SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And then you can have a seat before the kids start dismissed.
SPEAKER_00: I want us just to spend a few moments.
SPEAKER_01: To spend a moment.
SPEAKER_01: And pray.
SPEAKER_01: You know what we most need in a time like this, in a gathering like this, is for the Lord to show our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord to do something in each of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And we have this really incredible gift that we can pray.
SPEAKER_01: We can pray.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to spend a few moments praying.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I know is true.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you had a really good week, and others of you had a really challenging week.
SPEAKER_01: Things went up during the day on one day this week that if you're honest, you're like, man, that's really discouraging.
SPEAKER_01: It's really hard.
SPEAKER_01: Just this week I I've talked to people that uh got an unexpected cancer diagnosis.
SPEAKER_01: It's not looking good.
SPEAKER_01: I've talked to people who have serious marital strife.
SPEAKER_01: I've talked to people who are struggling financially and who feel like they're at wrong bottom or beginning to question, like, okay, does God know?
SPEAKER_01: Does God care?
SPEAKER_01: And maybe that is some of you.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're here and you're struggling, and you're here, which is awesome, and we want to believe in this moment that there's something special about when the people of God gather before God.
SPEAKER_01: And so I just want to just give us some space to spend some time praying.
SPEAKER_01: So would you do this?
SPEAKER_01: Would you bow your head?
SPEAKER_01: Something going on in your life that you'd like to take for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: If you could have God's word in an area of your life, maybe for those of you that are in school kids, maybe there's a friend who's having a hard time, or maybe you're having a hard time.
SPEAKER_01: For all of us, what's something going on in your life?
SPEAKER_01: I just want to give you a minute or so, just right there where you are to pray.
SPEAKER_01: And if you want to, you're next to somebody that knows you and loves you, you know them and love them, just you can put your arms uh over each other's shoulder and just want to do pray.
SPEAKER_01: So let's do that.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just take some time to pray, and you take a minute or so and give you an opportunity to talk to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: God Almighty, we love you.
SPEAKER_01: And we need you again well aware of the reality that we can organize songs, provide a space, prepare a sermon, say some words, we can do all of these things.
SPEAKER_01: And it falls of what we really need in each of our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: And so, God, we acknowledge our dependence upon you.
SPEAKER_01: God, thank you for these moments in the past week where we we reached our own limits because it's a good reminder that we uh need to call out to you, to cry out to you.
SPEAKER_01: God thank you for these moments of struggle.
SPEAKER_01: Because what it does, God, is it reminds us how dependent upon you we are.
SPEAKER_01: And God, we're also so thankful for the joyous moments of the week.
SPEAKER_01: God, we're thankful for the times where you came through in ways that we didn't even exactly know how it was gonna work out.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for the strengths of our relationships, the moments of joy and celebration, God.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for that.
SPEAKER_01: And God, now as we open your word, God, I just pray that it would come into our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever way we'll hear.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's a gentle whisper.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe for some of us we need it to come into our hearts like a roaring lion.
SPEAKER_01: But God, we open our hearts and our minds to you in this moment and ask you to speak to us.
SPEAKER_01: We've said some things to you in song, we've said some things to you in prayer, and God, here we are asking you to speak to us.
SPEAKER_01: God, you're so good to us, and so thank you for this moment, and I pray all of this in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, now if you are in Kid City, you can start making your way to the back.
SPEAKER_01: And Garrett is back there, and he's gonna lead you over to the Kid City area.
SPEAKER_01: While they're leaving, I want to just make a couple of uh announcements to make you aware about how you can take a step in the life of the dirt.
SPEAKER_01: Go on, get out of it come on, go on, go on.
SPEAKER_01: They have donuts and candy over there.
SPEAKER_01: They start running down.
SPEAKER_01: Good luck sorting out that confusion when you get over there.
SPEAKER_01: Oh man.
SPEAKER_01: So a couple things that I want to make you aware of that if you want to take a step in the life of the church, two opportunities that I want to invite you to.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, if you have never filled out the connect card, this is a great opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: By filling out the connect card, it's on the screen overhead, or it's on the card that is on the seat, in your seat, the seat next to you, fill it up.
SPEAKER_01: Let us know that you're here, and we'll be able to begin reaching out to you and encouraging you and getting to know you a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Another opportunity to step into the life of the church is in getting involved in one of our loop groups.
SPEAKER_01: So loop groups are our co-ed small groups.
SPEAKER_01: So if you have not kind of found your people within the church and you want to take this step, this is a really great place.
SPEAKER_01: I'll be talking a little bit more about these later in my message.
SPEAKER_01: But this is a place where transformation is deepened in the life of our church.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to encourage you to take that step.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: So as we you're picking up on, like we as a church really think this time is important when the church gathers, but it's not all that it means to be a part of the church.
SPEAKER_01: And so uh we hope that you will be intentional about how you're connected.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: So with all that, I want to preach a message today that's called This Is How Life with Jesus Works.
SPEAKER_01: So, how was your week?
SPEAKER_01: Think back on your week.
SPEAKER_01: Most of you spent time working this week.
SPEAKER_01: Just raise your hand if you worked this week.
SPEAKER_01: And by working, I'm including working at a job, working in the classroom, and maybe the hardest job of all, working as a stay-at-home parent.
SPEAKER_01: Where are my stay-at-home parents at?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, that's a that's a job that never quits.
SPEAKER_01: So think back over the course of your week.
SPEAKER_01: Like, how did it go?
SPEAKER_01: Did you get the results that you wanted from your work?
SPEAKER_01: And if not, as you think about the week that's coming, what's going to be different?
SPEAKER_01: Oftentimes we get to a weekend, and of course we gather as a church, Sunday sets direction.
SPEAKER_01: We get to the weekend and we think, I want things to change this week.
SPEAKER_01: And so what we the way in which we approach it is we think, well, I'm just going to work harder.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what we tell ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: But but what if trying harder is not the answer to get different results?
SPEAKER_01: There's this well-known principle in quality management circles that goes a little something like this.
SPEAKER_01: Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it is getting.
SPEAKER_01: So if a factory keeps shipping broken parts, some might say it's a bad system.
SPEAKER_01: But the truth is it's a perfect system for getting unwanted results.
SPEAKER_01: There's an oft-quoted definition of insanity that goes a little something like this, and I think it's helpful in this moment.
SPEAKER_01: It says insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.
SPEAKER_01: So if you feel good about your past week, then keep your current system.
SPEAKER_01: Keep doing the same things you've been doing.
SPEAKER_01: But if there's a gap between how hard you feel you're working and the desired results, what you need to do is look at the system.
SPEAKER_01: It's giving you exactly what it was built to produce.
SPEAKER_01: So my work as lead pastor is leading this church.
SPEAKER_01: And like every organization, including the one that your job is, or your home or your classroom setting, every organization, like every organization, our church has a system.
SPEAKER_01: Like we have repeated practices that are producing particular results.
SPEAKER_01: And it is perfectly designed to get the results that we're getting.
SPEAKER_01: So not long ago, I asked our leadership team to consider this question.
SPEAKER_01: Is our system for inviting busy people to experience the peace of life with Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: And that is our mission statement as a church, inviting busy people to experience the peace of life with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Like, is our system actually working?
SPEAKER_01: Or said in a different way, are we effectively making disciples of Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Something you're going to pick up on.
SPEAKER_01: If you're new to this church, is this church is not just about getting a lot of people in a room and that group of people becoming larger and larger and larger and larger?
SPEAKER_01: Like we take very seriously the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 28, starting verse 19, because this is not the question, like, are we effectively making disciples?
SPEAKER_01: This is not a question that we can skip.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what it says: Jesus says, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
SPEAKER_01: So as I think about the work that we're getting to do as a church, my responsibility in leading the church, there is so much to celebrate.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, today we're going to celebrate two who are stepping forward to be baptized by immersion.
SPEAKER_01: We see growth as a church, we see lives change.
SPEAKER_01: I love this church so much.
SPEAKER_01: I love you all.
SPEAKER_01: I love being here.
SPEAKER_01: But we also, I think, realize that our system for making disciples needs attention.
SPEAKER_01: So we began this spirit-led journey into the scripture with one question.
SPEAKER_01: How does life with Jesus work?
SPEAKER_01: And what emerged is a simple, clear system for how we at Near Town will make disciples who, if you choose to engage wholeheartedly, will experience the peace of life with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let me just hit pause here because some of you right now, as I'm beginning to talk about like systems, you're like, oh, this is awesome.
SPEAKER_01: You're wired in a way where you like to think about systems.
SPEAKER_01: You're maybe in operations in your job, or maybe a person that others would say is very organized.
SPEAKER_01: There are others of you that are like, what in the world is he talking about?
SPEAKER_01: Why did we come?
SPEAKER_01: It was 40 degrees in room last week, and this week it's like 94 degrees.
SPEAKER_01: Like, what is going on in this church?
SPEAKER_01: Well, here's the thing: even if you think that you're not interested in systems, you have a system that you're operating by.
SPEAKER_01: It may be described by others as total chaos, but it is a system.
SPEAKER_01: So this applies to all of us.
SPEAKER_01: And we have asked the question how does life with Jesus work?
SPEAKER_01: We've looked at it and with the scripture, spirit led it in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And what we have seen is a simple, clear system for how we as a church will make disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Who, again, if you choose to engage it wholeheartedly, I feel confident you will experience the peace of life across.
SPEAKER_01: We call this our discipleship operating system.
SPEAKER_01: And it may sound technical, but it's built on a simple idea.
SPEAKER_01: People are changed as they follow Jesus in real life.
SPEAKER_01: And over time, they help others do the same.
SPEAKER_01: So within this system, we have four ongoing movements that operate in three environments.
SPEAKER_01: So the four movements operate in three environments.
SPEAKER_01: And we see this showing up time and time again in the scripture.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, we'll be looking at a passage in Matthew chapter four.
SPEAKER_01: If you have your Bible, you can turn there now.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew chapter four, we'll see one place this these four movements show up.
SPEAKER_01: But first, let me introduce you to the four movements that are going to operate within the three environments that we have as a church.
SPEAKER_01: Belong, surrender, train, multiply.
SPEAKER_01: I'll talk more about these, but just briefly.
SPEAKER_01: So we belong to God's people.
SPEAKER_01: We surrender to his leadership.
SPEAKER_01: We train in his way, and we help others do the same.
SPEAKER_01: These are movements you continually live in.
SPEAKER_01: And I feel certain that one of these right now needs your attention if you're going to experience the peace of life of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Now we have given these four movements a particular language.
SPEAKER_01: We didn't invent them though, because we see them throughout the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And in Matthew chapter 4, we see one place where they share off.
SPEAKER_01: This is the story of when Jesus calls his very first disciples.
SPEAKER_01: It's the beginning of his public ministry that we read about in the Gospels and the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: But before I get into it, let me let me pan out a little bit because I want to help you locate Matthew chapter 4 in the larger narrative of the story.
SPEAKER_01: So let's go all the way back to the beginning of creation.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to give you four sentences to cover all the time from creation to the time of Jesus, and so all this is a summary.
SPEAKER_01: So God created humanity to know him, but humanity rejected his leadership, which brought in sin and brokenness and death into creation.
SPEAKER_01: This is Genesis 1, 2, and 3.
SPEAKER_01: But God did not abandon his plan for humanity.
SPEAKER_01: He promises to send a king who would defeat evil, restore his people, and bless the nations.
SPEAKER_01: This is Genesis chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: If you fast forward to the New Testament, Jesus arrives.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the promised King and the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is going to go about the work of inviting people to be reconciled to God and to live the life that they were created to live.
SPEAKER_01: And this brings us to Matthew chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew chapter 4, Jesus has been baptized.
SPEAKER_01: He's endured temptation in the wilderness, and he's about 30 years old.
SPEAKER_01: And he's begun proclaiming this message repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus is devoting his life to inviting busy people into life with God.
SPEAKER_00: The only life in which true peace can be found.
SPEAKER_01: So in Matthew chapter 4, we read the story of him inviting the very first people into this life.
SPEAKER_01: Look at Matthew chapter 4 with me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just going to read these four verses and then we're going to talk about it.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: Says this, while walking by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
SPEAKER_01: Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
SPEAKER_01: And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them.
SPEAKER_01: And immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
SPEAKER_01: May God bless the reading of his word.
SPEAKER_01: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_01: So here's the story.
SPEAKER_01: Peter and Andrew, they're working with casting nets.
SPEAKER_01: James and John were part of the family business that included a boat.
SPEAKER_01: These were not unemployed people just sitting around hoping something more interesting would come along.
SPEAKER_01: They had work and income and responsibilities and relationships and a place within their community.
SPEAKER_01: They were busy.
SPEAKER_01: Say it with me.
SPEAKER_01: They were busy.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus walked into the middle of their ordinary lives and calls them.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew chapter 4 emphasizes this invitation to busy people to experience the peace of life with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And in this brief invitation, just these four verses, we actually see the four movements that shape how we understand we should make disciples.
SPEAKER_01: This is how life with Jesus worked.
SPEAKER_01: Four movements.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at each of them.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, Jesus invites us to belong.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus, he didn't just recruit four isolated individuals into four separate spiritual journeys.
SPEAKER_01: He calls them together into a shared life with himself.
SPEAKER_01: Following Jesus is deeply personal.
SPEAKER_01: But it was never meant to be private.
SPEAKER_01: In this culture, prospective disciples, they they normally chose their own rabbi.
SPEAKER_01: Like they they observe the available rabbis, and they decided whose teaching they would admire the most, and then they would request to join that rabbi's sort of school of disciples.
SPEAKER_01: They would apply to join.
SPEAKER_01: This is not what happens here.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus sees them going about their ordinary busy lives.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus approaches them and Jesus calls them to himself.
SPEAKER_01: This is still how life of Jesus begins.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus moved toward us before we carry before we have everything figured out, right?
SPEAKER_01: He calls people who are busy working, carrying responsibility, and trying to make sense of their lives.
SPEAKER_01: And so maybe that's you here today, and you're not even sure what you believe, and you hear this story about Jesus calling his first disciples, and you're wondering, I wonder if Jesus is approaching me.
SPEAKER_01: I assure you, he is.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you may have questions that are still not yet resolved.
SPEAKER_01: And you may not be ready to call yourself a Christian, but I want you to know like you belong here.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to pretend to believe something you don't believe, but you can you can develop friendships in this context and you can begin discovering who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: Who is this Jesus who's inviting busy people to experience a peace of life with Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: We want Neartown to be the kind of place where people experience this as friendly.
SPEAKER_01: People experience this as like a place where they can find their purpose, they can find belonging.
SPEAKER_01: And this is one reason that that we pay so much attention to what happens in the lobby when people come in on a Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_01: We want it to be a friendly place, like you belong here.
SPEAKER_01: It's one reason that Jeannie and I stand out there and greet people.
SPEAKER_01: It's important.
SPEAKER_01: But belonging is more than just occupying the same room.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we're living through what the U.S.
SPEAKER_01: Surgeon General has called an epidemic of loneliness and isolation.
SPEAKER_01: According to the CDC, one in three American adults reports feeling lonely.
SPEAKER_01: And among adults under 35, that number rises to more than four in 10.
SPEAKER_01: We have never been more digitally connected, yet millions of people feel deeply unknown.
SPEAKER_01: You can have hundreds of contacts, sit in crowded rooms, and still have no one who truly knows what's happening in your life.
SPEAKER_01: We don't simply need more people around us.
SPEAKER_01: We need relationships where we are known and loved and challenged and helped to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: There's this interesting thing that's happening in the church world right now.
SPEAKER_01: Like there is a great return of people to churches, and so many churches, every church that I know that's like somewhat like normal is growing, including Arabs.
SPEAKER_01: But my pause on that is this: observing that some churches are doing everything they can to allow for the growth of their church, creating bigger spaces, bigger rooms, but not paying a lot of attention to how they're actually making disciples.
SPEAKER_01: You can get a lot of people in a room who love the music and tolerate the preaching and continue to come back every week and not be making disciples.
SPEAKER_01: You see, biblical belonging means moving from me to we.
SPEAKER_01: It's like a step in that direction.
SPEAKER_01: It means building friendships that endure when relationships become difficult.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you are used to this way of living where you go, okay, I belong to this group until it gets difficult, then I'm out of there.
SPEAKER_01: But biblical belonging means that we endure and stick with it and work together to resolve whatever strife comes up or tension comes up or dissatisfaction comes up.
SPEAKER_01: And this is actually a beautiful place to apply the gospel and live out the Christian faith.
SPEAKER_01: Biblical belonging means that we share a greater purpose than the friendship itself.
SPEAKER_01: We are glorifying God together.
SPEAKER_01: We are on mission together.
SPEAKER_01: And what this requires is honest conversations, growing trust, and a willingness to stay when live leading would be easier.
SPEAKER_01: It means prioritizing, gathering with the people of God, even when our schedules get crowded.
SPEAKER_00: A group cannot transform you.
SPEAKER_01: Belonging to a group cannot transform you.
SPEAKER_01: Only Jesus can.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus often does his transforming work through relationships with whom we have a deep sense of belonging.
SPEAKER_01: So here's the question for this first movement.
SPEAKER_00: Do you need to belong by allowing yourself to be more known?
SPEAKER_00: Second movement.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus calls us to surrender.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says to these disciples, follow me.
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't adding something to their activity or to their schedules.
SPEAKER_01: That's not merely what he's doing.
SPEAKER_01: He is claiming the rights to their lives.
SPEAKER_01: Surrender begins when we first trust what Jesus has done through his death and resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: So there is a moment where we choose to surrender our lives to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: This is the moment where we cross the line of faith.
SPEAKER_01: I surrender.
SPEAKER_01: I choose to believe.
SPEAKER_01: I want to become a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: But it doesn't end there.
SPEAKER_01: The Christian life is a daily surrender to his leadership.
SPEAKER_01: Peter and Andrew, they left their nets and their livelihood that James and John left a boat and their father and economic stability and family expectations.
SPEAKER_01: And this isn't about you leaving your job immediately and leaving your family.
SPEAKER_01: But what we see a picture of here is this idea of surrender of they thought, Jesus, you're calling us to yourself to follow you.
SPEAKER_01: And it means that we have to submit our entire lives to your leadership when we're in.
SPEAKER_01: Everything in our lives is to be brought under the authority of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: This includes our money and our time and our desires, our relationships, our future, everything.
SPEAKER_01: I would say a top three problem that exists among modern-day American Christians is that so many of us want Jesus to improve our lives without interrupting our lives.
SPEAKER_01: We want his peace without his authority.
SPEAKER_01: We want his advice without his leadership.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus doesn't say, admire me.
SPEAKER_01: He says, follow me.
SPEAKER_01: This is surrender.
SPEAKER_01: And these four men, they they respond immediately, the scripture says, and it's and that's worth mentioning because some of us like to delay our response to bringing areas of our lives under the authority of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: There's an area of your life, maybe, where you've you've chosen not to bring it under the authority of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's a dating relationship.
SPEAKER_01: Like Jesus, I want you to have all of this of part, all these parts of my life, but the part of my life that is my relationship with this person that I'm planning to marry, I'm going to kind of keep it out here until we're really ready to bring it under your authority.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is saying, hey, if you want to experience a peace of life with Christ, bring all areas of your life under my authority.
SPEAKER_01: Obey me in all areas.
SPEAKER_01: Everything is brought under that authority.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's your money.
SPEAKER_01: Like, God, you can like don't be trying to get up in my bank account.
SPEAKER_01: Like you can have all areas of my life and I'll give you$50 a month.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm not talking all areas of my life, like not all my money.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm going to kind of do my own thing.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is saying all areas.
SPEAKER_01: Surrender.
SPEAKER_01: And I could go down the list.
SPEAKER_01: The call to surrender is an invitation to immediately give every area of your life to God.
SPEAKER_01: And here's one breathtaking reality about this call to surrender.
SPEAKER_01: The one calling you, and you, and you, and you to submit every area of your life.
SPEAKER_01: That one calling you is the first one who gave himself for you.
SPEAKER_01: 2 Corinthians 5.21 says that for our sake, God made Christ, who knew no sin, to be sinned, so that we might become the righteousness before God through him.
SPEAKER_01: Philippians 2 tells us that although Jesus was fully God, he humbled himself by taking the form of a servant and becoming human.
SPEAKER_01: He submitted himself completely to the will of the Father and becoming obedient to the point of death on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Then God raised him from the dead, declaring his victory over sin and death.
SPEAKER_01: So we don't surrender to earn his love.
SPEAKER_00: We surrender because in Jesus, what Christ has done is already given himself for us.
SPEAKER_01: And let me pause here and just speak to those of you that have never crossed the line of faith.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to experience, and I know you do, if you want to experience soul level, deep peace, what you might be tempted to believe is that I'm going to organize my life in such a way that there's no chaos, and you will get old enough when you realize that is impossible.
SPEAKER_00: I spoke on the phone yesterday to a woman who shared with me that she got a really scary diagnosis of a lump on her lung.
SPEAKER_00: And this person has experienced lots of heartache in her life as a result of things beyond her control.
SPEAKER_00: And what I told her was I said, you know, I believe God can heal you, and we pray for that.
SPEAKER_00: But more importantly, what I believe is that Jesus can give you peace in the midst of this moment because I know you fully surrendered.
SPEAKER_00: We surrender to Christ because we get to a place in our lives where we acknowledge that we need Jesus to be the authority of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Do you need to surrender something you've kept outside his leadership?
SPEAKER_01: Third movement we see in this passage is that Jesus promises to train us.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says to these disciples, follow me, and I will make you pause.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't say follow me because I know you're already ready, you're already qualified.
SPEAKER_01: He calls them as they are, and then he promises to transform them.
SPEAKER_01: So interesting about these that he's chosen.
SPEAKER_01: Peter was impulsive and self-confident.
SPEAKER_01: So if you read the rest of the story of the gospels of these guys kind of running with Jesus, like we see Peter was impulsive and self-confident, but Jesus trained him to become more humble and steady and dependent upon grace.
SPEAKER_01: Andrew often remained in the background.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus trains him to faithfully bring people and offer whatever he had.
SPEAKER_01: James was ambitious and hungry for status, and Jesus trains him to humbly embrace service.
SPEAKER_01: John was fiery and quick to exclude others, but Jesus trains him to become an apostle known for love.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus promises to train us.
SPEAKER_01: Surrender is the decision to trust Jesus as Savior and Lord one time and then every day.
SPEAKER_01: But training is learning to live under his leadership.
SPEAKER_01: To train means that we reorder our lives around Jesus and practice his way in everyday life.
SPEAKER_01: Many of us are trying to follow Jesus in moments for which we've never trained.
SPEAKER_01: We try to stay calm when anger is already boiling over.
SPEAKER_01: We try to trust God when fear has already taken control.
SPEAKER_01: We try to resist temptation when desire is already overwhelming.
SPEAKER_01: And then we fail, and then we conclude that change is impossible.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus invites us to reorder our ordinary lives around his way before the challenging moment arrives.
SPEAKER_01: And this training includes daily habits that help us build new patterns of living through repeated practice.
SPEAKER_01: And we, as a church, want to help you develop habits like this, like reading scripture, like praying and confessing and practicing generosity and extending forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: And we're also exploring ways of how we can help you see your body as an inseparable part of your spiritual lives.
SPEAKER_01: We want to do more as a church where we're including thinking about diet and exercise as a part of being human on mission with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Because training in all of these areas is very much how you experience the peace of life of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, I've got a little gift for you that kind of shares this idea.
SPEAKER_01: We have t-shirts on the table in the atrium.
SPEAKER_01: Afterwards, I see some of you already picked one up.
SPEAKER_01: So here's a little t-shirt.
SPEAKER_01: Very simple.
SPEAKER_01: That's our logo.
SPEAKER_01: And on the back it says training body and soul neartown church.
SPEAKER_01: Because we want you to under.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Tim.
SPEAKER_01: See you back there, Tam.
SPEAKER_01: Tam is a coach at F-45, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: If you're like convicted about the moment of taking care of your body, she would love to talk to you after the service.
SPEAKER_01: And do I get some sort of cut rate on my next bill?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, all right.
SPEAKER_01: We want to help you train.
SPEAKER_01: And to be clear, training does not earn God's grace.
SPEAKER_01: It makes us available to what the Spirit is already wanting to do.
SPEAKER_01: And training is not trying harder to make ourselves better, it's us participating with the Holy Spirit because we already belong to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And this kind of transformation happens when we follow Jesus again and again in the ordinary circumstances of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Repeated practice.
SPEAKER_01: This is how we think about this movement.
SPEAKER_01: And this is why training is one of the ongoing movements of discipleship.
SPEAKER_01: So, question for you: Do you need to stop merely trying and begin training?
SPEAKER_01: Transformation is possible.
SPEAKER_01: And you get to choose to some things to do, and we're going to help you to choose some habits to do, to help you grow neurological relationships across.
SPEAKER_01: Fourth movement we see Jesus sends us to multiply.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says to them, I'm going to make you fishers for people.
SPEAKER_01: Which made sense to them.
SPEAKER_01: Like they spent their entire lives gathering fish from the sea, and Jesus now is saying, I'm going to train you to gather people into the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus doesn't train us only for our peace and maturity.
SPEAKER_01: He trains us so that through us other people can experience a peaceful life with Him.
SPEAKER_01: From the beginning, discipleship has an outward direction.
SPEAKER_01: These fishermen begin as recipients of Jesus' ministry and eventually they become participants in it.
SPEAKER_01: That is multiplication.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to illustrate this to you.
SPEAKER_01: Top of mind for me, my son Drive, who's sitting right over here, is 15 years old.
SPEAKER_01: He just recently got his driver's permit.
SPEAKER_01: He is the fourth of four of our kids that were teaching to drive.
SPEAKER_01: Makes me think back to when I was 16 years old or 15 and a half or so.
SPEAKER_01: And my dad was teaching me to drive.
SPEAKER_01: Any of you remember that far back when you learned to drive?
SPEAKER_01: You know nothing.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you sat in the car with your parents, whoever taught you to drive for all those years, not paying attention to anything.
SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden, you're the one that's getting to learn how to do the thing that you've benefited from from all these years.
SPEAKER_01: And so drive is right over here.
SPEAKER_01: He's at a place where we're teaching him everything.
SPEAKER_01: Like, that's a stoplight.
SPEAKER_01: That's a stop sign.
SPEAKER_01: There's a car coming in Houston.
SPEAKER_01: When the light turns green, you wait because somebody's running the red light.
SPEAKER_01: Am I right?
SPEAKER_01: You know, that's a homeless person, and they have the right-of-way all the time.
SPEAKER_01: So you just gotta like veer around.
SPEAKER_01: But don't roll down your window.
SPEAKER_01: And don't give them money price.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, why?
SPEAKER_01: You got$10 in your checking account.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway.
SPEAKER_01: So thinking back, my dad taught me to drive when he was when I was 16, and I have since Jeannie and I have taught our full kids to drive.
SPEAKER_01: That's multiplication.
SPEAKER_01: We're training them to do something that enables them to do something eventually.
SPEAKER_01: They will get to teach their kids how to drive.
SPEAKER_00: Well, my dad taught me not only how to drive, but my dad taught me how to read my Bible.
SPEAKER_00: I've gotten to teach my kids how to read the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus sends us to multiply.
SPEAKER_01: He's not just training us so we'll experience the peace of life with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He's training us so that we're enabled to help others experience their experience the peace of life with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the thing about multiplication: you don't have to stand on a stage to multiply Jesus to others.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need a title.
SPEAKER_01: You can notice a new person and help them belong.
SPEAKER_01: You can tell the story of surrendering your life to Christ and how you surrender daily to someone else.
SPEAKER_01: You can model for someone how you're training to become the person Christ wants you to become.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, and if you have a long history, like if you follow Jesus for a long time and you you've felt a sense of belonging and you've understood the beauty of surrendering, and you've been training, and it is time for you to multiply.
SPEAKER_01: It is time for you to share with somebody else.
SPEAKER_01: And there are so many opportunities in life of the church to do that, but it didn't have to be something we organize.
SPEAKER_01: And like you for yourself choose to lead a loop group or choose to lead a mentor group or find somebody that you can have conflict with that's not quite as far down the line.
SPEAKER_01: Like you get to multiply.
SPEAKER_01: There's somebody outside the church that doesn't have faith in Christ, like you get to multiply.
SPEAKER_01: This is what all of this is for.
SPEAKER_01: As Jesus trains us, we increasingly take responsibility for helping others.
SPEAKER_01: So the question for you is: is it time to help someone else follow Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: With all these things that we've just talked about, I want to return here for a moment to where we began.
SPEAKER_01: Like every system is designed to produce something.
SPEAKER_01: If belonging and surrender and training and multiply describe the movements of life of Jesus, I'd now want to just talk briefly about the environments where these movements that we're prioritizing operate.
SPEAKER_01: Gather, connect, serve.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just going to briefly talk about this.
SPEAKER_01: So we gather through Sunday morning worship and prayer nights.
SPEAKER_01: This is the place that we sing and pray and hear scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Gather sets direction.
SPEAKER_01: The second environment that we organize and we're staffed around is Connect.
SPEAKER_01: So Connect would be things like loot groups and mentor groups, intentional conversations, strengthening relationships, like we're organizing these things.
SPEAKER_01: It's loop groups, mentor groups, men's discipleship, women's discipleship.
SPEAKER_01: And our purpose in that is that connect facilitates transformation.
SPEAKER_01: And then we serve.
SPEAKER_01: We serve through Sunday teens and mission trips and serve days and ordinary opportunities to love our neighbors.
SPEAKER_01: Serve puts faith in motion.
SPEAKER_01: Now these environments cannot change us on their own.
SPEAKER_01: And simply being in the room in one of these environments isn't the same as truly wholeheartedly following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But they place us among people and opportunities through which Jesus trains us to live more fully in the life of peace with Him.
SPEAKER_01: So here's the question before us Which movement needs your attention?
SPEAKER_01: Which movement needs your attention?
SPEAKER_01: Do you need to belong by allowing yourself to be known?
SPEAKER_01: That's true of some of you.
SPEAKER_01: Like you've been visiting this church and you haven't quite met enough people or you haven't found your people in this church.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just encourage you.
SPEAKER_01: Like if you've been attending, you haven't filled out the connect card, that's a great first step.
SPEAKER_01: If you've been attending, fill out the connect card, and we've been reaching out to you and you've been ignoring us, then you can continue to do that.
SPEAKER_01: But you can also just get into a loot group.
SPEAKER_01: Like we want to help you.
SPEAKER_01: If you're in the lobby and I meet you and you're new, oftentimes I'll say, Do you know anybody here?
SPEAKER_01: If you know, I'll say, Let me introduce you to somebody here.
SPEAKER_01: Because we know that you need to find your people here.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Do you need to surrender something that you kept outside of his leadership?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe for you, it's time for you to surrender your life to Christ in salvation.
SPEAKER_01: And then when you do that, you let us know because we care about your growth and your discipleship.
SPEAKER_01: And then you let others know through the public act of baptism.
SPEAKER_01: That's where baptism lines up in all this.
SPEAKER_01: But for those of you that are followers of Christ, maybe you're holding something back.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's your future plans, or maybe it's this relationship with somebody that you want to marry, or maybe it's your finances.
SPEAKER_01: That's always really personal, right?
SPEAKER_01: When the preacher starts talking about our money, here's what I know about your money.
SPEAKER_01: That is the hardest thing to surrender.
SPEAKER_01: This is what Jesus talks about in money more than any other one thing in his teachings.
SPEAKER_01: So the money part of surrender is not what we want from you, it's what we want for you.
SPEAKER_01: What is that area though?
SPEAKER_01: Do you need to identify an area, a habit that you need to add to your daily practice and repeatedly try it?
SPEAKER_01: And if you fail, step back up, get encouragement, continue to grow in that one thing.
SPEAKER_01: Or is it time to help someone else follow Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Where are you?
SPEAKER_01: Which one of these four areas?
SPEAKER_01: That's the call to action.
SPEAKER_01: Identify which of these four areas you need to give some attention to and do it.
SPEAKER_01: And you and you might find yourself in more than one movement at the same time.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, you probably will.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to know that everything that we organize in our three environments we're organizing are going to hold in mind how we're helping people in each of these four places kind of address and focus on that thing.
SPEAKER_01: These are not steps you complete, they're movements you continually live in.
SPEAKER_01: And you might revisit these along the way.
SPEAKER_01: Even as I'm talking, I'm thinking to myself, okay, what area of my life do I need to fully surrender?
SPEAKER_01: Or where do I need myself in my own development?
SPEAKER_01: Where do I need to train that I need to haven't been given enough attention to?
SPEAKER_01: They're not steps you complete, they're movements you continually live in.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is still walking into ordinary lives and saying, follow me.
SPEAKER_01: He's still training ordinary people to help others follow him.
SPEAKER_01: The question is, will you respond?
SPEAKER_01: This is how life with Jesus works.
SPEAKER_01: We're not just gonna be about getting people on a run.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna be about making disciples.
SPEAKER_01: That's the kind of church this is.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the kind of church we will be.
SPEAKER_01: Will you think about and pray about these things with me?
SPEAKER_01: What did I hear?
SPEAKER_01: What must I do?
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
SPEAKER_00: What's a step of faith that you need to take next?
SPEAKER_01: Which of these four areas do you need to give attention to?
SPEAKER_01: What will you do about it?
SPEAKER_01: What did I hear?
SPEAKER_01: What must I do?
SPEAKER_01: Would you do this?
SPEAKER_01: Would you stand your feet?
SPEAKER_01: Maggie's monitor.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna invite Maggie forward.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna like this.
SPEAKER_01: Have this monitor we let these that are gonna be baptized share a little bit about the short.