45 "Laying the Foundation of a True Disciple" Acts 19:1-10 | Sunday, April 19, 2026

We'll dismiss the kids back to kids

church. You can remain standing, take

your Bible, and turn to Acts chapter 19.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

We'll get back into our study here in

Acts chapter 19. It's been several

Acts 19 · chapter mention

weeks, I think, before uh Easter that we

were in our study in Acts. And so, just

to remind you where we're at at the end

of chapter 18,

the Apostle Paul's second missionary

journey came to a close there in Aaya.

He went to Ephesus in Asia and stayed

there for a very short time. Promised

that he would return if the Lord wills.

And while Paul was gone, you know what

we saw? The work of the gospel just kept

going on. A man by the name of Apollos

was uh preaching there in Aaya and in

Ephesus after Paul had left and he

didn't quite know the full gospel. And

so Aqua and Priscilla, Paul's companions

in the tentmaking ministry business, um

they instructed him in the way of God

more perfectly. And Apollos went on to

have a great ministry in Corinth and

throughout Aaya. And so as we come to

chapter 19,

this is Paul's third missionary journey.

Now what we saw at the end of chapter 18

is that Paul returned to Antioch, but

then after staying there for a while, he

embarked on his third missionary

journey. It took him through Galatia and

Friia, which is where he first started

churches on his first missionary

journey. Strengthens those churches

there. And now he has come to Ephesus.

And these next two chapters are going to

cover what's really like a 2 and 1/2

year ministry in Ephesus. And God does

some amazing things here. And it's going

to take us a few weeks to go through

these accounts. This morning we'll cover

verses 1-10. So let's begin reading in

Acts chapter 19 verse 10 or verse one.

Acts 19:10

And it came to pass that while Apollos

was at Corenth, Paul having passed

through the upper coasts, came to

Ephesus, and finding certain disciples,

he said unto them, "Have you received

the Holy Ghost since you believed?" And

they said unto him, "We have not so much

as heard whether there be any Holy

Ghost." And he said unto them, "Unto

what then were you baptized?" And they

said, "Unto John's baptism." Then Paul

Then said Paul, John verily baptized

with a baptism of repentance, saying

unto the people that they should believe

on him which should come after him, that

is on Christ Jesus. When they heard

this, they were baptized in the name of

the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid

his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came

on them, and they spake with tongues and

prophesied. And all the men were about

12. And he went into the synagogue and

spake boldly for the space of three

months, disputing and persuading the

things concerning the kingdom of God.

But when diverse were hardened, believed

not, but spake evil of that way before

the multitude, he departed from them,

and separated the disciples, disputing

daily in the one school of one Tyrannis.

And this continued by the space of two

years, so that all they which dwelt in

Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus,

both Jews and Greeks. As we look at this

text this morning, we're looking at Paul

really laying the foundation of the

church in Ephesus. And so I want to

preach with God's help a message

entitled Laying the Foundation for True

Disciples. Laying the Foundation for

True Disciples. Let's pray and ask God

to help us understand his word. Heavenly

Father, we're grateful for the privilege

to hold in our hands the word of God.

And I thank you that you left us a word

to instruct us in the way that we ought

to go. But we certainly need the help of

your Holy Spirit this morning to guide

us into your truth. And so I ask that

you would fill each of us with wisdom

and understanding by your spirit to see

how your word applies to our individual

lives today. As a pastor, I'm going to

do my best to make application. But I

know that I'll fall short. So I pray

that your Holy Spirit would bring to

each individual's mind the ways in which

they need to grow in obedience to your

word. I pray in Jesus name. Amen. May

God bless his word. You can be seated.

Perhaps the most important part to

building a house is to lay a good

foundation.

Construction always begins with the

groundwork. Of course, they've got to

put in the pipes. They got to put in the

underground wire. And then once they

have that in, they move some bobcats

there and they begin to to move dirt.

They begin to level out the ground, make

sure it's graded properly and all those

things. And then once the grading work

is done, the ground work, then they can

begin with the concrete forms. And so

you may have a crawl space or a basement

that they've got to build these walls to

pour the concrete into, or it might be

just a flat structure. And so they use

these different forms to lay out where

they're going to pour that concrete. And

then they back up the big concrete truck

and begin letting it go and and forming

this concrete into a rock solid

foundation. And everything that follows

is built upon that foundation. And if

it's not done right, then the as the

ground settles, the concrete's going to

move. I notice this in Boulder quite a

bit as we walk neighborhoods that you'll

see how tree roots have grown underneath

the sidewalk and pops the sidewalk up or

you'll see massive cracks in the

driveways and that's just a result of

the ground settling. And so they do

their best once they've leveled that

ground to take a compactor, you know,

and you might see them on this thing and

it's got a flat plate and they're like,

you know, flattening that out cuz they

want to make sure you've got a rock

solid firm foundation. Otherwise, you

ended up with cracks in your caulking,

cracks in the corners of your drywall.

You'll end up with gaps around your

windows or your deck might end up warped

and wamper jaw. It's so that's a good

preaching word, right? wamper jaw.

Right?

See, it's important to get the

foundation right. I want to say the same

thing is true in your spiritual life as

well. That if you don't get the

foundation right, then your life is

going to end up with cracks and gaps and

holes in it. Spiritually speaking, you

can end up doubting your salvation. You

can end up wandering into doctrinal

error. You can end up with a

misunderstanding about holiness, about

scripture, or about the church. And if

you don't have the right foundation, you

can find yourself being a disciple of a

man or of a woman rather than a disciple

of Jesus Christ.

You got to have the foundation right.

You can end up having some settling

issues in your family, some cracks in

your marriage, some gaps in your

testimony. And so it's just as important

or perhaps I should say even more

important that we lay the right

foundation in our spiritual lives. And

that's exactly what I see Paul doing in

this particular text. He is laying the

foundation for the first disciples in

Ephesus.

After promising to return, he goes down

to Jerusalem, connects with the church

there, moves up to Antioch, and stays

there for a while. reports on what God's

done among the Gentiles. And then he

goes back on this journey, brings him to

Galatia and Friia, as I mentioned, and

now he's finally come back to Ephesus.

And let me remind us of this that on

Paul's second missionary journey, he

tried to go into Ephesus. The spirit of

God said no. And so it took him north.

And then he went over into Macedonia and

into Aaya. And that's where his second

missionary journey was. But now all of a

sudden, the Lord has opened the door. In

fact, he tells the Corinthians in 1

1 Corinthians 16 · chapter mention

Corinthians chapter 16 that he wants to

come to them shortly. But he has a great

door that is open unto him in Ephesus

and great effectual door that God is

blowing the doors open for the gospel

here in Asia now. And we see that here

in our text.

Now Paul is coming in back into Ephesus

after Apollos. And we're going to see

over the next couple couple of chapters

how God worked powerfully to establish

this church in Ephesus that ends up

starting churches all throughout Asia.

The church of Colasse, Leodysa, Hyop,

Hierropolis, the seven churches in

Revelation. You have what do you have

there? Ephesus, Leodysa, Philadelphia,

Pergamos, Smyrna, Thotyra. All of these

churches and many more were planted in

Asia as a result of these two chapters.

It's amazing how God opened the door

here and worked. But for them to come to

that place where those churches in that

region suffered immensely for the gospel

and yet remained loyal and faithful to

Jesus, for them to be true disciples of

Jesus through thick and thin, the

foundation had to be right. And that's

what Paul is doing in this chapter. He's

doing some groundwork and he's laying

foundation. And so I want to ask this,

what is the foundation

that lies beneath a true disciple of

Jesus Christ? Because if you're really

going to follow Jesus in your life, you

need the right foundation. And so as we

look at this text, first we're going to

see that Paul does the groundwork of

salvation. That's in verses 1-7. The

groundwork of salvation and then we're

going to see the foundation of scripture

in verses 8-10. Let's begin with the

groundwork of salvation. I want you to

know first of all this morning that to

be a true disciple of Jesus Christ, you

must be genuinely converted to Jesus

Christ. Genuine conversion. That's what

we see here. Paul begins his ministry

with a group of 12 disciples of John,

John the Baptist. We're not told if

they're Jews or Gentiles. We're not told

how they became disciples of John. But

what is clear is this. Their

understanding of the gospel was

incomplete. It was insufficient. It says

in verse number two that he asked them,

saying, he said, he said unto them, have

ye received the Holy Ghost since you

believed? And they said unto him, we've

not so much as even heard whether there

be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto

them, "Unto what then were ye baptized?"

And they said, "Unto John's baptism."

And so we have these disciples, these 12

men who were baptized unto John. Let me

just remind you here because uh I don't

think any of you were here when we were

talking about uh John the Baptist

ministry all the way back in Luke

Luke 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3. I I don't I literally don't

think anyone was here except for Revon

and my family. So let me remind you of

John the Baptist. John the Baptist was

the cousin of Jesus. He was born to uh

Jesus's mother uh Mary, her her cousin

Elizabeth. So kind of like a second

cousin. But more importantly, John the

Baptist was the one that the prophets

foretold would come to Israel and

prepare the people for the coming of the

Messiah. And so when John the Baptist

came onto the scene, he was down in

Bethabara by the Jordan River and he was

preaching that the people need to repent

of their sin and prepare their hearts

for the lamb of God who is coming to

take away the sin of the world. That was

John's message. He said that there's one

coming who is greater than him who would

baptize them not just with water but

with the Holy Ghost. Israel would

understand that the baptism of the Holy

Ghost is the initiation of God's new

covenant and the coming end of the

world. That it inaugurates the endtime

timeline of God. That once Christ comes,

we begin to be on a a a rush toward the

end of time. That's how they would have

understood that. And evidently, these

men had heard John preach. They had been

baptized unto his teaching. They had

repented of their sin. But what we

clearly find missing here is belief on

the one to come and any understanding of

the giving of the Holy Ghost. And so,

while John was clear, they must have

heard about John's preaching from

someone else because they didn't get the

idea they must believe or that the Holy

Ghost was coming. So it tells us this.

Their understanding of the gospel is

incomplete. It's insufficient. Though

they are disciples of John, they are not

truly disciples of Jesus.

So how did they become disciples of

Jesus? It says in verse number four,

then said Paul, John verily baptized

with the baptism of repentance, saying

unto the people that they should believe

on him which should come after him, that

is on Christ Jesus. So now he is

revealing to them who the Messiah is.

And and Luke doesn't give us everything

that Paul says. It's important to

understand that is in these narratives.

He has painted a picture along the way

of what it looks like for Paul to preach

the gospel. And so what we understand is

he has explained to them that Jesus is

the Messiah. He's the one who came. He's

the one who suffered. He's the one who

died and rose again for our sin. And

he's the one on whom you must believe.

And notice it says in verse 5, "And when

they heard this, they were baptized in

the name of the Lord Jesus." Now, it's

important to catch what this word heard

means. When we say heard, it means that

we listened to something. Something came

in our ears. But the word heard means to

hear and heed. It has a double meaning

there. So it means that they not only

heard Paul's message, they heeded Paul's

message. They believed it. They trusted

in Jesus Christ that he is the one John

preached would come. And then notice

what happens in verse six. And when Paul

laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost

came on them and they spake with tongues

and prophesied. As we've seen throughout

Acts, anytime the gospel enters new

territory, the first believers

experience a special outpouring of the

spirit by which they speak in tongues

and prophesy. We've seen it when the

gospel went to Samaria. We saw it when

the gospel went to Cornelius, the first

among the Gentiles. And as Paul has gone

into uh new places, you that's the

pattern that Luke is saying is that

everywhere the gospel goes, the same

thing happens. The Gentiles receive the

Holy Spirit. Those who believe receive

the Holy Spirit. That means they are

baptized. They are accepted into God's

family. And so Luke tells us that's what

happens here in Ephesus as well. Before

these disciples of John could become

disciples of Jesus, they must be

converted. They must believe. They must

be baptized. They must receive the Holy

Spirit of God to truly follow Jesus.

They were close but not quite converted.

And today, I want to say to you that for

you to be a true disciple of Jesus,

you've got to be converted as well. That

it's possible for you to be close but

not converted. It's possible for you to

come to church every single Sunday to go

to Bible studies, to have some knowledge

of the scripture. You can sing the

songs. You can enjoy the fellowship. But

listen friend, close is not enough. You

must be converted to Jesus Christ. The

Bible says that Jesus is the son of God

sent from the foundation of the world.

He is eternal. He was with God at

creation. He was with God before

creation. Jesus is the sinless eternal

son of God. And God sent him to die on

the cross to suffer for our sake to

cover and atone for our sin through his

righteousness. Why? so that we could

have the forgiveness of sins, so that we

could be saved. And listen, you can have

all of that knowledge in your head. But

number two, the Bible says that you must

repent of your sin and believe on Jesus

Christ. That you must acknowledge before

God, I am a sinner just like all of us

are. I I cannot be good enough. I cannot

be righteous enough. I cannot be holy

enough. But Jesus is. I must believe

that Jesus died for my sin and rose

again the third day. But then number

three, I must call upon him for

salvation. To call upon him, it's a cry

for rescue that Lord, I can't save

myself. Like a drowning man in the

ocean, you must cry out, "Lord, save me.

Forgive my sin. Cleanse my soul. Give me

eternal life." And you know what God

does? He saves you right then and there.

He considers your sin covered the moment

you trust Jesus Christ as your savior.

He forgives your sin. He gives you

eternal life. But you know what else he

does? He sends you the Holy Spirit

immediately. It doesn't mean that all of

us experience uh this special revelation

of the Holy Spirit that we've seen

periodically through Acts. We know from

1 Corinthians 12 that not every believer

is going to speak in tongues. that that

was a very special gift for a very

unique time in for a very unique purpose

to verify the truth of the gospel. And

what them speaking in tongues and

prophesying does is it shows everyone

else in Ephesus that God is doing

something here. It verifies Paul's

message. And so, while you may not

experience that, here's the reality.

When you trust Christ as your savior,

the Holy Spirit moves in your life. He

seals your salvation. He secures you

once and for all. He gives you what's

called the spirit of adoption whereby we

cry aba father that God is our father.

He's the one who secures us. He's the

one who gifts us for spiritual service

and he's the one who changes our lives.

That's what you receive when you trust

Christ as your savior. To be a true

disciple, you must believe. But true

disciplehip does not end with salvation.

That's only part of the groundwork. It

then says that they were baptized in the

name of the Lord Jesus. And so once you

have trusted Jesus as your savior, he

then calls you to follow him in baptism.

Baptism doesn't wash away your sins, it

has no saving effect on your life. But

rather what it does is it publicly

demonstrates and symbolizes your union

with Jesus in his death, burial, and

resurrection. You want to know the only

type of baptism that portrays a union

with Christ? It is by immersion. It is

when you are dunked and plunged

completely underwater as if you were

buried in death. And then as you are

raised to newness of life by

resurrection. That's what baptism is.

You know why baptism is administered by

the authority of the church and not just

by rogue believers and individuals here

and there. It's because the church has a

a serious responsibility to protect the

purity of Christ's church and to ensure

that only those who are born again

become a part of the church membership.

And so a church affirms that person's

salvation testimony. When a church says,

you know what, they have genuine

conversion. Let's baptize them in the

name of the Lord Jesus. That's why you

baptized by immersion under the

authority of a local church. That's what

you must do. If you're going to be a

disciple of Jesus Christ, you must

follow him in that way. That's what we

see in this text. And so to be a true

disciple of Jesus, it starts with the

groundwork. You must be saved. You must

receive the Holy Spirit. And you must be

baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

But that's just the groundwork. Now

let's look at the foundation. Where does

a believer go from there? How does a

believer grow from there? What is the

foundation of someone who is genuinely

following Christ? Here it is in a simple

sentence. To be a true disciple of

Jesus, you must be consistently taught

the scripture. Consistently taught the

scripture. That's what we see in verses

8-10. Paul will spend nearly 2 and 1/2

years teaching the disciples. It says in

verse number eight, "And he went into

the synagogue and spake boldly for the

space of three months, disputing and

persuading the things concerning the

kingdom of God." When you see that word

disputing, it's a word that just means

to discuss. It's like a open discussion

forum that Paul is teaching them. They

have questions. He's answering from

scripture. That's the idea of of the

discussion. And then it goes to

persuading, which is to call them to a

decision about it. But notice what

happens after three months. It says in

verse number nine, "But when diverse

were hardened and believed not and spake

evil of that way before the multitude."

And so now you've got that. Just think

about it. And this is really remarkable.

It shows there's a sense of openness

with the Ephesian Jews because usually

just after a few days or a few weeks of

teaching, they're about ready to run him

out of town. they're ready to stone Paul

and and and imprison him or something

like that or cause a riot which will

happen later on in Ephesus. And so

that's usually what you see. But here

he's able to go week after week for

three months teaching them. But you know

what he notices that every single week

they become a little bit harder to the

message. They become hardened. They

become calloused. How does your heart

become hardened? Well, think about it.

How do you get calluses on your hands?

Well, when you're working with a shovel,

it's the constant resistance and the

friction between your hand and the

twisting and pushing and pulling of the

shovel that causes that skin on your

hands to harden. And what I would submit

to you is that the continual resistance

and friction between you and God's word

can harden your heart to it. And so I

want to caution you to be careful that

when you come to church every single

week that you don't spend all of your

time critiquing God's word, but you

spend your time desiring to conform your

life to God's word. That's what he calls

us to do. Otherwise, your heart can be

hardened just like this group from the

synagogue was. They became so hardened

that it wasn't enough for them to reject

the message. They wanted everybody else

to as well. It says there in verse

number uh nine that when they believed

not they spake evil of that way before

the multitude. That way is another

derogatory term that began to be cast at

the Christians because they wanted to

separate it from Judaism so that

everybody in their congregation

understands this is people and they

wouldn't even mention the name of

Christ. They would just say this is the

people of that way or that's the people

of this way. And so it was a derogatory

term. And yet in an ironic twist, it was

very befitting of those who taught that

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the

life. That no one comes to the father

but by him. It's a befitting term.

Nevertheless, these Jews are slandering

them. They're they're communicating that

they are an evil religious sect. Paul

sees this. And what Paul begins to see

is that to teach in the synagogue would

do much more harm than it does good. So

it says in verse 9 that he departed from

them. And so he stopped going to the

synagogue at this point. But notice what

he does. He separated the disciples. So

in that synagogue, those who had

believed on Jesus Christ over the last 3

months, he said, "Listen, the synagogue

is just going to become a place of

hostility. It's going to become a place

of confusion for you. It's time to step

away from the synagogue. And and look at

what it says there in verse number nine.

That he disputed with them daily in the

school of one Tyrannis. We have the

first church plant in a school building.

That what these schools were is that

they were philosoph philosophical

education centers. And so either

Tyrannis would have been the main

philosopher there or possibly the owner

of the building. In the morning hours,

these philosophers would teach during

the education time, but then they would

rent out their building to others during

the afternoon times. Now, in that

culture, the afternoon was given to

napping in the hardest part of the

hottest part of the day. And so, they

would have these nap time. Wouldn't that

be nice? You know, you get a break from

work at like 11:00 till 2:00 to go and

just rest and recover in the the hot

hours of the day. I'm sure our roofers

would like that and our construction

workers. Uh, but that's how it was back

then. But what I want you to notice here

is the disciples of Jesus did not use

their downtime for leisure. They did not

use their downtime for recreation. They

did not use their downtime for sleep.

Instead, they used their downtime to

learn more about Jesus. It's what they

gave their time to here. And so, he

continues to to teach them the scripture

every single day. Look at look at that.

It says disputing daily in the school.

Paul was making tents in the morning. We

find that evidently later as he tells

them at the end of chapter 20 that he

labored with his hands. And so he made

tents in the morning. He made tents in

the evening and gave these afternoon

hours every single day to discipling

these new believers to teaching them the

scripture. And it says in verse 10, this

continued by the space of two years, so

that all they which dwelt in Asia heard

the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews

and Greeks. Paul's laying the foundation

here. And the foundation that he lays is

the foundation of a steady, consistent

diet of scripture.

And as a result, everyone in Asia hears

the word of the Lord. In the space of

two years, this church develops such

disciples like Epifice who went to his

hometown of Colasse and started a church

there that by the time Paul wrote

Colossians, he had not ever met. They

were think about that. These new

disciples within two years were so

instructed and well taught in the word

that they could go and start churches

within two years of being pagan to being

Christian. That's how well instructed

and how consistent their diet was in the

scripture. Paul did not just lead them

to Christ, baptized them, and send them

on their way. He gathered them,

organized them, and consistently taught

them biblical truth. And so to that, I

want to say this, that to be a true

disciple of Jesus, you must be

consistently taught in the scripture.

Consistently taught in the scripture.

Here at Boulder Valley, we don't build

our ministry on the foundation of

entertainment.

We don't have rock concerts or big band.

We don't have monster truck rallies.

Those things may draw a crowd and maybe

even even bring some to Christ. And I'm

so thankful for that,

but it's not the foundation of true

disciples.

A church is not a venue. A church is not

a concert hall. A church is not a social

club. A church is where the gospel of

Jesus Christ is preached. It's where the

broken come to be mended and the wounded

come to be healed. It's where the guilty

come to be pardoned. It's where they

come to find Christ and to be redeemed

by his blood and to hear the preaching

of God's word. It's the place where this

the believers are baptized and the place

where they are discipled on the

foundation of scripture. Now, I say this

not to be critical of other Christians.

I want to say like Paul does in

Philippians 1 that regardless of

motivation if Christ is preached I

rejoice because what we can trust is

that the word of God however it's

proclaimed and whoever proclaims it the

word of God is powerful enough to do

God's work in spite of how they or by

the way at times I might fall short it's

sufficient

but you know what you find as you follow

Jesus's ministry and the apostles

ministry and Paul's ministry you find

clear and consistent teaching of

scripture.

It is the foundation of a true disciple.

The consistent teaching of God's word.

This is why we start every service with

a scripture reading. It's why we have a

45 minute long sermon sometimes give or

take 30 minutes.

It's the reason why we focus on the

scripture in in our in our text. It's

the reason we stand to give honor to

God's word. is because we want to convey

that the proclamation of God's word is

the foundation of our ministry and it's

the foundation of our lives as disciples

of Jesus Christ. It's why we close every

single service with a with a scripture

as well every Sunday. This is why we

gather on Sunday night to study God's

word together at Life Connection. It's

why we meet every Thursday to sing and

to study together and to pray together.

It's why we encourage you to take some

time every single day to read God's word

in your life. The Bible is the

revelation of God to us. He reveals

himself to us. He He tells us who he is,

how he's worked through the corridors of

time to save us through the cross of

Jesus Christ. He tells us how he's

working to redeem not only our souls but

our entire lives, to change us, to

restore his image within us. It's how we

know that Christ will return to finish

redemption and how he will usher in his

kingdom and a new heaven and a new

earth. The Bible tells us what we need

to know about who God is, his plan of

salvation, and how it will come to

fruition.

But the Bible also provides us clear,

practical instruction for daily living.

We might say it this way that the word

of God is a map to help you find Jesus,

but it is also a manual to help you

follow Jesus. a map to find him and a

manual to follow him. 1 Timothy 3:16

1 Timothy 3:16

says, "All scripture is given by

inspiration of God and is profitable."

This book is profitable in your life for

what? It says, "For reproof, for

correction, for instruction in

righteousness, that the man of God may

be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto

all good works." Perfect there. It

doesn't mean sinless. It means mature.

It means developed. It means to the

place that you can go out and serve God

confidently, knowing what you believe,

knowing what he expects. That's what the

Bible can tell us. It It teaches you how

to trust God in trials. How to treat

your wife, how to treat your husband. It

tells kids uh it tells you how to raise

your kids. It tells kids how to honor

authority. It tells you how to be a good

boss, how to be a good a good worker. It

tells you uh how to live for Christ in a

corrupt culture. how to be a good

citizen on earth while realizing you're

a citizen of heaven. The Bible tells you

how to handle finances, how to invest in

eternity, how to operate as a church.

And we're just scratching the surface,

folks. In the word of God, we find all

the help we need for life and godliness.

It's a map that helps you find Jesus,

and it's a manual that helps you follow

Jesus.

If you're going to truly be his

disciple, you need a steady, consistent

diet of biblical truth. See, a church is

not just a social club where we come to

hang out and find people who have the

same personality and form our clicks

based off of the sports we like or the

hobbies that we like or the music that

we like or those things. You know, it's

a place where we come from all these

different backgrounds and we come

together to all learn about the same God

and the same savior who saved us all.

That's what a church is for. It's where

we hear the gospel preached, just like

they did in Ephesus. And it's where we

can learn about Jesus so that we can

tell the world about Jesus. That's what

the Bible's for.

The foundation of a true disciple is the

consistent teaching of scripture. Can I

just ask you this morning, how's your

diet?

How's your diet? What do you spend your

life consuming?

What is the foundation of your

disciplehip?

Are you truly following Jesus?

Or you might be here and you might be a

relatively young believer. You've only

been saved for a few months. you've only

been saved for a few years and you're

like, where where do I go from here? How

do I grow? What comes next in in my life

and and and what we find here is that

you need to have a steady diet of the

scripture. So, I want to just encourage

you in a few ways that you can take in

the consistency of scripture. Number

one, of course, read your Bible every

single day. Read your Bible every day.

It doesn't matter if it's just a few

verses or if it's a chapter or if it's a

few chapters or if you read through it

in an entire year. What I do know is

this. No matter the amount, the amount

of verses you read tomorrow will be

better than amount than the amount of

verses you didn't read yesterday.

And and you may not understand

everything, but what you can trust is

this. You have the Holy Spirit in you to

guide you and instruct you into truth.

And he can help help you understand. And

I would encourage you if you struggle to

understand the word of God, just start

with a few verses. Just read a few

verses. Think upon them. Meditate upon

them. Let them fill your heart and your

soul with biblical truth about God and

about his son Jesus or about what he

expects from your life. Read your Bible

every day. What if I miss a day? Isn't

that how we get discouraged? Well, I

missed a day and then another day and

then another day. Listen, if you miss a

day, just start again the next day. just

get up the next morning and start over

again. It doesn't mean you got to go

back to Genesis every single time you

mess up and you try to start reading

your Bible again. No, just pick up where

you left off and just keep going on

learning more about Jesus Christ. Read

your Bible every day. Number two, be

faithful to the regular assemblies of

your church. Be faithful to the regular

assemblies of your church. Can I tell

you, if you only come on Sunday

mornings, I want you to know that's

great. And I'm so glad that you do. And

there's so much that you can learn and

glean from when you come. But it's only

one meal. It's only one meal. How would

you do the rest of the week if you only

ate one meal on Sunday? You'd be

starving, right? You know, when you come

to Friday and you've had it at work and

everything's making you mad and you're

irritable and you're you're you're

tired, you're weary, you're worn down

and and frustrated and there's conflict

in your marriage. You come to that and

you want to know what it is? You're

starving for God's word. You're starving

for worship. Your soul is starving for

reconnection with God. And so when you

think about if I only come on Sunday

mornings, I'm trying to just survive an

entire week of being oppressed of having

the world's influence coming in my ears

and coming in my eyes and I'm trying to

survive on that one meal that I get

every Sunday. It's not enough, folks.

It's insufficient. And remember it says

that Paul was with him daily every day.

I'm not sure and I'm not saying that

everybody was able to go every single

day, but there was frequent opportunity

for people to come and hear from God's

word. And that's a pattern for what we

need in our Christian lives. That's why

it's helpful to come back on Sunday

night to consume a little bit more of

God's word before you face the week.

This June, we're going to start a

curriculum series called stewarding

life. We're going to talk about in

connection with our theme of various

ways of life that you can manage the

goods the Lord has put in your hands.

Remember, you can manage the Lord's

goods to magnify the Lord's glory.

That's what our theme is all about. So

that when you come to the end of your

life and you stand before God, you can

hear, "Well done, thou good and faithful

servant." I'm telling you that series is

going to help you in some practical ways

with your finances, your relationships,

your time. How can I use what God has

given me to magnify his glory? That will

help you be a disciple of Jesus, a pupil

is what it is, a student of Jesus Christ

who follows him. And so I would

encourage you to make Sunday night life

connection a part of your routine every

week. I also encourage you to add

midweek Bible study on Thursdays so you

can have another opportunity in the

middle of the week as you're getting

tired and you're getting worn down to

get that extra shot of spiritual

adrenaline as you come and get around,

you know, you you get away from the

world's influence in your life. You come

to the church, you get around some

brothers and sisters in Christ, you bear

burdens, you pray together, you sing

together, worship together, and take in

God's word together. We need that in our

lives if we're going to follow Jesus.

But throughout your week, read your

Bible.

Listen to some podcasts about biblical

things. Pick up a a book on on theology

or or or even a devotional commentary on

a particular book of the Bible and just

live in that for a little bit. Or

perhaps find some good sermons online

that you can listen to as you as you

drive around and just take in a little

bit of God's word every day. It'll make

a huge difference in your following of

Jesus.

Often times, don't we have this excuse?

I just don't have time. I'm busy. I work

long hours even. You know, I I've just

got too much going on. When really in

our lives, we use our downtime for

things that make no difference in our

spiritual lives. Think about it. TV,

video games, sports,

death scrolling on social media.

It's so easy to get trapped in your

phone screen,

just mindlessly scrolling and scrolling.

That's how we use our downtime here in

modern times in the United States of

America. But listen for a second. These

disciples in Asia use their downtime to

learn about Jesus.

To learn about Jesus.

Scripture was the foundation of their

disciplehip and it should be ours today.

I want to challenge you. Build your life

on scripture.

Even if it's just taking out 30 minutes

of TV that you would watch to just read

a chapter in a book that'll feed your

soul or to read your Bible or to instead

of scrolling on social media of putting

your phone down and just taking 15

minutes to read something or to listen

to a brief podcast about biblical truth,

just something that's going to help

recalibrate your mind every day because

the foundation of true disciples of

Jesus is laid upon the scripture. Our

desire here, you know, we're not the

biggest church in Boulder. We may never

be, but our purpose in life is not just

to draw a crowd. It's not just to put

bodies in the seats. Jesus told us

before he left to make disciples of all

nations. We could fill seats of people

who come on Sunday but don't really

follow Jesus. People who come on Sunday

but aren't really converted. We could do

that. this world. All of us are suckers

for entertainment. We could do that. But

we've been called to make disciples,

people who truly follow Jesus. So, by

God's grace, our foundation is going to

be the scripture. And I encourage every

believer here, build your life on it.

Take in as much of it as you can. Come

Sunday mornings, come Sunday nights,

come Thursday nights, and all throughout

the week, fill your life with the truth

of scripture. But let me also say one

more time that to be a true disciple of

Jesus, you must first be converted.

Converted. Not close.

Close isn't enough. You must be

converted. You must acknowledge before

God, I am a sinner. There's nothing I

can do to save myself. You must believe

that Jesus is not a way to God, but the

way to God. that he alone could pay

sin's penalty in your life, that he

alone can give you the forgiveness of

sins, that he alone rose from the dead

to give you eternal life, you must

believe on Jesus alone. You must call on

him to be your savior.

After you've believed, after you've

called on him and you've received the

Holy Spirit, you get baptized. You

become a part of a local church and you

get discipled in the scripture and you

make church a commitment. Why? So that

you can build your spiritual life and

disciplehip upon the foundation of God's

word. Let's pray. Our heavenly father,

we thank you for the truth of your word.

And I'm thankful for a text like this

that helps us recalibrate

our minds and our mission as a church to

proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and

to build our lives on the foundation of

scripture.

I pray, heavenly father, that you would

help believers in here today to truly

commit themselves to following you, to

reading your word, to building that

habit, to building a habit of being

faithful to church, whether it's on

Sundays or if it's adding Sunday nights

or Thursday nights,

just of taking in more truth. God, I

pray that you would please help us to be

genuine, true disciples of Jesus. And I

pray for anyone here that may not have

trusted Christ their savior at this

point. I pray your Holy Spirit would

bring clarity and conviction that they

might believe and be saved. Please bless

in our time of response. I ask in Jesus

name. Amen.