What Does a Disciple Look Like?

0 (0s): Father God, I thank you for this morning. I think you, that we are here to worship you and here to praise you. And so we just bless your name. God, we take this time and we just, we want to sing to you. Jesus. Amen. 1 (20s): he can move by God. 1 (3m 24s): He is mighty to save. He is Jesus . 2 (13m 42s): Oh, thank you, Lord. Thank you for the privilege that you've given us that new and living way. So we can enter in to the holy of Holies by the blood of our savior and Lord Jesus Christ. Or thank you that as we gather in your name, as we come near you and draw near to you, Lord, you've given us the promise that you are with us, that you are in our midst. And so we welcome you Lord. And as you are here, you've come to heal. You've come to set us free. You've come to bring salvation. You've come to deliver us from all the things in this life that would hold us down and hold us in bondage. The solar. We welcome you to bring that deliverance to our lives, Lord, to open up our hearts, to see you as you truly are lo we, we often come to you with sort of veiled, veiled, vision, not really seeing the glory and the power and the authority that you are. 2 (14m 35s): The Lord open our eyes to you today. Open our, understanding our hearts, our minds, our will, our emotion to who you are today. Lord give us that, that desire for more. We want more of you, Lord. We're not satisfied with just where we are. The status quo Lord. We desire the power of your holy spirit, working in us from glory to glory, transforming us into your image and allowing us to walk in the victory that you have provided for us. But we want to abide in Christ or that's that secret place of the most high that you referred to. And Lord, that's where we want to be today. We bless you. We thank you in Jesus name. We pray God's people said, amen. 2 (15m 17s): Amen. Go ahead and have a seat please. All right. So what I want to do this morning, I want to go ahead and welcome someone up to the podium this morning. He is, I guess you'd call him our guest speaker, although he's not a guest is he's one of us. So Stacy and Tanya Harman have been fellowship with us for, I'm going to guess maybe five years, four years, four or five years, something like that. And so what we want to do today is I'm going to invite Stacy to come on up and he's going to be sharing the word with us today. So let's give a warm welcome to Stacey Harmon. 2 (15m 57s): Okay? All right, 3 (16m 5s): Everybody it's pleasure to be here. I'm good to see you all. And I just had lunch with Steve a couple of months ago and said I wanted to preach someday. And he said, how about July 18th? And I said, okay, well that's that's real date. That's the time I got to make some efforts to get this together. And I thought about, you know, how he usually tells a joke when he gets up here. And I thought there's no way I could ever approach the quality of his jokes. So I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna tell you a joke. I would like you to turn with me. If you would, to two familiar passages in your Bibles or on your devices, John 14 six is where we're going to start. 3 (16m 50s): And we're also going to talk about Matthew 18 or it's 5 28, 18 through 20. And John 14, six is very familiar passage to us, but there's really an outrageous claim made there by Jesus. If you think about it, this is where he's talking to his disciples. He's telling them that he's going to go away. He was trying to encourage them that he's going to go prepare a mansion's for them. And they don't understand what he's talking about, where he's going. And he says, and they ask him, where's this way. What, what are you talking about this way? He says, I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father, but through me and that's before the cross, obviously before they scatter, of course, after his crucifixion. 3 (17m 33s): And if you go to Matthew 28, 18 through 20, he says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, son, and holy spirit teaching to deserve all that I commanded you. And lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age. So that's after the cross. Right? But those are really outrageous claims. If you think about it, he's saying he's the way. And he's also saying that all authority on heaven and earth has been given to him. So I would like to drill down a little bit on this idea about the way and the followers of the way, which are disciples and what they look like. 3 (18m 15s): But first let me ask you a question. I'll step over here. She'd get a good look at me. Do I look like an architect? Well, I'm glad that's like, you're like, what kind of question is that? Right? That's a ridiculous question. What's an architect look like it's kind of a running joke between Tonya and I. She was describing a woman's husband to me and she said, well, it looks like an architect. And I'm like, huh? I don't really know. I don't have a reference for that. I don't really know what that means. I'm not sure I could pick them out of a crowd if he looks like an architect. But what about a doctor? What's a doctor looked like actually happened to be a doctor. 3 (18m 56s): I'm an ER doctor, but maybe gray hair and old guy. Yeah, that's a doctor. But the point I'm making is you have a reference for that. You don't have a reference for an architect. You have a reference for a doctor, right? If I had a long white coat on, you might say, oh, that's a doctor. Or you could say it's a butcher, I guess, or a scientist or, or maybe it's maybe it's their cousin, someone that the cosmetic counter Macy's right with a long white coat. But if I put a stethoscope around my neck, then you're like, okay, that's looking more like a doctor. Or if I had an ID badge on that said, you know my name and I was affiliated with a hospital then, okay. That might be a doctor. And, and what about if I, as the setting that I'm in, if I've in scrubs, right? 3 (19m 38s): You come into the ER, I'm wearing scrubs, like, okay, that must be the doctor, but you don't really ask me for my credentials. Right? You don't say, let me see your diploma. Let me see your board certification. What about your license? Do you have a license? You have a framework that you understand what a doctor kind of looks like. And once you sort of figured that out, you're pretty comfortable that that's, that's the doctor so much so that you would literally trust your life with me after meeting me like two minutes within two minutes, right? If you come to the emergency department, I would have the authority, right? And I am the way I have the authority to take, to admit you to the hospital, to decide what's going to be done with you. 3 (20m 22s): And I'm the way that you get to the hospital, get the medicines you need or get what you need. Right. That's and you've decided just based on a little bit of information that that's the authority and that's who I am as a doctor. And then you have to also deal with what your impressions of doctors are. Right? You, you might think of Dr. Dr. McDreamy, right. But, or, or you might think, oh, I love my doctor was great to my kids or he delivered my babies or, or she helped my mom when, when she was in really bad straights when she was older, or you might think doctors are arrogant and condescending. And I really hate doctors. In fact, I've walked into rooms and that's the first thing someone says to me, I hate doctors. 3 (21m 5s): And I usually say, well, so do I. So let's, let's get busy, but what can I do for you so that it does it, but, but literally I have the authority and I'm the way in the ER. Right? So let's talk about spiritual thing. Let's switch to spiritual thing. So the question I have too, is what's a Christian look like, or a disciple or a Messiah, right? What's a Messiah look like, clearly it wasn't what Jesus looked like. Right? Because they said, ah, that's Joseph's son, right? Can't be a Messiah. Or he's just a carpenter, right? How about nothing good can come from Nazareth. Right? 3 (21m 45s): That was their image of a Messiah. Their idea didn't match what they were seeing with Jesus. And then he, he goes on to do miracles, right? Healed. Well, he healed on the Sabbath. He healed somebody on Saturday. That's against the law. He can't be the Messiah. Let's just forget about the miracle part. Right. But it's not fitting my little mold about what he is. He, he did work on Saturday. He can't be the Messiah. Even though he did a miracle, I'm dismissing the miracle from my fixed idea about what a Messiah represents. He was teaching with authority. He had knowledge of the scriptures. He did miracles of healings. He healed epileptics. Paralytics he raised Lazarus from the dead folks. 3 (22m 28s): Right. And they still didn't buy it. They still, still didn't work. It had such a strong bias against what it, or what it should look like. And it just didn't match. They still crucified him. Right. He didn't look like a Messiah. And they said, we want a sign. He said, well, you're going to get the sign of Jonah. And what's the sign of Jonah. Jonah was in the belly of the fish. Well, whatever you want to call it for three days, right. Jesus is saying, the sign of Jonah is all you're going to get, I'm going to be in the grave for three days. And the resurrection is what you're going to get as a sign. So that's the ultimate credential, right? 3 (23m 8s): So he says, he says, he says that he is, has all authority. And he's the way, well, what is his credentials? It's the resurrection, right? The resurrection card is the ultimate credential. Correct. Now he says, I am the way the truth. The life, no one comes to the father. Through me. All authority has been given to me on heaven on earth. So it's the, it's the, it's the way to enter heaven through him and the way to live on earth, the way to enter and the way to live all authority is his, because of his resurrection credential. 3 (23m 48s): Right? So the way back to God is through Jesus right first. So you have to ask yourself, well, what am I here for? What's the meaning of life? Why am I here? Where am I going? What's life mean? And then are these credentials good enough for you? Good enough for you to follow the way his credentials and plenty of flavor weighed in on this subject about what life's about. Right? If you ask Sigmund Freud, he'd say, life's about pleasure. If you have Carl Young, he'd say it's about power. If you have Victor Frankl who survived a concentration camp, he'd say it's about meaning. 3 (24m 29s): And you know what? Those actually, it's funny that all these experts have come up with all these ideas about what life's all about, but those are actually biblical principles. And how do I know that if you look in Genesis 1 27, God said to Adam and Eve, you subdue the earth. Awesome. Thank you very much. SI. I'm used to nurses pushing me around. Thank you. Looking out for me, actually appreciate it. So they said to subdue and rule the earth and be fruitful and multiply, right? 3 (25m 11s): That's power and pleasure. Right now, the meaning part is based on our relationship with God, they walked hand in hand with God in the garden. That was a meaning. That was meaning. That was the relationship they had. So if you think about it yet, you still can pursue power, pleasure and meaning in their life. But the, but the power and the pleasure have to be with a clear conscience, right? You can't do things that are, that are going to violate your conscience. And you have to have to realize what God has definitions of those things are there's power in weakness, right? There's pleasure in service, right? And there's meaning in relationship with God, right? 3 (25m 54s): So that leads us back to this idea of the way, the way to enter heaven, the way to live and the way back to God. Because remember, remember this in Genesis 3 24, what did God do? When he threw Adam and Eve out of the garden, he blocked away. He put cherubim at the garden so they couldn't get back in the way was blocked. Sin had separated them from God, kicked us out of the garden. The way was blocked for that meaningful relationship with God is now gone. That, that idea that we have a, we can walk with God is gone. So the way was blocked by sin. The way back is Jesus. And the way to live is through Jesus. 3 (26m 36s): This idea of the way is what is, is how the early Christians are. The disciples ran their lives. That that was how they followed Jesus. In fact, if you looked in acts nine Paul, before he was converted, it was basically a Hitman for the Sanhedrin, right? He was going out, he got permission to go out, bring Christians shackled back to face charges, basically for following the way. And he says, it says he persecuted those belonging to the way. So who are those following the way they're, they're called disciples, right? 3 (27m 17s): And here's my microphone. And if I can't drop this mic, but who's fired, they weren't Christians. This is what I mean. Wait a second. That term wasn't even used yet. Jesus never heard the term Christian Christians in acts 1126. The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. That's 30 years later, 30 years. They were disciples following the way before they were ever called Christians. And some scholars even believed that that term might've been even been derogatory. Oh, that's those Christians. Right? 3 (27m 57s): Right. So there were disciples following the way, all that time. But they were first called Christians at Antioch. I had a friend of mine, a colleague of mine, call me a Chrysler one time. Are you one of those Chryslers? And I went, Hmm, well, yes I am. But I don't think I like the way you mean it. You know, I, he called me a Chrysler, which is like maybe what they were calling them Christians, right? The point I'm making is that they were disciples along the way. And then they were labeled Christians at some point in time. And what I'm, what I'm getting at is that calling yourself a Christian means something to people, just like a doctor or the Messiah. 3 (28m 38s): Right? So if you're a Christian, you might know what that means. And you have an idea of what that means, but somebody else might think, oh, you're a Catholic. Or maybe you're a Jehovah's witness or you're a TV evangelist, or a Mormon or a health and wealth gospel, or you're a boss at work who goes to church on Sundays and then acts inappropriate the whole week. That's a big umbrella to be under, as Christian. And we just have, is nothing wrong with calling yourself a Christian don't get me wrong, but we just have to understand that what it means to us, what we think it means and what, what someone else interprets that as me could be two very different things. 3 (29m 20s): So perhaps sort of getting back to our roots and calling ourselves disciples, or at least thinking like that might be helpful when we try to figure out who we are and how we should live as well as communicate to others and try to bring them to Christ. Right. And discipleship is kind of a lifelong process, correct? It's not like it's something you do your whole life. It's kind of like, like martial arts when you have a white belt and then you go progress to black belt and you can just gradually make your way through all these different stages and things become, you become better and better at this. But what's funny about martial arts is the people that are the most skilled are usually the most humble, right? 3 (30m 5s): You, you learn so much as you go along that you're actually more humble and more grounded and more rooted and, and a better person towards the end than you are in the beginning. Right? And that's a whole nother topic discipleship. We could spend hours on that. But what I like to do is get back to this idea about the way and what a few characteristics of a disciple living out the way. So the first one is under the disciples, understand worship and certainly worship involves what we're doing today is corporate worship, where we get together. And we think songs and we sing hymns and songs and spiritual songs where he preaching and teaching and prayer. And we take the Lord's supper. 3 (30m 46s): And you know, this corporate idea of worship is certainly part of what we do and who we are. But what I'd like to look at is acts 2 42 through 43. So this is after Peter is spoken on in Pentecost and there's 3000 people have been baptized. And they, it says they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship and to the breaking of bread. And to prayer, everyone kept feeling a sense of awe and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. 3 (31m 27s): The part I would like to emphasis is this idea of a sense of awe. I think we need to recapture that, right? I think that this idea that we worship is something we do instead of something that comes out of us is what we have to sort of undo. As we think of ourselves, as Christians as disciples, the sense of awe is, is what motivated all that other stuff, all the other worship that came out of that. So it's easy. I mean, I get bogged down. It's easy to check boxes in your life, right? I prayed today. I contributed to that. I went to church, whatever it is, the box that you check, it's easy to do that, but I think we have to start changing our attitude about worship is something is something about who we are and not what we do. 3 (32m 17s): And if you look in Romans 12, one through 12, it says, if I went to two, rather hired you, therefore brethren by the mercies of God to present your bodies, a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship and do not be conformed the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what the will of God is. That which is good and perfect or acceptable and perfect. So it's, do you realize that when you're walking around your day-to-day life and you're trying to be a non-conformist to the world and that you are presenting your bodies, a living and holy sacrifice, you're, that's an act of worship every day, while you're walking around what you're doing, when you're trying to control what your thoughts and your actions and that's that's because you have who you are. 3 (33m 12s): You're a disciple who you're following the way. You're the path you're on Matthew 12, seven says I desire compassion and not sacrifice. That's where Jesus condemned the Pharisees for being so hung up on the law, that they forgot the meaning behind it, that it was there more, they were more concerned about religion and people are religion and ritual than they were the people he says in Matthew 5 23. If you were at the author to present your offering and you realize your brother has something against you, go make that right first, then come back. So what are the, what's the two, the two commandments that are sum up everything. 3 (33m 56s): Love. God, love your neighbor. So if you have something that's not right with your neighbor and you come to the house of God, you gotta make that right first, before you come to stand before God, he wants you to love him and love your neighbor. The relationship is more important than the ritual or the theology, the relationship with him, the, with his children and the relationship with mankind in general, that's, that's what we do as disciples James, 1 27 says this is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God and father to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world. 3 (34m 39s): So to be in the world, but not of the world and to take care of other people and their needs, right? That's part of the way of the disciple. Next is disciples have integrity. And this is, if you, if you looked up that word in Webster, it would say adherence to a code and soundness. And if you look at Matthew five and we're not going to go on, but that's a 5, 6, 7 is the sermon on the Mount. And this is where Jesus is talking to them in the beatitudes. Initially telling them, you know, things are rough, but they're going to be a better. But then he gets into Matthew five. 3 (35m 24s): And this that's the part where you hear the, but I say, right, but I say, you've heard it said you shouldn't commit murder, but I say, don't even be angry. You've heard it said, don't commit adultery, but I don't even lust. Right? You've heard it said, don't make false vows, but I say, make no vowel at all. In other words, let your word be your word. And I for, and I versus turn the other cheek, love they neighbor and hate your enemies. But I say, love your enemies. This is all the kind of integrity or the kind of person that we're striving to become. Now it's impossible to do that without God and grace and you it's, it's always, you're always falling in and out of keeping that together. 3 (36m 9s): But the point is we have integrity. It's who we are in out there in the real world, working on your heart is what we're talking about. And then he talks about in Matthew six righteousness is between you and God. This is because he's, he's condemning the, the Pharisees for, for wanting to get all this attention, right? Wearing all these brightly colored outfits and, and calling attention to themselves. He says, you should give in secret. If you will give your arms in secret, no fanfare that's integrity, right? Pray in private, not to be seen. 3 (36m 49s): Don't pray with meaningless repetition, but with intimacy, with God, fast, with a smile on your face, store up treasure in heaven and live today without anxiety. That's all in that chapter. I've heard it said, if you consider the worst case scenario and then it happens, you've lived it twice. So that's the problem with anxiety. And the other thing I've found out in my own life is 90% of the things we worry about never happen anyway. So you've just wasted all this energy and an angst on, on this emotion, this anxiety. 3 (37m 31s): And then he goes on into Matthew seven, a one through five. And this is where disciples make judgments, but they're not judgmental. There's a subtle difference there, correct? I mean, you make a judgment. Every time you come up to a red light, you can make an, a judgment as to whether you're going to stop or not. Whether it's a good idea to weighing everything and making a judgment. But in Matthew seven one through five, Jesus says, do not judge less. You be judged for in the way you judge, you will be judged. And by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your, in your eye. 3 (38m 11s): How can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye. And behold, the log is in your own eye. You hypocrite first, take the log out of your own eye. And then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Take the log out before the spec. He's not saying you don't make a judgment. It's taking work on yourself first, get the log out first, before you start looking other places. And he also said, he's also saying that you're not the standard. It's, you're not the standards. When you make a judgment based on righteous judgment. Cause he goes on to say, be aware of false teachers, right? You'll judge them by their fruits. So wait a minute. That's confusing. Wait, you told me not to be judgmental. Then you told me to judge them by their fruits. 3 (38m 53s): Well, it's not confusing if you think about it, it's you, it's not your standard. You're judging by God's standard. And, and it's not you saying, Hey, you know, you, you, you know, get that log out of your IRA, speck out of your eye. It's not you, it's not your own standard. I like the way that this, what does he, Dr. Phil, he'll say to somebody how's that working out for you. That's a good way to approach somebody, right? When you take the log out of your eye and you see a speck, how's that working out for you, maybe there's a better way versus, you know, you're an idiot, right? That's just not the way to do it. 3 (39m 38s): And disciples, the next point is disciples have bigger fish to fry. And what do I mean by that? I mean that, that they're not going to get bogged down on a lot of details and things to take them away from their mission. And so I want you to consider something considered this original crew that Jesus picked in Matthew ten two through four, but the 12 originals. Right? Think of these people in a room together, Peter and his brother, Andrew, we didn't know much about Andrew, right? Peter. We know a lot about from later on, but he's pretty, pretty impulsive guy. Yeah. Matthew was a tax collector. 3 (40m 19s): Now tax cokers were, were really viewed as horrible people. There, there are Jews working for the Roman government and they're skimming off the top and explain their own people. In other words, the Roman comes says, Hey, we want to 8% tax. And they sit. And so they charged 10 and get their own cut. And then they're there and they're skimming off the top to, for their own benefit. So they were hated by their own people. And then you have Simon, the zealot in the same room. Now the zealots were Jews who advocated overthrowing the Roman government by military force. So Simon, the zealot and Matthew whose work, I mean the tax collector working for the Roman government. 3 (41m 5s): He wants to kill that guy and throw overthrow the government that he's talking about. So those are two people in the same room. Then you got Judas, who's a thief, right? We know how here you have Thomas. Who's a skeptic. You have James and his brother, John, the one Jesus loved. Now, I don't know where that sort of was figured out the one that and how that he was loved more. But I'm just wondering how that would, the other guys would feel about that. Right? You got Phillip Bartholomew, James, the son of Alpheus Thaddeus. And then what about later on you have John. I mean, you think about other people like John, the Baptist, John, the Baptist wore animal skins and was a wild man eating locusts and honey. 3 (41m 51s): And then you have Paul later on, who's a persecutor of the church. And then he converts and becomes an, an impossible basically. How does that work out with the people that are, I mean, I don't get me wrong, but I think I would be a little bit like, Hmm, I'm going to sit over here. And that Paul Guy can sit over there. And then what about just Gentiles in general? Ultimately there's these, the Christianity, you start off with Jews, right? And then ultimately incorporated the whole Gentiles, which are dogs. They're viewed as dogs by the Jews. So the got this whole group together now. Right? But what happens is they put aside their differences to achieve a common goal. 3 (42m 35s): We live in a culture that thrives on just the opposite of that, that everybody that's on, it's thrives on divisiveness and conflict and individualism and hate. Our culture is just the opposite of putting aside your differences to achieve a common goal. That's how Matthew, the tax collector could be in the same room as Simon, the zealot, because they had bigger fish to fry there. They were trying to spread the gospel, right? Mark nine 40. Jesus is telling his apostles because they said, Hey, we found some people over here. They're doing some stuff in your name. Do you want us to make him stop? And he said, no. 3 (43m 16s): For he, who is not against us is for us. That's a pretty faffed call, right? If it's not against you, he's for you. There's at least some common ground there. I'm not saying we don't have standards or we should overlook sin to be inclusive. That's not what I'm saying, but I am saying that we need to have bigger fish to fry because some of the things we get upset about, or we get under our skin or cause division are really not worth sacrificing. The bigger picture, the bigger goal we have to agree on the ones. What I mean by that is in Ephesians four, four says there is one body and one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and one father, God, and father. 3 (44m 3s): We have to agree on those ones. But after that, I think we can just get a little more flexible and not so rigid and, and also, and be more committed to the ultimate goal versus our own little agendas. Right? And besides you have to have a relationship with somebody to influence them. You can't say, you know what, until you X, Y, or Z, or until you this, this or that, I'm not gonna have anything to do with you. If you don't have a relationship with somebody, there's no way you're going to influence them. So we do have bigger fish to fry. 3 (44m 44s): My next one is, oh, is that we have the disciples stay in the game. And here's what I want you think about. Think about Judas and Peter, right? So Judas betrayed Jesus for money and Peter betrayed Jesus out of fear, right? Just for him mentally. I didn't know the guy three times, do you just felt guilt and remorse. Peter felt guilt and remorse. So what's Juice's solution. He kills himself. Peter solution. He repented resolve to do better, came back and then went on to be Peter. 3 (45m 28s): Who's the rock that his confession was the rock that the church was built on two guys at the same juncture in life. Right? So no matter what you face, you have to decide whether you're going to be a Peter or a Judas. What if Judas had repented? You know, it'd be a whole different story, but do you think the Lord would have welcomed him back? Like he did Peter, you have to say yes, right? His solution was to kill himself. And so many of us do that spiritually is we just get too discouraged and we just fall away or we just stop doing what we know we should be doing. 3 (46m 9s): And, and then versus Peter, who said, you know what? I, I, I really did mess up and I feel bad, but I'm going to get back in the game. So they stay in the game, disciple, stay in the game, resolve to stay in the game and they stay in the boat. And this is a, this is the scripture acts 27, 14 through 40, where this is where Paul is being transported to Rome on a ship. And he's shackled basically to a Roman guard who is, and some of you might already know this, but if you're a Roman guard transporting a prisoner, if the prisoner escapes, then you kill yourself, right. 3 (46m 55s): You and your basically your life for that life. So Paul is on a ship. You've got a Roman guard with him there. They're sailing to Rome and there's like 200 people on the, on the boat. And they come into this storm. And this storm is like two weeks long storm. And the experts on the boat, the conventional wisdom is, wow, we got to lighten the load. We got to throw off our food. We got to throw off the, eventually they throw off the tackle and the rigging of the boat. Eventually they say lowering the lifeboats. We got our abandoned ship. We've got to get off this shit. That's, that's the experts. That's the conventional wisdom of the day. 3 (47m 35s): That's the seasoned sailors telling them what to do. And Paul says in verse 31, unless these men remain on the ship, you yourselves cannot be saved. He had been a hit. God has spoken to him, said, no, I want everybody to stay on the ship, stay in the boat. What's the first thing people do or you do, or I do either emotionally or sometimes physically when things in life aren't going so good. Well, you know, I really don't feel like going to church or man, I, I know those people they're, they're better than me. I, I shouldn't go. Or people fall away. 3 (48m 17s): They jump ship, right? You leave the stay in the boat. Don't jump ship. Because what happened is eventually this a boat runs the ground. They get off everybody's survives, but it was completely against all their thinking process, all their wisdom, all their decisions to what you do. When, when, when you're in a storm like this, you get rid of all this stuff. And this is how, this is how we do it. So stay in the boat, disciples, stay in the game and they stay in the boat. This is the boat right here. We're in the boat. We're all in the same boat, trying to work things through, go get through life together. Disciples, bear, each other's burdens, but you got to stay in the boat. 3 (48m 59s): It's so much easier for you or us to help each other. If we're in the boat versus trying to get you out of the water. The next point I would like to make is that disciples believe in miracles, but they don't rely on them. Here's what I mean. Second Corinthians 12 verses eight and nine. This is Paul speaking. He's talking about his thorn in the flesh, which is some condition. We don't really know what it is, but it's some physical ailment. He says, concerning this. I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And he has said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. For power is perfected in weakness. Paul couldn't heal himself. 3 (49m 42s): Right? He could heal other people miraculously, but he couldn't heal himself. God said his gracious, sufficient. And Paul goes on to say, I'm content with my weakness. If so, because God decides how, when, where and why the holy spirit is distributed. Here's what God guarantees us. He guarantees this Providence, but not miracles. Providence means that he's going to take care of us. He's going to make everything work out. Okay. He always will be with us. But if you're holding out for, or you require a miraculous event or a sign or a gift before you're faithful, then you're going to be disappointed. 3 (50m 26s): And maybe even bitter that might happen. But disciples believe in miracles, but they don't rely on them. Right? Romans 8 28. We've heard this scripture a lot. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God to those who are called according to his purpose. He doesn't say all things will be good, but if you're called to his purpose, he says, all things were turn out for the good, right? His Providence is guaranteed. 3 (51m 6s): Finally disciples are baptized member, go back to Matthew 28. It says by definition, that's what a disciple is. I don't want you to get hung up on this comma because in the Greek, there's actually no commas. But some people say, well, no, you have to be discipled before you're baptized now because they know you, you become a disciple when you're baptized. It doesn't really matter. The doctrine of it. The theology of it, the point of it is it's what Jesus commanded disciples are baptized. Just like Nike, just do it, right? Just do it. Every believer in the book of acts is baptized. And you can make a commitment that he was talking about reading a chapter day, read the book of acts. 3 (51m 50s): And some people were baptized more than once. Acts 2 38, 3000 people were baptized because they realized that they had been part of the crew that had crucified Jesus. And now he was in heaven because that miracle of them hearing Peter preach in their own language, right? You had different people from different cultures and different languages. They're on Pentecost. And it's like, if I was speaking to you and you only spoke Spanish right now, you'd hear Spanish and you heard English or you're here to French or whatever that was like, wait a minute. We're hearing them in our own language, hearing him in our language, how's that possible? And Peter says, well, he said that he was going to go away. 3 (52m 32s): And when he went away, he was going to send a helper and the helpers here. So that means he's where he said he was in heaven to help us here. He's in heaven. That's confirmed. And then they said, well, what should we do? And he said, repent, and be baptized. Some were baptized more than once. If they're baptized into John, they got rebaptized. Some people had received the holy spirit had not received the holy spirit and then got baptized into Jesus and received the holy spirit. Others Gentiles that were presumably left out of the whole program had received the holy spirit and the apostles go well, wait a minute. They had the holy spirit. So they must be concluded. 3 (53m 14s): Then we shouldn't withhold baptism. So they got baptized as well. The Ethiopian unique in the chariot says there's water. What hinders me from being baptized? That's what I would ask you. If you haven't been baptized, what's hindering you. What hinders you from becoming a disciple? First, Peter 3 21 says in corresponding to that, meaning Noah's Ark or the water saved people. Baptism now saves you not the removal of dirt from the flesh. It's not, it's not a bath, but an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 3 (53m 54s): Who is that? The right hand of God, having gone to heaven after angels and authorities and powers have been subjected to him. There's that all authority again, right? He has all authority. He has to the he's the way to become a disciple. The way to clear conscience, Galatians 3 27, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. So what does this disciple look like? The disciple looks like you and me trying to live in this crazy world, clothed in Christ, holding onto the way, trying to stay in the game, staying in the boat. 3 (54m 42s): And then so maybe you've never decided to follow Jesus. Maybe you've jumped out of the boat. Maybe you have a doubt. I challenge you to go back to Matthew 28 and look at verse 17. This is right before. If you're, if you have a Bible, we'll go hook your device. Go ahead and open up that verse. This is right before Jesus says, gives the great commission. It says. And when they saw him and when they saw him means he's risen from the dead there. He's with them again. It says. And when they saw him, they worshiped him, which is appropriate, right? 3 (55m 24s): Wouldn't you do that if you just saw the risen Lord, but some were doubtful is what it says. Some there's only 11 of them, right? Some is more than one. So more than one of the 11 were doubtful. These are the guys that walked with him, thought his death, burial, and resurrection, and now see him alive. It says some were doubtful. So what I'm saying to you is doubt is normal. We all have doubt. There always be there. You cannot have faith without doubt, just like you can't have courage without fear. 3 (56m 8s): Courage is what you do when you overcome fear. Faith is what you do when you overcome doubt. So it's really okay to doubt and be insecure. The question is, what are you going to do about it? What are you going to do? Jesus says in that chapter, in that, in that passage we started with at the end of it, Jesus says, lo I am with you always. So do you believe that? Is he with you always, no matter what you face, no matter how difficult it is, no matter how much doubt you have, whether your faith is weak or do you need courage? So lesson is yours. I'd like you to just please make your needs known. We're here to, I guess I should have invited the worship team back up, right? 3 (56m 51s): Come back. Sorry. Rookie mistake. But I would like you to, to make your needs known. We're here to pray for you. Study with you. You can be baptized. You can put on, be Christ, put on Christ. If you can, you can become a disciple today. Let's stand and worship. 1 (57m 57s): beautiful. 1 (1h 4m 21s): you didn't want . 0 (1h 7m 31s): If you father, we praise you today. God, we thank you that we get to be in your house today. God, we thank you for the word, Lord, Jesus. And I pray that as we leave this place today, Lord, that we would just take something away. And when that we would hold onto it this week, Lord God. And we would find ourselves in your word. And so we thank you and we praise you and it's in your most precious name. We pray. Amen. Have a wonderful day. If you need prayer, we have a prayer team up front. So feel free to make your way forward.