Learning to Walk with Jesus (Luke 9, Jeff Kliewer)

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ministry for the congregation, but rather that all of the congregation would be ministers.

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The priesthood of all believers. It was an important part of the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation actually began exactly 500 years ago this year.

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Did you realize that? This is the year 2017 and Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses onto the church door in the city of Wittenberg on October 31st, 1517.

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Preaching justification by faith alone, by grace alone, and sola scriptura, the scriptures alone.

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But one of the key tenets of the Protestant Reformation was that there is a priesthood of all believers.

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We are not to look to men of the cloth to bring us to God, but rather we are to relate to God personally, individually, and that every single believer is called to be a minister.

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Every one of us is to do the work of proclaiming Christ and teaching the gospel to our children, to our friends, proclaiming

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Christ. It is the role of the church to minister the gospel, not just priests or bishops or cardinals or popes.

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So this is our job, and if it is our job, then we need to be trained for it, isn't it?

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Important that we learn how to do what we're called to do. So how do we go with Christ into a school of ministry?

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Where would we go to learn how to minister? It's not that we all have to fly off and go to seminary someplace, although for me, when

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I left Tampa area to move to Dallas, I felt like I had to leave everything behind to go study the scriptures and learn at Dallas Theological Seminary.

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That was an important time in my life, a time of training, but isn't it equally important that each one of us would see ourselves as students in Christ's seminary, to learn how to be a disciple?

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How do you follow in the footsteps of Christ, and how do you minister? That's what we learn from Luke chapter 9.

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He will send his disciples out to do the ministry, and he'll tell them, you give them something to eat, when they in themselves can't obey that command.

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So let's learn about it in Luke chapter 9. We are born again into a living hope according to 1st

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Peter. We are new creations, but we are not to remain babies. According to 1st Peter 2, we're to crave for that spiritual milk so that we can grow up into the faith.

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How does a disciple grow in the faith? How can we mature as Christians?

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How can we learn to be ministers of the gospel? Luke chapter 9, verse 1 and following, and he,

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Jesus, called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases.

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And he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God, and to heal.

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And he said to them, take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money, and do not have two tunics.

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And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town, shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.

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And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel, and healing everywhere.

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So this morning we're going to look at seven principles of discipleship.

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Seven things that Jesus does to train us in ministry. So there will be unique things that happen to the disciples that are not repeatable in our lives, and this is one of them.

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But we do learn principles from those things, and it becomes relevant to our lives as we apply them.

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So here Jesus will send out twelve of his twelve apostles to go and cast out demons and to heal people.

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This passage has been called the limited commission, because we're aware at the end of the four

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Gospels we have different versions of the great commission. Matthew 28, 19, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

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Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. That was the great commission, but here we have a limited commission.

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It's a small mission. It's a particular mission, and these twelve apostles are sent to do it, and to come back and finish it.

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Now notice, in verse 3, they are to take nothing for their journey.

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And here is the first principle of being a disciple of Christ. Very often, in order for him to grow us up that we would mature as disciples, he has to strip away some of our security blankets, some of the things that we rely on.

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In verse 3, he tells the disciples, take nothing for your journey. No staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money, and do not have two tunics.

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They don't even have a place to stay arranged for them. They have to go and find a house to live in.

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Someone has to welcome them in, and they will stay there for the time that they're in that particular village, and then they move on.

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This is a daunting task, isn't it? Can you imagine being sent out on a journey like that?

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Take nothing with you. And the point here is that the disciples need to be stripped away from their security blankets, the things that they rely upon.

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In my life, there's been a number of occasions where I felt like God has just stripped me of my security blankets.

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Whether it was playing basketball, and that was my identity, and I break a foot, and I have to stop playing for a season and focus on Him.

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Or whether it was leaving my hometown and everybody I knew to go to a new city, to Dallas of all places.

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I see some people moaning. Not a favorite for Philadelphia Eagle fans.

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Sent to Dallas of all places, being stripped of my security blankets and everything that I knew.

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But that was the first step in growing. The same is true here for the disciples.

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They are not allowed to take anything with them, and they go. Now, verse 7 and following, Herod the Tetrarch heard about all that was happening.

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So amazing things are happening. And he was perplexed because it was said by some that John had been raised from the dead.

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By some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the prophets of old had risen.

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Herod said, John I beheaded, but who is this about whom I hear such things?

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And he sought to see him. So it's almost like a flash to a different scene. Herod in his palace, the king, is hearing stories about all that these

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Christians, at this time they're not yet called Christians, but the followers of Christ are out doing. And this movement is growing, and all

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Israel is taking notice. And the question on everybody's lips is this, who is this

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Jesus? That was the question in Luke chapter 8, and that question will come up again in a minute.

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But flashback now to the return of the Apostles, verse 10 and following. On their return, the

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Apostles told him all that they had done. And he took them and withdrew apart to a town called

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Bethsaida. When the crowds learned it, they followed him and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing.

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Now the day began to wear away, and the twelve came and said to him, send the crowd away into the surrounding villages and countrysides to find lodging and get provisions, for we are here in a desolate place.

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But Jesus said to them, mark this well, you give them something to eat.

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And here is the second principle of growing as a disciple. Jesus will tell you to do what only he can do.

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A year ago when I was given this pulpit to preach from, I don't know if you guys realize this, but I was having heart palpitations.

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Literally, I'd never had that before in my life, especially in January when I was kind of auditioning, you know, for the position.

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I was nervous, and what was going on in me, I was saying, God, how can I feed people a spiritual food?

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How can I minister to someone's heart? I don't know their needs.

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I don't know what a person needs to hear. How can I have something to say? And here's what he said to me, you give them something to eat.

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And I realized I can't. He's telling me to do something that I cannot do. And yet let's read the story.

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Because the provider stands behind us. And while he calls us to do something that we can't do, he will do it through us.

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Growing in Christ means learning to rely on the Holy Spirit active in your life.

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It means trusting him to do what only he can do. See what happens now. Verse 13, he says, you give them something to eat.

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They said, we have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we're to go and buy food for all these people.

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For there were about 5 ,000 men, which is probably 20 ,000 people when you count women and children.

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And he said to his disciples, have them sit down in groups of about 50 each.

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And they did so. And had them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them.

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Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And they all ate and were satisfied.

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And what was left over was picked up, 12 baskets of broken pieces.

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This is the only miracle in the four Gospels that's repeated by each of the four

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Gospel authors, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Each one record this miracle.

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I ask the question, why? I think because it's such an interesting story, but also it says something about our

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God as our provider, and the one on whom we need to rely all the time.

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If you're a Christian, you're a disciple. If you're a disciple, that means you're a follower of Jesus.

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You need to learn to grow in that discipleship. And here is the key, that we learn not to depend on ourselves, but to depend on the provider.

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To trust him to do what only he can do. Sometimes that means being stripped of our security blankets and stepping out into a ministry to do something that you know that you cannot do.

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Peter knew he could not walk on water, and yet Jesus said step out of the boat.

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And when he stepped out, Jesus, the provider, gave him the ability to walk on water.

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You have a ministry to which you are called, you just might not know it yet. Some of you, many of you do, which is why this church thrived for two years without a pastor, because so many of you knew your ministry and you were already walking in that, teaching and encouraging, shepherding.

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The body of Christ is strong when each person is relying on Christ and stepping out in faith.

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Maybe God is calling you to do something, to step out in faith, and you think

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I can't do it. That's precisely the time to go.

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When you recognize that he's saying you give them something to eat and you can't, this is when his power will be revealed in you.

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Let's keep moving on. 18 and following. Here's the third principle. As a disciple, first of all, he's going to strip us of our security blankets and he's going to tell us to do something we can't do on our own.

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But third, as we grow as disciples, he is going to reveal more and more of himself to us.

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It doesn't feel good to be stripped of our security blankets, and it's scary to step out in faith.

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But when you begin to catch glimpses of who he is, and your eyes begin to open to the person and work of Jesus Christ, he'll capture you with his glory.

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Maybe you've seen a glimpse of Jesus and that was enough for you to love him.

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But the more you look on him with unveiled faces and behold the glory of the Son of God, this is how we grow by looking at Jesus.

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So look what happens in 18 through 22. Now it happened that as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him and he asked them, who do the crowds say that I am?

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There's the question, who is this Jesus? And they answered, John the

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Baptist, but others say Elijah and others that one of the prophets of old has risen.

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Then he said to them, but who do you say that I am? And Peter answered, the

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Christ of God. And he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying the

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Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.

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Peter recognizes who it is he's dealing with. His eyes are open to the person of Christ.

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He is the Messiah. The Messiah has come to Israel. Peter recognizes it.

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And Jesus says, don't tell anybody yet. Remember, they were on a limited commission to proclaim certain things about the kingdom of God.

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In the Great Commission, they're commanded to go and tell. Go tell it on the mountains.

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And in Luke 22, I think it's verse 36, we learn that they're even supposed to use means to do that.

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So in the Limited Commission, they weren't even allowed to take money with them, or a walking stick, or an extra coat.

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But in Luke 22, 36, in the Great Commission, he says, now sell what you have and buy things to use on this mission.

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So that's why we have buildings as a church. This building is a means that we have for preaching the gospel.

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It's why we raise money to send to the mission field, to help our missionaries preach

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Christ, and show videos, and feed, and start hospitals. All of these things are means that we now use in the

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Great Commission. In the Limited Commission, take nothing with you.

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But as we go out in the Great Commission, use everything at your disposal.

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Notice here though, Peter confesses Christ. He's not allowed at this point to preach

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Christ because he's going to the cross. Christ needs to go to the cross, so he's not to be crowned king at this point.

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Let's not broadcast everything to the world. Some things are kept a secret for a time, but the disciples see.

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Catch me with this. Don't miss this point. The beauty and the glory of Jesus Christ is on display.

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When you look at the stars, he's the creator. When you hear this story about a

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Savior who died and rose, he must suffer and rise from the dead.

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His glory is on display. This message is being broadcast to the ends of the earth, and the whole world is hearing this message.

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But most ears are deaf to it, and most eyes are blind and cannot see.

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The privilege of being a disciple is that as you walk with him, as you die to yourself, and you leave your security blankets behind, and you step out in faith, he reveals more and more of who he is and the importance of what he's done.

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And before long, that cross on which he died becomes the treasure of your life.

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The world sees it as, what, a torture device. The Romans devised the cross to torture people and to broadcast to the world that you don't want to do what he does.

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Stay away from him. Stay away from the criminals, or this will happen to you. And Christ says, no,

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I take this cross, which is foolishness to the world, and in my dying it becomes the most beautiful thing the world has ever seen.

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This is your privilege. You're a disciple. You believe in Christ. The more you walk with him and grow in him, the more the cross will become the center of your life.

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That the dying of Jesus on the cross is the pinnacle of the glory of God.

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Nowhere else is his grace more clearly displayed, and his wrath, that he pours out wrath in judgment against sin, and yet he loves sinners so much that here is the innocent

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Lamb of God who dies in the place of sinners like us. The wrath of God, the love of God, all displayed in the cross, and you as a disciple are captured by the cross.

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It can become everything to you. This is what growing as a disciple is all about.

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That Jesus would increase, and like John the Baptist, that we would decrease.

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Which brings us to the fourth thing. He withholds from us.

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And this is not the prosperity gospel. Verse 23 and following, he said to all, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

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For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

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For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?

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For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed.

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That word ashamed doesn't just mean that he's a little sad, it means rejected. Ashamed of you when he comes in his glory and the glory of the

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Father and of the holy angels. But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.

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I think the kingdom of God here in this text refers to Jesus ascending to the

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Father and sending his Holy Spirit. That many of these disciples would see it for themselves and then the gospel going to the ends of the earth.

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Remember the mission to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. Some of these disciples would still be alive to see that.

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But we're not talking only about living, are we? Look back at verse 23. To be a disciple, to really be alive, is about dying.

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I think of the the limited commission where the disciples in a kind of a drastic thing have to leave everything behind.

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And we have moments like that too, where God will call us to go to the mission field in the Middle East. But mark in verse 23 the word daily.

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The Christian life does include some drastic things that will be called to do. But day in and day out, we're called to die to ourselves.

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If anyone will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

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I like the way Matthew Henry describes this.

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He says, we must not indulge our ease and appetite. For then it will be hard to bear toil and weariness and want for Christ.

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As Christians, we're free. All things are permissible for us, but not all things are beneficial.

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All things are allowed in a sense, but I will not be mastered by anything.

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I am free to eat a feast every time I sit down at the table, but it's not beneficial for me to do that.

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To deny ourselves of food and sometimes sex and sometimes sleep.

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It's easy to become lazy. Jesus says that the path of discipleship involves denying oneself of certain pleasures, certain riches of this world.

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We would all love to live in the nicest house in Mount Laurel.

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Actually, I would. It'd be too much to maintain, actually, but there are certain things that we are called to deny ourselves from taking in order that we would know him more and have more to give to the kingdom.

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To deny ourselves is a huge important part of being a

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Christian, of being a disciple, and then becoming a minister that impacts others. Fifthly, following on the heels of that kind of downer, because we don't want to be told to deny ourselves.

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We don't want to take a cross and die. There are moments in the Christian life where he will take us to mountains of glory, and if you've never been on a mountain of glory, ask him to take you there.

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Pray that you will have an experience in your life where your eyes are opened and you get it.

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Maybe it'll be a week away at camp or alone, some time with Jesus, but you know sometimes it's just when your firstborn comes into the world and you hold that son or daughter and you say, who is this

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God that I worship that has made this child? And your secondborn and your thirdborn.

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It's moments like this where we experience God. For each of us it happens in different ways, but I want to tell you what

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Peter, James, and John saw. This was an irrepeatable thing. This was a one -time thing where the glory of Jesus, for who he truly is, is revealed to them while he's still on earth.

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This is the kind of Jesus that's coming back to earth. A king who's glorious, whose robes shine.

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Let's read about it. 28 and following. Now about eight days after these sayings, he took with him

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Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered and his clothing became dazzling white.

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And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

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Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him.

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And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, Master, it's good that we are here.

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Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah, not knowing what he said.

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As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them. And they were afraid and they entered the cloud.

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And a voice came out of the cloud saying, this is my son, my chosen one. Listen to him.

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And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen.

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Mountains of glory, seeing Jesus for who he really is. It's part of our walk in this life.

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He will reveal himself to us. Notice Jesus took

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Peter, James, and John with him. He wanted them to see in verse 28.

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Notice in verse 29, his clothes are dazzling white, his glory is shining, he's the light of the world.

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Verse 30, two figures appear with him, Moses and Elijah, representing the law and the prophets.

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Moses the author of the Torah, Elijah representing the prophets and the writings, which tells us that all of the

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Old Testament looked forward to this day, to this person, Jesus. Verse 31, and appeared in glory and spoke of his departure.

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Interesting that word departure in Greek is exodus. Departure. And of course

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Moses was famous for an exodus, wasn't he? Leading the people out of Egypt.

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And Elijah had a pretty famous exodus too, didn't he? A chariot of fire snatched him up so that he never died.

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And now they're here speaking of his departure, his exodus. Meaning when he would ascend and depart, kind of like Elijah did.

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Taken up to heaven. Also Moses's body was taken up mysteriously and never found. Speaking of his departure, but the departure is dependent on the accomplishing of a mission.

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Jesus had to come and die and rise from the dead and then depart back to heaven.

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Verse 32, Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep. When they wake up, you'll find them bumbling.

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They see this glorious sight and they say, let's build tents for you three.

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When you are in the presence of God, whether it's at a worship service, you're worshiping the

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Lord, maybe you're riding in your car and all of a sudden you are praising God and you just find yourself crying tears of joy because Christ has saved you.

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In those moments you never want that experience to end.

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You just want to build tents there and live there forever. But the

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Father speaks and says, listen to him. This is my son, listen to him.

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In all of our experiences we need to be listening to the Word of God and let our experiences be guided by the

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Word of God. And notice from that mountaintop, now the sixth thing, and there's only one more after this, the sixth thing is that you cannot stay on the mountaintop.

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You have to come down into the valley. It's like the pilgrim's progress.

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You familiar with that story? It's no easy journey for Christian to get to the celestial city.

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Through many trials and snares he will take you. And Luke, in writing this gospel, he's not always recording everything chronologically.

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So it's not necessary to say that each of these events happened boom boom boom chronologically one after another.

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What comes next, we're going to take a large passage of Scripture, but in each case it's arranged topically because the disciples are stumbling and bumbling and fumbling through these verses.

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Luke has arranged them together to make a point for us. Listen, you're a Christian, you're a disciple, and you stumble.

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Get back up. Recognize that Christ will lift you back up. Your discipleship is not always going to be mountains of glory.

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There's going to be a lot of stumbling and bumbling along the way, and it's kind of funny by the end of it. Let's read this. 37 and following.

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On the next day, very next day from the mountaintop, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him.

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And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child.

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And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth and shatters him and will hardly leave him.

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And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not. Here's the first fail of five.

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The disciples are just listening to the story, they see this guy coming, and all of a sudden you can just picture them kind of doing one of these.

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They're just ducking like, oh no, not this guy. Maybe it happened on the limited commission. And they came back and reported all that had happened, but they left one thing out.

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That there was one demon that did not come out. Or maybe while Peter, James, and John are on the mountain, the disciples are down there still trying to cast out demons, but the limited commission is over.

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They no longer have as absolute authority over demons as they had on that limited commission, and so they fail.

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Whatever the case is, listen to Jesus. Verse 41, O faithless and twisted generation, that's deflating, to hear from your

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Savior. How long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.

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While he was coming, the demon threw him into the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy and gave him back to his father.

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And all were astonished at the majesty of God. But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing,

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Jesus said to his disciples, let these words sink into your ears. Another way of saying, if you have ears to hear, listen, pay attention.

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The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men. They're falling short.

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The disciples' lack of faith, whereby they couldn't cast the demon out, is not the end of the story.

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The Savior, the powerful God, Jesus, has power over demons and he will take care of this child.

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They need to get back up from their failing and turn their eyes to what he had just told them earlier.

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The Son of Man must be betrayed and to suffer and to die and rise from the dead on the third day.

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Get your eyes off of your failure and back to the cross. Christians, we're going to stumble and fall in this life and we're going to fall short as ministers.

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As a priesthood of all believers, you will try to minister to somebody and you'll say, I failed at this.

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At that point, turn your eyes back to the cross and recognize who it is that alone can save, who it is that can truly change that person's heart, and recognize that you press on and you stumble on.

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So verse 45, but they did not understand this saying and they don't stop to ask him, which is a second failing.

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It was concealed from them so that they might not perceive it. It was not revealed to them at this moment.

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They don't ask and they were afraid to ask him about his saying. Don't be afraid to ask of God.

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You have a question that's burning in your heart, talk to a pastor. Talk to myself. Go to GotQuestions, which is a really good

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Christian website. They fail again here, but even in this failure it turns around for good because when the answer comes, it will stick in their brain.

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Follow 46 now, the third failure, and an argument arose among as to which of them was the greatest.

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I would say that's a silly argument. We would never do that, except I heard the guys on the construction site sounding pretty similar to this.

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But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side and said to them, whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.

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For he who is least among you all is the one who is great. Their argument was foolish and Jesus rebukes them with the child.

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Fourth failure, verse 49, Jesus answered, John answered, Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he does not follow with us.

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But Jesus said to him, do not stop him for the one who is not against you is for you.

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That's a good word to us, that as Christians, sometimes as we're grouping together, we can make even minor issues of theological difference so separating that we fail to recognize that God is at work in others who disagree with us.

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So long as they uphold the true gospel, the true gospel of Christ, him crucified, who he is, the

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Trinity, the resurrection, the major doctrines of the faith. But to recognize that God is still at work at people, in people who are different from us, using the name of Jesus.

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And now there's a final failure coming. When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

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And he sent messengers ahead of him who went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for him.

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But the people did not receive him because his face was set toward Jerusalem.

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Pause there. Jesus is being rejected, and yet that's not outside of God's plan.

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There's a because. It's all part of the plan as Jesus goes to the cross. And yet there's a sense of loss.

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There's a sense of shame. Here is the Messiah. The disciples know it.

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They've been told and it's been confirmed to them. And they want him to be honored. And here's a city that's rejecting him.

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And so you think, how would I react to that as a faithful disciple that wants my

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Lord to be honored? Here's their answer. Verse 54, and when his disciples

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James and John saw it, they said, Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?

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Wow. What a question. Their solution,

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I guess they just had seen Elijah. And Elijah at one point had called fire down from heaven on Mount Carmel to consume the sacrifice.

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And Elisha had called fire down on the commander of the armies that kept coming one by one to arrest him.

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So he says, maybe we should do one of those fire miracles. Maybe we should just blow this town on up.

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Let's just call down fire from heaven. But verse 55, so short, such a simple verse, says a lot.

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It's almost as if, I don't know if Jesus can get frustrated in his humanness without sinning, but it just says in verse 55, but he turned and rebuked them.

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And they went on to another village, just shaking his head. Moving on. No, we're not going to blow this town up.

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And finally, the last thing, as we go as disciples on this journey,

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God will bring new disciples into our lives. And this adding of new disciples into our lives is huge for us.

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Because we then become teachers. And you say, wait, I'm too new to the faith to teach anyone.

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Well, you can tell your testimony. You can share the gospel. You have things to speak about.

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And notice in verse 57 through 62, the same thing that we saw with the original twelve is now repeated.

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Back in Luke 5, verse 11, Peter left everything and followed Christ. That's a pattern of what a disciple is.

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You leave everything and you follow Christ. Matthew, I think Luke chapter 5, verse 28, it also says,

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Matthew the tax collector, Levi, left everything and followed Jesus. Now, we see that this is normative.

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This is what it means to be a disciple. And God will continue to call more and more disciples into his kingdom this way.

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57 and following, as they were going along the road, someone said to him, I will follow you wherever you go.

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And Jesus said to him, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the

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Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. To another he said, follow me.

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But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. And Jesus said to him, leave the dead to bury their own dead.

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But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Yet another said,

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I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home. Jesus said to him, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.

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So in closing, what does it mean to be a disciple? It means that you're willing to leave everything and follow

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Christ. He makes you willing. He draws you by the Holy Spirit.

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But you don't even hang on to anything. Here, follow me.

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Lord, let me first go bury my father. Sounds so important. Of course that's important. But Jesus says that there's something even more important.

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Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.

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I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to those at my home. Such a natural and logical, easy thing.

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You'd think Jesus would just allow that. And it's not that we wouldn't be allowed to say goodbye if we're sent on somewhere.

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That's not the point. The point is, all things are cast away.

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Letting go of every security blanket. Stepping out in faith to follow him.

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No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. So we're all called to be ministers.

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He's going to strip you of some of your security blankets. Ask you to step out in faith.

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Obedience means that you do that. And as you do, he will reveal himself more and more to you. You'll see

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Christ as never before. You have to be willing to forsake some of the pleasures of this world.

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To take up your cross daily to follow him. He'll take you to mountains of glory. You will stumble through valleys of struggle.

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And you'll see new disciples coming into the kingdom all the time. This is how we grow as disciples in the truth.

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Let's pray and we'll ask the worship team to come up. Just take a moment now in the quietness of your heart to ask

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God to show you where you need to grow. To recognize something he's doing in your life.

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Maybe you feel like you're being stripped of your security blankets. And you need to surrender those things to him.

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Stop holding on. Just let go. Maybe you've been stumbling and you think, well there's no hope for me.

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I could never minister the gospel. I could never teach. I could never step out in faith.

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Talk to him about those struggles and learn from them. Recognize the disciples stumble too.

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If they were falling like this, we also will stumble.

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Ask him to grow you up in the faith. Ask him to take you to mountains of glory. To see him for who he is.

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The transfiguration. Ask him to open your eyes to see the

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Son of God. His person and his work. That he would be the treasure of your life.

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That everything else that's held on to you would look meaningless and worthless compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing

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Christ Jesus the Lord. That you would be willing to lose all things and count them as rubbish to gain

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Christ. Ask him to teach you how to be a true disciple.

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How to grow. He is accomplishing these things in your life.

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Yield to his Holy Spirit. Be encouraged this morning.

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Father we do ask that you would disciple us. And that is a, that's a scary thing to ask of you.

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Because your primary concern is not our comfort. Your primary concern is our holiness.

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So Lord strip us of our security blankets. Help us to take up our cross and follow you.

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Take away the things that cause us to stumble and cause other people to stumble.

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Help us to listen to you. Listen to you God in your word. Give us ears to hear.

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Jesus we thank you that you never give up on us. And that you're so patient with us. Thank you

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Jesus that you are merciful and your mercies are new every morning. And though we fall a thousand times you keep picking us up.

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Carrying us on this journey. Jesus we're looking for that celestial city whose architect and builder is

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God. Make us now fit for the kingdom of heaven.

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Burn away the sin in our lives. The dross. So that the pure silver and the pure gold that reflects your image would come forth.

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And God if there's anybody here that's caught in sin, set them free.

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If there's any that have failed and are down on themselves because they couldn't drive that demon out, you be the healer

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God. And turn our eyes back to the cross.

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Thank you Jesus for your cross. Everything points to there, to that hill far away.

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It's a Calvary. It's there that your wrath and your love collide.

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It's there that we were born again and it's from there that we grow. Help us to be patient before you

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Lord. To hear your voice. To keep our eyes set on the cross.

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Just like Jesus who set his face to go to Jerusalem. Just like Jesus who for the joy set before him in endured the cross, scorning its shame.

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And having victory Jesus now you have sat down at the right hand of the Father. We want to be your disciples.

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Grow us up Lord. And send us out like you sent out the disciples to cast out demons and to heal.

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Send us out proclaiming the kingdom of God that our King has come. He died but he rose from the dead and ascended to heaven.

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Put that gospel on our lips and I pray that every one of us who leaves this place today will tell somebody about Jesus this week.

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Send us out, each one of us Lord, as ministers of the gospel.