Chapter 1, Mark Chapter 1, It's a privilege to be in God's house
this morning. And boy, I think it's, I've said
this many times, but I think we take it for granted so often.
What an opportunity that we have to, to be in God's house and to
open his word. And I'm telling there's, there's
people all around the world today that would love to have
the opportunity that we have right now.
They're meeting in China and, and other places where they have
to meet underground and they have to hide the fact that
they're going to church and they don't have Bibles because
there's no Bibles available to them.
What a what a tremendous privilege that we have.
I hope you never take it for granted, but in Mark chapter
one, we have obviously the beginning of this book and the
disciples are are being called for the first time and we picked
this up. I just want to read a few verses
here in Mark chapter #1 and let's start in verse #16
obviously talking about Jesus. Now as he walked by the Sea of
Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into
the sea, For they were fishers. And Jesus said unto them, Come
ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.
And straightway they forsook their Nets, and followed him.
And when he had gone a little farther, thence he saw James the
son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the
ship mending their Nets. And straightway he called them
and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the
hired servants and one after him.
And we hear a lot about discipleship and not not that
that's a bad thing, but you know, many churches have
discipleship classes and and they have conferences on
discipleship. And I'm for that.
I don't. I don't have anything.
Against that at all, obviously we do a lot of that ourselves.
We have a lot of books that are written about discipleship.
I have a whole section of books on my shelf that's all dealing
with discipleship. We are going through our one
year discipleship course on Wednesday nights right now.
So I'm in favor of discipleship. I'm in favor from books about
discipleship, but here in our text, we're given one of the
clearest and probably the most powerful picture of discipleship
in all of the Bible. And this is, this is not
complicated. It's not, it's not theoretical,
it's not a program, it's not a book that somebody wrote to take
you through it. It's a response to a person,
capital P. And we have that response in
Mark chapter 1. And this will be our text here
in verse #18. And straightway they forsook
their Nets and followed him. Let me say before we we get any
further into the message that there's a difference between
interest and commitment. There's a difference between
interest and commitment. A man that says he has an
interest in getting in shape is going to go out and buy a pair
of shoes and maybe some workout clothes and maybe even a
membership to the gym. He's going to start watching
some videos on how to work out and how to do those things the
best. But if he never changes his
diet, he never shows up at at 5:00 AM for a workout like he's
supposed to, that's a man that's interested in getting in shape,
but he's not committed to getting in shape.
The man that's committed to getting in shape is the one who
involved who who who changes his entire schedule.
He structures his whole life around that goal of getting in
shape. The the Winter Olympics.
I think it's a little bit less obvious at the Winter Olympics
than it is at the Summer Olympics, but they work hard to
get into the shape that they're in so they can go and compete
for their country. That is, that is a whole group
of people. However many athletes, I think
280 something athletes that are there representing their
countries at the Olympics. That is, that is a whole group
of people that have structured their entire life around staying
in shape and around working to in their particular discipline
to to be the best that they can be in their field.
That's commitment. There's a difference between
interest and commitment, and a lot of people are interested and
being disciples, but very few are committed to being disciples
of Jesus Christ. In our text, these men didn't
attend a seminar on how to be fishers of men.
They didn't take notes on the call of Christ.
They moved immediately. The Bible says, and this verse
gives us exactly what discipleship is.
And there are three elements that I see in this verse this
morning that are essential marks of a true disciple.
And if these if these three things that we're going to look
at this morning are not present in somebody's life or in a
church or wherever it happens to be, we may have church
membership, we may have religion, we may have activity,
but we don't have discipleship. And so I want to preach a
message to you this morning on true discipleship.
And I want to look at three things in this passage that are
vital to us being disciples of Jesus Christ.
Let's pray and then we'll look at these things this morning.
Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness to us and
thank you for the opportunity and for the privilege that we do
have of being able to gather around your word this morning.
May it be a help to us. God, I pray that you'd help us
all to be true disciples of Jesus Christ.
I ask for your blessing on the message for your power and
preaching it, and I ask for those who are listening this
morning to hear it in the way that you want them to hear it
and to speak to hearts and only the way that the Holy Spirit
can. And God, I pray that you would
move us into action this morning to being true disciples for you.
Thank you again for all that you do for us in Jesus name, Amen.
I want you to see first of all, that if you're going to be a
true disciple of Jesus Christ, it's going to involve fervency,
verse 18 and, and, and put a bookmark there or something.
We're going to be jumping around a little bit, but we're going to
come back to Mark chapter 1 and verse #18.
But the Bible says, and there's just one word right there.
And straightway that word straightway means to do
something immediately or without delay.
When Jesus called these men, now we know them as the disciples
today, they became the apostles. But there was a lot of disciples
of Jesus Christ, people who Jesus called, who answered that
call. But here these men.
There was no hesitation with them.
Jesus called and straightway, immediately, they got up and
they followed Jesus. There was no negotiation.
Well, what are you going to do for us if we decide to follow
you? What's in it for me?
What? What can I get out of it?
You're calling me to be a disciple.
This is obviously something that you want me to do.
What's what's in it for me? What can I get out of this?
There was no negotiation. When Jesus called, they moved.
They were not putting things off until they could get into a
better situation financially. The true discipleship looks like
exactly what we see happening here.
And straightway, immediately Jesus called them, they went.
True discipleship does not procrastinate.
Some people may set out to obey God, but later the devil's been
using that trick for a long time.
He does it first of all for people who are who need to come
to Christ for salvation, right? He doesn't have any problem with
people come in and accepting Jesus.
Christ as their Savior as long as they do it later.
And he's going to tell them that yes, you do need Christ.
Yes, you do that, that you, you, you need to have your sins
forgiven. You need to have them them
covered under the blood of Jesus Christ.
You need to to and only Jesus Christ can wash away your sins.
The devils believe in tremble, the Bible says, but I think many
times, especially if somebody sitting in a service or if
somebody is giving them the gospel and they're, they're put
to a decision and they're, they're pricked in their heart
and they understand, they know that they need to make that
decision for Christ. But the devil comes and says,
just do it later. This is not the right time.
You got a lot of things going on.
Look at all the things that you're going to have to give up
if you come to Christ. Look what?
Look what's going to look how your life is going to change
and, and, and, and, and you've got everything that's so nice
and so comfortable right now. If you accept Christ, things are
going to be different. You can accept him, but just do
it later. Put it off for a little bit
until there's a better time. The devil's been doing that for
years. And what happens with most of
those people? Is they never come to Christ.
They put it off, and they put it off, and they put it off, and
one day they find themselves standing before God because they
died unexpectedly. Boast not thyself of tomorrow,
for thou knowest not. Thou knowest not what a day may
bring forth. That's what Proverbs tells us.
But he does the same thing. After you're saved, He'll do
everything he can to keep you. From serving the Lord.
Oh, you should serve the Lord. You should do it.
He, he's worthy to be. He's worthy to be served.
He's worthy to be lived for. But just just do it later.
I mean, look, you already got saved, you know that you're on
your way to heaven. You know that you can't spend an
eternity in hell because because of that salvation.
So yeah, the next step is that you need to start living for the
Lord, be a true disciple of Jesus Christ.
But just just do it later. There's plenty of time for that.
You go do what you want to do what for yourself first, Then
you can serve God. And a lot of Christians fall for
those lies later. I'll pray.
More. Later.
I'll serve later, I'll surrender later, I'll get very serious
about living for God. But true discipleship says now
Ecclesiastes Chapter 9 and verse 10 says whatsoever thy hand
findeth to do, do it with all thy might.
That's what he expects us to do immediately.
I was in the EMT for about 5 years in Chesterfield before we
started this church and I. I would have.
Continued. There was a lot of continuing
education hours that you had to do and I just didn't think that
I would have the time to do it after, once we got, once we
started the church. So I, I, I let my certifications
and all that stuff expire, but I wrote out a Chesterfield 19,
Chesterfield Station 19 during that time with Chesterfield Fire
and EMS and, and I would, I would take my computer up there
and get some things done while I was waiting for the, the, the
calls to come out or waiting for the alarm to go off.
But you know what I figured out? When the alarm sounds at the
fire station, nobody says, well let let's finish our coffee
first. Then, then we'll go to that
call, right? Nobody, the alarm goes off.
Nobody says, let's talk about what we're going to do.
And then we'll, then we'll make a decision to decide if it's
worth going to that call or not. No, they don't.
They nobody said, let's take a vote on whether or not we're
going to go. Oh, that alarm goes off and
whatever you are in the middle of you drop it.
And there's been, there was many times when I was sitting up
there, we were in the middle of dinner.
The alarm goes off and everybody's like, well, that
figures. Leave everything there and, and,
and jump in the trucks and head out nobody, because that's,
that's exactly what the there were lives at stake.
And, and many times you get there and it wasn't really a big
deal and it wasn't the life and death emergency that the person
thought it was. But it could.
Be and there were many times when it was a life and death
situation. And if the firefighters had said
this is probably another one of those times when it's not really
an urgent matter. Let's just finish eating 1st and
then we'll go out there and see if this person is still alive or
not. No, but there was an urgency
because lives were on the line. They moved immediately because
of what was at stake. And I think the reason why so
many Christians are not fervent is because they've lost the
sense that eternity is at stake. Discipleship means that when God
speaks, you move. There are people that are dying
without Christ. There are people that are that
are on their way to hell right now that because you won't
commit to true discipleship, you're interested in it.
That's why you're here this morning.
But you won't commit to true discipleship.
And there are people that are dying around you that you have
an opportunity to witness to because you haven't committed
your life to Christ. Their eternity is hanging in the
balance. True discipleship doesn't
procrastinate. True discipleship makes use of
the opportunities. See, when when Christ passes by,
you cannot assume he's going to pass by again if you don't
answer that call. These fishermen understood
something. They may not have the
opportunity to follow Christ again.
Jesus had walked the shores of Galilee for his entire life
growing up. That's where he grew up.
He grew up in Nazareth, right on the shores of Galilee.
It's only 60 miles all the way around the entire the Sea of
Galilee. I'm sure Jesus had done that
many times. He had walked around that sea,
He probably knew that certain area like the back of his hand
and he had probably seen those fishermen on that same shore
many times, but today was different.
He walked to them and he said follow me and I'll make you
fishers of men. That was their opportunity.
That was their window of time that they had to become
disciples of Jesus Christ. The Bible says immediately,
straight way they followed him. If they had waited to mend one
more net, or waited to make one more sale, or if they had waited
to talk it over amongst themselves and Mull it around in
their minds for a while to see if there was some advantage to
following Christ, then very likely they would have missed
their calling. Turn over to Mark chapter 10.
You're not too far from there. I want you to think about the
rich young ruler. Young, wealthy, obviously lots
of potential. Obviously a desire to follow
Jesus. He was interested in it because
he comes to Jesus and he asked him what he needed to do to be
his disciple, and Jesus told him exactly what he needed to do,
surrender to Christ. Now for him that looked like
giving up his riches, his riches.
He was very wealthy. That's why he's called the rich
young ruler. But obviously he was interested
in being a disciple of Jesus Christ.
He wanted to know, what do I have to do to be a disciple?
But look at what happens in Mark chapter 10 and verse #22 And we
see this parallel passage in almost every, I think, in all of
the all three of the other gospels as well.
But Mark chapter 10 and verse 22 says it this way.
And he was sad at that. Saying and went away grieved,
for he had great possessions. That rich young ruler went away
sorrowful, He delayed and that delay became disobedience.
And we have no record in the rest of that Bible that the the
rich young ruler ever came back and, and took advantage of the
opportunity that he had to follow Jesus Christ as a
disciple of Jesus Christ. He passed his window of
opportunity. Jesus called him to be a
disciple. This is what you need to do.
And he went away sorrowful because he did not do it
immediately. He didn't do it straight way the
way that these fishermen did. And I wonder how many Christians
there are out in the. World today that have every
intention of surrendering their lives to Christ, but they waited
because they wanted to see what was going to happen first.
They wanted to see what other opportunities presented
themselves. They wanted to see how this was
going to benefit them before they follow Jesus Christ.
And they didn't follow him. And now they're still sitting
maybe even in churches today, maybe still with an interest in
being a disciple of Jesus Christ.
But they missed the opportunity that they had to follow Jesus
Christ as a true disciple. Of Jesus Christ because they
didn't follow him straightway. They missed their moment.
True discipleship is marked by a spiritual urgency.
Turn over to Romans chapter 12. See, our churches are full of
people who are saved but who are not surrendered.
And I dare say that many of our churches are full of people who
are not even saved, first of all.
But those who are saved are not surrendered to doing whatever it
is that God wants them to do with their lives.
There's very little zeal. There's very little passion for
the things of God. There's very little urgency.
We'll get them talking about the things that they're interested
in, and they'll talk your ear off about it, start talking
about the things of God. And there's just not that much
interest anymore because they have no passion for
discipleship, because they see no urgency.
We're given a list in Romans chapter 12 of the marks of a
true Christian, a true disciple. And in verse #11 kind of right
in the middle of that list, it says this not slothful in
business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.
You cannot be a true disciple of Jesus Christ and be casual about
the things of God. Please understand something this
morning. The the greatest enemy of
discipleship is not rebellion. It is procrastination.
Most people that are sitting in churches that are.
Saved are not saying no way in the world you're going to get me
to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
No way I'm going to follow what God wants me to do.
No way that I'm going to go anywhere that he wants me to go.
No, most people are saying, you know what?
I need to do that I need to, I need to surrender.
I need to do what God wants me to do.
I need to live for him. But I've just got so many things
going on right now that that's going to have to wait.
And they procrastinate, and they procrastinate, and they put it
off, and they put it off until it's too late to do what God
called. Them to do we're not following,
we're not not following God because we hate the Bible or
because we hate prayer or we hate souls, but we've just a lot
of other things that we allow to get in the way.
We have a lot of other things that we want to accomplish
first. Once I get my things done, then
I can turn and focus on some of the other things of God, but
that's not how discipleship works.
When God says pray, do it straight way.
When God says serve, do it straight way.
When God says give, do it straight way.
When God says go, do it straight way.
That's what a true discipleship, a true disciple does.
That's what true discipleship looks like.
There's a fervency to. It there's a there's an
immediacy to it, a true disciple will be marked.
By Fervency, but also I want you to see this go back over to Mark
Chapter 1. True discipleship is not just
marked by fervency, it's also marked by forsaking.
The Bible says in Mark chapter 1 and verse #18 and straightway
they forsook their. Nets.
They did it immediately, but they forsook some things.
They were hindering them from being true disciples of Jesus
Christ. Discipleship always costs
something because discipleship requires sacrifice.
And that's what most people. Are not willing to part with
turn over to Luke chapter 14. Salvation is free but
discipleship will cost you everything.
These fishermen that became disciples of Jesus did not
adjust their schedule to fit Jesus.
In they say, well, yes, discipleship is important.
So I'm going to I'm going to do a little bit of that here and
there. They abandoned everything to
follow Christ. Their Nets were their.
Livelihood that was their that was their income, that was their
future. And yet they laid them down
because Christ called them. You think about the sacrifice
that they made. They walked away from all of it.
It's not like they had insurance so that if they if they ever
lost their job, they would get compensated for it.
They didn't have that. They didn't.
They didn't have bank accounts that had four O 1 KS in them
that they were going to live off of for the rest of their lives.
They had the little jangling bag of money that they carried with
them and that was probably about it.
But they didn't say, well, well, OK, we'll follow you.
But you got to explain how all this is going to work out.
You got to tell me how this how this whole thing ends if I if I
surrender and if I follow you and if I forsake these things
and tell me how we're going to be taken care of.
I got to make sure that that everything's lined up before I
agree to do this. They didn't.
They just forsook everything. That was everything that they
had, That was everything that they lived for.
That was everything that kept them alive.
They didn't. They forsook all of it.
Here's what you have to understand.
You cannot follow Christ and hold on to everything else.
Jesus was teaching a great multitude on discipleship in
Luke chapter 14. And this is the conclusion that
Jesus came to after he was talking to them for a while
about this in verse #33 He says this.
So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that
he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
Think about the the, the, the ramifications of that.
Think about the, the, the, the seriousness of that.
Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath,
he cannot be my disciple. He doesn't say should not be my
disciple. He says cannot be my disciple.
So many Christians want to add Jesus Christ to their life
without subtracting anything else.
But discipleship always involves surrender.
Discipleship always involves surrender.
Being a true disciple of Jesus Christ means you have to abandon
some of the dreams that you think you have for yourself.
Being a true disciple means you have to abandon some of the
things that you think you are good at, to follow Christ and to
do His work. I always hesitate to use myself
an example because I don't want you to get the wrong idea that
I'm up here thinking that I'm the model Christian or I'm the
one that everybody should follow, that I have everything
figured out. I use personal examples
sometimes to show you that I'm doing my best to practice what I
preach, but also that I don't live in a vacuum of church.
I understand what life is like in the real world outside of
church. So there's a lot of things that
I think that I could be doing and this is in my own mind, but
there's a lot of things that I think I could be doing besides
standing behind this pulpit. I wanted to be in the military
and I think I'd have been decent at it.
I love the the police side of things and I think that's
something I'd really enjoy. Have a mind at least a little
bit for business when it comes to, to being a, you know, doing
entrepreneurial type things. Those are things that I, that I
think I could succeed at if I stepped out of the pulpit and
went right into those things. Now, I don't know.
I'm, I'm, I'm not saying that I've got all these talents and
these abilities and everything else, but they're things that,
that their interests that I have and things that, that I feel
like I might be OK at. But Jesus called me to be a
disciple and I'm so glad that I answered that call.
I don't make a lot of money. I don't have the money to do
anything and everything that I want to do.
I can't just go buy something because I feel like I want.
I can't drive whatever I want to drive.
I don't have a bunch of money sitting in a, in a, in a, in a
savings account somewhere just waiting for me to finally retire
and go enjoy life somewhere I don't have.
Those are things that you give up when you decide to become a
disciple of Jesus Christ. But there is no life that I
would rather be living than the life that I'm living for Jesus
Christ right now. I'm leaving tomorrow morning to
go down to Belize, and I wish it was for a vacation.
It's not. But I will say it's going to be
82° in Belize and you're going to be cold here.
So at least there's that. But we're going down to sign the
contracts on this, on this missions property to see what
God will do with a bunch of disciples who are willing to
surrender themselves to do whatever it is that God wants
them to do. And who knows how many souls are
going to be saved as a result of this.
And, and there's a bunch of you that have gone down there with
me to Belize and have seen the ministry and have seen the
potential, have seen what God can do.
And a lot of you have been willing to be a part of those
things. It's an amazing thing.
The more that's that's more exciting than making triple what
my salary. Is right now.
Because I know this, that one day when I stand before God, I
want to he. He might come back today and I
hope he does. And all of these things that
we're working on are not going to be, they're not going to
count for anything necessarily because he's coming back and,
and everything can just go on the way that it is.
I'll be in heaven. But when he comes back, I want
him to find me with my shoulder to the to the plow and just
pushing forward as far and as fast as I can for Christ.
I don't know what opportunities I have left.
I want to make it count for Christ.
And one of these days when I'm gone, it doesn't matter how much
money I had in my bank account. It doesn't matter what my house
look like. It doesn't matter what kind of
car I drive. It doesn't matter whether I was
successful in business or in the military or in anything else
that I feel like I could accomplish something in.
Those things are going to count for nothing.
Only what we do for Christ is what's going to matter.
Only what we do for Christ is what's going to count for
something. And I want to be able to take
all those things and give it to him and say, I surrendered some
things in my life that I wish I could have had.
I gave up some things that I thought would be enjoyable, but
here's what I got to replace it and I'm giving it back to you.
That's what true discipleship gives you when you're willing to
surrender those things to Christ.
God's opening a lot of doors with the with the police work,
it's opened a lot of doors in this church.
I just, I just told my wife yesterday we were talking about,
I said, I have a lot of things in my plate right now and none
of it's bringing in any money. But that's not what it's about.
I wanted to be I want to be surrendered to Christ into his
work. And I've said this, I and and I
know that that a lot of you look at things and you say, well,
he's just you got. I don't know how you get the
things done that you get done and, and God works all of those
things out. There are a lot of things that
we're working on, but. Here's, here's something that I,
that I, I don't even know where I came up with this or, or when,
but I think when you're younger, you have a lot of energy and
very little wisdom and you think you're smart, you think you know
everything. And then you look back 20 years
later and you realize how little you actually know, right.
And I'll probably look back in 20 years and think, man, I
really didn't know anything then either.
My father-in-law always used to say that you don't have any
sense until you're 40 and you're not guaranteed any after that.
But when you're young, you have a lot of energy and not a lot of
wisdom. When you're old, you have a lot
of wisdom and no energy, right? I think you have a little.
Window in there. Where you have the.
Most energy and the most wisdom that you're going to have at the
same time. And I'm in that window right now
and I'm trying to make it count because one of these days I'm
not going to have the energy to be able to do the things that
we're doing right now. We're trying to make it count
for Christ while we have the opportunity to do it.
And boy, I hope he comes back at the end of that window so I
don't have to lose all my energy and know all the things that I
should have done that I didn't do because I had, you know, I
had no wisdom and no knowledge of how to do it.
But I tell you this, these fishermen, they forsook more
than just their Nets. Go back over to Mark chapter
one. Oh, it's easy to to say, you
know, I'll give my life for Christ and, and I'll give up my
livelihood and I'll, I'll go surrender and I'll, if God wants
me to go to the mission field, I'll go to the mission field.
If God wants me to do this or that or whatever, I'll do it.
Easy to say that, hard to do it. But that's just that's just
giving up the livelihood. That's just giving up the
prospects of having hundreds of thousands of dollars in your
bank account, right? That's, that's all that's given
up. Look they these disciples in
Mark chapter one verse #20 and straightway he called them, and
they left their father Zebedee in the ship.
With the hired servants, it's kind of funny to me because I
can see Zebedee sitting there after they left saying what in
the world just happened? I had all my I had all my kids
around me. They were helping me work in
this in this business. And this guy comes along and
says come follow me. And now I don't have any help.
What what what just happened? Just sitting there in the ship
by himself? They.
Didn't just leave their Nets. They left their relationships,
they left their reputations, they left their comfort, they
left their familiarity. They left everything to follow
Christ. Turn over to Luke chapter. 14
Again, this is what Jesus has to say about it.
Luke chapter 14, verse #26. If any man come after me, sorry.
If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and
wife and children and brethren and sisters, yeah, and his own
life also, he cannot be my disciple.
And whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot
be my disciple. Anything that comes before
Christ must be left behind if you're going to be a true
disciple of Jesus Christ. So what keeps Christians from
discipleship today? Comfort.
I like my life, I like where I'm at.
I like how easy everything is in America.
Convenience. I don't want to be
inconvenienced. I don't want to.
I don't want to sit in a house with no AC in it.
I don't want to not have money to buy the things that I want to
have. I don't want to not be able to
do this or do that. I like my possessions and my
conveniences. Career.
Hey, when I, when I get all done with everything that I want to
accomplish in my life, then I'll give the rest of my life to
living for the Lord. You're going to give them the
broken down pieces that are left.
So it's going to happen and you're going to do everything
for yourself and you're going to look back and you're going to
say wish I'd done more for Christ because now I'm old and
now I'm wise enough to understand that I should have
given my life to Christ, but I don't have the energy left to do
it. And all I got left is these few
broken pieces that I can give him for a couple years.
You're going to wish, you're going to wish that you had
surrendered your life to Christ. Oh, a lot of people want to
follow Christ as long as it costs them nothing.
There's always a cross before there's a crown.
Ever heard of the story of the one way missionaries?
Late 1800s, early 1900s. There was a group of
missionaries who dedicated their lives to following Christ.
So no matter what the cost was, they decided that they were
going to do it. And so instead of packing
suitcases, they would pack all of their belongings into a
coffin and buy a one way ticket and go to wherever they felt God
was leading them as a missionary.
One way tickets don't get you back home coffins.
I mean, you're planning to stay there for life.
And one of the missionaries was a guy by the name of Peter
Milne. And he left the Lord.
He felt the Lord leading him to a tribe of headhunters in the
New Hebrides Islands in the South Pacific off of Australia's
coast. And every missionary that had
ever tried to reach those people had been killed.
But he felt like that's where God was leading him to go as a
missionary. And so he packed up all his
belongings into a coffin. He bought a one way ticket, and
he headed off to those islands. They didn't kill him.
He spent the next 50 years sharing the message of the
gospel among the natives on that island.
And he died 50 years later of natural causes.
And that tribe buried him. And they inscribed this on his
tombstone. When he came, there was no
light. When he left, there was no
darkness. Turn over to Matthew chapter 16.
What a powerful testimony of a true servant of Jesus Christ.
We need to be one way missionaries.
The reason why we don't accomplish much for Christ is
because we always give ourselves a way out.
I'll serve Christ until it's not convenient anymore.
Then I'm going to go back to what I know.
Matthew chapter 16 and verse #24 Then said Jesus unto his
disciples, if any man will come after me, and let him deny
himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever
will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
That's the spirit of a true disciple.
Tell me how many people have that mindset today?
So few, so few. Now if I, if I want to, if I
really want to make it big, I got to go out there and do that
for myself. No, I don't know.
If you save your life, you're going to lose it.
If you lose. Your life for my sake and the
gospels. You'll find it.
What a concept. It's not.
I'll follow Jesus as long as it works out for me.
Anywhere, any cost, any length of time, I'm yours.
I'm a disciple and discipleship involves forsaking, not just
fervency, not just forsaking, but back over in Mark chapter 1,
I want to give you the last point here.
The Bible says this and straightway fervency.
They forsook their Nets forsaking and the last phrase
there says and followed him. Third Point when it comes to
true discipleship is following. That's the heart of all
discipleship. That's the goal.
That's the purpose of discipleship.
Discipleship is not about a system.
It's not about a denomination. It's not about being a Baptist.
It's not about a program. Discipleship is about a person.
They followed him. That's discipleship.
Christ is the object of discipleship.
Philippians chapter 1 and verse 21 for to me.
To live is Christ, and to die is gain.
The goal of discipleship is not knowledge, although knowledge is
not a bad thing if we apply that knowledge and use it to.
Further work for Christ. But the goal of discipleship is
not just knowledge, it's Christ likeness.
I want to be like Christ. That's going to make you a true
disciple of Him. It's not activity, it's
obedience. And there are so many people who
are busy trying to pretend that they're doing things for God,
but they're not really following Him.
They're not obeying him. It's not about position, it's
about closest closeness to him. That's what true discipleship
boils down to. How close are you following
Christ? How much do you look like him?
Can people tell that you're even related?
What happens in a family? Following requires submission.
A servant does not choose the path.
The master chooses the path the servant follows.
We don't. Vote on God's will.
We just do it. God calls you.
All right, well, let me let me think about this for a little
bit. All right, let's put it to a
vote. Let's see if this this is God's
will or not. Let's see if I'm going to follow
God's will or not. No, God gives us his will.
He tells us what he wants us to do, and we do it.
That's true discipleship. We don't improve on his plan.
We don't demand explanations. We just follow.
In the Middle East, shepherds do not drive the sheep.
They lead them. And, and, and, and.
I've seen shepherds in the Middle East and I've seen
shepherds in other places in the world.
In fact, I was in Romania and I was, we, we climbed to the top
of this, this big hill that that overlooked the entire city.
And it was we, we sat down and we got to the top of the hill
and we're looking down on these pastures and there was actually
a giant flock of sheep down there.
And the shepherd comes walking over, and the next thing you
know. All of those sheep.
And it was, I mean, you're looking at it from like an
airplane view. That's how high we were up in
the air. But you can see all of these
sheep and they there was, there was just a big flock of them
that were all there. And as the shepherds started
walking toward the gate, all the sheep started following him.
And the gate was not wide. It was enough for one or maybe 2
sheep to fit through at the same time.
And so you can see this giant flock of sheep that all narrowed
down into one little exit. And there's the shepherd walking
in front of He wasn't behind them, whipping them and driving
them. He was in front.
He was leading them and they were following behind him.
Here's the thing about those sheep.
The sheep follow because they know the shepherd and they
recognize His voice, and they're submitted to the will of the
shepherd because they know that he's the one that's taking care
of them. They don't know where the next
pasture is. They don't know where the water
is going to come from. They don't know a lot of those
things, but they don't have to know.
They don't know where the danger is, but they don't have to know.
The shepherd knows and they just know that they have to follow
the shepherd and that's exactly what they do.
Luke Chapter 9 and verse 23 says if any man will come after me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
Discipleship is not having all the answers, it's knowing who
the shepherd is. Following requires submission,
but it also requires trust. There will be times when you
don't understand where He's leading you.
There'll be times when you don't understand what he's doing.
There'll be times when you don't understand why God allows
something. And I've been in that position
many times in my life. God, I don't know what you're
doing. God, I don't understand why
you're allowing this to happen. But I know that it's you, and I
know that you're leading me, and I don't have all the answers,
but I know that you do, and I'm just going to follow.
That's what true discipleship is all about.
The discipleship is not about understanding everything before
you commit to follow Christ. It's about obedience.
You don't have to understand the Shepherd to know His voice.
Just follow. Just follow.
Turn over to one last passage in John chapter 12.
Mark chapter 1 gives us a picture of true discipleship.
Fervency. No delay, God, you're calling me
Jesus. You want me to do something for
you straightway, I'll do it immediately.
No delay forsaking no rivals. There's there's nobody that that
is going to get in my way of forsaking whatever I need to
forsake to be what you need me and want me to be in a following
no conditions I'm not. I'm not going to follow you if
these things work out. I'm not going to.
Follow you when I'm just going to follow.
That's what true discipleship is all about.
And this, this message is for Christians today.
If you don't know Christ as your Savior, then you can never be a
disciple of Jesus Christ. You can never follow him because
you'll never know his voice. And you'll spin your wheels and
you'll be extremely frustrated trying to be a disciple of Jesus
Christ until you come to know him as your savior.
The questions for Christian, the question for Christians today is
not are you saved? The question is, are you a
disciple? Being saved does not
automatically make you a disciple of Jesus Christ.
You should be, but it doesn't automatically make you a
disciple. Jesus is still calling and the
only response is straightway. Ever been to a wedding?
The bride and groom don't say. I'll be faithful as long as it's
convenient. They don't say that in the vows.
No, they say, forsaking all others.
I commit myself faithfully to you, right.
That's that's discipleship. Jesus didn't call these men to a
class. He didn't.
He called them to himself and they responded.
With fervency, they responded with forsaking.
They responded by following Jesus Christ.
They responded by following Him as the shepherd.
Hernan Cortez landed in Mexico in March of 1519.
Which initiated what's known as the Spanish conquest of the
Aztec empire and he he he first arrived there on the Yucatan
peninsula, but ultimately he ended up establishing a base
near. What's present day?
Veracruz, right there on the coast.
And from there he marched inland.
In the end, by November of that year, he had reached Tanukti
LAN, which is the was the capital of the Aztec Empire.
And they they, they took all of it.
But the key to making that whole thing work happened the moment
they landed in Mexico. Because you know what he did?
He had them burn all their ships, and all those ships in
the harbor sank. Those men did not have a choice.
They were going to either go forward in there, you were going
to conquer, or they were going to die trying because there was
no retreat. There was no way for them to get
back where they came from. He burned all the ships so there
could be no retreat. That's why they conquered.
There was no old life to go back to.
These disciples burned their ships when they dropped their
Nets. They didn't leave themselves a
way out. They removed that backup plan.
And many are not disciples because they're trying to keep
an escape route to their old life.
I'll be a disciple. We'll see how this thing goes.
I'll be a disciple. I'll follow Christ until it gets
a little bit difficult and I'm, I'm out.
Oh, John chapter 12 and verse #26 the Bible says this.
If any man serve me, let him follow me.
And where I am there shall also my servants be.
If any man serve me, him, O my Father, honor.
Well, there's a cost to discipleship.
It's not easy to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ.
There's a great honor that comes with it.
It may not be in this life. It may not be because you can go
out and make a name for yourself.
In fact, a lot of the people who are trying to make names for
themselves are not really true disciples of Christ.
They're disciples of themselves. The people who who get a name
for themselves. Doesn't mean they're not, but
many times it happens after they're dead when everybody
finds out what they actually did for Christ because they were
keeping it hidden because they weren't doing it for that.
They were doing it because they were trying to accomplish things
for Christ. But him the Bible says, will my
father honor. There's a lot of awards that you
can get in this life. Presidential Medal of Freedom is
typically consider to be one of the highest civilian honors that
you can get. Do you know how much that's
going to pale in comparison to get in that crown when you stand
before Christ? Oh, I didn't get the crown, but,
but, but I got a Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The highest honor. The highest honor is going to
pale. In comparison to being a true
disciple of Jesus Christ, Him, will my Father honor what's He
telling you to do that you've been putting off?
What Nets are you still holding on to?
Are you truly following Him or you just walking near Him?
True discipleship involves a lot.
It involves a fervency, an urgency, and understanding that
I cannot delay to be His disciple.
It involves A forsaking. There's a lot of things that you
could have if you decide not to be a disciple of Christ.
There's a lot of things you give up if you do decide to be a
disciple of Jesus Christ. And true discipleship requires
following. Not about some program.
It's not about a 12 step process.
It's about following Christ. Are you a true disciple of Jesus
Christ? It's a question that I want to
leave for you this morning. Are you a true disciple of Jesus
Christ? Let's pray.
Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness to us.
Thank you for the privilege that we have of being here this
morning. Got everybody that's listening
to this message. You know, some may not be saved
and think they are. Some may know they're not saved
and know they need to be. Pray that you'd help them to
come to know you as their Savior.
For those who do know that they're saved, those who do know
that Christ has covered their sins under his blood.
God, may you help us to be true disciples of Christ, not
pretending not, not busy looking like a disciple of Christ, but
truly a disciple of Christ. And may you help us to make the
changes that we need to make in our lives to be what you need us
to be, so that we can be true disciples and truly be used by
you. Well thank you again for all you
do for us. In Jesus name, Amen.