Thank you.

I'm in the Gospel of Mark, chapter one, verse 14.

Really wanna encourage you to turn there because we're gonna be going through quite a few passages in the early part of the book of Mark, so you'll need to turn the page.

A few years ago, I was doing a basketball camp in Australia.

These were during my New Zealand days, and an Aussie basketball player had heard that I was an accomplished basketball player, but that I was also a Christian.

So I think he was trying to strike up a conversation.

He walked over and he says, So you're a Jesus guy.

I love that.

I love that.

And I said, absolutely, I'm a Jesus guy.

He said, you know, Jesus is a good dude.

Love your enemies, showing compassion to the less fortunate, forgiving those people who offend you, and especially when he forgave that woman who was caught cheating on her husband.

Man, I really like that.

I especially like when Jesus said, he who is without sin cast the first stone.

So I said, well, you know that story.

That's cool.

What do you like about that story?

He says, I like the fact that.

people can't judge me for the things that I do.

And I said, well, you do realize Jesus did judge her.

He said, what?

I said, yeah, he judged her, but then he said, go and sin no more.

So whatever it is you're doing in your life that's wrong, Jesus would say to you, go and sin no more, and then he would offer you forgiveness.

So he judged her and then offered forgiveness.

And if you admit your sin, he will offer you forgiveness.

So are you ready to become a Christ follower?

And he looked at me and said, oh, I don't like that part of Jesus.

And that conversation ended.

And I find that to be very typical.

Someone will have a little bit of information about Jesus, and they like all the good things, they like all the things they agree with, and obviously dislike the things that they think should be changed.

I've had lots of conversations like that over the course of my years of ministry.

And we've said in the past that you can be a fan of Jesus, quite easy to do that.

until he confronts you on something.

In fact, if we think about it, in many parts of the Western world today, there's still a lot about Jesus that an unbelieving culture finds attractive, his ethical teaching.

the elements of justice that permeate his words, his spiritual insights, just the beauty of the way that he spoke.

It's very easy, again, let's use this word that we've used in the past, it's very easy to become a fan of Jesus Christ, particularly if we think Jesus is there to kind of rubber-stab our agenda and give us everything that we want.

But here's the key, and I want us to really think about this.

A fan is not a Christian.

because a fan is not a disciple.

They're not the same thing.

Let me repeat that.

A fan is not a Christian because a fan is not a disciple.

You say, okay, well, Pastor Jeff, what exactly is a disciple?

And again, that's a great question because only disciples walk with Jesus into eternity, not fans.

So you can really appreciate Jesus' insights and teachings and compassion and forgiveness and still not follow him.

In the words of my friend Kyle Lauderman, you can be a fan without being a follower.

You say, okay, Jeff, I got it.

So tell me, what is a disciple?

It seems important.

And it is important, and that's why we call this series The Jesus Resolution, because we're asking.

all those who claim to be Christ followers to actually become Christ followers and to make a resolution in 2024 that you are going to actually be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Now, you say, well, how can I do that?

Well, first thing you've got to realize is discipleship or being a disciple of Jesus is non-negotiable.

In Mark chapter 1, verse 14, 15, look at this.

We're told that after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent and believe in the gospel.

So in Mark 1, we have Jesus.

It's kind of like a press release.

Jesus is introducing the inauguration of his ministry.

He's saying, here's who we are.

Here's what we believe.

Here's what we're going to do.

And he begins by saying that the time is fulfilled.

Man, that is a bold statement.

Jesus is saying that all of history.

is for the purpose of my coming into the world.

I am what history's been waiting for.

I'm what reality revolves around.

I'm the fulfillment of all that God has promised and all that he has planned.

Justice is coming.

Salvation is coming.

Hope is here.

And yeah, the world stinks in many different ways and sin has touched and corrupted almost everything.

But a new day is dawning, says Jesus.

I'm here.

And because I'm here, your life, Crucial.

Your life is about to change.

Again, the time is fulfilled.

The kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent and believe in the gospel.

Notice two things.

Jesus is here.

And second, his presence and ministry demands a response.

Now the question is, this is part of discipleship, what is that response?

And the answer is repentance.

Repent.

I'm not sure how we've messed this up.

It's not a difficult concept.

It simply means that you're going in one direction and now you turn and do an about face and you go in another direction.

Last year, I was doing my study break up in Mammoth with my wife, Robin, and we went on a hike and we started back kind of too late.

We went up to Lake Mary and we're starting back too late and I know it's gonna get dark, so it's important that we keep our pace.

But at one point in the road, I felt that we were going the wrong direction.

I think we've made a wrong turn.

And Robin kept telling me, because, you know, men are directionally challenged.

Robin said, no, this is right.

I said, this does not feel right.

We're moving away from the path.

And so I led us astray.

And we were probably a mile.

in the wrong direction before I realized she was right.

We should have taken that turn way back there.

So we had to turn around completely opposite direction and go back.

And yes, it cost us a lot of time.

We did get our steps in, which is important, but it was such a pain.

Jesus is saying, that every one of us need to do an about face because we're headed in the wrong direction.

We're going the wrong way in life, all of us, you, me, everyone, no one's immune to this.

We're not naturally lined up with God's ways.

The flow of the world does not take us toward God, it takes us away from him in the wrong directions, in our attitudes, in our pursuits, in our ambitions, our goals, all are egocentric.

So it's important to understand that when it comes to discipleship, Jesus is not saying, hey, you know what?

God is about to kick off his purposes.

And a little bit of fine tuning in your life should do it.

A little bit of course correction, you're good to go.

He's not saying, look, basically all of us are good people.

We're basically headed in the right direction.

A little tweak here, a little tweak there, you'll be good.

That is not what Jesus says.

He says our whole lives need to be reoriented.

The way that we think is skewed, our pursuits are skewed, our direction in life, what we cherish, what we value, we're all tainted by the fall.

and we're listening to the wrong voices, the voices we listen to tell us the opposite of what we should be chasing and loving and valuing.

And so Jesus comes along and he says, if you're gonna be my disciple, the first thing you have to do is repent and believe the gospel.

You have to admit, yes, I'm egocentric.

Yes, I'm selfish.

Yes, I'm self-aggrandizing.

I need transformation.

So the first step is in following Jesus is to acknowledge the truth of who you are.

Just be honest, fess up, confess, and then determine now that you're gonna walk in the opposite direction.

So the first takeaway, if we talk about discipleship, is that there cannot be discipleship without repentance.

It's impossible.

So when Jesus comes to you, you're supposed to say, Jesus, if there's any wicked way in me, I repent, I turn around, and I begin marching the other way.

At any point in my relationship with Jesus, if I discover that I am living in a way that contradicts the way Jesus wants me to live, then I repent, I stop, I turn, and I follow.

That's what it is to be a disciple.

There is no such thing as a non-disciple that enters into heaven.

And there's no such thing as a Christ follower who's not following Jesus by learning and discovering the ways of Christ and then attempting to conform their lives to it.

Now, let's be clear about something.

And I, oh, Sam Albury made this statement.

It doesn't belong to me.

It's not original with me.

He says, God does love us.

Yes, God loves us just as we are.

He says, it's not untrue, but it's partially true.

Because God loves us because of what he's like, not because of what we're like.

So it's not as if God says, you know what, you're a little selfish, narcissistic little devil, but I love you.

No, he loves you because it's in his nature to love.

But when you come to God because he loves you, he has no intention of you remaining as you are.

at that point you become his disciple and you are in effect giving God permission to transform you and do away with any wicked way that is in you.

Any part of your life that doesn't conform to him, you're giving him the full permission to transform, to change, to do whatever it takes so that your life aligns with his.

One of the examples we've used in the past is this gap illustration.

So I put it on, it's on the big board behind me.

And we often talk about that the core of the gospel is I'm separated from God.

There's this huge chasm, this gap because of my sin and God's on the other side.

And the only way we can get to God is through the cross of Jesus Christ.

So we write this cross and we say, we walk on the cross beam.

God provided it.

It's nothing we did, but God provides it so that we can walk over onto the side of God.

Now, here's the point.

When you become a disciple and you walk on the beam of the cross on to the side of God, there's no going back.

The beam is one way, it's to God.

You don't walk on that beam away from God again.

So that tells me that if I find anything in my life, remember, God saves me for the purpose of sanctifying me.

So my sins are forgiven, therefore I'm made clean, therefore God can indwell me with his Holy Spirit.

God can come on the inside and live in me because my sin has been forgiven.

So a holy God now can enter.

And he does, and the purpose of that, is that you and I would become full-on disciples.

Disciple is simply another word for Christian.

That word means to follow Jesus.

And that means we follow Jesus in every area of life.

So let me say another phrase, important.

These are important statements.

If you're not a disciple, you're not a Christian.

It's as simple as that.

If you're not a disciple, you're not a Christian.

So first of all, discipleship is non-negotiable.

Now, number two, discipleship is full on.

Now, look at verse 16 through 20 in that same chapter of the book of Mark, Mark 1.

Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting the net into the sea.

And Jesus said to them, follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.

And immediately they left their nets and followed him and going on a little farther, and they went on a little farther.

He saw James, the son of Zebedee and John, his brother, who were in their boat, mending their nets.

And immediately he called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

Now we mentioned this in the first segment of Jesus' resolution.

Jesus simply comes and says, follow me.

And we learned what that means is that you are now gonna walk in the dust of the rabbi.

That means you take his precepts and his meaning and you follow him.

and his application into your life and you perpetuate it.

Your life becomes so close at mimicking his that it's often difficult for people to tell the difference between you and your rabbi.

So we meditate as a disciple on his word and we live his way.

His sexual ethic becomes ours.

His view on marriage and children becomes ours.

His teaching on mercy and forgiveness is lived out in our lives and we become as sacrificial and generous as he is.

So when you're walking in the dust of the rabbi, your life is conformed, discipleship is, it means basically you're following the rabbi.

You are living your life not according to feelings or what you think or feel should be right, but you are aligning your life with the precepts, the teachings and the application of Jesus' teachings into your life, his way, your life, you're aligning your life with him.

And that's why when many come to Christ in the beginning and discover what Christ requires, many are called, few are chosen.

The way is narrow.

Many will put their hand to the plow and then will look back and Jesus said, those are not worthy to be my disciples.

So again, folks, wherever you're listening to this, whether it's on a podcast or as you're driving or in your home, you need to understand this is serious business.

It's easy to be part of a Christian culture where you think, you know what, I like going to church.

I like the church scene.

I like being with Christians.

I share a lot of their values.

Unlike the Christian community where we all kind of hang out and I agree with their sense of community.

I love all that.

You can be doing all of those things and not be a disciple because you can be doing all of those things without following Jesus in the way that you live your life.

So following Jesus means, wait for it now, following Jesus.

So discipleship means that you're forever, listen, forever pursuing and discovering what following him looks like.

That is what discipleship is.

It means your life is forever pursuing and discovering what following Jesus looks like.

So you can't have a heart or you can't have his heart if you don't know what his heart is like.

You can't do his work unless you know what his work is about.

You can't possess his beliefs about sex and marriage and same-sex issues and trans issues unless you know what his position on these things really is or are.

If you allow culture to determine your positions on these things, these crucial areas, You are not following Jesus.

You're following culture.

Therefore, you're not a disciple of Christ.

You are a disciple of a secular worldview.

So the question is, somebody will ask me, well, Pastor Jeff, how can I discover, you say my life is a journey of discovery.

How can I discover Jesus' worldview?

And my response is by walking in the dust of the rabbi.

And your response might be, well, wait a minute.

Peter, James, John, they had Jesus with them.

I mean, I don't have Jesus with me.

He's at the right hand of the Father, so what do I do?

Where do I go?

Well, the first part of that is, of course, you have him with you.

Remember, it is no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in you.

But there is a second aspect to this.

What are the Gospels?

The Gospels are the trusted historical account of the workings, the doings, and the teachings of Jesus.

So you can read what Jesus believed and taught and how he applies it to our lives.

What are the epistles?

The rest of the New Testament are letters written to the first churches, inspired by the Holy Spirit, explaining Jesus' doctrine in more of an exhaustive view, teaching us what Jesus actually believed and taught.

Listen for a second how Jesus viewed the Bible.

In John 16, Jesus looks to his disciples and he says, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.

For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak.

And he will declare to you that the things that are to come, he will glorify me for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

So he says the Holy Spirit is coming.

And where the disciples and apostles are concerned, the Holy Spirit was going to come and help them recall everything that Jesus had taught so that they could record it in Scripture so that generations in the future could have at their disposal the words of God to learn from God and discover what it means to follow Jesus.

Paul says in 2 Timothy 3.16, all scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives.

It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.

So the Word of God, the Gospels, and the Epistles, the reason it's so important for us to investigate and to saturate our minds with this is because this is how we follow Jesus.

This is how we discover the teachings and the Christian worldview that we may align our lives with Christ.

The reason you and I have the New Testament is because God has revealed himself to us in the person and the words of Jesus Christ.

So to follow Jesus is to follow his teachings and to perpetuate them into your life and to the world around you.

This is what a disciple does.

Those are the teachings of Jesus that are discovered in the scripture.

Remember what we said when we were talking about walking in the dust of the rabbi?

We said when you started to follow your rabbi.

you would take his yoke upon you.

And the yoke, Y-O-K-E of a rabbi, were his precepts.

In other words, the word of God, but then also the way he applied that word of God into your life.

So that's what we're doing.

So you can understand, I get a little frustrated when I hear someone say, you know what?

I read the Bible and I think it means this.

If I can just be honest, nobody really cares what you think it means.

The meaning is objective and that requires intense study.

But the application into your life can vary.

And that's where you can say, I feel the Lord is leading me to do this.

That's appropriate.

But the Bible is objectively true.

And it's up to you not to try to mold and shift and shape the Bible into saying what you want it to say, but to look at it to discover the words of Christ that you may align your life with his precepts, teachings, and applications.

That's what it is to be a disciple.

It's to go on that journey of discovery.

What does Jesus actually say and teach?

And how can I apply that into my life?

The first Christians understood this all too well.

Let me read to you out of Titus 2.

As the church is being born, we come to this wonderful passage.

In Titus 2, verse 4.

These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, to live wisely and to be pure and to work in their homes, to do good and to be submissive to their husbands.

Now in a world like ours, some women are not.

Women are going to read that and think, well, already I'm lost.

I don't like it.

Well, that's because you haven't done the due diligence of what that actually means.

There's a mutual submission.

We can't go into that now, but you have to study the word of God.

Don't let culture dictate to you what the word of God means.

You study the word of God, and I'm telling you, there are enough resources that you can discover the subjective truth.

The passage goes on, then they will not bring shame on the word of God.

In the same way, encourage the young men to live wisely.

And you yourself must be an example to them by doing good works of every kind.

Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching.

And then he says, teach the truth so that your teaching can't be criticized.

He's assuming there is objective truth.

Then those who oppose us will be ashamed and have nothing bad to say.

Again, this is called discipleship where the old Christ followers disciple the young, where the women disciple the women, the older women, the younger women, the older men, the younger men.

This is a movement.

And the result is wise living, purity, goodness, mutual submission in our relationship to each other.

And all of this brings glory, not shame, to the word of God.

If I could say anything to this current generation, it would be this.

Be careful.

Do not follow the Jesus of your imagination, but make sure you're following the Jesus of the gospel.

Lean in, saturate your mind, learn what the Bible actually teaches about Jesus, about his beliefs, his workings, his doing, what he accomplished, and the manner in which he calls you and I to live.

So first, let's move quickly.

Discipleship is non-negotiable.

Second, discipleship is full-on.

So it's how you feel things should be versus the way Jesus says things are.

You're aligning full on to his teaching, his application.

And then third, discipleship is costly.

Now look over to Mark chapter 8 now.

Just turn the pages.

In verse 34, we're told that Jesus called the crowd to him, his disciples.

He said to them, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

So Jesus is saying, so important, if you're interested in getting in on this, this is what it's going to involve.

You need to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me.

Jesus wants people to know this up front.

You know, Jesus is not the kind of leader who says, you know what, come on, follow me.

And then there's a little small print down at the bottom that says, by the way, following me involves taking up your cross, denying yourself, and it's going to be very costly.

Jesus is up front from the get-go.

Have you ever watched those drug commercials on television?

There are so many of them these days.

But they tell you this drug can heal you or solve some kind of physical ailment.

And then they start showing you wonderful pictures of people smiling while underneath they're talking about all the damage this drug could do, even kill you.

The same thing happens when you go to update your phone.

Have you ever tried to do that?

And there's this little statement that comes up.

Have you read the terms and the conditions?

Of course, you scroll down.

Nobody reads the terms and conditions.

Who's got time to read 30 pages of tiny, small print?

And so most of us just push the button.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's fine.

Whatever, Apple.

Yes, I've probably just given you my soul.

To be honest, Google has most of it already, but anything that's left, you're welcome to it.

The point is...

There's never anything like that with Jesus.

He never buries things in the small print.

And it strikes me how many sermons on the web tend to avoid mentioning the incredible cost of following Jesus.

The modern day message tends to be, here are all the benefits and none of the costs.

I just got finished watching an amazing documentary called They Shall Not Grow Old.

And it's interviewing.

Some of these men are very old now, but the interviews were from 10, 20 years ago as well.

They interviewed some of the gentlemen who went to war after World War I, World War II, who were called up by both the United States and by Britain.

And they asked them a simple question.

Were you afraid?

What were your feelings?

Because you had people lining up to try to get in.

People actually lied about their age because you weren't supposed to get in unless you were at least 18.

And they were letting 15, 16-year-olds in because they were saying, I want to do this.

This is what I wanted, even though I want to go and die.

But as you talk to them and you listen to them, it's amazing as they say, this is a calling on my life.

I am supposed to give my life if I have to do that for the sake of future generations of my people.

And I started thinking about Jesus basically told us.

that there are going to be times when our lives are not going to be easy, that if we follow Jesus, it's going to require so much.

And this is going to be really tough to do in the present Western culture because culture's highest value, I hear this all the time, is express yourself.

That's culture's message to us.

Flourishing equals discovering the real true self and then express yourself.

And they say, if you want to know how to do that, you look deep inside your heart and you look at your feelings, your desires.

What is it that you really want?

What do you or who do you desire?

And the deeper your desire, we're told, the more core to your identity that desire is.

So we're told you need to discover the true self.

And then what you need to do is you got to go be yourself, your authentic self, be true to yourself.

The more I hear this, the more I think, really?

Your desires define you like that?

Well, Cain's desire was to kill his brother, okay?

Mother Teresa's desire was to help the less fortunate.

Jeffrey Epstein's desire was for underage girls.

Surely there's such a thing as good and bad desires.

And some desires ought not be acted on, while others should be.

Every Disney movie in the last 10 years, and I know I'm picking on Disney lately, but every Disney movie in the last 10 years, if you look at the theme, it seems like it's all the same.

You've got to be true to yourself.

And that's a very Western way of thinking.

In fact, Mulan, the last Disney movie or recent Disney movie, it was set in China.

And Disney was thinking when they made and produced this movie that China has a massive market.

Let's set one of our movies in a Chinese cultural context.

There's going to be mass revenue from that.

It's the second largest market on the planet.

So let's get on some of that action.

Let's produce something, let's direct something.

Let's come up with something that specifically attracts the Chinese audience.

Well, I don't know if you've read this, but they ran smack dab into a problem because the message of the movie was this.

Hey, be true to yourself.

Even if people, other people don't get you, you got to be true to yourself.

Well, the problem is...

That's not part of Chinese culture.

If you're doing that in Eastern culture, you seem to be a self-aggrandizing, narcissistic little jerk.

Life is not about the individual in the East, but the community.

It's not all about you, but it's about your family and your community and not bringing shame upon them and what is ultimately best for them.

So you do you may not be a good idea.

What if you isn't very nice and you is unforgiving?

And that's just your tendency.

What if you is so driven that you just run over anybody who gets in your way?

But the greatest sin in our culture is to be seen to constrain anyone from being who they really are.

Now, if you're going to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, let's just get it out there.

Jesus says not express yourself.

You do you or you be you.

Jesus says deny yourself.

In other words, there are going to be times and situations where you're going to say a profound no to some of your deepest longings, deepest ambitions, your strongest yearnings and intuitions.

That's what taking up your cross ultimately means.

Jesus doesn't just invent this phrase out of thin air.

It's already in operation in the Greco-Roman world.

Jesus employs that phrase to show what it really means to follow him.

So when you were sentenced to be crucified, You would take up your cross and you'd be led to the place of execution where they would crucify you.

But from the moment the Romans put the cross beam on your back, you forfeited your life.

You were stripped of all your rights.

Actually, that happened as soon as you were declared guilty.

So as they were leading you through the streets of the city out to the place of execution, people were allowed to say or do anything they wanted to you without penalty.

Because you had been, you've picked up your cross.

You've died to yourself.

You have no rights.

You have nothing.

You're not even a person.

You've given up everything to Rome.

And that's why when we read in Matthew 27, do you remember what Jesus experienced?

In verse 27 of chapter 27, the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters and they gathered the whole battalion before him.

Now, what would one Jewish carpenter, what threat does one Jewish carpenter bring against an entire battalion?

So this is 600 men minimal, okay, probably more.

And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him.

And twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand.

And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews.

And they spit on him, and they took the reed and struck him on the head.

And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put on his own clothes and led him away to be crucified.

The point is, of all the images, that Jesus could have just decided to employ in describing what it is to be a disciple.

He says, hey guys, discipleship is going to look like you taking up your cross.

You forfeit your life to God.

You yield your entire life to Jesus.

All your rights.

And self-determination ends.

However, and this is a big however, because there's another verse in that passage, when you lose your life to Rome, nothing good happens.

But when you lose your life to Christ, remember what the next verse says?

For whoever would save his life would lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it.

So Jesus is saying where disciples are concerned, there's going to be a time in your life in discipleship where it feels like Jesus is killing you.

He's saying following me is going to feel like you're losing your life.

And yet, the weird thing is, you may feel like you're losing it, but in all actuality, you're gaining it.

You're getting the real you.

The very act of yielding ourselves to Jesus is the means by which we discover who we really are.

Jesus says, don't do you, do Jesus.

And as a pastor, I'm always trying to figure out how I can communicate this beautiful truth.

The beautiful paradox of the Christian life is this.

As you deny yourself and follow Jesus, you become the true you that God thought up in the first place.

See, every time you violate a precept of the rabbi, every time you refuse to walk in the dust of the rabbi, remember, these precepts are objective.

You lose.

You lose.

If you refuse to walk in his path, you're not gaining yourself.

You're losing the self that God intended in the beginning.

So that the process of discipleship is to sharpen you.

Again, you're the clay on the potter's wheel.

He's forming and shaping you to become what God envisioned you becoming before you were even in your mother's womb.

which is why as a disciple, you're constantly asking yourself good questions like, where am I going that I shouldn't be going?

What am I doing that I shouldn't be doing?

What am I pursuing I should not be pursuing?

What am I looking at that I should not be looking at?

What does God want me to let go of that I'm holding on to?

And what should I be holding on to that I'm tempted to let go of?

It's a crucial question.

When you came to Jesus, did you realize this is what you were doing?

You were giving up your rights, your desires, and your pursuits over to Jesus and saying, Jesus, I follow you.

Whatever rights you give me, I take.

Whatever desires you create in me, I welcome.

Whatever you want me to pursue ultimately, I will pursue.

This is called discipleship.

And it's often a painful process because there's a great cost to it.

And few will be willing to pay it.

So first, discipleship is a non-negotiable.

Second, discipleship is full-on.

Third, discipleship is costly.

Quickly now, discipleship is missional.

Discipleship is missional.

In Matthew 28, the famous passage, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all I've commanded you.

And behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age.

Now this entire passage is basically structured around four alls, A-L-Ls.

And in case we missed it, the first one is all authority.

That is, Jesus has all authority.

And if we misunderstand, he says in heaven and earth.

So that about covers it.

Jesus is saying everything belongs to him.

Every person belongs to him.

Everything belongs to him.

Psalm 24, the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it, for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters.

It's Jesus' way of saying, I'm the boss of you.

I am your boss.

I am your master.

But I'm a kind and gentle master.

And I'm the master.

When you serve this master, you gain everything.

You lose your life to me.

You gain it all.

You gain both heaven and earth.

if we are to consider the fact that everything belongs to Jesus, then everything everywhere belongs to him.

And that means that Jesus must have a genuine concern for every place on this planet and every person on this planet.

And because you and I are walking in the dust of the rabbi, that's the calling on our lives as disciples as well, that we would have passion and compassion and concern for every person, every place, at home, at school, in the coffee shops, in every part of this world.

That's what it means to be a disciple.

And our job, as you know by the passages, we're supposed to go into all the world, that's another one of the alls, and make disciples.

Now, as soon as I say that, I know that it strikes a lot of guilt in people's lives because they think, well, this is a real burden.

I don't know how to do that.

And I've not had a good experience.

And yet here you are telling me that if I'm truly a disciple of Jesus, that I'll be making disciples of others.

Well, it's only a burden to you because you don't yet understand how this happens.

This should be one of the most enjoyable experiences of our lives, not a burden at all.

To a religious person, they may see it as a burden, but a Christ follower actually sees it as a luxury, not as an obligation, but as a beautiful, wonderful opportunity.

I've been reading some stories about the war again, about World War I and II, watching some documentaries, but I read a story this past week.

After the Korean War, It happened often with our soldiers.

When the American soldiers left, they often left wives and children behind.

And one particular GI had an affair with a Korean woman and left her pregnant.

And after some time, of course, she gave birth to a little girl.

And right away, she had to deal with rejection and ostracization that comes with having a child without a father in Korea.

And worse yet, the child was ridiculed because the child doesn't look like all the other children.

She has light colored hair and skin, having an American father.

In some cases, we read where the rejection was so severe that the mother would actually kill the child to spare them the shame.

In this case, the story I read, she actually decided to keep the child.

For the first seven years, she tried to do the best she could.

But the condemnation and rejection was so overwhelming.

She went into depression, and then she ends up doing something she never thought she would do.

She abandoned her child to the streets.

So here we have this little girl who's living life on the streets.

She manages to survive, even though she was called what is called a tuki, which means alien devil.

And she actually became to believe that about herself.

But somehow she manages to survive, and then she finds her way to an orphanage.

And she's kind of street smart, so she's not only involved in getting her own care, but giving care to some of the younger kids as well.

And the story talks about the day an American couple came in to adopt a little Korean boy.

She joined the staff of the orphanage, cleaning up all the little boys, wondering which one, like everybody else, are they going to take?

Which little boy gets rescued or saved?

Now let me read the rest of it to make sure I don't mess it up here.

She says, it was like Goliath had come back to life.

I saw this man with huge hands lift each and every baby.

I knew he loved each and every one of them as if they were his own.

I saw tears running down his face.

And I knew that if they could, they would have taken the whole lot of them home.

Then he saw me out of the corner of his eye.

I was nine years old.

I didn't even weigh 30 pounds.

I was a scrawling thing with worms in my body and lice in my hair.

I had boils all over my body.

I was full of scars.

I was not a pretty sight.

But the man came over to me muttering something in English.

I looked up at him as he took his huge hand and laid it on my face.

What was he saying?

He was saying, I want this child.

This is the child for me.

Can you imagine how she must have felt when she discovered what he was saying through the translator?

She felt the hand of warmth on her face and learned that she was actually wanted.

That man believed she belonged to him.

Listen.

Everyone here listening and in the room, at one time or another, we were all spiritual orphans, separated from God by sin and shame and guilt, deserving judgment, not grace.

But the good news of the gospel that Jesus came to bring is that God sent him, his son, to bring us home, that God may grab our face in his hands.

and tell us we are the one he wants, that we are the apple of his eye.

And the thing about God is he does that with everyone.

He owns everyone and everything everywhere.

And it's not his desire, according to the scripture, that anyone should perish, but that we would all have everlasting life.

And I gotta tell you, I am weary of people telling me that the world is too far gone and there's nothing that we can do, that it's impossible to reach those who are far from God.

But isn't that the point?

It is not us reaching them.

It's God reaching down to all of us.

What is impossible with man is possible with God.

Can I show you something?

In Mark chapter 13, go over to chapter 13, verse 9.

He's talking to the disciples and he says, you must be on your guard.

You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues.

Again, another passage about the cost of discipleship.

On account of me, you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them.

And the gospel must first be preached to all nations.

Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say.

Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.

The point here is that we are not converters, we're conduits through whom the Holy Spirit works.

See, when you start to get that, yes, your calling as a disciple is first and foremost to live a life of distinction that will compel others.

So if you're not ready to start there, Your effectiveness as being salt and light and compelling people in the relationship with Jesus is gonna be severely limited.

Second, our job is to pray that others will have the Jesus revelation that we've had so that they can see the truth of the gospel.

And then to be ready in season and out of season to give a reason for the hope that is within us when God presents us with the opportunity.

Part of the reason fewer and fewer people are considering Christ in the West, not in other places, by the way, Christianity is exploding in other places, but in the West, part of the reason is because there are fewer true disciples whose lives are noticeably different.

My father-in-law, Charles Delaney, preaching the gospel for many, many years, and I asked him to speak at ICOM, the International Conference on Mission, a few years ago when I was the president.

And in that sermon, he said, why would people of the world want to come into the church when the church is no different to the world?

Now that doesn't mean that we don't develop a strategy, and we do, and it's called one life at our church.

One life means each one reach one.

But understand how it happens.

It means that we invest in a relationship with someone far from God, and then we live a life of distinction.

that we're distinctly holy.

We are walking in the dust of the rabbi and then we're praying for God to introduce us to an opportunity to walk the gospel in.

And we trust that God then will give us the right word at the right time for transformation to occur, just like he promised his disciples in Mark chapter 13.

Jesus says all authority.

Jesus has authority in every place, all nations.

We dare not stop at our shores, obeying all I have commanded you.

And this is where discipleship, this is where the rubber hits the road.

Stay with me, almost finished.

A disciple is someone who obeys all Jesus has commanded you.

Now say this with me in your mind.

First, discipleship is non-negotiable.

Discipleship is full on.

Discipleship is costly.

Discipleship is missional.

Discipleship is responsive.

Discipleship is a lifetime of investigation and commits to all that Jesus has commanded us to do.

All of it, not some, not most, just what you like, just what you agree with, no, all of it.

And the process of discipleship is the discovery of all that Jesus has commanded us.

It is to allow someone to teach and to guide us into the truth that Jesus actually teaches, not into the truth that we feel should be objective.

In effect, to be a disciple is to say, Jesus commands this, therefore, this is what I am going to do.

And when you come to a crossroads between culture and Jesus, you take the Jesus road, period.

But part of that also means that following Jesus means that he comes first in everything.

If we're a disciple of Jesus, it means he's at the center.

And everything else is now displaced.

It's not that the focus of my life is my career and I'm going to have a bit of Jesus on the side.

That's not being a disciple.

A disciple says, okay, from now on, Jesus, it doesn't mean I stop doing everything else.

It just means that Jesus comes first in everything.

He comes before everything else now, even the very best things in life.

He comes before family, before livelihood, before security, before whatever identity I brought into my relationship with him.

When it comes to being a disciple, whatever previously came first is now a very, very, very distant second.

And we're living in a time, honestly, when so many of my friends have faded away from the gospel.

Other things have now started to come first in people that I never thought it would happen.

So for instance, somebody who's been a Christ follower for most of their life, suddenly they meet someone they like and they say, you know what?

I choose sex before marriage because this is before Christ.

This is what I want.

I'm going to do it.

At that point, they're not saying, I want to walk in the dust of the rabbi.

At that point, they're saying, I don't want to be a disciple anymore.

I think many people discovered free time during COVID and now they choose bed over Jesus.

Now I know that's gonna hurt some people, but the reality is some of you got out of the habit and suddenly you started thinking, you know, I got this free time.

Remember, it's about you.

I've got my free time and I'd rather sleep in.

So suddenly church takes a backseat.

It's not that important to you anymore.

And being around the people of God is not that important to you anymore.

You've become a consumer now.

I just want to consume this without giving my life to it.

It doesn't work like that.

Some of my friends have found a new hobby or interest during COVID.

A lot of people are on the golf course now.

My friends, they said, you know what?

I love golf and I'm just going to watch it when I get home in the afternoon.

I'll sit down and watch it.

To them, watching a sermon is the same as discipleship.

The problem is, make no mistake, when something starts to take priority over Jesus, it's not long until Jesus is completely pushed out.

It's a very slippery slope.

Apparently, during the Crusades, As some of the soldiers were baptized, they would go down into the river and some of them would hold their swords above the water as if to say, everything else is getting baptized, but not this part of my life.

I'm keeping this sword in my arm above the water because Jesus, you can have everything else, but when it comes to this sword, I'm doing my thing.

And I think that's the picture that many Christ followers have, that we're always tempted to hold something back from our discipleship, which means we're not a disciple at all.

Because the process of discipleship is a lifetime of letting anything go that contradicts with walking in the dust of the rabbi and giving that thing over to God and seeking his kingdom first and then believing all other things will be added to you.

Most people will say, I will follow Jesus, but now right there, you're already sunk.

There is no, but I will follow Jesus.

They say, but I want to maintain my sexual identity.

I want to maintain my own sexual ethic.

I want to pursue my own pathway in life.

I want to interpret the Bible my own.

way.

I'm saying to you that part of the way that is narrow means that far too many people will come to Jesus and say, listen, Jesus, all of these areas of my life are open to you.

You can have them.

Look, come and look.

I've prepared them for you.

But this area over here, that belongs to me.

I got to do things my own way.

And that's why we have claimed Christ followers, disciples, participating in immorality, engaging in sex before marriage, sex outside of marriage, committing adultery and rationalizing about it, forsaking the assembly of God's people, seeking first the kingdom, their kingdom, and their own personal righteousness, and most of all, storing up treasures on the earth.

That's right.

The number one area.

The number one area where people say, I'm not gonna be a disciple, I'm not gonna follow Jesus, is in our stuff, in our finances.

Pastors know this.

That's why they talk about it.

And Jesus knows this.

That's why he talked about it more than any other topic in the New Testament.

Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

You're either a disciple of Jesus or a disciple of money.

You either follow Jesus or you follow stuff.

Man cannot serve both God and money.

So when Jesus comes to you as your rabbi and says, I want you to invest your resources in something bigger than yourself, in this, in bringing the kingdom of heaven to the kingdoms of earth, and you say no, then what you're basically saying is, I don't want to follow Jesus anymore.

Jesus asked for nothing less than to come before everything else in your life, and Jesus is worthy of nothing less.

My biggest fear is that one of the most dangerous habits that we can get into as Christ followers is what I call delayed obedience.

It's where you hear a message like this and you take a good look at your life and you know there are things there and you say, you know what, Pastor Jeff, you're right.

I've got these things.

You know what?

I'm not quite ready to give them up yet, but I can see in a few years I'll give them up.

No.

Discipleship is both total and urgent.

Total and urgent.

The longer you delay, the chances decrease significantly of you ever giving your life and following Christ.

And then the day of judgment comes and accountability, and it's just too late.

It's always worth us asking, which voices in the world are we giving our priorities to?

Who are we listening to?

What are we pursuing?

What are we chasing after?

What are we committed to hearing?

Who do I distinctively and instinctively want to please and obey rather than Jesus?

Whose kingdom am I really building on this earth?

Say it with me again.

Discipleship is non-negotiable.

Discipleship is full-on.

Discipleship is costly.

Discipleship is missional.

And discipleship is responsive.

When I think of discipleship, and let me say again, there's no such thing as a Christian who's not a disciple.

There's no such thing.

You're either all in or you're not in at all.

That does not mean that you're perfect and that you never sin.

It simply means that the will is bent toward walking in the dust of the rabbi.

And when the Holy Spirit illuminates something in your life that contradicts the teachings, the precepts, and the applications of your rabbi, Yeshua, Jesus Christ.

You do a 180, you turn and you walk in the direction of Christ so that one day together we will all walk into eternity with him.

As I said before, if you're not following Jesus on earth, what makes you think you're going to follow him into eternity?

Every time I do a series like just quickly in John 21, I love it when Jesus comes back to restore Peter.

Peter's denied him three times.

Now Jesus is meeting with the disciples, and I think the purpose of John 21, especially verse 15 through 21, is to remind us of Jesus' grace and mercy.

But when he comes to Peter, he still reminds Peter of what it means to be a disciple.

And as you look through the text, you learn that Jesus says, are you going to love me more than anything else?

Are you going to pursue me more than anything else, even your own life?

And of course, Peter says yes, and then Jesus says good, because you're going to stretch out your hands, and you're going to die, and you're going to glorify me.

Now, after that, I think it's around verse 18 and 19, Jesus looks to Peter and says, Peter, follow me.

And evidently in the text, the way it's written, Jesus turns.

and takes a step, but Peter doesn't follow.

Instead, he looks to his friend John and says, well, what about John?

What about this guy?

In other words, if I'm gonna pay the ultimate price for following you, what about John?

Is his life gonna be easy?

And I love the sarcasm.

Jesus returns a response by saying, basically, that's none of your business.

He says, what is that to you?

You worry about you, I'll worry about John.

Now, this is crucial in discipleship.

The calling on our lives always to follow Jesus and to walk in the dust of the rabbi.

The fact of the matter is, there is a unique, specific calling on all of us.

And can I tell you, the greater the calling in the fact that God wants to accomplish, the greater thing that God wants to accomplish in you, the more difficult your life is going to be.

So if you've not died yourself, willing to give up your rights, your desires, your pursuits to him, You may get into heaven, but can I tell you, you would have missed discovering who you really were and what God had in mind from the day he thought about you.

And that would be the biggest tragedy of all.

Father, thank you that you call us to discipleship.

That this is serious business.

That there's no such thing as a Christ follower who is not a disciple.

We are thankful for your grace and mercy that forgives us when we fail, and we know that we do.

But we also know the intent of our will.

That's what matters most to you.

Are we on a journey of discovery?

of your precepts and application so that we may walk in your will and word to compel those who are far from God to come near.

Forgive us, help us.

May this be a weekend of repentance where we say, that's it.

I'm turning around.

I'm gonna discover who I really am by walking in the dust of the rabbi.

In Christ's name, amen.