Being with Jesus | Laura Stefani | Discipleship Night 2026

Amen. My name is Laura, and I can't wait to dive in and see what God has continuously wanting to teach us tonight. You know, there is nothing like being in the presence of God. It's unmatched, right? There's nothing that can truly unmatch God's presence. There's nothing that can truly unmatch God's presence. There's nothing that can truly unmatch God's presence. There's nothing that can truly satisfy and give us life like Jesus. Do you believe that? That is the truth. And what a gift it is that we have been given an invitation by him to be with him. It's like he's giving us this invitation to make memories with him. You know, when we spend time with people, we're making memories with them, right? Think about the disciples. They said, yes, they got to go on all these adventures and then many of them wrote them down so that we could even be blessed by the memories that they got to share and watch Jesus do and be with him and do. And so the fact that these memories, these memories can change us because of the time we've spent with him. These memories can also, when we're reminded of them, can bring us back to him.

This invitation he gives us, it's daily, it's hourly, it's minute by minute to be with him. And church, one of the best things that we can give God this year is our time. And one of the best things that we can give ourselves this year is time with Jesus. Being with Jesus has looked different for me in different seasons of my life. When I was single, when I got married, when I had a kid, when I didn't have a job, when I got a full-time job, it's looked different. In this season of my life, it is early in the morning when my family is not up. I need time just being Jesus because I know a lot of people need me and I want to get whatever the Lord has for me so that I could be filled to pour out. And there's a couple things that I do. One, just like Pastor Chris, my phone, bye-bye. Do not disturb. Your phone can still be on and it can go off, right? It's gone. And then there's a couple things that I love to do with the Lord. I love to worship him, whether it's in song or whether it's just my adoration to him. I love to read his word. I love to tell him everything, to bring my full self to him, not a half, not a this is what I think you want,

all of myself to him and listen because he has so much to download in us. And it's not always in that order. And that's okay if it's not a specific formula because God knows what you need in that moment, in that day. And even though those times might look different, what always seems to happen is I always leave changed. I always leave changed because his presence is unmatched. There's nothing that can heal me and restore me and revive me and bless me and give me peace like Jesus, right? There's things that he has to do in that specific time that I give him to uproot that are going on in my heart that need attention. There's things that he needs to remind me of. There's things that he needs to quiet me about. There's so much that's done in his presence. And often even just being in his presence is like an answer to whatever it is that we needed to bring him. Has that ever happened to you? Just being with him. See each of us in this room, we're in different seasons. We have different responsibilities, different things that we have going on and different ways that we're intentionally trying to pursue Jesus in that quiet time. But each and every one of us have the invitation given every day. And it's what we do with it that matters most.

And I'll say more often than I'd like to admit in my 19 years of following Jesus, there has been times where I know that invitation is there, but I get really wrapped up in everything else. I get really wrapped up in doing, going to this event, going and doing this, meeting with this person, trying to be all these things for everybody else. And I push aside that time, taking it on myself. And I wonder why I'm so tired. And I wonder why I'm confused and distracted. And I wonder why I start to feel weary and scatterbrained. And sometimes that I just wanna pause and not even do anything at all, like crippled. And I thank Jesus that he's given us an example, a memory that's written in his word, in the book of Luke as a reminder of how to help in this time. Look with me at Luke 10, verse 38. It says, as Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet, listening to what he said. But Martha was so distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me. Martha, Martha, the Lord answered.

You are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken from her. Martha, she's upset. There are things to be done. I could imagine she invited Jesus into her house, right? She's serving him, probably serving the disciples, giving them a meal or water or whatnot. And she's kind of doing it on her own and she's distracted. And this is what Jesus says to her, Martha, Martha. Even the fact that he says her name twice, it's like this indication, I know you. I know what you need. And he says, you're worried and you're upset about many things, but how many things? Only one. And Mary has chosen what is better. The one thing. What is Mary doing? Sitting and listening to the Lord, enjoying his presence. And it can't be taken from her. The times when we've sat with him, when we've given him our time, all that he's done cannot be taken from us. Somebody else can't say it didn't happen. We know, we were there, right? It can't be taken from us. His presence is always the better thing.

Look what he says in John 6. I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry and whoever believes in me will never be, what? Thirsty. He has everything that we need. He will provide everything that we need. If we take the time to let him download and nourish us and feed us what only he can. It's not by what we do. It's about us being with him. And I was reminded of this time when I found myself in a similar situation as Martha. It was about two years ago. And I was so fixed on going and going and going and not pausing and going and going. And that invitation had been pushed aside. It's like I put Jesus in a room in my house and I didn't open the door. But I was doing all these things, not bad things, good things for him. And there was this worship service that I was at. And the worship leader goes, okay, right now we're just gonna take a few minutes and we are gonna spend it with Jesus just alone. And I'm not kidding, for some reason, I now know, I felt uncomfortable. I didn't really know what to do. And then the worship leader so kindly was like, hey, there might be some of you in this room

that feel a little like they don't know what to do. And I would encourage you to posture yourself, your body, posture your body and talk with him. Maybe that means kneel. And so I knelt down and I put my head down and I said, I have nothing to give. I don't know what I could give you. And then this thought came to my mind. And over time and time and time again, spending with the Lord, I know when it's not my thought. And that thought was, Laura, I'm proud of you. And I was like, what do you have to be proud of me about? I've neglected you. And he's like, because you're doing this right now. I've longed for this. I've waited for this. I have so much to show you. It was like, he wanted to show me all these things. Laura, I have so much to show you. Put your name in that. I have so much, but you just need to make space for me. See, I wanna be known as someone who has been with Jesus. I don't wanna be known for what I do, what I can do, any gift or anything. I wanna be known for having an experienced life. continually because of the presence of our living God. And how that doesn't just change me, but it changes all of the lives it could around me possibly. And we're just gonna take a moment right now

and we're gonna put this into practice. So if everybody would just close your eyes and take a deep breath. However you're feeling right now, close your eyes and take a deep breath. That might be your cry even right now of that sweet child. Nothing else matters right now, just this time with him. Ask him to quiet the noise that's in your mind right now. Maybe take another breath. Ask him to help you see that he wants this time right now too. That he's been waiting for this time to have with you. Believe that he loves you, he made you, he called you. He calls you by name. Ask him, Lord, in this moment, what do you want to tell me? What do you wanna show me? What do you wanna remind me of when it comes to my relationship with you? Tell him I'm here sitting and I'm listening. Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11 Amen. Amen. And so just to remind you, you've heard this already, but tonight is not just learning about discipleship. Tonight is about understanding that you need to take your next best step in your journey of following Jesus. And so I would have you consider that for some of you, your next best step is to begin to prioritize being with Jesus in your daily life. And here's the thing, we are finite creatures. We've only got so much time. We've only got so much capacity. And in order for us to be able to say yes

to spending time with Jesus, you're going to have to say no to something else. So for me, it's I'm saying no, I would love to sleep till eight, but I can't. But I got to say no to that so that I can choose the better thing. So I just wanted to pause for a moment and I want you to reflect on this. Jesus, what do I need to say no to? Is it the phone? Is it sleep? Is it that I don't know? He'll show you. But just pause for a moment and let him reveal to you what you need to start saying no to so that you can say yes to him. And I want you to open up your notes app, put it in there, write it in your Bible. But just do that now. Listen for his voice and commit to it. Write it down. What do you have to say no to to begin to say yes to being with Jesus? Do that now. Let's commit these things to the Lord in prayer. Father, thank you for your desire to be with us. It's crazy to think that you want to be with us even more than we want to be with you. And so we ask tonight that you would change our heart, give us new desires, new longings for the better thing to sit at the feet of our King. God, show us those things that we need to say no to. Give us the strength, give us the grace. Thank you, you're so patient with us in this process. We want to be with you. Help us. We need your help. We can't do it without you, God. We pray all of these things in Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen. So we just talked about this idea of being with Jesus. I want to invite up my friend Javin to talk to you about becoming like Jesus. Let's give him a hand.