Don't Grow Alone | Crossroads Church

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms. We cannot say it enough. I'm Hannah Driscoll, so pumped to be with you. You see, I brought my band. You see that? I tell you, I'm a new mom. And so I'm learning a lot of stuff. I'm learning a lot of new stuff. And I thought, what better way to start off today than by sharing with you what I'm learning. And one of the things I'm learning is that sometimes dollar store candles, they just hit. It's one of those days that this day reminds you that they smell good. Don't be hatin'. The next thing it reminds me of is that I'm still learning. And so just when I think I don't know what to do, never fear, the TikTok moms, they're here. And the mom fluencers, listen y'all, they know just what to say to make me feel overwhelmed. Check it out right here. If you wanna be a fun and happy mom, here's how you're gonna do it. Here's how I do it. I consider myself a fun and happy mom. I wanna be a fun and happy mom. Way more boring and isolating than in Spain. If your child is crying, they have a reason to cry. Right. Here's a fun summer activity

to keep your kids entertained for hours. I made this aluminum foil river and my kids absolutely loved it. I love that for her. Currently with baby number two that I didn't do with my first daughter. Welcome to another week of what I meal prep my toddler. To start with- How does she have time for this? You wanna have smart kids, you have to play with smart toys. A family of reasons why your child is not listening to you. Two. Mom is missing right now, drowning in guilt and perfectionism. Me, that's me. That's the first thing you would tell her. Take a deep breath. Put your hand on your heart. In fact, just breathe in with me. That did not work. Okay. So, because that didn't work, me and the band thought, this is one of my favorite jams. This is by The Boyz II Men. If there's a mama next to you or if somebody who wants to be a mama's next to you, let's just sing this to them right now. It's really easy.

It's like, look at that. It says, mama, you know I love you, girl. Look at that mama in the eyes. Stop looking at me. Look at the mama. Come on. Mama, you're the queen, girl. Y'all better sing. Y'all better sing. Come on. Mama, I just want you to know. Mama, I just want you to know. Mama, I just want you to know that loving you is like food to my soul. Loving you is like food to my soul. Come on. Give it up. Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas who ever wanted to be a mama, who's a grieving mama, wherever you're at. Happy Mother's Day. Okay, get out of here. I gotta preach. Thank you. Love you. Man, that was just a comical reminder that when the world does its best to offer us any type of hope, it will always come up short.

Thankfully, our hope is in Jesus, and we're gonna see that he gives us hope, not through things like TikTok, but through this unique strategic relationship that we're gonna talk about today called discipleship. Let me pray for us. God, thank you so much for Mother's Day, a reminder that you gave us an actual picture of formation. Lord, would you use my words today to speak directly to each and every one of us and to communicate your love and the plans that you have for our life. In the name of Jesus, amen. Those moms in that video, I'm poking a little fun at them, but the reality is they're good moms. The problem is that they just are influencers, and so they influence me to the point that I am so overwhelmed. But I know I'm not alone in that. I know dads, I know other women, I know other men. You guys got people barking at you too, telling you who to be, telling you how to be, trying to yap and tell you what it is to be a real woman, a real man. Students, I know that you definitely got people telling you what to wear, how to dress, how to look, what to eat, what to say, who to cancel, and it all just becomes too much.

So in a world where everybody is screaming, follow me, Jesus comes along and he gives us a different definition of followership, one that we're gonna unpack today. See, God's plan for the kingdom begins with this thing called multiplication through the spiritual formation of discipleship. And I've found this to be true in my own life. See, this is my family. This is my husband, David, and little baby Israel, and they keep me busy. They do, they keep me busy. So I'm a wife and a mom, and I work here at Crossroads, and I got a pretty demanding job. I wanna be a good friend. I also try to lead well the things that I'm leading. I also volunteer over in our student ministry. I also am, I don't know, trying to remember to be a human and drink water and work out every now and again. There's just a lot on the table and there's this tendency, maybe you're like me, you wanna grab life by the horns and do something with it. You want to be on it all the time. There's a silly little quote that floats around on the internet every now and again, and there's not even an author because it's just on the internet. It says something silly like, hey, just remember, you have the same hours in a day as Beyonce. So if that's true, that means I should be planning a secret tour that don't nobody know about.

I should drop a surprise album, be a great mom, be a great friend, look great, smell good. Now don't get me wrong, I love my girl Beyonce, but the trick is you look at her and you think, oh, she's doing it alone. She ain't doing nothing by herself. I mean nothing. She's got people. And what I have found is the way that I don't crumble under the pressure of all that I just mentioned is to have people, real, genuine people, not just around me to pat me on the back, but to challenge me, to grow me. And that has specifically happened for me through the relationship of discipleship. Now discipleship is kind of a dirty word, depending on where you come from or where you find yourself today. You might think of that word and think about people drinking Kool-Aid on islands, maybe people walking around in white robes claiming they found some important cult leader. And in reality, that word has been hijacked by self-serving people and it's often been underused or undervalued in the church setting. But the reality is discipleship is God's idea and it's his plan to multiply and grow his kingdom. It's his way of spreading his love. In fact, in the very first part of the Bible, in the book of Genesis,

one of the things that God is telling us, the first commands that he gives us is to be fruitful and multiply. Now he's not just talking about, go have a bunch of kids. That's not what he's saying because then it wouldn't apply to everyone. We get a glimpse of what he's saying when Jesus tells us through what we call the great commission in Matthew 28. It says, go therefore and make disciples. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. When we wonder how the church spread without a single shred of Wi-Fi, no emails, text messages, or group means to invite people to the church meeting or large group gathering, it did not exist. The church spread and multiply through discipleship. Now, my own story with discipleship is not actually a story of triumph. This is Flo. Flo was my college friend, and I mean, she was amazing. Everybody loved Flo. People just wanted to be around her. She had a personality that you went, wow, you are so kind.

And I met Flo through my church, through our campus ministry group, where we just would have Bible studies and kind of hang out, and that's where Flo was. And so time after time, Flo would invite me into her life. That's just what she did. She invited people in, maybe to like a girls' night or to some sort of Bible study that she was hosting even. And often, because she was so kind, because she truly embodied the love of Jesus, I would just be like, yeah, no thank you, often. That was my thing. Like, I'm good. I'm good, Flo. And there was a reason that Flo kept doing that because I'm like, why are you trying to hang out with me? Every now and again, though, I would accept her invitation. And I would accept because again, she was an infectious person. And I'd be like, okay, sure, girl, I'll go to coffee with you, no problem. And when we would be at coffee, she would ask me things like, so what's God doing in your life? What, do you think you're like carrying too much?

Like maybe you have a lot going on and need to rest a bit. And I hated those questions because I was like, who are you? Who do you think you are? And what I realize now is that Flo was actually inviting me kindly into a discipleship relationship. Now, I kind of wish she would have just said that because of course I would have still said no, but at least I would have known. At least I would have known that she was trying to give me some space for truth and for challenge. See, at that time, I was so unwilling to accept because I was actually a hot mess, you know, taking 20 or more credit hours at any given point. She was right to ask about rest because I was working five to six jobs voluntarily to put myself through school and all just trying to prove that I could do it on my own. See, the reality was I had a bunch of people around me. the 1.5 million clubs I was in, but nobody who knew me. Nobody. Nobody who truly, genuinely knew the real me. And because they didn't, they couldn't love me. And Flo was just trying to show love and I couldn't let her. So see, beginning of my story with discipleship is not one of triumph,

but thankfully where we see one of the most successful relationships with discipleship outside of Jesus and his 12 disciples is in the book of 1 Kings, where we meet a guy named Elijah and his encounter with a guy named Elisha. Now, I don't know if God was trying to be funny by giving them the exact same name. So we're just gonna actually call Elisha Shay-Shay because that's what I would call him. And otherwise you're gonna get confused. You're not gonna know who I'm talking about. So we got Elijah and then we got Elisha or Shay-Shay or Shay, okay? That's what we talking about. Let's go to the Bible. 1 Kings 19 says, so he departed Elijah from there and he found Elisha Shay, the son of Shaphat who was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen before him. And he was with the 12th. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him. And he, Elisha, left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, please, let me kiss my father and mother and then I will follow you. And he said to him, go back again for what have I done to you? Verse 21, then he, Elisha, arose and followed Elijah and became his servant. Now we just cherry picked that little moment from the Bible.

And that is what we have to do for our time today because we don't have enough time to go all the way there. But when we cherry pick from the Bible, we miss context. And context is actually really important for what just took place. See, Elijah, the main kind of character in the story has just found himself a couple of chapters before panting because he is quite literally running for his life. See, he was a prophet and he was a prophet of God and people didn't like what prophets had to say. And so there was somebody actually trying to kill him. And he finds himself overwhelmed with life, overwhelmed, running away, telling God, I don't even think I wanna live anymore. He's alone and suicidal. You might not have even known there was suicidal people in the Bible, but here he is, one of God's top, and he is alone and suicidal. And just like God, because he is a good father, he starts to minister to him. He starts to do some things for him. The first thing he does is he feeds him. And then he makes him go to sleep because sometimes you need to rest. And then he actually reminds him, hey, I am God. I got this thing, I'm under control. And then the last thing that he does is he gives Elijah a vision for his life and he gives him some next steps.

And those next steps involve Elisha, Shea, because up until this moment, Elijah has done most of his ministry all by himself. He has spent copious amounts of time alone. And God's vision for him, his next steps to get him to the next place of growth is people. No matter who and how you came in here today, maybe you came in here out of obligation because it's Mother's Day, or maybe you came out of curiosity, or maybe you simply came out of ritual. What God has for you and for me, his plan for growth for us is people. And don't just take my word for it. We gotta go to the Bible. Jesus says, God says in Ephesians 4.13, it notes, God wants us to grow until we've reached unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God's son, growing in maturity with a stature measured by Christ's fullness. Romans 8.29 says, for those he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. What's that trying to say? That God's growth plan for you and I is not that we would just grow to become more successful versions of ourselves, no. His growth plan for us is that we would grow to be conformed to looking like Jesus, more and more like Jesus. And his plan to get us there

is not a self-help book, it's people. That is one of the reasons that my relationship with Flo was unsuccessful because she was a real person and she kept inviting me into her life. And she never gave up, by the way. She did it till the day she graduated. She still showed kindness. She still showed love. But I think Flo was really onto something because all she did was look up and go, who's around me? Who's around me that might be ready? to go to the next phase who might need a little leadership a little guidance who might be ready to look more like Jesus. Flo might have asked herself who is proximate and this is really important because we see this same idea of proximity pop up in the story of Elijah and Shea. The Bible gives us absolutely no indication that they didn't know one another other than God said go find Elisha. Now from what we can read in the scripture it doesn't appear that Elijah pulled out his Rolodex or pulled out his contacts and went oh I guess I better find out who Elisha is and where he lives. No he went right to him. Similarly Shea is in the farmer's field working doing his thing. He doesn't look up from afar off and go man I wonder who that guy is coming towards me. He knows instantly oh that's that's the prophet that's that guy.

So there's a proximity for these folks now and that's important because as much as I want Michelle Obama to mentor me and I do Michelle if you are watching I'm available for coffee I am available that just ain't gonna happen because she's not near. Discipleship begins with proximity. Got to look up and see who's around but proximity is actually not powerful enough to produce the multiplication that is required and that the early followers of Jesus had. The next thing we see in this story is this idea of apprenticeship. That's not a word that we use or even an idea that's common anymore but at one point if someone wanted to learn a skill or a craft they would apprentice under someone which means they would just watch do what they do and act how they acted until one day they would take over. We see that same idea of apprenticeship start here and it's very important because it requires an idea of giving away some of your own authority and putting it under someone else. Earlier I was kind of poking at the tick tock moms and again those are good moms just doing their thing trying to get those advertising gains. I get it. They're doing their thing but the reason that I can poke fun at that is because our definition of followership is actually really passive. When we follow somebody what we really mean is that we cherry pick what we like. We follow them from a distance and we sift out what we don't. It means that we save a bunch of recipe videos that we never going

to do. We do a bunch of workout challenges that man maybe next time is when I'm going to get on that 30 day calisthenics. I know I can do it. That's what we do. It means we follow from a distance but apprenticeship is different. It's up close and this is what we see Eliza inviting Shay into his life. He's saying, come do what I do. Come eat with me. Come experience how God works through me. Experience the highs and the lows and apprentice which means that Elisha had to give up a little bit of his authority but what's interesting about our version of followership although it's passive it's still got a little bit of power because it produces formation. Whether or not we realize it or even want to all of us are being formed by what we do, what we watch, what we see. John Mark Comer says it like this, if you are not being intentionally formed by Jesus himself then it's highly likely that we are being unintentionally formed by someone or something else. See we're all slotting ourselves under people even unconsciously. We're all slotting our authority under someone else even if we don't really realize it. Maybe you're in the back and you're like, I'm tough, I'm my own person, I'm an individual. You're probably right and you're the best of us but most of us, most of us, that's not funny, most of us have this actual

biological thing going on in us where we were made to be formed. When a baby comes out of its mother they slap that baby on the skin to skin whoever the mom is they slap the baby on the chest because the baby is literally going to be formed by the mother. Even in science we see this with the Pavlovian dog experiment. The process that took place was a process of formation. Right now part of Israel's spiritual formation is my recovering road rage. Whenever he sees a car and hears a car go beep beep he just goes And he does that because that's what I do. Yep. Don't worry I am working on it. I'm working on it. But he's being formed even if even if I don't want him to be formed in that way he is being formed. And this is the story that we see with Elisha as well. See Shea was already in the farmer's field. The Bible says that he had. 12 yoke of oxen before him, which means somebody was rich. You don't just have 12 yoke of oxen. So he was already on a successful path, whether it was his family that was rich or he was working for somebody rich, he was already being formed. And that takes us to really this next, my favorite part of this story, because Elisha meets a little bit of resistance. He has a human moment. I had this exact same human moment with Flo

where I said, wait a minute, what you're inviting me into might have some cost to it. Elisha says, wait a second, hold on. What about my mama? Let me go back and kiss my father. And Elisha, he doesn't judge him. He doesn't say that's a bad idea. Instead he actually goes, yeah, what have I done to you? Now you can read that scripture with the tonal inflection, like I just said it, but instead we should read it with, what have I done to you? Which means, yeah, bro, you need to count the cost because this discipleship relationship, inviting someone to challenge you and grow you, inviting someone to help you get to your next step, it will cost you. Like any good thing, it costs something because in this way, Elisha wasn't just gonna receive a bunch of information from Elijah, he was going to receive transformation. Discipleship is about transformation. So whether you're interested in this relationship, you gotta know that it's gonna cost you maybe a night. It might cost you a couple of hours. It might cost you a few dollars on a cup of coffee. In my case, it cost me because one of the ladies that I've stepped into discipleship with, she likes Skyline and it cost me a little bit of my pride every time I have to humble myself and eat Skyline

because I will eat Skyline for Jesus, whatever it takes. Whatever it takes for her to know him, but it costs you something. Elijah's invitation is different. And this is why I don't have any pictures with Flo because I was not ready to be transformed. I was not ready for a life that would cost me something to get to my next step. The process of transformation is actually slow and messy and what I wanted was a quick high road to success. And this common, this resistance of feeling like, wait a minute, should I do this? It's really common. It's really normal to wonder if actually entering into a close connection could yield growth, but it is the pathway to growth. And this is common and we see it even in a community member of our own. We have a story of a guy named Nick in our own community who had to ask himself these questions, who himself had to count the cost of what it would mean to give away some of his authority and allow someone to speak into his life. Here's Nick's story. I was coming home one day from work. I was on my motorcycle. I had the green light, my car pulled out. I tried to avoid him. If he would've stopped, I probably would've been all right, but didn't and so I got ejected and no helmet,

no jacket, no nothing, going, I don't know, probably 40 or 50 mile an hour. I ended up breaking my back, my hip, my pelvis, my arm, my shoulders. My name's Nick and I struggle with authority. As a kid, I was molested as a, you know, as when I was, I don't know, five, six. And I feel like ever since then, it was been like nobody gonna tell me what to do. I grew up going to church, was told as soon as you're old enough to not come anywhere, you don't have to. And as soon as that was the case, I was gone. Like I was looking for something, but I wasn't sure what I was looking for. Then I rode motorcycles. So Rapid Hash is where I would come and hang out. I was always running into a group of bikers that I would talk to and ended up joining a club called the Brothers Eight. Ran around, did stuff with my brothers, stuff that I'm not too proud of. It wasn't a good, good thing. Just running around lost. You know, I started prospecting for the Iron Horsemen. I met one of my best friends, Dave. Him and I were hanging out one night and he's like, I wanna meet up with this chick. And she has some friends. I was like, oh, cool.

And that's the night that I first met my wife, Megan. As soon as I seen her, I was like, yep, that's who I wanna be with. Asked her out on a date and she was asking me questions about, you know, she knew I was in the process of patching in. She was like, well, like what cost is it to you and your family? We talked about like what she wanted out of a marriage or of a man or whatever. And it ended up being like, Someone that goes to church and a leader of the family and all the things that I wanna be. How am I supposed to go to church on Sunday and be like a man of God when I'm beating people up on Saturday? Ultimately ended up leaving the club. About that time I started going to church. How I met Greg was Megan was being mentored by his wife, Lynn. I asked Greg if he would be my mentor because I seen how him and his wife handled their marriage. And I wanna model my marriage after someone that's godly. And then you get hit by a Mitsubishi. I'm laying there and I'm breathing and I hear this little girl off to my right and she's praying for me. And it just like, it kicked into my mind like, hey man, you should be praying. You know, like you should just be thanking God.

But I ultimately think that I needed that to kind of set me down and say, hey, listen, I'm in control. Short of how we were brought together at your wedding, our circles, I don't know if they would have overlapped if it wasn't for our wives, right? 100% can agree that would not have happened. Yeah, so this is all new ground for me too. If I would have gone to Crossroads and I would have said, okay, do you have a discipleship program? I'm interested in discipling somebody. One, I wouldn't have done it because it would have been really outside of my comfort zone but I probably would have wound up discipling somebody a bunch like myself. It's nothing I chose, but I know God's hand was in it. I know he chose the right person and I'm just eternally grateful for it. So yeah, you got me this Bible, what, two years ago now for my birthday. Yeah. Could you not? I opened this up. I pulled the tab and it's on Roman 7-7 and it says, I do not understand what I do for what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, I do. And I'm like, that is like my whole life. In my opinion, you need people like you. You need to find a group. You need to find, go to man camp.

You need some type of mentorship. Seeing the marriage, I've seen the babies. I've seen the motorcycle accident. I've seen you grow in faith. Your rebellious attitude is definitely dissipating. Yeah, I couldn't even imagine somebody telling me what to do, because it's just not, it's not who I am. And it's always been that way. And now I'm noticing that it's not that way. Especially, you know, with you, I'm shocked now that following would ever make me feel as free as what I do. Somewhere down the road, somebody's gonna look at you and they're gonna look at you as an example. And they're gonna say, not only did he speak his faith, but he walked it. Yeah, I love Nick's story. I love his story because it's so real. And you know what? This thing works. It proves that it works. He's multiplying this past Sunday. He just baptized someone for the first time. This thing works. I don't know why it's God's plan to use imperfect people to grow and expand his love, but it is. And some call-outs from that video. I love that Greg is not a guru. He's just a guy. He's just somebody that Nick saw somebody in and said,

I think I want a little bit of something like that. I also love what he says because he says, yeah, Nick, your rebellion has certainly dissipated. You know, and that's my story too, is we are not perfect. Discipleship is not some spiritual mentorship that's gonna make you perfect. It's just gonna make you look more like Jesus. And I'll tell you what, the most thing that I love is that they pointed out that it's uncomfortable at first. It really is. It takes a lot of guts to kind of raise your hand and maybe think that you're open to this level of growth. But I will tell you what, I'm just up here telling you what I learned. And what I've learned is that if I wanna cut off my impact, if I wanna cut off my ability to be a great mother and a great wife, then I will cut off this relationship. And I tell you why, because I can point every single moment of growth in my life to my discipleship relationships. Without the women who have discipled me, I would not still be married. Without the women who have discipled me, I would not be a faithful friend and doing well in my leadership abilities. Without the women that have discipled me, I would not be on this stage sharing vulnerably with you because that is just not who I was. I can trace back every single moment of growth

back to the relationship of discipleship. And what's funny is that it wasn't even spiritual for me at first. And at first it might not be for you. See, there was a leader that I liked and I went, man, I really like how they lead. I wonder if they would tell me how they lead. Because they have a lot on their shoulders and they're crushing it and then it became man I really like how this woman is a friend and she seems really engaged with her family I want to be a friend like that someday. I want to maybe have a family like that someday I didn't even want to be a mama when I met this lady and then they became spiritual It was a woman and she seemed to be a woman of prayer and I felt that maybe God was Impressing on me that I needed to dig deeper into prayer and I just said hey, will you meet with me? to talk about prayer Now all these photos that have been popping up behind me the whole time that I'm speaking are of men and women That truly means something to me that I've been a key part in my life But these next three women that I'm gonna highlight are three women who have been key to my spiritual and deep Formation. These are the women that when I looked up and realized who was proximate to me They were around this first person is Paula see I asked Paula and all of these ladies to write a little bit about how we first met because I want to prove to you That this relationship is not just perfect and up to the right. It is a Transformational slow and messy process. So here's some things that Paula said She said when we first met what I wanted to work on with you was the most uncomfortable thing vulnerability both personally and professionally It was a long time before you shared anything personal There were one-on-ones where you would uncomfortably sit in the chair and strategically dodge any personal questions. That is true Any personal questions? It wasn't that I wanted to know more about you Although I did because I care about you or that I felt it was my job at a church to get to share get you

To share although that does lead to spiritual maturity It was because I knew you had the potential to be a world-class leader and this could be the thing that held you back What a gift what a gift from God to put somebody in my life to see something that I could not see. I then Remember asking a lady to sit down with me and talk about prayer and this is Laura This is what Laura had to say. We've known each other now for about four or five years Laura said I felt like God had highlighted you to me to be available Your first request was around prayer and you asked if I would teach you more about prayer listening and abiding I Responded to your request without pushing any agendas and in the beginning our relationship Felt like you needed lots of freedom to come close and then pull away perhaps you were testing if I would be consistent with you honor your story and privacy and Then you would ask me when you would ask me to step into your life with encouragement or prayer I did I Love what Laura has to say because unbeknownst to me God had actually highlighted Laura highlighted me to Laura God was inviting us both into some growth And so if that's you if you have some capacity if you're going God I want to be able to live out the command that you say of making Disciples perhaps he wants to highlight somebody to you This last person is really important because this is the one person that I remember strategically saying would you get coffee with me? Because I was looking at her life and going there's something in there that I want This is Ashley and Ashley has just been around almost for more than a decade Pouring into my life and this is what she had to say I think if I had to summarize who you are what I see from where we first started to where you are now There's just been a softening and when I think for a lot of women It's really hard to feel like you can be bold and strong and a courageous leader But remain soft and I've watched you go from how the world set an expectation for confident leadership Into holy leadership how the Lord has created you See I love this because I went from the girl who was just Rejecting to be fully known rejecting coffee with flow saying girl Please leave me alone to raise in my hand saying

Please get coffee with me because I am ready to go to the next level in my life If your life is feeling stuck if you're feeling like you don't know the next step or maybe you want to even know just a Little bit more about Jesus. I'm gonna tell you right now. Your answer is not found in the next podcast It is not in the next group that you can get your hands on it might just be through this significant Relationship of discipleship and it can take on many forms It can look like motherhood or fatherhood even it can even look like friendship, but it's not just hanging out with beers It's inviting somebody to Strategically look at our life and challenge us and grow us What I love about discipleship is that it's actually about multiplication See because of those three women there have been multiple many more women in my life that I've been able to disciple like Esme, and Zoe, and Lauren, and Ryan, Tondaway, and Cariel, and Faith. These are all amazing women who I've had the privilege of seeing the highs and the lows of their life. The first kids, and the marriages, and the first boyfriends, and the first breakups. Been around for all of that, and the best part is not that I get to pat myself on the back because look at me, I'm doing great. No, I get a front row seat to God expanding the kingdom. And there is no greater joy. Now, I know I'm teaching and you guys are like, great Hannah, brunch is waiting, come on now. And maybe you're on the fence, maybe you're like, I kind of got some more capacity in my life, and I do want to grow, and maybe this could be the path to get there. Or maybe you might be like, I need someone to show me the way and the next steps. Regardless, there's going to be some objections. So let me just squash those for you real quick. The first objection might be, Hannah, this sounds like multi-level marketing. Well, it is. It is. I'm going to just say that it is multi-level marketing. But multi-level marketing got its idea from discipleship, and multi-level marketing is about you. It's all about the kingdom, all about growing and spreading and receiving God's love. The next objection might be, I'm too busy for that. And you know what, you're right again.

We're all probably a little too busy. And I won't say get less busy. What I will say is this will cost you something. It might cost you swapping out something to put in a relationship like this to grow, and it will be worth it. It has been worth it for me. You might think, man, I don't have what it takes. I don't either. And the good news is that we don't have to have what it takes. We have Jesus who, when he ascended to heaven, left us with his spirit. And his Holy Spirit is what gives us the ability to listen well, to offer growth, to offer challenge, to express love. The fourth one is, my faith is individual. Thanks so much. I used to think that too. But until I look at the life of Jesus and realize, actually, the way he expressed his faith was always communal. Our faith was meant to be expressed and lived and shared experiences. And the final one is, I'm too old for that. Well, the good news is if you feel too old, your hair is still growing, your nails are still growing, which means that you're still growing and that there's room for growth. And where there's room for growth, my invitation is wherever you are, however you're experiencing this service, online or in one of our rooms, is that you would welcome the growth. So when Elijah was going through what he was going through, God gave him a vision for his life, but he also gave him some next steps. So here's your next steps. The first thing that you're going to do is ask. Ask God to highlight the people who might be around you because they already might be around you. Ask him to show you who might have a next step for you or who you can show the next step. The next thing you're going to do is admit that we all need help sometimes. None of us have arrived by getting anywhere by ourselves. The last thing that you're going to do is accept. This process of transformation is slow and messy.

Right before Jesus ascends to heaven in Matthew 28, where he gave that great commission, right before he says that, he says to the disciples, are you still doubting? Because they were. Up until the very last second with him was he still forming them. And this relationship is transformational. Listen, I have not arrived. And that is good news for me because it means that we can still grow. Maybe you feel like you haven't arrived. Maybe you feel a little stuck and unsure of the next step. I just wonder if I could offer to you this unique godly relationship of spiritual mentorship of discipleship. Lots of ships in there. This idea that God wants you to grow. He doesn't just want us to stay where we are. He wants to take us to the next step. I guarantee future you will be glad you did. Let me pray for us. Thank you, Lord, for a unique space like Mother's Day where we get to hear about your word. Discipleship is something that you have for each and every one of us, no matter our age or stage in life. Would you highlight people to us? Would you help us to step into uncomfortable spaces? In the name of Jesus, amen.