Structure • Discipleship

- Welcome to the Willow Ridge Sermons Podcast.

This is where you can find audio

from Sunday morning messages and more.

Make sure you're subscribed

so that you don't miss future episodes

and thanks for listening.

- If you're curious, New Life Baptist Church

is a Hispanic church that we partner with in Queens.

We've been partnering with them now,

where's Brent at, for about three years now.

Two to three years that we've been going up there

and we've been doing things from Coates to the city.

Our student ministry went up there

for the first time this summer.

We got future trips planned and you just love that.

I got our house when we get a thank you note.

I remember we hadn't been married long

and we got a thank you note in the mail

and I got the mail and I opened it

and I read the thank you note and I threw the note away.

And then Erin came home and she opened up the trash can

to throw something away and she saw a thank you note

sitting right there and she's like,

why did you throw that away?

I was like, well, 'cause I read it.

And she's like, yeah, and I bought the gift.

And so she's like, no, no, when someone writes

us a thank you note, we both wanna,

we wanna be able to read that

and we wanna be able to see that.

And so just so grateful for them

and just to be able to say thank you,

not just to our youth or not just to our adults

who've been there, but us as a church.

And it truly is a partnership,

which is just so beautiful and so wonderful to see.

I'm speaking of partnerships at the beginning

of September, September 1st,

I know that's a holiday weekend,

but you're gonna wanna be here.

Pastor Sam will be with us from India that morning

and he's gonna open up God's word and he's gonna preach.

And I'm excited about that and be able to hear him

and be a part of that service.

And so you'll wanna make sure that you're here

as him and his lovely wife, Susan will be here,

traveling all around the state of South Carolina,

North Carolina, Texas, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio

to share with partnering churches,

but also to develop some different partnerships

of what's there.

So be in prayer for them as he is speaking

for the next two months, pretty much every Sunday morning,

Sunday night and Wednesday night,

he will be at various churches.

And so be a wonderful time, September 1st.

Well, if you have your Bible and I hope you do,

I want you to join us in Matthew chapter four,

Matthew chapter four.

So here's what we're gonna do today.

We are going to usually I take a passage of scripture.

You guys know this, you've been around me for a while

and we just kind of like hang out on these handful of verses

and we really try to break down and understand

what God is teaching us and what God is telling us

from that passage of scripture.

And I think it's important that we study scripture

and we teach scripture that way.

However, for the next few weeks, the next three weeks,

what we're gonna do on Sunday morning

is gonna look a little bit differently than that.

We're gonna look at our structure,

what defines us as a church as we look at God's word

and examine that and answer the question,

why do we do what we do here?

Why do we do what we do here?

You can go and you can look,

there's not a shortage of churches around.

Chances are you drove past a church to get to this church

unless you're one of the handfuls that live right around,

like here, you're like, no, but we can hit a golf ball

from our house to the church, right?

But for us, I know this morning I passed six or seven

churches to come here.

And so what I want us to see is why do we do what we do

and then why do we do what we do here?

Because I feel like sometimes what has happened

is a church becomes a church

and then when a church moves off of God's word

to what they do and why they do what they do,

they begin to look at things differently

and then they flirt with, they become threatened by,

they have a risk of danger of walking away

from being a church to being something else.

We're not a daycare, we're not a school,

we're not a political organization,

we're not a social club, we're a church.

And I'm not saying that churches that have some of those

aspects aren't churches, I'm saying that above everything,

they better make sure that they're being a church

and that what the ministry of the church

and the heart of God drive what's there.

And so if you ever wonder, you're like,

well maybe I like what we do here

or maybe there's even some aspects and you're like,

yeah, I don't really care for this aspect

of the things that we do.

I want you to know the why we do what we do

because I believe when it comes down to church,

I read a book years ago called Simple Church.

God in my name, Tom Rayner wrote it.

Simple Church.

And what I began to understand is that in order to have

a simple church, it could be a complicated process.

But that the church that God was calling us to

was in fact a simple church when we look at God's word

and when we are the simple church that the Bible

calls us to do, we can become a powerful church.

I said this a few weeks ago and surprised some of you,

maybe you were newer and maybe not knowing about my past,

but very rarely does somebody decide at a very young age

that they're gonna grow up and be a pastor.

That was definitely not my journey in life.

I had a lot of things that I thought about doing.

But my lifelong dream from a very young age

was to be a football coach.

I wanted to be a football coach.

Very specifically, I wanted to be a college football

offensive coordinator.

That's what I wanted to be.

One of my coaches that I coached under

when I was a college student, he came to me and he said,

there's a coach that's up in the Midwest that he knew

and if I could get my grades in order,

if I could study hard, if I could finish college on time,

he said he's an up and comer, we really believe

that he'll be able to do great things in football

and I know him and we could possibly set you up

with an internship with this coach.

And then he said his name and years later it hit me,

Nick Saban.

And Michael Brewer would have lost credibility for me

as an Auburn fan.

But there's this opportunity.

And so I coached football for years as a non-believer.

I coached high school football.

I loved every minute of it.

I coached offensive line was the position that I coached.

I had the opportunity of calling plays.

I learned how to break down film.

I learned how to do these things.

I would go to clinics and learn and I took in so much

about what it meant to coach college football.

I was able to serve under what I believe

one of the greatest offensive coordinators

in South Carolina high school football league history.

I'm able to learn so much.

And then God called me into ministry

and I walked away from coaching football.

And I'd been about four years in ministry

and we were living in Sumter, South Carolina

and I got a phone call one day from a guy named John.

John was the interim youth pastor at First Baptist Sumter

and he called me and he said,

"Bo, John was an insurance salesman."

He called me, he said, "Bo, I got a favor to ask of you."

I said, "Sure, John, what favor do you have?"

And he said, "I'd like to ask you if you would help me out

"and if you would be willing to coach football again

"just for one season."

He said, "I know you're busy, I know you got a lot going on

"but I'd like to see if you'd be willing to coach football."

I said, "Where do you want me to coach football at

"with you, John?"

He said, "Well, I'm one of the offensive coordinators

"at Wilson Hall, it's a private school

"there in Sumter, South Carolina."

And he said, "If you'd be willing to come

"and be our offensive line coach, I'd really appreciate it."

And I said, "Sure, I'd love to."

He said, "All right, we'll be there at practice

"at three o'clock today."

I said, "John, would you mind, so I can come out there

"and be ready, could you email me your playbook?

"I'd like to look over some things,

"I'd like to understand your base offense

"of the things that we're trying to do."

And he laughed.

He said, "Just come out to practice first."

So I came out to practice.

Had my gym shorts on, right?

I had my T-shirt on, I had a Wilson Hall hat

that I went and bought, I was ready to go,

I was ready to inspire men,

just ready to see some heads knock around,

just ready to see some people just really go at it.

And I see the varsity on one side of the field.

And I see the JV on the other side of the field.

And then I see another group of kids.

And I see John walking up to me.

He's got this big smile on his face.

He's like, "You ready?"

I said, "Sure."

He's like, "All right, man, you're the offensive line coach

"for the fifth and sixth grade team."

It's like, well, this is gonna be an experience.

I said, "John, what do I need to know?"

And he said, "Bo, here's what you need to know.

"We only do three things.

"We got three plays that we run, that's all we run,

"but we're gonna run these three plays

"over and over and over again,

"and we're gonna run 'em to perfection

"so that as these boys move up,

"they'll be able to grow and they'll be able to understand

"and they'll be able to diversify.

"But Bo, at Wilson Hall, we're committed

"to doing these three things."

And then he shared with me what those three things were.

And then over the course of the next about eight weeks,

I had the most fun I had ever had

in my coaching life getting these fifth and sixth graders

just to fire off the line and hit the person next to 'em.

And it was so remarkable, whether it was a win

or whether it was a loss,

it was just, "Hey, coach, where are we stopping

"for dinner afterwards?"

It didn't matter, and just the simplicity of that,

that's there.

Here's my point of telling you guys this story.

I think sometimes as a church, or as a church as a whole,

we begin to reach out and think through

all of the different things that we can do,

all of the different things that we can start,

all of the different aspects that are there,

and what we become.

And I don't think it matters if you're a church

of five or if you're a church of 5,000.

I don't think it matters.

What we become is because we become exhausted

for two reasons.

Number one, we're doing things that we're not ready to do,

or number two, we're doing things

that we're not supposed to do.

And so when I look at Scripture and see

there are three main aspects, and this is what we do,

and this is what we focus in on.

When we're sitting there and we're having our staff meetings

and we're talking through leadership,

we believe that these are the three things

that we need to be about, that we need to do

to make sure that we're being the church

that God's called us to be.

And they're discipleship, fellowship, and worship.

Those three things.

Discipleship, fellowship, and worship.

And then everything that we do is gonna come

from one of these aspects.

So discipleship, just a very brief definition,

discipleship is to grow more like Christ.

That's what we wanna do.

So if you were a part of one of our classes earlier,

there was classes of teaching you how to read the Bible

more effectively, there was women's studies,

there was men's studies, there was my study in here

where we talked about the Holy Spirit.

The goal in the discipleship aspect

is to help you grow more like Christ.

And so whether it's our small groups,

I met here, I believe we had four different small groups

meeting on campus, we got small groups

that are meeting in homes pretty much every night

of the week, we got men's groups, we got women's groups,

scattered all over Lexington.

The goal in those is to grow more like Christ.

That's discipleship, we're gonna look at that

in a second a little bit more.

But we also, we wanna come from discipleship

to fellowship, to fellowship, right?

And in fellowship, to love the body of Christ.

We don't always wanna be a part of something, right?

Like people say, I wanna be a part of something,

man, I wanna be a part of something,

I wanna love being a part of something.

And so what fellowship is designed to do,

we're gonna look at this next week,

is that fellowship designs us, it wires us,

it brings us into a special kind of relationship

with one another as we're brought under the banner

of Jesus Christ, we're brought into a relationship

with one another through the saving work of Jesus Christ,

and then what comes out of that through fellowship

is that we love each other.

And then the last is worship.

Worship, to exalt the name of Christ,

and in two weeks, we'll talk about that.

But it is what we are doing right now,

and it's what we just did, and I'm so grateful

and thankful for Joel and our worship team

and what they do, I love that.

I want you to notice this, that when we sing songs,

I want you to look at it and see who is the subject of that?

Who is the subject?

And the subject is God, over and over and over again,

of who we exalt and who we praise,

and all of this comes from a heart of worship.

So discipleship, fellowship, and worship,

and you're like, well, Bo, are you missing something?

Are you missing something?

Are there pieces of this that you're like,

well, there's important things that the church

is also called to do that you didn't list in there.

There's even things that you see that we do

that you didn't list in there.

And I would say, well, there's things

that I didn't just list, but it doesn't mean

that I don't believe that they're not a part,

because I do believe that they're a part.

So if you talk to me, like evangelism, right,

which is important, which evangelism is sharing

the gospel of Jesus Christ with those who do not know him.

Evangelism, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ

with those who do not know him.

I believe that evangelism comes from discipleship.

That as I'm discipled, more to be like Christ,

the more that God burdens my heart for lost people,

and I'm willing to go and I'm willing to share,

and I'm willing to tell people my story,

and I'm willing to listen to their story,

and I'm willing to point them to Jesus,

because of the heart and the work of discipleship.

I believe that missions come from discipleship.

I believe that serving comes from discipleship.

I believe that giving, right, comes from a heart

of worship.

I believe that community, and as important as that is,

we gather together as these different groups of people,

and we wanna be able to share things and do that.

Like I believe that comes from fellowship.

Fellowship isn't an aspect of community.

Community is what fellowship,

or fellowship is what community's all about.

As we gather together and we do this.

So if you're new here, let me kind of explain,

but if you've been here, you'll see this.

It's what we try to do,

and it's what we try to grab a hold of,

in the busyness, in the chaos,

in the craziness that is your world.

When we come here as a group of individuals

on Sunday morning, we say, "Let's take this time,

"and let's make sure that we do this together."

What we do on Sunday morning is not,

as I prayed through this, it wasn't a strategy

for us to think through, like, how do I boost attendance?

How do I get more people to arrive?

What will guilt people into giving more?

What will create for more people opportunities

or their willingness to serve?

The heart and motivation behind why we do what we do

is how can we take these three things that we believe in,

and we believe that everything pours from these,

and so we built our structure,

the flow of who we are on Sunday morning,

so that you have the opportunity to engage in that.

So at nine o'clock, there's discipleship.

At 9.50, there's fellowship.

At 10.15, there's worship, right?

So that this is our vision, so that you as an individual,

that you as a family can come alongside,

and that we can join together as a unique body and do that.

And then the beauty of that is there's still more.

There's still more.

And on Sunday nights, students will gather back in here,

and students will open up God's word together,

and they'll fellowship together,

and they'll experience discipleship together,

and they'll worship together.

And in homes, couples and individuals will gather,

and they'll open up God's word,

and they'll talk about it, and they'll study it,

and they'll break it apart,

and they'll challenge one another,

and they'll hold each other accountable.

But the beauty of that is in the chaos

of everything that's going on,

we have this snapshot of what we're able to do

and what we're able to be

as we gather together on Sunday morning.

And it's why I love being here.

I love the nine o'clock vibe

as people are getting here.

It was crazy.

This is really crazy, especially around here.

We got people getting here at 8.15, right?

And they just love to come and be a part.

And then we get done, and in the chaos,

trust me, I know that is having everybody in here

with orange juice and coffee without lids, right?

But we give moon pies out,

so that balances it out, you know?

And we can gather together and have those opportunities,

and then we can get in here together,

and we can worship together.

The beautiful picture of what we do.

So this is why this is our vision.

So I want us to look at and see,

like, what is the biblical evidence of this for us?

What is the drive?

Why isn't this just some crazy scheme

that we come up with on a whiteboard one day

and then try to implement to grow our kingdom

instead of understanding the heart of God

and try to bring glory to his name

and grow the kingdom, right?

So we ask ourselves two questions,

and so I want us to look at this by looking at scripture.

The first is, what are we supposed to do?

What are we supposed to do as a church?

What are we supposed to do?

So just kind of leave there Matthew four.

I promise we're gonna jump there at the end,

but two verses, you've heard these

over and over and over again.

Matthew 28 and Acts one, we're looking at Matthew 28 verse,

"Jesus came and said to them,

"all authority in heaven and on earth

"has been given to me.

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,

"baptizing them in the name of the Father

"and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

"teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you,

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

The Great Commission, you've heard it

over and over and over again.

But then there's also Acts one eight,

"But you receive power when the Holy Spirit

"has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses

"in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria

"and to the ends of the earth."

So we look at these two and we ask ourselves,

like what are we supposed to be doing?

And we can draw from these verses what God has for us.

What God has for us as a church,

what God has for us as an individual,

how am I doing this away from here,

how am I doing this in here?

And he tells us very simply what we find here

is to go, to go, that our faith is a mobilizing faith

that we have, that's why what we do every single week

as we come together is we're gathering together

to go back to my football language and my football mind.

This is our huddle that we have

where we're coming together to be reminded of the play,

to be reminded of what we're supposed to do

so that we don't at the end of it go high five

and then I don't do anything.

It's so that we leave from here,

we leave from this gathering

and we scatter all over the place,

all over the place to go, to go.

It's not just so I've had a tough week

so I need to come in here to be encouraged.

And trust me, if you've had a tough week,

there's no better place than to be in your church

to hear the truth of God's word.

But as we do that, the goal is so that I can go

out of here and live for the name of Jesus.

That that word go, when we take our translation,

it's actually the word like as we go.

So it doesn't as much speak to a destination

that we need to get to, but it speaks to the journey

that we're going to go in an everyday moment.

The grocery store, the school, the home,

the neighborhood, go.

And go with a purpose and go for the reason.

To make disciples.

That's it, that's it, make disciples.

Not make really good dads, really good moms.

Not make rich people, not make humble people.

To make disciples.

That is the job that we have.

And within that, baptizing them

so that we've shared the gospel,

they've come to faith in Christ, right?

We see the evangelism and the missions

of the calling that we're called to.

And then teaching them to obey all that I've commanded you.

So that's it.

That we're called to go, you and me

and everybody in between.

That we're called to go and to do something.

To make disciples.

And we get to celebrate that together.

We get to celebrate that last week with Patrick.

It's a 12 year old boy, comes forward and says,

I'm a follower of Jesus Christ

and I want to share it with everyone.

We get to celebrate that.

So we go and we make and then the important part,

and this is why we've got Acts 1:8 that's in there,

Acts 1:8

is what we understand is that it's a spiritual work.

It's a spiritual work that we're doing,

but you will receive power, Jesus tells us.

You'll receive power when you learn enough.

Nope.

But you'll receive power when you've got

the right outline written down.

Nope.

But you'll receive power when you can learn

what the original languages are of the Bible.

Nope.

But you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit

has come upon you.

And he is calling us into a spiritual work

as he's working, as he's moving,

he's inviting us, he's calling us,

he's commanding us into the game.

My first year coaching, we had a running back,

it was a pretty special running back.

If you're a Clemson fan in here, you'll know this name.

His name was Reggie Merriweather.

Reggie went, left from North Augusta

and played football at Clemson.

I'll never forget, our plays were basically

run Reggie right, run Reggie left,

Reggie go run and we'll throw the ball to you, right?

We were playing Silver Bluff High School one night.

Silver Bluff was beating us.

We were trying to spread the ball around.

The head coach looked at me as the offensive coordinator.

He said, "Stop getting the ball to everyone else.

"Just give it to Reggie."

Called timeout, Reggie was our running back.

Went out there onto the field.

I looked at our wide receiver.

I said, "You're about to play running back.

"Just stand there.

"And if anybody gets past the line, hit 'em.

"Reggie, you're gonna go play wide receiver."

Reggie said, "What do you want me to do?"

I said, "Just run as fast as you can."

And I looked at our quarterback, I got him Clark Mullins.

Clark's the baseball coach at Gilbert High School now.

I said, "Clark, I want you to wait

"until Reggie's 30 yards down the field.

"And then I want you to throw the ball up in the air

"as hard as you can and Reggie, go catch it."

And Reggie did it, scored the touchdown.

We won the game, I looked brilliant.

It was all Reggie, it was all Clark, all right?

But one day, Reggie got hurt.

Reggie got hurt, Reggie had to come out.

Reggie never got hurt, never got pulled out of a game.

And we had a kid who was his backup.

And being the backup for Reggie Merriweather

meant this kid didn't ever get in the game.

Reggie was a durable player that never got hurt.

And I looked at this kid and I said,

"Get your helmet, you gotta go in.

"We've gotta pull Reggie out for one play."

And he looked at me and he said,

"Coach, I don't know where my helmet is."

(congregation laughing)

I said, "How do you not know where your helmet is?"

He said, "I've never played,

"I didn't think I was gonna play.

"I'm just happy to have the jersey, right?"

Right?

Put on your helmet and get in the game.

Too many of us standing on the sidelines

and God's called us and he's given us the power

and he's given us the ability,

not by who we are, but by who he is.

And so this is what we're about.

This is why we do what we do.

Because we're called to go, we're called to make disciples,

and we understand it's a spiritual work of God

of what he is doing.

And I don't understand it.

Why someone who says, "I'm on the team,"

doesn't wanna play in the game.

Second question.

It's not just what are we supposed to do,

but who are we supposed to be?

Who are we supposed to be?

It's an interesting question.

You ask any football team, you ask any business,

you ask any band, right?

They find this identity.

It influences the music that they play,

the plays that they run,

the services they provide as a business.

Well, this informs us as well as a church

of who are we supposed to be.

And when we look at Acts chapter two,

we get this, and so it'll be on the screen there.

I want you to read along with me.

Acts chapter two, verses 42 through 47.

It says this, "And they devoted themselves

"to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship,

"to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

"And awe came upon every soul,

"and many wonders and signs were being done

"through the apostles.

"And all who believed were together

"and had all things in common.

"And they were selling their possessions and belongings

"and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need.

"And day by day, attending the temple together

"and breaking bread in their homes,

"they received their food with glad and generous hearts,

"praising God and having favor with all the people.

"And the Lord added to their number day by day

"those who were being saved."

See, this is a very beautiful picture of this church.

This is the church in Acts two.

Acts two is not far from Acts one.

This is the early gathering of believers.

Some who saw Jesus in his ministry on the earth,

some who hadn't.

And this is who they were.

And the heart of simplicity within the body of the church,

as complicated as it can be sometimes,

is to look at this and say,

okay, well, this is who we are supposed to be.

Like what we see in the book of Acts

is this historical explosion

of men and women coming to faith

and Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

It's where we see the book of Acts,

sorry, it's where we see in the book of Acts

the gospel spread across language barriers,

across socioeconomic barriers.

In the book of Acts, we see the gospel

move out of one city and explode

into Asia, into North Africa, into Europe.

We see this movement of the work of God

like we've never seen before.

And what we find here is this beautiful model

that God gives us.

This isn't a model for a small group,

it's not a model for discipleship class,

it's not even a model for worship.

This is the church.

If we were able to go to, right,

their website, their piece of paper,

they're pointing to this is what we're about,

come be a part, this is what you can expect,

this is what we would see.

And so what this does for us is it drives

who we are as a church, why we do what we do,

what we're trying to press onto

as we are trying to create disciples of Jesus.

That's the goal, the disciples of Jesus.

We're not trying to create any part of you

just to be better for your sake or my sake.

We're not trying to create something

that is a Willow Ridge brand.

We're trying to create in the power of the Holy Spirit

men and women and children

who gather together to be disciples of Jesus.

And so we see this.

We see in their theological worship,

they devoted themselves to the disciples' teaching.

And so what we provide, what we wanna be a part of

is theological discipleship where believers

come together to grow in right understanding

of the word of God.

That's the goal.

That's what we're pushing toward.

So that you and I, regardless of our education level,

regardless of our experience,

regardless of our time being saved,

that we can gather together

and not just simply answer this question,

what does this mean to me, which can be dangerous.

But answer the question, what does this mean?

What does this mean?

Not so that my mind grows,

but so that my mind grows

so that I will grow in right understanding

of the word of God,

so that I'll grow in right understanding

of the mission of God.

We see in here relational discipleship in Acts chapter two.

We see this beautiful aspect that believers came together

that there was the pressing together of lives.

There was the mingling of one another.

And we see in the early church, it got messy sometimes.

It got messy as people were leaving others out,

people were excluding one another,

cliques were starting to happen.

Like what we see oftentimes take place in some churches,

takes place in the churches that we see back there,

but there was this mingling of this relational discipleship

where people come together

and what is beautiful that I like

about relational discipleship

is you come together again to grow

in personal relationship with one another

as you grow in your relationship with God.

And so it's the opportunity for men and women and kids

to gather together in rooms,

to gather together in homes,

to gather together across studies,

and open God's word together and walk with one another

and encourage one another and correct one another

and challenge one another and in doing so,

growing in relationship with one another

as we grow in relationship with God.

And I love hearing the stories of that.

Hearing the stories where there's someone in a group

who's hurting, who has need,

and watching the group, not because they have to,

but watching the group because they care,

engage in these relationships.

And then the other aspect of missional discipleship.

We see in here the very last line,

the very last sentence in verse 47,

"And the Lord added to their number day by day

"those who were being saved."

Missional discipleship,

where believers come together in their community

to share the truth of Jesus

with those who are not followers of Christ.

So that we as a church, we as individuals,

we as small groups are mobilized

to go out into this community

and not hold dear to us this holy secret

that you've gotta stumble across

so that you can be into the club,

but so that we're going out and sharing the password,

sharing the hope, sharing the secret

with everybody that we can

because we wanna see the family of God grow.

Now our minds, and I think this is what happens,

our minds can intellectually agree with discipleship.

Our minds can say, "I know that's important.

"I know that's good.

"I know that's right."

And then we put a dangerous word after that.

"But, but, but."

We can intellectually agree with discipleship.

We can look down, we can check all the boxes,

we can say, "My mind agrees that this is correct."

But at the heart of discipleship,

it is just that, it's a heart check.

It's a heart check.

When we see Jesus define discipleship,

and this is where we'll be in Matthew four,

we're gonna look at four, very quickly,

passages of scripture.

What we find is that discipleship is about devotion.

Discipleship is about devotion.

We think, and I talked about this,

that discipleship is about someone

that's committed to growth.

But discipleship, growth, comes from the process.

That when we look at Jesus challenging those,

inviting them to be a disciple of Christ,

what he's challenging them on is devotion.

Matthew four, 18 through 22.

While walking by the Sea of Galilee,

he saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter,

and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea,

for they were fishermen.

Let's pause here really quickly.

That doesn't mean that they liked to go fishing.

That means that they provided for their family

by the career of fishing.

Verse 19, and he said to them,

"Follow me, I will make you fishers of men."

Verse 20, immediately, they left their nets and followed him.

And going on from there, he saw two other brothers,

James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother,

in the boat with Zebedee, their father,

mending their nets, and he called them.

Immediately, they left the boat and their father

and followed him.

It's first disciples Jesus called.

And here's what I want us to see.

With whatever you've placed on the other side,

Bo, but, this is what I've got.

Bo, but, this is who we are.

But Bo, but, this is what we struggle with.

Being devoted, I mean, this is Jesus's works,

but being devoted to Jesus means

leaving your earthly security behind.

It means giving of my time.

It means giving of what I've deemed to be the priority.

It means giving up what I deem to be the most important.

It means giving up any of those things

that I've elevated to this status.

This group of men, they left it all behind.

They left the nets, they left the boat,

they left the fish, they left the dad,

they left the business, they left the 401K.

Because nothing was more precious.

Nothing was more valuable.

Nothing was more important than following Jesus.

Jump over to Matthew nine.

Matthew nine, starting in verse nine.

It says, "As Jesus passed from there,

"he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth.

"And he said to him, 'Follow me.'

"And he arose and followed him."

Let's pause there for a second.

When I was reading this this week,

I kind of like pictured when tax season comes up

and you go to Walmart and you see the tax people there,

right, and then that's not it though.

It's not like pay your $25 and I'll do my taxes.

Matthew's the guy that would cheat, that would steal,

that was taking, and the funds that Matthew was raising

would be the funds that would keep Matthew's own people

in prison to roam.

And he would have been wealthy

because of his sinful living.

But he arose and followed him.

And as Jesus reclined at the table in the house,

behold, many tax collectors and sinners came

and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.

And when the Pharisees saw this,

they said to his disciples,

"Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"

But when he heard it, he said,

"Those who are well have no need of a physician,

"but those who are sick.

"Go and learn what this means.

"I desire mercy, not sacrifice,

"for I came not to call the righteous, but the sinners."

Being devoted to Jesus means leaving

your sinful life behind.

Discipleship says I lay it down.

I think there's two reasons that you and I

have a hard time with that, two reasons.

First reason is because we like it, we like it.

We find that the enslavement and the death

that is our sin is home 'cause it's comfortable

because it's all that we know.

But the beauty of it is that the life with Christ

is the only life that is satisfying,

with purpose and with meaning.

But the second, and I think this is probably

where most of us find that we fall.

The reason why we have such a hard time

leaving our tax collector booth and following Jesus

is because we think he couldn't love a sinner like me.

We think he's not bigger than the sins that I've committed.

We think that he can't fix what is broken in me.

Jesus says, "But those who are well have no need

"of physician but those who are sick.

"For I came not to call the righteous but the sinners."

Here's the thing.

When you lay it all before him,

you're not unveiling some secret that he doesn't know.

He knows, he knows.

And he loves you just the same.

And he's calling you to lay it down.

Being devoted to Jesus, being a disciple of Jesus

means leaving your sinful life behind.

Look at Matthew 16, 24 and 26.

When Jesus told his disciples,

"If anyone would come after me,

"let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

"Forever he would save his life, we'll lose it.

"But whoever loses his life for my sake, we'll find it.

"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world

"and forfeits his soul?

"Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?"

Being devoted for Jesus means leaving it all behind.

All the good, all the bad, all of the ugly.

And locking our eyes into him to follow him.

If you're a disciple and you heard this,

it seems like a very, very complex but simple.

Keep our eyes on Jesus, follow him,

but I gotta deny myself and I've gotta take up my cross.

And what does that look like?

What does that look like?

Now jump, last passage you're gonna read, Matthew 19.

Matthew 19, verse 16.

Matthew 19:16

Matthew 19, verse 16.

Matthew 19:16

So someone comes to Jesus.

Jesus has been going to everybody, all that we've just read.

But now someone comes to Jesus.

The MVP, the person you want on the team.

The person that you would say this is who we're shooting for.

Says, "Behold, a young man came up to him saying,

"Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?"

And he said to him, "Why do you ask me about what is good?

"There is only one who is good.

"If you would enter life, keep the commandments."

Verse 16, he said to him, "Which ones?"

And Jesus said, "You shall not murder,

"you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal,

"you shall not bear false witness,

"honor your father and mother,

"and you shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Jesus locks in on these commandments

with how we interact in relationship with other people.

And the young man said to him, "All these I have kept.

"What do I still lack?"

Let's pause there for a minute.

It's debated about the sincerity

of this young man's answer.

It's debated about was this,

obviously we know that he hasn't fully done these.

We know this.

I believe that in his answer, he believes that he has.

I believe in his answer, he believes, "I'm a good guy.

"This is what I'm about.

"This is what I've done.

"Look at who I am."

Verse 20, the young man said, "All of these I have kept.

"What do I still lack?"

Verse 21, "Jesus said to him, 'If you would be perfect,

"'go and sell what you possess and give to the poor,

"'and you will have treasure in heaven.

"'Come and follow me.'"

What Jesus does here in this moment

is he moves him to what this young man holds the most dear.

It's his possessions, it's his money, it's his wealth.

The bigger piece is Jesus is saying, "What's that idol?

"In order for you to be my disciple

"that you intellectually agree is the right thing

"that you're supposed to do,

"what are you placing after the butt?"

Verse 22, "When the young man heard this,

"he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions."

Can I tell you how I would translate that in our context?

For he had a good reason.

He had a reason that when he said it,

"Jesus, here's why I can't be your disciple,"

people went, "Oh, I mean, that makes sense."

That is a little too extreme for Jesus to ask.

Yeah, we understand.

But he walked away sad because in that moment

what he said no to was not a class,

was not a small group.

He said no to Jesus.

He said no to Jesus.

Being devoted to Jesus means seeing that unfortunately

not everyone will.

Our call for discipleship,

our heart for what we see from the truth of God's word

is not so that we can look at a piece of paper

at the end of the day and say, "How many people did we have?"

I'll be honest with you.

We track attendance.

I don't want you to think that we don't.

We do.

You're a small group leaders.

If they do what Dave has asked them to, they take roll.

So that Dave can know and see

and help reach out and connect to people.

Can I tell you something?

I don't know how many people were here this morning.

I won't find out this week

how many people were here this morning.

I don't know how many people were here today

because what we're doing is not just a motivation

of how can we get more people in the seats.

The motivation in the heart behind why we do

what we're doing as we gather together

is because there's a call to go out into this world

and share the gospel of Jesus Christ

with people who don't know.

And the end goal of what Jesus calls us out to go and make

is not church members, is not faithful attenders,

it is disciples.

And the question that I have for you is this.

Are you walking on the plateau of your spiritual life?

Are you stuck in the mud of where you've always been?

Is Jesus calling you into a depth of relationship with him?

And not what you're telling me,

not what you're telling your friends,

not what you're telling others around,

but as Jesus calls you into that,

what you answer with him is Jesus but.

Jesus but my fishing net provides for my family.

But Jesus, I'm a tax collector

and they'll never welcome me in

and you can't work in my life.

Jesus, the call to take up my cross

and follow you to keep my eyes on you,

to die to myself daily,

but Jesus, that's too much.

And we walk away sad,

rejecting what he has for us.

A rejection of discipleship

is not rejecting simply a call for an adjustment of time,

priorities, or schedule.

But it's laying down of idols.

And say Jesus, none of this matters.

None of this matters other than becoming more like you

and knowing you.

Would you pray with me?

God, I thank you.

Lord, what a beautiful joy it is

to gather together.

Lord, to see brothers and sisters in Christ.

And Lord, to spend time with one another.

God, I pray for us,

for all of us,

that none of us in here have arrived.

None of us in here have got it all figured out.

None of us is the perfect disciple.

All of us, Lord, all of us have room to grow.

All of us have a step of commitment to take.

All of us have sins to repent of.

All of us need to grow in our desperation for you.

And so God, I pray, I pray, Lord,

that by the power of your Holy Spirit,

for whatever step you're calling us to take,

Lord, whatever but we wanna insert in there,

Lord, that we would stop and just say yes, Jesus.

Yes, Jesus.

Yes, Jesus.

Jesus, what do you have for me?

What do you desire for me to do?

Who do you want me to become?

What do I need to walk away from?

What security do I need to lay aside

in understanding that it is temporary

and the only security, Lord,

is found in relationship with you?

Lord, what sin do we need to lay down

at the foot of the cross and know,

Lord, that you've died for?

You've forgiven us,

and through your power we can overcome.

Lord, what's stopping us from picking up that cross,

locking our eyes on you,

and saying, Jesus, what do you have for us today?

Lord, speak to our hearts.

What's stopping us from becoming the disciple

that you've called us to be?

God, may this not be about a program.

May this not be a message

that's filled with selfish motivation of the heart.

But may this be, Lord, in the power of your spirit,

to speak to our hearts

so we can evaluate ourselves,

for what you have for us.

Jesus, we love you.

We praise you.

It's in your name we pray, amen.

- Thanks again for listening,

and be sure to check back next week for another episode.

In the meantime, you can visit us at willowridgechurch.org

or by searching for Willow Ridge Church

on Facebook, Instagram.