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Why Do I Follow Jesus?

Why do you follow Jesus? Today, I want to look at my favorite bible verses and see if we can answer that question. 1 Peter 3:15. Goes like this: But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. Note this. "Always be prepared to give an answer," or the Greek word here actually means 'a defense,' "Always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks you to give the reason," the supporting information, an explanation, to give a reason, for the, and this is important, "for the hope that you have." You need to be prepared to explain the hope that you have as an individual. Or, specifically, you should be prepared to defend your personal decision to follow Jesus. There's a lot of questions you can't answer, lot of questions I can't answer, but Peter says you, at least need to be able to say to a person in the moment, "Okay, that's a good question, and yeah, that bothers me, too," and whatever, whatever... But can I just say one thing? Here's the reason I, personally, have decided to follow Jesus. Lets move to verse 16. “keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” Man, there is a whole lot of good to unpack here. First phrase: "....keeping a clear conscience"  Here is what Peter is saying: Don’t do anything that would cause you to have guilt in front of the people that you are trying to live out your Christian values. How you say things matter. What you do matters. What you do when you say things matter. How you love people matters. Friends, get this: How you live and how you respond is just as important as what you say. "....so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” There are going to be people who don't believe the way you do and they're going to look for reasons not to like you....because your behavior convicts them.  They become critical because they know they are wrong. When you live out your Christian values, you're going to get "push back" but don't give anyone any credible reasons to be critical of your behavior. Selfless, generous, compassionate living is hard to push back against. We should only be criticized because we believe in a radical, life changing savior and respond in radical and life changing ways.   One of the reasons that Christianity spread and grew out of the 1st century was not because of their beliefs but because of how they behaved. So here is the question that we wanted to answer: why do you follow Jesus? Why are you giving it all up, why are you taking on this suffering, why are you putting your entire life stake into this Jewish carpenter? I don't know how to respond adequately although I've thought about 'that' also.  What I do know is that I believe Jesus died for my sins and rose from the dead...that's why I follow Him...not because I've had all my questions answered. Not only because I read in it the Bible. Not because I am better than you….but because MY Jesus. The one that I know. They one that made me, the one that knows everything about me. The one who was there for the very beginning….He got up on a cross and he took on my sins and he died and rose again. And a dead sinner like me is constantly renewed by his life-giving power every single day. That is why I follow Jesus. Because He didn’t stay dead. He is alive, and he is working in my life, and he is good, and he is on the throne. That’s why. So what about you?