Following Jesus is so cool. It’s liberating, it’s exhilarating and it’s awe-inspiring. It’s so much more than going to church on Sunday and being a “good” person. It's having a best friend, experiencing incredible peace and joy and living righteously because you sincerely love your Father and seek to please him.
1. You gain a best friend. 
Isn't it amazing that you can drive down the road and pour out your heart to God as you would to someone in the passenger seat? You can find God’s presence in your loneliness because you know that He will never leave you nor forsake you, even when you are in darkness. What a friend we have in Jesus. Not "what a bully," not "what a Santa Claus," not "what a policeman," and not "what a genie who grants us three wishes." Jesus wants to be our friend, not some detached and angry dictator.
2. You have an unexplainable peace and joy.
You feel at peace about your life because you know that God has placed you in the town, with the people, and doing the work he has assigned you to. You have this incredible joy because you are convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39). This knowledge sets us free and makes us want to sing, dance, laugh, smile and soak up every precious and beautiful moment of life!
3. You live righteously because you want to.
Church, I believe many of us are missing the point. We don’t put enough emphasis on the fact that following Christ isn’t simply following a list of rules and not being a “bad” person, rather, it is entering a real relationship with Jesus. When you are in love with your Creator, you don’t follow his rules because you have to. You avoid sin because you have experienced the dark place is takes you—a place where you feel dirty, shameful and hopeless. You seek to obey God because you know that he knows best for you, and everything he commands us to do is for our good. He is for us, not against us.
We are teaching children that it is more important to not to tell a lie than it is to fall in love with Jesus. We are sending the message to nonbelievers that being a Christian means hating those who disagree with you, spending all hours locked in your room memorizing scripture and being the party-pooper, sucking all of the fun out of each moment. We all argue so much over the stupidest and pettiest things such as who uses what bathroom when I believe God is looking down and saddened by our misunderstanding. I believe He wants us to stop seeking everything else and start seeking His face because when we do, life comes alive.
