Sermon: Healthy Family – “Follow me!”

Talk by Nnamdi Maduka at our 10.30am service on Sunday, 2nd February 2020.

This sermon is based on Luke 5.1-11

Here are the notes from the front page of our news sheet:

“Healthy Family: Follow me!” by Nnamdi Maduka

Discipleship (i.e. following Jesus wholeheartedly) has always been at the heart of what it means to be the family of Jesus and is one of the vital issues for today. The Christian church has largely neglected the thrust of the Great Commission: to make disciples (not just converts!). When the charge ‘follow me’ comes from a member of a healthy family and from someone we trust, it leads us into the fullness of life that Jesus promised. The first disciples were a strong community and the healthiness of that family has been a blessing to the Christian world. God has placed people around you with a purpose- it is for you to point them to Jesus, the living water. According to Andrew Roberts in his book ‘Holy Habits’,  “there are striking similarities in Luke’s account of the call of Simon and the story of the call of Isaiah which reassures us that  places of worship as well as places of work can also be places of encounter, call and commission.”  By allowing Jesus to live His life through us we will be a living and attractive message from God, which people will read and by his grace find Him.  There is no greater good news to be found anywhere than in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Who else in the history of the world, can answer the deepest cries of the human heart? The cry for meaning. The cry for unconditional love. The cry for forgiveness. The cry for freedom. The cry for hope.

The clear resounding answer to every cry is Jesus Christ! Not only has he something highly relevant to say concerning all our deepest needs, but by his living presence among us, he has the power to change the very heart of man/woman. When our hearts are transformed, the resultant impact on society will be staggering. This happened in the first century when a tiny handful of timid disciples began, in the power of the Holy Spirit, the greatest spiritual revolution the world has ever known.  If they did, of course we can, for He is the same, yesterday, today and forever.