The Cost of Discipleship

I want to read a passage from, whoa, that's awful, there you go, I want to read a passage of scripture, still a little bit loud, okay, Matthew 28, a very familiar passage beginning with verse 16, if you'd like to find that in your Bibles. This is the end of Jesus' ministry, the end of his life on earth, he's finished up with his teaching with the people around him, and now he's getting ready to leave. The very last thing that Matthew leaves us with is an instruction that Jesus gives. This instruction is for us. He's done all of his work, everything's finished, now he says, now I give this responsibility to you. Here's what he said, when the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go, when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you, and surely I will be with you always to the very end of the age. The demand that Jesus gave for his disciples, his work is all finished, everything he's doing is done, now he says, here, I give you the responsibility. Your task is to go out and make disciples. That's the task of the church, it's the task of all of us. What did Jesus mean by this, by simply saying, make disciples? He says they are to baptize them and teach them everything he's told them to do. How do we do that? Well, I think Jesus is speaking to people who had been through the discipling process. They knew exactly what he'd asked them to do, and the style that Jesus uses is the model for us. How is it that we make disciples? When Jesus started, he went around to the people he'd chosen, and each of them he said, I want you to come and follow me. He asked them plainly, straight forward, I want you to leave your families, I want you to leave your jobs, I want you to leave your friends, and I want you to come and walk with me. None of the people who started with Jesus as disciples got on board without making that kind of promise. The key to disciple making is in this very issue. I want you to let me have complete control and authority over your life. That's what Jesus was saying to them. Now when it comes to us, go and make disciples, this is the key ingredient. What Jesus knew was that the disciples would never get to know who he was or what he believed or what he wanted them to do until they walked around with him, saw him, listened to what he had to say, and understood what they were supposed to do. The key ingredient is, do I have your attention? Are you willing to walk with me, live with me, talk with me, listen to what I have to say, watch my life, learn how I want you to live? You can only do that if you have personal connection with me. So Jesus' requirement for discipleship was to say, yes, I will turn everything in my life over to you. There were many people that Jesus talked to who wanted to be his followers. He always said the same thing. He said the same thing, but he said it in different ways to different people. The same thing he always said is, you must care more about me and the kingdom of God than anything else in your life. Nothing must control you more than me. So when someone came and said, I've listened to what you have to say, I really want to do this, man, I'm ready to go, he looked at him, he knew who he was and what he was like. Rich man, he said, I'll tell you what, you love your money more than anything in the world, and I don't think you're going to love me or God more than that. So here's the test. Sell everything you have, give it away, and then you come and follow me. The rich man didn't want to do that. He was faced with a choice. Am I prepared to do everything God tells me to do or not? I will do most of the things he wants me to do. In fact, he was eager to do it. I'll keep the law, I'll do all those things the scripture says, but I'm not going to do what you've asked me to do, and he went away sad. Jesus asked a man to follow him one time, he said, well, I'd be glad to follow you, but you know, I need to go home and visit my family first. And Jesus said, you know, when someone puts his hand to the plow and starts plowing, you have to look forward. I don't guess any of you guys know about that. Alan just sets a GPS and goes to sleep, and his goes around like he's supposed to, you know. But back in the day, you know, when you had to plow with a horse, you picked out a tree on the other side, and you kept looking at that tree and guiding that horse, because if you looked over to the side, you'd make the row crooked. You can't look backwards and plow, Jesus said. And when I say to you, I want you to follow me, you must leave everything in your life behind you, and you must say, I am going to look only to Jesus. You're not ready to do that, Jesus said. You're not worthy of the kingdom of God. That's hard words. I mean, you can't even go back and tell your family you're going to leave. Not after I've told you, come right now. What Jesus was asking this man was to make a choice. If you start out on this journey with me, is your family going to be able to call you and tell you they've got an emergency and you're going to have to leave me, or are you in here for the long haul? That's what I want to know. Do I really have your life, or do I just have your attention for a little while? The man said to Jesus, you know, I've listened to what you have to say, I really want to follow you. I want all this stuff you're talking about. But my dad, I need to go back and bury him. Now we don't know if his dad was already dead, or if he's near death, or if he had ten years to live before he died, but he said, I feel an obligation to my family, and everyone knows it's my job to be there when my dad dies to help out the family. And Jesus said, you know, there's people in this world that have no spiritual interest, and they're not interested in following me. You let those people with no spiritual interest take care of the material things of this world. What I've asked you to do is to come and follow me. So you've got to make a choice. Is your family going to distract you from what I'm asking you to do? Or do I have first place in your life? I'll tell you, there's a lot of times in which you have a call from God about something you're supposed to do, and you think about the time it's going to take, and all the things it requires, and you think of your family, and you're tempted to say, no, I can't do that. I can't do that, and go to my kids' ball games, and go to the school events, and all these other things. Jesus didn't have much sympathy for that. He said, when I ask you to do something, I expect you to put everything else aside, even your own family. Now remember, he wasn't saying, abandon your family all the time, but when I tell you I want you to do something, don't give me an excuse that your family stands in the way of you doing what I've asked of you. I want you to believe that I'm asking what's best for you. I don't want you to second-guess me with your own choices. I want you to think, if God has asked me to do this, it's best both for me and my family. I'll tell you as a pastor, I've had a lot of times I had to make choices, go to the ball game, or do something that God had asked me to do. I didn't ever want my kids to think for a moment that they were more important to me than God. Not for a minute. I didn't ever want them to think I didn't love them, but I didn't want to give them the idea that I loved them more than God. I didn't ever say, my work demands me not to go with you, I always said, this is what God has asked of me, and it's first. That's what a disciple is. We can't have any shortcuts. It's never on sale. It's tough, and it's hard, and it's demanding. Jesus said to his disciples, once he'd already had them through this training program, he said, I'll tell you, now you're going to go out and you're going to be trying to make disciples and here's the deal. You must deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. Self-denial starts when you say, I'll give up my money if you want me to, I'll put you ahead of my family if you ask me to, I'll put you ahead of my job if you'll ask me to. A lot of people say, well, I'd come to church, but my job, you know, and I know you have to make a living, but if you think God wants you to come to church, he's going to provide a job for you where you can do that. You see, we're so afraid to follow God. Deny yourself, say, okay, I'm not going to take charge of my own life, I'm going to let you do so, and then I want you to do it even though it's dangerous. So a lot of times you do these things, you think, well, I don't know, am I doing the right thing? But if you know for sure what God wants, he'll take care of all the rest of that stuff. Deny yourself and take up your cross. The cross of Jesus Christ was dangerous and deadly, but it was the best thing that ever happened to the world. Following Jesus Christ sometimes is dangerous and it looks scary, but it's the best thing you'll ever do in your life. You've got to decide before you start with me, Jesus said, whether I'm in charge or you're in charge, it can't be both. Two people can't control your life, either God or me or you. That's the way it is, and there is no shortcut. Jesus didn't call the 5,000 that came to hear him his disciples. They were just the people on the hillside. His disciples were the people that said, we're with you for the long haul. It doesn't matter what. Discipleship begins there. We don't have this opportunity to walk with Jesus like he did, but what we're telling people is, unless you make this choice to say, Jesus Christ is in charge of my life, you will never receive the presence of the Holy Spirit. That's what happens to you. Those disciples didn't receive the presence of Jesus unless they left everything behind. We don't receive the presence of the Spirit of God, which came in place of Jesus, until we make that kind of surrender. I'll tell you why the church is weak and powerless. It's filled with people without the power of the Spirit. And why are we filled with the churches without the power of the Spirit? Because we have said, okay, God, I'll get into this deal. Here's my promise. I'll do everything that's convenient. I'll do everything that I want to do. I'll do everything that doesn't interfere with the things in my life that are important to me. Now, I'm on this, this is my deal with you. Jesus will say to you, just like he did to these people, see you later. He didn't run after the rich man. He didn't run after the guy that was going to bury his dad. He knew that you need to make a choice of your own will. You can't do it any other way. And this country was settled. People came from England. They were, wanted to worship God in their own way. And in England, they had to worship in a place, the state church. And they came here and set up a little community and said, everybody ought to go to church. Right. Everybody ought to give. Right. So they passed laws in their town. Everybody has to go to church. And don't you have a fine? And you go to church, you have to pay your tithe, or we'll fine you. First generation, all who'd made this deep dedication to God, found that a great thing. We want to do it. Their kids grew up, and all of a sudden now, they couldn't do anything except what the law made them do. And Christianity was watered down. It's not a matter of making you do this. It's a matter of saying, I love God with all my heart, soul, strength, and mind. And I believe that doing what He tells me is the only way to live. And that's a choice you have to make. You have to make that choice saying, I don't know what's out there in front of me, but I believe that that's the truth. It's the only way I can build my life. The only way I can build a marriage. It's the only way I can raise my kids. It's the only way I can live. Believing to God and doing what He tells me. Everything else is dangerous because it's only something people thought up. That's what it means to trust God. Now I want you to go make disciples, He said, and you begin by saying, give your life completely to God. Seventy-three percent of people in this country claim to be Christians. You think seventy-three percent of this country are Peter and John type people? Isn't true, is it? Seventy-three percent of this people would be 10,000 Peters and Johns and Pauls in great band. Ain't that way. That's what's happened to us. We have the name, but we don't have the character, the presence of people devoted to do whatever God asks of them. So we limp along. Jesus knew, if I'm going to do the job I need to do, I need people who are devoted to do what it takes. So He said to these disciples, now when you go out to make disciples, here's what you do. Don't compromise this. Don't compromise. People come to you and say, well, I want to become a Christian. Don't let them do it unless you make sure they know this is a lifetime deal and there's nothing in your life that can be more important to you than Christ. And then if you do, I'll place my Holy Spirit inside of them and they'll have me living with them 24 hours a day, guiding their thoughts, directing their minds, giving them opportunities when they meet someone that's flustered to know what to do and how to help that person, giving them words when they meet someone who needs to hear about me. I will be with them all the time. Now here's what you do. You teach them to do every single thing I've taught you to do. What Jesus did with His disciples, He wanted 24-7, seven days a week. He wanted them around Him. He wanted them watching Him, listening to Him, because they didn't have the New Testament. He was trying to teach them what the Old Testament was like, really like, not what the Jewish people thought it was, but what He and God really thought it was like. Now He's written that all out for us. We have it in the New Testament. I want you to read this book. I want you to know what it says. I want you to know what it means. Our problem is not information. I tell you, you can buy a Bible, any kind of Bible. You can buy a camouflage Bible. You can buy a tennis Bible. You can buy every kind of Bible in the world, and people have them everywhere. That is not our problem, information. And boy, I tell you, you can do Bible studies, too. You can do a Bible study every night of the week. There are thousands of Bible study books and courses and video things. That's not the problem. The problem that Jesus was pointing to is this. I want you to teach them to obey, obey everything I've commanded you. You can read the Bible for fun and pleasure. W.C. Fields was not a godly man, old-time comedian, drank a lot, immoral in almost every way. Somebody went into his hotel room one time, and he was reading the Bible, and said, W.C., I never thought you'd ever read the Bible. He said, looking for loopholes. You can read the Bible for every kind of thing you want to, but you should only read it to learn how to live, and with a mind to say, I'm going to do everything God tells me to do. I meet a lot of followers, they say, Christians, who sort of made limits for God. Okay, here's what I'm going to do, but I'm not going to do that. I hate to tell you this, but when you're in the kingdom of God, you do what the king tells you. Now, I understand, you know, when you start in this thing, that you don't know exactly what God wants, and you say, okay, God, I'm going to accept you, but I'm not going to pray out loud, and I'm not going to testify in church, and I'm not going to give my money. God understands. If you've devoted your life to him, and you've just started out, and you're a little kid, it's like, you know, you see a little boy, it's about five years old, and you say, hey, someday you're going to love girls, and you're going to want to have one of them, and you're going to chase them around, and they say, ah, I'm not going to do that. You know what's going to happen, when they get twelve years old, and all these things start happening inside of them, girls start looking different, because they've changed. See, what happens to us is you think of yourself, and you say, I can't pray out loud, and you're right, you can't. I don't even want to pray out loud, and you're right, you can't, but when God takes hold of your life, and begins to change you, suddenly one day, God says, I want you to do this, and you want to do it. Alan's story, Alan Crane's story of his life, he started out, and said, okay, here's a long list of stuff I'm not going to do, and God said, thank you for the list. I'm going to change your mind in such a way, so that one day, you'll want to do every one of those, because you're different now, you're not the same old guy you used to be. God knows what we're doing, and He knows what we can do, and He knows what we can't do, but what He needs from us is a passion to say, I want to do everything you tell me to do, and regardless of your list, day after day, He will bring you to the place where you'll want to do the very things you never wanted to do before. You're a disciple. God was never interested in bringing Jesus to the place where He had 100 followers. He wanted 12 good guys who were in this for the long haul. You give me 12 of them, and I'll change the world with them after you're gone, and He did. Sometimes we get sort of caught, and thinking if we had 100 people, or 200 people, or 300 people, it'd be better, but you know, if there's 12 of us, sold out for Christ, we could do unbelievable things. Less than that, we're just fiddling around with religion. What Jesus wanted was disciples, so when we look at our church, we're not interested in how many people we have, or how much money we get, or how much we give, and even Danny Armstrong, but we're interested in disciples. Did you do what God tells you to do? Did you give what God told you to give? That's all we're interested in, and when we have Sunday school class, we're not interested in how much you like it, or how much you don't like it. We're not interested in if you like the material, or you don't like the material. We're interested in whether or not you're learning to live in obedience to Jesus. That's all we care about, because that's our job. He commanded us to make disciples. He didn't say it's a good idea, and maybe if you have time, you can do it. This is our job, taking broken people, and helping them to know how to find life in all of its fullness. That's our job, and Jesus thought, if I can just find a few who are really sold out for this, I can change the world. We had 50 people sold out for Jesus. We can make an impact. One person, Jesus Christ, sold out to his Father, changed the world. Jesus didn't ask us to be Jesus, too. He asked us to be disciples. People had said, okay, you're more important to me than anything in the world. People had said, it doesn't matter what you ask me to do, I'll do it, even if it seems disastrous to me. I'll pay the price. I'll carry the cross, and I will follow you. I will follow in your footsteps. I'm going to pattern my life after you. I will learn what you want me to do. The disciples, totally committed to Christ, prepared to do whatever he wants, reads the Bible and learns it, and practices it, and puts it to practice in their life, until their life becomes shaped into the character and nature of Christ. It's what a disciple does. And what we're interested in, if we're following the Scriptures, is making disciples, being one ourselves, and making them. This is the only job we have. It's what he commanded us to do. There is no option. The other option is to not be a church, or to make disciples. What God starts with is a disciple, you. How much of your life does he have? A little bit? You pick and choose what you want to do? Or do you really sit down at the beginning of the week and say, God, here's all my week. I'll do whatever you want me to do. I'll be in Bible study you want me to be in. I'll go visit my neighbors. I'll do whatever you tell me to do. My calendar has nothing on it but you. Now you tell me what you want, and then I'll fill in the rest of it. Or do you sit down to God and say, well, my calendar is pretty darn full here, you know. I mean, I've got this day with an hour that I could, well, I don't know, might have to do something else. You have to decide if you're going to be a disciple, and if you're a disciple, you will attract others to be a disciple for Christ. When you read Paul's letters, he wasn't very interested in outreach in their churches. He never said, go witness to the people around you. He said, if you live like God wants you to, people will want to be like you. Your kids will want to be like you. Your friends will want to be like you. Your spouse will want to be like you. But if you're not that way, no one's going to be attracted to you. Our great task is to be like Christ, and that will change the world around us. Would you bow your heads, please, for a moment? I want you to ask yourself honestly, have I really made the decision in my life to say to God, I'll follow you no matter what you want me to do? Even if it means doing away with some of the things that are really important to me. Your time, your money, your commitments, does He really have control of those? Or does your own pleasure and your own interest control them? Well, that's the most important thing you'll ever ask yourself. That tells you if you're in or out. If you're in, and He's been telling you some things you want to do, but you're afraid to do it, afraid you'll fail, think you'll look stupid, He's asking you to do something that's carrying your cross. If something comes to your mind when I'm talking about this, you know what it is, I want you to say to God, OK, God, I'm going to do that. I'm scared to death, but I'll do it. I want to ask you if you're reading the Bible every day. That's what He means by following Him, listening, learning. And every time you read it, open it and say, OK, God, tell me something I should do as a result of this. A disciple must walk with God every day, learning. You're not doing that. You need to promise Him, this is what I'm going to do. Would you do that now? If you're not willing to do that, see, He is not in charge. This is serious. Father, you know our hearts and our minds. You set the standard of what a disciple is. We didn't make it up, you did. I ask for all of us that you'd talk to us straightforward, tell us exactly what we need to do. Affirm us, Father, for our faithfulness to you so that we know that we're walking where we need to. If there's any correction or direction, we ask you to tell us right now. In the name of Christ, I ask this. Remain with your heads bowed. I'm going to ask the pianist to play. If God has clearly told you something today, I'm just saying to you, don't turn God off. He's deadly. Whatever you've heard Him say to you, this is the voice of God. If you need to make a promise to God, you can do it right where you're sitting. You may need to share that with me, you may need to share that with a friend. You may need to come forward this morning because you feel that's what God wants you to do. Kathy's here, I'm here. This is a time for God. If you're a disciple, He's talking to you. You do what He tells you. If you're not a disciple, He's talking to you. Come on up. I wasn't going to mention this until next week, but after listening to God's Word today, I feel compelled to say it now, and to say it simply. We need a boy sponsor for children's camp. Kathy Riebel and I are going to be going, and the people at Webster would frown on us if one of us decided to be the boy sponsor and go to the boys' cabin at night. We need a man, a young man, an old man, a grandpa. I don't know who it is. I've talked to several of you and asked you to pray about it. I would just ask you to continue to pray. It's May 26th to the 30th, Monday afternoon at 4 o'clock until Friday around 2. I don't know what's on your calendar, but maybe God wants you to put this on. If so, please talk to me. Please pray about it, and pray for the children at camp. Would you stand, please? We're thankful for.