Who is a Good Disciple?

Church how we doing? Let's go. Happy Thanksgiving week. Since coming out of the hospital, since being released from the hospital, here is a big learning for me, something I've discovered. Actually I kind of knew it about myself, but it's been brought even further into the light, and that is that I hate, utterly disdain, with all my heart, physical therapy, and I do not enjoy it. It is not fun, and it's because it's not like it's not like going to the trainer, going to the gym. It's not like you're doing bench press and curls or squats or something like that. I think there's like a part of it that's just to humble you, like to humiliate you. You're like balancing, and so there's this thing that what he has me do is called dead bugs. Like I don't know who came up with that, but that's so and it's like I'll show you. So you know I'm on the ground, and let's see I got to look like this. Okay that's the dead bug part, and then I got to go here, and then here, and then here, all while holding a ball right there, and what's crazy to me is he thinks that you know after he leaves that I then in preceding days are gonna go into a room and do that like by myself. Like that's going to happen, and I'm like I tried to be upfront and clear. I'm like hey that's not going to happen. I don't think that I'm going to do that. You know he is doing the best job he can at holding me accountable, and I am doing the best job I can at not being held accountable, and so that is the relationship between my physical therapist and I. It's a bit contentious, and in fact this week he sent me this text message. If you have adhered to your calendar you should be finishing your therapy right about now. I was sitting in my office. Your therapy, remember what Dr. Greenberg told you. At this stage the physical therapy is crucial, all caps, and what I said only you, all caps, will make you better. I'm just the guide, so I don't care how pedestrian things feel. I don't know what that means. I don't care what you like or dislike, but if you continue to practice the attitude of I didn't want to as you shared with me via text last weekend, then you will continue to suffer, and your only expectation should be for things to feel okay for a time before they again precipitously degrade and perhaps that time more permanently. Remember the words of Christ. Oh man.

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you've received from God, all caps, and you are not your own? So this is a critique from your coach, and it is intended to convict. You, sir, need to be a better steward of your body. I get it. I mean, he is just doing his job. Like he wants me to improve and, you know, be healthier and heal. I genuinely, sincerely believe he desires for me to heal, and he has laid out a path of healing, and I'm not a good, you know, what I don't even know what you call us, client, customer, patient. I'm not a good physical therapy patient. I'm not good at being a physical therapy patient, and all of us, we're in church this morning. Maybe you're watching from somewhere as you travel this holiday week. We're churchgoers. We're church members, but are we good at it? It's like, what do we call ourselves? Christians, Christ followers, Jesus followers, disciples. That may be the the most universal, true to the text, true to the Bible word. We are disciples of Jesus Christ, but are we good at being a disciple, and what do we measure ourself up against? Like, how would we know how we're doing? Like, what is par? Like, are we looking at others, and we're like, well, I'm a better disciple than they are? Are we comparing ourselves to Jesus, comparing ourselves to the Scriptures? Like, what would it look like? How would we know this morning if we were a good disciple? I'm in physical therapy, but I'm not very good at doing my physical therapy. We're all in church, but how good are you at doing church? What grade would you give yourself? We've been in this book, Galatians. We're wrapping it up as a Reminder, if you've been traveling with us through this book, Paul, the apostle Paul, wrote this letter to the churches in Galatia, not a city, but a province in the Roman Empire, because there's this issue, now that the gospel has burst forth to the Gentiles. For eight years, the gospel was only available to Jews. Now it's spread to the Gentiles,

and the Jewish rulers there are saying, hey, if you wanna be a Christian, you have to believe in Jesus, his death and resurrection, and follow all the law. And specifically, what's happening in this province right now, is they're asking people, as they convert to Christianity, to be circumcised, which is weird. I mean, this is like a Jeopardy! answer, you know? The question is, what book of the Bible deals primarily with grown men being circumcised? And you would answer, what is Galatians? I mean, that's the answer to a trivia question, this book. And right about now, if you've been traveling with us through this book, you feel like the Holy Spirit has taken the back of your head, and is just rubbing your nose in grace. You're saved by grace, not the law. You're saved by grace, not the law. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. It's not of yourself. It's the gift of God, not by works, so no one can boast. This is what he said over, and over, and over, and over. And then last week, my dear friend, Nate, turned us into what does it look like to live by the Spirit? That the Holy Spirit produces in you love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness. Gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. That these are the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

So what does it look like to walk with the Spirit? And then today, in this last chapter, chapter six, we're gonna cover all of it. I'm going to fly. This is a note-taker sermon. Grab a pen and a blank piece of paper. You won't offend me if you're on your phone taking notes, as long as you're not on ESPN, or Facebook, or Instagram, or TikTok, but you can take notes on your phone if you want. Usually, I teach how many points? Today's eight, okay? We're gonna fly, we're gonna fly. I'm gonna go slow on point one, and then the speed's gonna pick up. So you'll see it, so write down as fast as you can. We'll go verse by verse through this section. I'm gonna give you eight things that make a disciple of Christ. Eight things we do if we are a disciple of Christ directly from the text. This is how Paul concludes this letter, is hey, this is what it looks like to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Let's go, verse one. Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in sin, or in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently, but watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other's burdens, and in this way,

you will fulfill the law of Christ. What does it mean when he says you will fulfill the law of Christ, when you carry each other's burdens? What is the law of Christ? Well, he takes all the laws, he summarizes them into the greatest commandment. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. So how do you fulfill the law of Christ? When you love your neighbor as yourself. What's the greater context to the scripture? Restore those caught in a sin. This means we're shepherding each other, that you're not leaving that to the experts, to the professionals, that as you attend, belong to, belong to this church, you're looking around, and when someone is caught in a sin, call it alcoholism, call it materialism, call it lust, call it adultery, you're moving toward that person, and you're shepherding them. You're not saying, well, that's for them, that's for the experts, that's for the pastors. No, you are the pastors, the royal priesthood of people belonging to God. And so we're caring for one another. And so what we do is, number one, we deliver the distressed. We deliver the distressed, we restore the wounded.

We do not shoot our wounded. We don't say, oh, you're stuck in a sin? Well, you don't belong here anymore. No, like a significant part of what your role is here at Harris Creek, belonging to the body of Christ, is you're seeking to help those who are stuck in sin, right? And so if you, you know. It's like you see someone stuck in the mud. What you do is you roll up your sleeve and you help them. You don't go, oh man, you're not gonna, hey, we all pray for so-and-so. Like they, I don't know if you noticed, but they're stuck in the mud. Oh, let me tell you about the mud they're stuck in. Oh, you're not gonna believe. But we need to pray for them. We don't do that. And in fact, if you do that, you are more stuck in the mud than they are. Man, you know, you wouldn't believe adultery. You're worse than an adulterer. You're worse. Let me tell you, gossip has brought down more institutions of Jesus Christ than adultery. You're worse than an adulterer. And you go, wait, hold on, no, I'm not. That's because you don't see the mud. This is what he's warning against. Be careful. When he says, be careful that you aren't also drugged down,

he's not saying that you don't also commit adultery. He's saying that you don't look at the one who's committed adultery and begin to compare yourself to them or else then you get puffed up in pride and your sin is just as great as theirs is. That's the context. He's writing this whole chapter about who are you comparing yourself to. So you're gonna get some mud on you as you try to, hey, let me help you out of the mud. You're probably gonna get some mud on you, but be careful that you don't then get stuck in the mud too, that you restore them gently, okay? That you go to the scriptures. Now listen, this is big. This is so important for us here, okay? It seems that the Bible, that the Holy Spirit believes that you're equipped to do some really big ministry, okay? I have heard three times this week from three different circumstances, well, that's above my pay grade, okay? Which means like, well, that's for the pastors. And now I have trained my whole ministry for this moment right here. Multiple times throughout being in ministry, I have had the opportunity to go to seminary. Opportunities where it was paid for, conversations with the dean. I've pulled up the website and the application,

processed with life group multiple times. Every single time, God slammed the door shut and said no. I mean, very clearly said no every time. He said, remove their excuse. In the past 20 years, I have ministered through the most difficult circumstances. I've removed guns from people multiple times. I'm talking about affairs, homosexual affairs, where disease was brought into the marriage. I'm talking about prodigals that you couldn't imagine stuck in drugs, pouring out drugs, cocaine in the toilet, I mean, all kinds of crazy circumstances, okay? With what qualifications? What do I have that you don't have? And to be honest, if I may say this, I hope with humility, I've gotten really good at it. I've gotten to where any marriage circumstance, situation, I mean, people will come up and they're like, man, you're just not gonna believe it. I'm like, try me, there's not a lot I'm not gonna believe today. Where so much of ministry and pattern recognition, and when someone says, well, this is what happened, this is what my wife did, this is what my husband did, this is what our son's doing, there's a person in our singles life group that's doing, and I'm like, oh yeah, yeah, I've seen that 16 times. Here's what we need to do, here's the scriptures that speak into that,

here's where we can go, here's where we can get help, here's what they need to do, and you just start, you know, you get better at it because it's a practice, okay? What this means is it seems that God trusts you with a lot. Like, you can do the ministry, and it's like, if that's true, it seems he would tell us in the scripture. Glad you said that. I'm sorry, 2 Timothy 3.16. All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work, underline it, every good work, okay? 2 Corinthians 1, verse four. God comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any, underline any trouble, with the comfort we ourselves receive from God, okay? It's not like you graduate with a degree and you get all these letters behind your name, and now, all of a sudden, you are magically equipped for every circumstance because of that psych 101 class you took. Is that helpful and beneficial? Yes. Do I esteem and honor and appreciate higher education? Absolutely. And ministry's a practice. And you've gotta start somewhere.

Start here, okay? We're just gonna do what it says. No matter how hard it is, no matter how difficult, we're gonna start with, okay, what does the word of God say? And then he says, watch yourselves or you also may be tempted, okay? So this is speaking to the pride in light of comparison. You're gonna see that in the next verse. But I think I said it, one, if I didn't, we deliver the distressed. We deliver the distressed. So that's first point from the scripture. We deliver the distressed. And then he says this. If anyone thinks they are something, when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test, it's dokimazo in the Greek. It's not like you take a test. It's the word for testing the authenticity of a precious metal. It's like we wanna see if it's authentic. We should test our own actions. It's the same word that is used when talking about communion. Examine yourselves. Why do you do what you do? What are your motives? Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone. And it says without comparing themselves to someone else.

This is kind of the overarching theme of chapter six. Who are you comparing yourself to? Without comparing themselves to someone else. For each one should carry their own load. Okay, now that's confusing. Because in verse five, it says each one should carry their own load. But in verse two, it said carry each other's burdens. So which one is it, Paul? Do we carry each other's burdens or do we have to carry our own load? Okay, here's what's happening in the Greek right here. In verse two, you have the word burden. It's an overwhelming weight. In the Greek, it's beros. It's where we get the word wheelbarrow. Wheelbarrow, it's this thing that we have to use to help us carry a load that's heavier than we can carry by ourselves. There are gonna be times where you're in a situation that if you isolate, your situation will only get worse. Think about it like quicksand. You're in quicksand and if you say, okay, I just wanna be quiet and suffer to myself, you will only get worse with every passing minute, every passing day. You're going to have to get help to get out of the quicksand, all right? That's verse two. Verse five, it's portion.

It's where we get the word portion. Every person is entrusted with a portion of weight that they have to carry in the larger body. So there's a weight here at Harris Creek in that each of us carry our portion of that weight that we're operating in the level of grace that God has entrusted to us, all right? So we have to know that we have a weight to bear and we have a weight to share. Are we operating with a weight to share right now or is this the weight that we're to bear for ourselves? And the point here, number two, we improve without comparison. What the Holy Spirit is calling us to in this section is to grow. It's spiritual growth, but he's saying you are in charge of your own spiritual growth. As you examine your actions, as you test what you're doing and why you're doing it, you are in charge of your own spiritual growth. I say all the time in Waco, everyone has a church they go to and two churches they used to go to, right? When people come to Harris Creek, they say, hey, I'm coming. They think this is, I'm coming because I wasn't growing there. I wasn't growing there. And I say, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. Don't come here because you weren't growing there.

They're not in charge of your growth. You're in charge of your growth. What's going to happen when you come here is you are going to love it. You're gonna see all the life change. You're gonna be like, this place is amazing. This is incredible. I'm growing so much. That's called the honeymoon phase. And then you're gonna stall. And you've seen all the classes and all the offerings and you know, you're tired of fighting the traffic and trying to find a place and saving a seat and all the things. And then you say, you know what? I'm not growing there anymore. Now I need to find another church. That's not how it works. When I became a Christian, the first thing I did is I went to the bookstore and I bought a Bible. And I got a few months in and realized I wasn't reading that Bible. So I bought another one. I thought maybe if I got the ones with notes in the bottom, you know, if I got more margins on the side where I could take notes, and I got a few months into that and I wasn't reading it. So I bought a different Bible. And then at about a year and a half into being a Christian, I had a stack of Bibles that I didn't read.

And it wasn't the Bible's fault, okay? It's because I didn't enjoy reading, and I didn't realize, oh, I need to discipline myself for godliness. Like, if I'm gonna do this, I need to prioritize it in my life, right? And this is what he's saying, is you are in charge of your own spiritual growth. Verse six, nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor. When it says share all good things with the instructor, the implication is financial, that you are to financially support those who teach you. So what we're gonna do right now is we're gonna pause the message, ushers are gonna come and take up an offering. No, we're not gonna do that, because it's not talking about me, okay? It's talking about all the people who support the mission. If you have a six-month-old, right now, there's somebody in the other room who you may or may not know holding your six-month-old, praying over them. It is possible that that prayer changes the trajectory of their entire life, that when they're 72 years old and an elder at their church, that it was because God answering the prayer that some stranger prayed over them

when they were in kids' ministry at Harris Creek. There's second graders right now being invested in, no childcare, we're not watching your kids, we're teaching them the Bible. There's fourth and fifth graders right now in another room, and there's volunteers surrounding them with a curriculum teaching them and instructing them in the ways of God how to live as a fourth and fifth grader with a biblical worldview. Some of them are on staff, some of them are just volunteers. And in fact, as we go into a holiday season, you know, Christmas, we will need 700 volunteers in kids' ministry for this place to operate, right? And that's a daunting number, but if every household, if one person volunteered from every household, it would be covered. And one person who has kids in kids' ministry volunteered from every household, the need would be covered. But there's a tremendous need here that is being carried on by people as volunteers, just like you, because they believe in the mission. So you are, next point, support the mission. That is what Paul is calling you to do. You support the mission. You're not a consumer.

You didn't show up here today and think, well, is it good for me? Do I like it? Do I like the music? Do I like the preaching? You know, are the chairs comfortable? How's the temperature? How's the volume? You're not a consumer. That has weakened the church. You wanna know what has led to the decay of America more than any other single thing? It's that mindset. It's not Democrat or Republican. It's not who's president. It's not any, you wanna know what has led to the decay that you observe in our country more than anything else? It's consumeristic Christianity. It's what's in it for me, a mindset, right? And so we're here as a part of the mission to support the mission. You're generous to the place that you belong to. Some people are like, man, you know, I've been here for two years and it's hard to plug in. It's hard to get connected. It's so big, you know. Let me tell you about a family that was here for two weeks. They got here two weeks and then he passed away. The service, the memorial service, the celebration of life was here this past week.

And here's the email we got. Thank you both for making such a rough time for the family, a really, really special day. So glad my family has found a church, not a building, pastor, worship team, all those are great though, but a church that is alive with people, caring for others like we should be. It has been one of the silver linings to all of this, explaining to friends and family, many of whom are non-believers, how there is no coincidence around the connections to the church, meals, neighbors, life groups, prayer groups, the list goes on and on. There has been someone praying with this family within minutes of Justin getting the call that Rob was having CPR performed to the day we left. And I'm sure it will be in the coming weeks and months. Not all churches are perfect, I know, but man, do I love seeing ones working hard on the hard stuff these days. It's the mission, it's the mission. You know, and it's not just marrying and burying people. Every week we're coming around people and caring for them, identifying. their needs, making sure their needs are met, both in the church, in the city, in the country, and around the world. That's what it means to be a mission,

so as you're a part of the mission, you support the mission. Number, verse seven, do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. Mocked, it's mukdar. It's to lift your faith to that. It's this attitude. I don't care if you see me. I'll do what I wanna do. I tell you, it's like looking over your shoulder when you're on your phone, like, is he seeing me? It's like, I don't care. It's that attitude. I don't care if you see what I'm doing. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh from the flesh will reap destruction, okay? Reaping and sowing, it's not karma. That's Eastern, okay? It's not karma. It's not believe it, achieve it. It's not manifesting. There's no crystals here. This is a law that God has instituted in the world, a law of justice and grace that we observe, that we are becoming a future version of ourselves right now, that your struggles with alcohol will only get worse. You don't wake up one day and they're gone. Your struggles with materialism,

your struggles with lust, they don't just vanish. You don't wake up one day and that's gone. Your struggles with body image, it's not like one day you wake up, you look at the mirror and you're like, oh man, I really love what I see. No, the future you is gonna be more of what the present you is, unless you say I'm gonna sow differently. Because if you begin to sow differently, you begin to reap differently. And that's why we have to, number four, confront sin. A disciple of Jesus confronts sin. But we're not talking about the sin of others now. That was point one. Now we're talking about your sin, your proclivities, the things that you have a tendency to go to. This is your own sin. You will not get spirit fruit from fleshly habits. What you're sowing will determine what you're reaping. Your future is made up of choices that you're making right now. It's being defined by what you're doing right now. Some people would say you're becoming something. Big, good podcast. The Judaizers are saying to the Christian Gentiles you must be circumcised, right? You're to remove this part of your flesh. And what Paul is saying is like, no, it's not some part of your flesh,

it's not your foreskin that needs to be removed. Your heart needs to be circumcised. You have to eradicate sin from your life. You have these fleshly desires. You need to audit them, drag them into the light, and do away with them. Have people pray for you in and through them. Otherwise, tomorrow, those fleshly desires will be bigger and stronger, and you're not going to like where they're going to carry you. So you have to confront sin. We cannot be a place that is casual with sin. It can't just be like, oh, I'm just gonna cohabitate with that. It's fine, it's just my struggles. It's respectable. It's just, oh, I'm just a little prideful. No big deal. No, that's what made the devil the devil. It is a big deal. It is a big deal. It sends people to hell all the time. It's a big deal. Whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Where it says eternal life, it's not talking about future heaven. You could interpret that as life with God right now. That would be a good English translation of that phrase.

We'll reap life with God starting now, today, because we get the Holy Spirit when we trust in Jesus. So number five, a disciple of Jesus is influenced by the Spirit. More than any other thing, we're like, God, what would you have me do? I'm just going to do that. The life that you want is found in the Spirit of God. I'm gonna explain this in a really weird way that some of you will love and some of you will hate, so just hang in there with me. Often I'm asked, is there free will in heaven? Does free will exist in heaven? Can you sin in heaven? A lot of people don't think about this. I'm gonna show you that I believe free will does exist in heaven with an asterisk, so hang in there with me. Let me explain this. Satan was an angel, a created being of God, and he rebelled in heaven, in the presence of God. He says, I don't want to worship you as God. I want to be free. be worshiped like God. So God says, I'm gonna send you to Earth, the planet Earth, right? And you're gonna, we'll see what kind of God you can be. So this literally happened. Like, this is what we exist in right now. Satan is here, 2 Corinthians 4, verse four,

says the God of this world, lowercase g, God of this world, he's here on Earth, right? And so we're in this test. Like, who are we gonna follow? God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, or the lowercase g, God of this world, okay? Some theologians will say, after the fall of Satan to Earth, the door of free will was slammed shut. There's no more free will in heaven. I just don't, I don't see that anywhere. So as I'm looking, I don't have a chapter or verse, I cannot biblically embrace that reality. So then you're left with, well, could more angels rebel? Here's why I don't think they can. One word, revelation, okay? Because they, it says we entertain angels, they're watching this experiment unfold every day. They see people follow Satan, and they're like, man, it's death, despair, depression, destruction, hurt, habits, hangups. They're like, that doesn't work. They see people follow God, and they're like, they're blessed, they experience love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. This goes bad, this goes well. Why would we ever look anywhere else? We're just gonna follow you, God. Because of their revelation,

because of their knowledge and awareness, their learnings, their free will then is thwarted. They're like, no, I just know this way is better. I've been able to watch for centuries and millenniums even, over and over and over and over that God's way is better, God's way is better, God's way is better, okay? I think that's what happens for us in heaven. When we are in the presence of God, First Corinthians 13 says, right now it's veiled, but one day we will see face to face. We're in the presence of God. We see his goodness, we see how much he loves us. We see why the bad things happened here and that it wasn't him doing something evil to us. We see that he is only good. And in that moment, we say, man, he's good. Like, I'm just gonna follow you. My ability to not follow you is taken away from me because of my knowledge and awareness of how good and great you are. Here's why that's important. If you're still with me, everybody tracking? You don't have to agree, but you're tracking? It's okay if you disagree with this. You're tracking with me? Okay, here's why that's important. Because it's available to you right now. What that means is your problem with sin is not the sin. It's that you trust the sin more than you do God. It's that you genuinely don't believe,

like if I get drunk one more time, it's just not that big of a deal. If I look at that one more time, it's okay. I can still have a good life. And you're passive towards your sin and you don't realize that God's way is infinitely better than anything you would choose to do in feeding your flesh. To say in a different way, the Spirit of God, the life in the Spirit, you living under the influence of the Spirit alone is going to be the path to the life you actually want. Make sense? All right, big rabbit trail. Thanks for hanging in there. Nine, let us not become weary in doing good. For at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Okay, disciples of Jesus, real deal disciples of Jesus, persevere in discipleship. We do not give up when it gets hard. Number six, we persevere in discipleship. When I was in the hospital, I was surrounded by sick people. When I could walk, I began to walk around the halls and I would look into the doors and it was tragic situations. People crying, people crying in loneliness, people crying in pain. Sadness, I just would walk around and pray

for the people on my floor. But what's interesting is no doctor, and I saw a bunch of them. I mean, it was like 16 different doctors a day. That's not even a made up number. It's crazy. I saw a bunch of doctors. None of them were discouraged by the number of sick people there. It's like at a hospital, interestingly enough, they expected sick people to be there. It was almost like that was job security for them. They were like, well, we have what they need. That was their outlook. It's like I have the training and the ability and the awareness and the knowledge and the know-how to give them what they need. This is the church. This is the church. Like what's gonna be true of the church is be lost people here, hurting people here, broken people here, people stuck in their sin here, and we don't ever get discouraged by that because we have the solution. We have the training. We have the awareness. We have the very words of God. but to guide them and direct them. In science, the surest form, or the surest evidence display,

the surest evidence of maturity is immaturity. Like any time you see something mature, the way that you can define the maturity is that immaturity is present. Here's what I mean. You see a giant sequoia, you're gonna see a big tree with deep root system that's been there for over 100 years, you're gonna see little seedlings, right? You see a cow and you're just like, how do I know that's a mature cow? Baby calves, okay? So in the church, if there is truly a mature church, it will have lots of immature people coming to wanting to get close to Christ. If you were like, no, I wanna find a church only made up of only mature people, that's a dying church, okay? Just go online right now and search, Google church for sale, and you will see a lot of buildings that used to have some people in there that said, no, no, no, we only wanna let mature Christians in here. And now they're buildings for sale. That's how that works, okay? It's super simple, it's multiplication. It's a math problem, right? And so here, like I want people here this morning dressed inappropriate, okay? Because they don't know any better.

I hope they come, I hope they join us here, they're a part of what God's doing. I hope there's prostitutes here this morning. Like I didn't have anywhere else to go, so I just wanted to go and see what those Christians are about. Wouldn't that be awesome? Okay, right? And so what's gonna prevent that is the Pharisees, they're like, well, we can't have the prostitutes in our church. It's like, no, we can't have the Pharisees in our church. The prostitutes are welcome. The Pharisees, that's problematic, right? Well, I'll take that back, and I'll say, we will be patient with the Pharisees like we're patient with the prostitutes, right? Because we're not gonna grow weary in doing good, trusting the God of the harvest to produce the harvest. Verse 10, therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. So I think in the church, we're like, hey, we should love everyone, we should do good to everyone. But it actually says that we're to prioritize the family of faith, that we're to prioritize the people of God. And so number seven, love people in the church. Love people in the church.

I've experienced this from you guys when I was in the hospital, army of people picking up kids, bringing meals. Gayla King this week, okay, she's here. Gayla, literally, she'll make a giant meal, and then she'll ask God, who needs it? She just prays and listens. Lord, who needs this meal? And then she gives, brings it, takes it to whoever the Lord said needs the meal. And so we were the recipient this week, and we got, it was like this giant vat of chili. And what was interesting is there was more than enough for our family, and then our neighbors, like 911, my parents are in town, I didn't know they were coming over. I'm gonna, I've gotta cook for them. Does anybody have these ingredients? We said, we don't have the ingredients, but actually what we have is the thing, she's like, I'm gonna cook chili for them, it's a true story. It's like, interestingly enough, don't have the ingredients, but we do have the finished product. Can we bring it to you? And then that, she, Gayla doesn't even know. Two families in our neighborhood benefited from her just being the hands and feet of Christ, right? This is, what we do is we love the family of believers.

We love the people in our church. We love our church, right? Like when you come here, like we would care for the people in the church. So when something's going wrong, listen, listen. I love counselors. I love therapists. I love doctors. I love attorneys. I'm so grateful for these professionals that they're here too, by the way. They're a part of the church. So thankful for what they do. But your first, like your first bullet is your life group. Like you don't go to a counselor to tell a counselor all of the things you're not telling your life group. You go to the life group, you say, I'm going to my counselor for this reason. Will you guys pray for me in this, right? Like you, does that make sense? Like that's a surefire way to stay sick is to suffer alone, okay? We don't sue each other in the church. Like I love attorneys and they work here and they help us, but we start with life groups. My life group, meet with your life group, bring. Pastor in the mix like that's the way we do things in the church guys. We're just gonna do what this says Like we just believe this Like we're just gonna do what it says no matter what it costs us no matter how hard it is We're just gonna do what the Spirit of God reveals to us through the Word of God every time

Like that that's the kind of place we are and in doing so no one here will ever be homeless If one of us has an empty bedroom None of you will be without a bedroom and if one of us has a loaf of bread none of you will ever go hungry Okay, nobody no member of Harris Creek will ever be hungry as long as one of us has food No member of Harris Creek will ever sleep on the streets as long as one of us has a bed or floor space for that matter Like we're that kind of church That's that's what we do. Let me give you a real Personal tangible example I'm just right now. There's a family here and an adoptive family, so they just said hey, we're gonna we're gonna bring people in our home and And in doing so that there's a sibling group there one of the kids under 13, so not even a teenager Is having such a hard time such a difficult time that it is disruptive for the rest of the family Okay, and I'm talking it's a really difficult situation. So on a 1 to 10 scale. This is a level 10 difficult situation So they're like, what do we do here in the church? They're like, what do we do like what we could go here? You know, there's this institution. There's this place I'm like, I think this is our problem. Let's start with is there an empty nester here that says hey, I'm up for that I'll take them in I will care for them and love them in the name of Jesus Christ It's a big ask by the way That's that's a tall ask but that's the kind of church we are So as I put that need in front of the body if you're out there praying you hear the Holy Spirit say he's talking about You you know, if you get that prompting let us know That's a real need right here at Harris Creek today verse 11 See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand Paul. They would use Scribes and Paul wants you to know no, I'm writing this letter like I'm right and he just went all caps on us He put caps lock. He goes. No, here's the deal Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ They think hey if I can control you then I'll be affirmed by the the old Institutions and systems that I belong to not even those who are circumcised to keep the law yet

They want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh Okay, I just want to control you so that then I can show you off to others that that hey I look at what I got them to do right still happens in the church today May I never boast except this is the one listen listen listen, man Never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ Through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world if I'm gonna compare myself to anybody I'm comparing myself to Jesus He's the one I follow neither circumcision or under uncircumcision means anything What counts is the new creation have you been born again? Do you belong to God through Jesus Christ number eight last point a disciple of Jesus? Exalts Christ alone as a disciple we exalt Christ alone. We want to be like Jesus We want to be with Jesus and what we boast in is the work of Christ if I have a giant house And I invite you into my giant house, and I'm like look at my giant house I've got a an amazing wolf gas oven and a giant island and we have an elevator that takes you to the Look at my giant and I boast in my giant house, but then you find out I'm in foreclosure That I can't afford the debt that my house caused for me Right, then my boasting in my giant house, which is actually the bank's giant house would be foolish and What Paul is saying is we boast only in the one who paid our debt That our debt was so big it was bigger than we could pay and so we boast in the one who paid it That you were drowning in quicksand And and if he didn't reach you out you would have only died so you live a life with gratitude This is how he closes this letter we exalt only Christ No pastor no worship leader. No no person It's not like look at how much Bible I've memorized look at how I pray look at how I share the gospel No, it's only the one who called me to the gospel, the one who sits at the center of the gospel, the one who died for my sins. He's the one we point to. He's the one we're pointing others to.

Bobby Jones, the golfer, was interviewed and the reporter said, how do you feel about competing against your opponents? How do you feel about the opponents you're competing against? How do you compare yourself to them? And he responded, I am competing against no opponents, but only par. And so as you sit here, you're not comparing yourselves. Well, do I study the Bible like they do? Do I memorize scripture like they do? Do I pray like they do? Do I share the gospel like they do? No, no, no, you're looking at Christ. And until you're like Christ, he is not done with you. He's going to carry into completion the work that he started in you. So you don't compare yourself to each other. You look to him and you ask him to finish the work that he started in you. In summary, a true disciple of Jesus is someone who will deliver the distressed, improve without comparison, support the mission, confront sin, is influenced by the spirit. They persevere in discipleship. They love people in the church and they exalt Christ alone. And you have probably figured it out that this is what it means to be a disciple. These are the actions that define a disciple of Christ, someone who seeks to follow Christ, okay?

And so what's gonna happen now is we're gonna sing a song and you're gonna leave and you're gonna think, oh, let me pull out my list of eight so I can do them, okay? You're not doing them because you don't know what to do. Physical therapy, I'm not doing it because I don't know what to do, the double negative, it's weird, but it's not that I don't know what to do, I know what to do. It's that I don't prioritize my future health and healing above and beyond my present comfort, okay? That's what apathy looks like. It is, I tell somebody every single week, listen, in Waco, Texas, every single week what I tell somebody is I think what is keeping you from becoming a Christ follower is believing you are one. Okay, you might be like, wow, that's harsh. It's necessary. Feel free to steal it and use it. I think what's keeping you from actually following Christ is everyone around you has let you believe that you're following Christ and I will love you enough to tell you you are not following Christ, right? And you say, well, gosh, that's gonna, you're causing people to question their salvation, their relationship with Jesus. I do not question if I have a relationship with Monica. Does that make sense? Because it's not like, well, did I spend time with her this morning or not? Do I actually have a relationship, do I know her?

I don't know if I actually have a relationship with Monica. I may question the health of the relationship with Monica, but at no point have I been like, do I have a relationship with her or not? If you are in a place where you're like, I don't know if I have a relationship with Jesus, I am here to tell you, you do not have a relationship with Jesus. Like, that's super easy. It's not hard, it's not difficult, it's not confusing. If you do not know if you have a relationship with Jesus, you don't have one, but you should start having one. And so it's not that you leave here and try to do these eight things. It's that you prioritize the things of God, you enjoy God, you love Him and you pursue Him, and those things, you become those eight things. That just happens, okay? You're always going to do, psychology has proven this time and time again, you're always going to do what you think is in your best interest. So all I need you to know is that Jesus is absolutely above and beyond all other things in your best interest. That's it, okay. So we're gonna stand, we're gonna sing. And I would just say, if you're in this place where you need someone to pray with and for you, I would invite you up. This is a day where it's kind of like,

either those people who are really with us and like stay in town. and or it's visitors and whatnot. And whether you're a guest with us or not today, we would love to pray with them for you, anything that God has you in the middle of. So just feel free to come forward to song and I'll pray for us right now. God, just become more real to us. As we sing, as we lift up your name, as we say that you're enough, would you just become more real to us? And if we don't know you, would you give us the courage to say, I don't think I have a relationship with Jesus. I think maybe what's prevented me from having a relationship with Jesus is thinking I've had a relationship with Jesus. And if somebody here is just carrying a weight that's more than they can carry, would you help us to share in that? And if someone is here is to serve the body of Christ and support the mission in a really unique way, I just pray you to press it on their hearts even now. Not in any kind of manipulative way, not in any, just your, I can't do the work of your Holy Spirit, which is not good enough. I don't wanna be, you do that. We love you and we sing to you now.