Follow the leader is such a simple game. It doesn't take very long to explain. You simply say, "Do everything I do." If you are the leader, you lead. If you are the follower, you follow. It is very simple. When I was a senior at Martin Luther College, every afternoon in the fall I would go out to football practice. During practice, all the guys who played my position would go off in our group and practice our linebacker drills. In our group that year was another senior named Dan. He didn't play a lot but he was a really good athlete. Once a week, we would play "follow the leader" as an agility drill. Dan was always the leader. He would run around doing summersaults, army crawls; he would run through the quarterbacks and around the goalposts. Now there was group of trees near the practice field and he would also weave in and out them. And then sure enough he would run full steam . . . SMACK! into a tree. Every single week he would do this. And of course, being morons, we would run . . . SMACK! into the tree also. We had full pads and helmets on, but it still hurt. We did it anyway. Not real intelligent of us, was it?

Now I am not going to say that Dan was the devil, but doesn't the devil work in the same way with us. We get going having loads of fun, and then SMACK! we do something dumb and painful. The devil tempts and we follow him right into the sinful trees. So often we let the devil be the leader instead of God even though we know he is a terrible leader. Today let's concentrate on following the leader and not a bad leader like the devil who will only lead us into pain, but our great and glorious leader, our Almighty God. God's Word encourages us to follow the leader in accepting the will of God and in giving your life to God.

Our leader is Jesus. He never leads us astray. Jesus is the perfect leader because he accepted God's will. It was God's will that he be sent to earth as a baby born in a lowly manger. That is not our usual picture of a leader. We see the powerful person, strong in mind and body, not a tiny infant in a barn. Yet our leader Jesus accepted the will of God and was born into human flesh. That was just the beginning, wasn't it? In the lesson from Matthew, it tells that Jesus explained to his disciples what would happen to him in the near future. Jesus would suffer, die, and rise again. This should not have been a surprise to the disciples. They knew the words of the Old Testament. They knew the words of Isaiah 53, "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth." They should have realized this, but it was hard to think that their Lord would have to suffer like this.

That is why Peter stepped forward and rebuked Jesus by saying, "Never Lord!" When I read this I have the urge to shake my head and say, "Oh Peter, how could you yell at the Lord." Do you remember last week's sermon lesson? Peter confessed Jesus as the Son of the Living God and Jesus praised that confession. Well today's lesson follows right after that. Once again we see Peter one minute being the solid Christian and the next minute crumbling to pieces. Peter could not accept the will of God that Jesus should die.

Now it is easy for us to shake our pitiful heads at Peter and say, "How could you?" Yet we aren't much different. We confess our faith and trust in God on Sunday morning together, right? Then what happens in your life? Do you trust the will of God the rest of the week? Is it "How could God make me so sick? What have I done to deserve this?" Or "how could God place this horrible obstacle in my life?" These thoughts are the work of the devil, who tries to get us to doubt God's love, to despair, and if everything goes the devil's way, to be led into unbelief, where we will spend an eternity in hell.

But we must remember that it was Christ who did obey the will of his Father and died on the cross of Calvary for our sins. He paid the ultimate price in our place. That is love. And we know that if God would give us that kind of love, he surely will take care of everything in our lives. We need not doubt or wonder about his plan. He has saved us and will continue to send his angels to watch over us. Praise his holy name for this comfort and peace in our lives.

So when doubt and fear creep in, follow the Leader, our Savior. What was Jesus response to Peter's rebuke? He shouted, "Get behind me Satan." He did not even toy with this temptation, a temptation from a friend. For we know that some of our toughest temptations come from our closest friends. Don't give into them. Don't even toy with them. Get rid of those temptations. Put them behind you and put God in front of you. When it comes to accepting the will of God, follow the leader.

We all are bearing crosses in our lives. Some are more severe than others. Yet we know that as we walk through this veil of tears, Jesus is with us and he has promised to guide us to our heavenly home. He will be our leader as we travel down the road of life. Jesus encourages us on our way to heaven in the lesson today to follow him in giving our lives to God.

Jesus says to pick up our cross and follow him. Our sinful nature does not look forward to doing that. Our sinful nature tells that if God loves us, we deserve to have a perfect life here on earth. We heard in the reading from Jeremiah earlier that he thought that he shouldn't have to suffer. God rebuked him harshly. Job thought that he shouldn't have to suffer either. God replied to him, "Who are you to question me the Almighty God?" Be careful in your thoughts and words that you don't start thinking you deserve anything in this life. God gives us what we need and helps us through our troubles.

And what we needed the most was a Savior from our sin. God gave us that Savior in his Son Jesus Christ. And because we have that Savior, everything on this earth is meaningless, since we have forgiveness of our sins and eternal life in heaven. That is the greatest gift of all and anything else we receive here on earth is just gravy. Thanks be to God that he not only forgives our grumbling and complaining, but he also showers us with an abundance of blessings in our life on earth.

So how do we thank God for his loving kindness? Follow the leader and give your life to God. Listen again to the last three verses of the sermon lesson. Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?"

Pick up your cross and follow Jesus. An interesting point here is that the verb's tense in that sentence denotes that once you pick up that cross, you never put it down. Just as Christ followed his Father's will all the way to his death on the cross, let us follow the leader and take up our crosses and give our lives to God. Remember that whatever we work so hard for in this life, whatever we place over God in this life is all lost on Judgment Day. Don't forfeit your soul for temporal gain here on earth.

Give your life to God in service. There are so many possibilities to serve your Lord right here at St. Stephen. You can be a greeter, an usher, part of the evangelism committee, and Sunday school teacher. You can visit shut-ins and the sick. You can give your life to God by worshipping with him regularly and not placing other temptations above your worship. You can give your life to God by digging into his Word in Bible classes and devotions. You can give you lives to God by witnessing the blessings of God to those around you. You can give your lives to God by being a Christian role model for those in your family. Make the effort to place God number one your life. Don't wait until it is convenient for you.

Our leader, Jesus, gave everything for us. Let us follow him in thanksgiving and give our lives to God. Think about what the Apostle Paul wrote in the second lesson for today from Romans. Look at those words printed on the back of the bulletin. Verse one says, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-- this is your spiritual act of worship." Do we owe our God and leader anything less? Amen.