Who do you follow?

Hey everyone, I hope you are having a great day and approaching the middle of the week with a good direction towards God today. I will be going over Corinthian’s for the next few days. And today we will be going over the strength of the cross.

So many times people will follow a certain preacher and never actually read their Bible and depend solely on the words they get in the sermons from their selected preacher. They could have chosen this person for several reasons. It could be that they are a great speaker and know exactly what to say in every situation, they could be handsome and so people are attracted to them or that they are very creative and entertaining in the delivery of their message of the day.

The worst reason is when the person follows the person makes them feel good about themselves and promises health and wealth if they follow God. If you read the Bible, this is completely false since every single apostle was persecuted for their faith and only one is said to have not died at the hands of their persecutors. Not to say that God can’t bless someone, but so that you know that not everyone is going to blessed materially on earth if they follow a 12 step program or follow God. Because of this, Paul addresses someone’s divided allegiance to a specific preacher in 1 Corinthians.

“Is Christ divided? Was it Paul who was crucified for you? Or were you baptized in Paul’s name? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one can say you were baptized in my name. I did, in fact, baptize the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t know if I baptized anyone else. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to evangelize—not with clever words, so that the cross of Christ will not be emptied of its effect.” 1 Corinthians 1:13-17

Hcsb Bible

Now in this chapter, Paul tells them that he’s heard of a division in the church between people that were following Paul and those that follow Apollos and others. He says that they were saying that they were of “insert whoever they were following their teaching”. Now is listening to a certain person and hearing what they say about a certain issue wrong? Not necessarily but it does start to be wrong when you only hear from one preacher and never actually read the Bible to verify what they are saying is true.

Paul never said that he was a great speaker or entertaining everyone. For he said that he wants all of the credit to go towards the Cross and the strength and message that comes with it. So what is the message of the cross?

The message of the cross is one of the purest forms of love one could give to another. It’s the message of our current condition being so bad that a perfect God to come down to Earth, live a perfect life and then die in our place. All of that just for us to have the chance of getting to heaven. All we have to do is accept that we’re sinners( or we make mistakes/miss perfection) and then accept the free gift of God gave to us by dying on the cross for our sins. Then we deny ourselves and follow him as our LORD.

Now that is a STRONG message in a world that is constantly fighting each other, tearing each other down and rejecting and not showing any love to one another. There is so much abuse, violence and neglect in the world and a message of a perfect God that loves you unconditionally and died for you for is awesome.

So whoever you follow in your church or listen to for guidance in your walk with God, make sure that they are preaching and teaching the gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection. They can be a good teacher and speaker but if they don’t preach the gospel then they are just making their own person cult and you need to avoid that all cost.

In order to do this, you need to be in the Bible daily to make sure they’re not teaching false doctrine or heresy. By doing this and praying and listening to the wisdom of mature Christians around you, you can follow God.

So who do you follow? Do you follow God daily in your Bible study and prayer or do you follow a specific person and make him your own personal idol? I pray that you’re in your Bible daily and praying daily because us preachers can sin and mess up too, even though I hate to admit it haha. I hope you have a great day and if you have any questions or disagreements just comment down below or message me.