As we begin today, I just want to say … welcome to Part 4 of the Follow series, where we’re talking about the ins and outs of being a follower of Jesus—accepting his invitation to follow him. And we’ve already learned things like 1) being a sinner is a prerequisite of being a follower, 2) being a non-believer could be a prerequisite, 3) having doubts is O.K. when you become a follower (as it was for Thomas), and so forth. No matter who you are or where you are in life right now, Jesus invitation to follow is for you…

Last week, we answered this question: If you are a follower of Jesus, what’s the end game? What’s the goal or destination? And we answered that through scripture where we discovered Jesus wanting to lead us … to a faith in God that absolutely overwhelms fear! And who wouldn’t want to live life that way?

Well, today, we’re going to answer yet another important question that comes up all the time about being a Jesus Follower … and it is this: What should Jesus followers wear? And I know that many of you have just been dying to know this. It’s like the 4th week of the series and you’ve been holding yourselves back, but it’s like, “Rom, I want to become a follower of Jesus … but I just don’t know what to wear!” And so, if that’s you today, we’re going to help you out, starting right now with a little quiz. I’m going to show you some pictures and you’re going to tell me who these people are following by the clothes they wear. O.K. Are you ready? [Show team t-shirts on screen…] Here are some sports teams…

• Georgia Bulldogs…
• Green Bay Packers…
• Wisconsin Badgers…
• Milwaukee Brewers…
• Wisconsin/Brewers/Packers…
• Nashville Predators…

And religious people are known for what they wear sometimes too. How ‘bout these? Who are they following?

• The Prophet Muhammad, right (Muslim women in burkas)?
• Buddha (Buddhist priests)…
• Sikhism (Sik Priests, which we have in Milwaukee)…

So, this brings us right back to our question for the day: What should Jesus Followers wear? Can you tell a Christian/Follower of Jesus by what they wear? You should be able to. And I want to begin by saying this: Don’t dress like a Christian; dress like a Follower of Christ… And I think you’ll know what I mean here pretty quick…

It was the Apostle Paul—in his writings—who took his cues from the teachings of Jesus … and tells Jesus Followers what to wear! Paul shows up in history as someone who absolutely hated Christians … to begin with. He arrested them. He had them put to death! And then he became one of them (and you can read his story in Acts 26). He even admitted, at one time, that he actually hunted Christians down—Saul of Tarsus, Christian-slayer is how he was known. But when he became a Follower, his life changed … as we’ll see here in a few moments, but first let me explain:

Jesus set the behavioral standard for his followers in the simplest terms imaginable. So, Paul took the teachings of Jesus and began to flesh them out—making them even more practical for the Gentiles who didn’t have his (or Jesus’) background in faith. Now, let me set up this first scripture for today…

It’s what we know as Holy Thursday. Jesus was sharing a Passover meal with his disciples in an upper room. Judas has just left to sell Jesus out. The end is near. Jesus only has time for a couple more lessons with these guys that they are then going to carry forward. He’s just told them that he’s leaving … and they can’t go where he’s going … and their brains got stuck at this point. So, Jesus—not having much time left—decides to focus his energies on the main thing of all main things in terms of the practical ‘follow me’ kind of living. And here’s what he said…

34 “A new command I give you: [kainos; new, unused, strange, remarkable] Love one another. [Ascribe so much value to each other that you wouldn’t think of doing someone harm. He’s not commanding us to actually do something; it’s an attitude Jesus wants us to adopt. Then, he jacks up the standard…] As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

Matthew, you were a despicable tax-collector. ‘Remember how I treated you? … Nathanael, remember the day we met? Your exact words were: “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” You dissed my whole family, but I invited you anyway. … Remember in John 6, every one of you yahoos were going to leave me, but I didn’t leave you, did I? … Is this a big deal? YES! And Jesus goes on…

35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” [In other words, this is the mark; this is what people are going to see—how I want people to distinguish you. This is huge! And this is my favorite part…]

36 Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?” [I’m feeling left out. Is Andrew going? ‘Cause if he’s going, I’m going…]

It’s like that kid in the back seat of the car that never really listens when you’re giving instructions; he definitely has a huge problem with attention. It’s like he’s saying, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah … love one another. Got it. So … where are you going?’ Folks, this isn’t a religious line Jesus was feeding them here; it wasn’t something to blend into a worship song; what Jesus is saying here is … this is going to mark you! And…

What Jesus knew was this: In all kinds of religions—including ours, the human tendency is to gravitate away from treating each other well … and moving instead toward some kind of routine where we can get good at it and just say, ‘I’ve done that. I’m good to go now.’ It’s much harder to treat people well … consistently. And that’s why Jesus was saying what he was saying… In other words, the problem was (and is) rule keeping over relationship building, but is that right? It’s easier to go to church and pray and even read your Bible than to love difficult-to-love people, isn’t it? So…

22 years later, Paul sees this developing in the local church, and he fleshes it out so we know what it looks like in the real world. Let me explain: About 22 years after Jesus, Paul writes to Colossae, a small Phrygian city 100 miles from Ephesus in Asia Minor. He writes to the church there, and he knows they want to know what Christians should look like—specifically what they should wear (and you didn’t think I was going to get back to that). But what the heck does that look like? Finally, we get to this…

12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, [so here, Paul begins to tell us what Jesus Followers are supposed to wear] clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

So, here’s what Jesus Followers wear: Follow Wear…

• Compassion… In the Greek—the original language here, two words are actually used—literally, “bowels of compassion.” We might say today a “heart of compassion.” But, it’s really a compassion that comes from a deeper place than that; it’s a gut thing. So, on Mother’s Day, if you want to tell your mom just how much you love her, try this: “Mom, I love you with all my bowels” … or not…
• Kindness… This is when you loan your strength to someone else; that’s what kindness is. When someone needs something done for them, you do it for them; you loan them your strength for that particular task. That’s kindness…
• Humility… Now, remember, all of these things we’re to put on … are in relationship to other people. Humility is … seeing myself as I really am in relationship to other people and to God—viewing myself accurately. If you’re someone who’s considered special for any reason (i.e. more money, better job, more education, specific talents, etc.), you need to come off as someone who understands that those things are not what makes you special! What makes you special … is what makes them special; you are a follower of Jesus! That’s humility…
• Gentleness… Gentleness, folks, is the decision to respond to others in light of their strengths & weaknesses, instead of responding solely out of your strength. Someone once said, ‘It’s the difference between picking up a contact lens on the end of your finger … and picking up a baseball with the palm of your hand.’ You have the capacity to do both, but you adjust your approach and you adjust your strength according to the object of your strength. Put on gentleness; wear that outfit…
• Patience… This one’s easy. Patience is deciding to go the speed of another person. Have you ever got behind a slow driver on a two lane highway? Need I say more? And this is to apply to every area of our relationships with others. This is the stuff I want you to put on every morning. Paul says in verse 13, “Bear with each other…”

13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

• Forgiveness… How are we to forgive? Just like Jesus forgave us… Do you remember how many times you said to God, ‘Never again’ … and then you did it again? Do you have any idea how patient God has been with you? And how many times God’s forgiven you? That’s the kind of wardrobe Jesus wants us to wear every day! And when we do, people will know we are Jesus’ Followers…

And then Paul ends with this…

14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

This is the canopy under which all these other clothes hang. LOVE is kind of the summary word or idea for everything Paul’s just listed for us to put on every single day! So, there’s the whole list. This is FOLLOW WEAR. This is Follow Wear. And we’re supposed to dress in it every day. This isn’t about abandoning your personality; this is about putting on a new filter through which the real you is expressed! So, in the morning, we need to mentally put this stuff on; this is what Jesus Followers wear…

So, how are you going to remember all of this? I’m going to help you out right now, but first I have a question for you (and be honest, please): How many of you have ever been to a PG Chick Flick? Well, it doesn’t really matter… But this is the best I could do for an acronym so that you could remember how to dress every day… Are you ready?

• P – Patience
• G – Gentleness
• C – Compassion
• H – Humility
• K – Kindness
• F – Forgiveness
• L – Love
• K – An extra dose of Kindness, just in case you need it…

So, there you go… PG CHK FLK to help you remember what to wear every day as a Jesus Follower…

Now, folks, I understand (and so does God) … that these clothes we’re being asked to wear aren’t natural for us. Living this way doesn’t come natural for us. For instance, Jesus is basically saying ‘I want you to love like I’ve loved you.’ In other words, ‘I want you to love not the way people deserve to be loved, but the way I’ve love you—unconditionally.’ That’s not natural, is it? But, God says, this is what I want you to do. In the morning, I want you to put this stuff on … and I want to…

• …filter your Type A personality through this stuff…
• …filter your anger through this stuff…
• …filter your list of things you have to do through this stuff … and if you can’t get it all done … and you can’t sleep at night, I want you to filter that through all this stuff, too…
• …filter your weakness through this stuff … that I might be your strength when you’re relating to others…

You see, the less of all these things we are, the more noticeable God becomes … and that’s always a good thing for everyone! The problem with some who’ve given up on the church … or dropped out of the church at some point … is that they’ve met too many undressed or half-dressed Christians … who had the routine down, who had a ritual, who might have had the right words, or thought they had all the answers … but they were poorly dressed—just not dressed the way God’s word tells us to dress. And these approaches were designed to make a point, but Jesus calls us to make a difference!

So, folks, let’s clothe ourselves with PG CHK FLK, shall we? If we do, do you know what will happen? It’ll make a difference. It’ll make a difference because, just as God’s overwhelming love has made a difference in you, God’s overwhelming love will make a difference through you too! Too many people still think Jesus just came to make a point; he didn’t; he came to make a difference … and Jesus still desires to make one through you! God’s overwhelming love will make a difference through you, as you clothe yourself with his love! PG CHK FLK. Folks, don’t forget to get dressed in the morning…