Becoming a disciple of Jesus

By Rob Chifokoyo

What Does It Mean to Be a Disciple of Jesus?

While  I've never done this before. I've never done the announcements. And then going into the sermon. So, I'm not going to reintroduce myself, but, we're going through a series called Let Jesus Speak. And really, I've heard this before, and you've probably heard this as well, that if you want to hear, God speak to you, read your Bible. And if you want to hear God speak to you out loud, read your Bible out loud. And so here it is, Jesus speaking for himself. And what we've been going through, in the series, is going and looking at the words of Jesus and what Jesus says about certain things and his heart and what has happened as we've gone through this series is that as a passage, this is the best series to preach, because I can just say it's not me, it's Jesus who said that. And so forward your emails to Jesus at Covenant doylestown.org, and I wish we had created that email account because the emails are just bounced back. But but the reality is this, Jesus speaks for himself. I heard a story of a pastor who was preaching out in Philadelphia at a conference. And, as he was preaching, he got up on stage and he had, a little fire breathing thing. And he was like, you want to see me breathe fire? And he breathed fire. And the crowd was like, you know, the conference of as Christians were ready for anything at a conference, like, yeah, it was like, you want to see me do this as I do a backflip? And he breathed out fire and did a backflip, and the crowd was like, yeah. And he's like, no, I'm about to preach the best sermon you've ever heard. And then he preached from Matthew chapter five to Matthew chapter seven, the sermon on the Mount, and walked off stage. I mean, they never invited him back. But what I can't say is, who can argue that the sermon on the Mount is not the greatest sermon ever preached? It's such a hard place to be as the conference organizers, because he was completely right that he just preached the greatest sermon ever present. But it's not what they had asked them to do. And so this morning, I assure you that I am not going to do that, even though that would be pretty cool to just read the Word of God and walk off and say, Jesus spoke this morning. Amen, Amen. So we're diving into Matthew, into Mark chapter eight, as we continue in the series and in Mark chapter eight, we get to a point here that is very interesting. We're going to start in verse 27. So if you have your Bibles, turn to mark chapter eight, verse 27. That's also going to be up on the screens as well. And Jesus went on with his disciples to the village of Caesarea in Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, who do people say I am? And they told him, John the Baptist and others say, Elijah, and others say, one of the prophets. And he asked them, but who do you say that I am? Peter answered him, you are the Christ. And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him. And then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed. And after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside, and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, get behind me, Satan, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men, and calling the crowd to him with his disciples. He said to them, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him? Will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels? In this passage of Scripture, there's a lot going on. There's a lot going on in this passage of Scripture. And as we look at this, it starts with this amazing Peter just has a weird day. If you just if you just read that in the beginning, Peter has this amazing revelation, this revelation that no one else has, in fact, this revelation that when we look in the other gospels, Jesus says could only have been revealed to him by the father. And so we see that Peter has this amazing revelation of Jesus's identity. Awesome. But by the end of that conversation, Jesus is calling Peter Satan. What a what a day life feels like. I mean, these guys, did you see that? I can imagine around the disciples. Did you see me? I had the revelation. Isn't that awesome? And the disciples is is looking at him and probably going, Peter, you know, let's just time this because any time now, we know you're going to mess this up. And within a short period of time, Peter is called Satan. And here's the the gist of the sermon, kids. The focus of the sermon, because we're not going to focus on all of that, even though all of that matters. As we focus on verse 34 and it's this, how do we become real disciples of Jesus Christ?

The Cost of Following Christ: Deny Yourself and Take Up Your Cross

How do we become a disciple of Jesus Christ? In this passage, Jesus lays out what it looks like to be a disciple. There is an author. His name is John Mark Comma, who is a pastor and a Christian leader in California. And I know you don't believe it, but they're there in California. A Christian leader in California. And, he argues in this in his in his book, practicing the way that a good translation for the word disciple would be, the would apprentice. But when we say we're disciples of Jesus, he argues that actually that translation of the Hebrew word is actually apprentice, but not in the way we look at apprenticing to in today's age. This is more than just, work. It's more than just retaining data, but rather absorbing the wisdom and walking alongside our master, listening, learning, observing, obeying, and imitating them. That being an apprentice of Jesus is holistic. It's not just I have the information and I think we can say this and attest to this, that we've met people who have the information but do not have the transformation. But Jesus wants to transform us and as we become his disciples. The argument here is that we are fully transformed inside out, not just in knowledge, but also in action. By imitating Jesus. And he says, this disciple is a noun, not a verb. It is not something that is done to you. It's someone you are or are not. So in this passage we're going to camp out in these specific words Jesus said. Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. I, I've chosen to break this up into four essential things that Jesus speaks about in that. And we're going to start in this with this word right at the beginning of that. Whoever you see Jesus as he's talking, the crowds come and they and they gather. And Peter's just had this moment with them where he said, I don't want to suffer. Jesus, you don't have to die. And the reason why Jesus called Peter Satan is because I believe as many as many theologians, believers who study this passage of Scripture is because what Peter was trying to do was to get Jesus off his mission of dying on the cross for our sins and rising again. You see, Jesus had already explained to them that I am going to have to suffer many things. I'm going to have to die in order for death to be defeated, for the enemy to be defeated. But Jesus here was calling Peter Satan in this way, because anything that had been taking Jesus off of the mission to rescue you and I is of a satanic spirit and not a godly spirit. And Peter was looking out and saying my with it as his motivation was, I don't want my friend to die well with his motivation was I do not want to suffer with my rabbi. It was still a spirit that was not of God. As Jesus says, you're thinking as men think and not as God thinks. And so Jesus calls him Satan because the things that are coming here are the things that have that would prevent Jesus from the whoevers that he was coming to save, as in John 316, that whoever so believes in him will have eternal life. We see that the Whoevers are the people who Jesus came for, you and I. This is good news for you and I, that whoever, if you're in this room and you're invited to church, this is your first time in this place. I want you to know this morning the good, good, good news of the gospel is that the invitation is also sent out to you.

Jesus’ Invitation: Whoever Wants to Follow Me Can

You are a whoever I am or whoever, whoever whoever. Can you imagine Jesus, the Son of God. He has an invitation and it's not exclusive. He says it's inclusive. He says, whoever so awesome. And to the first listeners of this in the ancient, in the ancient world, this is what this is the power of who Jesus was as he exemplified this. Whoever Jesus displayed us because Jesus was actually a rabbi, this was a rabbi surprise. You know, we never speak about that. But, you know, Jesus was a rabbi. He was Jewish and a rabbi. And so this Jewish rabbi comes along and and back in those days, this is what it took to become an apprentice of a rabbi. You would have had to have memorized the first five books of the Bible by the time you were 13. Any 13 year olds in here, any 13 year olds, are the first five books of the Bible. Just memory. Let's go ahead. In Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, numbers. You just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. You just have the passages of Scripture on your lips at 13. What a fun youth group. By age 17, you ever have to memorize the entire Old Testament, 17 Old Testament, entire Old Testament church? I'm just going to let you know. Don't come to me after the service and ask me, oh, what's an abacus? I don't know, I don't you can check beat that thing. I don't know, Google it. Because here's the thing. At 17, they would have had to have memorized the entire Old Testament. And what's happening is these kids are being, like kind of sifted out like, hey, you didn't memorize all the things. So go out there, you fail. And then by 17, if you weren't one of these special children who had memorized the Old Testament and had shown that you were an excellent scholar, the chance that you'd be given, you'd be given an invitation to find a rabbi whose message you agreed with. And you would follow that rabbi for for the rest of your life. Pretty much. So this is what was happening. It was harder to get to follow a rabbi was is hard, much harder, much harder than getting into an Ivy League school. So here's what what what I'm putting before you. Jesus displayed the whoever. Because who did Jesus go to and say, follow me? He went to the failures. He went to the people who hadn't made it. He went to the people who dropped out at 13. He went to those fishermen who dropped out. At 17, he went to the prostitute.  He went to the tax collector. He went to he went to all these people who who weren't worthy of following a rabbi. So when you look at the Bible, it's sometimes not. Does it not make sense now that they can be a bunch of guys fishing? And all Jesus has to say is follow me, and they put down their nets and run. I can't believe this is happening to me. A rabbi is saying, you can follow me. It's amazing. And so here's the invitation. We have that same Jesus had said, follow me. That same Jesus who says, whoever wants to follow me can follow me. And so Jesus says, whoever and not here that Jesus says, whoever wants to follow me. And then we can look at this. As we look at his disciples, we can locate ourselves in that story of the whoever's as well and say, I'm so glad that Jesus picked the tax collectors. I'm so glad that Jesus picked these fishermen. I'm so glad that Jesus picked the sex worker. I'm so glad that Jesus picked this crummy guy over here. This this gossiper. He I'm glad he picked the the the religious elite who are who are so full of themselves. He still said, you can follow me. Isn't that awesome that they all have this opportunity and we're given it so we can locate ourselves? Church. This is the same thing Jesus has done for us in this church right now, sitting in these pews. We're not ashamed of our past because we've been redeemed of it. But in here, in this room, the adulterers, the liars, the people who have a past of being swindlers, they've been people who in the past of been of being dishonest.The people who in this room have have broken the law. There are people in this room who who have been backstabbers, the people in this room who have carried hearts of gossip. And yet Jesus says, you can come in the people in this room, we love cats and Jesus come in. You are included too, you are included too. And so and so. Here's what Jesus says. He says, here's an invitation to follow me. Jesus is all inclusive in his offer of salvation to those who repent and put their faith in him. He says, repent, put your faith in me and you can follow me here. It's open to you. But there's a but the beauty of the Gospels, it shows us as, as as, Apostle in Texas, Matt Chandler says, he says we're not just found, but reformed. Jesus doesn't just leave us at finding us. He then says, I want to form. You see, that's what being a disciple is. I want to shape you. I'm I want to transform your life. I don't want to just say, hey, you say yes to Jesus and now you attend a church. No, that's not it. It's not just to fill the seats, but it's actually to be formed by Jesus. Every part of our lives, every area of our hearts, to be surrendered to Jesus so that he is king of our hearts, so that he is the one who has the authority over how we speak and how we love and how we see the world. We're no longer seeing it through our lens. We're no longer seeing it through the flesh. We're now seeing it through the Spirit of God that he's put in us, that he's saying, I'm shaping you, and I'm molding you, and I'm creating you into more and more into my image, not anyone else's image. I love that prayer that we prayed. I don't follow anyone else, no one else is worth following. No one else died on the cross for me. No one else went into that grave and borrowed it for three days. Airbnb beat that thing and walked out. No one else did that. So why would I give my allegiance to some other person than to give my allegiance to the Holy God who has saved and redeemed me? No one else is worthy of that. So we follow him. We don't uninvite ourselves, we follow him. And here's the beauty of it the next word he says whatever. And then he says, once he doesn't force anyone to follow him. Isn't that amazing? The rich young ruler. The story in the Bible. Jesus looks at this young man who has all these riches, and he asked them all these things and this religious young man, he who's successful ticks all the boxes. And then Jesus says, hey, all right, sell everything you have and follow me. He says, that's too much. And Jesus doesn't say, you better do it just says, okay. And he walks away sorrowful. Jesus is not forcing anyone. He's not forcing Christianity on anyone. Jesus tells the truth. He gives us the good news. He shares the good news. He says who he is, and he gives the invitation. And he does not force anyone. Judge whoever. Once. You're going to have to want Jesus and the Spirit of God does that in our hearts. Isn't that amazing how some of us in this room, there was a time in our lives when we did not want Jesus. There was a time in our lives where we might have been. The ones who persecuted Christians laughed at them. We might have mocked them. You might have said, I would never believe that. And yet the spirit did something in our hearts. The grace of God was put in our hearts and in our lives, and he opened our eyes for us to see the beauty and the majesty of Jesus. And we said, yes, I want you. I want to be a follower. I want to follow you. Jesus is inviting people, but he's saying, whoever wants to be my disciple, his encouragement for you. If you've been reaching out to someone, maybe you've been sharing the gospel with people. That's all we can do. All we can be is, the the Match.com of Christianity. We're just like, hey, I'm going to show you Jesus. And hey, here he is. And this is how beautiful that amazing is. I'm not trying to force you to follow him. It's a beautiful story. It's a beautiful thing that Jesus has done for us. And he's also offered it to you. And it's now your decision to say whether or not you want to be his disciple. I know I grew up in Zimbabwe, cultural Christianity 101.

Faith in Action: Becoming an Apprentice of Christ

Everyone's a Christian. I used to joke around Zimbabwe 80% Christian, and yet it's the fourth most corrupt place in the world. How is that possible? How would you say that 20% works so hard, works over time in the corruption? No, that's not true. The people who are obviously saying that they are Christians who are not living like it, that's what's happening. And that's what happens in a place where we think we can force Christianity on people. What happens is, I went to a school where we prayed three times a week and we had assembly and we sang all the hymns, and I wasn't a Christian, and I was just sitting there. I just thought it was a cool, a cool tune. I was like, oh, that's awesome, Don be the glory. I was like, that is so cool. I don't know, you know, they talk about, but, you know, we sing it three times a week and people would pray, but I'm in a group chat with my high school friends. There's like maybe five Christians in a school of a thousand like it wasn't that forcing that into our school wasn't actually creating people who follow Jesus. Jesus says, you going to want it? We just introduce people to the gospel. We don't have to force it on people. And that's what I say in this, in this cultural moment that we live in church, we have to display the beauty of Jesus and not mandate people to try and be like Christians or live in a Christian place. We just have to live out Christianity. If you and I actually live out the gospel, it is so beautiful and undeniable. That's the only church. They was living out their faith in such a way that people were like, this is supernatural. I got to go and see what's happening over the. One last point in this admissions, there's this thing I like to call the t shirt conversion theory. It happens in, in places like Zimbabwe, in poorer nations where people, missions, teams go to Africa. Like, I can't believe it. This is unlike anything I've ever experienced. 100 people got saved, 100 people got saved, 100 people got baptized. It was amazing. Like, wow, amazing. Are you go back there next year and the same guy is in the line to get baptized and saved again. You're like, why are people recommitting their lives to the Lord every year? Because you get a free t shirt when you get baptized. And in a place where people don't have t shirts, they will become Christians ten times a year to get the t shirt because they can't afford a t shirt. So we think that they want Jesus, but they want the t shirts. We got to want Jesus and nothing else. That's why I love where we were just worshiping. Nothing else matters. Jesus, we want to you. Not anything else, not comfort, not social currency. Jesus. We just desperately want you. I can't say this enough, church. We've got to want Jesus himself. Jesus is who you got to want. And then, and so the invitation to become his disciples comes through this invitation to everyone, whoever, and also that we've got to want to be his disciples. And then he says this, and this is a difficult thing to say. He says we must denial selves. They must deny ourselves. We must deny ourselves. Here's the reality. Church. The flesh is alive and kicking that we think of ourselves a lot. Just be honest with you. And and honestly, I'm just being honest. Like, I think of myself a lot, like, I consider myself a lot. I, I filter things through, through not denying myself. But I don't know if you've ever wondered if anyone has ever watched Parks and Recreation like Tom and Donna, I treat myself, treat yourself. And the Bible says deny yourself. But the culture says treat yourself. And so I'm like, thinking about myself all the time. And it takes this intentional walking with Jesus where we say, Lord, you're calling me to a life where I have to consider myself less. It's all through the New Testament. You will hardly find a place. I mean, you gotta have to read with a magnifying glass or you're gonna have to find, I don't even know, some other version of the Bible where it says, hey. Follow Jesus, and then treat yourself. It's it's deny yourself. And that is difficult. And it's a difficult thing to do in this day and age. We're surrounded by everything saying, you deserve more. You deserve more. Well, that's not enough. You deserve more. How? We live in a place church. Can I can I just be honest? When we look around at our neighbors, anyone ever feel the pressure? Especially when you have kids? Kids are like, oh, like my kids are never going to anyone else's house ever again. They come back and they're like, oh, dad, I mean, we, I wish I lived in and I'm like, you live here, you live in this house, this is your space. This is it. It's like I'm in ministry, girl. This is going to be a this probably is great right now. Right. Did you live in a play? We live in that place in the pressure. I don't know what the pressure is for. You have your neighbors do something else. You. How? The neighbor paint the house white. You're like, okay, whites. The new color. I'm gonna have to paint our house white and have black frames because that's the new thing. I was like, oh, it's like, oh, and you just bought the Wagoneer. And then your neighbor pulls up in a Grand Wagoneer and you're like, oh, I failed, I failed, and so everything around us is pressuring us to not deny ourselves but enter in. And then the season of lent, I think this is the most beautiful time of the year, because we find that the two things that are that, that oftentimes people give up for lent are either their time or treasure. People are denying themselves and saying, listen, I spend way too much time on social media, so I'm going to let that go. And how many of you go, I'm not going on social media for lent. And all of a sudden you've discovered that you have 19 hours a day free. Like, what was I doing? Jesus, I know I have time for you. This is wild. How many of you have ever been in a situation where Jesus has called you to deny yourself in a sacrificial way? And I'm talking about this because Jesus is talking about sacrificial ways that we deny ourselves. How many of you have been in a place where Jesus has called you to a place of denial, denying yourself, like actually coming to a place in prayer where you're wrestling with what the Spirit of God is telling you and you, whatever else have you been in there? You're praying. You almost want to stop praying because you're like, man, like Jesus. Like the things you're asking me to give up. I don't know if I want to go there. Anyone, anyone. Was it just me you, like, shut off the music. I don't want to listen to oceans anymore. Like, let's get out of this room and you're praying and all these things are stirring. And Jesus is saying, hey, I just want you to give up that vacation so that you can. No, no, no, no. Jesus. They need Jesus in Cabo. I promise I'll tell the waiter about Jesus. I'll tell them, use me. They're denying ourselves so hard, and the Lord's doing these things in our hearts. But you know what Jesus is denying of? Of self. When we deny ourselves, he says this leads to life. It leads to life. He leads to this beautiful picture of who Jesus is. I recently had an experience at UT in San Diego, and I. And I'll just share this. I prayed about this. I was like, Lord, I'm just going to share this in the sermon. But, you know, we are in the season of support raising, and I really want to take this moment some of you in this church have done, like, ridiculously crazy things in my eyes. You've just come to us and sacrificially given and said, we want to see this church go. But but here's the story. I'm supporting raising. So I'm asking. I'm asking people for money, which is straight. I'm going to people asking people for money. So I'm in California and I go to a church plant that meets in a house I don't know. The Lord led me to this church. I could have this church plant and it's an Hispanic church plant so everyone knows each other. I was like, this is my first time in a in a in like a Hispanic church plant. So I'm like, I'm just like, sometimes I just Spanish and I'm just by myself. Like, they're not talking about me. You know, I, I was like, just learn. And I'm in this group. And then it comes time to prayer requests and everyone's going around with prayer requests. And an old lady, she says, elderly lady, not old elderly lady. She's she's sitting there and she says, well, you know, guys, I'm just, planning to go to Mexico. I go to Mexico every year, and, I just buy food and I, I, I just give it to people. And if they want me to pray for them, I pray for them. Okay? Forget the t shirt conversion theory. Heart's in the right place, so she's dead. She's like a gift. Food. And I pray for people that amazing things happen. So I'm there and I'm listening to this, and, as the words came out of my mouth, I was like, Lord, why? And I said, how much do you need?  And I was like, you have no money. Why would you say that? And when she told me the figure, I was like, oh, it's definitely not me. That's way too much money. Awesome. I'll pray for you. I'll pray for you. And you know what? In my heart, I just felt the Lord say, Rob, even though I want to see if you're faithful, like deny yourself so that she can go and do exactly what it is that you're asking other people to do. Would you do the very thing you're asking others to do? And so I was like, okay, I'm going to commit something else. You can have your number. I'm, I'm going to send you some money. I really want you to go to Mexico. And a couple of nights later, we go to a dinner with just another family, a young couple, and we're having tacos, and they're they're young. They've been married for a year. And at that table, they just say, what do you need? And I said, what do you need? They asked me four times. I was like, you're young, you you're broke. I'm. I'm out here trying to ask the boomers for money, not you. I was like, you broke. You're just starting out in life. And they looked at me and they asked me four times, what do you need? What do you need? And finally I said, okay, we just need money. And I just said, pray, pray for us. And just like I'm glad you said that because the Lord had put something on our hearts. And he went right at that moment, grabbed his checkbook and wrote a check for like a fifth of the money that we needed. And I was blown away. And the fifth of it is quite a lot. And I was like, oh my goodness, this is wild. And in my mind I was just thinking to myself, the Lord was faithful first in my life by saying, Rob, would you let go and deny yourself and just trust me? This is not the prosperity gospel. This is just the Lord teaching me something. Deny yourself. I am faithful. I'm not asking you to do something that I am not doing and haven't done already. It's such a powerful moment in my faith. Denying ourselves doesn't lead to death. Holding on does. So we become like Gollum in Lord of the rings, holding on to stuff instead of just saying, Lord, I deny myself. What if it is your time? Maybe it's your time. Maybe it's just like the Lord is saying, I just need. Hey, listen, would you give an hour of your time to serve me? And you're like, Lord, I want to be a disciple. Well, there is no disciple without sacrifice. There isn't. Jesus is saying, if you want to be my disciple, you're going to have to deny yourself and you're going to have to take up your cross. Think about the weight of that word. Take up your cross and there is no disciple without denial, and there is no Christianity without a cost. If Christianity and following Jesus has never cost you anything, then you have to adjust and wonder and locate yourself. Who am I following? It's going to cost us all something. It's going to cost something. It's going to cost relationships and church. I say this with a heart that grieves and mourns for some of the relationships that have been lost in this room, that when you said you're a follower of Jesus, some of your friends that have been friends for years and years and years and had been by your side, walked out the door and said, I can't believe you believe that, and I've probably called you that day. I can't believe you believe that hateful thing. And you walked away and you're grieving and you're broken hearted. But there is a cost to our faith. There is a cost to following Jesus. There is a cross to carry. And in that crowd there were people who are dead. And I don't know if Jesus had missed the Tuesday morning meeting memo where when the crowds gather, you don't preach a difficult message. The crowds gathered and Jesus said, if you want to keep following me, deny yourself and pick up a 300 pound wooden beam and luggage from the place of judgment execution. They all understood that. The gospel, the cost of the gospel is not the fine print or the fast words at the end of a farmer commercial, it's at the top, it's at the heading. It says it will cost you. Can you imagine that church? Can you imagine clicking on covenant doylestown.org at the beginning new year? It's going to cost you. Deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow Jesus. Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus. And I know church. The message I'm preaching this message is not like, oh, you know what? We went to church. It wasn't that amazing. It's awesome. Let's have lunch. Deny yourself. Lunch is going to be hard today. I'm just going to let you know. Deny yourself. Take up your cross. Follow Jesus. Why? Because Jesus is so much better than all the things that could possibly be thrown at us. That Jesus being formed by Jesus becoming a true disciple of Jesus Christ and not a disciple, not a Christian, not being a cultural Christian, and being an actual follower of Jesus Christ. That is the sweet spot of what Jesus has done for us. That is, when we see that is no longer guy who lives, but Christ, who lives in me. That's when we can say the words that Paul says here in Galatians when Paul says this and sorry in Philippians, when he says, indeed, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish. Paul says he counts them as dung. Everything. Paul had all his degrees. Paul had the equivalent of two PhDs. He had the best mentor. He had the he had the Greek. He had the greatest rabbi of the time. And Paul walked away from all of that. And he says, I count that as dumb. Can you imagine people listening to this? And that goes to Saint Paul. You had the best job. Poor you were revered Paul. You had everything coming to you. Those Pharisees were rich, poor. You had wealth, poor you had you had good, you had. You are of high esteem in the community.

Are You Truly Following Jesus or Just Going Through the Motions?

And Paul says you can heal. I mean, maybe there was a cow right then. Paul just improvised and he's like, I counted as dung. All of that compared to what I have in Jesus church. Can we say that? Can we say that Jesus? Can you transform our hearts so that we can get to a place where we can say all these things that I've been chasing after? They all lies. All these things that I've been chasing after, they're not worth it. And Jesus says one final thing here. As we get this, he says this. He says these two words that have transformed many lives for over 2000 years. He says, follow me. He says, follow me. He says, follow me. Church this morning. Who are we following? The one question is who are we following? Who have we surrendered our lives to? It's such a hard question to ask, as I wrestled with that this week, as I thought about the things that I look up and thought about, the things that I and the people that I follow as I as I've thought about leading people, over the last 11 years, over the last 15 years, as I've thought about all the faces, when I look out into this, into this church, you know, what's what's strange for a preacher, a covenant might be this is that you're all creatures of habit. You know, you all sit in the same places, right? And so when you stop coming to church, it's strange. Like, if you get to preach, you're just like, oh, the lady out there is not there this Sunday. I wonder where she is. Oh, that guy who used to sit over there, who love Jesus, who used to serve. He's not the hey, that young guy who who started to wrestle with some things, like when he's not sitting. We used to sit anymore. The the even you at the back there. You know, we see you like we like looking out there sometimes, you know, we don't gaze is fixed out there like, hey, you at the back. We're like, you know anymore. And the countless stories that I've heard with it's people who are deconstructing their faith. Something that just like breaks my heart because they started to follow someone else. They started to follow someone else who claimed to to to say, hey, I know how to follow Jesus better. And and this is this, this Bible isn't completely true. And so they started to go, maybe, maybe I'll follow that guy and not follow Jesus, because my Jesus would never do that. So that's the wild that we live in a time where people are unfollowing Jesus in Jesus name. But who are you following? And when I when I did an inventory of my heart and I looked, I thought to myself with with real empathy, some of you, you know, the cost. Some of you in this room, you know the cost. Some of you in this room, you know that you're on the edge of buying the lies. Some of you know that you're drowning in them. Some of you, you are now gaining the world and slowly forfeiting your soul. I have to tell you this. Jesus says, follow me. Follow me. Put your flesh to death. Stop thinking about yourself all the time. Follow me. Humble yourself. Follow these words. Allow these. Allow my words. Let me speak. Allow my words to be the words that lead you. Because my words lead to life. And the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy. Don't follow him. Follow me. Don't follow anyone else. Church. I'm standing up here. Don't follow me if I'm not following Christ. Paul says, follow me as I follow Christ. Jesus is the one who's leading the way. Follow Jesus disciple is not something that we become. A disciple is something that you are or are not. So who are you following? This morning I just wanted to give us some room. As the band comes back up, just to take a moment. No judgment. This is not a place we will call to judge you for following Jesus. We know we've read the sermon on the Mount. We know that we don't live in a way where we walk around judging people, but we live in such a way church where we have grace, the same grace that has been poured out on us. We pour out on others. But this morning, maybe let's take a deep look. Let the Holy Spirit actually do something in our hearts this morning. Let the stirring of what the Holy Spirit has, has done through his through the Word of God. This morning, transform us. Now, for some of us we have to lay some things down. For some of us we we literally have to put some some things down. For some of us, we in this season, we have to switch off the TV. Some of us are drowning. We're following news anchors for some of us, and that's shaping us. And now we're full of rage. Now we're full of we don't. We no longer have the love of Christ. We're numb to the things of God. When numb to the things in this book, we're now making excuses. Let's shut that off. For some of us, maybe as we were scrolling and we're looking and we're looking at all these people, we're looking at at the neighbors, we're looking at all these lives, these highlight reels on Instagram. And we're starting to go, I'm going to follow that, and I want to become that, and I'll do whatever it takes to become that. How about we take our gaze off of all those other things and we fix our gaze on Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith? And we say, I only want to become like you. I want to become like anything else. I just want to become like you. Church. There are moments, and this moment is the moment. This morning is the moment. This is it. And so this morning, I just want to encourage you as there's not so, so much plan, but, you know, as the band plays in the back just for us to, to just have a moment to look within. And I believe the Lord will show us those areas of our lives that we just need to lay down, deny our souls. For some of us in this room, God is calling you to something that's even greater than what you you're doing. And you've you just been hesitant because you can count the cost. That's awesome. It's worth it. How do we take up our cross and we follow him? And we know we don't carry that cross alone. It's by the power of Christ that we can carry that, that, that, that, that cross. That we don't have to be afraid to go with. Jesus is calling us to go.

Father, we just thank you for this morning. We thank you for who you are. We thank you, Jesus, that you're not asking us to do something that you haven't already done. Or that you're not asking us to trust our own wisdom. But, Lord, you have already given us the wisdom and the discernment to know that, Lord, that you have the words that lead to life. You have the words of life. So, father, I just pray this morning for those of us in this room that are wrestling with this pain, those of us who are struggling, those of us who are struggling, Lord with sin in this room, who have started to uninvite ourselves because we don't feel worthy. We don't feel, we feel uninvited, but uninviting ourselves. Lord, we, we are the whoevers and yet we're discounting ourselves. We're saying we're not part of the whoever's. Lord, I pray right now you would break that by your power, Lord, and you would open the eyes, open the eyes, open our eyes, Lord, to see that we are still invited. Father, I pray for those, Lord who have been disobeying you. Lord. You've called them Lord to give some things up, and they've just held on to them. And their lives are crumbling. They're crumbling, literally crumbling right now. And they can see it, Lord, they can see it breaking down. And they continue, Lord, to not let go. Give them the strength, Lord, by your grace this morning. Because, Lord, we know it's difficult. Give them. Pour out your grace and your mercy. Lord. This morning, so that they can just let go. Lord, and. Bow down at your feet, Jesus in repentance. Lord, and turn away from the things that they had turned to. I pray, Lord, for this church. I pray, Lord, that would truly be brothers and sisters in you, that we would look out for one another, that would walk with one another closely, that we would be on this journey, Lord, together, this journey of being an actual disciple, walking in the dust of our Rabbi, following you Lord, every step our Lord and master, our King, we thank you, Jesus.

In your mighty name we pray. Amen.