Following Jesus

you may be seated tonight i was asked to teach on discipleship and so i plan on doing that i'm going to read from matthew chapter 4 starting with verse number 18. you can remain seated as we read this portion of scripture says and jesus walked by the sea of galilee and saw two brethren simon called peter and andrew his brother casting a net into the sea for they were fishers and he saith unto them follow me and i will make you fishers of men they straightway left their nets and followed him and going on from thence he saw two other brethren john james the son of zebedee and john his brother in a ship with zebedee their father mending their nets

and he called them and immediately let they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him and tonight i'll title this following jesus following jesus and tonight i want to look at what it means to be a disciple and how that intertwines with being a disciple maker first off let's look at what it means to be a disciple by examining the first disciples of jesus jesus chose 12 disciples 12 men to be his disciples these 12 men were different in many ways they had different talents they had different credentials they had different backgrounds peter was a fisherman and hold on just a second i'm not going to go through all 12 of them just a couple of them okay peter was a fisherman

and from the stories in the bible he seemed to be impulsive he seemed to be impatient but he did seem to be outgoing he was always speaking his mind and he loved jesus and became one of the most prominent leaders in the early church now kelly this is a i'm going to admit this to you here kelly and i have been watching this series called the chosen and peter's in there a lot and i don't know why she does this but every time peter comes on and says something or does something she says mike if you were like one of the disciples you were like peter and she isn't talking about the prominent leader there she's talking about the impulsive impatient

and outgoing part i take it as a compliment i don't know if she means it like that or not but i take it as a compliment thank you honey james and john were also fishermen and they were referred to as the sons of thunder now the bible doesn't tell us what the nickname means or where it comes from and this has led many to assume that it referred to their speech or temperaments or ambition we get a small glimpse of this in luke 9 and 54. i love this it says and as they encountered a city that was being unhospitable to them they asked jesus if they could call down fire from heaven like elijah

and burn them up so maybe that's where they got that sons of thunder i don't know but that is hilarious to me matthew also known as levi was a tax collector and uh one of the most reviled professions and first century judaism tax collectors were the most despised people in all of israel they were known for taking extra money to from the people of israel to pay off the romans and to pad their own pockets let me say this real quick i love that jesus chose him showing us that your background and who you use used to be does not disqualify you when it comes to being a disciple and if you're here today or you're watching it doesn't matter what your past says you are or what you've done in your past you are qualified

and called to be a disciple thomas perhaps better known as doubting thomas famously doubted the resurrection of jesus and told the disciples unless i see the nails marks in his hands and i'm putting my finger where the nails were put my hands into his side i will not believe but what i love most about these disciples is that they had different backgrounds they had different talents they had different abilities they were normal people though just like you and me they didn't always get along if you watch the chosen you'll realize that they didn't always get along they had a lot of questions but jesus saw something in them

and asked them to follow him i was thinking of all the different disciples in this church the different talents the different backgrounds different personalities i jotted a couple of those down i was first one that came to my mind was my buddy brian de long he i grew up with him my entire life that boy can build anything you give him some tools and tell him what you want and i promise you it will be built secondly i thought of my friend and cousin adam dennis he has an incredible memory i asked him a question about history and he probably will have an answer is jared in here he's not all right somebody's gonna have to tell him jared arnold this isn't his only talent

but jared arnold is the go-getter there he is he's looking through the window talking about you jared you give that that man right there a task and i promise you he will get it done javen my brother i despise him no i'm just kidding i love him he's a musician you put any instrument in that boy's hand and give him just a few minutes and he'll he is able to play just about any instrument there is brother reaver he's an aggravator i mean i i didn't write that down i didn't write that down he's a great teacher and service leader you are and i've told bradley that when i grow up i want to teach

and lead service like this man does he's a history buff he knows everybody's birthday i don't know how in the world he knows birthdays like he does facebook helps him i think but not always he's a professional artist he's drawing right now something i don't know so many more talents that i'm going to stop right there before i get myself in trouble lastly our pastor he's a leader of leaders that's why he leads this church he's an incredible preacher outstanding teacher and a wise counselor i think that it's so neat that none of these that i've mentioned are exactly the same just like those 12 disciples yet jesus looks at us

and he asks all of us no matter what ability we have he asked us to follow him another thing that i love about the disciples is that they were real the soldiers are coming to jesus and they're trying to take jesus into custody and you got you got old peter peter he grabs a sword and he runs after that soldier and he slices his ear off i mean you can't get any more human than that james and john i mentioned this earlier they asked they literally asked jesus should we call down fire from heaven like elijah did and consume these people and jesus said what is going on with your heart i mean they were human beings these disciples that jesus chose were ordinary people like us

but they were not just ordinary people they were ordinary people called to do extraordinary things why i asked today did jesus choose them they were not chosen at random he intentionally chose them and what was jesus looking for in a disciple i probably won't be able to hit every one of those points but i think first and foremost he was looking for someone to follow him the invitation to follow jesus did not come without sacrifice in order to become a disciple in order to follow jesus you must be willing to give everything up you must be willing to sacrifice and you must be willing to look at the bigger picture we find in mark 10 that jesus gives the invitation to a man to follow him

and this man asked jesus what do i need to do to inherit eternal life and and jesus begins to tell him quote the commandments the ten commandments and that man is smiling and he's happy and he's excited because he said i have done all of those things but in mark chapter 10 and verse 21 jesus says one thing that thou lackest go thy way sell whatever you have and give it to the poor jesus is talking about sacrifice right there because when you are called to follow jesus when you become a disciple of jesus christ you will be required to sacrifice something jesus said you will have treasure in heaven if you give to the poor you're going to have treasure in heaven come

and take up your cross and follow me the bible says he was sad at that saying and went away greed for he had great possessions i think that jesus was making a very valid and direct point that day that if you're going to follow me and if you're going to be my disciples you're going to have to learn what sacrifice is get rid of the things that mean so much to you and take up the cross and follow me by the story it seemed that this man was probably a faithful church-goer he obeyed the scripture but he cared more for the world than he did for the kingdom of god if he would have made the choice to follow jesus he would have been building god's kingdom

but in fact he chose to build his own kingdom his own kingdom was more important than god's kingdom he wasn't willing to sacrifice there was no commitment to the kingdom there was nothing that drove him to be more than just a saint on a pew i want you just to to ask yourself the question what am i doing to sacrifice for the kingdom of god think about that just for a second what commitments am i making to make the kingdom of god my priority rather than seeing my own kingdom flourish you see when jesus asked us to sacrifice that sacrifice is totally different for each one of us i mentioned we all have different abilities

and different talents and and all different personalities and all kinds of different things going on so the sacrifice probably won't be the same but mark it down if you become a disciple of jesus christ if you are going to become a follower of jesus christ you will have to sacrifice some things you know you'll you'll have to give up some things and you will be inconvenienced and i'm not trying to discourage you from being a follower of jesus christ but you will be uncomfortable when jesus went to those 12 disciples and and he asked them to follow me they gave up a lot their livelihood their families that were there with them they gave up quite a bit to sacrifice to follow jesus however building the kingdom of god was more important to them than building their own kingdom these men were willing to follow him

and they were willing to sacrifice their personal wants and desires to see the kingdom grow to be a disciple is to follow jesus every day through every season for all of your life you see disciples they don't retire disciples don't retire they're always following jesus they're always growing in their experience they're always working in fact if you look at most of these disciples they worked and and and did kingdom work until they were executed till they were killed but they never stopped they kept on working yeah they encountered some hard times but they kept walking with jesus they kept following and they kept working we too are faced with difficult situations we will

and have encountered some hard times but it is important that we keep on following jesus when things get hard and when things get tough that's not the time to say well i'm not going to follow him anymore but when they get tough and when they get hard it's time for us to get a little bit closer to him and follow him every step of the way you know what i love about that word follow it means that i am not going it alone there is someone that is leading me and because we choose to follow jesus there is safety and security in him now if i had people following me if i was leading i'd be a little nervous if i was doing that on my own trying to work out this situation

and figure out this situation and counsel in this situation but i don't have to do that because i'm following him and as long as i'm following him and doing what he says and walking after him then the ones behind me are going to be o-k the one quality that jesus found in these disciples is that they were willing to follow no matter what and they had a desire to build the kingdom of god remember back to when you first put your trust in god when you felt him calling you when when no longer was your relationship with him just mundane it wasn't just i'm going to come on wednesday night

and sunday night but you really felt like god was speaking and working in your life that was your follow me moment that was when you first accepted that invitation to discipleship now we are all at different places in discipleship and as being disciples some of us are are seasoned and have been doing this a long time and some of us are new and just beginning to learn what the call means but as you follow jesus no matter what season you're in you will always be put in a position to grow you will always be put in a position to grow as those 12 disciples went from town to town and city to city

and and saw all the different things they asked a lot of questions questions are all right they asked a lot of questions they got some bad attitudes they wanted to call down fire from heaven but during that entire process jesus was growing them and growing them and growing them and they kept following after him and they kept growing the disciples are following jesus wherever he goes he's teaching them and develop developing them and growing them to become the leaders that he needs them to be and he's preaching the beatitudes he's preaching about salt and light and how to deal with anger and and divorce he is preaching about loving your enemies

and giving to the needy he's teaching them about fasting and about prayer and about laying up your treasure in heaven he's talking to them about judging others and faith and how to treat your neighbor and building your house upon the rock he's teaching them and parables and he's leading them by example and once he has grown them once they are are as they're following him and they're growing once he has poured into them he commissions them to go and make disciples go and make disciples notice that the call begins as a call to follow he first calls us to follow him but he doesn't stop there not once does he stop there we don't just stop at following jesus we've got to keep following him

but there is some extra weight there's an extra job to do as we are following him and as he's pouring into us and as he's growing us then he commissions us to lead others as we learn to follow jesus as we begin to naturally lead others to him this is discipleship i'll reference a few things from the book follow to lead by brother stan gleason if you haven't read that book you need to pick it up and read it it's a phenomenal book so the disciples maker's attitude says there you are rather than here i am when he or she walks into a room and that is the attitude that jesus portrayed in his ministry he never walked into the street here i am

now they heard about him they came to him but he was always it seemed like always on a mission to go and to find somebody he was always looking for somebody there you are lame man there you are blind man there's the one that has a demon possession he was always going after someone wasn't coming into town saying jesus of nazareth is here too many christians think that because they can't speak in front of groups or because they don't have leadership gifts that they can't be a disciple maker and that is just not the truth jesus has called all of us to be disciple makers and here's the reason why god's spirit enables us to approach

and be approached by people that are searching for god and we should always be relying on the spirit of god to help us and to lead us we must have the spirit of god leading us remember we're following him we're following him he's leading us and he will lead us to people and he will lead people to us if we're praying and asking him to do that when you talk with a worker who's going through a painful season in their life and you they ask you to pray that's a form of discipleship many of you have had this happen where you've been at the job and somebody comes to you

and and asks you to pray for this situation or for that situation or they need healing in this area that is a form of discipleship why because they see that you are following jesus if they didn't see that they wouldn't come to you but they see that you have a relationship with him that you are following him and they come and approach you to help them when you show kindness to a stranger at the store that's a form of following jesus and discipleship when you choose the path of forgiveness instead of retaliation that is following jesus that's what he would do when you allow the fruit of the spirit to operate in your life it will naturally begin to flow out

and affect every single person around you why because it's attractive it's the opposite of what the world teaches and when people see that they understand that you are following jesus the world teaches that if you get cut off in traffic you speed up and you let them know how you feel there's a lot of laughing going on here pastor but being a disciple a follower of jesus teaches you to be slow to anger we're all learning right when we grow as disciples we reflect jesus to this world as we are following jesus we are reflecting what he is and his attributes and his fruits are discipleship i wrote this down two different ways

and it doesn't make sense discipleship is easy yet it's not easy discipleship is easy because it's what we're called to do but discipleship involves us working and doing discipleship isn't just teaching somebody a bible study that very day that you met them that happens thank god for it great but hopefully it will grow into that it's helping people discipleship is helping people it's mentoring people it's praying for people it's being a friend of people it's making an effort uh to help people it's focusing on people i think that i think brother gleason addressed that in his book the difference between soul winning and discipleship and soul winning is is trying to win that soul

and i do agree that we are trying to do that but a lot of times it takes discipleship first it takes us building a relationship with that person and helping that person and that person realizing that we love them and care for them and then it develops into them being saved probably every christian has heard matthew 28 19 and they identified as the great commission of the church go ye therefore and teach all nations did jesus think that his small band of followers could achieve what he tasked them to do to reach every nation even the most remote regions of the world it would be impossible for this small group of believers to reach every nation there's no way that they could travel to every region of the world

and preach the gospel but each disciple did have a responsibility and that responsibility was to make a disciple and their disciple was to make a disciple and their disciple was to make a disciple do you see that snowball effect as you're making a disciple and they're making a disciple and they're making a disciple it reaches more people than than we could ever reach because each one of them are making a disciple can you see the growth and the effect and the reach of this model making disciples the great commission was not just for the 12 or the but it was for the church and it is for every believer and every disciple of jesus christ jesus did not intend for his command to go

and make disciples of all nations to be fulfilled by just the fivefold ministry this was a commission for every believer to embrace it intrigues me that in jesus first conversation with his soon-to-be disciples that he doesn't talk to them about healing the sick or raising the dead or casting out demons he doesn't talk to them about the power and the authority that he's going to give them as they continue to follow him and continue to grow in him he said follow me and you're going to be fishers of men he said follow me and i'm going to make you disciple makers come and be my disciples and i'm going to make you disciple makers that is how important discipleship is to jesus if the power

and authority was that important to him he would have said that i believe in the beginning but he said go and make disciples i'm going to make you fishers of men jesus was establishing early on that if you're going to be a disciple you're going to reach people if you're going to be a disciple you've got to love people if you're going to be a disciple you are going to be in the people business brother gleason said this in his book we must not put all of our ministry eggs in one basket called sunday to acts 2 and 47 the lord added to the church daily those who were being saved there is only one possible explanation for why they were able to enjoy daily conversions a few verses earlier it says

so continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house the lord could add daily to the church because the first century church was a daily church here in the apostolic pentecostal church the church in 2021 must be a daily church we must be a daily church now don't get me wrong i love i love to come to church on wednesdays and sundays i i think i love it even more now because of covet and what we went through is anybody happy to be in the house of god i love to worship with you i i love and enjoy teaching and preaching i i enjoy praying in the altars with fellow believers

and guests but if we're going to be the apostolic church that jesus intended if we're going to be disciples and disciple makers we are going to have to get outside of these four walls and follow the example that jesus left us i i thought about this earlier today jesus could have went to the temple and he could have taught that that could have been where his ministry was i guess if he really wanted to he was jesus he spent very little time there but his time was spent in the highways and the byways on this road and on that road we've got disciples we're going to that city today we're going to go to that city today there's somebody that needs me in that city today jesus was going his his ministry was outside of the four walls

and he was looking for people when he got there he was looking for people when he got there you know our we have a great connect team we have about 35 people that are on that connect team and uh i think i believe that we've done a pretty good job over the last couple years of connecting with our guests that that's what our goal was is to be more guest oriented to look for them and watch for them and help them in any way that we could and i'm thankful for the guests that we have and we have several guests that come usually to each service or at least weekly

but just those guests walking in our doors is not enough i i'm thankful to god that they're coming we're praying we're going around this community and we're praying in this neighborhood we're praying that people would feel something from this church and that they would walk in those doors and i thank god for that me and me and brother brad were talking about this two weeks ago thank god for the people that just see our building and walk in here thank god for drawing them but last wednesday we had a young man that walked in our door and it wasn't because he saw the building it was because a disciple and this church invited him two different times at walmart on telegraph to come to the church

and as he was walking by he said i think i'll stop in there and see what that's all about that's disciple making that's getting outside of the four walls what happens monday through saturday is just as important as what happens here on sundays if we're not doing what we have been called and commissioned to do the other days of the week then sunday has a different purpose sunday becomes a it can become a pep rally for the saved rather than a transformation day for sinners now i'm thankful for the word that we hear and we need that i think you know where i'm going with this we need that but we need people here feeling the power of god

and having their lives changed and turned around i'm going to get a little bold here and pastor yank my tail coat here if a coattail if he wants to but i would like a visitor every single service i want to see people that are hungry and that are hurting and that that are looking for something to fill the void and the emptiness inside of their heart i would like to see those people every single service in this church and hear me somebody we can't just rely on people seeing the church as they drive by on the highway and walking in no we've got to do what jesus taught his disciples

and we've got to go outside the four walls of the church and bring people here discipleship and i'm hearing discipleship is more than just a ministry at a local church it's discipleship is a must for every believer believer whether you are a leader of a ministry involved in a ministry or not involved at all in a ministry discipleship can and should be incorporated into your daily life in the beginning as jesus is calling his disciples to follow him the first thing he speaks of is discipleship he says follow me first thing he says to him follow me and i will make you fishers of men after he died resurrected and he is ascending into the clouds the last thing that he speaks to them is about discipleship the first thing he said to them was about discipleship

and the last thing he said to them was about discipleship matthew mark and luke he says go and preach the gospel go and teach all nations repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations wow that blew me away his first conversation to his new disciples is that we're going to go and make disciples and then his last conversation with them is here's your commission here's your commission disciple here's your commission church it's time to go and make disciples now it was a little bit different because in mark of course he he tells of the power and the authority that he's giving them to work

and move in ministry he didn't tell them that in the beginning maybe he wanted to see if they were going to follow him but as they followed him as they walked after him as they trusted in him as they began to grow and as he began to pour into them once he died and ascended into heaven he said now it's time for you to go and make disciples would you stand with me that lets me know that being a disciple and a disciple maker was of the utmost importance to jesus i recently recently listened to a message and the preacher said that the harvest is ready and ripe and there is an urgency to reap the harvest why while it's ripe i'll tell you what something stirred my spirit when he said that something got a hold of me when he

now i've heard that preached my whole life i've preached from that portion of scripture time and time again but as this man of god began to talk about the harvest and how it's ripe and how it's ready things begin to to come to my mind and when the the plant is ripe it's at the right stage to be harvested i was thinking a little bit about the different crops and and beans if you harvest them too early or too late they become hard and they're not profitable and corn if you if you wait too long to harvest corn they become tough and woody and unfit if you wait too late it's tough

and it's starchy so what's very very important to reap the harvest when it is ripe i feel the holy ghost in this place right now pastor has already given us a vision and our leader who we're following he's following jesus we're following him and jesus but but as pastor has given this vision about our field and about our community and our neighborhoods and and the people around us i feel that that harvest is ripe and it's ready i said pray that the lord will send laborers to the harvest field listen to me apostolic pentecostal church that's you and i when we're praying lord send laborers that's you and i saying god we're open

and we're ready to do whatever we can do we need to be the disciple to follow him but we've got to be disciple makers it's important to harvest while it's right i wonder right now i feel the holy ghost in this place would you lift your hands right now and would you just make yourself available to him lord lord give us a passion give us a desire to reach our lost world in this lost community god give us a desire to work while it is light to give us this desire to to reap the harvest that you have oh god stir us stir our hearts god make us ready give us boldness in the holy ghost to go where you've called us to do

and to do what you've called us to do give us boldness in the holy ghost to speak what you've called us to speak and say help us god help us help us we want to be we want to work for you hallelujah i think i think what an opportunity and what a privilege to be called a disciple of jesus christ what an opportunity and a privilege to work for the kingdom of god and see the kingdom of god grow would you as we're closing this service would you lift your hands right now would you thank him for that opportunity that he has given us thank you lord thank you god for calling us to follow you thank you god for the opportunity hallelujah let's just tear in his presence a little bit tonight he's here he's talking to us right now lord hallelujah