Is Believing Enough | Jason Martin

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So what's the difference between a Christian and a disciple?

What is the.

Difference between the Christ between a Christian and a disciple?

How many of you all think it's the same? Hands up?

How many of you all things is different? Hands up?

Okay, no disciple of Christ? Okay, so I will, I will,

I will contain it contained? Yeah, so disciple of Christ.

How many of you all think? How many things is

different or same? Whether you're a Christian? What's the difference

between a Christian and a disciple of Christ?

Okay? How many of you all think is the same? Again? Okay?

Something the same? How many things different? All right? So

why do you think it's different? Any thoughts? Why do

you think it's different? Okay?

Denomination? Okay, good points? Any other thoughts? Yeah, Disciples make disciples? Okay,

all right, so right, Christians have children. Christians have children.

Disciples make disciples. So that's a different Okay, interesting? Okay,

how many of y'all are Christians? And how many of

youall are disciples?

M hm?

How many of y'all are Christians?

Suddenly, I told you I like this kind of I'm

not here to like just you know, because this is

we have to get this right, because discipleship and stuff

like it right.

We have been taught.

If you've been in church for since for more than

five years, you would have heard it more time and

time again. And sometimes we lose the the importance or

we lose the context in which God has intended for

us to realize. So again, how many of us are Christians?

How many of us are disciples? See now it looks

like okay, So if you were to introduce yourself to someone,

to your friend who is around from a different faith,

would you prefer to introduce yourself as a Christian or

a disciple of Christ?

Wow?

Can you see that impact is different? The impact is

different because I can be a Christian and not go

to church. I cannot be a disciple and not go

to church. I can be a Christian and not.

Read the word of God.

I cannot be a disciple and not read the word

of God.

Is America a Christian nation? Is it a disciple?

Is it a nation that is a disciple of Christ?

You see, it's very different, it is very different. We

have watered down the word Christian to a point where

it's just a tag that we wear. You know, I'm

a Man United fan when I'm an Arsenal fan, or

I'm an Indian, I'm a Chinese, I'm a Christian. So

it just becomes a label. It's no longer a way

of life. So in the Bible, right, how were followers

of Christ identified? Is it because they filled up perform

and said that a gama Christian or religion, then they

filled up Christian?

How were they identified? In the Book of Acts.

Followers of Christ were identified by their works. What they

did was so similar to what Jesus did. It was

not about what they said, they of course preached, but

it's about what they said and did right, which was

following Christ. And actually the word Christian was used to

make fun of disciples. You know that it was actually

coined by non believers to make fun of Christians because

it was actually supposed to be meant as little Christ. Okay,

so these people think they are little Christ, so they

are doing all this. So looking at this right right now,

the title of my sermon today.

Is this next is believing enough?

Because again, if we say that we are Christians, why

do we say we are Christians. Just now you're raise

your hands, right, how many of your Christians? Why do

you say all Christians? Because we believe?

Right?

This is not a trick question now because right because

you believe, you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, and

you accepted him into your heart. Right you surrender your

life to Jesus. But right now I'm asking you, is

believing enough? So how many of you all belief that

exercising is important?

Everyone believes? How many do it?

Did legionly? How many are a disciples of exercise?

What?

Hell?

Right?

How many are believed that saving money.

Is important? How many are disciples of saving or investing

into our future rather than spending everything today? See, everybody

knows that saving money or spending triftally or investing is important.

But why is it that the world there is so

much of credit card debt? Why is the world in

more debt? It's a funny funny thing, right, they're saying

that the world is in so much dept Who are

they in depth to the aliens? Or that's a side

not but in that sense, right, we are spending more

than we make although we know that saving or investing

is good. So in the same way, what is the

biggest religion in the world. They all know what's the

biggest religion in the world. The biggest religion in the

world is Christianity. Two point six billion, two point six billion.

So Christianity is the biggest religion, then why is the

world in a mess? Think about it. If Christianity is

the biggest religion in the world, why is the world

still in a mess? You know?

I actually asked Chat Dept.

This question, why is the world in a mess when

Christianity is the biggest religion? Because I wanted to get Okay,

what there's the the world out there say about it?

Right?

And one of the most common themes is hypocrisy. Christians

don't do what they believe. One hundred and fifty six

nations in the world have majority Christians out of two

hundred and twenty nations. So think about it. So that's

why the word Christian or whether you're a Christian has

been watered down. We may have two point six billion Christians,

but do we have two point six billion Disciples of Christ.

That's a huge difference. If we have two point six

billion Disciples of Christ, the world will look very different.

Think about it right. So I got your thinking right.

So now ask you all again, how many of y'all

a Christian? How are you all are disciples of Christ?

See? All still very scared.

Because this is what I wanted us to realize the

weight of being called a disciple of Christ cannot be

taken lightly. When you call yourself a disciple of Christ,

it means I am following what Christ did. If you

call yourself a Christian, like everybody who celebrates Christmas, everybody

you know, everyone celebrates Christmas, does that make them a Christian? No?

Some people go to church during Christmas and Easter and

funerals and weddings, so four times last year, that's what

Some people say, they go just four times a year, weddings, funerals,

Christmas and Easter. Does that make them a Christian? So

not necessarily. But for us this year, we want to

be disciples of Christ. And disciples of Christ is a

whole other ballgame. So we want to be we are

we should be Christians who are disciples of Christ. So

in the in the essence right the question, right, what's

the difference between Christians and disciples of Christ? There should

be no difference. We have made the difference, but in

essence there should be no difference.

That's why.

How many testimonies have we heard when people are driving

on the highway and they are stopped by the police

and the police is previously they were asking for something, right,

And then how many testimonists have you heard when they

somebody says, Oh, I'm sorry, you just give me a

summon I can not give because I'm a Christian and

the policeman just like, oh Christian, Okayla, then you you

can go because you know, like I'm not going to

get anything from this guy.

But have we watered down that? Have we watered down that?

You know that?

That's why I said non Christians would evaluate whether we

are Christians or not based on our actions. We don't

evaluate whether we are Christians or not just because we

attend service.

Okay, So I wonder do to just start off with that?

And there is there is three points they wanted to

bring across. Okay.

So the first one it is actually a bitter referring

to Mark chapter one, verse sixteen to twenty.

Okay.

So it's always good to go back to origin, the

law of first mention. So that's why I said, Okay,

let me go and check. So Mark chapter one is

the First Disciples, the first Disciples. One day, as Jesus

was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee,

he saw Simon and his brother Andrew throwing a net

into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus

called out to them, come follow me, and I will

show you how to fish for people. And they left

their nets at once and followed him. A little further

up the shore, Jesus saw the Zabede's sons, James and John,

in a boat repairing their nets. He called them all

at once, and they also followed him, leaving their father,

Zabedee in the boat with the hired men. Okay, so

this we know the twelve Disciples. This is the origin story.

This is how it all started. Jesus went up to them,

he called them, come follow me, and I will make

you vicious of men.

Okay.

So using this as our basis, this should be how

we approach our discipleship journey. So it is the first point.

Next is the word come. So the only the sentence

that I've been focusing on is the sentence that Jesus

spoke when he.

Asked the disciples to follow him.

Come follow me, and I will make disciples of make

you disciples of all men. So that's the three points

life very easy, remember, right, first point is come, second

follow me.

That point is and I.

Will make you disciples of all men, will make you

fishes of all men.

Okay, so that's the three points. I give you the

three points up front. Really, so the.

First thing is Jesus said come. So I was looking

for a picture of come, right, how do I look

for a picture?

Come? And this? Usually you look at this. It's come.

You know when you are calling somebody come, what is it?

It's an invitation. You are inviting someone to come, to

walk up to you or to get to know you.

And that's what he did to the disciples. He gave the.

Issued the this fishermen an invitation. Come come get to

know me. I would love to get to know you.

Would you love to get to know me? It was

an invitation and it refers.

It's like.

It was also right important who was asking to come?

If anybody randomly asked you, hey, come follow me, get

into my car, let's go, you'll be like, uh, I

don't think so, you know, right now, there's a lot

of scam you know. I think there's a show on

Netflix about how people like suddenly got a job overseas

and then they got a scam and then they are

like and then they are forced to work at gunpoint

scamming other people. You know.

So we have to realize right when.

Jesus issued the word come, we also have to recognize

who issued that invite. Jesus is the one that issued

that invite, because who issued the invite is very important.

If somebody that you do not trust, you do not

believe in, who you have doubts about, issues the invitation

you get. You get invitations all the time on your phone. Hello,

you got you spend this much money? You want to

get your money back? You call this number. How many

scam calls are there? There's invitations every time. But the

important thing is to recognize who has issued the invitation.

It is Jesus.

And why do you think, I mean in the verse here,

why did the disciples decide to go to Jesus when

Jesus said come? They didn't, I mean, they were not

yet this apples. Why do you think they suddenly decided

to go to Jesus when he said come? And he thought,

or you will just just go because he looks like Jesus,

his long hair, glue or what. So in the gospels right,

there's there's uh the gospels, this story is shad in

different parts of the gospel.

So before this, before that, they became disciples.

Do you remember that they were fishing all night and

they caught nothing, and Jesus went to them and say,

throw your nets on the other side, and they caught

more fish than they could ever imagine. It's not listed

in Mark, but it's listed in the other gospels. And

when that happened, then Jesus said, come and I will

make you vicious of men. They immediately came. So Jesus

met their needs. Jesus knew their needs, and Jesus gave

them more than what they could ask God. Imagine how

many of us have received testimonies from Jesus.

From God.

He met us at our needs, He met us at

our lowest points. He has come true for us over

and over again, and daily he is asking us to come,

come walk with me. But are we doing so? It's

a daily invitation, you know, the walking with Jesus. I

think there's a children's church song. I don't know why.

Sally came into my like walking with Jesus, walking every day,

walking all the way, walking with Jesus, walking with Jesus alone.

Yeah, it's a daily thing.

It doesn't mean that, Hey, I accept Jesus Christ as

my personal Lord and savior. I become a Christian. That's

about it. That's why I say it's believing enough because

you believe and you accept it. But Jesus asked them

to come, Okay, so they came. He wants to partner

with us. And when we draw near to Jesus, it's

because we are attracted to him. If we are not

attracted to him, who are we attracted to? Does the

world seem more attractive? There's the fleshly desires seem more attractive.

I tell you. We receive invitations every day by buy that,

you know, you launch your shoppy app.

Everything, Everything is like buy here, collect coins here, investor

you know. Every there's invitations every day, and all these

invitations may drown out jesus invitation to us. And mostly right,

all the invitations are saying that you don't have enough,

you need more. Jesus invitation is the only invitation that

says I am more than enough for you. Every other

invitation is a sales speech for you to spend more

or to make your feel yourself worth lower because you

need to buy other stuff. Only when Jesus says come,

he says that hey, I am more than enough for you.

That's why the fishermen immediately drop their nets and came

to Jesus right next light. So this is another verse

where the word come is used. Then Jesus said, come

to me all who are weary and heavy burdens, and

I will give you rest. If you want rest, you

have to go to Jesus. Jesus gives you that invitation.

Come to me, he invites you. Are you accepting that invitation?

Without accepting that invitation and going to him, we cannot

have our burdens lifted.

Right.

So this is just an example, But across the Bible

there are so many invitations from Jesus that we can

claim his promises. All we have to do is to

accept the invitation. But most of the time we might

ignore it, right, or we don't even recognize it. So

that's the first point. Come, next point, follow follow, So

coming to a person.

Is that enough?

Because a lot of people give you invitation? So I comela,

But does that mean you will end up following that person?

Not necessarily. So when you go on hiking, especially for

a place that you have never been before, I advise

you to follow, all right, because you will get lost.

You will get lost. So the guide will say, hey,

come everyone, come together, gether together. Follow me, and he

will say it with such authority that you were like, yes,

and he knows what he's doing. I'm going to follow him.

If I don't follow him, I will get lost. It

won't be good for me, right, And that's why that's

like even if you watch a lot of the shows

about Mount Everest, you know they have those the sherpas

and all leading the groups up the hill. Right. I

tell you, no matter if you're a CEO or the

richest span on the planet or the most powerful man

on the planet on that mountain, you have to follow

the guy. If you know what's good for you, you

have to follow the guy, because if not, it is

to your detriment. So Jesus called the disciples and he

asked follow me. Okay, So there's another type of follow.

And this type of follow again, if I want to

ask you all the questions, how many of you all

follow Jesus. Huh, follower follow Jesus? So you follow this

way or you follow next life this way?

Which way do you follow Jesus?

Do you follow him as a guide or do you

follow him on social media?

Yeah?

So when we follow someone on social media, right, it's

just like, oh, I think I'm.

Interested, so I'll just click.

So, but I will follow to see what the person says,

but not necessarily I will practice it. You know, Hey,

this is common interest, that's why I follow. Suddenly the

guy says something controversial, I cancel, cancel culture.

And subscribe.

Do we follow Jesus this way or do we follow

him as the guide even when we don't like it? Right,

we follow him through the narrow path because we know

that his way is the only way. But right now,

I think a lot of us we are at risk

of following this way where if things do not suit

our lifestyle, it doesn't suit our beliefs, it doesn't suit

our social environment, or it does not suit our popularity.

It's an unpopular opinion. Suddenly we decide that AI it's optional.

You still follow, but maybe you mute they can mute notifications.

Or you mute that.

Right, So the Disciples they did not follow this way.

They followed Jesus all the way. What happened to them,

They actually left their boats and nets. That means they

left their identity and their livelihood. Think about it. They

began to obey his other commands. They left their own priorities.

What was important to them suddenly was not important. What's

important to Jesus became important to them as well. They

began to learn from him. Beginning and to begin to

learn from Jesus means you begin to leave your own opinions.

You're dying to self. Then only you can learn from

what Jesus wants to teach us. And then they began

to imitate him. To imitate somebody here means you leave

yourself righteousness. You say God, your way is better, and

I will imitate you. So that was how the disciples

followed Jesus. They left their identity, they left their livelihood,

they left their self righteousness, they left their own opinions.

All to follow.

The King of kings because no other thing matters, Nothing

else matters, And that's how they followed. So let me

show you another verse. This is from Mark ten. As

Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem. A

man came running up to him, knelt down and ask,

good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Why do you call me good? Jesus asked, Only God

is truly good. But to answer your question, you know

the commandments. You must not murder, you must not commit adultery,

you must not steal, you must not testify falsely. You

must not cheat anyone. Honor your father and mother. Next life, teacher,

the man replied, I've obeyed all these commandments since I

was young.

Looking at the man.

Jesus felt genuine love for him. There is still one

thing you haven't done. Go and sell all your possessions

and give the money to the poor, and you will

have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me. The rich

young ruler came, but he didn't follow. Are we at

risk of coming to Jesus believing in him but not following?

Because again, the rich.

Young ruler knew that Jesus is a good teacher, He

knew what Jesus stood for, but he could not follow

Jesus because something else was in the place of priority

in his life. He couldn't put Jesus as number one.

So when Jesus asked us to follow him. It means

that he is number one. And if we don't do that,

we are at verse twenty two. At this the man's

face fell and he went away, said, for he had

many possessions. You know, there's another scripture that says, not

everyone that calls me lord Lord will enter the kingdom

of heaven. All the people, I would think, the people

that Jesus was referring to, its people that came to him.

They believed in him, but they did not follow.

And we need to check our hearts and make sure

we don't disqualify ourselves. Because you say, how many of

y'all believe in Jesus? Yes, how many of y'all will

follow Jesus no matter what. Wow, there's another then, sally

the hands of it, diet. But that is discipleship. Is

that I'm saying discipleship. When I was preparing this, I

was like, Wow, this is no joke.

It is no joke. But this is the standard which

God has called us to. Right now. The last point.

Fishers of men, fishers of men. So to become fishers

of men, first we have.

To learn the trait. We have to follow.

The instruction that Jesus teaches us so that in turn

we can then share it with others. Think about it, right,

all of them were fishermen. They were not evangelists, They

were not preachers. They were not Pharisees. Even if our

Jesus are, maybe I will choose Pharisees. Lah. You know why,

at least they know the Bible ready, they memorized the

Bible since young ready.

But he didn't. Jesus didn't choose Pharisees.

So these disciples that Jesus chose, their Bible knowledge or

the understanding of the Torah or the Jewish word was

probably very very much less.

So they had to learn everything. And they had learned everything.

And because of that, then Jesus promised, once you learn this,

then you can become fishers of men. And you know, like,

I mean, just how many of y'all have been fishing before?

I tell you I don't like fishing. I feel like

so boring. But then I think, yeah, very boring. So

I reading them about fishing, correct, I don't have patience.

But they say, here, if I were to be a

fisher of men, there needs to be some qualities that

I need to adopt. So let me read to you here.

Fishing is unpredictable. There is no guarantee of reward. It

requires patience and risk. In faith, the fishing men would

throw their nets into the deep water, letting it sink

into the lake out of sight, hoping that the reward

for their efforts would be a catch.

Fishing is an act of faith.

And what we do we need to do as the

disciples did. Jesus, where do you want me to cast

your net? And when we do that, then we will

catch the fish and be fishes of men. And do

you know that a person is drawn to you before

they are drawn to Christ. To be a fisherman, a

person needs to be drawn to you first before they

are drawn to Christ. And that's how we can be

vicious of men. So even as I come to an end, right,

So what is a disciple.

Vicious of men? Correct?

But I wanted to distill it into an easy to

remember things because I want us to have a new

appreciation for the word disciple or discipleship. Okay, next night,

So even as I draw to us the end, now

we'll escape this next learn live and tell learn from Jesus.

Live like Jesus tell others about Jesus. That's what a

disciple is, that's what a Christian should be. So this year,

even as we embark upon this journey of discipleship, this

is the goal.

This is the goal.

The goal again is to learn from Jesus, to live

like Jesus, and to tell others about Jesus.

Man.

So even as to draw out to us a close,

I just invite everyone to stand. And even as the

word has just gone forth, Jesus is calling to us.

Come maybe answer his call. Not only answer, but then

follow him. And once we follow him, then he will

use us for his glory.

Man, we hope you've been blessed by this message. For

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that this week is going to be a good week,

a hit for you. God bless