[SPEAKER_00]: My name is Isabella Trump, and I will be reading Luke chapter five verses four to eleven.
[SPEAKER_00]: Please stand, please stand for the reading of God's Word.
[SPEAKER_00]: When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put in, and out into deep water,
[SPEAKER_00]: and let down the nets for a catch.
[SPEAKER_00]: Simon answered Master.
[SPEAKER_00]: We worked hard all night and haven't caught anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: But because you say so, I would let down the nets.
[SPEAKER_00]: When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come help them.
[SPEAKER_00]: and they became and filled both both so full that they began to sink.
[SPEAKER_00]: When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, go away from me, Lord, I'm a sinful man, for he and his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so were James and John, the sons of the Zebody, Simon's partners.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then Jesus said to Simon, don't be afraid.
[SPEAKER_00]: From now on you will catch men.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they've pulled up their boats and followed him.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've pulled up their boats to shore.
[SPEAKER_00]: Left everything and followed him.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the word of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks be to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm alive.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, I have a seat.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amazing.
[SPEAKER_01]: You guys have a good Sunday.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are dismissed.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So good.
[SPEAKER_01]: Man, I love it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to be in Luke a good bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to look at some different stories of discipleship to kind of end up this three weeks that we're doing on the discipleship.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll be in the book of Luke, book of Acts, book of John, kind of right in there together.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Luke, Luke, there's a few stories in Luke.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to look at that.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was one of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Luke chapter five.
[SPEAKER_01]: She can go ahead and turn there if you want to.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you Isabella.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was fantastic.
[SPEAKER_01]: Man, I was thinking about today being, you know, it's a family Sunday.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have five Sundays.
[SPEAKER_01]: We, you know, the kids come in here.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have like our twos and down back there, but everybody else is in here with us and getting a young one to read like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just so it blesses me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know it blesses you guys just to see our young people that just love Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: She was excited to do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But also, I mean, thinking about, you know, Emma Kyle just leading us in worship and Aiden's back here playing its horn.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, this is not to glorify anybody, but it is to say, man, it's so cool really to see Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's who we're glorifying.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just to see Jesus working in his people and young people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Old people, everybody, I'm between all of us, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Just that God is working in this church.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I mean, his church.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's really the message today, y'all.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's why I thought that was such a neat thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was just thinking about this even as we were worshiping.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I remember in my Kyle being a sixth grader coming to me with tears in her eyes at a youth camp that she just fell in love with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, and I'm sorry, I mean, to get worked up about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just, it's like
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, now, and again, it's not about her, but it's Jesus and the work that he does to call us to himself and work in us and draw us closer to himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: As we're talking about discipleship, something I just want you guys to be encouraged with as we kind of wrap this idea of discipleship as we wrap this series up is what today is about, start where you are.
[SPEAKER_01]: Start where you are.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're thinking about, what does it mean to be a disciple?
[SPEAKER_01]: How do I follow Jesus in my life?
[SPEAKER_01]: The answer is, well, there's a million different ways in which the Lord will call us to walk with Him and obey Him and trust Him, follow Him all throughout our lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a million ways that happens in your discipleship and my discipleship, don't look exactly the same.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have different things that God's gonna bring us through.
[SPEAKER_01]: However, we all have a place where we are right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have a place where you are and what I don't want us to do and what I think sometimes we might do is we kind of get so worked up about where I want to be like wherever I think the Lord could take me or what he would want for my life or from my life and the purpose he may have for me and I get kind of so worked up about that kind of looking down the road whether I'm eight years old or seventeen years old or twenty nine years old or fifty years wherever you are kind of looking down the road and then we get paralyzed about just taking a step today.
[SPEAKER_01]: to follow him right now right here today.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, you know, we have this journey that we know are on and the Lord's over here and the Lord's leading us down that way.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we just want to go from here, like over to here without doing anything in between.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like we don't want to take all the other steps.
[SPEAKER_01]: Does that make sense?
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't want to take that step and that step.
[SPEAKER_01]: And today is just really about let's look at some stories and scripture as Jesus calls disciples to himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what I want to do is this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just want to look at a few different lessons that are kind of individually in these stories are all unique.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's some lessons I think we can learn simply from each story individually.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then at the end, we're going to come and we're going to look at a couple of maybe big lessons that I think we see throughout as just a common thread.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the first story is Luke chapter five, it's Peter.
[SPEAKER_01]: Isabella just read it for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Luke chapter five, you want to turn there when
[SPEAKER_01]: We see Simon.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's name is Simon.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's just later named him Peter Peter means a rock on this rock.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will build my church that whole story loop chapter nine.
[SPEAKER_01]: But here is name is Simon.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a fisherman.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Simon and his companions have been out fishing all day.
[SPEAKER_01]: All night, really, and they catch nothing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then in the morning, they're at the shore and they're cleaning their nets and doing all that kind of stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus shows up and he began teaching people in Peter's body, ask Simon, can I have your boat?
[SPEAKER_01]: And then Simon's like, yeah, sure, I don't need him not catching anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he has the disease that Jesus pushes out a little bit and he teaches the people.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when he's done,
[SPEAKER_01]: When he's done, here's what happens.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, when he finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch.
[SPEAKER_01]: Simon answered, master.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because you say so, I will let down the nest.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, this is after hearing Jesus teach clearly something, Jesus taught, resonated in Peter's heart, in Simon's heart, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he believes in this guy, at least in some way, right here, and he's, oh, I mean, all right, cool, whatever you say, I'll do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they signal their partners and the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats, so full, they began to sink.
[SPEAKER_01]: When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he said, go away from me Lord, I am a sinful man.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about that response right there, y'all.
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter just found, like think about what he could have said, he just found in Jesus what?
[SPEAKER_01]: A cash cow.
[SPEAKER_01]: Seriously, Peter's whole life is selling fish.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he just found a guy that by a word can catch hundreds of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: He could come back to Jesus and go, let's work out a deal.
[SPEAKER_01]: He sees something else, doesn't he?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like he sees something else in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: He sees beyond that opportunity and he sees really the opportunity to, there's something different about this guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he falls at his feet and he just confesses his sin.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like he knows he's on holy ground right here.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, and any begins to follow Jesus and Jesus says to him, look, look at verse ten, Jesus said to Simon, don't be afraid from now on, you will catch men.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll make you fissures of men and James and John, his partners, their brothers, they come and follow Jesus to fissures of men.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I want you to hold on to that.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll talk about that a little bit later.
[SPEAKER_01]: But a couple of lessons just from this.
[SPEAKER_01]: from this story, that the essence of discipleship y'all, it's trust and obedience to your rabbi.
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter didn't know of Jesus knew anything about fishing, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, he didn't have to listen to Jesus, tell him about Peter knows about fishing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus says, they do throw your nets out there and you, okay, yes sir.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what he does.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's one lesson we learned from this simple story.
[SPEAKER_01]: But here's another one, and I think this just speaks to Peter, and as you read through Peter's story, we've been looking at the letter of first Peter last couple of weeks, and we see Peter, I think Peter's such an interesting character, because you just see his kind of a profile of his life throughout the New Testament, and it's so interesting to read about him.
[SPEAKER_01]: But here's the second lesson that I think we're learning right here, clearly early on in Peter's life, that your sense of self may be your greatest obstacle to true discipleship with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your sense of self.
[SPEAKER_01]: maybe your greatest obstacle.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it was for Peter and we see that more, not all the way in this story, but again, he's the fisherman.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he has to lay this down, doesn't he?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like my sense of Ina, like self reliance, self worth, self esteem.
[SPEAKER_01]: He, again, it doesn't end with Jesus like making Peter feel better.
[SPEAKER_01]: It ends with Peter going, I'm sinful.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus just going, okay, follow me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm gonna lead you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you are simple.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now I'm gonna do something about that later, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Dying on the cross, but man, you follow me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, discipleship is not a call to self-improvement.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a call to self-denial.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what discipleship is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now as we learn in Peter's story, Luke nine, twenty-three, if anyone would come after me, he must do what?
[SPEAKER_01]: Deny himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: Take him as cross daily.
[SPEAKER_01]: And follow me, you know, who Jesus told that to?
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter.
[SPEAKER_01]: In Luke chapter nine.
[SPEAKER_01]: You deny everything about yourself.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus laid down his life for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: He laid down his life to redeem us from the power and the penalty of sin, not so that we could live a better life or have more self-esteem.
[SPEAKER_01]: But so that we could stand in the presence in the glory of God forever without being incinerated because of our sin.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why Jesus did what He did.
[SPEAKER_01]: He laid down His life for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so the call of discipleship for us as it was for Peter.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a call to lay down ourselves.
[SPEAKER_01]: And to put on Christ, that's what faith is.
[SPEAKER_01]: We put on Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: He died for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: He rose again from the dead to make a way for us to know the Father.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so all who put their faith in Jesus are clothed with Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it has to be a Christian.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we can live in His presence for all eternity.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so discipleship begins with
[SPEAKER_01]: and lay down self and I put on Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: I trust in Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't have faith in Jesus Christ, I mean, that's your first step on this path on this journey towards walking with it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Start with, I gotta believe in Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: I had a trust in him over me.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, so that's Peter.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's look at the Apostle Paul.
[SPEAKER_01]: Go to Acts chapter nine.
[SPEAKER_01]: Acts chapter nine.
[SPEAKER_01]: Flip over two books.
[SPEAKER_01]: Luke John Acts.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, go to Acts chapter nine.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a lot of y'all know, and I don't have time to read every single one of these stories all the way through.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the Apostle Paul and Acts chapter nine, he begins as this man named Saul of Tarsus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Saul of Tarsus, he later goes by his Greek name, his Jewish name was Saul, his Greek name was Paul.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he later goes by Paul to, because he sent out to the Gentile people.
[SPEAKER_01]: But this guy was a Pharisee of Pharisees.
[SPEAKER_01]: That means he was a he was a brilliant scholar in the Jewish way of religion and life and scriptures.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was a lawyer expert in the law.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's who he was.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was a leader.
[SPEAKER_01]: of the Jewish Pharisees studied under the teacher Gamelio, which made like that was a very prominent thing to do to study under Gamelio.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now Paul is the head persecutor of the Jewish Pharisees of the early church.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was the head persecutor.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was the one going down to town, place to place, dragging people away to prison and or death because they followed Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: What happens here?
[SPEAKER_01]: You guys know the story.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse three, as he neared Damascus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Paul is traveling to go persecute some Christians on his journey suddenly, ate a light from heaven, flashed around him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He fell to the ground and he heard a voice say to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?
[SPEAKER_01]: Who are you, Lord?
[SPEAKER_01]: Saul asked, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.
[SPEAKER_01]: He replied, now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right after that it says that he is led by the hand into the city.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's now blind.
[SPEAKER_01]: He cannot see.
[SPEAKER_01]: So think about what Jesus just did to this guy who is a leader.
[SPEAKER_01]: The guy who's used to bossing people around.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus just said, one now you're blind.
[SPEAKER_01]: Two, you're going to be led by the hand into the city.
[SPEAKER_01]: And three, you're going to be told what you must do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Talk about undoing of the self.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think this is a lesson again that we learn much like Peter, but that we learn in Saul's life and Paul's life, his discipleship is to be a disciple of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: You gotta be humble by Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're going to come to a place in your life where, listen, you understand, he doesn't just want to redeem you, he wants to remake you into his image.
[SPEAKER_01]: But in order to be remade by Jesus, you first must be unmade by Jesus, unmade by him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He will break you down so that he can build you back into his own image.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Christ wants to do for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is discipleship.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is doing to solve of Tarsus so that he could later become Paul.
[SPEAKER_01]: As you continue to read,
[SPEAKER_01]: Sol's story.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at verse twenty six same chapter verse twenty six when he came to Jerusalem this is after he becomes a Christian this guy and a nious shares the gospel with him scales followed as you can see again he begins to preach pretty quickly pretty awesome
[SPEAKER_01]: When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, no duh.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember, this guy has literally been, he's already killed some of them throwing them in prison.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're scared of him, not believing that he really was a disciple, but verse twenty seven, Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles.
[SPEAKER_01]: He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and the Lord spoken to him and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: So a couple of things on that, one,
[SPEAKER_01]: Be like Barnabas towards other disciples of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't judge people on where they've been or where you want them to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at people where they are.
[SPEAKER_01]: Saul is where he is at this moment, okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: And Barnabas is the one who's able to come and put an arm around and Barnabas's name means son of encouragement.
[SPEAKER_01]: Comes and puts an arm around Saul.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know this guy used to scare us, but he's one of us.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows Jesus and all of this.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think that's one lesson, but the other lesson is sort of on the other side of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look, we all need Barnabas's in our life, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: We all need people in our life who are willing to walk beside us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, if you don't have that right now, this is why we come and be part of the church body.
[SPEAKER_01]: We need community.
[SPEAKER_01]: We need fellowship.
[SPEAKER_01]: The word, I give you all the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Greek word, coin in here.
[SPEAKER_01]: We need it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Fellowship to do life together.
[SPEAKER_01]: We need people around us helping us.
[SPEAKER_01]: be part of a growth group for that reason.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's great opportunity there.
[SPEAKER_01]: You didn't know each other better to do life together to find somebody who maybe is a little bit further along than you are in your faith journey.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ask them, hey, will you help me?
[SPEAKER_01]: I've had people in my life who helped me learn the scriptures, who helped me have wisdom about things, who just kind of have walked with me and shown me how to live for Jesus and be a disciple and we all need that.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you figure out
[SPEAKER_01]: How to do the Christian faith by yourself.
[SPEAKER_01]: Congratulations.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're the first one in the history of the world to figure that out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now you can do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't do it well and you can't do it healthy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we need each other.
[SPEAKER_01]: Barnabas and saw things are great.
[SPEAKER_01]: Great lesson.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's look at that keyis loop chapter nineteen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Go back to loop chapter nineteen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, these are just stories of Jesus calling people to himself loop nineteen.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that keyis this story.
[SPEAKER_01]: Zacchaeus is a tax collector.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a chief tax collector, which means he is, you know, in charge of the tax that he's a Jewish man, but he is basically sold himself out to Rome if you don't know that.
[SPEAKER_01]: That means that the other Jewish people did not like Zacchaeus very much.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was a man who took money from them to give to the enemy, Rome, and often was known for skimming off the top of that anyway, cheating people out of more money, keeping it for himself to get rich.
[SPEAKER_01]: So not only is he sold himself out to Rome, he's getting rich off of his people,
[SPEAKER_01]: This man has no friends, other than maybe some other types, collectors.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can imagine the loneliness of his life really, the brokenness of this man's life.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that key is here is that Jesus is coming through town.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it says this, Luke-nineteen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through.
[SPEAKER_01]: Man was there named Zacchaeus, chief tax collector.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was wealthy.
[SPEAKER_01]: He wanted to see Jesus, who Jesus was, but being a short man.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Zacchaeus was not tall and stature.
[SPEAKER_01]: Short guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: He couldn't see because of the crowd.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he ran ahead and he climbed to sick and more fig tree to see him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Since Jesus was coming that way.
[SPEAKER_01]: When Jesus reached the spot, He looked up and said to Him, is that He is, come down immediately, I must stay at your house today.
[SPEAKER_01]: So He came down at once and welcomed Him gladly.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just going to keep reading all the people saw this and they began to mutter.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's another example of like seeing people based on who they have been, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: But not giving people the benefit of that out, but everybody begins to mutter.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's gone to be the guest of a sinner.
[SPEAKER_01]: Zacchaeus is a sinner Jesus going to eat when going to hang out with him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse, but Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, look Lord, here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor
[SPEAKER_01]: And if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham.
[SPEAKER_01]: The son of man came to seek and to save what was lost.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the gospel.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus came to seek and save the lost.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is that key?
[SPEAKER_01]: It was lost.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just like you and I were lost again.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't forget this on the path of discipleship that as you see people who aren't where you think they should be or as you see people who are quote unquote sinners one be mindful.
[SPEAKER_01]: So are you and so where are you apart from Christ?
[SPEAKER_01]: In Jesus' mission was not to come and seek and save the righteous.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to seek and save the lost.
[SPEAKER_01]: and he does that for that key is we should be rejoicing when stories like this happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not grumbling because we don't like that person.
[SPEAKER_01]: What would we learn here?
[SPEAKER_01]: We learn as we learn with many of these stories.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus changes who we are and what we're about.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus changes who we are.
[SPEAKER_01]: Raise your hand if you are following Jesus and you can testify truly that your desires are different than they used to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus changes who we are and what we're about.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what he does from the inside of us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Telled about this last week with the new mind and just how he transforms that, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Number two lesson from Zacchaeus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Simple.
[SPEAKER_01]: The discipleship begins with seeing Jesus loving Jesus and repentance to follow Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, Zacchaeus knows He's a sinner.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows He's at square one here.
[SPEAKER_01]: And He knows He's got a long way to go.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what does He do?
[SPEAKER_01]: He climbs a tree just because He wants to see Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then He sees Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And He interacts with Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus knows His name.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus invites Himself over.
[SPEAKER_01]: I guess that wasn't rude in their culture.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus invites Himself over.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's like, oh my God, the rabbi wants to come eat in my house.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's like, he just loves Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can see like, is that Jesus is not saved because he was gonna do some good things?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not the point of that story.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was proving, my heart is now new.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now the new birth we've been talking about last week, I talked about this new birth, like where we're turned around and we see Jesus through He is.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what's happened is that he is.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus is just coming on them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's true.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at his life.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's changed.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is true repentance.
[SPEAKER_01]: Cybership always involves repentance, friends.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will pay back everything that I've stolen from anybody.
[SPEAKER_01]: Four times the amount of Zekia says, and I'm gonna give everything I have of what I have to the poor.
[SPEAKER_01]: Zekia's just saying, I don't care about the wealth anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: I care about following Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Start where you are.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's look at another story.
[SPEAKER_01]: John chapter four.
[SPEAKER_01]: Very famous story of this woman that Jesus meets at a well.
[SPEAKER_01]: This Samaritan woman.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus is traveling through Samaria.
[SPEAKER_01]: It says that he had to go through Sumeria, kind of pointing to not necessarily like he had to for geography, but he had to like he was on a mission.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like he had to, he was compelled to.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he goes through Sumeria.
[SPEAKER_01]: He sits at this well.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was known as Jacob's well from the Old Testament.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jacob, his well that he had.
[SPEAKER_01]: As he sits there, he sends his disciples off in the town to go get some food.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then this woman shows up, middle of the day, nobody else around.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you probably heard the story before that's clear indication that she was coming to the well intentionally when nobody else was around.
[SPEAKER_01]: She want to be around people.
[SPEAKER_01]: People probably didn't like her.
[SPEAKER_01]: She didn't like them.
[SPEAKER_01]: She had a lifestyle that probably garnered a lot of whispers about her.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so she showed up when nobody would be there except there was somebody there.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was the person you want to be there was Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as you read through John four, again, I don't have time to read the whole story to us this morning, but you just see Jesus, lead this woman so kindly, so gently, so compassionately, just speaking to her, kind of letting her almost lead the way in the conversation.
[SPEAKER_01]: He speaks to her about this living water.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, give me something to drink.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she's like, we don't have anything to get it with.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, where's your bucket or whatever?
[SPEAKER_01]: And then she's like, if you knew who I was, you would have asked me, I would give you living water.
[SPEAKER_01]: Where can I get this living water?
[SPEAKER_01]: She's wondering.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I'll never have to thirst again, because that's what Jesus says to her.
[SPEAKER_01]: You never thirst again.
[SPEAKER_01]: She's thinking, I never have to go to the well again.
[SPEAKER_01]: I never have to risk being around people and being uncomfortable and awkward ever again.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can stay in my house and just have my thirst satisfied.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's great.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she's just missing the point.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they have this whole conversation about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then they, she kind of steers the conversation at one point to like, you know, where the Jews worship versus where the Samaritan worship, because Jesus had asked her to go get her husband.
[SPEAKER_01]: She says, I don't have a husband.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, that's right.
[SPEAKER_01]: You've had five and the guy you're now with is not your husband.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just an interesting conversation, but he's so kind to her.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's so gracious.
[SPEAKER_01]: At the end of that story, Jesus tells her
[SPEAKER_01]: The one you are talking to, talking about himself, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: In this conversation, Jesus declared, I who speak to you, and he verse twenty six, talking about, I'm the Messiah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm the one you're looking for.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because he was wondering, where is this guy?
[SPEAKER_01]: We know he's coming, the Jews talk about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: When they were going to worship him, Jesus says, yeah, true, worshipers are going to worship in spirit and truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she's like, yeah, when he comes, he'll tell us everything, and Jesus goes, he's here.
[SPEAKER_01]: What does Jesus do in that conversation with this woman?
[SPEAKER_01]: And right after that, by the way, she now realizes, oh, this is the Messiah.
[SPEAKER_01]: She runs back into town to the people she's been spending her life trying to avoid and begins to shout from the rooftops.
[SPEAKER_01]: Go see this man who just told me everything about myself.
[SPEAKER_01]: You guys whisper about what you think I've done.
[SPEAKER_01]: He told me to my face what I've done.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows me and I want you to go see him too and people do and they go out and see him.
[SPEAKER_01]: What changed for her?
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus, quenched or thirst?
[SPEAKER_01]: A tharshy name, no, she had.
[SPEAKER_01]: You all listen, discipleship, I think, here's our, here's her lesson.
[SPEAKER_01]: The discipleship begins with a confession of need.
[SPEAKER_01]: You need something.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus has it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus is it.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is what you need.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you don't know that your needy, you'll never hold out your hands for the bread of life.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't know that your needy, you'll never open wide for the living water that is in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't know that your needy, you'll never take the first step of discipleship.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because it starts with this, I need, I don't have everything, I don't have anything without him.
[SPEAKER_01]: You need to know this about yourself.
[SPEAKER_01]: Psalm eighty one ten says, open wide your mouth and I will fill it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Isaiah, fifty-five-one and two, Jesus, the God is just telling his people, come and eat and drink.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's free.
[SPEAKER_01]: Come to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is discipleship, swear begins for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: I need.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm empty.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm helpless, y'all.
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of people never start in the path of discipleship because they think they got something that they don't really have.
[SPEAKER_01]: You think you're alive, you think you're wealthy, you think you have possessions, you think you have everything you need, apart from the God who has given you life and wants to give you spiritual real life in Christ Jesus his son.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so long as you think you have what you need apart from him, you'll never take a step.
[SPEAKER_01]: Start with need.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's look on more story, Luke chapter eight.
[SPEAKER_01]: This one's a little different.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is an interesting one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Luke chapter eight, there's this man.
[SPEAKER_01]: who is possessed by demons.
[SPEAKER_01]: Crazy, crazy situation, crazy story.
[SPEAKER_01]: We see this a few different times in Jesus' ministry.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we can understand this in the sense that Satan knows God is literally in the flesh on the earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's already tried to tempt Jesus didn't really work.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's kind of, I think just sending his armies into this area, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's just doing what he can to distract and deceive and discourage and destroy all things that he can.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so even demon possessions seem to be pretty common around Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus in his disciples, they cross over a lake at one point, and they come to this area where these tombs, and one of the accounts that there's actually two men there.
[SPEAKER_01]: But one of these men, who's possessed by, says many demons, comes up to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now this man is literally naked and crazy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it says insanely strong, like they had tried to bind him.
[SPEAKER_01]: They tried to, you know, bind him with ropes and change.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't work.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can break those things.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now he's homeless, driven out of the city to live kind of in the open country around where the tombs are, living literally among death.
[SPEAKER_01]: His life is death.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is who he is.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is where he is.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus gets to the other side of the lake and this guy meets him there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's what happens.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus asked him, verse thirty, what is your name?
[SPEAKER_01]: Legion, he replied because many demons had gone into him and they begged him repeatedly not to order them to go into the abyss.
[SPEAKER_01]: Demons are always scared of Jesus, by the way, like freaked out by him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse thirty two, a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside.
[SPEAKER_01]: The demons begged Jesus to let them go into them and he gave them permission.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that demons have to ask Jesus permission for things.
[SPEAKER_01]: When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs and the herd rushed down the steepank into the lake and was drowned.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, man, that'd be like one of those scenes in movie like where it's, you know, it's done and everybody's just kind of standing there like, what just happened?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, that was crazy.
[SPEAKER_01]: demons go out of the man, go into these pigs and they'll run down the hill and die and drown themselves.
[SPEAKER_01]: Weird.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse thirty four when those tending the pigs saw what had happened they ran off and reported this in the town of the countryside the people went out to see what had happened and when they came to Jesus they found the man from whom the demons had gone out sitting at Jesus feet it's a good place to sit for step at discipleship sitting at Jesus feet listen dressed and in his right mind and listen and they were afraid they were scared because the student was saying and dressed
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, listen, if it bothers people when you put on clothes, you need to reevaluate your life choices.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, these got to like what the man's wearing clothes and they are perplexed by this and they are afraid because they know like something's happened, that's the point where something has happened to this guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those who had seen it, so all the people, how the demon possessed man had been cured.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then all the people of the region of the garrisons asked Jesus to leave them because they were overcome with fear.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, he got into the boat and left.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now listen, verse thirty-eight.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's the man coming back to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Jesus sent him away saying, return home and tell how much God has done for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.
[SPEAKER_01]: A couple lessons from this guy's life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Discipleship will mean confession and repentance and asking forgiveness at times from those you've hurt.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why do you think this man was so eager to go with Jesus?
[SPEAKER_01]: He wanted to go anywhere but home.
[SPEAKER_01]: I cannot go back home.
[SPEAKER_01]: I cannot go back to my town.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those people know me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those people are the ones that I hurt.
[SPEAKER_01]: They know what I've done.
[SPEAKER_01]: They know what I said.
[SPEAKER_01]: They saw me out of my mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't go be around them now, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: But he didn't see what Jesus saw for him was.
[SPEAKER_01]: This was an opportunity for him to show more clearly the glory of Jesus in his life.
[SPEAKER_01]: the strangers that he could go to elsewhere if he followed Jesus around.
[SPEAKER_01]: They would know nothing of who he was.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so Jesus would not receive as much glory from his stories.
[SPEAKER_01]: But those who he lived with think about him walking back through the door of his own house to talk to his wife to talk to his kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord knows what happened to them in the midst of his story.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now he gets to go home and get on his knees before them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And say, let me tell you what happened to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's how Jesus gets glory.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're willing to actually follow him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're willing to take whatever step and listen, it's not the step we always think it's going to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to take a step to go somewhere else.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus says, go home.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can go and I'm saying discipleship is where we don't get to decide what the step is.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't get to pick where we go with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't get to physically go with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: He had to go where Jesus needed him to go home and tell these people what I've done for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not a way, listen, discipleship is not a way to escape your problems or your responsibilities.
[SPEAKER_01]: Discipleship with Christ will send you back to those problems and responsibilities with a renewed heart and a renewed mind so that Christ gets glory through the changes that are made in your life when people see you filled with joy and hope instead of fear and guilt and sin.
[SPEAKER_01]: Does that make sense?
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, this is discipleship, y'all.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just being willing.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, sometimes oftentimes that starts with people closest to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, Jesus is going to send you two first.
[SPEAKER_01]: So again, next week, next week we start missions month and we're going to talk about going all over the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: But first,
[SPEAKER_01]: He's gonna send you home.
[SPEAKER_01]: If the people write around you don't know that Jesus has worked in your life, then people out there aren't gonna know because you're not gonna be willing to tell them either.
[SPEAKER_01]: Talk to those around you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let those who have seen you and seen the changes in your heart and life.
[SPEAKER_01]: See what Jesus has done.
[SPEAKER_01]: And here, the good news and the gospel.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's discipleship.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just start where you are.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, that's those five stories.
[SPEAKER_01]: What I wanna do now is just end this with.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wanna look back over them really quickly.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's really one main lesson.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's really what I've said all throughout this.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is start where you are.
[SPEAKER_01]: Start where you are.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because what do we see through each one of those stories?
[SPEAKER_01]: Where did Jesus meet every one of those eventual disciples?
[SPEAKER_01]: Where did He meet them?
[SPEAKER_01]: Where they were?
[SPEAKER_01]: He met them where they were.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a stupid, simple thing to say, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like we get that.
[SPEAKER_01]: You only are.
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, hear something just in that.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is deep.
[SPEAKER_01]: You were only ever be where you are.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're not anywhere else.
[SPEAKER_01]: Where are you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Here, this is where you are, okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: So the only place Jesus can really ever meet us is where we are.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's where we are.
[SPEAKER_01]: Where was Peter?
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter was fishing.
[SPEAKER_01]: What was Peter's job?
[SPEAKER_01]: Fishing.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what he did.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus didn't meet Peter on the day of Pentecost and tell him to preach to three thousand people that they would become Christians.
[SPEAKER_01]: That happened later.
[SPEAKER_01]: What did Jesus tell him on this day?
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, though you're net over there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter knew how to do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter didn't know how to preach at that point.
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter didn't know the gospel at that point.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knew how to fish.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so Jesus gave him a simple win.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey buddy, throw your net over there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Catch a bunch of fish.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amazing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Repentions happens.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then Jesus tells him what?
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about this too.
[SPEAKER_01]: He meets him where he is.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then he gives him a purpose that speaks his language.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna make you what?
[SPEAKER_01]: Bishops of men.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, Peter's like, I get that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I live that life I understand.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus is so gracious to meet us where we are to start this journey so that then okay, I can take that step.
[SPEAKER_01]: If he told Peter right here, you're going to preach to thousands one day.
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter would have ran that way.
[SPEAKER_01]: He just said, though, you're net out.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's like, okay, cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: I trust you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm following you, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So, Starry, you are.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a simple message.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus will take who you are, how he's created you, rewire that in your mind and heart for his glory.
[SPEAKER_01]: He spoke Peter's language and he invited him into something bigger and greater.
[SPEAKER_01]: His mission, his glory.
[SPEAKER_01]: Paul.
[SPEAKER_01]: Paul was as talented and smart and self-righteous of a man as you will ever find.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what happened to him?
[SPEAKER_01]: He was humbled and blinded at the mercy now of God in man.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's taken in and shown mercy by those who came to persecute, shown mercy by those who was coming to persecute.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's been going after disciples of Jesus to persecute them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now Jesus tells him your mission is to go after the Gentiles, not to persecute them, but to bring them into the kingdom.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, totally speaks.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's like, like, this is what he's been doing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Paul, you seem to like to travel around the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: Keep doing it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's going to be a different purpose now.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not going to be to drag people to the way to prison.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to be to let me bring them into the kingdom through your words of sharing the gospel with them.
[SPEAKER_01]: You get it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, he's just mean, Paul, where he is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even as rich as this dude was.
[SPEAKER_01]: No one was better suited for a missionary, evangelistic life in Saul of Tarsps.
[SPEAKER_01]: He became Paul, the Apostle.
[SPEAKER_01]: He just met him where he was.
[SPEAKER_01]: He redeemed him and he set him on the path of discipleships.
[SPEAKER_01]: Zacchaeus, a tax collector, a man who had made a career and a lifestyle taking from others, taking from others.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he was a short man.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about this.
[SPEAKER_01]: If Zacchaeus was not short,
[SPEAKER_01]: He wouldn't have climbed a tree and he would have been just been what?
[SPEAKER_01]: Another face in the crowd.
[SPEAKER_01]: His shortness caused him to climb a tree so that he's seen by Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then Jesus talks to him and then he changes his life, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't think that what you don't like about yourself.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus won't use for his own glory because he will.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus loves to do these things, and he calls him, and this man who had sold his soul to Rome to get rich off his own people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, Jesus buys his soul back for him in Zacchaeus was never the same.
[SPEAKER_01]: He only knew how to take and now he's willing to give.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is where Jesus meets us.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Samaritan woman, a sinner, a pariah, six scarlet letters on her forehead,
[SPEAKER_01]: A woman hiding at a well in the middle of a day on the outskirts of town.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus meets her there.
[SPEAKER_01]: He gives her something to drink for her soul and where does he send her back into town.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now a woman who talked to no one and who no one would have talked to, but everybody talked about.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now she's the one who goes and shares her testimony with an entire city, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: The demoniac, the man full of demons.
[SPEAKER_01]: A man whose life was utterly ruined to the point that he lived among the dead.
[SPEAKER_01]: A man broken by his own choices by his own pain that he had caused for himself and others.
[SPEAKER_01]: Driven away from everything he ever loved, Jesus met him there.
[SPEAKER_01]: even among death to do the same thing, to redeem him and to give him new life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now what was his purpose?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, this is ministry.
[SPEAKER_01]: To not follow Jesus physically, but to go home, because homes where Jesus glory would be seen in his life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Simple.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the message today, the heart of this today, again, y'all, it's very simple.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus will meet you where you are.
[SPEAKER_01]: He'll meet you, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know where you are.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know everybody's story and exactly where you find yourself today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of you find yourself today in a place of, I don't even know Jesus yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: Neither did any of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus just met him there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just go, here I am, see me, believe in me, turn from sin and follow me.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's Jesus' call for you today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of you have been Christians for years and years and you are on the path of discipleship and you're walking still.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are where you are right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Today, right here.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so whatever it is, I hope you're praying this prayer all the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: I hope you're praying the prayer of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lead me today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Draw me deeper into discipleship today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me take a step with you wherever you are in that journey, wherever you may be.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't get so caught up worried about where I want to be that you just miss right here where you are.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's where Jesus wants to meet you.
[SPEAKER_01]: So my simple call to us today as we think about discipleship, all the lessons we heard from all those stories, just be where you are, let Jesus meet you right there and be willing to take a step with him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever that may look like, whatever your age, whatever your experience, whatever, however well you know the Bible, however long you've been coming to church, whatever led Jesus meet you there.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, so let's end this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Same way we've ended the last couple of weeks.
[SPEAKER_01]: I only gave you guys an opportunity to pray over just that thing right there that I just said, like, what's my step?
[SPEAKER_01]: How can I follow Jesus?
[SPEAKER_01]: in discipleship.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you would like to pray with those around you this morning, we've been doing this for a few weeks.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've enjoyed it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think you guys have enjoyed it for the most part.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't want to do it, just you can just pray right there on your own, right where you're at, and I'll give you opportunity right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you can kind of just turn to people around you if you want to.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're introverted, just sit there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe somebody will come to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you don't want to, just pray on your own.
[SPEAKER_01]: But let's pray together.
[SPEAKER_01]: that God would show us our step and allow us to take that step with Him in discipleship wherever we are.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, y'all go ahead and start praying.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I said, pray with those around you if you want to pray on your own if you don't.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll give y'all a couple minutes and then I'll pray us out here in just a minute.
[SPEAKER_01]: So go ahead.
[SPEAKER_01]: Father, we thank you that you are so gracious to us Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for your word that we can see stories and examples of people very much like us.
[SPEAKER_01]: People who don't have it all together, people who don't know all the answers, people who aren't very yet like us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And God help us as we leave here today to be reminded
[SPEAKER_01]: God, that you are the one that has it all together.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're the one who's perfect.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're the one who knows all things.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're just calling us to have faith to trust you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so Lord, wherever we are on that journey, if it were at the very beginning and just coming to faith in Christ, God, I pray for anybody in this room, who needs to just trust in Jesus for the first time.
[SPEAKER_01]: God, open their hearts to do that, to believe in the name of your son, Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: And God, for the rest of us who are following you already, God, we just pray that as we stand, right where we are right, this very second, that we would have the heart of Paul, the apostle, Olympians, three, who says, I don't look behind, but a strain forward to what is ahead.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because we know, God, we're not called to be who we were.
[SPEAKER_01]: And really, we're not called to be who you're gonna take us to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're just called to be who we are right, the second, and follow you in that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And trust you, right here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even with what we don't know, even with where we aren't yet, God, we just trust you because you'll take us there in time.
[SPEAKER_01]: So let us just be willing to take a step in your direction with you today, right where we are and follow you and trust you for your glory.
[SPEAKER_01]: Make us disciples, make us disciples, let Easterids be full of disciples of Jesus, going and making more disciples in Jesus name.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, hey, prayer room is open.
[SPEAKER_01]: Love you guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have a great Sunday.
[SPEAKER_01]: Go sign up for a girl group.