Kelly Kinder: Good morning, Trinity.
Kelly Kinder: It's good to see you this morning.
Kelly Kinder: And uh, you know, my sermon is a little long, it'll take a little time.
Kelly Kinder: So sit back, relax, splash a little water on your face, or poke your neighbor.
Kelly Kinder: Now we'll get we'll get to that in a minute.
Kelly Kinder: Uh, I do have a question to begin uh today, this this morning, and uh the question is this um what if you were a Christian all your life, and yet you never did the one thing that Jesus asked us to do?
Kelly Kinder: Think about that.
Kelly Kinder: You never did the one thing that Jesus asked you to do.
Kelly Kinder: You know, last things, our last words seem to be pretty important, and Jesus' last words to us in Matthew 28 were as you're going, make disciples.
Kelly Kinder: As you're going, make disciples.
Kelly Kinder: So make sure we kind of get that really clear.
Kelly Kinder: He's not saying, are you going?
Kelly Kinder: Will you make disciples?
Kelly Kinder: It's it's a command, it's not optional for us.
Kelly Kinder: It's not a question, it's it's a command.
Kelly Kinder: As you're going, make disciples.
Kelly Kinder: And so the question we've been in this series, just a third week, uh, called Discipleship Matters.
Kelly Kinder: And uh there's the question, does discipleship matter?
Kelly Kinder: And I want to tell you a few reasons why it should, uh, because we've watched as our world has changed.
Kelly Kinder: We've watched as the church has been consumed by the world and compromised with the world, what's going on with the world system, and it's gotten into the church.
Kelly Kinder: We've watched as a generation of young people have thrown away their faith and have rejected the gospel.
Kelly Kinder: We've watched as Islam has made inroads and actually, especially in the UK, has become mainstream and it's now becoming common in our country.
Kelly Kinder: And we've watched as socialism has taken hold, it's taken root in our country.
Kelly Kinder: And whatever you think about socialism, socialism is anti-God.
Kelly Kinder: And it's a philosophy that is not compatible with Christianity.
Kelly Kinder: You know, when in 2020, a national study was done on disciple making in U.S.
Kelly Kinder: churches, and you know what?
Kelly Kinder: Found it found that fewer than 5%, fewer than 5% have a reproducing disciple-making ministry, disciple-making culture is what we call it.
Kelly Kinder: That astounding.
Kelly Kinder: So we're in a series, as I say, and then uh this has kind of put us on a course for this year.
Kelly Kinder: And this series called Discipleship Matters, and the whole focus is to help us to kind of get this one thing that Jesus has called us to do in mind and to begin to actually do it.
Kelly Kinder: Each one of us.
Kelly Kinder: We just kind of framed this series of messages around what I would just call Jesus' method of discipleship.
Kelly Kinder: And I put these up and they're just basically a four-stage.
Kelly Kinder: It's very simple.
Kelly Kinder: The first one was come and see.
Kelly Kinder: And Neil took us through a uh uh several scriptures showing us really how following a godly example and how how we're looking at what is a disciple and what does it mean to us?
Kelly Kinder: Do we do we know what a disciple really is?
Kelly Kinder: And what could happen if each one of us took on that task and we passed it on?
Kelly Kinder: The growth would be incredible.
Kelly Kinder: Tyler picked up last week with the words follow me, and he took it a step further.
Kelly Kinder: What it would be if we began to imitate Jesus as he lived this life and showed us all the things that he is for us.
Kelly Kinder: It's critical for us to understand and that we model Jesus as an example.
Kelly Kinder: To live and talk and think like Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: And then today I want to talk about this next one, which is be with me, be with me.
Kelly Kinder: And I think this may be the most critical aspect because it's it's almost like an intangible.
Kelly Kinder: Being with Christ does something that uh that we might not always see.
Kelly Kinder: It's subtle if we're with Christ.
Kelly Kinder: And I want us to look at this.
Kelly Kinder: We're gonna begin with Mark chapter 7 and uh or chapter 3 and read through verses 7 through 15.
Kelly Kinder: I want you to stand, I hate to get you back up, but stand up.
Kelly Kinder: I want us to honor the word of God this morning.
Kelly Kinder: Mark 3, 7 through 15.
Kelly Kinder: Says Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and right before this, he has been attacked by the religious people.
Kelly Kinder: And they put a put out a hit on him.
Kelly Kinder: They're ready to take Jesus out.
Kelly Kinder: And we come to this Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Edumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon.
Kelly Kinder: When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him, and he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him.
Kelly Kinder: For he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him.
Kelly Kinder: And whenever the unclean spirit saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, You are the Son of God.
Kelly Kinder: And he strictly ordered them not to make him known.
Kelly Kinder: And he went up on the mountain and he called to him those whom he desired.
Kelly Kinder: And they came to him, and he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.
Kelly Kinder: Let's pray.
Kelly Kinder: Father, we're thankful today that you are the word incarnate.
Kelly Kinder: Lord, you are the living word.
Kelly Kinder: And Lord, we pray that, uh, Holy Spirit, you would open up this word today, your written word to us.
Kelly Kinder: You would not only give us understanding, give us wisdom, but Lord, you would transform us to your image in every way you want to today.
Kelly Kinder: Have your way, Lord Jesus, as we work through this pastor today.
Kelly Kinder: In Jesus' name, amen.
Kelly Kinder: You can be seated.
Kelly Kinder: Almost uh, I guess 40 years ago, when I was just getting into high school, I was invited along with a group of my peers to join a small group of guys, about five or six, to talk and learn about Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: And um, this group was led by a college student by the name of Jim.
Kelly Kinder: And Jim, he spent lots of time with us.
Kelly Kinder: We met every week for three for three years, all through my high school years.
Kelly Kinder: And um, you know, the thing is, I don't remember a lot of what Jim taught.
Kelly Kinder: We did a lot of fun things.
Kelly Kinder: Some of them I can't even tell you what we did because they were so crazy.
Kelly Kinder: I'd be embarrassed by them because he was he was a fun guy.
Kelly Kinder: But you know what I remember most about Jim?
Kelly Kinder: That all through that year, those those years, he loved us really, really well.
Kelly Kinder: And looking back, and I just think about this, I marvel at how the Lord used that to change me.
Kelly Kinder: He put me on a path that changed my life.
Kelly Kinder: I wasn't really planning on sharing this, but if I had the picture, I'd show it to you.
Kelly Kinder: I have a picture when one of those groups we went one time and all the high school groups of this this type, there were a number of them in the in the high schools, uh, we went to a place in the mountains at a retreat place for a Christian uh gathering.
Kelly Kinder: And I have a picture, someone who took the picture, I don't even know who who it was, but they must have handed it to me.
Kelly Kinder: And there I sat on the wall by myself, looking down, and I didn't look real happy.
Kelly Kinder: You see, I didn't like myself very much.
Kelly Kinder: 16-year-old kid.
Kelly Kinder: I was a Christian, but something was wrong.
Kelly Kinder: I didn't know who I was in Christ.
Kelly Kinder: But after that three years, Jesus put me on a path that began to transform everything.
Kelly Kinder: And now 40 years or so later, uh, I don't think that way at all.
Kelly Kinder: I know who I am in Christ, and I know what gee who Jesus is, and it's made all the difference.
Kelly Kinder: So it moved me out of what I would say say nominal Christianity.
Kelly Kinder: I I was just kind of uh floating along, and now I have a passion and a love for Jesus that I never had.
Kelly Kinder: And Jesus can change every one of you in that same way.
Kelly Kinder: Well, our key verse this morning is in verse 14.
Kelly Kinder: And he appointed twelve that they might be with him.
Kelly Kinder: And when we look at Jesus' method of discipleship, we can probably kind of summarize and say, come and see, that's about invitation.
Kelly Kinder: It's almost like the idea of Jesus invited these men and uh and think of Nathaniel, that one of those first disciples, and Jesus says, I saw you before I got here.
Kelly Kinder: You were sitting under the fig tree, and Nathaniel is like blown away that this guy is more than whom he appears, who he appears to be.
Kelly Kinder: So invitation is about discovering who is Jesus really who he says he is?
Kelly Kinder: And then follow me, it's about imitation.
Kelly Kinder: And this is more, this is the outward, this is the practical side.
Kelly Kinder: As we follow Jesus, we begin to imitate and copy the things that he is and do the best we can to in and put those in things into our lives.
Kelly Kinder: And then be with me.
Kelly Kinder: I think of this as just about transformation.
Kelly Kinder: And this is not just, this is not outward, this is inside.
Kelly Kinder: This is an inside job.
Kelly Kinder: Jesus, you see, works not just outwardly and on our habits and character and things like that, but he works on the inside.
Kelly Kinder: He works in the heart.
Kelly Kinder: And see, when our hearts are changed, everything changes.
Kelly Kinder: Everything changes.
Kelly Kinder: I put a little diagram up here.
Kelly Kinder: I want you to kind of see, it kind of pictures this.
Kelly Kinder: This is about Jesus' ministry and sort of what what we might call circles of influence.
Kelly Kinder: Because Jesus had, as we read in our passage, so many people out there.
Kelly Kinder: His fame had spread far and wide.
Kelly Kinder: And uh if you want to look at those here, number one is the crowds.
Kelly Kinder: Number two, the circle of 72 disciples.
Kelly Kinder: Number three, circle of 12 disciples.
Kelly Kinder: Number four is a circle of three, and then the most inner circle is Jesus with his father.
Kelly Kinder: So this is this is more though than just physical proximity.
Kelly Kinder: You see, all these people were out to varying degrees of distance from Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: In fact, you could, if you wanted to put a note there outside of the crowds, these are the people who didn't believe in Jesus at all.
Kelly Kinder: In fact, they could have been his opponents.
Kelly Kinder: So this is the circle of Jesus' influence.
Kelly Kinder: And so we look at this and what it involves, it involves varying degrees of personal relationship where disciples, they really were to learn Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: Just that little to learn Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: And they were with him, as I said, to learn how to think, how to speak, how to act, how to live.
Kelly Kinder: And the purpose was, you see, for Jesus was for training them so that they could prepare to expand his kingdom.
Kelly Kinder: And it's really amazing that he left that task with so few people.
Kelly Kinder: And uh yet we see what it's become.
Kelly Kinder: So this is a privileged communion or fellowship with the Lord, and it would be essential for them to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth, which is which is what you just think of all the expansion of the kingdom that Jesus engendered there.
Kelly Kinder: So you'll notice here, I believe, that the closer you get to the interior of these circles, the more intimate and privileged the relationship became.
Kelly Kinder: The same will be true for you and me.
Kelly Kinder: The closer you are to the light, the better you'll be able to see.
Kelly Kinder: And contrary, the farther you are away from Jesus, the darker it will be for you and for me.
Kelly Kinder: When it comes to the 12, even these guys didn't all have the same intimacy with Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: You look through the gospels and you see that within that group there were some who were closer than others.
Kelly Kinder: And if we had time, we could go into a study about the 12.
Kelly Kinder: But so suffice it to say, not all even the 12 were at the same level of influence.
Kelly Kinder: But at circle number four, that's Jesus, or the circle of four was the three.
Kelly Kinder: These were, I guess you call the internal confidence of Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: These are those who had special privilege and access.
Kelly Kinder: And Jesus invited them into things that he didn't invite the rest of the disciples to.
Kelly Kinder: Time alone with prayer, uh, the transfiguration, and various other times.
Kelly Kinder: And so what Jesus is doing is letting them have an inside peek at what is going on, as Jesus has the most intimate relationship with his father.
Kelly Kinder: Overall, Jesus then made a distinction between the outsiders, which are we would say the crowd, and the insiders, those who say that they are his followers.
Kelly Kinder: And you know what?
Kelly Kinder: When you get on the inside, you get told things that nobody else does.
Kelly Kinder: Listen to this verse in Matthew 13.
Kelly Kinder: He says, Jesus talking to you, it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
Kelly Kinder: And so when we get closer to Jesus, Jesus reveals things to you the closer you get that you would not know had you not been with him.
Kelly Kinder: So let's look now at our text and what this third aspect of Jesus' method of discipleship entails.
Kelly Kinder: Mark chapter 3, verses 13 and 14.
Kelly Kinder: Let's just work through this a little bit.
Kelly Kinder: Verse 13 says, And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired.
Kelly Kinder: Let's stop right there.
Kelly Kinder: The Greek language is really emphatic here, and it's more like he summoned those he wanted.
Kelly Kinder: He summoned those he willed, in fact.
Kelly Kinder: See, disciples, as disciples, we don't just get to decide to follow Jesus and sort of, I'm doing Jesus a favor by being his followers.
Kelly Kinder: Nor do we get to decide on what terms we are his disciple.
Kelly Kinder: He gets to decide that.
Kelly Kinder: And he wills us to himself and he calls the shots.
Kelly Kinder: I'm reminded of what Jesus said to Peter following Peter's public denial of Jesus, and Jesus is restoring people after Peter, after Peter had denied the Lord.
Kelly Kinder: And Jesus says to Peter, Truly, truly I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted.
Kelly Kinder: But when you were old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.
Kelly Kinder: This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.
Kelly Kinder: And after saying this, he said to him, Follow me.
Kelly Kinder: Follow me.
Kelly Kinder: And that's what he says to us.
Kelly Kinder: Now notice what he says next.
Kelly Kinder: Verse 13 again.
Kelly Kinder: And they came to him.
Kelly Kinder: They came to him.
Kelly Kinder: Normally, in that day, disciples would go out and find a rabbi to follow around and attach themselves to the rabbi to get the rabbi to teach them the Torah, the first five books of the Moses.
Kelly Kinder: But Jesus turns that all the way around.
Kelly Kinder: Jesus goes after the disciples.
Kelly Kinder: Not to teach them the Torah, but to learn him, because he is the word incarnate.
Kelly Kinder: If they had Jesus, that was what they needed.
Kelly Kinder: And so he seeks out these disciples to learn him.
Kelly Kinder: And then verse 14 says, He appointed 12 so that they might be with him.
Kelly Kinder: The key phrase.
Kelly Kinder: So that they might be with him.
Kelly Kinder: He appointed 12.
Kelly Kinder: Most versions read, he appointed 12.
Kelly Kinder: And I'd say probably your Bible reads like that.
Kelly Kinder: But you know what the Greek actually says?
Kelly Kinder: It says, He made them.
Kelly Kinder: He made 12.
Kelly Kinder: Consider that for a minute.
Kelly Kinder: To appoint means you select out of a group and you raise them to a new status, right?
Kelly Kinder: This is not what Jesus did.
Kelly Kinder: To make is to bring something into existence that wasn't there.
Kelly Kinder: Mark's verb epoeson here is the same verb that was used in Genesis 1, chapter 1.
Kelly Kinder: God made the heavens and the earth.
Kelly Kinder: Isn't that amazing?
Kelly Kinder: And so Jesus is making something.
Kelly Kinder: He's making men who follow him.
Kelly Kinder: He's making and forming these men to look like him.
Kelly Kinder: So I would say, discipleship in some senses is not so much taught as it is caught.
Kelly Kinder: Now I'm not minimizing the value of biblical teaching.
Kelly Kinder: The church needs to teach, it must teach.
Kelly Kinder: But and I that's why I brought this book.
Kelly Kinder: This is not the sermon.
Kelly Kinder: This is a book called Systematic Theology.
Kelly Kinder: Sick book, isn't it?
Kelly Kinder: Wayne Grudom's book, and it's a great book.
Kelly Kinder: It has all kinds of truth in it.
Kelly Kinder: But you know, I can I can learn everything in this book and know all about the God whom I serve.
Kelly Kinder: About the Jesus I serve and love.
Kelly Kinder: But not even know him.
Kelly Kinder: And so knowledge won't alone won't get you there.
Kelly Kinder: We have to have relationship.
Kelly Kinder: Life on life.
Kelly Kinder: The transfer of Jesus' life to our life is what matters.
Kelly Kinder: And if that's not occurring, something's wrong.
Kelly Kinder: You can't just fill your head with knowledge inspect to go to heaven.
Kelly Kinder: So here's the point.
Kelly Kinder: Christians who spent time with Jesus have the power to change the world.
Kelly Kinder: Christians who have spent time with Jesus have the power to change the world.
Kelly Kinder: You know why I know that?
Kelly Kinder: It's because you see it all through the New Testament, and you see it in people whose lives have been changed.
Kelly Kinder: James Edward writes the simple prepositional phrase to be.
Kelly Kinder: With him has atomic significance in the Gospel of Mark.
Kelly Kinder: Discipleship is a relationship before it is a task, a who before a what.
Kelly Kinder: Being with Jesus becomes the way of forsaking human idols and honoring the true God, thus recovering the image of God.
Kelly Kinder: To be with Jesus is the most profound mystery of discipleship.
Kelly Kinder: And why is it a mystery?
Kelly Kinder: Because I look back at my life and I go, okay, somebody asked me, tell you, you want me to tell you how this happened?
Kelly Kinder: I don't know.
Kelly Kinder: I mean, I know what I did.
Kelly Kinder: I got in the Bible, I read the Word, I spent time with Christian people who had like minds as I do, and all the things.
Kelly Kinder: But you know what?
Kelly Kinder: Jesus is the one that changed me.
Kelly Kinder: And I look back and I go, how in the world?
Kelly Kinder: I don't think like that anymore.
Kelly Kinder: I don't operate or live like that.
Kelly Kinder: Everything is just different.
Kelly Kinder: And if you're here this morning wondering if God can change you, well, get closer to him.
Kelly Kinder: Come closer to him.
Kelly Kinder: In the gospel, Jesus, and I think I want to just give you two significant pictures in the gospel.
Kelly Kinder: Jesus gave us two really important pictures.
Kelly Kinder: You know, they say, as they say, a picture's worth a thousand words.
Kelly Kinder: Well, let me give you two pictures.
Kelly Kinder: The first one is the yoke metaphor.
Kelly Kinder: The yoke metaphor.
Kelly Kinder: And what is Jesus talking about?
Kelly Kinder: He says, learn of me.
Kelly Kinder: I think one of the things that being with Jesus means is that we do learn of him.
Kelly Kinder: He is our teacher.
Kelly Kinder: And then now, as it says, the Holy Spirit is our teacher.
Kelly Kinder: Matthew 11 says this: Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Kelly Kinder: For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Kelly Kinder: This comes right after the passage where the people who are out to get Jesus have Jesus even talks about they put heavy burdens on you that nobody, no, God didn't intend.
Kelly Kinder: These are religious people.
Kelly Kinder: Religion will crush you.
Kelly Kinder: Relationship will heal you.
Kelly Kinder: Who qualifies for this, this yoke?
Kelly Kinder: Well, it says in verse 27, those who are weary and heavy laden.
Kelly Kinder: Are you weary and heavy laden this morning?
Kelly Kinder: This is Jesus' promise to all of us.
Kelly Kinder: A yoke, you know what is that?
Kelly Kinder: A yoke is this heavy crossbar that's laid over the top of animals, the ox that forces them to drag farming equipment across a field.
Kelly Kinder: That's all that is.
Kelly Kinder: It's not as common we see in our nation or whatever, but you find it in other countries.
Kelly Kinder: Jesus is using this, though, kind of as irony, because he's saying that the yoke is actually, it's actually a way to stay together with him.
Kelly Kinder: So get the image here.
Kelly Kinder: So it's actually not what it appears to be.
Kelly Kinder: In fact, I like what uh Dane Ortland says in his book, Gentle Lowly, a great book if you've not read it.
Kelly Kinder: Uh, because what we say is being in a yoke sounds pretty awful.
Kelly Kinder: Who would want that?
Kelly Kinder: He says it's like telling a drowning man that he must put on the burden of a life preserver, only to hear him shout back, sputtering, no way, not me.
Kelly Kinder: This is hard enough.
Kelly Kinder: Drowning here in these stormy waters, the last thing I need is the added burden of a life preserver around my body.
Kelly Kinder: That's what we're all like, he says.
Kelly Kinder: Confessing Christ with our lips, but generally avoiding deep fellowship with him out of a muted understanding of his heart.
Kelly Kinder: I am gentle and humble of heart.
Kelly Kinder: And the question for this metaphor is, you know, and it's been discussed quite a bit, who is Jesus here in this picture?
Kelly Kinder: Is he the farmer who puts on the yoke and watches you go to it, or is he the ox paired with you to do what you're called to do?
Kelly Kinder: And I just believe Jesus has identified himself as an older, well-trained ox who we're to be yoked with so that we can learn from him.
Kelly Kinder: That's the idea.
Kelly Kinder: In fact, that technique is still used today.
Kelly Kinder: I read a little note that said yoking an untrained animal with a trained ox can be a very successful technique, as over time the young animal learns what it should do in the yoke by following the trained ox.
Kelly Kinder: So this is a neat picture.
Kelly Kinder: Keep this in mind as you're thinking about what it means to be with Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: And what do we learn?
Kelly Kinder: Well, several things.
Kelly Kinder: Number one, we learn that yoke with Christ, we learn how to shed our unchrist-like character.
Kelly Kinder: Tyler talked a little bit about that last week.
Kelly Kinder: We learn to shed our unchrist-like character.
Kelly Kinder: And I just think my mind is drawn back to James and John, two of Jesus' disciples, and they were nicknamed.
Kelly Kinder: Do you remember what the nickname was?
Kelly Kinder: Sons of Thunder.
Kelly Kinder: Not good.
Kelly Kinder: And on one occasion, their character was kind of revealed in Luke chapter 9 as they asked Jesus to call down fire from heaven on the Samaritan village for rejecting Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: And Jesus kind of kind of paraphrased, what in the world are you doing?
Kelly Kinder: You know, their character need to be changed.
Kelly Kinder: So yoke with Christ, we learn to shed our unchrist-like character.
Kelly Kinder: Number two, yoke with Christ, we learn how to grow our faith.
Kelly Kinder: Did you know that four times in the gospel, Jesus said to the disciples on different occasions, Oh, you of little faith.
Kelly Kinder: He's not diminishing them, he's making them aware of something.
Kelly Kinder: All of these had to do with something.
Kelly Kinder: Every one of those had to do with fear and doubt.
Kelly Kinder: Oh, you of little faith.
Kelly Kinder: Jesus would show them that God would always come through.
Kelly Kinder: Number three, what do we learn?
Kelly Kinder: Yoke with Christ, we learn how to love agape one another.
Kelly Kinder: You know what agape love is?
Kelly Kinder: Love that is like God.
Kelly Kinder: It's God's love that goes out of its way to seek the other person, to do what's best for the other person, even sometimes when it's when it's hard.
Kelly Kinder: Unconditional love.
Kelly Kinder: And I'm thinking about one particular woman one day who was caught in adultery, and there was a group of people around her, men who were ready to stone her, and she was right in the center, and Jesus walks up, and long story short, he he basically says, okay, whoever's not sinned, throw the first stone.
Kelly Kinder: And you hear stones dropping.
Kelly Kinder: And then she he looks at Jesus, he looks at the woman, he says, We're your accusers.
Kelly Kinder: This is Jesus' compassionate love toward us.
Kelly Kinder: Just like Mike shared this morning.
Kelly Kinder: He he has that love for every one of us.
Kelly Kinder: But it's sometimes tough love.
Kelly Kinder: He told the woman, go and sin no more.
Kelly Kinder: We learn how to love one another.
Kelly Kinder: Number four, yoke with Christ, we learn how to bear fruit that will last.
Kelly Kinder: Fruit that will last.
Kelly Kinder: And then number five, yoke with Christ, we learn to die to ourself.
Kelly Kinder: And I don't think there's probably any more great example than watching Jesus as he went to the cross on our behalf, taking our sin upon himself, burying our sin at the cross, and dying and giving us in return eternal life.
Kelly Kinder: That's the yoke metaphor.
Kelly Kinder: Learn of me.
Kelly Kinder: The second picture I want to give you beyond the yoke metaphor is the vine metaphor.
Kelly Kinder: Remain in me, remain in me.
Kelly Kinder: John 15, verse 4 says, Remain in me and I will remain in you.
Kelly Kinder: For a branch cannot bear fruit, produce fruit, that it is, if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.
Kelly Kinder: Your version may say, abide in me.
Kelly Kinder: I almost think that that always confused me.
Kelly Kinder: What does it mean to abide in Jesus?
Kelly Kinder: But you know, I can understand this.
Kelly Kinder: It means don't leave Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: Stay with him.
Kelly Kinder: Remain in him.
Kelly Kinder: And so you see of this, this is not a contract that we're in with Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: We think sometimes it's a duty to follow Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: It's not a duty, it's a privilege.
Kelly Kinder: It's it what it brings us is a tangible encounter with a living Lord.
Kelly Kinder: Jesus is alive.
Kelly Kinder: Let me give you some being with principles.
Kelly Kinder: Number one, what I would call the principle of identity.
Kelly Kinder: Based on this metaphor of the vine, he says, I am the vine, you are the branches, my father is the gardener.
Kelly Kinder: He's telling us who we are, who Jesus is, and who the Father is.
Kelly Kinder: Know God, know me, know yourself in relation to me.
Kelly Kinder: And I will tell you that many people in the church today deal with rejection and struggle with self-identity.
Kelly Kinder: They don't know who they are because they are not close to Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: You get close to Jesus, Jesus will tell you who you are.
Kelly Kinder: You're his wonderful creation.
Kelly Kinder: You are the one he died for.
Kelly Kinder: You're everything to him.
Kelly Kinder: Don't diminish who you are in Christ.
Kelly Kinder: So many other things.
Kelly Kinder: The principle of identity.
Kelly Kinder: The second thing we learned, being with principles, the principle of consistency.
Kelly Kinder: He says, not only, I am the vine, you're the branches, my father is a gardener, but he says, Remain in me.
Kelly Kinder: Remain in me.
Kelly Kinder: And I'm thinking back to that time in John chapter 6.
Kelly Kinder: And sometimes Jesus tells us to do things that we will that make us want to run away.
Kelly Kinder: All the time there are people who come into the church that get offended.
Kelly Kinder: They don't like the idea that Jesus is calling them to do this, or this might be the way.
Kelly Kinder: And that happened one time with Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: In John chapter 6, Jesus said something pretty hard to understand.
Kelly Kinder: One of the hard sayings of Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: They didn't get it because he was speaking at a different level.
Kelly Kinder: They heard it one way, but Jesus meant something else.
Kelly Kinder: But it says there, it says, after this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
Kelly Kinder: You wonder how many in that circle disappeared.
Kelly Kinder: So Jesus said to the twelve, Do you want to go away as well?
Kelly Kinder: Think about Jesus' heart right there.
Kelly Kinder: Are you going to leave me too?
Kelly Kinder: Simon Peter answered, Lord, to whom shall we go?
Kelly Kinder: You have the words of eternal life.
Kelly Kinder: You see, true discipleship involves faith beyond your mere intellect or your emotions.
Kelly Kinder: When you don't feel like following, that's that's that's some level that's irrelevant.
Kelly Kinder: It doesn't make sense to you.
Kelly Kinder: That's irrelevant.
Kelly Kinder: Stick with Jesus and it will become relevant.
Kelly Kinder: Stick with Jesus and your emotions will change.
Kelly Kinder: Our emotions are fickle.
Kelly Kinder: And so, like the crowd, the crowd is a fickle crowd in many occasions.
Kelly Kinder: And you see that by the end of Jesus' time on the earth, the crowd basically are the one that crucified him.
Kelly Kinder: So this is the principle of consistency, sticking with Jesus for the long haul.
Kelly Kinder: For the long haul.
Kelly Kinder: Not giving up, not quitting, not getting so tired that you give up and go away.
Kelly Kinder: And then number three, the principle of dependency.
Kelly Kinder: He says this.
Kelly Kinder: He says, apart from me, you can do lots of things.
Kelly Kinder: No.
Kelly Kinder: Apart from me, you can do nothing.
Kelly Kinder: Nothing.
Kelly Kinder: Nothing means zero.
Kelly Kinder: Nothing.
Kelly Kinder: Do you think of your life like that?
Kelly Kinder: Are you so dependent on Jesus that if you think if I do this, I can just think this through and I can make this work out.
Kelly Kinder: If I have the plan, I can work it.
Kelly Kinder: Work the plan, plan the work, and it'll all work out.
Kelly Kinder: Boy, that's just foolish.
Kelly Kinder: If you're a follower of Jesus, you better get close to Jesus and find out his plan.
Kelly Kinder: Apart from me, you can do nothing.
Kelly Kinder: John 4 makes me think of a story.
Kelly Kinder: Jesus, one of his signs in the Gospel of John.
Kelly Kinder: And you'll know the story.
Kelly Kinder: He goes to a wedding.
Kelly Kinder: Jesus goes to this wedding, they run out of wine, and Jesus says to the servants, fill the water pots with water.
Kelly Kinder: And then he does a miracle.
Kelly Kinder: He turns the water to wine.
Kelly Kinder: And there's only a few people that get to see that.
Kelly Kinder: The people at the wedding said, you've saved the best wine to the end.
Kelly Kinder: Boy, this is great stuff.
Kelly Kinder: You did what most people don't do.
Kelly Kinder: You saved the best to the last.
Kelly Kinder: You know what I think about that story is Jesus still turns water to wine.
Kelly Kinder: Jesus can transform what is normal and weak and nothing into something that is beautiful.
Kelly Kinder: He can change your life to turn it into something that you could never imagine.
Kelly Kinder: See, only here's the thing, that little story, Jesus' mother says, He says to the servants, whatever he tells you to do, do it.
Kelly Kinder: Whatever he tells you to do, do it.
Kelly Kinder: And there's see, there's only there's some things that that never happened unless we just are paying to the obedience of Jesus in everything.
Kelly Kinder: If you obey obey Jesus, doing what he says, by doing what he says, we do we we find out who he is.
Kelly Kinder: Even in the little things.
Kelly Kinder: By doing what he says, we find out who Jesus is.
Kelly Kinder: And our respect and admiration, admiration and love for him goes.
Kelly Kinder: Fourth principle, the principle of sufficiency.
Kelly Kinder: He says, you will bear fruit.
Kelly Kinder: And you know that story.
Kelly Kinder: The disciples were there in the gospel.
Kelly Kinder: Jesus fed a massive crowds twice.
Kelly Kinder: One time he fed 5,000, and then there again he fed 4,000.
Kelly Kinder: And then after that, it says that the disciples got in a boat and they wondered that they didn't have enough bread to eat.
Kelly Kinder: And Jesus kind of says, Why are you talking about this?
Kelly Kinder: In fact, let me read it for you.
Kelly Kinder: Mark 8, 19 through 20.
Kelly Kinder: When I broke the five loaves for the 5,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?
Kelly Kinder: They said, him twelve with big eyes.
Kelly Kinder: And they in the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?
Kelly Kinder: And they said to him, Seven.
Kelly Kinder: The blank stare on their face.
Kelly Kinder: And he said to them, Do you not yet understand?
Kelly Kinder: Understand what?
Kelly Kinder: The leftovers.
Kelly Kinder: Look at the leftovers.
Kelly Kinder: The leftovers were for the servers.
Kelly Kinder: In fact, for the first time, that first feeding, there were 12 servers and 12 basketfuls left over.
Kelly Kinder: Twelve disciples, 12 baskets.
Kelly Kinder: Do you kind of get, okay, can disciples, can you get this?
Kelly Kinder: The second time there were seven baskets full, and the number of absolute completion and abundance.
Kelly Kinder: What didn't they understand?
Kelly Kinder: That Jesus would always take care of them.
Kelly Kinder: Always.
Kelly Kinder: Why do you doubt?
Kelly Kinder: Well, let's move on.
Kelly Kinder: Because this picture of the yoke and the vine, they are pictures to keep in mind about how we can understand being with Jesus, what it comes to us to be like.
Kelly Kinder: And look at the outcome of this.
Kelly Kinder: The outcome is transformed transformed hearts and lives.
Kelly Kinder: You don't have to look far for that.
Kelly Kinder: Following Jesus' resurrection and ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit, we see these same disciples whose hearts have been remodeled.
Kelly Kinder: To use that word, remodeled.
Kelly Kinder: You ever had your house remodeled?
Kelly Kinder: Or you ever been in a house that has been remodeled?
Kelly Kinder: Remember that show?
Kelly Kinder: What was it?
Kelly Kinder: They would come on and tie Pennington would get on there and Extreme Makeover.
Kelly Kinder: Jesus does an extreme makeover.
Kelly Kinder: And then they would go like show you a horrible-looking house.
Kelly Kinder: And then at the end of the show, they they invite the owners back in and they open the doors.
Kelly Kinder: And it's like, is this my house?
Kelly Kinder: Jesus comes into our lives.
Kelly Kinder: And we look back and you and we go, is this my is this me?
Kelly Kinder: I mean, we're not perfect.
Kelly Kinder: But boy, we're changed.
Kelly Kinder: If you've never been changed, you haven't met Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: See, Jesus' plan for discipleship is profound in its simplicity and powerful in its effects.
Kelly Kinder: But only if, only if we are intentional about it.
Kelly Kinder: I mean, there's a lot of good things we can do in the church, but there's only one thing, only one thing that matters most.
Kelly Kinder: As you're going, make disciples.
Kelly Kinder: So we're talking about doing life together.
Kelly Kinder: Let me let me kind of give this, kind of bring this to uh conclusion here in just a moment.
Kelly Kinder: Here, life together.
Kelly Kinder: I think of this as being under the word at the table.
Kelly Kinder: Table is like at a meal or in the street.
Kelly Kinder: And as we're going, we might think this to be an overwhelming task, but it's all about our focus, you see.
Kelly Kinder: If we're focused on many things, we won't get anything done.
Kelly Kinder: It's like the difference between a light bulb and a laser beam.
Kelly Kinder: Jesus is calling us to be laser focused on making disciples.
Kelly Kinder: Remember, when Jesus began, he started with how many?
Kelly Kinder: One.
Kelly Kinder: Who in turn found one.
Kelly Kinder: Jesus found Andrew, then Andrew found Peter.
Kelly Kinder: Jesus found Philip, then Philip found Nathaniel.
Kelly Kinder: You get the idea?
Kelly Kinder: So let's just make this practical.
Kelly Kinder: And what I do here, I just want to show you something we call small circle.
Kelly Kinder: And it's just one way to kind of put feed to what we're talking about.
Kelly Kinder: And uh and look at this.
Kelly Kinder: Wanting to create a discipleship culture, you say, what is a discipleship culture?
Kelly Kinder: What is a disciple-making culture?
Kelly Kinder: And I just say it's the way we do things around here.
Kelly Kinder: Uh more specifically, it is the beliefs, behaviors, and conversations we have around here that reveal to us what matters most.
Kelly Kinder: What matters most to you when you come to church?
Kelly Kinder: Well, here we can talk about discipleship all day long.
Kelly Kinder: We're in our third week, but it if our mindset doesn't change, then the church won't ever do the most important thing that Jesus has called us to do.
Kelly Kinder: We'll be like the 95% that sat down and did nothing and wondered why things are the way they are, both in the world and in our own lives.
Kelly Kinder: So the small circle I'm going to show you is has some things going for it.
Kelly Kinder: Number one, it's simple.
Kelly Kinder: You don't have to know anything except how to read.
Kelly Kinder: Can you read?
Kelly Kinder: Simple.
Kelly Kinder: Takes little time.
Kelly Kinder: It doesn't take many, many uh minutes out of your week.
Kelly Kinder: It gets people into the scriptures.
Kelly Kinder: Remember, the word says it doesn't return void.
Kelly Kinder: Get people in the scriptures.
Kelly Kinder: You get into the scriptures.
Kelly Kinder: It achieves the purpose.
Kelly Kinder: It gets us all thinking, and this is critical, about reproducing.
Kelly Kinder: Reproducing.
Kelly Kinder: If it hasn't been passed on, it's not real discipleship.
Kelly Kinder: And it can be used with anyone.
Kelly Kinder: I mean, you could take this and you could you could get together with a group of people that don't even know him yet, and maybe bring them along.
Kelly Kinder: To all the way to mature believers.
Kelly Kinder: So let's let's see this real quickly.
Kelly Kinder: Uh you've got sheets, I think, on the back table that you can take with you today that has this information on it.
Kelly Kinder: They look like this.
Kelly Kinder: And uh we'll just go through this real quickly.
Kelly Kinder: I know we're we're uh kind of short on time here, but number one is it's just very simple.
Kelly Kinder: Invite one.
Kelly Kinder: Have you been praying like we've been talking to pray who your one might be?
Kelly Kinder: Invite one.
Kelly Kinder: Ask the Lord who that person might be.
Kelly Kinder: And then, secondly, invite your one to invite one.
Kelly Kinder: So you're gonna stick with a total of three people in your small circle, and you're gonna insist that that one person invites the third person.
Kelly Kinder: You're not gonna do it, you're gonna let them do it.
Kelly Kinder: This is the disciple-making component.
Kelly Kinder: And then number three, which here's what you're gonna commit to.
Kelly Kinder: Number one, read through the gospel.
Kelly Kinder: You're gonna take the gospel of Mark, you're gonna read through the gospel of Mark, one chapter every week.
Kelly Kinder: So if you look at Mark's gospel, how many chapters are there?
Kelly Kinder: There's 16 chapters.
Kelly Kinder: So this is 16 weeks.
Kelly Kinder: You're gonna read one chapter each week, daily if possible, just to immerse yourself in it.
Kelly Kinder: Then you're gonna write out a prayer.
Kelly Kinder: What did you see, and what how do I respond to you, God, based on what I just read this chapter this week?
Kelly Kinder: You're gonna identify one insight that you feel like God has shown you, that it was the most impacting.
Kelly Kinder: It could be from any of those verses in chapter one.
Kelly Kinder: And then you're gonna write down or document one practical way you could apply the passage.
Kelly Kinder: And here's what it gets interesting.
Kelly Kinder: That's for you.
Kelly Kinder: This is your personal time with the Lord.
Kelly Kinder: And at the end of the week, after you've been reading the whole chapter, in that first chapter, for example, in Mark, you're gonna participate in a 20-minute phone call or Zoom call with the other two people who have been doing the same thing.
Kelly Kinder: So, three out of the four weeks, let's say, if it was four week months, you're gonna share one insight, your application, you're gonna pray for each other when you get together.
Kelly Kinder: 20 minutes.
Kelly Kinder: So it doesn't take long.
Kelly Kinder: And then at the last week of the month, you're going to engage in a face-to-face.
Kelly Kinder: Might be a good thing, might be over a meal.
Kelly Kinder: And you're gonna share with each other what you've what you've discovered.
Kelly Kinder: Get to share life with each other, what's going on.
Kelly Kinder: It doesn't just have to be that.
Kelly Kinder: And then at the end of the 16 weeks, you're gonna do this again.
Kelly Kinder: That one person in your group is gonna go find one, and they're gonna ask them to find their one, and you're gonna start the process over again.
Kelly Kinder: Whole part that's so important to this is that you're gonna you're gonna get in your mind that it's not just about me, and it's not just about us, it's about the world out there that needs to know Jesus.
Kelly Kinder: This is Jesus' method.
Kelly Kinder: And my question is, we've tried everything else.
Kelly Kinder: Why don't we try what Jesus asked us to do?
Kelly Kinder: Very few churches are.
Kelly Kinder: So I don't want you to feel overwhelmed by this.
Kelly Kinder: We're gonna be talking about it more in the weeks to come, but this week, all you're all you need to do is go find your one.
Kelly Kinder: Pick up a sheet in the back, go find your one, and that's that's all for this week.
Kelly Kinder: So this is a, I think, a really practical way for us to get discipleship beginning to form into our church body, thinking about it.
Kelly Kinder: You know, the apostle Paul said when speaking to his son in the faith, Timothy, he said, I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice.
Kelly Kinder: And I know that same faith continues strong in you.
Kelly Kinder: This is why I remind you to fan into flame the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you.
Kelly Kinder: You see, there's four generations right there, passing on the faith, passing on the faith, passing on the faith.
Kelly Kinder: So let me ask you the question that I started with.
Kelly Kinder: What if you were a Christian all your life and you never did the one thing that Jesus asked you to do?
Kelly Kinder: See, Jesus offers this invitation to us today, draw near to me.
Kelly Kinder: And what?
Kelly Kinder: I will draw near to you.
Kelly Kinder: It's not conditioned on your being perfect, it's not conditioned on having it all together, but it's conditioned on your genuine desire to find and fellowship with Him.
Kelly Kinder: Amen.
Kelly Kinder: Yeah.
Kelly Kinder: So, Father, we're just grateful today for your word.
Kelly Kinder: We pray you would apply these truths to the lives of our people who hear this.
Kelly Kinder: Lord, make us disciple makers.
Kelly Kinder: Lord, we pray that your kingdom will come in this world we live in, Lord.
Kelly Kinder: We pray that all the things you want to happen will be done through your people who are with you and you're with them.
Kelly Kinder: You give us that promise, and we give you thanks for it.
Kelly Kinder: In Jesus' name.
Kelly Kinder: Amen.