Call To Discipleship (July 24) Jeremy Laverty

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

Glorify God for the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the Spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

Father, we thank you for the opportunity to celebrate your holiness here this morning to celebrate the victory of Christ has one for us, Lord, has one freedom in Christ and a future in heaven with you, Lord.

We thank you for that opportunity.

We pray this morning that as we open your word and heaven, that you would speak to our hearts, that you would draw us close to you.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

You may grab a seat.

Well, it is uh it is my honor and my privilege to speak to you this morning as I wrap up my time uh on staff here at Redemption.

And as I've prepared for this, I found myself uh drawn to the opening of Paul's letters throughout the New Testament, where he expresses thankfulness to God for the people he has served alongside and ministering and growing the church.

Each of these letters opens with thanksgiving, followed by an encouragement to stay rooted in the foundational principles that began the church and lives on in this church today.

So, in the same way, I thank the Lord for you as I think of the impact that this community of believers has had on me as we've grown together in our faith.

And I hope that this will be an encouragement to you and a reminder of the calling that we have as a church.

So, if any of you have been to a chapel at ANOVA, you know I love to tell stories.

So I have a story for you today, and it's about me.

Twenty-eight years ago, I was laying on the couch enjoying my first week of summer vacation when my best friend called me and invited me to come work at a summer camp.

Little did I know that the choice to say yes would change my life altogether and actually lead me to where I'm standing here today.

You see, when I got to camp, they partnered me with this guy named Jeremy.

So obviously that that was gonna get confusing really fast, so we both uh decided that I would take on a new name.

So I became Big Red for the summer because I was uh 16-year-old, 6'2, 90 pounds, dripping wet, taller than everyone else at camp.

So Big Red just seemed to fit, and I had red hair back then, before I worked in ministry.

Uh this other Jeremy would be my head counselor, and he was going to show me the ropes.

And he did just that.

Each day he gave me more and more responsibility as I learned how to be a good camp counselor.

It began with observing the way he led the kids, caring for their needs, ensuring that they followed through on expectations, that they brushed their teeth in the morning and at night, ensuring they treated each other with respect.

And after a few days of watching Jeremy as he led these kids through these morning and evening hygiene routines, he looked at me and he said, Hey, it's your turn.

So I was then responsible for hygiene morning and night, thanks, Jeremy.

But I learned something then.

Then I watched Jeremy lead Bible studies before bed, answering difficult questions about how to live out our faith in Christ.

And after watching him for a time, Jeremy looked at me and said, Hey, it's your turn.

One night Jeremy got up and shared his testimony with the whole boys' section of camp, how he'd grown up far from God and how the Lord had worked through people in his life to bring him to a saving faith in Christ.

After sharing, he encouraged me to share my testimony, the next campfire, saying, Hey, it's your turn.

So I stood in front of 80 boys with my knees knocking, my voice wavering, and I shared what Christ had done in my life.

And that night, two boys came up to me and asked if I would pray with them.

And they put their faith in Christ as their Lord and Savior.

I watched Jeremy preach each week at chapel to the whole camp, and after the first month, he turned to me and said, Hey, it's your turn.

Each one of these steps, each one of these, hey, it's your turn moments, I couldn't believe I was being given this kind of responsibility, this kind of opportunity.

I was just an idiot 16-year-old.

What do I know?

How can I be used to be an influence in these kids' lives?

And yet, God used Jeremy to model how to live out my faith.

He slowly gave me more and more opportunity and responsibility to lead not just our cabin of boys, but eventually, he gave me the opportunity to share the love of Christ with the whole camp at Chapel.

I was floored by this experience.

So much so that I kept going back.

And as I reflect on that summer, I realized it was so powerful because I was participating in what the church is actually all about.

What I experienced was discipleship, the process of a mature Christian investing in and developing a younger Christian into the likeness of Christ.

Isn't that what this is all about?

See, Jeremy was living out what Christ commissions his disciples to do in Matthew 28.

This is our main text this morning.

So let's turn there now.

Matthew 28, starting in verse 18.

It is here that we find what we call the Great Commission, which is in reality Christ saying to his followers, Hey, it's your turn.

So let's read that together.

Matthew 28, starting in verse 18.

So 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, of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always to the ends of the age.

So this passage begins by identifying our authority, our foundation.

And that foundation is Jesus Christ.

This passage presents our goal as a church to go and make disciples.

We often think discipleship and this call is just leading others to belief in Christ, but it doesn't end there.

Jesus didn't just lead the disciples to faith and say, see ya, all the best.

Good luck with that.

No, he actually journeyed with them.

He put his hand to the plow.

He says here in this passage, teach them, help them to observe all that I have commanded them.

He modeled what to do step by step, like Jeremy did for me, and then turned to them, to his disciples and said, Hey, it's your turn.

So what's the goal of discipleship?

Where is this whole thing heading?

Well, the goal ultimately is about maturing in Christ.

Colossians 1 28 says it's this way.

He says, Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

When I started at Redemption, I was taught this line, and I love this.

This is what we teach in step two.

Here at Redemption, we say it like this we want to see lost people saved, saved people matured, and mature people multiplied, all to the glory of God.

Is that a statement you can get behind?

That gets me excited, right?

There is a movement here.

We're not just getting people in the boat.

Once they get in the boat, we're not finding other people to get in the boat only.

That's not our whole mission.

Once you're in the boat, what are you doing?

Well, here, take up an oar, join in the work, grow, mature, and then we multiply.

That is what we're called to.

So, what does a maturing disciple look like?

And why am I sharing this with you today?

Well, this is it.

This is what this community is actually all about.

I didn't make this up.

It's been modeled and commissioned by Christ to be a part of the DNA here at Redemption Church.

If you've come through step two, this is what we cover.

And I hope today to remind you of it and encourage you to have a renewed commitment to join Christ and his church in the mission of making disciples.

So consider with me this morning what a maturing disciple looks like.

So our first point this morning is a maturing disciple is someone who is abiding in Christ.

Abiding in Christ requires knowing him.

When Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well, he said, You worship what you do not know.

Do you know him?

Do you know Christ?

Did you know that Jesus died and rose again because he loves you?

And because he wanted to provide a way for you to know him.

The Bible tells the story of God's love for people.

In the beginning, God created us to reflect his image and to have a relationship with him.

We were created good, and then sin entered the world.

We essentially chose to try to live life on our own terms without God instead of living our lives for God as we were designed.

God loves us so much that he sent his son, Jesus, to die on the cross to pay the price for our sins and bring us into a relationship with him.

Through him, we can know the promise of eternal life and experience the joy of knowing God here on earth.

If you're here today and you do not have a relationship with Christ, the Bible tells us that the first step is acknowledging that we have sinned and that there is nothing we can do to earn God's love.

Next, we believe and we confess that Jesus is Lord and allow him to guide our lives.

Where we once wanted to control our futures, we now invite Jesus to be the Lord of our lives.

Abiding in Christ begins with a personal relationship with Jesus.

If you want one of those today, come visit me after the service.

I would love to pray for you and introduce you to the love of Christ.

Now, once you've entered into a relationship with Christ, how do you continue to abide in him?

Well, abiding in Christ means that we have a heart that longs for Jesus.

It's a daily declaration of our dependence upon him and our allegiance to him.

It's giving Jesus the preeminent place of worship in our lives as we strive to live in humble obedience to his word by the power of his spirit.

John Piper says it this way.

I love this, and I might have to repeat it because it's a little confusing.

Hour by hour abiding in Jesus means hour by hour trusting him to meet all your needs and be all your treasure.

Isn't that good?

Hour by hour abiding in Jesus means hour by hour trusting him to meet all your needs and to be all our treasure.

Throughout the pandemic, I was encouraged by the commitment of this church, by our people, to continue trusting in the Lord to meet all their needs.

When we couldn't meet in large groups, our church committed to meeting in small groups of ten at the church office, and many of you stepped up to host those gatherings.

You believed that sitting under the teaching of Scripture and gathering as a community of Christ was an important part of trusting the Lord to meet your needs.

And you committed to make that happen.

I was so encouraged to see how many of you continued meeting with your small groups through the pandemic, despite all the distractions, the fear that was going on around you.

In person, virtual, hybrid, you did whatever you could to ensure you stayed connected to your church community.

And I believe strongly that's why we're still here today, is because of that commitment.

I have witnessed people faithfully giving their time, their finances to support families who've lost jobs and lived through awful illnesses these past years.

None of this would have been possible without a reliance on God's provision and a trust in Him.

This hour-by-hour reliance comes from an overflow of being connected to Christ.

What is this connection?

How do we stay connected?

Well, in John 15, Jesus describes himself as the one true vine.

Right?

A branch is connected to the vine and a vine to the branch.

This is what theologians frequently describe as union with Christ.

This union, this connection, it's it's mutual.

We abide in him, but he also abides in us.

If there is no connection, there's no life, no fruit.

Abiding also implies dependence.

We're depending on him.

This aspect of abiding, unlike connection, is not reciprocal, right?

The branch is dependent on the vine, but the vine is not dependent on the branch.

The branch draws its life and power from the vine.

And without the vine, the branch is useless.

It's lifeless, it's powerless.

Sap flows from the vine into the branch, supplying it with water, with minerals, nutrients that make it grow.

And believers receive the sap of Christ's grace through our life-giving connection to him.

We are completely dependent upon Jesus for everything that counts as spiritual fruit.

See, apart from him, we can do nothing.

Abiding also involves remaining in him.

In fact, abiding means to stay with or continue in a place.

For example, in John 1.38, two of the disciples who first encountered Jesus asked him, Where are you staying?

They wanted to know where Jesus made his residence.

The word staying here is the same word translated abide in John 15.

To abide is to reside, to remain, to stay, to wake up every morning and choose to stay with Christ.

That's what we're talking about when you talk about abiding.

This shows us that another aspect of abiding in Jesus is remaining with him.

Simply means that we go on trusting, we keep depending, we never stop believing.

To abide in Jesus is to persevere in Jesus and His teaching.

This is what Jesus is talking about in John 8.31 when he says, If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

So to abide in the vine means to be united to Jesus.

We are connected to him.

But it also means that we rely on him.

We are dependent.

And finally to stay in Jesus, to remain with him.

The same thing happens in our walk with God when we stop our personal time with him, reading his word and praying.

We grow farther apart from him when we skip those times, when we need to be connected to God to grow spiritually, or we will fall away.

So here's an exercise I did with ANOVA recently.

I think it will challenge your thinking on where you abide.

I shared with them that I often don't recognize just how deeply I am influenced by culture, by music, by the videos I watch, and by the people I spend my time with.

Any of you found that?

You start reflecting on who it is you're hanging out with and what Netflix shows you've been binging.

It's amazing how that influences us.

See, what I watch, what I listen to, what I spend time thinking about where I abide, it ends up coming out of me in some way, doesn't it?

See, the reality is what we fill our minds with becomes what we think about.

And what we think about affects the way that we act, it affects what we say and what we do.

It ends up becoming our fruit.

So we're gonna do an activity here.

I mentioned I worked as a summer camp guy, right?

So you had to expect this.

So here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna see if you can complete the following statements.

Are you ready?

This is you need to get involved here.

This is participation.

All right?

To infinity and excellent.

We will, we will.

Nice.

For all have sinned and fall short of the nice.

Let it go.

Oh, come on.

Houston, we everything is all right.

The kids know that one.

I feel the need, the need.

There we go.

That used to be an old reference, but it's back.

Winner, winner, chicken.

Nice.

What doesn't kill you makes you.

Hey, we got some great singers here.

And finally, we are the.

That's great.

Thanks, everyone.

In this simple exercise, we can actually see how we repeat what we have heard, right?

These phrases have become ingrained in us.

We've memorized them.

What we abide in becomes what we think and say and then eventually do.

I'm sure many of you know the old cliche: garbage in, garbage out.

You put bad data into a computer, you'll get bad results out.

If you put mental garbage into your mind, you will get garbage out in your life.

Luke 6, 45 says this: the good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good.

And the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil.

For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

So the question is, what is the treasure of your heart?

Likely the treasure of your heart will be what you think about and where you abide.

And where you abide informs what you think, and what you say, and what you do, and informs the fruit of your life.

Many of us may say, as followers of Christ, we treasure his word, the Bible, and yet we can still get that wrong.

Here's some great examples.

See if you can complete these phrases.

We weren't done yet.

God helps those who helps themselves.

Interesting.

Was that in the Bible?

No, it's not in the Bible.

In fact, it teaches the opposite of what the Bible teaches.

This statement was actually popularized by Benjamin Franklin.

He kind of put together the American dream, kind of mashed it together with Aesop's fables, and popularized that term, which is not in the Bible.

Or this next one.

Cleanliness is next to very good.

Not in the Bible.

This was popularized by John Wesley in a sermon called On Dress, in which he never claimed the statement was from the Bible.

Then finally, money is the root of all evil.

Is that in the Bible?

Sounds right, right?

Not in the Bible.

It's actually drawn from 1 Timothy 6, verse 10, which says, For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

1 Timothy 6:10

Not money itself, the love of money.

These examples illustrate for us just how easily we can stray from truth.

So close and yet so far.

David said in Psalm 119, 11, Your word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you.

So abiding in Christ simply means letting his words abide in us and allowing them to create fruit as we grow in our understanding of Him.

Letting God's word abide in us requires disciplines, not disciplines that are life-sucking.

Sometimes we grow up in church feeling like this discipline is hard and it can be, but at the end of the day, these disciplines are life-giving.

The Bible is the word of life.

Spending time daily in God's word will help remind you of truth and help you stay grounded in truth.

It will remind you that this life isn't the be-all and end all.

Like we just sang, we have a hope and a future eternity with Christ to look forward to.

And that will encourage you to abide in Christ today and live for Him tomorrow.

The second point here is connecting in the church.

The process of maturing in your faith and becoming more like Christ is discipleship, and discipleship happens as you are connected to other followers of Jesus.

Paul says in Ephesians 4 14, then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every aspect or in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is Christ.

From him, the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work.

The process of discipleship in community.

Protects you from false views of God.

Satan's attempts to isolate you with your own thoughts and feelings and the constantly shifting ideas of culture.

We were not built to be islands.

And this internet age of connectedness does not draw us closer together, it pushes us apart.

And the algorithms that fill your news feeds zero in on your anxieties and fears and prey upon you.

If you're living on a steady diet of online content and you don't have a community of believers to help you sort out these ideas and these convictions and these movements and the activism that we see that we're being fed, you're going to drift from the truth.

That's why we need small groups.

That's why it's important, and I would encourage every single one of you get plugged into a small group.

There's an opportunity there for you to say, hey, I saw this online.

What does this mean?

What does this war mean?

What does this activist movement mean?

Let's work through this and see what the Bible says together.

See, God created his followers to follow him and become more like him, not alone, but in community.

You will stumble and fall on your journey of faith if you try to do it alone.

You will face difficulty, pain, and loss.

Jesus promised his followers they would.

As that happens, you need others around you to remind you of the truth of the gospel.

The good news of Jesus, that while we were sinners, Christ died for us.

It doesn't matter how many times you fall, because Christ's grace covers all sins.

As far as the East is from the West, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

How far is that, by the way?

How far is the east from the right?

That's the point.

It's infinite.

It goes on forever and ever.

Sometimes I come here on a Sunday morning and I'm like, oh, so guilty for the pride that I had in my life this morning, or I had swirling around in my mind.

I'm sorry, God, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

And God's like, my grace is as far as the east is from the West.

So if you're coming in here today feeling really like guilty, don't.

Christ loves you infinitely.

His grace abounds infinitely.

He loves you.

When everything is going as it should, Christian community becomes a place where people are using their gifts to help each other grow.

And the combined use of these gifts contributes to a culture that makes discipleship possible.

I look around me today and I see many of you who step up every single Sunday, roll in here at 7 o'clock in the morning to lug stuff out of a trailer and set up screens and drums.

And I mean, the summer we're we're putting our feet up a little bit.

We've been very blessed to be able to leave things set up.

But the amazing thing is, I have gotten to know so many of you because we've moved heavy things together.

That's like part of our community here.

And I see people stepping up and using their gifts to serve the Lord here.

And it's such an encouragement.

And even when these things become difficult, Christian community can be a place where we experience and live out forgiveness and reconciliation.

In all of this, discipleship is a part of the process as we follow Christ together and as we are mentored and mentored others along the way, just like Jeremy did for me.

Christian community is such a critical element of discipleship that the Bible says in the book of Hebrews, let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.

Let us not neglect our meeting together as some people do, but encourage one another.

Discipleship happens as the members of the church serve and encourage one another as well as other people.

When you opt out of Christian community, you're opting out of a process that Jesus uses to encourage your maturity, assist your growth, and you're helping others and impact the world.

A maturing disciple of Christ has a growing heart for the church.

The church is all about discipleship, and disciples need to be all about the church.

These two truths are inseparable.

You see, the church is God's design context for everything we've been talking about for discipleship.

Purposeful disciple making is one of our distinctives here at redemption, intentional and in community.

The Christian life was never meant to be lived alone.

As Miles preached last Sunday, God's blessing, his provision comes through his people.

God uses his people to connect and work in the church.

We each have a role in this based on the gifts God has given us.

My gifts usually live in there.

So this is very stretching for me to be here.

It's only nine feet, but it's been a stretching experience preparing for this, so thank you.

But God wants us to be stretched, does He not?

This community should be a place where we say to each other frequently, hey, it's your turn.

Serving others is a reflection of Jesus in the lives of his followers.

Part of the reason Angie and I actually decided to join redemption in the first place was because we have experienced this type of practical service firsthand.

When we had our second child, we were attending a church in Stowville while living here in Newmarket, and a small group from Hope Markham heard from my brother who was attending Markham at the time that we had had a baby.

That small group said, well, if Jeremy and Angie are attending a church in Stowville, they won't have any community to support them here in Newmarket.

So they brought us meals for a whole week.

A group of people I'd never met, never went to church with, had no idea who they were.

And here I was meeting them on my front step as they came and fed my family for a week.

This service is part of the culture of this community and is very much why I'm so committed to this church.

The final point today is reaching the community.

Finally, a maturing disciple has a growing heart for the lost.

That is why another one of our distinctives here at Redemption is courageous evangelism.

The Great Commission begins with the word go.

Disciple making is not passive, it's a call to action.

Christ's followers couldn't wait around for people to come to them and ask them to become disciples.

They would have to go out and make them, which speaks to a strategic and an intentional behavior.

Strategic in the sense that they had to prepare.

They had to know what they were talking about.

This leads to a tough question that I had to ask myself when I started teaching step two.

I was put on the spot at camp as well.

Have I ever learned to share the gospel before?

I know the gospel.

I've heard it again and again and again growing up in church, but have I ever actually taken the time to learn what to say and how to say it?

How many opportunities will we miss if we don't take the time to learn how to do it?

The beautiful thing about the gospel, first, is don't get intimidated.

It is simple enough for a child to understand, and yet it is also deep enough for you to spend the rest of your life studying it.

Is that amazing?

Spurgeon said this in his book, Come Ye Children.

It is true that in the scriptures there are great mysteries, but the knowledge of these deep things is not essential to salvation, or else few of us would be saved.

Wow, the things that are essential to salvation are so exceedingly simple that no child need sit down in despair of understanding the things which make for his peace.

Christ crucified is not a riddle for sages, but a plain truth for plain people.

True, it is meat for men, but it is also milk for babes.

The first thing that Miles hung in the office was a painting of Spurgeon.

So I knew I had to sneak a quote in here somewhere.

But did you hear that?

God has made his message so simple to understand.

Any one of us can share it.

So have you practiced sharing it?

Have you thought strategically about what to say when the opportunity arises?

Have you sought good teaching on this?

A few years ago, Pastor Mike introduced me to Way of the Master.

I don't know if any of you have seen this.

It's a series that Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort put out with excellent tips on how to evangelize.

Their videos are all now free on YouTube.

I would encourage you to get on there and watch it because it is challenging, but it's also really, really simple.

The approach that they use in street evangelism.

I'd encourage you to do some work, to develop your evangelism muscle by practicing, by reading, by seeking out some resource that can help equip you.

Because if this is what God has called us to, we're doing a very poor job in churches teaching people how to do it.

So I challenge you to do that.

The intentional part means keeping your eyes open for opportunities to share the good news.

Are there red apples in your life?

People who are ripe, who are ready to hear the truth.

People that God has prepared to hear and believe the truth of the gospel right now.

I don't know about you, but there have been opportunities, you know, in past work places for me where people are like, tell me more, tell me more.

You can tell when someone is ripe.

They're just waiting.

They're like anticipating every word, they hang on every word.

Those are people you want to be ready for, right?

Maybe a neighbor you wave at each day.

We good Canadians do that a lot, right?

We wave, we say hi.

We don't know their names, but we're friendly.

Be 10% friendlier.

That's what my evangelism teacher said in era leadership.

He's like, evangelism is just about being 10% more friendly.

That's it.

Be 10% more friendly.

Is there someone at work who you've maybe had some spiritual conversations with?

Be 10% friendly.

Let's do it.

Someone you see at school every day, or just a random stranger you sit next to on the bust.

When you live intentionally, your eyes will be open to the opportunities all around you to share the gospel each day.

The other encouraging thing about being a part of sharing the gospel is that it doesn't rely on us.

Don't leave today feeling this burden of like I'm responsible for saving the world.

No.

We have a responsibility to use the gifts that God has given us, but we're simply called to share the truth.

God does the rest.

Proverbs 21:1 says, we know that only God has the power to change the heart of men.

Proverbs 21:1

We can only bring them water, but it's up to the man to drink.

The Lord can make the man thirsty, so he will drink.

We can take the burden of converting people off of ourselves, as that is in God's hands, not our own.

We simply share the truth in love and allow the Holy Spirit to convict and to convert those who He has called to Himself.

Finally, Jesus concludes the Great Commission in Matthew 28, verse 20.

Matthew 28:20

He says, Behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

So as we take up this call to make disciples, we can do so in the peace and the knowledge that Christ is with us.

Not for a season, not for a year or so, not till next weekend, but to the very end of the age.

I encourage you this morning to continue to grow in maturity as disciples of Christ.

Abide in Him, connect in church, and reach the community all to the glory of God.

As Jeremy said to me, hey, it's your turn.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for creating us in your image, God, and giving us this challenge.

Lord, I pray for each one of us as we grow in maturity and our faith.

I pray that you would use this church to grow wise and mature disciples of you, Lord, and to reach our community.

Father, we pray for change in lives that people will come to you, that the lost will be brought into relationship with you.

In your name I pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

You guys can take a seat.

So good to worship.

Same God who moved mountains, who split seas.

It's good to worship together.

Today is a special day as we commission Jeremy to a new work.

But before we get to that, I want to just update you on one important thing in the life of our family.

At Redemption New Market, the elder board has three people on it myself, Dave Grant, and Dave Locke.

And many of you know that Dave Locke has been walking through some health challenges in the recent years.

We love Dave.

Dave actually was one of the planting elders of this church, and he was serving out of Hope Markham and served in credit in incredible ways.

And recently, Dave and Sonia have made this church their home.

And so we're so thankful for Dave.

And even in my transition here, Dave has been so helpful to me and such an incredible brother in Christ.

But some of you know that he's had health concerns in recent months.

A few months ago, they found a bundle of um dead lymph nodes in his stomach.

And they began testing and they had trouble determining.

They thought it might be cancer, lymphoma, but they had trouble determining really what it was and what was there.

But the tests have come back and it has been diagnosed.

Dave has lymphoma.

It's non-Hodgkins, so they can treat it, and it will likely be with chemotherapy.

We don't know all the details, and they're figuring out some of it this week.

But in the next few weeks, they'll have a treatment plan.

And we praise God that Dave is working with some of the best hospitals in the States to get intervention and work done on this as quickly as possible.

And so we as a church, it's time for our theology, it's time for Dave and the Sonia's theology, for the rubber of their theology to hit the road.

And I just want you to know that they're they're doing incredible.

I talked to Dave this week, and it's like he went nothing even happened.

He just wants to serve the Lord, he wants to glorify God in this.

And it's incredibly encouraging.

And as he leads us with that example, as a church, it's time for us to trust in God and to care for the elders that he has given to us.

I'm reminded of Philippians 1 when I think about Dave.

In Philippians 1, Paul's in jail.

And he says he's contemplating the future of his life.

And he's contemplating really staying on earth and living for Christ versus departing from earth and being with Christ.

And he says in Ephesians 1, verse 19, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.

Ephesians 1:19

This is such the heart of Dave and Sonia, for Christ to be honored no matter what.

Paul says this for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

For if I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me, yet which I shall choose.

I cannot tell.

I'm hard-pressed between the two.

My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.

But listen to this, but to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.

Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith.

And as I think about Dave, I think about a man who is deeply committed to the church.

I heard about this news and I started making plans.

What's it gonna look like for this church to for the for the elder board to carry on as Dave gets treatment and is hopefully healed by the Lord?

And I spoke to Dave and he told me to stop all of that.

He still wants to serve the Lord.

He still wants to serve this church, and he wants to do what Paul said.

As long as he's here, he wants to be here for the progress and joy of the saints.

And so we praise God for Dave.

And I want you to know that as a church, we're gonna care for him in every every way.

I told him that his health comes first.

We're not gonna push him in any way that would be at all detrimental to his health, and we're gonna care for him as elders, but he still wants to serve, and I don't think I could force him to stop.

And so he's gonna continue to carry on as an elder and carry his responsibilities out in a way that is healthy.

I think it's good for us as a church to care for Dave and Sonia, and I'm sure that many of you do will do that in very practical ways.

But the most important way that we can care for Dave and Sonia in this time is through prayer.

We believe that God, we just sang it.

We believe that God answers prayer.

We believe that he hears prayer.

And so even right now, I want to just take some time as a church to do just that, to pray for Dave and Sonia, to lift them up to the Lord and to ask the Lord to work in them in this time, to work through great, to give them ministry opportunity in this time, to heal them ultimately, but to pray that God ultimately might get all the glory.

And so what we're gonna do right now is break up into groups.

You can find maybe three or four or five or six or however many people around you and pray together.

I know what some of you are thinking right now.

Terror is filling your heart as you think about praying with other people.

And so I just want you to know there's no expectation here.

If groups get together and you're all just praying silently, the Lord hears that.

If groups get together and you're praying out loud, that is a good thing.

It is good to pray together.

God hears each and every one of our prayers.

And if you just don't even want to get into a group because that's too intimidating for you, you can just stay in your spot and pray where you are, and the Lord is gonna hear us all.

So let's just take a few moments right now, break up into groups, pray for Dave and Sonia Locke that the Lord would work powerfully.

And in a couple moments, Dave Grant is gonna come up and close this time in prayer.

Let's break off and pray now.

Father God.

We're in a situation where there is no possibility.

That's when you're mighty.

That's when you show up and you show off.

Lord, I I pray you strengthen David.

And I pray uh for what I know he is praying for, that you strengthen his faith.

Strengthen his dependence on you.

That that is how your name will be praised in this situation.

So we just pray that you strengthen David, strengthen Sonia, strengthen their marriage, um, give them give them a precious unity.

Um, just as they face this, give their doctors wisdom.

Um, there's some miraculous things in place that our society has to take care of.

So we just uh we pray in the name of Jesus over those that all things come together.

You promise strength for today and hope for tomorrow, and that's what we have.

Strength for today.

We pray all this in your precious, precious name.

Amen.

Amen.

It's good to this is the church.

This is what we're meant to do to care for each other, the body of Christ, acting as the body of Christ.

And I'm so blessed by this church.

God's given us so many wonderful men and women to serve the Lord together.

And if I could tie these two things together, it's that we um we just prayed for a great man and woman in Dave and Sonia Locke.

And this morning we get the great privilege of commissioning a great family to a new work up in Muskoka.

And so I'm gonna invite the Laverdies.

This is kind of a surprise for most of the Laverdy family that they're gonna come up and join us on stage.

But we praise the Lord that they're willing to do this.

So thankful for Jeremy.

When I started at this church almost two months ago, actually, the whole process started pretty much three and a half months ago, and they kind of explained everything that's going on with the church.

You know, the senior pastor's leaving, but there's a guy here who's the director of discipleship, and he's really great.

Right now he's he's the director of discipleship, he's director of youth, he's director of set setup and teardown, he's director of production, he's director of the ushers, he's the director of the greeters, director of the connections team, director of hospitality, he's he's the administrative assistant at the office, and he's also the full time drummer.

When I was told about this man, I said, Oh great, that's awesome.

I'm coming to a guy that's pretty much Carrying the weight of the church on his back.

And I was also told that this guy is currently being scouted out by another church.

And so I went into full try to make it not happen mode.

I prayed.

I did everything I could to remind Jeremy about the snow up in Muskoka.

Did everything to paint a horrible picture.

And yet, when the Lord wants to move, there's nothing that man can do to stop God moving.

And God has clearly called the Laverdees to ministry in Muskoka.

And so we put our hand on them and affirm God's calling in their life, and we're eager and excited to see all that God will do in them.

Jeremy shared an amazing message with us.

We're so thankful for Jeremy in the ways that he encouraged us, and he encouraged us to continue in what we have always been as a church.

We've always been about maturing disciples.

And so he encouraged us, as you've always been this, been this, continue to do this.

And I want to look at Jeremy for a moment and maybe speak the same message into your life.

As you have been to us, I want to continue to or encourage you to continue to be up in Muskoka.

And I have three points in this mini message that's directly for you, and they all start with a D.

It has to because I'm a pastor and I'm a preacher, right?

So the first is that you've been a doer here, so continue to be a doer.

I think if uh of anyone who exemplifies what James says, that we're not just to be hearers of the word, we are to be doers.

I think Jeremy exemplifies this so well.

Jeremy will accomplish tasks quicker than they can humanly be done.

He has the world record speed for a call to Rogers that actually accomplished something.

He said, I'm gonna call Rogers.

I said, Okay, I'm probably gonna see you in about three hours.

He came back into my office in about 10 minutes and said, Okay, we got it done.

And I said, I don't know what number you have.

Must be some sort of like Holy Spirit connection to Rogers.

And yet that's just one example of the way that Jeremy is a doer.

He's a doer of the word, he's a doer of tasks in the ministry, and he's been a great blessing to this church as he has done much for the glory of God.

Jeremy's been a doer, continue to be a doer.

Jeremy's been a discipler, continue to be a discipler.

Jeremy's been all about multiplication.

He's been a doer, and so he was able to carry all those roles on his back and able to do all those things.

But when I came, I said, I I um illustrated this church kind of like a car.

And I said, right now it's running great, but when Jeremy leaves, we're gonna lose the engine.

And very quickly, Jeremy um delegated leadership to other people.

And it was clear that Jeremy's been doing the work of discipleship, that he's been building up leaders, that he's been doing exactly what he told us to do, uh, calling people to take responsibility for the church, for the glory of Christ, and he's been multiplying disciplers.

And so that's my encouragement to you, Jeremy.

Continue to disciple, continue to carry out Christ's commission to each of us to go and make disciples of all nations.

Jeremy's been a doer, he's been a discipler.

Jeremy, the third D, you've been a delight.

I think if any of us could um summarize what it's like to be around you, it's to be a delight.

It's always joyful.

There's many laughs, there's there's much joy around you.

You've been a delight to be around.

We're gonna miss you so much, but you also delight in Jesus.

And and this sermon is an example of how, Jeremy, you've pointed our eyes to Jesus through your ministry.

You've pointed our eyes to Jesus through your worship ministry in the drums, through your discipleship ministry, through all that you have done.

You have brought us great delight, both in who you are as a person and your whole family, but ultimately in Christ.

If I could think about one verse, maybe, and and uh Jeremy, when I came to Newmarket, I had kind of like a theme verse, and I would encourage you, maybe this could be your theme verse.

In Colossians 1, verse 28 and 29.

Colossians 1:28

It says this uh Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

That's the call of the church, isn't it?

To present people mature in Christ to mature disciples.

And verse 29 is especially how I think about you, how you've served at this church, and how you'll continue to serve in Muskoka.

Paul says this, for this I toil.

I toil.

That's hard work, it's sweaty work, it's labor, it's it is working hard.

For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

Jeremy, we're so thankful for you, so thankful for the way that you've served the church.

I told you early on, and I believe this, you will go down in the history of this church for serving the church in such a unique way, through such a difficult time that hopefully has be passed us in the life of this church, and yet it was an incredibly difficult time, and we praise God for his provision in you and your family, the way that you uh God used you to really carry this church through a very difficult season.

And so we want to pray for you.

We want to commission you to this new work in Muskoka.

And so let's pray.

Father, we thank you for the laverdies.

God, such a unique blessing to for them to attend our church, and then for Jeremy, well, being a member here to be called on to staff and Lord to be used in such a powerful way, Lord, and and I think each of our lives, God.

So many of us here can look to Jeremy and God see how you used him to mature us.

God, to see how he was very practically your hands and your feet in our lives to serve us and to show us your grace, to be a vessel of your mercy to us, God.

And so, Lord, we thank you for the loudities.

Thank you for the ways that they have been instruments in your hands, Lord, that you have used them so mightily in this place.

And God, we thank you for the clear calling that you've placed on their life to go to Muskoka.

God, we know that the the need is great.

Lord, you said the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are flu.

And so, God, it's with great joy, with eager expectation that we send the Laveries now to Muskoka, Lord, asking that you would fulfill their ministry there.

God, that you would work powerfully in ways that are beyond what we could even imagine to ask or think of.

God worked powerfully in their ministry, mature disciples up there.

Lord, we have always been a church that's not about the kingdom of Redemption Newmarket, but Lord, we are about the kingdom of Christ.

And so we celebrate this moment, Lord.

We thank you so much for Jeremy and for the Laverides and for the ways that they have served this church.

Lord, we love them and we're gonna miss them.

But Lord, we know that you are the same God who is here with the Laveries.

You'll be you'll be with us and you'll go with them, Lord, and you are so good to us, and so we give you all the praise, God.

Thank you.

We pray this all in the name of your son.

Amen.

Let's give the Laverdies just maybe a warm applause.

Thank you, guys.

So thankful for them.

Well, you know, it's part of uh redemption new market culture that anytime anything significant happens, we have a reason for food.

And so there's gonna be some uh pulled pork little sliders out there, and we hope that that will bless your soul spiritually as well as nourish you physically.

Uh, but don't just take the food and leave.

Why don't you grab it, stick around, fellowship in the Lord, encourage one another, exhort one another, but maybe just grab the laverdies and don't just say goodbye.

Why don't you just share the ways that they have encouraged you and shown you the grace of God in uh their ministry here?

Uh there's gonna be leaders up at the front.

If you're new here, we want to welcome you here.

We're so thankful that you're here.

We've been praying for you, and we'd love to meet you.

And so you can come up and meet us and we can answer any questions that you might have.

If you have any prayer, we'd love to pray for you as well.

One more thing that I wanted to say is um on the front of your chairs there, there's a little QR code that says connect.

And pay attention here, okay, because this is a this is an announcement we do often, but it's a little different this week.

I wonder if one of the ways that we could serve Dave and Sonia is if you could scan that QR code and leave a prayer request, and just instead of asking for prayer for yourself, why don't you just share a verse in that box or pray something for Dave and Sonia, and that'll be sent directly to their box and hopefully provide some encouragement to them in this time, something to nourish and feed their souls.

Another way that we can practically just care for them.

All right, church, have a great week.