The Test of True vs False Disciples: Do you have a God that can say hard things to you? John 6:60-69

and so here's our brother he was towing

the trailer this morning and prepping a

sermon so please you were too wow we tag

team you did great thank you love you um

we're going to be in John 6 if uh you

turn to a real Bible feel free we uh

just want to do a little plug too next

week kidsled service if that is so out

there and weird and you're thinking

about oh that sounds like a week off uh

that would be a bad idea we we we

typically see more lives touched more

hearts and bodies healed more uh people

that are weeping than even my best

sermons on this service and we typically

also see more people invite friends

whether they have kids or not actually

we have many people uh that that that

come just for this service once a year

they don't want to come to Frontier to

listen to me but the one time a year

that they know that they are going to

meet God is next Sunday so I would

encourage you don't let yourself wish

that you would have been there also it's

going to be super fun to hang out we're

going to start doing these taco Sundays

hopefully regularly we had great

feedback and we're going to move that

line quicker we've got some strategy and

uh feel free to hang out if you're into

yard games and hurting yourself feel

free to try to do something like that as

well and uh we'll see you next week uh

today as we were worshiping I was

thinking about um I've said something of

this before sometimes I get lost in

worship and just the insanity that we're

floating around on a rock and that that

God is captivated by our worship while

we're just this speck of existence in

the cosmos

and and then at the same time um I've

said this before as

well science tells us that we've never

there's no other being in existence like

a human being god calls it made in his

image and at the same time we are the

only we're the only living beings that

have the

ability to

sacrifice in the present for something

intentional in the

future that's the thing that sets us

apart i don't mean that there's not like

a dolphin that like swims in front of a

shark sometimes to sacrifice for their

little dolphin cub or whatever you call

a baby dolphin that may happen too but

but I mean the way that we are able to

set our entire lives around laying our

lives down for someone or something else

bigger than

ourselves to see into the future and

live our lives towards

something sacrifice and then we sing in

Christian tradition these these odd

songs about killing little baby sheep

it is because Jesus has used the picture

of a slain lamb that

sacrifice the story of God is

that those of us that are created in his

image human beings realize that there's

something about how we're wired where we

are insufficient of our own to deal with

the darkness inside of us and around

us and Jesus is part of this ancient

modern eternal story of fulfilling the

need to deal ultimately with suffering

and

sacrifice by coming and acting as one

ultimate

final act in that story

so when we sing things like come and

behold him we're reminding our spirits

what some of us already know and some of

us are just experiencing for the first

time that

there the cry of our hearts to deal with

the darkness to deal with the pain to

deal with the

suffering there's a

God who sees our suffering and our pain

and we may not understand him we not may

not even see him fully but if Jesus did

what he said he

did he's given an answer to every deep

cry of the human

soul and every time we look at the

word it's an invitation to remind

ourselves if this is true how do I

adjust my life accordingly so I was uh

doing as I usually do this week um I I

come across comedians i typically don't

tell you who they are so you don't judge

me uh what I listen to there was a there

was a comedian this week we've talked a

lot about how just I'm finding and I I'm

not I think we're all finding people in

the non non-religious spheres are just

talking about their faith and

spirituality in Jesus left and right and

there was this one comedian who's just

like um he's hilarious um

but I just saw this clip where he's he's

just going on like "I went to church on

Sunday that was amazing." And he's he's

talking about the music and he listens

you know he says something about like

like oceans the song and he's just I'm

just going to cry if someone puts that

on right now and and just going on and

on and and then one of the guys sitting

around acts like he knows what he's

talking about oh you mean like one of

those like modern places where they play

like cool music and someone gives a TED

talk and uh and then they go home and he

kind of brushed him off because he

couldn't care less like that this guy

like thought it was this way because

it's like he's he's experiencing

something that is hitting his soul but

two things I want to point

out the guy on the left and the guy on

the right guy on the right who just had

this great experience he's still coming

for what he can get out of it and that's

okay jesus was completely okay with

people following him initially for what

they could get out of

it the impressiveness the miracles the

the the warm feelies at a certain point

Jesus always drew a line

though not in the way we draw line we're

really bad at drawing lines church is

usually terrible at it but Jesus was

really good at it and we want to learn

about how

Jesus drew the line the other side is is

the TEDTalk guy the TEDTalk guy has

either truly not seen a real church um

or that's just the impression of a

church is trying to just speak uh good

helpful encouraging words to people we

want to be encouraging we want to be

uplifting

um my favorite thing about a TED talk is

how they can like blow your mind in 17

minutes i I will never talk for only 17

minutes i covenant that with you um you

know may maybe once a year but um the

the thing about the thing about how we

do things that's that's not a TED talk I

just want to be real clear we have we

have a bit of a philosophy on on our

teaching and our teaching has three

elements scripture culture and our

spiritual

formation starts with scripture

uh we believe that the ancient practice

of looking at the the scriptures the

holy bible of god

is something that has been tested more

than any other book more than any other

writings in human history and has proved

to be the story of God come to

us therefore it represents a bit of of

an authority something that we can trust

and put our lives under something that

as we seek to understand it we don't

have to fully understand in every moment

everything that's happening because

we've encountered a God who we're saying

in this I have found life and though I

am seeking to understand it and don't

understand everything all at once

simultaneously I realize that in

it in it is

life and in it I can disagree with the

God who speaks to me and I can wrestle

with

him we'll talk more about this

today if you agree with

everything that your God

says your God is

you big question today can God say hard

things to you

i I like to think I he can say hard

things to me when he says hard things to

me through people I don't

like the answer is no god you need to

tell me that i do not receive it through

them not because they're wrong but

because I don't like their attitude i

don't like the way they look at me when

they say i don't like their

condescending little snarky i don't like

the fact of like they haven't been

through what I've been through they're

actually really kind maybe this is

someone that's just like it's this

person speaks truth and is obnoxiously

kind and too perfect they're too

perfect i hope you see how imperfect I

am by the way

um but if you thought my wife was

perfect she's

not i know she looks a bit more perfect

than I

do it's what I initially thought it's

why I married her and then we found

She's not perfect more perfect than me i

do need to recover this rabbit trail

that wasn't planned in my notes she's

far more perfect than

me but can we receive Can we receive

God's correction through other people

that are imperfect that's that's that's

a sucky process i hate that so much i

hate receiving it through articles i

hate receiving it through things that

come up on the on the news flow or or

just just the people whose personalities

rub me the wrong way i hate it so much

and that's where God forms you when

there's friction when there's

disagreement and then there's truth in

the midst of that it's not about picking

and choosing what you like and dislike

again if you're God and your faith is

just picking and choosing what you like

just getting rid of what you don't like

it's not a

faith it's a preference

no kingdom's ever been built on your

preferences how can a good God allow

suffering the gospel says essentially

the answer to that question is you're

never going to fully know in the moment

of suffering why God allowed the

suffering what you can know

is it can't be because he doesn't love

you so you don't start making up answers

that aren't there you sit in the pain

because he sits with you in the pain

it's I don't know why God did this or

allowed this but it can't be because of

a lack of love why because the story of

God is he gave the ultimate sacrifice he

is the one that pursues us with a love

we cannot possibly love him to the

degree that he loves us and when I think

that my love outweighs his I have not

encountered him i'm still trying to

position God or build up God or

construct God in my own image and we've

already talked about what kind of God

that is it's

me so what I want to do today is urge us

to step into a kind of disciplehip we're

in a series on disciplehip disruptive

disciplehip in a secular age if you like

that title you're my friend and if you

don't I'm going to define it in a way

that maybe you will at least appreciate

what we're doing today our practice what

we try to do

scripture culture what are the

worldviews that are constantly trying to

pull us in one direction how do we start

with scripture and then look at culture

and then look at how do we lean into our

spiritual formation how do we practice

this in the real world that's always

what we're doing when we open the word

of God start with what it says what did

it originally intend to do how does

living in the modern culture bring us

into some tensions and then how do I

step into a place where I'm being formed

in my spiritual practices so that's what

we're going to do today john

660-69 says this when many of his

disciples heard it they said "This is a

hard saying who can listen to it?" Jesus

had just gone on and on about that he's

the bread of life and that you should

drink his blood and eat his flesh some

very interesting things

verse 61 says "But Jesus knowing in

himself that his disciples were

grumbling about this," this isn't just

the 12 disciples this is the large group

of disciples following him at this point

because he's allowed a lot of disciples

to start following him without them

fully being on board with what he's

about and understanding what he's about

and he could sense that they were

grumbling and he says to them "Do you

take offense at

this are you offended did I offend

you then what what if you were to see

the son of man that's a title for

himself ascending to where he was before

we'll talk about what that means in a

second it is the spirit who gives life

the flesh is no help at all the words

that I have spoken to you are spirit and

life but there are some of you who do

not believe so he's saying there are

false believers among the believers

for Jesus knew from the beginning those

who did not believe and who it was who

would betray him and he said this is why

I told you that no one can come to me

unless it is granted by the father then

final couple verses after this many of

his disciples turned back and no longer

walked with him in fact what it means is

is most of the disciples and really it

was just the 12 and maybe a few

scattering of others this is a guy

that's speaking to thousands of people

and all of a sudden he's got nothing i

have never realized how major that is

we've always looked at it as like Jesus

was able to transform the world with

just 12 and that's always what they tell

you when you start a house church like

you're

significant unless your goal is a house

church if you still only have 12 after a

few

years doesn't feel like you're going to

transform the

world and then you get caught up into

the numbers and whatever else do you

know that ancient rabbis like Jesus were

just as bound by things of that nature

you your honor was based on your

followers oh we're so unique today with

all our followers and our obsession with

followers no it's just today the access

and temptation is that any human being

can instantly try to attain followers in

a way that previously wasn't attainable

by that many people it's still in the

heart of the human condition ancient

rabbis were just as tempted to build

their life around followers as we are

today in fact Jesus had the temptation

more than the rest of them because he

built his little tribe of 12 around a

bunch of guys who were overlooked and

were not invited by any other rabbi to

follow him jesus invited those who had

been passed over now all of a sudden

he's got a big following and he uses an

opportunity to lay the foundation of his

message in a way that causes everyone to

leave and that would have been

incredibly

dishonoring he's losing his

honor and as they left and as his honor

left he looks to his 12 verse 67 do you

want to go away as

well he just lets it sit the language is

all about their heart you said the right

things you're still here you're still

standing here but do you want to

go do you want to join

him and as always Simon Peter is the one

that speaks

up differently than our passage from a

couple weeks ago or from last week

whenever the the one I I shared last and

Peter this time goes

"Lord where are we going to

go you have the words of eternal life

and we have believed and have come to

know that you are the holy one of

God." Huge affirmation and yet the

following is down to nothing

some translations they start this whole

section off with this is a hard saying

but who can listen to it some

translations yours might say it's hard

to understand um it's not about

understanding like this is like really

difficult for me to understand what

you're talking about they they were

having a hard time accepting what he was

talking about they're the motives of

their heart were being exposed

so couple points and then I want to get

into is I want to get to the application

points actually as fast as I possibly

can uh and then I want us to respond are

we going to do communion today no we

don't have it phil has it just like in a

in his backpack

or it sounded funny that's all right all

right so maybe we'll have communion

maybe we won't i will prepare

accordingly based on where I see the

people that are now moving to try to see

if that happens amen what if the son of

man What if you see the son of man

ascending to where he was before that's

in verse 62 what is that talking about

um Jesus is essentially saying this if

the cross causes you to stumble and take

offense how much more will the

resurrection so he's been outlining for

them that he's going to the cross he's

being very clear about this but then he

starts to allude to the resurrection

which they have no concept and they have

no frame of reference for they have a

ton of expectations of what the Messiah

and Jesus who he is and where he should

be going what he should be doing they

have expectations on

God and Jesus is feeling the

expectations and he's

saying these seekers now need to see

where the line is i need to expose their

motives this coming down and ascending

back to the father he's he's in short

talking about the resurrection is not

even going to be conceivable to their

human thoughts yet at this stage and

he's basically going "Before you get

offended at the things you haven't even

taken the time to understand press

forward to what they mean see for

yourself what happens when you push into

my meaning and my significance." Jesus

is giving them a chance to take their

offense to take their questions to take

some measure of the struggle of their

faith and their unbelief and he wants

them to lean into

it i need to go faster verse 66 to

69 of course they leave so many leave as

I've mentioned and of course this is a

soul crushing reality he asks his

disciples if they want to leave as well

again this is all about the commitment

of their heart it's not about whether

they'll really stay and and the question

is really being asked more for their

sake than for his sake he's not going on

an ego trip like "Can you spend some

time just now praying and affirming me

12 i'm really feeling

rattled." Um at the same time I think

his heart did ache

i think we think that Jesus

is is bulletproof in a different

way jesus is bulletproof in some ways

but Jesus isn't bulletproof from

emotions because it says he felt

everything we felt every

pain every emotion therefore I think

Jesus felt the pain of this moment his

maturity meant that it wasn't just a a a

slide on his

identity it was it was a knock on his

yearning and longing and love for people

that were walking away from what they

needed most and he felt it

deeply and he looks at his disciples who

needed to hear this more than he needed

to say it and give them a chance do you

want to leave as well and I think our

question for all of us today whether

you've been a follower of Jesus your

entire life or a short time the question

is what are the motives of your heart

and are you constantly listening to his

invitation he's not forcing you he's

welcoming you to analyze where you're at

and say "Do you still want to follow me

do you see me for who I am?" Before I go

on I want to I want to give a couple

definitions i think I have that at the

beginning in some slides i want to

define disciplehip and I want to define

secularism before I move on any further

disciplehip the intentional process of

becoming like Jesus by countering the

cultural forces that shape us and

actively aligning our lives with his way

so I highlight becoming like Jesus

because if you need a short definition

that's all disciplehip is it's who

you're

following who you're following what are

you becoming like whoever you follow you

can look at if if you're into I I'm kind

of bored of the social media examples

that we c talk about constantly at

church but at the same time I think it's

maybe the biggest thing that we need to

just realize and whether you're doing

social media or you follow different

podcasts or whose email newsletters you

get or whatever it else if you look at

all the information that you typically

have in your diet it will tell me who

you follow and what kind of person you

are

it'll also tell us who you're becoming

like because you will ultimately become

like what you follow and our ultimate

our ultimate place of becoming should be

like Jesus and that's what disciplehip

means what are you becoming like who are

you following but what we're going after

is how we do it in this day and age is

by looking at these cultural forces that

shape us and then how do we step into an

intentional process of aligning oursel

with his way that's all we're doing

secularism the second definition then is

simply a world

view that tries to figure out the

meaning of life without

God that's the moment that we're in

that's falling in on itself culturally

we've we've tried the modern West has

tried to bring meaning to our existence

without God and it's not working and so

people are seeking and they're hungry

this is our moment this is our

generation's moment

this isn't a doom and gloom fearful

thing this is a an

exciting moment of time that we will

potentially never never live with the

same momentum again and if the church

misses the moment there's no one there

to sweep it up this is the moment where

people are

seeing that the way to look at the world

apart from God just cannot find the

meaning and purpose that the human soul

craves

and so our pursuit of disciplehip is for

ourselves yes but it's for a greater

mission that as we do this it's inviting

people into a way of

life that they don't even know that they

need and in the process you get exposed

the motives of your heart that are

always

imperfect and as we are real and raw

with our motives as Christians it shows

the rest of the world that it's okay to

be real and raw with theirs

they don't need to see your perfect life

they need to see your mess and they need

to see a perfect God come in and settle

it over and over and over again when we

stumble and fall so back to the to the

verses 66- 69 he's asking "Do they want

to leave?" And of course most of them do

and and I just want to point out the

gospels are riddled with Jesus testing

the heart and the commitment of the

disciples countless points

notice

that Simon Peter speaks up but here's

what I want us to see about Simon Peter

he asks the Lord "Where else are we

going to go what alternatives are there

given that you have the words of eternal

life?" That's essentially what he's

saying even if Peter had not understood

the entirety of Jesus's prior message of

what he was giving he picks up

completely the words that Jesus has

spoken when he says that they're spirit

and that they're life what does that

mean peter's basically saying "I'm not I

don't understand everything Jesus but

when you speak there's something in my

spirit that comes alive where I realize

that the life that I crave is is is is

closer to me when you speak when you

lead when I encounter the presence of

God on your life i have got to know more

i don't understand everything that

you're doing and saying "I'm offended at

some things i want you to be this kind

of God and this kind of king." Remember

Peter was a zealot he eventually chops

off the

solders's ear because he was aiming for

his head because he thought this was

going to be a war and all of that and he

he still doesn't even get it until the

moment that Jesus gives his life he

denies him he thinks he's not he thinks

he's full of faith he's all over the

place he's an emotional basket

case and God's like "That's my first

pope." And I mean that in a positive way

that's going to be the most powerful man

in the church that's going to be the

rock not because Peter's a rock he's

anything but a rock peter's a mess

peter's a

storm and God names him his

opposite look at Peter's life the rock

peter is the storm he walks in the water

he's a mess he sinks he's a moment

peter's a nice moment in a massive storm

peter is a sinking sinking stone in a

chaos of life peter has no idea who he

is he has no idea what he's supposed to

do he goes back to

fishing after the

resurrection after he's seen the

resurrected Christ this guy goes back to

fishing he has no idea what is

happening so you and I when when we've

when you've lived maybe my biggest

struggle is I've seen so much i've seen

God do so much and then I can still have

these dark moments where I question

everything and if you're real and raw

with your emotions in your life you have

those same moments too and you just go

like maybe I should just go back to

fishing whatever fishing is for

you fishing is for you is to go back and

do the things that are

fine that are just

fine not wrong they're just

fine they're not going to change

anything they're not going to change

your family let alone the

world they're not going to motivate you

towards anything they're not going to

stir anything in your soul and they

certainly certainly fishing for him and

I'm not talking about careers i'm not

talking about like we all have to be

evangelists i I we do because we all

have all five gifts of the five-fold

don't hear me say you don't have to

share your faith what I'm saying is you

don't all have to have stadiums of a

million people in Nigeria or Uganda you

don't all ha you don't all have to to

have ministries that you can say "Oh

look at the thousands let me go on

another podcast and raise millions of

dollars for all the things that I'm

doing for the kingdom." In many ways

it's about I chose you as a fisherman

because you're going to get it Peter

you're going to go to the depths and all

of a sudden people are going to see I

can entrust my entire kingdom to a

fisherman

i'm going to bring I'm going to bring a

rock out of the chaos of the storm you

know some of you today just need to hear

the fact that like you're so aware of

your shortcomings your failures your

brokenness and you're discouraged for

whatever reason and you feel like life's

at highs and lows and you maybe feel

you're at rock bottom or maybe you just

can't you can't you can't seem to climb

the mountain of what you know is

possible for your life and and

ultimately you're just tempted to just

kind of numb out and chill out and just

get by

the gospel takes you to a place

where you have to depend on him and you

have to surrender

again and it starts with just analyzing

the motives of your heart so first Peter

asks "Where else are we going to go?"

Your words are spirit in their

life take a moment and just let your

spirit connect with the fact that Jesus

isn't just someone that's telling you to

do good things

he's making your spirit come alive

connecting you with his spirit and he's

giving you the essence of all true

life second Peter says "We believe and

know you are the holy one of

God." This was a title especially of the

God of the Old Testament it's also a

title for one of God's direct servants

meaning like he's acknowledging that

Jesus is God's direct agent here on

earth and this shows that Peter is

recognizing there is something special

about Jesus it's important enough that

he should stick around to find out more

and and yet he hasn't pieced the whole

thing together so in his process of un

not understanding he's allowing God to

disrupt him he's allowing God to

disagree with him he's allowing God to

make him uncomfortable and he's he's

staying there and wrestling with the

process and that's where I just

encourage some of you today the church

has offended you god has offended you

you've seen things that are wrong and

shouldn't be you've seen suffering

you've seen pain you've seen injustice

i just encourage you lean in to this

God lean into this kind of

God peter's in this case his confession

is genuine verse the other disciples

who've walked away why is it genuine

it's genuine because in it he adopts

Jesus's words as his own he's he's

literally using words of Jesus and

saying "I embrace this i receive this

when eternal life is at stake there is

no other way than to follow Jesus whom

else that's what he's saying whom else

has eternal life that's what he's

saying he's not just stating his loyalty

he's declaring the identity of Jesus the

person that they've

believed and many of them have said the

right things up to this point but now

it's not the right things that Peter

says it's the way that Peter is saying

them with conviction where there's

something stirring in his heart you're

the Holy One of

God and that's why we tell our worship

team when we're

worshiping we have one directive and

that's to take people wherever we're

coming

from it's to take them into a place

where we're able to just encounter God's

holiness because God's holiness is a

place

where the purity of worship is refined

because it's not about anything other

than who he is it's not about my needs

it's not about the chaos of the storm

out here you can deal with all those

things in worship but the ultimate the

ultimate point that you're getting to is

his holiness the holy one of God because

in that it's only about his identity not

mine my identity gets dealt with with

the one I'm following in full in purity

in wholeness in goodness not his not

mine but his

alone that's why worship can't take

place in just five minutes with just a

few words of prayer it has to it has to

be a process of dying a process of

sacrifice a process of laying things

down analyzing my motives and letting my

heart be ripped open over and over and

over again and letting him put it back

together because I can't possibly do

this

and that's the best news in the world

all he wants is for us to stop trying to

put our own hearts back

together all right I got 10 minutes to

apply this three applications the cure

the cure for disciplehip that's not

real three things we're going to expose

offense reject the false and embrace the

true expose the offense reject the false

and embrace the

true first looking at

offense a God who can't challenge or

contradict my views is not a real

God i just want us to really sit with

that a God who can't challenge or

contradict my views is not it's not real

it's not a real God that's me that's me

as

God we think we should know God and what

he should look

like i'm continually in awe that I think

that I have a higher passion for justice

than

God insane that is

i collapse after like reading the news

cycles for five minutes i can't take it

i can't even think about it for long

enough to be compassionate for all

that's happening in the world i've got

capacity for about five people and I've

got seven in my family

take up the cross daily we'll see who

the five are today

do you have space for me today daddy I

go to your heavenly

father what have I taught

you a God who can't challenge you it's

not a real God a god that you agree with

in full it's not your God

and without realizing it we often make

God into

ourselves a real relationship always has

disagreement and wrestling that's that's

the truth in any real valuable

relationship that's true with a business

partner that's true with a a spouse it's

true with a best friend someone that

agrees with everything isn't your friend

isn't even your business partner if

we're not even holding our business

partners to to the same standard that we

hold

God so what about all the church's dirty

history i feel like we have to bring

this up regularly because if we're not

careful I can get just heavy it's like a

the church just sucks not ours but

like the church it's just so easy to

crap on the church isn't it

why because it's people that have

royally screwed up

however it's the church of

Jesus therefore it's bigger than the

people and just like the story of God is

all about broken pe every story in

scripture is screwed up people screwed

up people screwed up people screwed up

people and the question we're supposed

to be asking is what does God show us

about what he's like through these

screwed up people what are we learning

about what he's like what's he like

what's he like what's he

like in the temptations we make the

people into

heroes and God even honors them like

they're heroes to some degree but he

always puts them like they're just

pointing you somewhere they're pointing

they're pointing they're they're fallen

they're broken and I've put them back

together to point you somewhere and

they're always pointing to Jesus they're

always pointing to this ultimate example

of one true hero in the story and and I

miss it and I want to make Abraham the

hero because he's more attainable than

Jesus for me i want to make Peter my

hero i I want to make Moses my

hero they're not the hero

but if we're going to harp on the

dirtiness of the church we have to

remember that that despite the church's

ugly ugly parts God's God's established

a church that filters itself and

corrects itself and calls out its own

hypocrisy and therefore does things like

founds the modern institution of

universities that funded and founded the

scientific revolution

and hence the reason that the godfathers

of all the heart sciences are

Christian the church founded the

institutions of hospice and nursing care

the institution of orphanages and

Christians were the largest body of

people calling for the defunding and

abolition of slavery

while the disgusting people used the

Bible tearing pieces of it out to

justify the

oppression throughout our country's

history and throughout the church's

history you can see the dirt and you can

see the gold at the same

time and al ultimately when you see the

story as a story and not each piece

being the end you start to see an

eternal thing

happening where the human story as

imperfect as it is is leading us

somewhere that's bigger than

ourselves and here's the challenge give

your faith the opportunity to ask the

questions seek informed answers jesus is

challenging these people the true

disciples and the false disciples he's

saying "Here's the line here's who I

really am." Many of you have come for

many reasons and that's okay and some of

us here today I mean maybe someone

brought you here and you're like "What

is this guy talking about i just wanted

to just you know have some peace in my

mind he said there'd be nice music i

didn't know this guy would be talking i

don't know why I'm here." And that may

be as well that's fine i'm almost done i

just want to invite you give the

challenge of

Jesus a piece of your heart and say "Can

I challenge you

God to confront me with where I think

you're

off about the Bible about the church and

especially about Jesus."

This passage shows us that even for the

disciples who knew Jesus intimately and

personally in the flesh there was still

far more than meets the eye he walked

into this group of disciples his

God-appointed task with eyes wide open

knowing full well he was going to get

betrayed and how and he was going to be

abandoned in how and there isn't

anything you can say or anything that

you can ask that's going to scare him

away he's still there he's ultimately

saying "I know people are going to

betray me i know some are going to walk

away and he gives everyone the same

opportunity he's better than we think

he's better than we know he's more just

he's more loving he's more sacrificial

than we

realize so that's the first invitation

deal with your offense this morning

don't pretend like it's not there bring

it to him number one number two false

disciplehip i just want to expose what

false disciplehip is not false

disciplehip is not unbelief you're not a

false disciple because you don't believe

jesus was going after the people that

say they

believe but their motives were rotten

he's basically saying those that don't

believe at all are way easier to cure

than those who say they believe but

they've got a twisted

slimy motivation

issue according to Jesus it's far less

worrisome to have no interest in him

than to follow him for wrong

motives so what is false Christianity

false Christianity and false disciplehip

is an unbelief under the mask of

belief and I think if we're honest all

of us that have called to call ourselves

disciples or Christians have had moments

where we're

masking we're masking our

belief and it's really a measure

of our motives are sour at

best false Christianity is an unbelief

under the mask of belief it's not the

people who have no interest in him to

people who say they follow their motives

are the issue so how are your motives

this

morning they're never going to be

perfect and so I don't want you walking

away today like paranoid like h can I

just go like you know do something

extreme to prove to Jesus that I'm I'm

pure he did that for

you you don't have to do that for him

you just have to surrender Aresh and say

"What are the things pulling at my soul

that I'm holding on to that I can't

trust you with?" That's what he wants he

wants you to trust him and to surrender

to him to know him to have a real a real

place where he can speak in disagree

with you and you don't leave

we love We love cuddly Jesus holding the

lamb we even love the knives and the

blood squirting out of the lamb we love

all those pictures because it's still

sweet baby lamb

Jesus going for

us jesus is really serious about drawing

the line let me give you a few parables

that if you don't know them I just uh

invite you this week to go through the

book of Matthew matthew I mean you can

start in Matthew 5 Matthew 7 Matthew 13

and Matthew 25 there you'll find the

parable of the two houses the parable of

four soils parable of 10 bridesmaids and

the sermon on the mount you can read all

of those in about half an hour or

less and the parable of two houses you

see that it's it's on the outside these

two houses look exactly the same only

one has a solid foundation and Jesus is

saying there's always two choices which

one are you there's always a line

parable of the four soils like four

hearts all of which result in vegetation

but only one bears fruit in the long run

all the rest are doomed all the other

ways don't work the parable of the 10

bridesmaids Jesus looks at all whom look

the same on the outside only five are

actually waiting for the bridegroom so

he's basically saying there's true ones

and there's false ones there's true

disciples and false disciples and at the

very end of his most famous teaching on

the sermon on the mount he tells us that

there will be Christian leaders who will

proclaim his name and claim to have done

many things in his name and on the last

day he's going to look at them and say

he never knew

him he's loving and he's sweet and he's

kind and he loves lambs and he likes

kids he's also willing to tell you that

you might never know known

him and he uses the people the leaders

even in ministry we all have to sit with

that reality did you even know him he's

not and that has nothing to do with what

you did did you know

him what he's calling us to is much

deeper much richer much more complex

than just doing

good jesus's gospel isn't to do good

it's looking at your heart looking at

your motives and asking "Do you really

want

him?" He wants you but do you want

him finally true

disciplehip true disciplehip is simply a

deep

desire a deep desire to simply become

like him to become like

Jesus that's the core aim of our life

to encounter him and become like

him it's tearing up my terms and

approaching him on his

terms it's fully

surrendering it's investing in his

kingdom and saying "I'm not going to

have a transactional relationship where

I'll only invest in yours if you invest

in mine." It's not a business

partnership and Jesus calls us out

if you want to be a true disciple let

Jesus call you out let him call you

higher let him actually reorient and

reconstruct your heart and his rule and

his

ways he's called out people who sought

him only for miracles already in this

section of

scripture and in this passage he calls

out those who will accept him only if he

offers himself on their

terms turn team can start to come up

yeah that'll help me hurry up thank you

there's a kind of person who sees

Christians doing really well maybe

that's you facing struggle with joy

content with life and flourishing and

you might think to yourself "Okay these

Christians maybe I I'll give it a try

i'll give Jesus a try i'll make some

sort of investment and see what kind of

return I can

get." I've even seen many Christians

myself included go "I'll up my I'll up

my prayer

life i'll go to pie hop more often i'll

get up

earlier i'm gonna stop eating

whatever and then maybe I'll get the

breakthrough which is what the return on

your investment dang

it how much of our spiritual life and

the things that we do if we're honest is

about getting a

return and how can we expect if we live

that way in spirit how are we going to

live that way out

there our doing good will always have a

motive that's flawed and people will

sniff it out and they will not be

attractive to your way of life they will

want nothing to do with this

Jesus we want to hold on to the terms we

want to hold on to the control we want

to make a deal with God

and the reality is is if we really

looked at God for who he is if we really

saw him aresh today what he was like and

we saw what he

did you wouldn't look at your son and

give your one and only

son sacrificial

death the thing that you most

value you allow the weight of the world

to come on his

shoulders in Jesus we see what God's

like we have God come to us to sit with

us in our pain to sit with us in our

questions to sit in the suffering and as

we continue to look at the suffering of

the world and have no idea how to

rationalize why the suffering in your

own home the broken the broken realities

with your own parents your own siblings

your own children the brokenness in the

disappointment of the dreams that

haven't come to fruition the way that

you've been screwed over by this person

or that person or that partner it

doesn't it

doesn't

allude to anything other than the same

gospel of this one who's experienced

everything as deeply and as painfully as

you have and can look at you and sit

with you and say "I'm with

you will you let

me push you will you let me cut you will

you let me

completely restore your heart by giving

you a new

one what he's inviting us to when we

look at the cross is to realize I maybe

I wouldn't have done it that way i

wouldn't have allowed that i wouldn't

have allowed my perfect son to humble

himself and

suffer by people beating him spitting on

him cutting

him to inches of his life and letting

him sit in it until he breathed his

last but thankfully God's ways are not

like mine his thoughts are not like mine

and they're not like yours and because

of that it's okay if you and I take some

time in order to see things his way i

want to invite those of you that want a

fresh encounter with the living God to

simply stand close your eyes and pray

this prayer with me take a moment if

that's you invite you to stand say this

prayer with me

[Music]

in one accord we just ask you Jesus

expose our hearts reveal our

motives pull us to a place of true

disciplehip in a

[Music]

world with all kinds of stories all

kinds of options

[Music]

but may you expose the lies and the

false beliefs among

believers so that an authentic church

can arise in a moment where people are

desperate for a god that's not

themselves where I've made myself God

and king i invite you to disrupt me

[Music]

we're going to take communion

here before I do I just I just want the

next slide that has these nine practices

i know you can't see them really

clearly yeah there's a list right there

um I don't like to go to lists at the

very end i don't want you to get back

into your head space i want you in your

heart space but I want you to remember

what do you do with this how do you live

this out the way of Jesus invites us

into a place where we practice his

ways these practices are for

you sabbath simplicity solitude fasting

prayer scripture community generosity

and hospitality notice the first six are

internal the last three are

external i simply want you as you take

[Music]

communion to allow the motives of your

heart to connect with these practices

what is it that one or two of these that

you need to step into to test your

[Music]

motives do you need to stop from the

toil of work and really learn to Sabbath

you might get here a few times a month

but let's be honest you rush out and

you're already working do you know how

to Sabbath do you know how to rest do

you know how to live in shalom and

peace some of you are just consumed in

the this the complexity of your life the

practice of simplicity will set you free

not because of your striving but because

in it if you will take each of these

practices and not do them in your own

strength but you'll allow them to be the

acts of your heart surrendering to him

it's the only way that you can confront

the things that are holding you enslaved

and in

captivity if you if you're struggling to

not even know him are you taking time in

his word and in prayer and giving space

to even listen he wants to know you he

doesn't need you to check off that

you've done a certain amount of work for

him he wants to know

you and the real test is when you

progress to the place of outward

expression where you're living towards a

community and generosity and hospitality

with your life that is riskfilled

because people can hurt

you they cannot receive you the way that

Jesus does and I just want as we take

communion together I want one or two not

all nine one or two that your heart

needs as a test for your motives not

because you can gut through it but

because you can surrender to him and say

"I need to lean into this ancient

practice and allow you to be God."

We're exposing the ways of the world and

we're leaning in to the simple practices

of Jesus that bring

flourishing in the chaos of the modern

world holy

Spirit as we come to your table and as

we close the service we remember the

body of Jesus and his blood broken for

us his blood shed for us

i pray that you would highlight in each

of our hearts one to two practices in

your

way to test our motives and to form our

hearts we pray this in the mighty name

of

Jesus amen as his word