Call to Disciple

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

We are gonna be in Matthew, chapter 28 today. Matthew 28, we're gonna start in verse 19. We're gonna get there in just a minute. Matthew 28 and 19. If you don't have a Bible, that's cool. There is a, there's probably a Bible around you underneath a seat or something like that. We're also gonna have all the scripture gonna be on these screens up here. And so I wanna gain perspective a little bit on where we've been so far. We've had three calls so far that we've been talking about in our series, Call Me Out. And in our series, we've been talking about how Jesus calls us out. He calls us from different points, kinda where we are. And we have, so far we've seen three of these. In Matthew 11, Jesus said, "'Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, "'and I will give you rest. "'Take my yoke upon you. "'Learn from me, for my yoke is easy, my burden is light.'" And then in Matthew 14, Jesus has 5,000, 10,000 people

around him, and the disciples say, hey, we need to send these people away to go get some food. And Jesus, the second called to them, he's like, you feed them. You serve them, right? And then in Matthew 16, we looked at last week, where Jesus is making the call clear to his disciples. And he says, lose your life. Take it across, deny yourself. Lose your life to save your life. A very kind of a stark call. In all three calls, I wanna point out kind of a, maybe some commonalities. In all three calls, there is a call to take on a burden. In all three, when he says, Matthew 11, when he says, come to me, he says, take my burden upon you and learn from me, right? So in other words, Jesus is not just lifting a burden, but we're trading burdens. Jesus' burden's easy. There's still a burden there. In Matthew 14, when he says, you give them something to eat, the burden is pushing us kind of past our comfort zone.

Like, no, no, no, we're not gonna send them away. You're actually gonna feed them, and I'm gonna be kind of, I'm gonna provide that, right? You're more ready than you realize, so get out there. You're gonna do great, right? Just shoves them out. There's a burden. Matthew 16, the burden's pretty easy to see. Take up your cross tonight, yourself, lose your life, right? It is the easiest to see, it's probably the most difficult, yet that we've talked about. But there's not just a burden. There is also a treasure in the middle of it. There's a treasure. Now, I wanna be really clear. It's not a payoff. It's a treasure, and I'll explain the difference, but I wanna look at all three, right? Matthew 11, the treasure is like, I will give you rest. I will give you rest, and it's not a trade. It's more like an outflow of trading burdens, right? So he's not saying, if you do this, then you get this.

Matthew 14, we see provision, the treasure, that we see the provision happen from Jesus as we serve, as we kind of say, okay, I guess I'm serving now. Jesus provides in the midst of that. That's kind of our treasure. And then in Matthew 16, the treasure is that we receive this all-fulfilling life, as we lose our life, that we save our life, and that's kind of woven in, woven together, and it's not a reward for doing something right. It is a treasure inside of the call. Let me explain the difference. My wife, who is now with grade school, my wife's attention and affection is a treasure that is inherent in our marriage. Let me say that again. Her attention to me and her affection toward me, right? That is a treasure in my marriage. That is a thing that I can enjoy. It is not a reward for me being a good boy, okay? See the difference now? It's pretty big. It's not a reward for me doing what I'm supposed to do

because real life, real love, real marriage is not transactional. It's not. It just isn't. And if it is, it's something a little less than love. It's serving and treasuring. It's taking the burden and then just kind of enjoying the benefits therein. And so whenever Jesus is calling us, there is a burden and there is a treasure, but it is not a transaction, right? It is following Jesus then is more than just like this simple trade. It's finding that he is our treasure. It's finding that he is enough, right? As we cross from death to life, this process does involve sacrifice, but there's a burden in it, but there's also a treasure. So today we're gonna look at the last call that we're gonna be talking about. It's also Jesus' last call in the book of Matthew. It's at the very end. Matthew 28 is the last chapter. And then verses 19 and 20 are the last verses in the last chapter of Matthew, it's the very end.

And here's the call. It says, Matthew 28, 19 and 20. It says, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Okay? So this is the call, and I wanna start kinda with the call itself, and then I wanna dig into it, but then I wanna move into some of the context around it. Okay? For some of you, if you've been going to church a lot, a long time, if you've been raising church, this might be super familiar to you, if not, that's fine. I want to, I really wanna dig into it and kinda see what it's saying. And so I just wanna break it down. First it says go, right? Jesus is sending followers to people. This is why we use the term following Jesus so often in our church is because when Jesus calls people

out, it actually is doing what he's doing. It's doing what he commanded, and so Jesus was sent to us. Jesus is sending his followers to people. Okay? This is kinda what this is. Jesus' disciples imitate their master. And then he says go and disciple. Go and disciple people. Now I'm gonna make a point of contention right here, and normally I don't do this because sometimes if you just do this too much or you just get a little too granular, then people start not trusting their translation of the Bible and everything gets a little weird. However, today I wanna make an exception. Today's exception's gonna be that I don't believe the word make disciples, and that's actually one word in the original language. I don't believe that's a super great way to say it, actually. I would rather just say go and disciple people. Go therefore and disciple all nations, okay? Making disciples, that make right there is a little bit odd.

It kinda sticks out like a sore thumb when you're looking at it. And I realize, I know, like every translation has make disciples, every single one. I know, I've checked. They all have make disciples. But if we use the word disciple as a verb, to disciple people, if we use that as a verb, it's really a lot more in line with what Jesus is saying here in Matthew 28 and really other places in scripture, it's really more in line. And the reason I wanna kinda make a point about this is because it's confusing in two ways, okay? So follow me here on just a second. When you make something, okay? You make a decision. You make cookies. You make waves. You make conversation. You make a lot of things, right? When you make those things,

and you should have this impression, it gives you the impression that you are in control of that thing that you're making, right? You make cookies. You're making cookies. Like it's because you wanted to make cookies and it's kinda this act of your will and you're in control, right? Making conversation, making decisions, making waves. It's something that we're in control of, but when you are making disciples, it's not like making cookies, right? It's not the same process, even though it's worded the same way, it's confusing. So make disciples then is confusing because it's not something that we control. The other point of confusion is that when you do make cookies or conversation or waves or something, then you are dealing with finished products, right? If you're gonna make cookies, gotta play the cookies. If you're gonna make conversation, you got a conversation going on.

Like if you're making something, then you have a finished product. However, we do not make disciples and Jesus did not intend on that whenever he was speaking it here in Matthew 20, 19, 20. He's not really speaking in terms of like finished products like we kind of think of it. And so if somebody would ask you like, hey, how many disciples did you make this year? I mean, if somebody asked me that question, I'd be like, I don't, I'm not sure. I don't really know how to answer that question because making disciples is not like making cookies. It's different, right? And so when I quote Matthew 20, 19, 20, and it's very often called the Great Commission, Great Commission, what I'm going to do, and I'm just gonna do this until you guys are sick of it, and then I'm gonna keep doing it, go therefore and disciple all nations.

That our call is to disciple people, right? And it has a different, it just has a different tone than making disciples. Because it's not about a process you control, and it's not about a finished product. It's a different endeavor than that. People do become disciples. Yes, of course, indeed. I mean, we wouldn't be here if that weren't true. However, our part in that process

is a little bit more indirect than making disciples makes it sound. So again, I'm making an exception. I think it's a pretty important exception to make because it's more than just changing the wording for me. It's about unlocking what it truly means to disciple people. So whenever we say as a church, like, hey, our church, we are about discipling people in Jesus' name.

I want that to mean something else than making cookies or making something in terms of a process that we control and in terms of finished products. So if making disciples is not about that, it's not about control, it's not about finished products, then what is it about? What does Jesus mean? If he doesn't mean make cookies, right? If he doesn't mean make disciples, make cookies, then what does he mean? What is here? So we're gonna explore that. We're gonna take our cues from the rest of the passage and then from Jesus' own method.

So we go back to the verses, Matthew 20, 19, 20. It's go and disciple, right? So go, therefore, and disciple all nations. And then he gives us kind of two ways to do that. The first one is in the middle of 19, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. So discipling people means, from these verses we can tell, it means that you are praying, you are working for, you are hoping for a time when somebody that you're discipling, when somebody comes to the moment and they say, yeah, I wanna follow Jesus. I wanna declare that publicly. That's what baptism is. Baptism is a public declaration that you love Jesus, that you wanna follow him. It doesn't mean you're gonna be perfect. It just means that you're saying, yes, I'm making a conscious decision to follow the Lord and I want my church body, I want anybody to know about it. And that's what it is.

So when we disciple people then baptizing them or kind of working toward a goal of them saying, yes, I wanna follow Jesus is in view. It's part of that process. And then the next part is in verse 20. So teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold, I am with you always at the end of the age. So we go and disciple people by teaching them to obey. Now that's not just teaching them all I've commanded you. In other words, it's not information transfer. It's not like I can disciple somebody by giving them a list of everything Jesus commanded us. Say, here, memorize this. It's gonna be great. That's not what it is to disciple people. To disciple people is to teach them to obey all that Jesus commanded. Well, what's the difference? Well, the difference would be that if I'm showing somebody how to obey something, then I have to demonstrate that.

I have to model that. I have to say something like, hey, here's how Jesus taught us to pray and let me pray out loud for you to understand what I mean. Here's what it is to read scripture. Let me read scripture with you and ask some specific questions so that you can learn how to read scripture and ask specific questions, how to study scripture. This is how Jesus did it.

Disciples means that you are teaching them as they follow you following Jesus. I'm gonna say it one more time. Disciples then is teaching people as they follow you as you follow Jesus. This is discipling. So when Jesus commands, Jesus commands us, commune with me in prayer. And then he says, this is how Jesus discipled people. This is how Jesus discipled the disciples. So when he says to them, hey, you need to pray, then what does he do? He says, hey, this is how you pray. This is how you do these things. Jesus said Jesus was teaching the gospel truth to them and then he was showing them what he meant. And so he would say the gospel is that God is bringing people to salvation. So and then what did he do? Jesus healed people, right? He kind of showed them what that was like. And then he told the disciples, now you go and you heal people. You proclaim the kingdom.

The gospel says that God is our father and Jesus spoke to the father that way and then he taught the disciples how to speak to the father that way. The gospel says that God hates empty religion and then Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and then he rebuked the disciples, right? Jesus taught them that the gospel says that the first will be last and then he showed them by washing their feet and then he told them to do the same thing to each other. Do you see this genius here? Do you see what Jesus is doing? He's commanding things, he's demonstrating things and then he's saying go do it, just like I did it. You do it. Because in the end Jesus says to save your life you gotta lose it and then what does he do? He dies on a cross.

And then he tells his disciples, in this world you will have trouble. But I've overcome the world. And Jesus did all this, kind of demonstrated this, he did all this with explorers. Now let me tell you what an explorer is. It's just a word that we're using to describe people that are kind of searching for Jesus. They're interested, they're being called by him. They haven't said yes to the Lord yet but they're just kind of kicking the tires. They're just trying to figure it out, it's fine. Let's go, we've all hopefully been there in that, we've been in that position before. But whenever Jesus is discipling people, he's discipling people who aren't yet born again believers.

Now you're thinking to yourself wait, no he discipled the disciples, correct. So when did the disciples become born again believers? It's kind of a weird question. Were the disciples born again? Were they Christians, like we conceive of them? Like right whenever they started following, like when Jesus said follow me and they dropped their nets and followed him, were they born again at that point? I don't know. What about in the middle? We just read about the middle, whenever Peter said like you're the Christ, the son of the living God. But then as soon as Jesus is starting to talk about the cross, Peter's like no, no, no. So Peter really has no idea like what the cross is about. So how is, do you think he's a born again believer at that point? I mean it's doubtful. What about near the end?

Do they get it near the end? Do they get it at Pentecost? We don't really know to be perfectly honest with you. Like we don't really know when the disciples became like born again believers, okay. But here's my point. My point is not to say that we should have some moment in time where we can pinpoint when the disciples became born again believers. That's not my point. My point is that Jesus discipled these people who did not quite grasp the gospel. And he did it for years. He discipled the disciples and many other people for years while they were coming to grips with the fact that this is the son of God. He has to suffer and die. This is how I'm, you know, this is how I'm given access to God in a new way. This is how I have a relationship with God the Father myself, okay. They couldn't articulate that. They didn't understand that at the beginning. I don't know if they understood it at the middle

and I'm not clear if they even understood it near the end. But what I am clear on is that whenever Jesus is discipling people, Jesus is not waiting for people who get it. He's not waiting for people that have been to a church service once. He's not waiting for people to say like, I am, like I understand everything it is to follow the Lord or I've made a decision or anything like that. He is discipling people right where they are. And they're interested and some stick around and Jesus invests in those people that stick around. And it is so simple. It is so simple. This is Jesus's call just in real simple terms. Disciple people just like I showed you. Just like I did with you. I want you to disciple people just like I discipled you. When you didn't get it, I stuck around. When you didn't understand, I told you what that teaching meant. When you still didn't get it, I repeated myself.

When you didn't understand exactly what prayer was, I prayed and showed you and then I taught you. This is what Jesus is doing with people that don't get it. In your life, our call as a church is to disciple people that don't get it. And to have the humility to say that we hadn't figured it out loud either. It's kind of what we mean when we're talking about we're all in process. So this is, whenever you're saying, disciple people just like I showed you, don't get confused with Megan disciples. It's not something that you control. This is not about finished product. This is where some church talk can really get in the way. This is where some church talk can really get in the way. Because we talk about evangelism and discipleship.

We talk about evangelism and discipleship. We talk about evangelism in terms of presenting information to people in a specific way. Passionately, because we love them, I'm not trying to make evangelism sound bad, it's not. But we think about it in those limited terms, right? That we are presenting information to people about the gospel. And if they say yes to following Jesus, then discipleship is how they grow. So we kind of have this, it's almost like this line of it's evangelism until they say yes and then it's discipleship. And I understand kind of where that comes from, I get it. I don't really see that hard division in Jesus's call or in Jesus's ministry. What I see in Jesus's ministry is Jesus saying, I'm gonna disciple these people. And that's going to involve a few things. Let's break it down, okay? To put it more in line with how Jesus discipled people,

we need to understand that evangelism is a part of discipleship. It's a part of discipling people. If we're gonna disciple people, it's going to involve evangelism. But it's not the whole of it, okay? So let me just illustrate this, right? Because this is kind of the best way, I think, to understand it. That Jesus taught the gospel and the kingdom to people. He taught people these things. He proclaimed these things. And people were interested in this. And then he would say, follow me. And then some people follow him. But then, Jesus continues to evangelize them all over the place, many, many, many places over. How does he do that? How does he do that? With the disciples, he never stops teaching the gospel, demonstrating its power, and then calling them out. He never stops doing that.

Even with the disciples, I mean, go back and read. It's all over the book of Matthew. He continues, Jesus continues to make the gospel clear. He continues to demonstrate the power of the gospel. And he continues to call people out to a decision to follow him. Same people. It's not like he did it once with the disciples and be like, okay, good, you're in, get in the back. Now let's go do this with other people. It's that he was doing this over and over and over and over with different people. And what is he doing? Jesus is teaching them to obey all that he commanded. Jesus is fulfilling or demonstrating the great commission. He's demonstrating Matthew 28, 19, and 20. He with the disciples is teaching them to obey all that he has commanded. And he does it over and over and over in big ways, in small ways, in private ways, in public ways, but he continues to do it over and over and over again.

Let me give you an example from just your life here, okay? You meet someone, okay? I'm gonna draw this out in the most general terms possible. You meet somebody, okay? This is what discipling is, okay? You meet somebody and maybe you meet them once, maybe you meet them several times. You teach them the gospel, okay? You teach them the gospel. Maybe it's a one minute thing, maybe it's several times over, maybe your testimony's part of it, but you teach them the gospel. Then you demonstrate its power. Now that's the spirit's job, right? But you're kinda there, you're praying for it, you're waiting for it, you're demonstrating the spirit's power. And then you show them there is a call for a decision of some kind. Congratulations, you're discipling somebody. You're doing exactly what Jesus commanded you to do in Matthew 28, 19, and 20. Here's the short way to do that.

Here's like the quick way. And this is completely valid, it's just the quick way. So you meet somebody, you knock on an explorer's door. Just knock on a door. Maybe it's a random door, maybe you know the person, but you knock on their door, right? You meet them. And you teach them the gospel. Maybe it's a very simple kind of gospel. It's like maybe you do three circles and you're just trying to, it's like a two minute, maybe less presentation on what the gospel is. And maybe, maybe you try to demonstrate that with like your testimony. You demonstrate the spirit's power with your testimony. But still, that's the spirit's job. Spirit's convicting, right? And at the end, you say Jesus desires. You to follow him today, okay? Now you might say to me, Caperton, that's evangelism.

And I would say, yeah, it sure is. But it's also the first step in discipling someone. You might say, that's evangelism, and I would say, yeah, fine, I don't disagree with that. But that is the first step in discipling someone. Here's another way to disciple someone. This is the long way. Let's say you join a knitting circle. Okay, I know some of you knit, it's okay. You don't have to be ashamed. Some of you knit. You join a knitting circle with explorers, with people that don't know the Lord, right? You've joined that knitting circle and you've done it because you wanna meet people that don't know the Lord. You wanna meet explorers, okay? You don't know who you're gonna meet, but you're kinda going and you're praying. And within the first few weeks of joining that knitting circle, you are sharing the gospel in different ways. You don't wanna wait too long. You're not coming in like blasting the doors down,

but you're not waiting forever. You're sharing the gospel. And as you do, maybe you're sharing your testimony and that's leading into gospel conversations, right? In this knitting circle, maybe you're offering clarity. Maybe they're asking questions and you're giving answers, right? But you're talking about the things of the Lord. You're testifying what the Lord is doing. And there's also a demonstration of power, right? You're open about the things that you've been praying for. Jesus has been faithful to you. You're just sharing about how he's done that. And you are praying for the Spirit to move in their heart, right? You know that a demonstration of God's power is something that only the Spirit can do. And so that drives you to your knees. So you're in this knitting circle. You're making the gospel clear. You are praying for these people that don't know the Lord to know the Lord, right?

And you are also making a decision clear. You are showing your desire to see them know and love Jesus, to experience freedom and hope in Jesus. Okay? Congratulations, you're discipling someone, right? Both of them are the same. Maybe put it a different way. The only difference between the disciples and the woman at the well, okay? Woman at the well, Jesus met her one time exactly. She had the gospel with her, demonstrated its power because he knew how many husbands she had.

And then he called her to a decision. She made a decision, she goes to her village, and she tells people about Jesus, okay? The only difference between the disciples who spent two plus years with him and the woman at the well was that the disciples stuck around longer. That's it. Jesus' method is the same. He's discipling both, right? He's discipling the disciples and he's discipling the woman at the well. But the woman at the well was a one-off and the disciples was two and a half years in. Both of them are the same. Evangelism is part of what we do. But if it's all we ever do, then we might need to adjust our perspective. Because Jesus' call is not to go therefore and evangelize the nations. Jesus' call is to go therefore and disciple all the nations. And I know it just sounds like I'm playing word games and I'm not. I'm trying to help you understand that Jesus,

Jesus' ministry to people that weren't quite sure about him and the way that we think about it are probably a little different. And if we're gonna come in line together, if we're gonna understand Jesus' call, if we're gonna internalize that call, then we need to understand that the way that we may be conceived of evangelism and how it's different than discipleship is a lot more of how we have constructed to think about it than how Jesus is talking about it and how Jesus is demonstrating it and doing it.

And so as you go and disciple people by teaching and calling at some point, and this is the really good news, at some point as you're faithful to do that, as you're meeting people, as you're praying for the demonstration of the power of God, as you're making the gospel clear, at some point, at some point, Jesus is gonna reveal himself personally in a huge way to that person. You don't control that, you don't know that, there's no lever you can pull for that, but you are praying for that to happen because when that happens, they're made new. When that happens, they wanna stick their hand up and say, I wanna follow Jesus. That can only happen, that doesn't happen through coercion, that doesn't happen through religion, that doesn't happen because you just happen to be in a church building. It happens when the Lord Jesus Christ reveals himself to you in a way that is so significant

that you are undone and you're like, yes, you are Lord of all. You're saying that personally when you do that, when somebody does that, it is the Spirit of God working in them. And so here's my challenge to you, I want you to think about it in these terms. I want you today, now, as you go to the grocery store, I want you to begin discipling the people that are already around you. I want you to think about who's around you right now. And you might say to me, Drew, that's a bunch of Christians. I'm like, okay, well, first of all, you never know. Second of all, even if they are, it's a good habit to get into, right? Making the gospel clear is a good habit to get into. Sharing your testimony, giving glory to Jesus for what he's doing in your life is a good habit to get into, right? Praying for people to see and savor the Lord Jesus Christ in a way that brings healing and salvation and eternal life

is a good habit to get into, amen? Yeah, it's a good habit to get into. Clarifying the decision to obey Jesus or not obey Jesus, that's a good habit to get into. You might say, I don't know where to start, man. I don't know what else to tell you other than start. I got some application a little bit later, but I want you to just feel that call. Because that's not the call for pastors and missionaries. I didn't just read the special part of the Bible that's only for people that have been walking with Jesus for 35 years, okay? That Jesus was calling disciples, and we'll see in just a minute, disciples who did not feel ready for this.

And I'm gonna show you that they didn't feel ready. I wanna say one more thing about the context of this passage. Look at the two verses, three verses before that. Look at Matthew 28, 16 through 17. This is the approach. This is right before Jesus gives the call to disciple, okay? Says, now the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them, and when they saw him, they worshiped him. But some, what? Doubt it. Boy, that's a sore thumb, isn't it? Jesus is about to, he's about to commission them to go to the nations. Go to the nations and disciple people.

And what are they doing? Doubting. Says some were doubting. It's interesting, these guys saw Jesus rise from the dead. There's some hanging on a cross, okay? Pretty clear, I mean, they can't understand. This guy's the son of God. But they're still doubting a little bit. And look at Jesus's reaction to their doubt. This is beautiful. Look at the next verse, verse 18. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. That's it. That's his whole reaction. A lot of times we read that as like a lead-in to the great commission, but that's also his reaction to them doubting. Some doubted, Jesus came. This is an answer to the disciples' doubting. And I wanna prove it to y'all. I wanna show you two other places where they are doubting the resurrected Lord. They are doubting the fact that Jesus is the Christ. There's two big places I wanna show you.

One is in Luke 24, 38 through 39. And he's appearing to the disciples. He has just risen from the dead. He's appearing to the disciples and he said to them, why are you troubled and why do, what? Say it loud. Doubts, okay, you don't need to be afraid to say the word. Why do doubts arise in your hearts? And here's his answer. See my hands and my feet that I desire myself. And then later he's like, hey, is there some fish over there? Can I have it? And just starts to eat in front of them. Why? Because he was hungry? No, because he was demonstrating the fact that they didn't need to doubt. But he wasn't sitting there clutching the pearls, wondering why they were so faithless as to just doubt him. He wasn't taking offense. He wasn't worried about their doubt. Also we read, this is two weeks ago now, Matthew 14, 31, where Jesus is walking on water, Peter wants to get on walk with him,

Peter begins to sink and then Jesus says, oh you of a little faith, why did you? Doubt, why did you doubt? But he's not backhanding Peter after that moment in time. He's not shaming him. He's calling it out but he's not, Jesus, his feelings aren't hurt. I hope this is a very strange testimony but I'll share it anyway. I had this moment this season in my life and this is like late teens, early 20s and I don't remember the exact age or anything. But I just kind of went through this season of doubt where I was like, is this just all made up? Is this all, right, I'm just asking those questions. Is this just something I was taught as a kid or is this real or anything like that? I kind of moved through some pretty big questions and I remember I began to be afraid. I began to be afraid that my, I began to be afraid that my doubts were leading to something real. And I was just kind of stuck in that and I took a shower

and I don't know if this is true for you but man, in the shower for me, my mind just opens up. I just get real clear. I don't know, maybe that's only me. Okay, it'll be only me. And when I had that, I kind of went in the shower I was thinking that and I remember the Lord just like, not audibly but I just felt like the Lord was telling me in that moment, it's like, hey, what do you think I'm gonna break? You think your doubts gonna hurt my feelings? You think somehow like I'm worried about not existing anymore because you're unsure?

And from that day on, my doubts dissipated pretty consistently to where I'm just not really dealing with that anymore. So often, right, whenever we have serious doubts and they can be pervasive, they can be intrusive and they can kind of come and go. Like sometimes you have a, sometimes you're like riding high and sometimes you get some real big bad doubts and it's bad but it's only when you are not free to deal with it that the enemy weaponizes it. Let me say it again. It's only when in your doubt that you wanna hide and you wanna not admit this, you wanna not be free to deal with this, you wanna not be able to confess it, you wanna make sure that you like squash it down so that nobody even wonders if you're doubting. Okay, whenever you do that, that's when the enemy's gonna weaponize it. My encouragement, speak your doubt openly as a confession to the Lord.

Because here's the trick, here's the end around. When you confess to the Lord, the Lord says that he blesses confession. The Lord says that he loves a contrite heart. The Lord says he loves a broken spirit. That somebody who comes to him and says, Lord, I don't know what to do. I have all these doubts and I'm just kind of freaking out. The Lord says, no, that's good. You need to tell me that. There's a father in the New Testament, I don't remember the verse or chapter anymore. There's a father with a son who's demon possessed. And Jesus says, do you believe? And the dad answers, like I believe. Help me with my unbelief. I just say amen to that. Yes, and amen. I believe, help me with my unbelief. So often we worry about our own doubts and sometimes our problem isn't that we're doubting, it's actually how we're handling our doubt.

When we wanna try to hide it, it's bad. When we hold it in, it turns into a suspicion that no one can argue us out of. Because we hide it, we hide it. And so maybe it's just to say it this way, that practically, practically, everybody begins discipling people as they are in the middle of overcoming doubt. Practically, everybody begins discipling people as they are in the middle of overcoming doubt, not after the doubt is completely gone and they're totally sure of themselves and they totally know everything they're gonna say. And they're jumping in the knitting circle and they're like, this is gonna be awesome. Everything's gonna go right. I'm gonna know exactly what to say. I got all the confidence in the world and we're climbing up the stairs in Philadelphia and we're doing this number. We think we have to be totally ready. We think we gotta be rocky, ready to take on the world

before we join the knitting club. But that's not true. That's not true. I don't care how many videos you see of that on YouTube. It's fake, it's not true. The reality is most people, when they begin discipling, come in fear and trembling and they think they're gonna screw it up, they think they're definitely gonna say something wrong and they're gonna send somebody to hell. They're worried about all those things. That's normal. That's not deviant. That's completely normal. I was talking with Daniel Sutor. Daniel Sutor is, actually we were talking about this sermon and I just wanted to kind of run some ideas by him. And he was saying like, oh yeah, I mean the first, man, more than just the first couple of times, you go through whole seasons where you're just like, I'm just, I don't know if this is gonna be okay. I don't know how this is gonna go. Look, Suter is sharing the gospel very often.

Suter is just talking to people. Caroline also, you guys are just killing it. It's great. But you guys get nervous all the time. All the time, right? And I was praying for you this weekend because you were just like, I don't know how it's gonna go Saturday. It's gonna be terrible. So I'm just unsure. Listen, listen. Nobody's sure. Nobody comes with zero doubts. The disciples on the mountain before they receive the great commission or doubting, we're in good company. Practically everybody does that. And look, isn't that how life works, right? The encouragement, the thing that like gives you relief, it only happens after you act. It's not given to you before you do something. It's after you take the leap and you look back. After you take the leap and you look back, it's like, oh, that wasn't so hard. I don't know what else to worry about. That's how life goes. You've experienced something like that.

I'm positive. Because that's the way life goes. My encouragement, look, this discipling life is what Jesus is calling each of us toward. We talked about this last week. That Jesus isn't just calling us to something vague or calling us to kind of like be better people or something like that. Jesus is calling us into a life where we are discipling people and the treasure inherent in that is unspeakably good. The burden that Jesus calls us toward is to disciple the people that are around us. But the treasure inherent in it,

man, it runs laps around. Any doubt or fear that you have. The joy in it. Man, there's nothing more thrilling than being able to share your story with somebody who doesn't know the Lord. I don't know if you've ever had that thought or that thought, that experience or that feeling. But man, I'm not just peddling feelings up here, but it feels good. There's joy in it. You could be having a terrible day and then you go show the gospel to somebody. Drew, I was giving you a yes. You see that nod? Give me a big nod, Drew. Yes, because you have felt that joy, brother, and it is good. And you want other people to feel that joy, don't you? Listen, the call to disciple people is not just waiting on the highest shelf for you to wait to grow up so that you can reach it and maybe try to be okay at it. The call to disciple is inherent in following Jesus period. Jesus did not die and rise

so that we could sit on pews or in a chair on a Sunday. He came to give us life and give it to the full. He came to us to invite us into this discipling life. So let's put it all together. Our call is to go and disciple. We're talking about meeting people. We're talking about making the gospel clear. Talking about demonstrations of power. We are praying for those demonstrations of power. And then we are clarifying the decision to follow Him. We are calling for that decision. And here's my hunch. I don't know this, but here's my hunch. 90% of you are stuck on the first one.

How do we meet people that don't know the Lord? Maybe some of you do. Maybe some of you know a lot of people that don't know the Lord, I don't know. But the problem I have, I've seen, at least, in Burleson, Texas, is that everybody that you know kind of claims Christ, right? At least most, most people that you know claim Christ. So here's what I want, here's what I wanna do. I wanna give you a starting point, okay? I wanna give you a starting point. On our website, you can go to this point in our website, southburleson.church slash discipling, okay?

The resource that we've put together for you is different starting points that are based on your personality type. Now I know personality typing is a fallen thing. Like it's part of modern psychology, et cetera, et cetera, it's fine. It's just a way for you to figure out how God wired you, okay? If you wanna use different language for it, fine. I don't care. But when you can identify kind of how the Lord has made you, here's my encouragement to you, that Jesus made each of us specifically with the ability to disciple people in a way that is unique to us, okay? So whenever we're talking about discipling people, there's a way that, first of all, there are hundreds, hundreds of ways to disciple people. Probably more than that, I'm probably underrating it. But you are made to connect with people in specific ways and you can identify how you are gifted and you can find specific starting points

for meeting people, okay, based on your personality type. Now some of you are super bombastic. I mean, some of you, any time you're in a room, you're kicking the door down, you know, metaphorically. And you are, you know, people know you're there, okay? You know, like when Aaron Peltier comes into a room and he laughs, okay, you know what I'm talking, you're gonna hear it afterward and you're gonna be like, oh, that was Peltier laughing, okay, sorry to pick on you, buddy. But you definitely have that laugh, I love it. Some of you, though, are super shy. Some of you, like, man, if you laugh at all in public, you're gonna make sure it's like really quiet and like to yourself. Like you're super shy, you're not bombastic, you're not kind of out there in front of everybody that you're really shy. No matter how you're made, you are fundamentally made to connect with people

to share the gospel, to disciple people. It's only the settings that change, okay? It's only the settings that change. So some of you are made to, I mean, some of you, you got the thickest skin in the world, God bless you. You can knock on a door and you can say, do you wanna hear about the Lord Jesus? And they could say no and slam the door on their face. And really, you're pretty, you're fine. You're just going to the next door, okay? I'm looking at you, Ivy. You're just going to the next door, right? You're not really that worried that they slam the door on your face, you're just like, okay, not it. Okay, next door, okay, we're gonna try that, okay? Some of you are built for that, that's awesome, okay? Most of you are not built for that. You're not built for that. For some of you, you are built for a knitting circle. You are built for peer mentoring at work.

You are built for a Bible study that you're a part of where there's kind of like some rules and everybody kind of knows their role. For some of you, you are made to do it to disciple people but you need a group of people kind of doing something with you and some of you are made to collect those people, right? For some of you, for example, if you are ESFP, okay? That's one of the personality types. It's called the entertainer, okay? If you are ESFP, if you're an entertainer, you are made to gather people and connect people over passions, shared interests. That thing, that excites you. Like the three or four of you that are entertainers in here that are ESFPs or even close, you're like, yeah, I could really get around that. I could really do that. And for some of you, you're like, that's very far from what I wanna do. Here's my encouragement. Go to that website and find your personality type.

If you need to take the assessment, it's also on that link. You can take the assessment first. It's about a 25, 35 minute assessment. And look, there's nothing magic about it, right? It's not like some perfect roadmap or something, but it's a way to get you thinking about how you can disciple people, how you're made to disciple people. Because we're not all made to be on the street corner with the sandwich board sign. The end is nigh with a megaphone preaching the gospel. Some of us are. I got some good friends that are street preachers, man. And they see awesome fruit. It's great. But not everybody's built that way, and that's okay. Like, we can kinda celebrate that diversity in our church. The Bible talks about how we're all uniquely gifted. We need to honor that. We need to see that. We need to recognize that. And we need to encourage you to disciple in ways that the Lord has made you.

And yes, it's still gonna be a risk. It's still gonna push you beyond your comfort zone. But it's a place to start. It's a place to begin to see God being faithful as you're meeting people. Jesus sends us to people the same way that He came and made disciples. He discipled people. It's the same way He's calling us to go in and disciple people. And I don't care if you are 10 years old or if you're 99 years old. He has made you a specific way to do it. My encouragement, man, go find it. Go figure that out.

So you can get on that website and find it. We also have a few paper copies out on the family table which is kinda out and to your left. You'll see it. It's gonna say starting points for discipling is the actual sheet out there. So look, I give you this resource and I'm pushing you toward that because I want you to begin to see what it looks like in your own life, in your own work schedule, in your own family dynamic. I want you to see what that looks like. I wanna push you to do that. And the only way I know to do that is just to give you resource and go, hey, go look at it. Go read it. Look at your personality type. And if you're just really skeptical or confused or you don't know your personality type, you can talk to me, it's fine. I'll kinda help you navigate that however you want. But just make no mistake, man, Jesus is calling all of us to disciple people.

And if we can get our hands around that, whether that's knocking on doors or knitting, it's a method that Jesus wants to bless. Jesus wants to grow you in the midst of that. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this moment, this morning, this call that you've given us. Thank you for the way that you kinda call us out of complacency. You kinda call us out of just a routine of just attending things or just this ultra private faith that we have

that you don't want it to remain there, that you want us to share it. And you want us to share it in ways that you've gifted and made us. Lord, help us to figure that out. Help us to take a couple of first steps on that journey. Help us to consider the people that are around us even now in our lives. I pray that you put certain people on our hearts that we begin to pray. We begin to see those people ask questions about you. We begin to have conversations with those people. We begin to share a testimony of those people. Well, we love you and we thank you. And it's your name that we pray. Thank you.