behind Jesus, but they're not following him.

Because if you're doing the following, what is Jesus doing?

The evidence of Following Jesus is transformation in the life.

You see, if I'm not being changed, that means I'm not following.

You see, as individuals decide to walk behind Jesus, I call them the stalkers.

Some people are not following Jesus, they just stalking him.

Anybody ever had somebody stalk you before?

It's okay, don't raise your hand, they might be sitting right next to you.

I recall in high school, I was being stalked.

I didn't know I was being stalked until I realized, man, this person keeps showing up everywhere I go at my job, at the bus stop.

All of a sudden I'm hanging out with friends, You in the grocery store, you know, picking up some, you know, cocoa puffs or whatever.

And finally, a friend of mine pointed it out to me in the car.

He said, Hey, I think that girl stalking.

I'm like, nah, man, girl stalking Like that's that's silly.

No, the next day there she was as I was coming into work.

I’m Not Following

Transcript

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

Who We Are

1h

Plenary Sessions

Revelation’s War Behind all Wars

1h 3m

Plenary

No Need To Fear: The Journey of Ellen Harmon and Samuel Rhodes

1h 1m

Plenary

When Temptations Return

1h 18m

Keys of Revelation

19. The Last Faithful Daughter

1h 11m

Driving While Under the Influence

48m

Transformed to Stand

1h

Twin Cities

A Citizen of the World

49m

Dwayne Lemon Revival

The Wake Up Call

1h 19m

Life With the Spirit

The Greatest Spiritual Gift

1h 19m

Restoration 2006: Prepare Me

A Ransom for a Rebel: Bloody Business of the Beasts

49m

Plenary

In Love, and Lost

50m

Sound Doctrine