Cornerstone – Week 77

Well, good morning, church. Good morning. If you don't have a Bible, we'd love to put one in your hand, so go ahead and raise your hand again, and we'll make sure you get one. And if you don't own a Bible, we'd love you to keep that and make it yours. A couple quick updates I just want to make before we dive into God's Word together. The first is that this summer we're going to do as we did last summer, and we're going to have summer together, first and second service.

We're going to do one service from July 5th through August 2nd, including those Sundays, Sunday, July 5th, and all the way through August 2nd. We're going to do 10:00 AM service. It'll be right here, so make a note of that for the future, and try to be early. That's all the advice I can give you. But it'll be great. It's going to be fun, and we'll all be together, and that'll be sweet. Also, just a quick update, our 10th anniversary weekend is coming up in the fall.

And so August 16th through August 23rd is our 10-year anniversary as a church. And so, I want you just to make a note of a couple dates. On Sunday, August 16th, we're going to spend some time Sunday morning looking back at the 10 years the Lord has allowed us to have the privilege to minister here in this community. And then on the 22nd, on Saturday evening, we're going to have a vision and prayer night together. And so you're going to want to come hear a little bit about what the Lord has put on the hearts of our elder team and just have an opportunity to hear about what our desires are going forward and spend some time in prayer together.

And then, Sunday morning, we have our outdoor celebration, a picnic and cookout, and it'll be a lot of fun. And then Sunday night, we're going to gather back here for a time in the Word and worship the Lord together, okay? So make a note of that weekend. It's going to be a special weekend for us as a church. And so we're very excited about that. This morning we come to our finale message in our series Cornerstone. Cornerstone series that we started in August of 2024.

So this is the last message in our series Cornerstone, where we have been studying the life of Christ through the Synoptic Gospels, that is Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And I trust if you've been here, any part of that, or any of you have been here the whole time, that that's been a blessing as it's been an opportunity for us to really look at what it means to be rightly aligned with the cornerstone, the Lord Jesus Christ, and to live a life that represents Him well in the community around us.

And so that was our desire. That's why we spent the last two years almost exhaustively working through verse by verse, looking at so many of the wonderful stories and the harmony of the Gospels. And so we are excited about that. Now, we launched that in August of 2024 by looking at Acts 4 and talking about a cornerstone. And this morning we're finishing that in Matthew 28. And so if you have your Bibles, why don't you open them up to Matthew 28:16.

We're going to begin there. And if you're able, if you could, stand with me in honor of the Word of God, and we'll read that together. Matthew 28:16. He said, "But the 11 disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him, but some doubted. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.' " Go ahead and have a seat this morning. Our big idea out of this text is just simple. It's just make disciples of the nations. That's the mandate. That's the mandate, that's the mission of the heavenly mandate that we've been granted as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, to that end, our first thought this morning is a disciple who makes disciples is one who gathers expectantly.

Who gathers expectantly. Now in Matthew 28, just to give us a little context, look back at verse six. Part of this, what Pastor Robert taught last week was verse six it says, "Mary and Mary Magdalene run to the tomb." And what happens is, "He is not here, for he is risen, just as he said. Come, see the place where he is lying. And go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead. And behold, he is going ahead of you to Galilee. There you will see him.

Behold, I have told you. And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report to his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, 'Greetings.' And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, 'Do not be afraid. Go and report to my brothers to leave for Galilee, and there they will see me.' " And so clearly, Jesus had told them, "There is a predetermined place that we're going to gather after the resurrection.

And so when you get word, I want you to head that direction. Go to that predetermined place." And so I just want you just to imagine for a moment what it was like to walk in the disciples' shoes or sandals. Or maybe they didn't even have them. I don't know. Barefoot, whatever. But just put yourself in their sandals for a moment and contemplate, if you will, just a little bit of what was going through their minds. Three years earlier, they had just been minding their own business.

Some of them were tax collectors, some of them fishing, some of them doing their thing, whatever it was. And all of a sudden, Jesus comes along and he says, "Hey, listen. Follow me." And he says, "Hey, listen, if you're a fisher for fish, I want to make you a fisher of men." And so what do they do? They follow him. And they follow him for three years as he continues on through many, many miracles. They see things that no one could imagine ever seeing.

They witness and hear things from him that no one could ever imagine of ever hearing and seeing and learning from. And I can't imagine. In fact, John says in his gospel that if we were to record everything that Jesus said and did, there wouldn't be enough pages available to write on. Right? And so the disciples were privileged to be front and center, and because they made a decision to follow him. To follow him. And they witnessed all kinds of things.

But then he died. And he was buried. And they scattered, and they were confused, and they were scared, and they didn't know what to do. But then God raised him from the dead, just as he said, and he presents himself to them. And he says, "I want you to go to the mountain that was predetermined." Now, that's you. Do you go? Do you? Do you go? And if you go, do you go expectantly? Expecting to hear from the one who's just risen from the dead? Don't you wonder what they were thinking of what he was going to say?

Was he going to usher in his rule at that time? Are you just imagining for a moment the expectation that they had? And they had to have been extremely fired up, extremely excited, making their way to the mountain that was predetermined. The thing that I want you to notice, Church, in verse 16, it says, "But the 11 disciples proceeded to Galilee." Every one of them went. And they went with great enthusiasm for one purpose, to encounter the Lord Jesus Christ.

So what about us this morning? Have we come into this place this morning with great enthusiasm to encounter the Lord Jesus Christ and his Word? I think there are times where we miss the boat on this. We come to church, and we often come with a mindset of consuming whatever it is that's there, and rather than participating or contributing in all the things that are happening in the work of the Lord in the church. But in this moment, they come for one purpose.

They come expectant that God is going to do something amazing. You know what it's like to have expectation, right? You know what it's like to be excited about something that is coming up. Think about it in terms of let's say you have courtside seats for game one in San Antonio, where they're going to take on the New York Knicks. Is that who they play? Yeah. Okay. See, I don't even know. I gave up after we got knocked out. But listen. You got courtside seats, game one of the NBA Finals tomorrow night, Tuesday night.

And the President's going to be in the building. At least that's what he said. And so your expectation is fired up. You're going to go see this game. And so today, you're having trouble just even paying attention to what's being said here. And so you have this expectation of all these things, and then tomorrow morning, you're going to wake up and be like, "I got to travel. I got to get to San Antonio." And San Antonio, you're going to get there. You're going to buy some cowboy boots and a hat, and you're going to get all fired up to go see the Spurs win the NBA championship, right?

Do we come to church with that kind of expectation? Or is it just like a checking a box? We know what expectation's like when we think of as a student. Students in the room, maybe you have a big date on Friday night. And tomorrow, you're going to go shopping. You're going to try to find a dress to wear. And then you're setting up time on Wednesday or Thursday to get your hair done. And you're really excited about this because you really think this could be the guy.

And you get your nails done. You do all this stuff, and there's this expectation that's building so that when Friday night comes, you are ready. But I don't know that we do the same when we gather in this place on Sunday morning. Have we come with an expectant heart to hear from Jesus Christ? To hear from His word, to apply it to our lives. Maybe some of us this morning are gathering in this place, and maybe for you, your opportunity is to embrace Jesus Christ.

You've never fully embraced Jesus Christ as Lord of your life, and your opportunity this morning is to surrender unto Him, to repent and believe that He is the way and the truth and the life, and that no man comes to the Father but through Him. But guess what? The disciples, they gathered expectantly, and guess what? Because they obeyed and because they gathered expectantly on the mountain that day, they saw Jesus. They saw Jesus. And because they obeyed and they gathered together on the mountain with expectation, they received a mission.

Not just any mission, but a purpose for life. A genuine purpose for life. This world is searching for purpose for living. Jesus gives it to us right here in this text. This is a purpose for life. And they received it because they obeyed and they gathered expectantly. And not only that, but they gathered expectantly and they received an awesome promise from God because He said, "I'll be with you even to the end of the age." And my prayer this morning is that as we gather in this place expectantly today, that we will hear and heed the call of God and be commissioned to go out with the greatest of all assignments, and to do it well, and to be faithful.

And so have you gathered expectantly this morning? Here's the second thing that disciples who make disciples do, is they worship enthusiastically. Look at verse 17. So they get to the mountain, they gather there, and then Jesus comes. And what happens is this, "And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted." They worshiped him. Now, it's thought that there were more than just the 11 disciples there, and 1 Corinthians 15 speaks to the fact that there's probably 500 others that came expectantly and enthusiastically.

Some of those had some doubts, but Jesus comes to them and he speaks to them in this text. But what happened when they get there expectantly, and Jesus shows up? And they prostrate themselves before him. That's what it means. The word there for worship, it means they prostrate themselves before him. They worship him. Now if you're wondering at all what that mountain might've looked like, there's a lot of debate on what mountain it actually was that Jesus had predetermined for his disciples to meet him on, that they gathered on.

And there's a lot of debate within our pastoral team, with me and Pastor Amir, because I believe it happened in one place, and I'm not even sure where he believes it happened, but I think I'm right and I'm going to tell you why. So, this is called Mount Arbel. And Mount Arbel overlooks the north, I guess that would be the northeast. No, northwest part of the Galilee. And in that northwest section, as you look down, that is where Jesus did about 65% of his work.

And so if you were going to have your disciples gather on a mountain, wouldn't it be great to have them gather on the mountain where they could look down and you could just say, "Hey, guys. Guys, look over here. That's where we fed the 5,000." "Hey, guys, look over here. That's where we healed the demoniac." "Hey, guys, over there is where we made the blind man see, and over here..." You see what I'm pointing? My point is he had the ability in that moment to draw from all the things that they had seen, all the things that we've studied over the last two years, and then to point out any locations where these things happened and then they worshiped him.

They prostrated in front of him. And I imagine what a sight for worship. In fact, the times that I've been up there, I would just tell you, almost feel the presence of God in that place as you look upon this area where you know so much of Christ's work was done. And what a sight for worship. What a sight for worship. They got there and we're told they worshiped. This might have been, I would just say, the most magnificent worship moment in all of time.

I can't imagine a better one. In fact, I would even tell you that we gather expectantly here at The Grove on Sunday mornings, not all the time, but I can tell you one Sunday where we do. It's Resurrection Sunday. Resurrection Sunday, we come into this place and we gather expectantly because we are enthusiastically ready to worship God because today is the day that we're celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Today is that day. And here in this moment, that is the day.

That is the day, right? They are there to see the risen Lord. They are there to worship the risen Lord. And in that moment, it had to be amazing. I can't imagine. I would love to be there. I would've loved to have been in that momentIt had to have been an incredible worship moment. But can I encourage you for a moment? There's one that's coming that's going to be nearly the same, and it's in Revelation chapter seven. So get your eyes on that for a second.

Go to Revelation chapter seven, the back of your Bible. Revelation 7:9. And he says this, "And after these things, I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and people and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands. And they cry out with a loud voice, saying, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!'

" Now, who are those people? That's us. Church, listen, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you exist in Revelation 7:9. We might have missed out on Mount Arbel, but I'm telling you, we got an awesome one coming. And look what he says. He says, "And they cried," verse 10, "with a loud voice and said, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!' " And then it says, verse 11, "And then all the angels were standing around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God."

You think, well, the angels and the four living creatures, they're around the throne all the time. They would be worshiping God all the time. Yes, but they are worshiping God in a greater way in this moment, because you want to know why? Because He has redeemed His people, and His people now are present, and they have watched as God has accomplished a great work through the work of Jesus Christ. That's awesome. We're going to have a moment of worship coming, Church, that is incredible.

So why are we waiting? Why not get after worship now? And I wonder, do we, as disciples who make disciples, worship enthusiastically in this local church context week in and week out? Do you come expectantly to worship the Lord enthusiastically? I remember in the mid-'90s, we planted a church in West Michigan. And I would say that in that time, we had a church that was very strong biblical teaching. We were really strong on the word of God, and we taught the truth of the scripture.

But over here on the love side and on the spirit side of things, we were lacking a little bit. We were lacking a little bit. And I remember the first experience I ever had where I walked into a church where there was enthusiastic, unashamed worship of Almighty God. It was a church that was filled with about 3,000 people, a strong Bible teaching church, and the people were singing at the top of their lungs, many with hands held high, many clapping, many just praising God for who He is.

Worshiping God for who He is. And I thought back to the time in the mid-'90s when we planted the church, and the very first time we ever saw somebody in our local context of a church raise a hand in worship. We thought that person was a freak. Like, "What are you doing? You got some problems, bro." You know why we raise hands in worship? Because we are declaring the victory of Jesus Christ over the enemy, and we are heralding that. And we are saying, "God has had victory," and praise Him for that.

We worship Him for that, because without that, we don't exist in Revelation 7:9. So we worship, and we worship enthusiastically. I remember the first time then thereafter that I actually raised a hand in worship. It was probably 10 years after that. It took me that long to even feel a comfort level with it. I'm not saying you have to raise your hand in worship. Don't go home and say, "Pastor said you got to raise your hand in worship." That's not what I'm saying.

I'm saying that oftentimes we who love this text, this book, this teaching of God's Word, sometimes we miss what John 4:23 says, that God desires to be worshiped not only in truth but also in spirit. And so I don't want us to miss that. There's a third thing that we see the disciples hear. He says this. He says, "Listen eagerly." Not only do they gather expectantly, these disciples, and worship enthusiastically, but they have ears to hear. They listen eagerly.

Now, don't miss this. This is critical. Some of the final words of Christ in his final words to his disciples, and what he's going to say next becomes the very motivation for the commission that he's going to charge you and me with. Look at verse 18. And it says this. It says, "Then Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.' " All authority. Where? In heaven and on earth. Everything. What's he saying here?

He's saying simple terms, "I'm in charge." He says, "I'm in charge, and I have the right to give orders." And because of this truth about Jesus Christ, He has the authority to mandate us to be witnesses, and not only just mandate us to be witnesses, but He has the power to empower us to carry it out. You're not on your own. And so what He's about to command us to, He is acknowledging before He commands us to it, that He has the authority to command us to it.

So what does He say? Look at verse 19. He says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." They gathered expectantly, they worshiped enthusiastically, and they listened eagerly to that command. What is the command? To go therefore and make disciples, baptizing them, teaching them.

And you're not alone. He says, "I'm with you." And I used to think, and maybe some of you did as well, that this was all about going to missions, that this verse was all about missions, and that means it didn't apply to the majority of the people in the church. When I was young, we would have what they called Mission Sundays, and they would bring a missionary in from some Timbuktu area of Africa, and he would come in, and he would talk about missions, and everybody'd get excited, and it'd be like, "Good job.

You're fulfilling the Great Commission. Good job. I'm going to send you a check." But what about everybody else? See, if we believe it's only for the missionaries out in Timbuktu, Africa, then we miss the very purpose that God has given us to live. The very purpose, the mandate of the mission of life is that we are to go therefore and make disciples of all nations. That is our mandate. Nobody's exempt from that. That is your call, and that is a great purpose.

It is the purpose that Peter spoke about in 1 Peter 2 when he said that we who are called out of darkness into light are to go and proclaim the excellencies of the one who's done that in our lives. That's our mandate, church. It's what we're called to do. And so it's not just the missionaries, it's all of us. And if it's all of us, then we ought to know, what is a disciple? What is a disciple? And what does a disciple look like who makes disciples?

We got to know that if we're going to try to do this. So what is a disciple? I wrote this down. A disciple of Jesus Christ is someone who follows Jesus wholeheartedly, obeys him unconditionally, and influences others intentionally. Three things a disciple of Jesus Christ is. He is one who follows him. He follows Jesus wholeheartedly. There's no reservations. He's all in. He is a faithful, fruitful follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. No questions asked.

He doesn't leave any room for doubt with other people as to where he stands when it relates to a holy God. Secondly, he obeys him unconditionally. We walk in obedience to the Lord in our lives, and part of obedience is fulfilling this great call to go therefore make disciples. Third, I say it is a person who influences others intentionally. It's someone that actually has a heart to be an influencer. And I'm not talking about a YouTube influencer.

I'm talking about a biblical influencer upon others. So what is a disciple? Simply, it's one who has embraced Jesus Christ by faith, and like the 11 disciples, says, "I will follow Jesus. I will continually learning. I will walk in obedience to his truth." I went to dictionary. com. If you look at dictionary. com, you say, "What is a disciple?" It says, "A person who is a pupil or an adherent of the doctrines of another, or a follower." So are you a follower of Christ wholeheartedly?

Do you obey unconditionally? Do you influence others intentionally? So if that is a disciple, then to make disciples is to assist someone, to help them learn who they are before a holy God. To speak of sin because the Bible speaks of sin, and to do it in love, and to helping them see their sinfulness before God, and leading them to repentance. And to help them beg for grace and mercy at the foot of the cross, and then believe in Jesus Christ. And in doing so, have life and have it abundantly.

And then baptizing them, and then instructing them in the word of God as they become mature followers of Christ. That's what it means to be a disciple who makes disciplesAnd this is critical truth for us this morning. So how is it then that we are going to make disciples? How do we do this? Well, I know how the world does it. I know how the world does it. I remember when Robert was heading off to university. We took him over for orientation the first week, and they said, "Students, you're going to gather in this hall, and parents, you're going to gather over here."

And while somebody was telling the students about orientation to the school, the parents over here were being told that, "If your child comes back at Thanksgiving the same person that they were when they showed up on campus today, then we haven't done our job at this institution." And I said, "If my child comes back at Thanksgiving different than he is today, then I didn't do my job as a parent." Moms and dads, don't just send your kids to school and leave them on their own.

This is evil indoctrination in our world today. We need to instruct them. We need to disciple them. We need to teach them the ways of the Lord. It's on you. And so you say, "Well, I thought this was only for pastors to go therefore and make disciples." Guess what? "I don't have a congregation. Why do I have to do this?" Because the Bible says you have to do it. And guess what? If you have kids, you have a congregation. They're called your kids, and you're responsible to train them up.

Look what he says in verse 19, "Go therefore." Because that go doesn't mean I'm going from point A to point B. It literally means as I go along the way of life. So as I go to work, I'm going to represent the Lord Jesus Christ. As I come home, I'm going to represent the Lord Jesus Christ. As I come to church, I'm going to represent the Lord Jesus Christ. As I'm in the community, I'm going to represent the Lord Jesus Christ. It's what I do because I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ, and I'm seeking to make disciples of others.

Deuteronomy, chapter six, I love this text because it sums it all up beautifully. It says this, "Hear, O Israel, Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one. You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up."

So these words, the word of God, He says, "Teach them diligently to your children. Speak of them when you sit down, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up." You know what that means? When I'm sitting down, walking by the way, rising up, lying down, you know what that was? That's just time. That's everything. That means all the time you are instilling biblical wisdom and truth into your children. That's discipleship. It's the same way as you disciple others.

You are instilling wisdom into their hearts and minds. I was blessed as a young man to have witnessed that in my wife's home. My father-in-law and my mother-in-law were true disciplers. You could not go anywhere, you couldn't sit down for dinner, you couldn't go on a walk, you couldn't go in a car for a ride, you could not sit down while we were negotiating a multimillion-dollar business deal without first speaking about the things of the Lord. Amen.

That's who they were. That's who he was, my father-in-law. And it was instilled in all of us around him because that's what mattered, because he was fulfilling the mandate, the call, the mission of the Great Commission. So along the way, how are you doing? Are you looking for the lost? Now, I mean this seriously. Are you genuinely looking and seeking for gospel opportunities and conversations with the lost? Are you having those conversations? Have you ever had those conversations?

I'm just reminding us all that that is our mandate. It is our mission, and if we're not engaging in that activity, then we are disobedient to the Lord. And so we've got some work cut out for us because if you're anything like me, I promise you, you're not engaging enough in the Great Commission. Bible says that Jesus came to seek and save the lost. That's what He's calling us to do. Jesus looked at the multitudes, and it says that He had compassion on them.

He saw them as sheep without a shepherd. Do you look upon the multitudes and get disgusted with them? Or do we have compassion on them? Just because they haven't been privileged yet to have experienced the grace of God and been confronted with their sin. Maybe it is that God has that for you to give to them. Do you consider the lost? Do you have a heart for the lost? Do you know what it's like, do you really remember a situation in your life where you lost something that was precious, and you had a gut feeling that was horrible?

In the mid-'90s, my wife and I were tasked with a responsibility of refurbishing a 15th century fortified manor home in England that sat on 1,000 acres. And so we were back and forth to England every four to six weeks, and we would have meetings and Carla would meet with the design people. I was meeting with the masonry team and the roofers, and we put all new electrics, and all new central heating, and all new plumbing, and all new roof. 55,000 slate tiles of roof and 80 tons of lead just for the roof of this building that was 100-plus rooms and just massive, beautiful place.

And so we bring our kids. In one instance, we brought a gal with us that was to watch our children when we were in these meetings. And in one instance, I had been meeting with the masons, Carla had been meeting with the design team. We came into the kitchen to meet together, and there was the woman who was to be watching Robert. And Robert was nowhere to be found. She thought we had him, we thought she had him, and that's a big mistake. When was the last anybody saw Robert?

20, 30 minutes ago. Now, you have to understand, this property had an outdoor pool that Robert loved to run and look at. He didn't know how to swim. He was three years old. This property had a massive river that ran along the side and had a dam, the weir, that caused all kinds of rapids, and Robert loved to run down there. And we didn't know where he was. And I want to tell you, as a father, the hurt in my heart in that moment that my son was lost, it consumed me to almost be in panic mode.

And I got on the radio, and I started calling out to every employee, "Hey, does anybody see my son, Robert? He's somewhere. I can't find him." He could've been anywhere. And I think it was five minutes, and it felt like five hours, and some young man's voice came on, and he said, "I found Robert. He's down by the dam." He was standing on the edge, as I'm standing on this edge, of falling into the rapids. Thank you, Jesus. Amen. But I want you to know the joy of the Father's heart when the lost was found.

And I believe that it is incumbent upon you and me to carry out the Great Commission and bring joy to the Father's heart as we walk them through what it means to trust in Jesus Christ as their savior. That's our job, church. It's our job. John MacArthur said it this way in his commentary on the Book of Matthew. He says this, "There is only one reason the Lord allows His church to remain on the Earth, to seek and save the lost, just as Christ's only reason for coming to Earth was to seek and save the lost.

Therefore, a believer who is not committed to winning the lost for Jesus Christ should reexamine his relationship to the Lord and certainly his divine reason for existence. Fellowship, teaching, and praise are not the mission of the church, but rather the preparation of the church to fulfill its mission of winning the lost." Now, we gather in this place. We fellowship. We train. We prepare. We gather in this place so that we will go out, and we teach you so you will go out and be the representation of Jesus Christ to the lost.

And so what does Paul say in Ephesians chapter four? He says this. Ephesians chapter 4, he says, "And He Himself gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the service, to building up of the body of Christ." And so what we're doing right now, church, is this is called training time. Or in athletics terms, you're at practice right now. This is practice, and we're going through the plays.

Why? So that when game time comes, you can execute those phenomenally. And so that is our job. It is incumbent on every believer, everybody who calls on the name of Jesus Christ as Lord, to go therefore and make disciples of all nations. But you got to be equipped to do thatAnd I believe what John says, if we aren't doing that, then we need to reexamine our relationship with the Lord, and certainly our understanding of the divine reason for life.

Incarnational living is what we're called to. Christ in us is the hope of glory. It ought to be on display. We need to be a living curriculum of Jesus Christ. We need to be the billboard of Jesus Christ along I-4 that just lights up and isn't missed by anybody. Now, you'll hear me mention this often, that if we're going to be disciples who make disciples, then we need to have two people or two kinds of people in our lives. We need to have a Paul in our life, and we need to have a Timothy in our life.

And the reason for that is that Paul was the one who instructed Timothy. And so we need to seek out some older brother, more mature brother or sister in Christ, who can influence us, okay? And we can imitate them. So they're our Paul, we're their Timothy, but then we need to go out and we need to find somebody who's a newer convert than we are that we can influence, and we're their Paul, and they are our Timothy, so that we can have influence in their lives, and they can imitate our life.

That's biblical discipleship. That's what we're called to do. It goes both ways. It's a two-way street. And in other words, you say, "I can't do that, Pastor." You can do it, it's simple. You rely on Paul. Everything Paul gives you, you give to Timothy. You're just a conduit. "But I'm not that-" You don't have to be smart. You got to find a smart Paul and have him instruct you, and you share that with your Timothys. 2 Timothy 2 is a great picture of what Paul is communicating to Timothy in this vein.

He says this, "And the things which you have heard from me," that is Paul to Timothy, "in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." In one verse of Scripture, we have four generations of discipleship. We have Paul, we have Timothy, we have instructing to faithful men, and he who will then teach others. One verse, four. Four. Everybody say four. Four. Four generations of discipleship. And guess what?

You can represent every one of those four generations in your life at the same time. Because you can be a Paul to someone, you can be a Timothy to somebody. You can be entrusting those things to faithful men, who will then go about and entrust them to others. So how are we doing on that? Those of us who have been recreated by the grace of God are to go out and procreate spiritually by making disciples. You say, "Well, Pastor, honestly, I don't have time.

I really don't. My schedules, I'm so booked, I don't have time." I would just say this by way of reminder that true discipleship and true disciples don't multiply themselves by convenience, they multiply themselves by conviction. And so if you have a firm conviction in the foundation of Scripture and in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, then you have a mandate to be obedient to this call, and so you'll find time to execute it. I want you just to close your eyes for a moment and think of this thought.

In your lifetime, when do you remember the most biblical growth period of your life? As you look back upon your life, when were you most fired up about Jesus? Can you see that moment in your life? Now, raise your hand if there was somebody alongside of you in that time of life. Yeah. That's how it works. That's called discipleship. I remember when I was a freshman in high school, the junior in high school, who was the starting quarterback of our state championship football team, went on to play college football, went on to play in the NFL, was a good quarterback.

He called me on a Monday night and said, "Hey, I'd like to pick you up tomorrow morning and take you to breakfast," Tuesday morning. He had heard that I had became a Christian and I was at FCA, and he asked if he could take me to breakfast. And so he picked me up at 6:00 on Tuesday morning, and then we went to two other guys' houses and picked them up, and we went to Denny's. For two years I went to Denny's, and I haven't been since. But in those hours at Denny's, in those mornings, he would sit and he would just open up God's word and he would share some verses with us and we'd pray together, and I can't remember much of what we did, but I can tell youThat he made a disciple out of me.

And when I was a junior, and I had the opportunity to repay to the next generation, I called up two boys and I said, "I'm going to pick you up." And I picked them up every Tuesday morning for my junior and senior year, and we went out, not to Denny's, to a different place. But we talked about things of the Lord. And maybe you have someone like that in your life, and as you think about that moment of time, maybe today's your opportunity to call them, thank them.

Write a letter. And maybe you're walking through this world, and you've never even experienced a gospel relationship yet. You never had anybody pouring into you the things of the Lord. And truthfully, you're not even a believer in Christ. I would just say today's your opportunity to change that. Today's an opportunity for you to become a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. A disciple who then, therefore, carries out the Great Commission and goes and makes other disciples.

You say, "Well, Pastor, I'm really not even sure how to do that." It's pretty simple. You recognize that you're a sinner before God. You repent of your sin. You embrace him by faith, and believe unto him and his sacrifice on a cross, and believe that God raised him from the dead, and the Bible says you'll be saved. What do you mean saved? Saved from the wrath of God to come that's going to pour out upon the unregenerate, unrepentant world. And I'm believing that there's some in this room, even right now, who are in that position of life, where you've never trusted Christ as Lord of your life.

Today's the day. Why wait? Surrender to the Lord. There's a fourth thought. Not only did they gather expectantly, worship enthusiastically, but they listened eagerly. Disciples who make disciples respond excellently. You say, "Well, how do you know, Scott? How do you know that these guys responded to this call?" Because when we started this series, we started in Acts 4, and in Acts 4, we studied, and we read, and we heard that Peter and John were preaching the good news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and as a result, were thrown into prison for it, but that didn't stop them.

They took on those who threw them in prison, and they even communicated the good news of Jesus Christ to them. And they did so, so much, that as they observed these men, it says in Acts 4:13, "Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and comprehended that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were marveling and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus." So my question is, have you been with Jesus? Are you carrying out the Great Commission?

Are you responding excellently? So here's the challenge, Church. Nobody's exempt from this command. Not one of us. If you're a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you are not in discipleship relationships, then you're missing out on what Jesus has called you to. And if you're missing out on what Jesus has called you to, you might also be missing out on a few things that he seeks to carry out in your own life. It's that simple. You say, "Well, I'm not really sure how to do it."

I'm going to give you just one quick formula. Four thoughts, real fast. Ready? You gather with somebody. You get someone, and you say, "Hey, you watch me. I'm going to model before you what it means to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. You watch me." Number two. Now, after a while, after they've been watching you for a while, you do it together. You do the work of the Lord together. You go out and you talk to people about Christ together. You share the Word together.

If you're leading a Bible study, you sit that guy down with you, and you say, "Here's what I'm studying this week, and here's how I'm going to teach it this week. And then I'm going to go out and teach it, and you're going to be right by my side." Do it together. And then there's a third one. Now, you delegate it to that person to go do, and you watch them. And then you give feedback, and you tell them how they're doing, and you correct them when they're wrong, or you encourage them where they're right.

And then lastly, I watch you. You do it alone. You're off. You're out of the nest, so to speak. Go be a disciple, and now make your own disciples. These are just four simple principles for us to apply to make the fulfillment of this passage come to fruition in our lives. I don't remember a thing Dan Graham said to me, but I do think and believe that Dan Graham was the impetus of the beginning of making a disciple out of Scott Pierre. And I believe that you can do the same.

So let's get after it, Church. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your Word. We thank you for your kindness to us, for your grace, your mercy. And God, I pray for anyone in this room, and I'm believing there are some in this room this morning who have not repented of their sin and entrusted you. So, Holy Spirit, I pray that you'll reveal yourself to him or her right now. And in this moment, God, I pray that you will bring about a heart of sorrow that leads to repentance and belief and faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so, Father, accomplish your purpose this morning and in our lives this week. In Jesus' name, amen.