Disciple Making Sunday

For me, when I was growing up, first of all, you need to get

some context here. I was born in 89, so I grew up

all the way through the 90s. Best air to grow up in my

opinion. But when you were a kid and if

you grew up in the 90s, there was one individual that you

wanted to be like. Anyone know who it was?

Michael Jordan, right? The greatest of all time, this

was this is a jersey I had. I also had the black jersey,

which was so much cooler. You guys remember the Black

Bulls jersey? Anyway, I wanted to be like

Mike. In fact, there was like a

commercial I think that talked about the idea of being just

like Mike and Space Jam came out during that time.

That imprinted on me pretty deeply.

There's this scene in the beginning of Space Jam where

this young kid has this dream that he can fly, right?

And there's this scene right before the intro starts where

he, like, goes up to dunk the ball.

And then there's this sick montage of Michael Jordan.

I get goosebumps just talking about it right now, right?

It was so cool. And I wanted so desperately to

be like MJ, to win championships, to be able to

dunk a ball, right? In my efforts to be like Mike,

they started off really strong. I mean, I'm out there during the

summertime on my portable hoop or at the plastic backboard,

right? I'm like, I'm getting the

swishes. I'm doing it all right.

But but over time, as I grew up, my passion to be like Mike and

my ability to grew like Mike, that began to fizzle out, right?

Eventually I got into leagues that took basketball a little

more seriously. They made me do things like line

drills, if you're familiar with those.

Awful. They made me do things like

dribbling exercises, all of that.

I, I started off strong, but I didn't want to put in the gym

time in order to actually be like Mike.

You see, here's the thing, catch this.

I wanted MJ's life, but I didn't want his lifestyle.

Do you know what I mean? I wanted to be like him, but I

didn't want his discipline, his work ethic, the cost that was

involved, etcetera. Michael Jordan has this famous

quote where he says my mentality was to go out and win at any

cost. And I can honestly say that was

not my mentality as a young kid. My mentality was to go out and

play video games at any cost, right?

That was my thing. So my my efforts to be formed in

the way of MJ fizzled out. I had the example, but I needed

the trainer. I needed the disciplines.

I didn't know the way to actually become like him.

OK. And as a church we talk a lot

about the idea of being formed into the image of Jesus.

We talk a lot about following Jesus.

But as a church we are asking the question, how are we doing

it? Actually helping people more and

more become like Him to actually follow who he is and take on his

commands. As a matter matter of fact, six

years ago during COVID, the statistics stated that over 1/3

of people walked away from the church, stopped attending both

in person and online. They just said we're done.

And those stats going through that season absolutely shook us.

It shook the church. It shook me personally, Pastor

Patrick as well. And for us, what happened was it

revealed something. It revealed that those calling

themselves Christians had been informed and they had been more

formed by politics, by cultural divides, and by modern secular

humanism. They've been formed by more than

more than they've been formed more by those things than the

actual call to take up the cross and to follow Jesus daily.

And so for us, we are sort of forced to ask the question, is

the church really making disciples of Jesus?

Like, are we actually forming them people not into the the

image of Michael Jordan, but into the image of Christ?

You're thinking, OK, that was 60 years ago.

How are we doing today? From December, Barna's research,

they put out an article, Barna's like a really well known

institution that researches church statistics and how we're

doing with with certain metrics. They've been doing it in the

game for a long time. They had an article called

Faiths Shrinking Influence. And here's what Barna writes.

Faith's importance has dropped 20 percentage points since 2000,

more than any other Christian commitment measure.

Practicing Christians have declined from 46% to 24% of US

adults over the past 25 years. Only one in three Christians say

they strongly feel a responsibility to share their

faith, a long downward trend that is only recently

stabilized. And so the metrics are showing,

at least from a big picture standpoint, from a church wide

perspective, we're not making disciples.

People actually take their face seriously and are formed in the

way of Jesus. The issue doesn't stop there

because the fact is, and it would be easy if the choice was

no formation or formation to Jesus.

That would be easy for the church.

But the fact is, is that you and I are constantly being formed by

something. OK, formation teacher John Mark

Comer says if we're not being intentionally formed by Jesus,

we are being unintentionally formed by someone or something

else. Becoming like someone or what we

call formation is not a choice. You have already been formed

into someone. You are being formed into

someone and you are going to be formed into someone.

And it's so easy in our culture to be formed into someone

unintentionally. OK, the smartphone in your

pocket. OK.

It was introduced 2008 and I would argue that there is few

devices in our lives that are as transformational to us.

We are able to get information about political parties and

narratives more often than we get to the person of Jesus.

We begin to get algorithms over the Almighty, we get Hollywood

over the Holy Spirit and workplaces other than church

places. You and I are are being formed

and the choice we have is are we going to intentionally be formed

into Christ likeness? OK, now Romans, Paul kind of

talks about this in Scripture. It's not just a a problem today,

but this is a problem throughout history.

He says in Romans 12, do not conform to the pattern of this

world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

But this is easy for us to talk about in like a big

philosophical way. But some of what we want to talk

about today is what does this actually look like in your daily

life? What does it look like in the

life of our church? And not just like, what do the

best writers today have to look at?

What do the best like formation writers, the Dallas Willards,

the John Mark Homers of the world.

But what does Scripture have to say?

OK, And then were Jesus people? What does Jesus have to say

about this? Anything that.

Yeah, so let's turn to Matthew chapter 4.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

If you have your Bibles, we have them in the back available as

well. If you don't own a Bible, feel

free to take that. It'll be on the screens.

But we always encourage you to bring physical Bibles.

Like Patrick just said, our, our screens are formation machines.

We try to get away from them as much as we can.

But Matthew chapter 4, this is the beginning of Jesus's public

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

ministry. And He was going around doing 3

main things #1 Jesus was going around, He was teaching people.

Not only that, but He was proclaiming the good news of

what we call the good news of the Kingdom.

He was also going around healing the sick.

And this is what it says in Matthew chapter 4, beginning in

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

yeah, beginning here in verse 18.

This is where we see that Jesus was not only going around doing

these things, but He also called others to join Him in this

Kingdom effort. And we see here in 18, it says

as Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two

brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew.

They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.

Verse 19 Come follow me, Jesus said, and I will send you out to

fish for people at once. They left their Nets and

followed him. Going on from there, he saw two

other brothers, James and Zebedee that his brother John,

they were in a boat with their father Zebedee preparing their

Nets. Jesus called them and

immediately they left their boat and their father and followed

him. So this invitation of Jesus to

he went up to these two initial disciples and he said, come

follow me. And what that was, was that it

was a specific invitation for them to come and be a disciple

underneath Jesus, a disciple underneath a rabbi, which means

teacher. And so disciple, the word there

means learner or student. But probably the best definition

for our purposes of what it actually means to entail and

embody A disciple would be the word apprentice.

Think of someone apprenticing as an electrician.

What do they do? They spend a lot of time around

the person training them to become electrician.

They study the way of electricity and wiring and then

eventually they go out and do electrician things or a plumber

or whatever. In the same way, an apprentice

of Jesus. They would follow him around and

do what he did and become like him.

Now this invitation of Jesus to go to them and say, hey, come

and be my disciple. This would have been very odd,

especially for this time. You see, the rabbis at this

time, they were the teachers. They were well respected in

their community. They would travel around and

they would give teachings and instructions.

But the people who could actually become a disciple of

the rabbi, it was not just the ordinary common folk like the

fishermen, rather it was reserved for the elites, the

best of the best. These are the people who made it

through the multi tiered education system for for young

Jewish boys and men. And so this would have been like

the tippy tip, the the Magna cum laude.

The best of the best could eventually go and ask their

rabbi or ask a rabbi, Hey, let me follow you.

They would beg their their rabbi to say, please, let me take on

your yoke, your training. Let me become a rabbi like you.

Let me become your disciple. So it's kind of like maybe

auditioning for a movie in Hollywood or like a play in

Broadway, right? You have your initial audition.

Anyone can come to that. But if you're really lucky,

you'll get called back for a second wave of auditions and

only the best of the best that the tippy top will be called

back for 1/3 audition and so on and so forth.

So there was radical that Jesus would look at the look at these

ordinary men as a rabbi, as a teacher and say come follow me.

I want you all to become my disciples.

If you were accepted as a disciple of a rabbi, it became

your entire lifestyle. You would spend 24/7 with your

rabbi. It would become your very

identity. You are a disciple of your

teacher. This was a radical thing that

Jesus approached these men and said come and do this with me.

Verse 419, Jesus said, come follow me and I will send you

out to fish for people. We'll talk a little bit more

about this, but the idea of fishing for people was to then

go out and make more disciples in the way of the rabbi, their

teaching, and their lifestyles. Disciples would become rabbis

themselves in order to make more and more disciples in the way of

Jesus. And so put really succinctly,

and hopefully you've heard us, if you've been around presence

long enough, you've heard us talk about this.

But a disciple is someone who orients their lives around 3

driving goals. Number one, to be with Jesus #2

to become like Jesus. And finally, to do what Jesus

did. So if you hear nothing else

today, hear this. To be a disciple is to do these

three things. There's a lot of other beautiful

things we can do like church and scripture reading and prayer and

disciplines. All are helpful, but they're all

driven towards the three main goals of being with Jesus,

becoming like him, and doing what he did.

But the good news for us is that Mark's gospel adds that Jesus

says that we will become fishers of men.

It's the word ganesthi, which is the idea of Jesus saying I will

make you become fishers of men. In other words, it implies that

there's a gradual process of training that will take place

where Jesus takes us on and he teaches us how to follow.

Luke 640 says the student is not above the teacher, but everyone

who is fully trained will be like their teacher.

In other words, it's almost as if Jesus is looking at you and

me. He's looking at us and saying

you don't train yourself and then come to me.

What Jesus is saying is saying no, no, no, you come to me and

I'll do the training. Is that a relief for anyone here

today? Right.

Jesus is the teacher. I will help you become the

fishers of men. And I think so many times

church, we get this backwards when it comes to coming and

following Jesus. We think, oh, I need to, I need

to like improve my life. I need to fix my life a little

bit better or I need to be better at doing the spiritual

disciplines or church attendance or or sin management or whatever

it is. And so I can't follow Jesus yet

because I haven't had it all figured out.

I'm not committed enough. And it's almost as if the

invitation of Jesus is to say, no, no, no, no, you're just

ordinary fisherman. You're just sheep.

Come follow me and I will train you and teach you in order for

you to become an apprentice in my way, to adopt the lifestyle

that I have in store for you. This is a wonderful promise.

So before I kick it over to Patrick to summarize, the

invitation to follow and to fish is a holistic commitment to

apprentice under Jesus way of life, his teaching and his

mission. It's a lifelong commitment to

Orient our entire lifestyles around being with Jesus,

becoming like Jesus, and doing what he did.

So we're going to have another discussion question around your

tables want you to talk about when you think about the

invitation to follow Jesus and become a disciple, what comes to

mind? But before the speech thing,

right when you would hear this passage of the idea of following

you goes, what would come to mind?

And then after this, how does that make you feel?

Yeah, that's a good question. When I had it framed in this

way, because when I would hear the invitation initially, like

growing up in church or whatever that, you know, we were called

to pick up our cross and follow Jesus, that was like so

intimidating because like, I don't want to get crucified, you

know, as Jesus was. And the call, the call and cost

of discipleship is that high, right?

And and it is that important, like we are called to lay down

our lives. But I remember just thinking

like, this seems impossible, right?

This seems like like a pipe dream, like something like, how

does anyone actually follow and become like Jesus?

But it was only until, you know, maybe the last few or even 5 to

10 years of my life where I started hearing about the idea

of training in the way of Jesus, of him teaching us how to do it.

And that there was actually Rd. maps and pathways that we could

follow to open ourselves up to more of the Holy Spirit to

become like Jesus, or what we would call sanctification.

That it really like a light bulb was lit in my mind, right?

Because it's like, oh, this is, this isn't just something Jesus

put out there that he, he knew we couldn't attain or achieve or

do on our own, or we certainly can't do it on our own, but we,

it's attainable. We can follow in his footsteps

if he does the training. So.

That's so good. Yeah.

I mean, I, it's only been the last five years or so really

since COVID that I was opposed to this.

And I remember like growing up in faith, thinking about

Christianity really in two ways. And I swung the pendulum both

ways. The first was really more about

morality and this like, OK, I'm following Jesus, so I need to go

and do exactly what he did. I need to force myself.

And I don't know about you, but if you've ever tried to be

really good, it's miserable. Can't bear the weight of that.

But then I also think about in 6th grade, talking to my friend

who went to the summer camp with me and we heard the gospel, the

invitation to follow Jesus. And this I was just was thinking

about this right now. And I remember him afterwards.

I was really excited to hear what he thought.

And I asked him, Chris, did you did you accept Jesus as your

savior? Are you going to follow him?

And he said no, not yet. I want to live and have of the

time 1st and then I'll follow him.

Yeah, and what that is, is that's really just fire

insurance, right? It's like Jesus is this

insurance salesman that's selling you insurance so that

you don't go to hell. In both of those types of

following Jesus are just unbeautiful.

They're ungood, they're uninspiring.

But this when I heard, as Ben said, that that Jesus was

looking at forming me into his image and that he was going to

do the hard work and I could become a person of love for the

sake of others. That was amazing and that was

inspiring. But we're going to look at

another passage. Ben looked at the beginning of

Jesus's walk with the disciples and his invitation to follow me.

But I want to take us to the end of Jesus's time with disciples

in Matthew 28. OK.

This is what we would call the the Great Commission in the

church, but I want us to take it apart a little bit and see what

Jesus has for us and this idea of following him.

So verse 18. Then Jesus came to them and

said, All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them

in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and

teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.

I want to just look at a few things here.

OK, first, what does Jesus not say in this passage?

Jesus does not say go and make church attenders, go and make

religious consumers, or go and make people that know a lot

about the abiding go and make the theologian that's not in

there. OK, He says.

Go and make disciples. The mission of the church is not

simply to get people to believe in Jesus, but to help people

become like Jesus. Does that make sense?

It's not about information transfer, it's about human

transformation. That's good.

So let's look at a couple other pieces First, where does the

authority come from when you're going and making disciples?

Comes from him, right? Jesus says all authority in

heaven and earth has been given to me.

So when you're going and you are making disciples and you feel

unable or unworthy, you're not drawing on yourself.

You're drawing on Jesus's authority to do that.

OK, this is an echo back from in Daniel 7 in the Old Testament

where the Son of Man receives dominion, glory and Kingdom over

all of the nations. That's why we refer to him as

King Jesus. Jesus is not sending the church

out as a fragile religious club trying to just get by in the

culture. He is sending people out as the

enthroned hing. OK, the Great Commission is not

about what you are doing. It is about what Jesus is doing

through you. OK, second thing, this is a

little bit nerdy, but in the Greek, when we look at this

passage, it's important for us to know what the core idea of

the passage. What is the core invitation?

Often in church, I would hear it be go, like this was a passage

for ministries like go, guys, go out, go to another city, go to

another country. And that's that's kind of scary,

right? But actually the core idea of

this passage is to go in. It's to to make disciples.

And what does that mean? Well, first Jesus says to

baptize them and baptism is not just a one moment thing.

It's not just like the mark of becoming a Christian.

But what it is it is it an identity transfer to be baptized

in the name of the Father and the Son and the Spirit is it

means that you belong to God. It means to go out and baptize

people and have lives that are no longer self self authored, to

have an identity that's no longer formed by the culture,

that's no longer being formed by your fears or or your ideas, but

to say that that Jesus, I belong to you.

My identity is formed in you. OK, now this the second part of

making disciples. I remember when I was reading

when I realized what it's actually saying.

OK, let's look at the passive again.

Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the

Holy Spirit, teaching them to what's the next word?

Obey, Obey. It's so easy to read this

passage and just see teaching them what I had taught.

It's so easy to look at and be like, listen guys, what I want

you to do is go and baptize people and then go have Bible

studies. Sure, good, but that's just

about information. Or go and go and just listen to

some really good sermons and get some really good ideas of how to

be a better Christian. No, Jesus's command was to teach

them to obey. That means the goal of Christian

teaching is not about information transfer.

It is whole life formation into obedience.

Jesus is aimed is an embodied way that that teaches you to be

a forgiving person, a person of prayer, a person that's

generous, that's able to love your enemies.

Not just ideas, not just theories, but Jesus's invitation

is that you would go and you would slowly become a person

that is able to tell the truth, to live without anxiety, to seek

first the Kingdom. Jesus does not Commission us to

make smarter consumers of religious content, but embodied

practitioners of his way. The Great Commission is a call

to make apprentices of Jesus, people baptized into his life,

taught to practice his way, and sustained by what?

What does Jesus say at the end of the passage?

Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

That's good. That's so good.

Yeah. Can I jump in?

Yeah, yeah, that's so good. And I think for many of us, if

you spent time in church, we hear a lot about that moment of

salvation, right? That that moment of like

entering into the Kingdom and that was so important.

That was Jesus message was repent for the Kingdom of heaven

as at hand. How do we get into the Kingdom?

Well, we repent of the way we were living.

We trust in the finished work of Jesus on the cross to receive

forgiveness for our sins. And now we have access into all

that God has. And I was trying to explain this

to a friend that it's not just about that that initial moment

of salvation, that fire insurance sort of thing that

that we often times can, can want, but that there's so much

more available. And I was explaining this to a

friend of my discipleship band this last week, actually.

And I was like, there's so much more available to us after that

moment of salvation. But so many Christians stop

there at that moment, think I'm good, I've got it.

I got it. And I'll kind of just kind of go

through this life and ask for forgiveness once in a while or

whatever. And he's like, oh, yeah, you're

right. Like it'd be as if you it'd be

as if you, you, you got the keys to the entire mall, but you only

hung out in like the Yonkers, you know what I mean?

And basically what he's saying is like you, you have access to

go wherever you want, but you only stay in that, that one

section. Because now that I'm in the

mall, I don't have to go anywhere.

I can just hang out and try on clothes or whatever.

And it's like, no, no, no, you've got, you've got Cinnabon

out there waiting for you. You know, you've got, you've got

Wet Seal or whatever, Abercrombie and Fitch.

I haven't been to the mall in a while.

I don't know what's still out there.

But you, you've got all the Disney Store, Apple, right?

In other words, you have the whole mall available to you.

All that the Kingdom has to offer is now yours through

Jesus. And so don't just stay at that

moment of salvation. Yes, that grant granted you

access, you're in but sanctification and becoming like

Jesus, living into your Kingdom purpose, boy, there's so much

more available to you. And our hope today, I think, is

to like get this in each of us. Like there's more.

Jesus is calling us to go and make disciples.

That's just so good and for me like that is a more beautiful

vision right like that's why Jesus says I've come to give you

life and life to the full. CS Lewis has this story than he

tells this illustration about often we live as Christians as

if mother is inviting us to eat chocolate cake, but we are more

interested in mug pies. When you read the words of

Jesus, and honestly, it's part of our job as teachers is to

cast a more beautiful vision of what God has in store it for

you. Yeah.

That's so good. The invitation is to be a person

that is unanxious. That's not a pipe drink.

The things you just teach are actually able to happen.

So around your tables, here's another prompt.

How does this idea simplify or intensify what the Church does?

And then what keeps churches from being focused upon

discipleship? We've talked about the what

Scripture has to say about this. We've talked about what Jesus

has to say about his invitation to be a disciple, that Lily

talked about his invitation to be a disciple maker.

So the question is, what does that mean for us today as the

corporate church? But more specifically, what does

it mean for presence church? So let me tell you, it means as

a church in our time, we are all about making disciples.

This is at the very heart of our church.

When we talk about what is the one thing we want to do, the one

thing we want to be known for, it is disciple making.

And part of the reason is, is that there is this new found

interest in spirituality going up, especially in young people.

We've had generations, especially as millennials.

We have friends that are angry with the church.

We probably have a little angry in the tree.

It's just in the millennial blood, but Gen.

Z and younger are becoming more and more interested in in

spirituality because honestly, secularism has shown that it

does not work. People are looking for a better

way of living and we want to be able to show people that.

David Copeland, Barno, we've already talked about them.

They're vice president of research, said.

The question before us is what kind of change we desire, he

suggests. Do we simply want more people in

our churches, or do we want people and the world

transformed? It is a lot easier to get people

into a room than transformed. The Barnhai article continues

on. For church leaders, this tension

underscores a meaningful opportunity to recommit to

intentional discipleship and help people move from curiosity

to conviction, from Christian and name only to fully engaged,

deeply devoted followers of Jesus.

The church has a vital opportunity to guide a

spiritually furious generation toward deep, integrated, lived

Christian faith. I think for the last probably 50

years, the church has been really good at making concrete.

You've gotten a lot of people in the room and a lot of people are

saying. And as Pastor Ben said,

repentance is incredibly important, but it is only the

beginning. We want to be a church that

makes disciples. Our mission is we exist to

witness a spirit LED disciple, disciple making movement in our

churches and communities. Let me say that again, because I

butchered it and Ben's to be angry at.

I wasn't. Going to say it.

Our position is to witness a spirit LED disciple making

movement in our churches and community.

That is what we are all about. CS Lewis.

And this is like ACS Lewis day for me.

Church says church exists for nothing else but to draw men

into Christ, to make them little Christ.

If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, mission,

sermons and even the Bible itself are simply a waste of

time. The truth is because there are

lots of really good things that churches can do, but we can get

distracted and miss the main thing.

It's like this. Imagine you went to a gym to

join a gym, and there are inside that gym motivational pictures

all over the place, K, They have a masseuse on hand.

They have tanning beds, They have like a steaming room.

They have great music. TV's all over the place.

Even like people that say they're perfect personal

trainers, but there is not one piece of equipment.

Is that Jim able to do what it's supposed to do?

No. OK, There's a quote out there in

the business world that your system is perfectly designed to

give you your results. So as a church, our goal,

everything we do is pointed at making disciples through seeking

God's presence, becoming like Jesus together, and being a

presence in our city. And if you look up here, that is

what we are all about. But Ben, Ben, how do we do that?

Yeah, such a good question, right?

And like these three priorities we've said are the filters by

which we filter everything we do through these.

Like if we're not seeking God's presence through an event, we

pull off for an energy we're pouring out, like we don't want

to do it. If we're not becoming more like

Jesus through it or being a presence on mission in our city,

we don't want to do it. And so that's why it's it's so

important that we put it on the wall because these are our sort

of driving goals as a church. And you'll notice it's the three

goals of a disciple. Just contextualize for a body,

be with Jesus, become like Jesus, do what he did, live on

mission, go out. And so for us, the the machinery

that we have at the church ought to be producing the result that

we want if we want to be making disciples.

What is the system in place in order to do that?

There's a couple of them. One of them, you're experiencing

it right now. This is called Disciple making

Sunday. We don't know of a ton of

churches who who do this sort of environment, but we've said what

if we took at least one to two times a year and we didn't do a

typical service, but instead we gathered people around the

central mission of our Church of making disciples.

What if we even what if we even encouraged people to join and

get trained into how to make discipleship bands.

So hopefully by now you've heard us talk a lot about bands.

Simply put, their groups of two to four people that that are

focused on disciple making, but not just any, not just disciple

making, but spirit LED disciple making through transparent

relationships. So our heart is that our church

would be made-up of groups of two to four people who are

meeting out in the community, even in their workplaces

consistently in order to become like Jesus together.

And we want these to be spaces that are transparent in that you

can be fully known and fully loved, fully known as in like

your, your your secrets are out there with this group of, of

others, your fears, your concerns, the struggles that you

have going on in your life, though those can be fully known

by the people around you. But as you're transparent, as

you're actually vulnerable with people that's met with an

unconditional grace and love of Jesus Christ.

And when you partner those things together, being fully

known and fully loved, that is transformational.

We all long deeply for relationships like that.

And so we say what could happen through these bands where deep

spiritual friendships are combined with sacrificial

mission. The people that I'm closest with

aren't just the people who share the same interests as me, but

they're the people who are living on mission with me,

right? Find your people who can live on

mission, who can help you become like Jesus, spur you on in grace

and in power of the spirit. And we've just seen discipleship

bands sort of take off in our church.

More and more people are interested in that.

People coming in, even for the first time we've heard say, hey,

I, I saw on your website you have these groups of two to

four. I'm really interested in that.

We just see that in a time in a culture where loneliness is an

epidemic, people are wanting environments where they can

actually be known and and loved. And so we are putting a lot of

our eggs in that basket. We have something like I, I

would guess 40 to 50% of our average church attendance are

made-up and already involved in a band and we're seeing more and

more people interested in joining that.

Our discipleship bands are centred around 3 values and I

share these today because a lot of you are already in a band and

I encourage you as we go through these quick to do a self

evaluation, take an audit of your band and say how are we

doing at these three values? Number one is that the value is

open Bibles. This is a commitment in our

discipleship bands to rally around God's word through the

scriptures. Jesus taught us through the

Word, and the Holy Spirit speaks to us by reminding us of Jesus's

words in that way. And so this is a commitment to

follow Jesus teachings. First and foremost, open Bibles.

Wherever we go, when we rally around our band, our Bibles are

open, ready to receive. This is a commitment to go

throughout the week and read scriptures together.

The second value of a discipleship band is that we

have open hearts. Again, we mentioned this is a

transparent relationship. You can actually open your heart

to one another through love, through encouragement, you

celebrate wins together and you mourn losses together.

Open hearts is a commitment to vulnerability and actually

sharing what's going on in your life. 3rd and finally, it's also

a commitment to open eyes. What does that mean?

This means we always maintain open eyes to see where God is

leading our band and who else He is calling us to go and reach

for the gospel. This is not discipleship.

Bands aren't designed to just be insular, just inward focused,

just worried about our own personal growth in Jesus and

getting Better Together. That's not it.

But rather a band should have open eyes to see God.

Who are you calling me to go and start another discipleship band

with? Who are you calling me to go and

witness and share the good news of Jesus with?

And so we need to kind of always be keeping that in mind because

how many of us know it's really easy to just turn inward and

focus on ourselves. We have to always have a

commitment to others. Spiritual formation is being

formed into the image of Christ for the sake of others.

It's a process, but it's always for others.

Jesus came to seek and save The Who, the lost, the lost.

It's the sick that need a doctor, not the healthy ones.

And we need to always maintain that.

So those are the values of our bands.

We encourage you if you're in a band to re evaluate that and and

to re centralized those in your meetings.

We've heard a number of testimonies.

In fact, I'm going to invite Hannah to to come on forward if

you could. I asked a couple of our our band

facilitators how it's going and what they're seeing in their

bands. And Russ said this, he said

praying for one another. We're providing encouragement,

healing and a level of community not able to be found elsewhere.

I love hearing that another person wrote our small group

participants are amazed at how many prayers where we see

visible answers. Our our prayer requests are

sincere and varied, some large, some small.

We keep written notes of answered prayers in review

periodically. People in the group feel

comfortable to share their perspectives and we back up all

aspects of our studies with with Bible reading, Another person

wrote. We have also greatly enjoyed a

deeper friendship, being able to be completely authentic,

vulnerable, and come to one another for prayer and wisdom in

the hard parts of life. So cool to hear those

testimonies. And I've asked Hannah, come

around here and share a little bit about your experience with

your band real quick if you could.

And then we'll kind of button up here.

The worship team can come forward and we'll we'll go from

there. Hey guys, I'm Hannah.

As Min said, yeah, I'm in a band and I love it.

Although I will admit we have not been the best at being

consistent with meeting, but that's life and God still works

through that. So while what I've been

reflecting on has been His blessings here, it's just how

God has been very strategic and He always is, even if we don't

realize it right away with the people he's placed in my life in

general and specifically in my band.

And how the Lord has used things that have happened in my life

years ago, before I even came to presence, before I knew the

people that are in my band and how he's used that.

It's for us to edify one another and just to walk through trials

together and cry together and see the joy that comes from

those heart things. And it's also great to celebrate

one of our band members. He was graduated from me, Matt.

And so that was quite to celebrate where and just, yeah,

around together and just be together.

That's good. Thanks so much, Hannah.

Can we give it up for Hannah? Appreciate that.

That's so good. I want to close by reading Acts

1/8. This is Jesus after he was

resurrected but before he ascended, He was giving some

departing instructions and encouragement to the other

disciples. At this time, in Acts 1/8 it

says this, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes

on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all

Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth.

Jesus was calling his disciples to be witnesses of the power of

the resurrection that they had seen to go out into the ends of

the earth and to tell others what they had experienced in

Christ. You and I are called to do the

same. If you have received salvation,

if you having been encouraged and you have received the power

of the living God, you're called to be as witnesses.

You're called to go out and share.

John 20, Jesus said, Peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, I am sending y'all you.

And with that, he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy

Spirit. You see, going out and making

disciples is not going to be something that we can do on our

own willpower. It's not something we can do by

our own strength. It's not something we do because

we think we're good enough or have it all together or our life

is put together. Rather, it is a Commission from

Jesus himself, who has all authority.

And He's telling you and me to go to be his ambassadors, to

tell the world to make disciples in your workplaces, in your

break rooms, in your families and your friend groups, and

wherever you may find yourself, wherever you are, to now begin

to make disciples. And so I just want to breathe

that encouragement over you. And I want to pray that the Holy

Spirit would empower us, enable and enable us to do that here

today. You have been commissioned.

Follow first and go fish for people.

May we be a church that is deeply committed to making

disciples of Jesus. May we be a church that is on

mission, commissioned by Jesus himself.