How to Practice | Pastor Reuben Ramsaran | Discipleship Night 2026

Good evening, church. How are you doing? You enjoying this so far? Yeah, well, you have definitely learned a lot so far about what it means to be with Jesus from several of our speakers tonight, as well as what it means to become like Jesus. And tonight I have the opportunity and the honor to be able to talk to you about how to put all of this into practice. And Jesus says in Matthew chapter 7, verse 24, he gives us a parable of the wise man and the foolish man. And the Bible says that the wise man is the person that can hear and put things and his word into practice. And aren't you glad that Jesus is in the business of changing us? Aren't you glad that he can give us the power to overcome the things that challenge us every single day? There was another man in that parable, and it was the foolish man. And that's the man who hears the words of the Lord, but does not do them. And maybe you're like me. There are times in my life where I hear the words of Jesus, but I don't put them into practice. I can remember years ago, just picking up the word of God and being able to spend time with him and finding that it just came natural to consume God's word. I can remember years where when it comes to serving the Lord, I would get excited about going to do outreaches and going to just serve the community and do outreach with my brothers and sisters in Christ. But I discovered an area of my life where I was in violation or just in disobedience. And it was in the area of soul care and Sabbath. It was almost as if work and ministry was so busy and there were things that just needed to get done. And when I got home, I was equally as busy. The kids needed attention. My wife was in a space where she needed attention from me. And there was a car to change oil. There was a grass that needed to be taken care of. There was always something to do. And it was as if my time with Jesus wasn't robust enough to support the issues of my life. And I had to get serious about making a change in that area. I had to get serious about taking a day to just unplug, turn my alarm clock off, and spend uninterrupted time with the Lord. My wife and I had to work out who would drop the kids off, who would pick the kids up, and who would take care of dinner so that we could both make time for the Lord.

And as I began to experience it, I realized that instead of me rushing through my week and trying to rush through all of the priorities in front of me, I now was able to approach my week from a place of restedness, from a place of passion, knowing what priorities Jesus gave me. I was able to realize that my being with Jesus helped me to understand how to become like Him and do things in His name. And I want to give you an opportunity to consider that in your life tonight. Are there gaps like that in your life? Areas where you might say, oh yeah, I've got that one down. And maybe I've got this one down. But in this area, well, I need to do some effort or make some work. And when you walked in the room tonight, you were given this thing called a rule of life. And a rule of life is a simple thing. It's just a way that we can set priorities, a way that we can have a priority that is identified and written out that turns into your ability to accomplish the goal that's in front of you. And I want to lead you through a little bit of an experience tonight. If you would put that rule of life in front of you and turn it to the blue side with me and just take a moment to consider what are the areas in your life that need a little bit of effort? Maybe you pull that note up that Pastor Chris asked you to take just a few minutes ago where you evaluated some of the things that you need to let go of or a list of things that you need to change. That might help you take a look at what needs to be worked on tonight. Maybe it's prayer. Maybe like me, it's solitude and Sabbath. Maybe it's community and you've got to make a decision to join a community group. Take a moment and evaluate. Maybe even whisper a prayer. God, what do you want to say to me tonight? So often the areas of our weaknesses can be areas of blindness.

And so ask him to reveal to you the things that he wants you to change. Take a moment now and do that. Now take a moment and flip that card over. Do you have the thing that you know you want to change? What's that practice, what's that rhythm that you want to focus on this year? Now I want you to consider it from the viewpoint of your daily life. Let's say your goal is to take the Word of God more seriously. It's like you take a pen out and fill that blank box. What is your daily rhythm that you want to... take on and say, I wanna do this. Maybe it's reading God's word on a daily basis, like Pastor Chris talked about. Maybe your time is 6 a.m., maybe your time is 6 p.m. What's your daily rhythm that will help you look more like Jesus because you've spent time with him? Take a moment now and consider your daily rhythm in the area of your life that you'd want to work on. Now consider your weekly rhythm. Think through what it might look like for you, like me, to set a rhythm up that supports a weekly Sabbath, a day off, where you can unplug. Enjoy what it means to be married if you're married in the room. Enjoy your kids if you've got kids. What it means to be free and be a college student, but unplug for a moment so that you can enjoy the life that God has given you. What would your weekly rhythm look like? What area do you wanna shore up in your life? And take that idea and plug in something there

that could become a weekly rhythm for you. The last area here is a monthly rhythm. And I know that's a kind of a big thing to consider, but often, like you just heard from Drew and Alice are, some of the harder steps are the final steps. And joining a community group might be an area that you might consider here in this monthly rhythm. Are you in a group? Are you in a church? Are you in a church? Are you in a church? Are you in a church? Are you in a church? Are you in a church? Monthly rhythm. Are you in a group? Maybe you might consider the scripture reading guide that we just told you about just this past weekend. Maybe it's time to sign up for that scripture reading guide and start a group. And there you can begin to apply what we hear at the pulpit. But whatever area that you wanna shore up in your life for 2026, as you become more like a disciple for the Lord, write something there in that box that you wanna do as a practice to help you become more like Jesus. Take a moment and write something down. And now I'd like you to take a moment and turn to somebody that you've come with, or maybe if you're by yourself,

turn to your neighbor and just maybe discuss one of the areas, one of the goals that you've set that is gonna allow you to become more like Jesus. Thank you so much for engaging with us tonight. Amen.