A Worthy Calling | Followers. Not Fans | Brian Aulick

If you guys want more time, I'll always stand to our feet as we get ready to praise our God. And invite the Holy Spirit in this place in our hearts. God, can we look down to the praise? We welcome you, Holy Spirit. We welcome you, Holy Spirit. Listen to this. Can you feel that something's changing? Something's stirring in the road. While this holy expectation without the Lord is gone. Do you feel the bond is breaking? The freedom's catching up to your love. Oh, do you feel the joy returning? God is shaking off with you. Come on, boys, let's go now. Wake up. Wake up, wake up. Peace in our midst. Hold on, song is right. The rain is coming in a sound. Feel this bond and see it come. It's glory falling around. Come on, sing it out, sing it out, sing it out, sing it out, sing it out, sing it out. Come on, sing it out, sing it out, sing it out. Come on, let me move, wake up. Wake up, wake up. Peace in our midst. Hold on, song is right. It's holy, why you're rushing when there's no complaining. The rain is coming in a sound.

Feel this bond and see it come. It's glory falling around. ♪ Scaring out of fear and out of your way ♪ ♪ Do what you want to ♪ ♪ Take your life away ♪ ♪ Take your girl, baby ♪ ♪ It's so fun ♪ ♪ Oh, I heard it ♪ ♪ I heard it ♪ ♪ We want to pray ♪ ♪ We are the present ♪ ♪ Calling on your name ♪ ♪ Scaring out your way ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ Come out of your way ♪ ♪ Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ Come out of your way ♪ ♪ Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ Oh, that's what that is for ♪ ♪ In the wild ♪ ♪ Rising away ♪ ♪ Come and breathe on the circle ♪ ♪ Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We know ♪ ♪ Go and sit down ♪ ♪ While we hold ♪ ♪ Rising away ♪ ♪ Oh, come and bring all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ Holy Spirit, man ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪

♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪

♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ We don't need all the Holy Spirit ♪ We're the same and I'm gone Since you're right and I'm gone Do what you want Take you from the grave, you're right We're the heart of our hearts Please don't come through the fire of death We're the same We want your best Coming on your name Feel it out of your way Can't give me this place to give this place Alright, get in terms So, as you guys know here, Get in terms of what you'd love to write songs That are Christ's center That focus on Jesus and Jesus alone And this morning we're going to sing a new song Oh, for you guys And it's called the sound And there are so many Distractions and noises all around the world But how many know that Jesus is the sound That should be proclaimed in all the earth That His name will rain every day soon

That His name will rain in our churches and our cities So we're going to lift up this song called the sound [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] # Holy Holy Holy is the Lord # # Holy Holy Holy is the Lord # # I am worthy, worthy, worthy # # Your holy glory #

# Holy Holy Holy is the Lord # # I am worthy, worthy, worthy # # You are holy, the Lord # # I'll never go tired of singing my part # # With all of my glory # # I'll never go tired of singing my part # # With all of my glory # # I'll never go tired of singing my part # # All of my glory # # All that you are # # Every crown at its feet # # All that you are # # Every blessing we bring # # All that you are # # Every nation will sing # # All that you are # # All that you are # # Let the church gather # # All that you are # # Let the church gather # # All that you are # # Let the church gather # # All that you are # # Let the church gather # # All that you are # # And holy, holy # # Holy, holy, holy # # Is the Lord # # I am worthy, worthy, worthy # # You are glad #

# Glory # # I'll never go tired of singing my part # # With all of my hope # # Holy, holy # # # # # # I'm gonna continue to sing # # And I just want to send some encouragement to you guys # # I know we got a lot of things going on this Sunday # # We got baby dedications, new songs # # It's exciting. Some of us are coming into this space # # With expectation, hearts filled with faith # # Within some of us are coming in weary # # Thanks, just fearful of what's next # # And if I can just remind you as we sing this next song # # How do we come out of that place? # # Is to be reminded of the faithfulness of God # # And time and time of God # # And it's proven himself faithful # # It's proven himself good # # I remember my grandmother will walk around the house # # Singing his hands and just letting faith just fill the house # # And as I got older, I was like grandma # # Like how did you stand to test the time? # # You've been through so much, you've seen so much, you've witnessed so much # # And she said, "All I need is a memory # # And all I need is songs to sing # # Greatest thy faithfulness # # Oh, God, my Father # # There is no sign #

# Of turning in the air # # You've been through # # Now change is not the night # # Or as you may be # # As thou as me # # Of forever # # You can just feel faith # # Feel the world that we sing this next part is this # # Greatest thy faithfulness # # Greatest thy faithfulness # # No matter what you may be going through # # Morning by morning # # New mercy that I have seen # # All I have needed I # I felt the freak, I guess I'm the dog, but I never knew, 'til I had the stars, how good your grace could be, how you would be for my strength, and all my work, my lives are on, my love is still, still in control, I will not be a friend, and I'll get back to you and say, "The Lord is with me, the Lord is with me in the presence in my army, the Lord is with me." You never said, "I'm gonna be fine, I promise that you, right by my side, no matter how it seems, my confidence shall be." "The Lord is with me, the Lord is with me in the presence in my army, the Lord is with me, the Lord is with me, the Lord is with me in the presence in my army." "The Lord is with me, the Lord is with me, the Lord is right by my side, the fear of the earth that we have, that we have, that we need, to be sick as our church, the door of fear may tell me the truth, oh, I'm not gonna cry, I may be thrown in the fire, yeah, well I'm gonna walk out, the key of the fame won't consume me, it's nothing but a smoke, it may look like I'm so proud, yeah, but I'm not alone, ♪ I know that your fingers come on ♪ ♪ Lord, when they tell me the truth ♪ ♪ Oh, I'm not gonna bow ♪ ♪ 'Cause I may be throwing on fire ♪ ♪ I'm gonna walk out of the heat of the flame ♪ ♪ Oh, 'cause you may ♪ ♪ It's nothing but hope ♪ ♪ It may look like I'm surrounded ♪ ♪ But I'm not alone ♪

♪ The Lord is with me ♪ ♪ The Lord is with me ♪ ♪ With sinners ♪ ♪ The Lord is with me ♪ ♪ And I am not alone ♪ ♪ The Lord is with me ♪ ♪ The Lord is with me ♪ ♪ The Lord is with me ♪ ♪ The present in my hour ♪ ♪ In the middle of the river ♪ ♪ In the middle of the river ♪ ♪ Oh, I'm gonna bow, I'm gonna bow ♪ ♪ Oh, I may be throwing on fire ♪ ♪ I'm not gonna walk out of the heat of the flame ♪ ♪ Oh, 'cause you may ♪ ♪ It's nothing but hope ♪ ♪ The light comes the right ♪ ♪ Lord is with me ♪ ♪ Lord is with me ♪ ♪ That's what we promise ♪ ♪ Lord is with me ♪ ♪ Of the bread and the heat ♪ ♪ Lord is with me ♪ ♪ Lord is with me ♪ ♪ Lord is with me ♪ ♪ Lord is with me ♪ ♪ Lord is with me ♪ ♪ Lord is with me ♪ ♪ Lord is with me ♪ ♪ Lord is with me ♪

♪ Lord is with me ♪ ♪ Lord is with me ♪ Listen, I don't know what you might be going through. I wanted to clear over your life. Jesus is with you. No matter how big the obstacle, no matter how hard the difficulty, no matter how great the suffering, if you are walking with Jesus Christ, the presence of God is dwelling in your life, and that suffering will not have the last word on your life. That obstacle will not have the last word on your life. The chapter of your story will not be the last chapter. The Lord is with you, and how many of you know he is writing a good story in your life, and he is going to see it through to the end. Can you praise God for that church? Can you praise God for his faithfulness today? Amen. Amen. Go ahead and grab a seat. Well, it's so good to see everybody today, and my name is Brian. If we haven't met, I hope I can meet you some time before the day is out. I'll be in the lobby at the end of service, but I'm so glad you're here, those who are new with us, especially if maybe you're here because of a child being dedicated. We just want you to know it's an honor that you would be in our house today, and can we make some noise for first-time guest today, Church? Can we do that at every campus?

I want to say especially good morning to our campus at Grand Rapids. We love you guys. Everybody at Ingeity Español. They have an incredible day in EE today, and for those who are joining us in jails and prisons around the country, we want you to know we are honored to be your brothers and sisters in Christ. Studying the word of God and lifting up the name of Jesus together. You've got some new friends, Chris and Aubrey Bristo coming up from Oxford. I want to say just Detroit to make it easy on people. Eastside, but they're pastors of a church called New Wave Church. Can you make some noise for the Bristos, please? I'm glad you guys are with us. Always good to have pastor friends in the house. All right, well, I got to figure out what I'm supposed to talk about today. Let's see. Number one, I want to say real quick, I know that different fans of football teams are having rough weekends on days. I want to just say again, Indiana University is undefeated. All right, join us. We'll take bandwagoners. It's all right, okay? And just join us because it was another bear win, barely a win against Nebraska. We've got a series coming up. We played the video for it today, Culture Clash. You got invite cards on probably about every other seat or so. And I want to remind you that these are for inviting friends and family and people you work with to church. Every week of this Culture Clash series, we're going to look at how the way of Jesus. Watch this. How the way of Jesus is not just different from the cultures, but how many of you know it's better than what the culture has to offer, right?

And so what we're going to do is just take week by week, we're going to look at Jesus' way versus culture's way. It's going to be life-giving, it's going to be encouraging, and I can tell you we're going to make Jesus famous every single Sunday in this house. So, invite your friends. It's going to be a good series. But today, what we're doing is actually wrapping up where we've been, which is in a series called Followers Not Fans. Everybody say Followers? Not fans. There we go. And we really have been just talking about discipleship. We're talking about what does it mean to follow Jesus Christ? Not just stand on the outside and be like, yeah, that's good, Jesus. You do it, you know? And what I want to do today as we started is just, I've never really done this before. I actually want to, if I can't just like review every week and kind of the journey we've been on through this series. So, first week was Luke chapter 9. And Pastor Lungs was here incredible message. I'll say it again, if you missed it, go back and listen to it. But Pastor Lungs helped us see, out of Luke chapter 9, that to follow Jesus means you deny yourself, you pick up your cross, and you call out to Jesus as the Lord of your life. We can do things that sometimes make it look like Jesus is the Lord of the life, And Pastor Lungs made it so beautifully clear that when Jesus is the Lord of your life, how many of you know that path leads to life? That path leads to flourishing. That was week one. Week number two, we looked at John chapter 15, and we saw that Jesus wants to make His

disciples fruitful in their lives. And the key to fruitfulness is staying close to Jesus. And the way we do that is by being rooted in the Word of God, being people who are in our Bibles, reading His Word, and being people who don't just read it, but watch this live it out. And Jesus says, "As we do, He will make us fruitful." And even goes a little further, and He says, "There are going to be times in your lives that He calls pruning times where He refines you so not just so you can punish you and not so can make life difficult so that you will be even more fruitful in your life." I would just say, even if you're in a pruning time right now, no, this pruning is not the end. God's goal for you is to make you more fruitful. Amen, Church? That was week two. Week three was Pastor Chet, just last week. And Pastor Chet talked about the idea that discipleship, that spiritual growth, watch this, happens in the context of a local church just like this one. The real anchoring point for pursuing Jesus is when you're in a community, a family of God's people, which is the church. And Pastor Chet used this like visual illustration that I thought was so, so good. He brought up his phone charger. If you were here, you remember he had his phone charger up here? And the team asked me if I needed to plug this thing in. I said, "No, I think they're going to be able to understand it without being plugged in." Alright, so the thing with the phone charger is, if you put your charger right here, how much good does it do to get your phone charged? Not a lot, right? I mean, it's near the charger. Why isn't it good? Because watch this, for the charger to be any good and for the phone to get any power, it has to be connected to the charger. Right, Church? The trouble that Chet pointed out to us was that for many of us, we are near the church, but we are not connected to the church. We are near the church. We're here on church on Sundays. No, Pastor, I'm there regularly. That's being near the church, but we're not really connected in relationships. We're not in a life group. We're not really serving. We're near, but we're not connected. And can I tell you, the power comes in your spiritual life when you're connected. Amen, Church? I'm just going to say, like, if you're not yet in a life group, man, go to the table after church. Take a step to get a new group, alright? Find a place here to serve that you'd be connected to the local church. And so what I want to do this week is look at probably what is the most famous, arguably most important Bible text on discipleship, on what it means to follow Jesus anywhere in the Bible. And before

we do that, I want to pray for us. Father, thank you that today you have met us here already. Thank you that no one is in the sound of my voice by accident. Thank you that you see each one of us in our joys, in our celebrations, in our hurts and in our sorrows. And you want to meet us in that place. Thank you for the person here who does not yet have a relationship with you. Father, would this be the day that they come home to Jesus? And for those that do have a relationship with you already, Father, I pray all of us, one in the same, that we would seek you for a living word. We are not here to play church today. We are here to listen to the living God. We pray it in Jesus name and every one of God's people would declare. Amen. If you have a Bible, I want to ask if you would turn to Matthew chapter 28. Matthew chapter 28. As you're turning to Matthew 28, I want to give you some context on where we'll be studying and what we'll be reading. And so the events of Matthew 28 happened right after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Died on a cross for sins three days later, was raised back to life again. He appears to a number of women after he is resurrected and he asks these ladies if they will find his disciples, his inner circle, his 11, and if they could meet together because he's got some more impartation he wants to do. And so the ladies run out and they find the disciples and then we're going to pick up the story here in Matthew 28 verse 16. Watch this. It says, "Then the 11 disciples went to Galilee to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go." Now the detail of the mountain is important. Wherever you see mountains show up in Scripture, they generally speaking symbolizes places of authority and revelation. that's already telling you something about what is to come. Like imagine right now your phone pinged and you got a message from your boss that says, I want you and the whole team in the boardroom at work at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning. Would you guess something important is coming down the pipe? You're like, something's coming. All right, I don't know what it is. But if my man's calling us to 6 a.m. boardroom,

we got something big coming. And so the moment Jesus said, we're gonna meet on the mountain, all right? It's like, hey, let's get the boys in the boardroom here. We need to talk about something big. And then they all come together and it says this in Matthew 28 verse 17, when they saw him, I love this, when they saw him, they worshiped him, but watch this, some doubted. This is so fascinating to me because most times when people would encounter the resurrected Jesus, the same Jesus they saw hanging on a cross, their immediate response was to worship him. He is raised from the dead. But here, even encountering the resurrected Christ, some aren't so sure what they're looking at. They're like still figuring it out. Now, can I just say first off, if you're doubting today, can I tell you God has mercy for you? God has room for questions, all right? In fact, I was thinking about this text and Jesus is about to give his most important teaching on discipleship in the entire New Testament. And think about this, there are doubters in the room. You know what that tells me? It tells me God uses imperfect people church. It tells me you don't have to have perfect faith to follow Jesus.

You don't have to have all kinds of Bible knowledge to follow Jesus. You don't have to have the perfect life and a perfect background to follow Jesus. How many of you know our God has a perfect record of using imperfect people? That's what he loves to do. He's good at it. And so here's the resurrected Jesus. And it says, he's got some who are worshiping, but some are like, I don't know about all this. And then listen to how it goes on, verse 17, or verse 18 rather. It says, then Jesus came to them. And he said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. It's an interesting sentence. Before Jesus went to the cross, we know he had some amount of authority. You read the Gospels, Jesus is forgiving sins. He's healing people's bodies. He's delivering people from demonic oppression. How many of you know Jesus has some authority before he went to the cross? But then watch this, when Jesus went to the cross, he took the full penalty for sin that is due us. When Jesus was raised to life three days later, he declared death defeated and he declared the devil defeated. And then he ascends to the right hand of the father and after that takes place, Philippians chapter two,

verse nine says, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue acknowledged that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. He had authority before he died, but how many of you know he had a whole different kind of authority when he was raised again? Why is this important? So many times when we read verse 18, we kind of blow through it real quick because we know there's a big verse to come, which is verse 19. But friends, can I tell you something, this verse is important because it tells us the words we are about to study in verse 19 and 20. These are not words from your therapist. These are not words from your mom or from your dad. These are not words that even carry the authority of your boss. These are not words from your fishing buddy. The words we are about to read come from the mouth of the living God who has authority over all of heaven and all of earth. The words we're about to read, they've got some weight to them church. And listen, it's up to you and me how we're gonna respond. You can submit to these words, you can honor these words in your life and discover life.

You can turn from these words and go your own way and turn your back on the author of life, but please be assured the words you are about to read carry authority. And so after Jesus establishes his authority, he gives this command in verse 19. Therefore go and make disciples. Of all nations. That's the command. The rest describes the process. That's the command, verse 19. Therefore go and make what church? The verb here is in the imperative tense. That means it's a command, it's not a suggestion. Jesus is saying starting right now, if you name the name of Jesus, starting right now, he says, I'm not just calling you Christians to be disciples. He said, I'm calling you to make disciples. Starting right now, I'm calling you, not just to follow me, I'm actually calling you to help other people follow me with their whole lives. It is so crucial that we all understand today. Jesus is not so much passionate about gathering crowds as he is building disciples. Jesus is not so much passionate, not opposed to big numbers, but he's not passionate so much for rooms filled with people as he is places filled with disciples. Let me prove this to you, I'm not sure, I think you like the crowds. Let me prove this to you, John chapter six.

Jesus is teaching, and he says some difficult things. He tells people that they've got to follow him with their whole lives, can't hold anything back. Somebody like, I don't want to hold my money back, I want to hold this relationship back. No, he says you got to get everything to me. He says you have to depend on me every moment of every day of your life if you're going to have a relationship with me. So the people he's teaching to, preaching to, hear this. And I want you to notice their reaction in John six. It says this, on hearing many of his disciples said, this is a hard teaching, Jesus, who can accept it? And watch this from this time many, somebody shout out many. Can not just a few people, there's a whole bunch of people, many of his disciples, they turn back and they no longer follow him. Now here's the key question. What does Jesus do when these people walk themselves right out the door? Absolutely nothing. He doesn't run after them. He doesn't say, oh, oh, I'm sorry, you're offended by my teaching that I'm claiming your whole life. Oh, I'm so sorry, just come to church, everything will be good, okay? Jesus doesn't see this large crowd get up. Imagine if just like a third of the room, just got to walk right out the door. Jesus, I'm like, oh, no, no, please don't leave.

God loves you, and I really want you to be here. I just had to say that, you know, real strong for effect, but I didn't mean it that way, all right? Don't do any of that. That times I'm preaching up here about biblical marriage, right, and then talk about God's view that marriage is between one biological man to one biological woman and sex only belongs in that marriage context. And I've literally been preaching and saw people walk right out the doors. Listen, when Jesus had that happen, he was like, no, please, I just meant just like, actually just follow your heart. That's what I really meant. Like he let people walk, why? Because Jesus wasn't so much in the crowds as he was disciples, which are the people who follow him. And I just believe it is so important as a church family that we take disciple making seriously. Because here's what happens way too often in the church. I believe it happens that in Getty. I believe we see somebody that's prayed a prayer where they've said, Jesus, would you forgive my sins? And we say, oh man, they're good to go. Like they gave their lives to Jesus. Or we see somebody get baptized and say, well man, they must be spiritually healthy 'cause like they're baptized. Or we see somebody watch this,

who's in church every Sunday? And we're like, they must be mature, growing disciples of Jesus, come on goodness, they're in church every single Sunday. And the problem with these assumptions is when you assume people are growing and in a healthy place, you end up with a churchful of people who think they're saved at times, but they are not actually saved. You end up with a church of immature believers who are coming around in their spiritual diapers, all right? And they think they're mature Christians because nobody ever discipled them into what it means to be a mature Christian, all right? This is why disciple making is such a big deal. I love all your new Christians. I just don't want you wearing your diapers in my church all day, all right? We gotta get past that. We gotta grow beyond that. And this is why Jesus is saying, I'm not just calling you to be my disciples. I'm calling you to be my disciples who make what? That's the only way you get a healthy church, amen? So here's what I wanna do. I wanna just, I wanna break this down if I can. And really just talk with you about what does it mean to be a Christian who makes disciples? It's real simple, that's all the whole point of the rest of the message.

Because I wanna, I want this as clear as possible so that when you can leave here, you're saying, I know how to do that. And the good news is that Jesus gives us two words. They're in the verses that follows. He says verse 19, "Go and make disciples of all nations." That's the command. And then it reads, "Baptizing them." Somebody say, "Baptizing." Word number one, "Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit." And teaching them, somebody shout out, "Teaching." Says, "And teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." And so the first thing Jesus says is, if you're gonna make disciples, you have to help those disciples get baptized. Why would Jesus make baptism so central to discipleship? Because watch this, when you get baptized, you are announcing before your church family and all who would gather that you are no longer the leader of your life that Jesus Christ is the Lord of your life. When you get baptized, as so many of you done, which is that 156 people get baptized, you are publicly saying, watch this, I am a child of God. And I'm not in charge of me anymore. Jesus is in charge of me from this point forward. That's what you're declaring with baptism.

In fact, in that way, I believe baptism is not just a symbol of Jesus' lordship. I think it's a test of his lordship. Because if somebody comes to me and said, "Oh, pastor, Jesus is my Lord, but I'm not sure I wanna get baptized." I wanna say, I'm not sure Jesus is your Lord. Because Jesus said to get baptized, if you're one of his disciples. You all with me so far? Somebody like this is uncomfortable, so be it, all right? The doors are, you know, I'm kidding. (congregation laughing) But listen, it's such a crucial thing, this very first step of baptism, and that's why we give opportunities so often here. Like next baptism coming up here and getting November 8, all right, November 8, you can write it down. And I wanna just encourage if you're serious about being a follower, a disciple of Jesus, sign up and get baptized. Go to our website no matter what campus you're at, sign up and get up on up here and declare, "I'm a disciple of Jesus, and Jesus is the Lord of my life." And guess what? We're gonna celebrate you like crazy when you take that step, all right? That's number one is baptism. Now, there's a second word in the text, and that's the one we need to spend some time on. 'Cause after he says, to make disciples,

first they gotta get baptized. But then he says verse 20, "Teach them to obey everything that he commanded." Jesus commanded. And I wanna slow it down here, because I'll tell you the two reasons that I hear from Christians all the time on why they have not yet made disciples is number one, I don't know how. And number two, nobody ever discipled me. Those are two things I hear all the time from Christians on why they've never discipled anybody, why they've never been a disciple who makes disciples. And so what I wanna do today is I wanna be incredibly clear with you on the practical process of how you make a disciple of Jesus. Like, you don't understand how clear I wanna be. I did something for today. I have never done in the 21-year history of a Getty church. That's how serious I am. I made a fill-in-the-blank handout for you. How many of you know your pastor is serious when he comes in with a fill-in-the-blank handout, all right? So get that out right now. We're gonna go through this. If you need a pin, steal it from your neighbor. And now we got pins in the aisles. It's all right, if you need to get up to get a pin, you just reach them and they're in the aisles, you're gonna wanna fill this in as we go.

Here's my goal as you're getting all set. My goal is that now nobody who is here today will ever ever be able to say again, I don't know how to make a disciple. That's my goal. You're gonna walk out of here with a game plan. How many of you ready for a game plan on what it means to make a disciple of Jesus, right? So we're gonna go real practical right now, this is gonna be good. I wanna take you through the life of really a master disciple and that was the Apostle Paul. We could look at Jesus, but the reason why I like Paul is 'cause he's just like not the son of God, so he's a little bit more normal to us than Jesus. And you look at Paul's life, he was a master disciple and one of my favorite relationships to watch with the Apostle Paul is how he discipled this young guy named Timothy. And so if you read like the Bible a little bit, you understand Timothy, when Paul first met Timothy, he was like this young, insecure Christian totally operating in the shadows. Some of you are in that place right now, you're insecure about your faith, you're kinda like, oh, I'm a little bit more of a fan than I am a follower right now, that was Timothy, okay? And Paul starts discipling this kid when he's a kid and he builds into him and we're gonna talk about how he does that and can I tell you, we know the historical record of Timothy's life.

Timothy ends up moving from a young, insecure Christian operating in the shadows to a bold, confident, spirit-filled leader to back down from his testimony about Jesus. I'm just telling you that because what Timothy did to disciple, what Paul did to disciple this kid worked everybody. And that's what I'm taking you through right now. There were seven aspects of what Paul did to help build Timothy up spiritually. Number one is Paul invited proximity into Timothy's life. He said, Timothy, young Tim, we need to spend some time together. Like we need to hang out. It's not good, like we see each other once in a while, but we need to like actually, we need to do some meals, we need to spend time chatting, we need to hang and talk about life. And it's funny, a friend of mine named John, who's part of our church, he early on in his relationship with Jesus, he was trying to figure out like, what's godly marriage look like? I don't even know how to, I want to be married someday, I want to be a guy, I don't even know how to do it. I wasn't raised by Christians. And so he finds, I love this, he finds a guy in his church whose marriage he respects, he's been following Jesus. And he said, hey, would you mentor me? And I'm gonna use the word mentor and disciple synonymously. I'm also gonna use the words discipler and mentor, okay?

Synonymously, he said, hey, would you mentor me? I respect what I see in your marriage. Here's what the guy says, brilliant. The guy says, John, I want you to come to my house once a week for a bunch of weeks and just watch how my family does family. Brilliant, what is him? He's just inviting proximity. He's saying, hey, young John who's trying to figure out what it means to be a godly husband, I just want you to hang out and kind of pay attention to what you see, proximity. So watch this, if you're not yet discipling someone, you can simply pray the prayer that Jesus prayed. God, show me who to disciple, show me who to build into. If you're somebody who needs to be discipled, you're like, yeah, I don't have that, like being discipled part figured out. Can I tell you, join a life group. In our church, that's what the groups are all about, is helping each one of us get discipled so we can walk greater and closer towards Jesus. Number one, invite proximity. Now watch this, the second thing that the Apostle Paul did in Timothy's life is he modeled what it looked like to follow Jesus. Again, none of this is real confusing at this point. Like Paul's like, Timothy, hang out with me. And while you're hanging out with me, pay attention to how I try to follow Jesus Christ.

And please know, Paul was not perfect when he followed Jesus. In fact, I like this. And Paul's first letter to Timothy, I think it's chapter one and verse 15, Paul actually says to Timothy, hey, just so you know, Tim, like I'm the worst of all sinners. I mean, you say, no, he's the worst. Now, Tim, Paul's like, I am literally the worst of all sinners. So Paul wasn't like, hey, Timothy, watch me follow Jesus perfectly. He was just like, watch me try to follow Jesus. You know, imperfections and all. My friend John started going to his mentor's house and then he said, hey, would you disciple me? And he's there just watching family, watching dinner play out, watching, watching his mentor interact with his wife, all that. And one night his mentor gets a little bit salty with his wife at the dinner table. Now how many of you know, it's awkward when you watch a husband and wife argue right in front of you, right? That's an awkward situation. But man, it was just, that's the real deal. And so they have this argument and later the mentor takes John to the side at the end of the night and he said, hey, tell me, you know, what'd you notice, John,

about how things went down in the family tonight? John says, what I noticed is you were kind of a knucklehead towards your wife and he's like, you're right? And he said, John, what do you think I should do about it? And John's like, I think you need to go, go back to that lady and you need to own what you did wrong and you need to apologize. And that is exactly what his mentor did. But what I want you to see here is John's mentor was discipling him in the way of Jesus even through his weaknesses and imperfections. Man, don't let your imperfections stop you from helping somebody else understand what it means to follow Christ. I don't know enough Bible. I'm not confident praying out loud. I still rest without, that's okay. Just follow Jesus the way you are and let them watch you, amen church? All right, number one was invite proximity. Number two was model following Jesus. Here's the third thing Paul did to Timothy. He taught Timothy biblical beliefs. He wanna make sure Timothy like understands what's it mean to actually think like a Christian? He wants to make sure Timothy is a man who's rooted in the word of God not just in the prevailing trends in culture, not just in his feelings. Oh, I feel this, I must do it, no, no.

I wanna get you rooted in the word of God. That was Paul's commitment. So if you're discipling somebody, what does it look like to help that person grow in their biblical beliefs? Let me tell you how easy it is. This is what some people do in our own church. You can take what was preached on a Sunday, meet with the person that you are building into, and just talk about it. Talk about what it looks like in their lives. Ask, you know, and entertain the questions that you or they might be wrestling with, as helping understand what it means to internalize the biblical beliefs and live them out. It might be that you read a Christian book together that's got some Bible in it, and you say, let's just go through this, and read it together and talk about what it means. And here's what I did, I did years back. Man, this is so good. You can take a book of the Bible with somebody and just say, all we're gonna do is read one chapter of this book. Each time we meet, but we're gonna read it before we meet, and we're just gonna talk about it and wrestle with it. All of those things are teaching biblical beliefs. Do you see that church? It's done, it need to be hard.

Don't look for the perfect, here's the thing people get stuck on. Oh, I just needed to make sure I got the right resource. Friends, the point is not the right resource. The point is any biblical resource that gets you in the Word of God. That's what you're trying to do. Now, I wanna move on here, number four. Again, we're just talking about how to practically disciple somebody. We're talking about making disciples of Jesus, and this is, I must admit it, this is probably my weakest one of this list, but it's so important, and that is when we're building into somebody, we give them real ministry assignments. It's important that discipleship isn't just a head game, that you're not just learning Bible stuff all the time and hearing truths, but you're actually having to walk these things out and practice them. Let me just give you a really simple example of how our family has practiced an aspect of discipleship over the years. For as long as we've been a family, every night we sit down to the table together to have dinner together. So right there, that's a good step for some of you, all right? Just like get everybody in one room at the same time. But then before we eat dinner,

we always pray before the meal. And when we pray, it's not like, hello Lord, (claps hands) Rub-a-dub-dub, thanks for the grub. Amen, let's go, you know, it's not that. That's not how we pray. Every time we pray, we do thank God for the food, but sometimes we'll pray for family members if there's struggles or hardships going on. Sometimes when we pray, if there's something cooking it and getting, and baptism's coming up or something like that, we'll pray for what's going on in the life of our church before dinner. Sometimes we'll pray for things in the world, there's something in the headlines, the strategy, people are suffering, and we'll just spend some time praying. Now don't get me wrong, we are not like super spiritual praying for 15 minutes before we eat. It's still only a few minutes long, okay? But there's been a rhythm of prayer in our family. And watch this, parents. As the kids have grown up, we've asked them to pray, and they've started learning to pray in the way they saw mom and dad. And then we would have company over and other friends and church pastors, even in leaders, and we'd say, "Hey, Jared, how about you pray?"

"Hey, Kaitlin, how about you pray?" "Hey, about Evan, how about you pray?" "What are we doing? "We're discipling them." So fast forward the clock to just a couple of weeks ago. Christina and I go to Spectrum Butterworth to visit a friend from in Getty who's in the hospital dealing with some serious things. And we get to the hospital and my daughter, who's now 23, Kaitlin, she works at that same hospital, and so she meets us in the room. And we have a little bit of time to talk to this brother from in Getty who's been going through some health complications. And after some time to chat, I say, "Well, hey, let's make some space right now "and just pray for him." And so I pray, and then Christina prays. And I just leave some space. I'm ready to say if no one else prays, the man's spouse was there too. I was like, you know, I just say, in Jesus' name, amen, right there. But I just gave a little beat of rest right there. And I'm telling you, my daughter started praying in that moment, and she prayed the most faith-filled, pastorally sensitive, theologically deep, confident prayer. I've heard in the hospital in a long time.

And I remember, I remember thinking later, my girl, my girl just prayed right there. And here, I literally thought, how did she do that? How did she know how to do that? And the Holy Spirit just reminded me, discipleship is how she did it. You see a church. So watch this. It's not just that we're spending time with people, and it's not just we're teaching them biblical beliefs. We're giving them a chance to practice that someday they might go into the hospital and pray with faith, encourage, and boldness. Amen? Now, part of what's important with giving real ministry assignments is the next thing, which is we're gonna correct and coach them as well. We're gonna watch them operate and where we can speak in and say, hey, maybe think about this next time, or maybe try it this way, or, you know, well, hey, well, help me understand what was going on there. We're gonna correct and coach. Can I tell you, I've been pastoring now for 26 years, and I still am getting discipled to this day. I remember last time I was having a conversation he led a very flourishing church. And I remember sitting down with him and I was, if I'm gonna be honest, I was belly aching about him yet.

All right, I'm just gonna say it. I'm like, "Yeah, Pastor, I just, Pastor Greg, I just, man, "I don't know, I just feel like we're in some "stagnancy here, I don't know what to do about it, "I feel worried, I don't know if I've got "what it takes to change it, I don't know what's going on, "where's this gonna lead to?" I'm just like, all worried, all up in and out about it, all this, and Pastor Greg disciples me in that moment, I'll never forget his response, he's like, "Hey, Brian, in all my years of ministry," and this man led an incredibly impactful ministry. He said, "All my years of ministry, I just focused "on one verse, Galatians 6-9, let us not grow weary "and doing good, for at the proper time, "we will reap a harvest if we just don't give up." And my pastor said, "All I focused on, Brian, "was not given up," sounds very spiritual, doesn't it? Can I tell you, that's just the word I needed to hear. And honestly, what Pastor Greg was doing, really, is all, "Oh, come on, don't know what to do about this, "nevermind, you know all this?" And Pastor, what I felt like he did in a loving way, he's like, "Yo, Brian, chill out, it's God's church, "not yours, Brian, chill out, God's gonna take the church "to its next place of flourishing, it's not all up to you." And that is a word that is continued to be rooted in my spirit today. What's Greg doing, Pastor Greg is coaching, and he is correcting me in that moment.

Six thing I want you to write down is Paul affirmed the gifting and the calling in Timothy's life. Where he saw potential, where he saw strength, he said, "Okay, yo, Timothy, I want to identify this in you. "I see something going on in you." My favorite example, 2 Timothy 1-6. Paul says, "Finn and deflameth the gift of God, "which Timothy is in you." "Yo, Tim, there's something there, "you gotta pay attention to that. "Put that thing into use." How many of you know, we all need to have somebody affirm our gifts and talents, right? You realize that? Here's the problem with gifts and talents. It's oftentimes the person who has them that is the least aware that they have them. 'Cause you got a certain gift and talent, it's just how you flow, it's just how you operate. You need somebody to come alongside you and say, "Yo, when you listen to me, like I feel so hard." "Hey, when you organize things, "like everything actually gets done on time." Christina Aulek, thank you for being a blessing to our household. We would never have anything done if it were up to me, but Christina, man, bam, that thing is rolling, all right? Get on board or you're gonna lose your seat, I don't know. She's got a gift of administration. When people call, man, when you're building in

as somebody, again, it's not rocket science, just pay attention to where you see promise and say, "Hey, I see that in your life, okay?" Now, I got one last one for you. And this is really important, but it's often, often forgotten and overlooked. And that is when you're gonna disciple someone, you need to do what Paul did to Timothy, and that is you need to expect multiplication from their lives. What you don't wanna do, and this happens sometimes, what you don't wanna do is invest your life in someone who is really just about living their best life. Not really being a disciple who makes disciples. When you think about Paul's focus, there's a powerful verse on the second Timothy chapter two, verse two, Paul says, "The things you have heard me say, "Timothy, and the presence of many witnesses, "watch this, entrust to reliable people "who will also be qualified to teach others." Paul's focus is not on first generation discipleship, it's on third generation discipleship. I'm building into you, Timothy, so you can build into some people who build into some people. You see that church? So watch this. If you're thinking about building into somebody and helping them grow spiritually, watch this. Ask them a question ahead of time, "Hey, are you willing to do for somebody else

"what I'm gonna do for you?" And if they're like, "Nah, this is really just about me "discovering my best life in Jesus." You're like, "You know what? "I'm gonna take a pass on discipling you." You figure that out on your own. 'Cause I wanna expect multiplication in those I'm investing in. Does all that make sense to you? Okay, so here's what I've done. You've got these all filled out now. You have an action plan for living out the Great Commission, which is to make disciples. Bless God, for the rest of your life, if somebody says, "Hey, have you make disciples?" And you can't be like, "I don't know how, all right?" Pastor gave you a roadmap for making disciples. And I know what some of you thinking right now, but when am I qualified to start? When do I, like when have I been a Christian long enough? When do I know enough Bible? When am I such a spiritual level that I could be somebody who actually isn't just a disciple, but I make disciples? My answer to that is gonna surprise some of you. In fact, I think some of you are gonna disagree with me. I'll just be honest. I think you are qualified to be a disciple who makes disciples as long as you have been a Christian Ask my standard. If you've been following Jesus for 10 minutes, you can disciple somebody else.

Now, let me back that up. I want you to think about what happens when you give your life to Christ. Number one, you recognize, theologically, that you are a sinner who cannot save yourself, cannot fix yourself, and cannot earn salvation on your own. Number two, you recognize that Jesus died on a cross and is the Savior sins and holds that salvation out to anyone who would trust in him. Number three, you recognize Jesus not only died on a cross but was raised to life again, defeating death and the devil so that you can live out of his place of victory. Number four, you recognize your identity is no longer in the world but that you are a child of God. Number five, God has given you a new family and you are now placed in the church. And number six, if that is all not enough for you, you have been given the Holy Spirit, the very presence of God, the moment you gave your life to Jesus. Think about what he's done in your life if you've just been a Christian for 10 minutes. And can I tell you, if all those things have happened, you are already far ahead of the 60 to 70% of our population who does not yet have a relationship with Jesus Christ. And so you can be a Christian for 10 minutes and you can go up to somebody at work and say, man, I'm trying to figure out this whole Bible thing. You want to read some of this with me and just talk about it over lunch. You know what you're doing right there? Discipleship. You're like, well, what have I been following Jesus for more than 10 minutes? That's all the more people that you're qualified to disciple, right? You don't have to be years ahead. I'm just a few steps as it'll do. And you can start helping them take steps towards Jesus. And let me just say this. I know some of you are like, I don't know, you know, discipling. And do I really want to do once you're willing to take the risk to build into somebody else's life spiritually, you're going to find out it is the most satisfying, enriching, rewarding thing you've ever done in your life.

Because of the virtue of my position, I'll hear things like, hey, Pastor, good job up there, you know? Good, good sermon today, Pastor. I heard that after the first service. Great sermon today, Pastor. Sometimes people are like, hey, Pastor, that joke you told was really funny. I don't hear that very often, to be honest, but once in a while I do, and I'm like, yes, thank you, Lord, thank you. But I'll tell you, as much as those words are all encouraging, the most encouraging thing is when I hear words like I heard a few months back from a friend I'd spent time with, I'd had proximity to. And he said, Brian, I just want to thank you because by virtue of me being able to be close with you in life. He said, my marriage is better. He said, because we spent time together, my relationship with Jesus is stronger. Because of spending time together, I've got better emotional health. I know even how to grow and get stronger in my emotional health. He said, because we began stronger, I handled my money in a whole different way, and now I'm doing my money, not my way. I'm doing my money God's way, and I'm seeing blessing upon it because I am. He says, I just need to thank you because all of this happened because you were willing to invest in me and that we had proximity. Can I tell you friends, I love good job pastors and that was a good sermon. I really like that was a funny joke. But can I tell you, Church, there is no better words than hearing somebody say, I love Jesus better and more because of my relationship with you. Because I had proximity because we hung out. That's what was waiting for you on the other side of discipleship. You don't need to be perfect. You don't need to be an expert.

All you need to do is say, hey, can I invest in you? Can I spend time with you? I want to help you get a step closer and following Jesus. Amen. Let me pray for us. Father, thank you today that the life you invite us into is not just a life where we pray a little prayer, and that's the end. It's not where we just sign a little card that says, I gave my life to Jesus and now we've got fire insurance for eternity. Thank you, Jesus, that the life you invited us into, the Bible calls the way. It embraces all of who we are and all of what we do. And as we come closer and closer to you, Jesus, following you with all of our lives, we step into the life that is truly life. Thank you for the walk of discipleship that you've given each follower of Jesus today. And I pray for each person who has named the name of Christ as their Savior and leader, that as we would read the great commission, go and make disciples, this would not be something we ignore, put off, or disqualify ourselves from, but rather we would say, Who are you calling me to disciple? Maybe we pray the same prayer that Jesus prayed. Jesus just show me, show me the men, show me the women that you're calling me to pour my life into and would it be the case that as we pour our lives into them, they could give testimony. I walk closer to Jesus. Would that be our legacy? Staying in this place of prayer. Maybe you're here today, and you're not yet a disciple of Jesus. Maybe you've been around church and you've heard sermons, but the truth of the matter is,

if you're gonna be honest with yourself and honest before God, you've not come to the place where you've said Jesus, I'm a sinner, and I need you to forgive my sins. I'm gonna choose to follow you with my whole life, Jesus, because you are Lord and you are Savior. And so if today's the day you wanna give your life to Jesus, then in just a moment, I'm gonna count to three and when I say three, I'm gonna ask you to put your hand in the air as a way of saying, yes, this is the step I'm taking. Today is the day I'm giving my life to Christ and becoming a child of God. Not gonna embarrass your call yacht anyway, but I'm gonna ask you to declare before God with a raised hand that today you're giving your life to Jesus. One, I want you to know God loves you so much that Jesus Christ died on a cross for you. Two of the same Jesus who died on a cross for you was raised to life three days later, so that by pursuing his victory, you two could be lifted up in victory and three, if you wanna give your life to Jesus Christ right now, could you just put your hand in the air as a way of saying, yes, God, today is the day I wanna come home. Yes, God, today is the day I wanna give my life to you. Anybody else who's in that place saying, this is the moment for me to become a child of God.

This is the moment I see up there, awesome, good job. Anybody else? Gotcha, good job, you guys. Anybody else who's saying, I see you right there, all the way back, awesome, awesome, awesome, all the way over there, good job. You put your hands down. I'm gonna pray if you raised your hand, enjoy joining me in this prayer in your own heart. Father, right now, I say thank you for forgiveness in Jesus' name. Thank you for your work on the cross from this point forward, or Jesus. You are the Lord of my life. You are the leader of my life, and I pray you would take me into life that is yours and yours alone. In Jesus' name, the whole church prayed, and said, amen and amen, can we celebrate new life from the house and Getty? That's what we're here for. Can you stand your feet right now? We're gonna end this day in worship, but listen, if you raised your hand, then you're gonna see these ushers walk down the aisles. They've got a Bible for you. They've got a book for you, it's all for free to get you started, wave to 'em. Don't pass it down to you wherever you're at, and it's just a resource to help you get started

in your journey with Jesus. Listen in this day by lifting his name high. First, can we say something? Don't fear me, tell me the truth. Oh, I'm not gonna go. Yeah, I'll make it thrown in the fire. Yeah, I'm gonna walk down. The key of the plan won't come through me. It's nothing but a smoke. It may look like I'm surrounded, but I'm not gonna go down the aisles. Don't fear me, tell me the truth. Oh, I'm not gonna walk. Come on, I'll make it. I'll make it thrown in the fire. Let's say something. I'm gonna walk down. The key of the plan won't come through me. It's nothing but a smoke. It may look like I'm surrounded, but I'm not alone. Don't fear me, tell me the truth. Don't fear me, tell me the truth. Don't fear me, tell me the truth. Don't fear me, tell me the truth. Don't fear me, tell me the truth. Don't fear me, tell me the truth. Don't fear me, tell me the truth. Don't fear me, tell me the truth. Don't fear me, tell me the truth.

(upbeat music)