You have your Bibles turn over to Matthew chapter 15 and verse
315, verse 3. Today I want to talk to you
about more than conversion, All right?
There's some things that are stirring in my spirit concerning
the disciple that I really think that we need to minister on.
Because again, if we are a church planning church and we
are, there are things that Jesus intended to do or intended his
church to be doing because He said that he would build his
church. And so we need to look at it
because we've said this for so many years.
And for some of you who have been with us for multiple years,
you know that we've used this particular verse to launch out
on things because, you know, we need to allow God to define the
terms because He is the Word. John 11 says in the beginning
was the word in the Word was with God, in the Word was God.
And honestly, the Bible actually does define itself.
We do not need any other commentary, honestly, to
interpret the Bible itself will interpret itself.
It's its greatest source. OK.
And so, you know, instead of us bringing our ideas from the
world and trying to explain what's going on, let's just ask
the author. You know, you've heard me say
this before. We've put in print 8 books.
We're working on another one right now that we, you know,
it's basically complete to get out, which is Dominion Air.
And then Capacity is actually completed.
It's just hasn't been edited. And so, and then we're working
on another Facebook that's a collaboration between my wife
and I as well. That's that we want to be able
to bring out. So, you know, the book writing
still in play, even though we haven't, you know, release 1
little bit. But you know, if you go and
purchase one of our books, you know, from guest relations and
you read it, you know, you can always go and say, you know, I
believe the author in this paragraph meant this and you
could do that. Maybe you'll be right.
But you could just come ask me, because if you come ask me, I'll
say, well, this is what I meant because I authored it, right?
Well, guess what? We have the Holy Ghost and the
Holy Ghost moved upon men. It's not of any one man's
interpretation, but as the Spirit moved upon them because
the Spirit was actually there. When David fought Goliath, he
was personally present. I mean, he can give details that
he didn't even release in the pages.
He could allow you to know exactly how tall, you know,
Goliath was and how many hairs were on his head at the time
that David struck him down. He could do that.
I mean, he could, you know, reveal he is the author.
And so we need to say, OK, if we're saying terms or we're
expressing things, is it in line with Scripture?
Because a lot of times we'll redefine the author's words to
fit our way of living for him. And again, you know, the reason
why we do that's because we were living without him at one time
anyway, and we were sometimes even trying to live for Him in
our own strength, only to find out it wasn't the right way.
And so, you know, as a result of that, we'll go into the Bible
and we'll read words and based upon what society is saying
about things, we'll start interpreting those words with
some society definitions when we really have to say Now, Lord,
what do you mean? And do you explain this?
OK. And so Jesus is addressing this
in Matthew chapter 15, verse 3, actually 2 religious people,
people who had documentations of the written word of God that was
inspired by God, that the Holy Spirit moved upon Moses, which
the law came from, and then prophet.
So the writings were beyond just the first five books, what we
call the the Pentateuch or, or the, yeah, you know, the first
five books of the Bible that Moses penned.
So at the end of the day, there's more than that because
they're looking at the prophets as well, both major and minor
prophets, and they're hearing things.
And they were tasked and actually had the ability to have
the Holy Ghost come upon them to rightly divide what they should
be saying. But Jesus is having to correct
them. And he says this.
And he answered and said, why do you yourselves transgress the
commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?
Now they we open up this chapter because they are correcting
Jesus that his disciples do not follow a particular washing of
utensils. And Jesus is like, why do you
want me to keep your man made stuff?
I mean, you keep your man made stuff and disregard God's stuff
and that happens in our society today where people are keeping
their man made stuff, but really just disregarding God's stuff.
And so in order to know whether it's a man made or a God, you
have to go to God's book. Then if we jump down into verse
7, Jesus says this, you know, flowing into context.
He says, you hypocrites rightly did Isaiah prophecy of you.
This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far
away from me. But in vain do they worship Me,
teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.
Now you need to stop for a moment.
Ask the question, Don't gloss over this scripture.
What does that look like? What does a person look like who
has honor in their lips but not in their heart?
What does their worship look like?
What does that look like? Now again, many of us be like,
well, they wouldn't be in church.
These people were in the synagogues.
These people were assembling somewhere.
These people were had a following of people of which
they were instructing them. And those people that they were
instructing were accomplishing are doing the things they're
telling them to do. And yet Jesus is saying, you've
missed the mark. What your followers are doing is
really a precept of man. And it's not even a doctrine of
God. Now, how do you know the
difference? Aren't you glad for the Holy
Spirit? Amen.
You can know the difference because we have the Holy Ghost,
but Jesus lets us know there will be groups of people who
assemble that to him. It's hypocritical, and you've
got to be able to identify that now.
You won't identify if you're not trained in righteousness, if
you're not trained, or if you live life merely as a convert.
Turn over to Matthew 2313, Matthew 2313.
Again, Jesus dealing with the religious, He said, but woe to
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off
the Kingdom of heaven from people, for you do not enter it
yourself, nor do you allow those who are entering it.
They are so aggravated and angry at things being rightly divided
because it goes against their traditions that they get in
opposition. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Jesus in an in a particular passage mentions this.
He says, you know, don't, don't even don't even take thought of
what they're he says, don't you understand?
I am correcting their doctrine and because the disciples,
disciples said, don't you know, the Pharisees are offended with
what that statement he said, don't worry about it.
He said they're going to be offended because they want their
truth and not mine. They want to follow me on their
terms and not on mine. They are taking my word and
they're turning it to their favor to keep their lifestyle
and say that they're honoring me.
But I know their heart and the reality is most of you do.
You don't know people's hearts. You don't know people's hearts,
right? And so he's like dealing with
them. He says, look, I'm trying, I'm
trying to demonstrate. I'm trying to give the Kingdom
to people and you're shutting it down.
Now I've been to some places before where someone said, well,
you know, let's just stay with Jesus Christ out on the cross
and rose from the grave. Well, Jesus did die on the cross
and he rose from the grave. And if you call on his name, you
will be saved. But he said some more and the
kingdom's deeper than that. And so the minute you're like,
no, let's just stay here. Well, what are you doing?
You're you're establishing A tradition that I do not want to
go deeper. I do not want to understand
revelation. I want to serve God or let him
save me upon this position of how I'm living here.
Because the deeper you go with God, the more and you're
pruning, the more you're casting down, the more you're having to
change your thinking, the more you're like, you know what, all
these years I thought that was, you know, scriptural.
You know, cleanliness is next to godliness.
What? Hallelujah.
It's all right if you look, as long as you don't touch.
That's not in the Bible. Neither one of them say Amen.
I mean, there's a lot we could say, right?
But again, you have to have a hunger.
You jump down to verse 15. He goes on and says this Woe to
you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites.
OK, verse 15, jump down to verse 15.
He says, what do you scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites?
Because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte,
and when he becomes 1, you make him twice as much a son of hell
as yourself. Well, what does that look like?
Right? I mean, what does that look
like? Well, proselyte, we don't really
use this. This word is actually only used
four times in the New Testament. And the word itself is not
negative. The word by definition,
literally just means convert. It means to convert.
Are you hearing me? It means to convert.
Now I'm going to put my glasses on so I can see it.
An app, some Bible reading. Without it, I will not be able
to read. OK.
And so I want, I'm going to, I'm going to read what the biblical
illustrator says concerning this particular passage of Scripture.
OK, We are in Matthew 23, right in verse 15.
Because tell me, you know, does this sound like today a
proselyte, one that comes from a foreign nation, religion, or
sect, to us a convert. Among the Jews there were two
types of proselytes. Proselytes of righteousness, or
those who wholly and fully embrace the Jewish religion, who
were baptized, who are circumcised, and who conform to
all the rights of the Mosaic institution.
The second was the proselytes of the gate, or those who approved
of the Jewish religion, renounce the Pagan superstitions and
conform to some of the rights of the Jews.
But we're not circumcised or baptized in essence.
When he said, 2. Four more or twice the sun of
hell, that is twice as bad. To be a child of hell was a
Hebrew phrase signifying to be deserving of hell, to be awfully
wicked. Jewish writers themselves say
that the proselytes were scabs of Israel, and hindered the
coming of the Messiah. By their great wickedness.
The Pharisees gained them either to swell their own numbers, or
to make gain by extorting their money under various pretenses,
and when they had accomplished that they took no pains to
instruct them or to restrain them.
They had renounced their superstition, which they had
before somewhat restrained them, but the Pharisee had given them
no religion in its place to restrain them, and they were
constantly left to the full indulgences of their vices.
What does that mean? That means you're saved, and you
can still do anything you want. They were a convert, but they
weren't disciples. Are you hearing me, Audrey?
Would you come hand me that mic please?
Audrey has received a word from the Lord and when she was
telling me about it, I said save it for service because what the
Lord spoke to you will be applicable at a particular time
when I minister. And I wanted to release what the
Lord showed her because this is just a convert.
So yesterday I was studying out and the Word in the Lord showed
me the difference between Stillwater and flowing spring
water in the natural. And when you have Stillwater, it
sits stagnant and it harbors bacteria at harbors, fungus at
harbors, disease and pests. But when you have the flowing
water, the natural spring waters that flow through the earth, it
actually gathers minerals and becomes pure.
And it's just like the word. When you allow the washing of
the water of the word to not become stagnant in your life,
those impurities will be washed out of you.
But then on the other hand, that natural water has electrolytes
in it and it has potassium and sodium, calcium and magnesium.
And those things are literally necessary for the functioning of
your body. And when you have the spring
water flowing through your body, those impurities are washed out
and you're fully whole and you have everything you need.
And it's just a an amazing comparison.
It just blows my mind when God puts those things in the earth
to just just confirm his word. And I'm just, I'm blessed.
Amen. You know that you can take here
you go. You can take natural water that
when it is first in a place is good for a moment, but again, if
it stays stagnant, at one point it was pure.
But because of no more flow what was once pure.
Which means if you were delivered out of a cesspool and
you're brought into a clean pool, but you don't let it flow,
then all of a sudden it will put build up bacteria once again,
toxins will show up, contaminants will show up and
it'll be no good. And this is the description, you
become twice the sun of hell because now you, you are
justified. Don't judge me.
I asked Jesus into my heart. There was nothing I could do to
earn it. There's nothing I have to do now
that I'm in it. Was that what the scripture
says? Is that what it says?
And you know what's amazing to me?
The more I'm in the Scripture, what used to be normal is
absolutely abnormal in the Western church today.
And the things that I'm actually teaching on right now this
morning is elementary truth that we need to rediscover because we
have accepted Stillwater. We're not letting it flow.
In fact, I would say it this way.
Today's proclaimed disciple wants fellowship without
accountability and responsibility.
They don't want to be accountable to no one or take
the responsibility to serve anywhere.
They just want a fellowship with everybody come and go where they
when they want to do what they want to do with whom they want
to do it with. And God's good with me.
You can't tell me otherwise. Well, I'm not going to tell you
otherwise. However, the Lord has things to
say. In essence, they're serving the
Lord on their terms, not his. And that's what a proselyte will
do. A proselyte knows that they need
to a convert. Most of us in conversion, we
knew man, we're not right with God.
We need something different. Then when Jesus is offered and
you realize that's the way to go.
If you repent, you come into His Kingdom.
But if you only come in as a convert, then you can actually
become twice the Son of hell. I say that because you'll
proclaim to your workplace, your family and those around you,
you're right with God, but you live like the rest of the world
and that is very confusing to someone outside the Kingdom.
Hallelujah. Now turn over to Matthew 16.
Matthew 16. We'll jump in verse 16.
Simon Peter answers Jesus because he's asking the
question, you know, who do people say that I am?
Now who do you say that I am? And Peter says you are the
Christ, the Son of the living God.
Christ is equivalent to the Hebrew word Messiah, which is
the King, the anointed one, the king who's going to come and
establish his Kingdom forever. Amen.
And then Jesus in verse 18 says that he's Peter, which is Little
Rock, which is interesting because again, it's Little Rock
and Jesus is the capital rock. Peter's the small case rock.
Same thing as Jesus is the capital king and we are the
small case king. You get that.
But he goes upon this rock, which is the revelation that I
am the king, the Christ. OK, I will build my church.
And the gates of hell or Hades will not overpower it.
Aren't you glad of that? Hallelujah?
He goes on then and says, now I'll give you the keys of the
Kingdom. Now remember the Pharisees will
stop you from entering the Kingdom of heaven.
But Jesus said, I'll give you the keys of it.
And whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven.
Whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in
heaven. So a Pharisee or religious
teaching or conversion alone will not give you keys of the
Kingdom. They'll give you this idea that
no matter how you live, as long as you've asked Jesus into your
heart, that's all that matters. Yet Jesus never preached that
good news. Jesus preached the good news of
his Kingdom and he said, I'm going to build my church.
Now how does he build his church?
He gives a mandate to those who he called his disciples.
He did not call them his proselytes, He called them
disciples. And disciples is defined way
different than just a proselyte, cause the proselyte is a
convert. Now do you need to be converted?
Yes. The first step to discipleship
is conversion. You must be converted.
Converted or from the domain of darkness into the Kingdom of His
beloved Son. You are to be changed from a
spirit that is dead, separated from God, to have a new spirit
that's alive to God. It is conversion.
You are being converted. You are converting from your old
way of living for yourself, and you're turning and living your
life now for the one you have submitted to as supreme in
authority. But that action of conversion is
not the only thing Jesus wanted. Jesus required discipleship.
He says this in Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 to 20.
And Jesus came up and spoke to them saying all authority.
How much authority? Remember he said, now my
father's chosen gladly to give you the Kingdom.
I'm going to build my church and I'm going to give you the keys
of the Kingdom. I'm not going to hinder you from
getting into the Kingdom. I want you in it and I want you
operating in it. I want you functioning in it.
I want you to living the lifestyle of it.
Hallelujah. I want you to have it all that
God originally had for you when He first made man in the 1st
place. Let's make man in our image
according to our likeness and let him have dominion or rule.
He wants you to rule and reign again with him.
He is the supreme ruler, but we get to rule with him.
Hallelujah. So then he goes on and says this
go there for all authorities been given to me in heaven and
and and on earth. So where does he have authority?
Where does he not have it right? He has authority.
Now, having authority doesn't mean he makes you submit your
will to his will. You have to do that.
But he has the authority to assign your will to the place
you wanted. And whether that's with him or
whether that's the lake of fire, which is a second to death, is
up to you because he has all authority.
He is the judge of the living and the dead.
OK, go there for and make not proselytes.
So let me say this, God never said go win the lost.
The role of the church is not to win lost people.
The role of the church is to disciple people.
And in order for people to be discipled, the lost must be
saved to start the process of discipleship.
We are not here just to win lost people because we act like the
minute we bring them over the finish line, what the finish
line is, the cross, we get them to accept Jesus as we did it.
You won, we're done next person and there are so many set up
this way to where they're like, you need to change your your
life's not right, You're right as she's in your heart, you
getting OK, good. You know where you're going to
go and he's died now I'm going to go on to the next.
So that's what we're doing. We're just trying to win the
lost, win the lost, win the lost, get people converted, get
people to ask Jesus into their heart.
Just get people to ask she's in their heart.
All that matters is that people ask Jesus into their heart.
That's not all that matters. And Jesus never said just do
that. Now some people would argue, but
if you've done that, then you'll follow him.
That's not so when the Scripture bears that out, that being
converted alone does not guarantee you'll walk it out.
It requires discipleship. And again, don't take my word
for it. I'm going to take you to
Scripture. So he says, go therefore and
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit.
Now again, if we just stop there, discipleship looks like
conversion and water baptism. Ask him into your heart, baptize
him in water in the name of the Father, Son, the Holy Ghost,
we're done. But what's the next verse say?
Teaching them to, to, to all? Whoo Hallelujah.
So again, it's not about you asking Jesus into your heart
alone, it's about because you're asking Jesus to save you.
This is the cost cause Jesus to build his church and not
building a church off of converts.
He builds his church off disciples, and disciples are
born again, baptized in water filled with the Holy Ghost.
Hallelujah. And they are taught to observe
all that I commanded you not only observe that I died on the
cross and rose from the grave. That's all that matters.
And you know what? Ministries all over the place.
Well, it's semantics, you know, 'cause what you believe and what
we believe. And you know, why are we, why is
that an acceptable norm? Where is hunger and thirst for
the truth of God's word and wanting to seek him and know him
and know his ways and understand him and grow in the word and
change our thinking. In fact, Jesus when he starts
his ministry doesn't say be converted.
He says repent, change your thinking, for the Kingdom of
heaven is at hand. And you know as well as I do,
there's a whole lot of change in a thinking that takes place
after conversion after conversion.
Now, I'm not going to ask you to raise your hands, but you can
raise them on the inside. You were born again.
But you you could say I know specific sins I have committed
after being born of God. I'm not asking you to divulge
yourself, I'm just saying. So you being born of God did not
stop you from still living like a son of hell.
But many of you now I ask you to raise your hand, can say when I
started to become a disciple and renew my mind and change my
thinking as a believer, I quit doing things that I used to do.
Right now that's a whole nother ball game.
And that came because now the Holy Spirit came to live on the
inside of you. And what's he doing?
He's here to teach you all things to observe and do
Hallelujah. So here's the question.
All right, let me define this word disciple here in this
passage of Scripture, because he said go and make disciples.
Disciple means this. It means to follow his precepts
and instructions. Enroll as a scholar.
You know, we say enroll as a scholar, right?
But you know, people can enroll in school and never study.
That's not what's being implied here.
He is saying you enroll as a scholar, meaning you have come
to learn and so and you're learning is to follow his
precepts and instructions, not to know them, to follow them,
not to know them, to follow them.
That means you practice them, you're a doer of them.
He says go make disciples, go make people teach them to
follow, to do my precepts, my instructions.
In fact, their lifestyle will bear out.
They are like me because that means they're my disciple.
Now this comes from another Greek word that means a learner,
A pupil. I mean, again, what does this
look like? This is not someone who's
casually OK, I'm going to meddle a little bit this morning.
There's no way you can understand everything being
taught from the platform without taking some notes somewhere.
I would love to believe that you all have photographic memories,
but we know that's not true and so you have to see yourself
here. Not as a spectator, not as check
in a box, but as I've come to learn.
And so maybe you're not a great note taker here and you're like,
I just love it when you release it because I play it over and
over. And if you are a audible learner
and you're actually doing that as some people I know in this
congregation does that they record it.
In fact, I have one that kind of records kind of rogue on me.
They, you know, put their phone out and it's recording now
because they're not waiting for that thing to drop at all
because they're going to listen to it again today.
When I say rogue, I mean that in the nicest way because they're
not being rebellious. They're that hungry.
Like, I'm not waiting for this thing to drop.
I'm getting mine now. Are you hearing me?
Because I've got to hear it again and I need to hear it
again and I need to hear it
again. So with a wash, why I need that
water to flow. I need that thing.
Because again, if all you do is hear this one time with me today
and it doesn't come back and flow through you.
I mean honestly our vision partnership is larger than the
views that we have accounted for on YouTube, which tells me the
majority of you are not going back and watching same in
anyway. Because a disciple is one who is
a constant learner. It also comes from another Greek
word that means this to learn by practice or experience, acquire
a custom or habit. Now this is beyond conversion
and this is the Greek word. So when Jesus said go make
disciples, they understood what he was saying.
Oh, you want us to enroll them? So your church is like a
Education Center. But really we know it's more
than education. It's an equipping center because
it's here to equip you. And part of equipping is to
educate you. But education alone doesn't do
you any good because that'll just make you a Pharisee.
So you got to be an equipped person that actually is a doer
of the Word, right? And yet many places are
satisfied with padding numbers of conversion but not giving
them training to overcome in life.
And for those that are diligently wanting to equip,
there is much pushback because an equiper will make a demand on
the hearer that you can't live God the way you want to.
In fact, in our nation, the equiper will say you have too
much American in your Bible reading.
You think you can go and read it and think you can remain
independent. You think freedom of speech is
say what you want to say. But that doesn't happen in the
Kingdom. In the Kingdom, there's a
constraint of your tongue. You don't get to just blast and
say what you want to. You don't get to give a piece of
your mind. Now you can, but that's not from
the Kingdom. Hallelujah.
I need somebody to smile a little bigger.
So the reality is only Jesus, through his word can define what
a disciple looks like. And the question is, does Jesus
do that? Because here's the thing.
How can Jesus say to his disciples upon his departure
from planet earth go and make disciples if they have no idea
what it is? How can you make something you
don't know how you've not been given a plan, a model, something
that describes to you what it is so that you know, once they're
made, what they look like. So it's obvious that Jesus had
to have instructed them somewhere in Scripture what the
disciple looked like. Are you ready to hear?
Do you have ears to hear? Are you sure?
Turn over to Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14.
We'll start in verse 25. Now again, I'm not saying this.
This is not a pastor Earl, apostle Earl position.
This is not me making it up. This is not me making a demand
on you. I have no demands on you.
I'm just telling you what the king says because the king is
talking right now in Luke chapter 14, the King's talking,
The king, it says there's now large crowds were going along
with him and he turned and said to them, now who turned and said
to them, what's his name? Come on, what's his name?
What's his name? What's his name?
So notice large crowds, How many crowds?
How big are the crowds? They're large are going along
with him. He turns and says to them, So
large crowds following him does not mean they are disciples.
He's going to let them know whether or not they qualify.
Verse 26 if anyone comes to me, if conditional statement, which
means he doesn't control that, you control that, He doesn't
control that, you control that, but he has established the
condition. He's saying this is it, if
anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother
and wife and children and brothers and sisters and yes,
even his own life. He, he, he be my.
I did not say this. You know that that anchor Faith
Church. They just demand too much, you
know. What about our families?
What about your families? What about them?
Do you want to raise your family as a disciple, or do you want to
raise them as a proselyte? How do you want to raise them?
Because proselytes. They're converted, but they live
God on their terms. A disciple.
Jesus says if you love anything more than me.
So I don't understand how a disciple can say God understands
I need family time. Well, there's 168 hours in a
week. Let's just break it down real
quick. Do some math since you're
thinking because I am here to create critical thinkers.
Quit drinking the Kool-aid that they act like I'm serving.
OK, because you're not obligated to believe anything I say.
Anyone can walk out at any time and you came in on your own
accord anyway. But there's 168 hours, of which
the majority of parents work at least 40 hours a week, maybe
more, that they willfully have no problem being separated from
their children. Then they will participate in a
lot of sports activities most of the time or extracurricular with
their children. Work your hours, which means now
Monday through Saturday, there's a lot of time away from home,
whether through work or doing something, some extracurricular
activity with your children. Then you got to help do the
house. So again, when you come back to
the church and say, well, you understand, we've been so busy.
Well, were you not spending time with your children when they
were doing sports or were they playing sports and you were on
your phone? I mean, why is it all of a
sudden Sunday is the only time of the two hours you're here?
That's too much of A demand. But yet I don't make the demand.
We just do things in the ministry based upon the
scripture that says is he first and if he's 1st and the children
know he's first, the children love him first.
The children are trained and taught that he's 1st and that
everything else is secondary. In fact, all relationships
should seem like hatred when compared to Jesus.
And the minute you ask me to choose a relationship over the
church and Jesus, who happens to be the head of the church, then
basically you're telling me to hate Jesus.
Now it sounds hard, but it's OK because let's look at that
scripture again and no one's here to can.
These are not condemning things. These are just is he first cuz
to a person at first, there's no big deal.
We come, we love it, we love everything about it.
We love the Lord. Our kids love the Lord.
We're not burned out because we're always having a fresh flow
of the anointing and the words of life flowing through our
lives And we're we're giving out and we're touching people's
lives. We're giving out so much in our
everyday lives. We're like, we've got to get
back in the symbol cuz I need to get filled back up.
I need to get back in the assembly.
I need to hear from the voice of Lord.
I'm a disciple, I need to learn, I need to grow.
I'm a pupil. In fact, I wish I could be in
church all the time. I mean, it's going to be tough
when you go to heaven. Are we worshipping him again?
I mean, because how long, how many times you going to be at
the church? Well, as often as the Lord
requires, it wants, it asks of me to do it because I'm his
disciple. I follow him if anyone comes
after me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife
and children. Now again, this doesn't mean
that we're at odds with them. This doesn't mean we're mean to
them. This just means in comparison to
relationships we establish in our home and in all of our
relationships with our extended family and just even in work, we
say, listen, the First things first.
It's my Lord Jesus and I'm not letting anything come before it,
period. Because if you will let
something come before it, then he says you cannot be my
disciple. I didn't say that He did.
Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot.
Now you understand cross carrying is a big deal because
again, all of us are thankful Jesus carried his cross and his
cross was our punishment. His cross was my sin.
His cross was my transgression. His cross was my disobedience
and yours and everyone else that ever was born on the planet.
And then my Lord says, now you have a cross to carry, you have
a purpose. There's something you're going
to have to sacrifice, there's something sacrificial about your
life in order for you to be a disciple.
Because if you don't have that, then you're not my disciple.
So you understand there's no such thing in the Bible of a
casual Christian. That's a new thing that's
manifested in the Western church.
Again, we can fellowship and sing and worship God on our own
terms. This is not the disciple of the
Bible. It's not the disciple that Jesus
is talking about. And you understand Jesus is
life. You can't be with Him and Him
not infuse you with life. He will never make such a demand
on you. The only reason why you would
ever get strained burden and beat down is called number one.
You do not bear well under the trial that comes with a
disciple. We'll talk about that one later.
Secondly, it's because when you come, you're not actually
operating as a disciple, you're actually operating as a convert.
And that you are doing it on your terms, called the proselyte
that the Pharisees made, did religious traditions, but it was
their own effort on their own terms.
And that's where burnout comes. But grace will not How could you
ever be burned out under grace? How can this happen?
So the minute people say, well, I'm burned out, you left grace
or you didn't activate grace by faith.
Thank you Jesus, we're making disciples here.
So he goes on in verse 28 for which one of you when he wants
to build a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost
to see if he has enough to complete it.
Now these listen, these are in chapters in verse for us, but
you know, this is just something Jesus pinned and it all runs
together. He is talking about discipleship
and how what he considers a disciple of his.
So he this is not a different chain of thought.
This is not a financial, this is not a he doesn't stop saying let
me talk to you about finance. He's not talking about finance.
He's talking about discipleship. He is describing what a disciple
that he would call his does. So he's saying now listen, if
you are my disciple, Ma, I'm first now, how do I know?
How do you know how to did you know?
How do you know that I'm first in your life?
Because you should have counted a cost for which of one of you?
And again, this doesn't make sense if all we're doing is
giving a message of conversion. This is not a required thought
process. But if we're giving alter calls
with this in mind, they're going to sound a little different.
For which one of you, when he builds, wants to build a tower,
does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he
has enough to complete it. Otherwise, when he has laid a
foundation and is not able to finish it all, who observe it
begin to what? Ridicule him saying this man
began to build and was not able to finish?
Let's go on verse 31. Or what king, when he sets out
to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and
consider whether he is strong enough with 10,000 men to
encounter the one coming against him with 20,000, or else while
the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for
terms of peace. Verse 33.
So now this is in between two statements of disciples.
So this is not a different thought.
This is not a financial seminar in the middle of discipleship.
This is not Pastor. Did you count the call?
So whether we were going to be able to finish JC Penney when we
build that out, I counted the call before I even said anything
because it's not a numbers game. It's a faith game.
It's not even a numbers game. It's a faith game.
What did the king say? OK, so then none of you who's
talking and it's quiet in this. Don't, don't make me go to coach
mode, please. Come on, respond for me, right?
Respond to the king. So then none of you can be my
disciples. Come on.
Who does not give up all his own possessions?
Wow. Now I am not picking up an
offering right now. That's not what this verse is.
This verse is not an offerings verse.
This is not you actually going and liquidating everything you
own. That's not what he's saying.
Everything that is in your possession, you should consider
it mine. Mine alone.
Nothing owns you. Only I own you.
And don't you let a job, a house, a car, a boat, a
vacation, a retirement dictate how you gonna live.
Verse 34, didn't we say we? I didn't say we're going to go
to verse 35. Verse 34 says, therefore, let me
hold off on that and I'll come back to that thought.
So Jesus is defining discipleship.
In essence, it's everything. Here's the thing, He His altar
call would sound like this. Do you want to have life and
life more abundantly? Do you want your life to be
forgiven of all your sins? Do you want to have the power
and purpose of God to resonate within you?
Then understand this. I will freely forgive you of
everything you've done wrong. But know this, to come and
accept that it's going to cost you everything.
It's not for you to come and to receive and go back and live the
way you've been living. So if you're not ready to quit
everything that you're doing, don't come because I'm not here
to convert you. I want a disciple.
It'd be better for you to stay in your seat than it would be
for you to come down. Because you, you got to admit,
many of us are disheartened when someone gets born again in the
next Sunday. We don't see them.
I mean, I thought you were born again.
I thought you asked Jesus to be Lord of your life.
I thought that you wanted God's forgiveness and his life.
Yet where are you? But again, the converted message
is just as Jesus into your heart, you know, save you and
that's all that matters. And then they can walk back into
the same lifestyle because again, many of them won't even
do it initially. If they're really asked Jesus,
they're going to be a little different.
But the Bible is very clear that when the seed gets in you and
you start to grow, the attacks are going to come to a disciple.
And it's used remaining and counting that cost that I will
not let anything tear me away because God will not leave me or
forsake me. So I am going to be like Him,
not leave or forsake Him. And if you don't have that kind
of tenacity, but how can a person say they're truly saved
and then never darken the door of a church again, not have some
fruit in keeping with repentance.
Now let's go to verse 34. Same context.
It hasn't changed themes. Therefore, salt is good.
But if even salt becomes tasteless, with what will it be
seasoned? That's interesting.
What's salt have to do with discipleship?
Because again, chapters and verses we all.
This is verse 34 and 35. Totally new subject here.
No, no, no it's not. He just made a whole statement.
This is what a disciple looks like.
If you're mine, this is what I expect.
And listen, you better count the cost before you come because it
cost you everything. And I'm not asking you to do
anything I haven't done. You didn't have to die for the
world, I did that. But you do have to lay down your
life like I did and follow me. I am Lord.
And this is what? There's no relationship higher
than me. No excuses.
Count the cost. Because if you start this
process and don't finish it, people going to mock you, laugh
at you. How many times have you heard it
at your place of business? Oh, well, you're on fire.
Yeah, but that, that, that'll wane.
They're just waiting for you to wane, waiting for you to get
tired again, waiting for you to act like them again.
That way when your presence shows up, they don't feel the
conviction of God anymore, right?
That's why they work even harder to get you back in sin.
But he goes on and says if salt is good, but if even salt has
become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned?
Verse 35, it is useless for the soil or for the manure pile.
It is thrown out. Then he says, he who has ears to
hear, let him hear. What's he saying?
He's saying don't come and say you're my disciple.
Start this deal and then lose your zeal.
Because if you start living like a proselyte, what use do I have
with you? Well, this will go in line of
things like this. Lord.
Lord, didn't we depart from me? I was never personally
acquainted with you. So we see that the scripture
itself doesn't support a once saved, always saved mentality,
but it does for those who count the cost and say he's mine and
I'm his and there's nothing that will get in the way of that.
And that's clearly stated out. So we can clearly see that Jesus
our Lord never intended that a person would just confess with
her mouth once without developing the lifestyle from
that confession. The Bible is not converting us
to Christianity. The Bible is a training tool for
disciples for those that want to study and know the Lord.
Let's close with this scripture here.
Matthew 1624 to 25. Hallelujah.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone wishes to
come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and
follow me. For whoever wishes to save his
life will, But whoever loses his life for my sake, we'll find.
Jesus lets us know that the disciple doesn't call the shots.
The disciple follows what's being spoken by the King, and
the King only speaks from the heart of his Father.
And the Father loves you and is giving you words of life, and
he's asking you to do things at times that in your flesh, you're
not going to undo it. I do not come to service on
Sunday because I oversee this vision.
That's not why I come. Because there are plenty who can
fill this pulpit. And Pastor Mike, he had a
powerful word last Sunday, powerful word about wandering.
In fact, there's something he said prophetic concerning anger,
faith church. And I took that little section
out and I've put it over in a note and I'm meditating on that.
I'm like, and I just, it seems like that is a prophetic word
for us. You're so well equipped and I
could easily call and say, hey, I'm not coming in this morning.
You take it and they can take it.
I mean, I have at least 100 people right now that could get
up in this platform and minister a word easy, no problem.
So for 100 days I could call out because I'm not feeling it and
say, but I love the Lord. I asked him into my heart, you
know, I made sure it was covered.
We'll give them an opportunity, but God knows in my heart, I
just don't feel like coming today.
Am I not feeling or when I used to work secularly, especially
third shift, there were times I was going to leave and my wife
did not want me to go to work. Whoo, those were tough nights,
tough nights, tough nights. And there were some nights I
called in sick, not because I was physically sick, but I was
sick of not being with my wife and she wanted me to be there.
And so I made a phone call. True, but there are many nights
because they didn't have that much leave then I'm like, I have
to go. I don't want to, but I have to,
right? And my relationship with my king
is a want and a have to and have to is not a negative.
We've become so religiously brainwashed by Pharisees and
hypocrites that when we act like, oh, you have to, you have
to accept Jesus as your Lord and savior to be born again.
Nobody has a problem with that command.
Well, you know, I don't want to be told what to give Jesus to
tell you what to give. Well, if he tells me, then I
it's not in my heart. Well, was it not in your heart
to get born again because he told you how to be saved?
He didn't say, well, you figure it out because I want your heart
in it. No, he said, this is the only
way. It's a command.
You have to do it that way. And we were like, I want to
because you've told me how I have to.
And thank you for telling me because I'd hate to have to
figure it out on my own because I've tried that and it didn't
work. And so in this last scripture we
just read, this is Jesus is saying you want to be my
disciple. You got to lose your life.
The first question I'm going to ask is to the believer, the
convert, because I know there's converts in this room.
I know there's converts, but God wants you to be a disciple.
God wants you to decide. Today I'm no longer living a
converted life. I'm giving.
I'm losing my life today once and for all.
It's no longer acceptable for me to live God, this life that God
gave me on my own terms from here out, I lose it.
I lose my life.