Sermonette: August 15, 2022

Follow is an appropriate word for today. For most of the summer it has been an appropriate word for those who have to drive on Highway 281 between Sheyenne and New Rockford. I would imagine that like me, it is getting very tiresome for all of us sitting in our vehicles waiting for that pilot car with the sign on the back that says “Follow Me.”

I recall times when I had friends or family visiting when I was living in Minneapolis or Denver and we would be going out to eat or to a ball game or whatever. There were too many of us to go in one car. Sometimes there would be multiple cars and they didn’t know how to get to where we were going so, I’d say, “just follow me and I’ll get us there.” It seems easy enough but sometimes we’d get separated because the last car or two would get stopped by a red light.

A running back in football, to be the most effective, learns how to follow his blockers, the men whose job it is to clear the way for him through the enemy’s defense. Sounds easy enough, but sometimes the blockers he is to follow get stopped by the defense and the runner has nowhere to go and gets tackled for no gain or even a loss sometimes.

I suppose we could make a game out of it. Let’s say we leave our homes, get to the end of the driveway and decide that we will follow the first car that comes by, regardless of which direction it is going. The thinking is that this could be exciting. Most likely not very exciting if we’re living in a small town and the first car that we see is our neighbor going to work which we know is just to the grocery store. But think of trying this in a large city like New York or Los Angeles. Following is now a true adventure! But there could also be danger in that situation. Maybe the car we are following leads us to places we don’t want to go. Maybe we end up in an accident, maybe we end up in jail, maybe we find out too late that the car we are following is lost and just going in circles looking for something familiar. Following isn’t so much fun now, is it?

Unfortunately, as we seek a relationship with God, we start following a charismatic leader who seems to have all the answers. He or she has a pleasant demeaner and is a great speaker as well and tells us how great everything will be if we follow them. However, slowly but surely, we find we have hitched our wagon to the wrong horse. Sometimes it is too late. The leader we have been following is lost or even worse, knows exactly what he is doing and is intentionally leading us down the wrong path. There are many of these types around. They use partial sentences from scripture or sometimes twist scripture around so it says what they want it to say. We need to be careful before we start blindly following someone just because they are so nice and tell us nice things. If they quote scripture, don’t automatically believe them. Look it up yourself in the bible. This is nothing new. For almost 2,000 years, the apostle Paul constantly warned newly-formed churches to be aware they weren’t following false teachers. We should heed his warning as well. Blessings to you all.