It's great to be with you today. It's great to see each of you.
If we haven't met, my name is Josh.
I have the joy of serving as pastor here at the Garden, and I
am guys. I'm psyched both to be together
today and also to get to have the conversation that we're
having as we wrap up this series, Rewired by love.
This morning we're going to be in Mark chapter 3 looking at
Jesus model of discipleship throughout this series over the
last. Now this will be our 6th week.
We've been really considering this question like how do we how
do we really change not just in terms of what we know, but in
terms of our reflexes, how we respond under stress, under
pressure in relationships. And over the course of the last
few weeks we've been looking at in the first few weeks of the
series, we considered some of the problem.
Despite what we say, we believe so often times our our defaults
are actually formed by our families, firmed by our
experiences. And then we we get into a
relationship with Jesus and want to become like him and, and
learn this new way. And how do we actually do that?
And this is such a an area of passion for me, an area I think
that's so important for every one of us who wants to be a
follower of Jesus. And this morning I'm excited as
we close out the spirit this series to talk about one of the
most important things that we contribute to the change
process, and that is imitation. Before we dive into scripture
this morning and and look at Jesus model of discipleship, I
want to play a little game together.
Is everybody down for that? I know sometimes we sometimes we
are are not always used to using our bodies and our voices in
church, but this is going to be a time for that.
This is going to be an opportunity for you to
participate. So in just a moment, I'm going
to ask you a question, OK? And I want to see how quickly
you are able to answer this question.
OK? It's going to be a simple
question. I promise you know the answer.
So as soon as you hear the question, I want you to shout it
out. OK.
All right, before we do that, I just because it's not it's not
always used to comfortable speaking in church.
So let's warm up our voices. And we're going to do that by
saying the word silk SIL K5 times.
OK, you ready? Say it together with me.
Silk, Silk, silk, silk, silk. What do cows drink?
All right, OK, let's play another game.
All right, let's play another game.
Yeah, but it makes my point so well.
All right, all right, in this game, here's here's what I want
to do. I wanted to take you, take your,
take your right hand and point at me.
You know, just not feels very intimidating.
OK, take your right hand and point at me and take your left
hand and give me a thumbs up. OK, Right hand, you're pointing
left hand, thumbs up. OK, And now when I say switch, I
want you to switch your hands, OK?
All right. So your left hand is going to
point and your right hand is going to be thumbs up.
OK, you ready 123? Switch, switch, switch, switch,
switch, switch, switch as fast as you can.
Switch, switch, switch, switch, switch, switch.
I I know you guys know how to do this, right?
I'm enjoying it so much. Yeah.
All right. All right.
What do you notice? This is interactive.
OK. What do you notice about these
two simple little games that we just played?
Difficult. OK What What about them felt
difficult? Joe, I imagine that you know
what cows actually drink most most often, I would assume.
And have you ever done this motion before?
Have you ever done this motion before?
Yeah. OK.
Yep. Same.
But it it felt hard, right? Yeah.
What else did we notice? I really think about it.
You have to really think about it.
Yeah. OK.
It became difficult because you
had to use, like all of your conscious attention to do that.
Here, do. Let's do.
Let's do one more thing. This is going to be easier.
I promise. OK.
So instead, same same thing with your hands, but at the same
time, I want you to go 22 points, 2 thumbs up.
All right, All right, let's go back and forth.
Point thumbs up. Point thumbs up.
What do you notice?
It's a lot easier, isn't it? Why is that?
It's consistent. Yeah, it doesn't.
It doesn't ask your brain to do something that it's not used to
doing. Here's here's here's my point.
In these simple games, the the point is not to embarrass you or
how you showed up is exactly how you're supposed to show up.
How how we naturally show up. And my point is this, what we
have practiced is natural. It's easy.
What we have not practiced is difficult.
It's laborious. The things that we have trained
in, whether it's mental concepts in our head, whether it's
physical movements, if we practice something, it becomes
relatively easy. But if we haven't, it takes a
lot of mental effort, especially if it's going against something
that feels intuitive or like a default for us.
You know what I'm saying? All right, so I want to pivot
and look at what we see here in Mark chapter 3 about Jesus and
Jesus model of discipleship. We read this text here.
Jesus has already been with his disciples for some time when we
get to Mark chapter 3. But at this moment he he gathers
them and he he brings them together.
He calls out the 12 who will of course go on to be the
impostles. And we read here in in Mark
chapter 3 and verse 14 that he appointed these 12 that they
might be with him and that he might send them, that they might
be with him and that he might send them.
In Luke chapter 6 and verse 40, we see that the student, when he
is fully trained, becomes like the teacher.
The point very simply that I want to communicate to you this
morning is that in order to become like Jesus, we need to be
with Jesus and we need to practice imitation.
We need to practice imitation. Of course, many of you are
familiar with the way in which we learn by imitation.
Maybe you've seen a tool called the leadership square in a
corporate setting or somewhere else.
It's, it's really simple. It's I do and you watch, then I
do and you help, Then you do and I watch and then or I help and
then you do and I watch, right. There's a transference that
happens as we observe someone else do something and then as we
get in the game and begin to practice that same thing and
receive support and coaching from them.
There's nothing inspired about this framework, but I think it's
interesting that some of what we find is is is working best out
in the world is exactly what Jesus both taught and modeled
when he chose his own disciples. We see in Mark here that that
Jesus calls these disciples and he says, hey, before I'm going
to send you out, before I'm going to ask you to do a bunch
of stuff, I want you to come and be with me.
And I can. I can't breakdown every piece of
how this plays out across the gospel of Mark, but I'd
encourage you to go read it. What we see is Jesus is leading
and doing ministry. He's showing up in the way of
the Kingdom. He's teaching, and the disciples
are right there by his side. They're looking, they're
watching, they're observing. When Jesus moves towards
outcasts and oppressors, typically these are people that
we would have kept our distance from.
They say, huh, that's interesting.
Jesus is showing up differently. His relationship is different in
chapter 2. Jesus relates to the Sabbath
differently in chapter 2. He shows up confidently and full
of faith. When life stresses everyone out,
when they're in a panic in the boat, the storm is raging around
them. Jesus is calm and confident in
the Father's authority when he confronts spiritual powers,
demons that that have everybody else running.
Jesus, again confident in the Father's authority, is able to
press in and relate to them when he experiences rejection and
threats from the crowds and the religious leaders.
The disciples are there observing and watching how he
responds, how he relates as they watch him deal with and cope
with the demands of ministry. They watch over and over this
pattern, how he steps back, how he steps away to be in the of
the Father and connect with God. And then in Mark 6 we read after
all of this observation is they watch him practice.
Jesus says, hey, your turn and he sends them out two by two.
He says, hey, the stuff that you've been watching me do, just
like I've done it. Now it's your turn.
Now you go do the same thing. This is what we see in Jesus
pattern of discipleship. It's how he apprentices his
followers throughout the gospels.
But I have to think, to be honest with you, when I think
about my own journey, like how I was discipled and even for for
most of us, like if I were to come up to you after the
gathering today, and I would say, Ian, would you be would you
like to be discipled? Right?
I mean, what what comes up in your mind in that moment?
Like, what do you imagine or make up that that could entail?
Probably we all have a little bit of a different picture.
But I think for many of us, we would say, well, you know,
probably, I don't know. I guess we're going to meet up
and study the Bible together, right?
Perhaps we'll go through a workbook.
Maybe there'll be some memorization or reflection.
We're going to talk about ideas. Maybe, maybe we'll get really
nerdy and I'll learn some like systematic theology and some
Greek verbs and things like that.
Like these are the models for discipleship that I think that
many of us have inherited. And look, I'm not saying that
that is bad. I think it's a part of our
journey of following Jesus today, an important part.
I've done a lot of that in my life, but it differs from what
Jesus actually did with his followers in an important
element. There is way less practice,
right? There's way less actually going
out into your life, applying it. There's way less actual thick
relationship where you're watching and observing how
somebody else not just talks about their life, but actually
relates to it across every dimension.
Jesus says the student who is fully trained will be like their
teacher in Luke chapter 6 and verse 40, fully trained, like
their teacher, not fully informed, not fully inspired,
not fully, not not fully aware, but actually fully trained to
have have the kind of relationships, the kind of
postures, the kinds of defaults that their teacher has.
The word that Jesus used for this kind of discipleship is is
must they taste? We usually translate it as
disciple or student, both of which are perfectly fine
translations, but actually a more accurate like way of
conjuring this idea based on what was practice at the time
might be apprentice or resident. And we're familiar with this
kind of training in certain contexts.
Like we know if you study medicine, at some point you
become a a medical resident and you follow another doctor around
and you learn how they interact with patients.
Of course, there's there's textbook learning as well.
But then you get in the lab and you watch and you imitate and,
and you ask questions and you do same things if you're a a
bricklayer or a pipe fitter. But when it comes to our
spiritual lives, I think so often we rely on this formula
that we've been talking about throughout this series that kind
of assumes that if I just add more information and more
willpower into the formula, then I get more transformation.
And yet this is so different from what Jesus did with his own
disciples. I mean, after all, there were
others, many rabbis at the time who actually just gathered their
students around and they parsed Torah and analyzed the verbs,
right? And they focused on on going
deeper and being more specific and wrestling with this passage
and that passage. Again, not bad, but also not
what Jesus focused on. And look, I know for many of us,
the question comes up immediately.
It certainly does for me of like, all right, well, that's
cool, Josh. Like, you know, if Jesus was
here and he said follow me, right, become my disciple, I
would say yes, but he's not in the room, right?
Like I have a job, I have a family like I have, I have snow
to shovel. Like how what does this actually
look like for you and for me, right?
After all, I don't live in the 1st century and I don't have the
opportunity to just walk around and eat with this guy and sleep
with him and and look well, what we actually see in Scripture is
that this wasn't just a 1st century thing.
Paul in first Corinthians tells the church at Corinth in First
Corinthians 11 in verse 1, he says follow my example as I
follow Christ. Paul is saying, hey, this the
same pattern here of imitation, of apprenticeship, of, of paying
attention, of following, of watching, of looking, of
imitating, of practicing. I'm doing that with Jesus and
you can do it with me. I think this is so beautiful
that that God has not asked us to find our way in the spiritual
life by ourselves like our devotional life, our our time
with God is essential. We can still hear from Jesus,
relate to Jesus, be empowered by Jesus, be guided by Jesus in our
own lives. But I'll tell you what, very
often there's also a piece that in my life, I can tell you, man,
God speaks to me a lot in my relationships as I, as I walk
with and journey with other believers, other disciples,
other people who are out in front of me there.
There's this thing that I knew about like conflict, or there's
this thing that I knew about prayer.
And in my head, it was already up here, right?
I had the information. But then it took observing
somebody do it right, beginning to learn from them, beginning to
walk from them, when it really began to sink in, down to a
heart level, down to an embodied level, down to the level of real
change. I remember in my early 20s, I
had just finished my first graduate degree, and I was kind
of trying to make my way in the world for a bit.
I still had more studies on my mind, but in the season I was
just trying to pay down some debt, earn some money.
So I was working a normal job and, and I had in my backpack,
if you will, a huge amount of gusto and passion and longing, a
huge amount of belief to see the world changed through the power
of the gospel and through the love of Jesus.
Like I, I felt like I had learned some things.
I had all these ideas. I had all these concepts and I,
I wanted to see those translated in a way that made a difference
for my neighbors. There's a problem though, I
didn't know how to be a normal person.
I didn't know how to. I was 1/3 culture kid.
Some of you are like Josh. You still don't need know how to
be a normal person. Arguably true, but I remember
stepping into a a a friend group and connecting with Matt.
Matt was just a couple of years older than me.
Honestly, he seemed kind of socially awkward in some ways as
well, but I respected not only that intellectually he didn't
just know about the Bible, but he had a way of showing up in
his relationships that I had really hadn't really seen much
of before. Like he was just really
intentional with people. He made space for people, he
listened well, he was curious, he was generous, he was funny
often times and like self deprecatory ways and didn't take
himself too seriously. And he also deeply and
passionately loved Jesus. And and I saw very clearly
something that was happening in Matt's life that was not
happening in mine. Like I, I could have a
conversation about faith with somebody who didn't share faith,
but people were not coming to me looking for guidance or answers.
But but everybody was coming to Matt because Matt cared, and he
and he actually showed up with people in the way of love.
And I learned so much in that season of my life about how to
have healthy relationships, how to love people well, how to
start spiritual conversations, how to integrate my life with my
faith, not just in academic or theoretical ways, but in
practical ways. Much of it wasn't novel to me
conceptually, but I experienced Jesus through math as he modeled
it, as he demonstrated what it looked like to follow Jesus and
friends. I can tell you that over and
over and over again in my life when I look at the areas, not
only were I like know some stuff, but where I am different,
where I am more like Jesus, where my reflexes look like
love, I can tell you there are relationships behind it in
almost every case. Studying scripture with Neil.
The caring for people who were in crisis and whose lives were
falling apart without anxiety or or the need to fix it with
Darrell. Like praying with Peter Cha,
practicing hospitality and opening up a home with with
Rhonda. Navigating conflict and intense
conversations in a way that pointed people to truth without
being defensive with Matt, starting finances with Mako,
asking great questions and being caring and curious with Laura.
Like I can go on and on and on, friends.
These were ideas that the Spirit had very often revealed to me,
convicted me of. And I believe that the Spirit
gave me power than to implement what I was seeing.
But also it was modelled. I was apprenticed as I came
under and came alongside sometimes peers, sometimes
mentors who said this is what it means to walk out this life of
the Kingdom in relationships. Let me show you, let me guide
you. Because of that, I followed
Jesus so much better in in weeks two and three of this series.
We talked about how a lot of our our defaults and and reflexes
actually get formed. We talked about survival
strategies and internal working models and a lot of nerdy stuff
around like basically answering the question of like when you
get pushed, what comes out? Like when, when something, when,
when, when the rubber hits the road in your life, how do you
show up? I did my best to explain how
some of that as, as I understand it, both using the lens of, of
scripture as well as neuroscience and attachment
theory, like what we actually see.
And I don't know about you, but I remember when I first learned
about those things, I was like, oh crap, this is scary.
Because like, I, I see that this is true.
Like I have enough awareness to notice that how I show up isn't
always what I intend or want or say I believe, right?
Sometimes I'm just like really afraid of, of anger.
And so I'm super avoidant in conflict, right?
Sometimes I'm showing up in these ways that like I realize
are not good, but I don't know what to do with this is like,
this is the default for me. And I have some good news for
you this morning. And that is, first of all, God
is real. The power of the Spirit is real.
Change is possible. And also the, the, the latest in
science confirms what we know to be true as Christians already.
It gives language and kind of explanation around some of the
mechanisms. Like 100 years ago, people
thought that the brain was relatively static in adulthood,
right? They thought the amount of
neurons that you have are what you have.
The level of intelligence that you have is what you have.
Things are kind of fixed. Well, they've been a lot of
updates and, and discoveries and imaging and, and what we've
learned is that the brain is actually quite plastic, right?
Things can actually be rewired and, and we know this
intuitively. I'm not telling you anything
that you don't know at an intuitive level, but like you
can get better at at doing this if you practice right.
It doesn't take very long. And and before long, see, I'm
still messing it up. I need to practice more if I
want to become good at that. I don't really care about that.
But I do care about how I respond under stress in my life.
I do care about when I'm overwhelmed, whether I go to
prayer. And the good news is, is when we
actually put things to practice, when we actually begin to
develop new patterns and watch others and have some fresh
experiences relationally, that that the brain can actually form
new neurons, new connections, new synapses began to be
created. And it's not just that there are
new possibilities or pathways. And we talked in week 1 about
the difference between knowing that and knowing how.
Like there's lots of stuff that we know at an intellectual
level, like where we live, but then there's things that we know
how, like driving a car. Well, you know this because you
can learn a new skill now, you can learn to drive a car or
things like that. But what actually happens in the
brain, what we see in imaging is that there, there are these,
these white brain cells, these long fibers that become
myelinated through repetition. And, and it's kind of like an
electrical, electrical wire that has this cord around it.
And, and, and the more, the more there is, the faster the signal
goes, the more reflexive the new pattern becomes.
Like we can become different at the, the level of our actual
brain chemistry, the way we're sometimes our, our reactions,
our defaults began to show up in a way that wasn't previously
true. I don't know about you, but this
is encouraging to me. It, it means that even if you're
showing up and you're like, my trauma has got me like my, my
past has got me. I've got these relationships,
I've been harmed, I've been damaged, I've been messed up in
some way. The gospel is real and Jesus
produces trains and change in miraculous and profound ways
that I don't know. That maps entirely onto brain
chemistry. I'm not trying to draw 1 to 1
here between these things. But also neuroscience says,
like, you can actually rewire things with practice.
And look, maybe you're asking this morning a question that is
an area of fascination to me. Like, how do these things to go
together? Like I believe in that the power
of the Holy Spirit to change us, to produce fruits in US.
And also here's all this information about brain
chemistry and wiring and all of these things like what, what's
the relationship? And I'll be the first to tell
you, I don't entirely know. I'm not sure I believe this is
true. And I also suspect that this
stuff is true as well. What I would say is that from
from the very beginning of our faith that we see a posture and
invitation over and over, which basically says trust God.
And also there are parts that you are responsible for, right?
Ignatius of Loyola says pray as if everything depends on you,
act as if everything depends on God.
Paul says work out your own salvation with fear and
trembling, for it is God who works in you, right?
Like, I don't know exactly how these parts work together.
I'm not a neuroscientist, I'm not an expert on this.
What I will say is that God absolutely does a part that we
cannot by way of the Spirit. A lot of the training is
actually going to him. A lot of the training we need to
do is rewiring to to move to him, to receive from him instead
of coping with things in our own ways.
But also, there is a part that is your responsibility.
God will not do it for you, at least in most instances.
I've seen God cure people from addiction just like that
miraculously. But I've seen many, many more
instances. There's a lot of work involved.
There's a lot of awareness involved.
There's a lot of repatterning involved.
And friends, I think this is important for us because I, I
wonder if, if too often we're actually not taking
responsibility for our spiritual lives in the same way that we
take responsibility for our fitness or our relationships or
our finances. Like we intuitively get, if I
don't, if I don't do anything in these other areas of my life,
that things will be in shambles, right.
Like at a certain point, you're a kid, somebody else mostly
takes care of these things, mostly sets up your life for
you. And but as we emerge into
adults, like we're like, OK, I'm, I got to figure this out.
I got to build a meal plan. I got to build a workout
schedule. I got to, I got to figure out
how to budget. I got to figure out how to
navigate these things. What I'm saying to you this
morning is that we have to be every bit as accountable, as
responsible for our own spiritual development.
It doesn't just happen to you. Like I, I love this space.
I think it's important. I think it's powerful.
I'm really glad that you're here this morning and maybe this
morning, like the main thing, or maybe even it feels like the
only thing that you can manage in your spiritual life is just
like, I made it to church on Sunday.
Praise God. I'm so glad you're here.
Seriously, It's wonderful this this space.
I believe critique creates a lot of good fruit.
But there's a problem too. And if I'm being honest, it's a
problem that I don't entirely as a pastor know how to solve.
I spent a lot of time thinking about this, wrestling with this.
And the problem is this, that as good as what happens here on
Sunday is, if you don't translate that into practice and
imitation in community, you're not going to learn to love like
Jesus. You're actually just not going
to to become like Jesus. And I think some of us have been
sold a lie that that that tells us that we're saved by grace.
That's not a lie. That's true, absolutely.
But then that means that there's no, there's no part for us.
Like we said, yes, we're going to heaven, the end.
And, and I absolutely believe that that's how adoption
happens. That's how we get into the
family. We don't have to earn it.
We don't have to to work our way into it or habit stack or like
God, it's just so gracious. He just says you belong.
That's what we talked about in week 4.
But also the point of the Christian life is not to get to
heaven. The point of the Christian life
is for you to become like Jesus. And in order to do that, you
need to just like the disciples did.
You need to be with Jesus, not just for 90 minutes on a Sunday
like you. You need to learn how to be with
Jesus and, and it's not just a solo journey.
You have to figure out who are the people in your life who are
out ahead of you in the faith that you can imitate.
Just like Paul tells the Corinthians, imitate me as I
imitate Jesus. Who are you imitating?
Because I guarantee you that the people that you look up to, the
people that you admire, the people that you are in thickest
relationship with, you are becoming more like them.
Are those habits, Are those relationships forming in you who
you want to be? If not, then pay attention.
Look at that. We've got to change something,
friends, to take responsibility for our own discipleship, not
the part that God does. God is going to do His part with
grace. You can count on Him for that.
God is not the problem in the issue of our lack of
transformation. The problem is us, and very
often I think we're stopping at the level of new insight.
We got a cool idea, it's shiny. You walk away from here this
morning, you're like, oh, I understand something about
neuroscience and about how discipleship works.
Great. That's not the point.
The point is that it has to translate into how we live if
we're going to experience the change that God has for us.