Summary
Coming soon!
Transcript
Good morning, church. Good morning. Oh, man. Good seeing you all this morning.
Whoo, what rain we got last night. My goodness. We got the rain, we got the wind, we got everything. It's just wild, wild, wild things. Sorry, my table. I'm a little OCD about my Okay, now I'm good, now I'm good, now I'm good. Now I'm good. Hey, you got a couple quick announcements. I want to make sure that you guys are aware of
Really just one because Pastor Charlie covered most of them. But the one thing I want to make sure you know, where are the daughters at in the room? Where are the ladies at in the room? Come on.
The last Daughters Reel talk of this season covering the Book of Philippians is going to be this Tuesday, seven o'clock, door's open, .. They're going to be going over chapter four of Philippians. And man, it is going to be a really great time, a really great celebration. And so if you've made the other daughters, man, make sure you come to this one. It's going to be awesome. If you've missed all of them, good news. Philippians only four chapters. Just read the first three chapters and then show for the fourth chapter. And it's going to be awesome. It's going to be a really, really great time to be able to get together and hang out. And even if you don't read it, just come, glean, have conversations. It's such a good time to be encouraged, to hang out together, and awesome, just an awesome time.
Then secondly, I just wanted to ask a question because I feel like it's important. Did anyone in the room, anyone in the room, did anyone in the room get married yesterday?
Oh my goodness. And then at church Sunday morning,
that's a pretty awesome thing. So if you didn't see them, they're down here riding their wagon, they're down here at the front. Second row down here. This is important, you know, if you just happen to be like, wow, look at this young couple who are here at church and you happen to go and give them a really good old school Pentecostal handshake as a wedding gift. That just sometimes happens. Sometimes it happens in church because the spirit moves that way. So pretty exciting for that to happen. Okay, now we're going to lock in. Now we've got to get into the work because I've got a lot to talk about today. I'm super excited. Hey, we're continuing our spiritual formation series and man, am I looking forward to it? But before we get into this, I'd like to go ahead and kind of get ourselves refocused. I'm going to invite you to stand up, stand up for the reading of today's scripture verse. Let your imagination, your heart, your mind kind of open up. Think about these words that are coming from Jesus. Imagine if he said these to you in the context of where you're at right now. Mark chapter one, verse and , Jesus said, "Come follow me and I will send you out to fish for people. At once they left their nets and they followed him."
Father God, I thank you for today. I thank you that you're here in this place. I think your presence is in this place. Lord, I think the invitation to follow you, just like it was there years ago, is still here for each and every one of us, for us to follow you.
To lay down our ways, to lay down our provision, to lay down our thoughts, and to follow you.
So this morning, Lord, allow us to just press into that idea.
It's in your holy name we pray, amen and amen.
Amen. Have you ever thought about that story and thought, what in the world could have happened? What could be so compelling about Jesus Christ that two guys, fishermen,
in their early s more than likely, that a man could come up to them and call them and say, "Hey, I want you to follow me.
I've got no house. I've got no income. I've got no job. I've got no guarantee of provision. And I'm asking you to leave your family business, to leave what you're doing, not sometime, not once you get things in order, but right now."
And for that invitation to go out and the response to be ecstatic, "Absolutely, I'm doing it right now." And what we hear in some of the other accounts, "Leave Dad just high and dry with the business," which dads are like, "Yeah, that seems about right."
To clean the nets, you know, all the cleaning part that didn't have.
And to follow Jesus.
And maybe you're like sitting here thinking, "Boy, I can't even, I don't know. And if I would, I don't know if I could." Like, that's such a hard idea. I think that sometimes we understand that the context of this story really will help us maybe illuminate what was being offered by Jesus. Because maybe we don't really understand what the offer is fully. Like, yes, because we know that Jesus is the Son of God. More than likely, if Jesus walked up to you and your job and said, "Dennis, come follow me," you'd be like, "Well, I'm retired." So that's easy. Yeah, here we go. No problem.
But these people just had heard of this guy named Jesus from Nazareth. And what they knew of Jesus at that time, at that moment, was that he was a rabbi. Now, you've probably heard this word "Rabbi." Jesus wasn't the first rabbi, and he wasn't the last rabbi. He wasn't even the only rabbi in that area. "Rabbi" means "teacher." And a rabbi is like a Bible teacher who goes through and explains both the Old Testament, what it means, their interpretation of what it means, and ways in which you can access and live the good life or God's best life for you. A good idea, and you've probably heard this, the idiom that they use, this analogy, it would be a rabbi's yoke. So a rabbi's yoke is what he would put on the people that listen to him to understand the Word, right? So when Jesus says, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light," he's talking about the yoke that I'm placing on you, not like this physical burden, but my teaching is a pretty simple and an uncomplex teaching. And it's not something that's a heavy burden on you, that is something else. And so he was this rabbi. Now, Jesus was much more than just a rabbi.
We know he wasn't just a rabbi, just like he wasn't just a prophet. We know that he was the Son of God. We know he was the many things. But he also wasn't less than a rabbi. He was a rabbi. He was a teacher, and he was a teacher who actually instructed ways to interact with this world and ways to live and ways to access the good life that God had for you. And sometimes in our modern culture, this is where we sometimes allow ourselves to slip into different things in certain church cultures and traditions, as we think that, man, Jesus was this ultimate sacrifice and Jesus was the Son of God. And we forget that the teachings of Jesus were actually for a purpose and were truth, and you can't just decide, "I don't know if I agree with Jesus on that idea."
And there are people who live that way who think, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, Jesus is awesome, man, he saved me from my sins. I mean, he teaches about this particular thing about marriage or about prayer or about this, but I don't know if I agree with Jesus about that."
Jesus was a teacher who was teaching us the understanding and the heart of God. And although sometimes, and we spent a really long time last year studying one of his biggest sections of teaching, is the Sermon on the Mount, sometimes it's complex and sometimes it's difficult and sometimes you've got to wrestle through it. He is always % accessing and creating and teaching from the heart of God. And here's the important thing that we have to understand about rabbis. Rabbis had something, all rabbis had these, that when they went around, because rabbis were typically itinerant and were typically traveling, so they moved around from place to place and they taught at different synagogues and different locations. That was just like, "That's the rabbi way." And Jesus was no different if you studied his life. But what all rabbis had was they had what was called talmadin, which is, our Bibles translate those as disciples, right? Or students or learners. Like that is what they had. And different rabbis would have different numbers. Sometimes you'd see someone, like historically there was a couple of famous rabbis, one had five and one had and one had , like they had these different talmadin, and they were invited to study under the rabbi, to learn from the rabbi. Now, this is different than maybe the way that we view education today. And so I want to talk a little bit about the education system so we can understand. Because, see, our education system right now, and I'm not saying this is bad, this is how it's very informational. You get a lot of information. You get a lot of facts. You get a lot of data. You get a lot of learning how plus is . You learn a lot. It's informational. But see, the ancient education system, the Jewish education system, it was less informational although there was information, but it was formational. Meaning it was with a purpose of forming you into a type of person, into a particular type of person. And so when you went and studied under the rabbi, you were wanting to be, you had a desire to be formed by that rabbi, not just informed by that rabbi, but to be formed by that teacher. And the way that school worked is interesting, and I think it's cool, and the other nerds in the room will school because the Jewish education system kind of had three levels, right? Three levels of education, so you had to bet safer, right? That's like elementary school. It started at , and it usually went to , and what they did was they studied primarily the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. And most students, by the time that they were years old, they had memorized the entire first five books of the Bible.
That's pretty wild.
I was really proud when I memorized the book of Jonah, and that's really short, comparatively. I've also, in case you're wondering, forgot the book of Jonah. So that's where that went. But the entire book, and you're like, wow. And at the end of this time, at years old, the vast majority of these students would be told, go home, go to the fields, go to your parents' business, go to the trade, do whatever. Your education journey is done.
Your education journey is done. By the way, sidebar, women did not get educated.
They did not go. Only boys.
Then at this point at , the selection, the cream of the crop from each kind of area would be invited to the next level of school. It's almost like secondary school, right? It goes from to , which is called Bet Midrash, which is the house of learning. And this is where it was at a special room, usually built off certain local regional synagogues, and they would go and they would study the entire, what would we consider the entire Old Testament. And again, the vast majority, by the time they were , would have the entire Old Testament memorized word for word.
That's wild to me. No getting a different culture. Not everyone had access to Scripture, so the only way you could have Scripture with you all the time, you'd have "you" version, was you had "you" version, like right here.
So they would study this. And then at , the vast majority would be told, that was really great.
Your education journey is over. Go home, get into the fields, go to your parents' business. There was this saying, in fact, it was saying, go home, get married, have kids, and hope that one day they will be smart enough and bright enough in the top of the top that they can go to the third level of education. But that's not you.
Isn't that harsh? It's not you. You're not it. The third level, the cream of the crop, would be someone who would be available, open, to become a disciple.
I think a good word that we could use, a lot of people are using this word because I think it works better on our modern vernacular, is the word "apprentice."
An apprentice.
Someone who's going to learn from a master. And they're invited to become an apprentice.
And so they have to find a rabbi who's willing to offer an apprenticeship to them. So there's two things that happen. They have to find a rabbi that when they hear their teachings, they're drawn to this rabbi. And then that rabbi has to accept them. And usually there was like an interview process. They would ask all sorts of questions. Some of the questions that you guys sometimes ask me, and I usually go, I don't know. Like stuff like, what do you think about the Nephilim? I don't know. Oh, it's early.
I don't know.
Did Adam have a belly button? Oh, gosh, here we go. I don't know any of these questions, right? So they would ask these questions. Because these kids, at this point, they're , and they're masters of the law, but they're walking through this process. And so they're invited. And at some point, if the rabbi decides you are acceptable to be part of his following, to be an apprentice of him, he will make the formal invitation, which is come and follow me.
Come and follow me.
And then at that point, in this ultimate level of education at years old, what we would consider maybe like university level, right? You had three jobs of what you were supposed to do at that point. There's three goals of an apprentice of a rabbi, which is the first is to be with that rabbi all the time. You leave your family, you leave your trade, you leave your area, and you follow that rabbi. You eat with him, you sleep with him, you journey with him, and you're continually with him all the time.
You Sabbath, you feast, you fast, you do all of it together. You are with him.
Then the second thing is the goal is you are supposed to become like your rabbi.
Now, I don't know if you've ever spent time with people. You know, when you spend time with a group of people, all of a sudden you start to talk like them or act like them or dress like them. Like, and you can be in a group, it could be around a certain idea or a certain hobby or a certain event. And like when you do that, you begin to talk and act like that. If you spend enough time with a certain group of people, you guys begin to say the same things, do the same things, dress the same way. Like, that is part of what happens. And so the whole goal is that you're supposed to spend time with this rabbi and you're supposed to become like him to understand how he would respond to situations. How does he respond to conflict? How does he respond when there's like an issue? And how does he speak? And how does the tone and inflection of his voice? And you start to do that over and over again. You copy him.
And then once you're done, the whole goal is that you want to do what your rabbi did. Like, for example, if you decided to become an electrician, let's say, and you decided to become an apprentice of an electrician craft and career, you go through at the end of the apprenticeship and it's just not like, well, that was great, now I know how electricity works.
No, the whole goal is so that you can go and rent electricity for a house or so that you can go and fix things that are broken, like an electrician or a plumber or an HVAC guy or someone who goes to a beauty school or any of these things that they're still an apprenticeship model in our modern A and H. Their whole goal is not just to learn, it's so that at the end of it, they can go and do what their teachers taught them to do.
And so this person who's been following this rabbi now usually, and this is this, at age , at the end of , like, that's a long time.
All through their s, from to , at the end of that time, their rabbi, when they think they're ready, the common term, the common phrase that was said in this culture, in Jewish culture, was they would tell them, they'd look at them, and they would say, "Go and make disciples.
Go and make your own Talmadin, your own apprentices."
And they were commissioned that way as a rabbi. And it was very important, like, people would have their lineage. It's like, "I trained under rabbi soandso who trained under rabbi soandso." It's like a lineage. It's just like Star Wars, right? Like, whichever Jedi you were under, you tracked your lineage.
Some of you know what I'm talking about. Some of you don't.
It's important who your masters are. Paul referenced it in his letters. Paul talked about, "I trained under this rabbi," who was a very wellknown rabbi, one of the most wellknown rabbis at the time. Like, "This was the rabbi that I had dedicated my life to be an apprentice under."
Really big deal.
Now, what does that matter? What does that matter? Here's what's interesting. In the New Testament, the word Christian is mentioned three times.
It's actually like a derogative that was actually kind of a demeaning word, which is great. I have no problem with Christian. It's a good word. But the word disciple is used times.
Jesus never invited anybody to become a Christian or to convert to a new religion.
Jesus invited people to follow me and to become a disciple, to become an apprentice. That's a very different proposition. And it's a very different proposition than what it is. And so here's the thing. This invitation to be with Jesus, like in our vernacular, what we say here, we call it knowing Jesus. Like, we want to know Jesus so we can show Jesus. This whole process of being with Jesus is this idea of understanding that when I spend time with Jesus, I will get to know Him and I will get to know how loved I am by Him.
I will get to see how much He is. I will be able to spend this proximity in which I can allow His goodness and His love to begin to rub off and for me to understand because we are built, we are inherently given this desire to look for love. The moment that a child is born, it's immediately looking for who is going to look back at me with love.
That is like innate and we continue to look for that forever, for our whole life. In this first step of understanding, there's this invitation to be with me that Jesus is inviting me to. I realize that I get to walk in this, I get to know who He is. I get to be with Him.
That I can see who He is. Mark chapter verse says, He appointed the twelve that they might be with Him and they might send them out to preach,
to create this friendship with God.
John , Jesus says that, He says, I no longer call you slaves, I call you friends.
We get this opportunity to Biden Him, to practice His presence, to realize that He's with me all day.
That He is not just this thing that purchased me eternity, but He is a thing that is with me every moment of every day, in every situation, and I can learn from how He lived and how He lives currently.
That I can experience that.
That there's this invitation that I can become like my rabbi, like Jesus. I can become like Him. Luke chapter , says, the student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.
This process, this training process, this process of in the time of being with Jesus, that slowly I'm transformed more and more and more to look like Him, to sound like Him, to have His mannerisms, to speak, to allow the Holy Spirit to come in. And here's what's wild. Here's what's so important. Some people think like, oh my gosh, they hear something like this and they think this is the worst thing ever. Because their mind is that what Jesus is creating is a bunch of like automatron, limbing things that all look the same, act the same, sound the same, dress the same. And it's like, I just, I don't know if I can be, I don't know if I fit in. That's not what Jesus asked at all. Look at the people that Jesus invited to follow Him. They could not have been more diverse.
You literally had a tax collector who's like the most antiJewish proRoman kind of idea. And then a person who was literally a terrorist against the Romans, a zealot, together. They hated each other. You had fishermen. You had educated people. It was so, it was like Jesus, like you know, on like shows, like back in the day they had those like reality TV shows that like they would like put everybody in a house and like you're like, you literally picked everyone to like hate each other. And they're like, exactly.
We wouldn't put everyone together that's like, these guys will give their God, like no one wants to see people like, this is pretty cool. Want to have some lunch? Like no one wants that. They want people who are like diametrically opposed in every single way because that's going to create conflict. And if you look at Jesus disciples, you may wonder if that is not exactly what He did because they were totally different.
And He pulled them in and it's because the Spirit of God creates unity in diversity. You are not called to be like everyone else. You are called to be you. And the Holy Spirit puts the very character of God in you and then your personality, your spirit, how God created you, mixes and combines with the Spirit of God to make the very unique person and the unique part or member or the body of Christ that is just you. That is why you are important because you apply and create one specific role. There's no other you like it. Even though there's been millions of followers before you and there'll be millions of followers after you. The truth is you are unique and individual because of how your spirit and the Spirit of God combine to create the intended purpose of how God destined you to be.
What a beautiful picture.
And in spending time, I become to grow more like Him. I learn how He talks. I respond to things like He responds.
I say like He says.
And you know what's interesting is in becoming like Him, I get the opportunity to realize like all the fears and the brokenness and things in my life I can be set free from because He is set free from those things.
I can look at this end in mind and I can say I can become a person who has been loved into being loving, who walks in the fruits of the spirit, who's mature, who's able to have patience beyond like we have this idea of what we can walk through.
That I can press into certain desires of my heart that God says yes I put these desires and then there's certain desires that I have to run away from and reject because they're not from God.
And I learned what those are because I've been with Him and my rabbi teaches me what it looks like.
And then doing what He did.
And then I learned that there's this do what He did.
Jesus said in Matthew chapter four when He's doing one of the callings He says come follow me Jesus says and I'll teach you to be fishers of men or to fish for people. And sometimes you may just think that was like this cheesy like whatever like okay Jesus. But like this was a very common name that's like when you finish learning from me, I will teach you in a way that you can win the hearts and the minds of people.
Jesus always had this idea of being able to multiply Himself and for His disciples to be able to multiply themselves that they were going to be able to go into win the hearts and minds of people with God's goodness and with God's love because at the heart of every individual is the desire to be part of something that's bigger than themselves.
To be part of something that lasts beyond your last breath here on earth.
And when you understand what it looks like to be able to participate in the same way that Jesus participate.
To share the love to go and to pray for people to be able to speak about the Bible with other people to witness to other people like to pray and believe that someone can be healed to be an example like those kind of things you're doing as He did is this invitation. He doesn't want you to be with Him and to become like Him just so you can see like thanks Jesus that was great.
That's why He says no one would put a light and hide it under a basket. No, that doesn't work. You are a city on a hill. Everyone sees you because the light that is inside of you glows. So people will be drawn to you. So when they're drawn.
Guess what?
You get to do what Jesus did.
You get to do what Jesus did. So here's the thing.
If we understand that concept.
There's something that's just a pretty wild thing that happens.
When Jesus invited those people to follow me.
They weren't the cream of the crop.
They were already at home. It doesn't tell us when they had to go. Maybe they made it to . Maybe they made it , but they weren't apprentices anywhere else. They were in the family business. Maybe they were told go home, get married, have kids and maybe one day they can become a rabbi, but you're not it.
And the not cream of the crop.
The not top.
Look down and said, Hey, follow me.
Follow me.
Here's another little fun side by side. I didn't put my notes. Do you know who called Jesus rabbi the most in our biblical narratives?
It was all the women followers.
Do you know why it was all the women followers who always called him rabbi?
Because Jesus was the only one who was willing to teach the women.
Jesus was the only one who had women as his followers. You know, the girl trio, Mary, Mary, Mary, that group.
And there was many others, Joanna. There was other people listed and his fault. Like they called him rabbi.
And for us, sometimes it's like, boy, that seems informal.
No, it's because he was the first one who looked at them and said, I'll teach you.
Because in God's eyes, you are equal.
Even that, like sometimes we just spot flash past that because of our modern society. Like that is something that Jesus did.
This amazing belief.
So when Peter gets called.
And if I know Peter story, and I see the rest of like when his rough edges, Peter had never been picked for anything.
And Peter just got called and said, do you want to become my apprentice?
You may not believe you can do it.
But Jesus believed he could do it.
Jesus believed he could do it. Jesus believed that Matthew could be an apprentice. Jesus believed that Peter and James and John and all those people that he called. And he believed in them no matter what their past and their background. And he even believed in the one who would ultimately betray him.
But there's this calling.
This calling.
That's why Matthew , , Jesus said this to all his disciples.
He says, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me. Now a lot of times we focus on the back half. Take up the cross and follow me. We'll probably talk about this more over the weeks to come and what that looks like and what that means. But the part that would have been more scandalous than thinking about the idea of suffering to follow your rabbi, because that was common, no one thought anything, was the first part where he said, whoever.
Whoever. You didn't get picked when you were . You didn't get picked when you were . You didn't get picked because you were a woman. You didn't get picked because that rabbi dropped you.
Whoever believes in me, whoever chooses to follow me, you will be my apprentices.
Whoever is this invitation?
In Matthew chapter seven, he says this thing entered through the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life and only a few find it.
Now, sometimes people look at that as like this idea. They try to see only a few people are getting into heaven. No, that's not what Jesus is saying here at all. What he's saying is there's only one way to come into unity with the Father and that's through the work of Jesus Christ. So it's narrow. But guess what? It doesn't just stop at salvation. There is one way, one path, one exodus from slavery into the Promised Land. There is one journey that you can take and that path is narrow because living in truth is narrow. You cannot step to the left or you cannot step to the right because the truth and the path that God has for you is singular. And it may have ups and downs and valleys and mountains and darkness and light. It may have highs and lows and may have everything in it. But the path is singular because the truth is only one.
And so the way of Jesus is narrow.
But not because people can't do it, but because it's singular.
And you have to become an apprentice.
And Jesus believes in you. He believes that you can become a disciple, that you can live under the gaze of his father, that you can become a person who's transformed into someone who's filled with love and joy and peace and patience and kindness. That you can be a person that has joy in even unbearable and difficult circumstances. That even in suffering you can praise God. Like he believes that that is someone that you can become, that you have the ability inside of you. And all you need to do is to answer the call of will you follow me?
Will you follow me?
Here's what's crazy.
In America right now, according to Paul, again statistics are statistics, % of them are made up. But according to some things that I actually trust, % of Americans still would claim and identify as a Christian. Like I'm a Christian. That's my religious view.
And this next thing is like hard, like I said, but when they go through and they actually ask questions about lifestyle, beliefs, practices, habits, only % would be considered to be a follower of Jesus.
That's why C.S. Lewis in Screwtape Letters, if you haven't read it, it's a great book, but whenever Warmwood is writing back to Screwtape, he's concerned because he says, "The person that I've met to torment, he just accepted Jesus and Screwtape writes back, don't worry, I know he's made this conversion, but his habits are still in our favor."
Yeah, I accepted Jesus, but don't worry, his habits are still in the enemy's favor.
The way they live does not line up with the way of Jesus.
And here's the thing, we as a church are about to start a really incredible time. We're about to start this spiritual formation classes that are going to be on Wednesday nights. They start here in just a few weeks. We've got like people signed up already. By the way, it's almost all women and men, I'm pretty disappointed because I literally gave you a heads up and told you it was coming at men's meeting. I said, I want you to be the first thing and you've let me out how to drive. Okay, so sign up or else we're going to throw hands next men's meeting. And it's a way in which we can learn what is the way of Jesus, how can I practice the way of Jesus so that in being with him, becoming like him, and doing him, how can I know him?
How can I show him my life? How can I grow in his ways? How can I be transformed?
And listen, if you came back from a very religious background, maybe a religious background that was a lot about works, a lot about earning, like learning love and earning salvation, sometimes we start talking about practices or certain habits, like you could have some flags go up like, nope, not doing it.
I get it. I'm also a nope not doing it kind of person.
But I want you to understand something.
Effort is different than earning. You cannot earn God's love.
But walking in his path, the calling that Jesus asked you to do, the things that he will lead you to, it will require effort.
The journey, the way, it will be a journey.
You'll be led by the most incredible, gracious, loving person ever, but it will require effort. The story that God put in my mind this morning when I was praying, it was the thing that highlights this idea, this practicing, this way of Jesus, was something that happened about a year ago.
About a year ago, you guys maybe remember, my whole family, we took a really long trip and we went through all the Southwest and we went to a bunch of national parks and we did a lot of hikes. It was great.
But on one of the hikes, we decided to go home. I decided to take my two older boys and we were going to go on a real hardcore hike in the Grand Canyon. And we decided all we did was like which one did they say is the hardest one? Because that's the one we're going to do. Because why not? Had we trained for that? No. Were we prepared for that? No. But come on. We're going to do it. So we picked the hardest one and they say, this is where you should go. And we had a plan and we had our snacks and we had our water and we had our sheets and we had this idea. We started at the right time. All this stuff was going to happen. All right. And we got to the place that we were supposed to get to and then sit there and hang out for the while and turn around. And we were going to turn back at that point. But I just had this idea of like, you know, but I bet I could go further.
I bet I could go further down the valley because this is cool. But wouldn't further be better.
And so I convinced my boys to go with us.
And maybe you've hiked mountains and maybe you've been to the Grand Canyon, but there's this weird law like going down is way easier than going up.
And also it's way easier to hike when it's still than when the canyon all of a sudden really quickly warms up to .
Like it gets real hot real fast.
So all of a sudden we're coming back and I'm thinking, well, this is not going to be fun.
And then one of my kids starts throwing up and then they can't seem to keep hydrated. They start like a dozen times in the noon. Like it gets really scary and then we have to be able to find reception and we get met with a park ranger and they have to hike in supplies to be able to get them to be recovered. And we're doing IVs on the side of a mountain, which could be really like we're doing this whole process, right?
And then ultimately they have to hike back up to the top after we do all this and we survive. We're still alive. We're here. My kids are maybe scarred. They told me they do not want to go on any hikes this summer.
But here's the thing. And this is what God like painted in my mind.
If you want to know because I am % understanding, I know that we as believers are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. There's nothing you can do that you can earn that that will not change.
Nothing changes that. Nothing changed that. And in this way, this journey of life that God invites us to, this path that we're invited to, follow Him as our rabbi, as our teacher, to be instructed on how to live.
Grace is the very trailhead, the very start of this journey, this road. Grace is the very trailhead. But grace doesn't just get us to the trailhead and say, okay, you're on your own. Go and do everything else on this path. Like, that is not what grace is because grace is also the guide map that tells you where you're supposed to go and turn left or turn right. Grace is the pace that allows you to know this is how fast I'm going to go or how slow I'm going to go. Grace is the equipment that you need so you got the right shoes. I really wish I would have had some of those hiking sticks. I thought they were dumb until all of a sudden I realized those were really important.
Grace is the nourishment and the water that you need on your journey so you don't die and become sick and throw up and have all these kind of issues. Grace is the wisdom to know you shouldn't go further down the valley.
Grace is even the rescue team when you did go further down the valley and you need grace to find you right where you're at. Like, I really blew this. I was on the path. You told me to stay on the path and I decided to go off the path.
And wouldn't you know it, now I need rescue and I need IVs.
Grace is there every step of the way. But you know, I'll never forget what the person told us. They're like, listen, we're going to get you this food. We're going to get you these things. We're going to get you this water. We're going to get you this rest. We're going to get you this IV. But at the end of the day, you still are the one who has to hike back up the mountain.
You still have to finish the journey. Now we're with you. We're going to be walking in front of you. We're going to be walking behind you. We're going to be setting the pace. We're going to make sure you get there. But you still get to walk on this journey because the invitation from God is not forced. It is not coerced. It is not done at the end of a whip. It is an invitation. It says the journey is here for you. And although grace is there every step of the way, it is still a journey. And even with it, sometimes the journey can be challenging.
And he may grow some things out of you in that journey that hurts.
That you don't like.
We'll talk about this more in the future, but Jesus is replying this idea that the whole Exodus narrative in the Old Testament is this three phases. It's the way out of Egypt. I'm out of slavery.
And then it's a way through the wilderness because we can get you out of slavery immediately, but we got to get slavery out of you.
And some of you like, man, I'm saved. I'm free. And it's like, that's great. And now we got to get that slavery out of you, which is why on the other side, you pass through the waters and you enter into the promised land again.
This way out, this way through, and this way in.
And sometimes it's hard. Sometimes in the wilderness it's hard. Sometimes you're walking and your quads burn.
All this is done. And so when we walk through these practices and we take these classes and we say, hey, let's try to do some of these things to these people. Let's see if we can create space so that I can be with Jesus more.
So I can be more aware of his presence.
So that I can learn more from my teacher.
We're not telling you to earn something because you can't earn it. We're inviting you to go on the journey with Christ. To be led by him.
To be paced by him. To be guided by him. To be taught by him. Because here's what's interesting. I'll close with this. I know I'm keeping you late.
The kids are fine, I think.
I can't hear them.
Often in modern Christianity we talk about discipleship as a verb.
Like, who are you discipling? Who are you being discipled by? Is this action? But that is not how it's used in the Bible. It is not a verb. It's not something that you do. Discipleship is something that you are. It's a noun. It's always a noun. Just like a Christian is a noun. Follow away is a noun. A disciple is a noun. It is who you are. And the problem is if we think of discipleship as a verb, then it's very easily to think that someone else needs to do it to me. My church needs to do it to me. My parents need to do it to me. My spouse needs to do it to me. As someone else's responsibility. But when you realize that it's not a verb, it is a noun. It is an identity that you say, that is who I am. I am choosing to be a follower of Jesus Christ. And the only one who I will follow is him. So therefore the only person who is leading me through this process is him, Jesus.
He's my rabbi.
I'm not your rabbi.
I'm a local pastor who's here to hopefully illuminate some God's word to you. But I'm not meant to disciple you. I'm not equipped for that.
Only one person is equipped for that. That's Jesus Christ.
But he is equipped to do it with the work and the partnership of his Holy Spirit to lead you and to guide you through every single way.
And so these classes are starting. And man, I cannot wait to be able to walk through it with you. I'm going to be the person who's kind of facilitating and leading the discussions. And we're going to get to watch some really great content and then break into groups and talk about it. And then we have a little bit of homework and some things that we get to do and discuss throughout the week. It's just a really powerful thing. The whole church staff went through it. And man, I'm telling you what, it was such a really powerful, encouraging time to walk through it. It's going to be on Wednesdays. We're going to have childcare. Like we've thought of the things so that you can come and say yes to this journey. Because the things that I desperately want is people who are growing in their maturity to become more and more like Jesus.
I want people who know Jesus more so they can show Jesus more. That's always been our mission. That's since I've been here and that's always what we want to do. I want you to become more and more like God. So yes, we want to be intentional about creating time for us to spend in the presence of Jesus.
And so we're going to start these.
It's an eight week commitment.
And it's going to be really fun. It's going to be really fun. It's going to be really enjoyable. And at the end of it, we'll have this opportunity to go different directions and to figure out some other things. But boy, I'm telling you what, it's just the first step of this journey, this invitation of saying, you know what? I'm already following something in my life. I'm already being shaped and molded by something, by society, by culture, by Instagram, by media, by TV, by Fox News, by CNN. But I'm already having those things trying to shape and manipulate who I am. Instead, I'm going to be intentional and say, actually, Jesus, I want you to be the one who forms me. Can I lay my life down at your feet and you teach me how to do that?
And guess what? We're going to share a bunch of stuff, but I will tell you this. If your rabbi doesn't tell you to do it, don't do it.
Plain and simple.
That's it.
We're just trying to do it together in community. Because in community, we can encourage each other, challenge each other, keep each other accountable, so that we can move forward together.
Do this for me. Let's pray together. Right where you're at. Father, we just thank you for who you are.
Your love and your mercy is so good.
You're teaching, your guidance, your wisdom is so strong and powerful.
Lord, right now, I know I covered a bunch of stuff and I went all over the place, Lord, but I just know that your spirit is working in people's hearts.
Lord, I know that there's an invitation that's here, an invitation to say, follow me. Follow me.
Follow me.
And maybe there's some people here in this room who've never made that decision to follow you in any capacity.
Lord, I pray that you work in your hearts. Maybe there's some people who made that decision at some point in the past, but it was just a very surface level decision and they have this stirring in their heart of like, I want to know you more. I want to be known by you more. I want to be loved by you more.
I pray that they would answer the call, follow me.
And even the people who are here that have been living a life following you, continue to stir in their spirit that there's always more,
that there's always further up and further in,
and that we can answer the call, follow you.
We can put down our nets, and we can jump out of our boats,
and we can just be after you.
We love you, Father.
We thank you for who you are. In your holy name we pray, amen, amen. Well, church, we love you. I kept you late, way late. I'm sorry, not sorry. I will see you later. Have a great rest of your Sunday.
Now I'm a living testimony of your grace. God, you give me purpose for a brand new day because I spend my records on a Sunday.
Before I get myself to church, I put on my best face, I'm not me dancing. I cannot wait to get out the door. We go to the house of the Lord. Come on now.
See, on the first day I make mistakes, and on the second day I lost my way. But on the third day I'm running fresh, and never since then, they been the same, they been the same, they been the same. See, I open up the word and everything's out of change. We're moving since the beginning.
