Cultural Christian Or Disciple? - Ed Conner

God Centered Theology

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You know, it's a wonderful day today. We woke up this morning, didn't we? Some folks didn't.

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We got out of bed today and some folks couldn't. And we came to church today and a lot of folks did not.

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So it is a wonderful day. Our scripture is very short today, only one verse. In Luke chapter 9, verse 23, then he said to them all, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.

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How do you identify? That's a big word today, isn't it? Some men identify as women, some women identify as men.

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It seems like identity politics is everywhere you look in our society, whether it's your gender, your color, your race, your ethnicity, everything depends on how you identify yourself and how others identify you.

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But when it comes to your life of faith, how do you identify? The vast majority of American citizens, according to polls, do identify as Christians.

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But what does that mean? Some people think if you come to church, you're a

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Christian. Some people think if you get baptized, you're a Christian. Some people think if you have religion, you're a

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Christian. Others believe or think that if you believe in God, you're a Christian.

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Some people even think if you live a good life, that makes you a Christian. Some think that if you know about God, if you can quote scripture, that makes you a

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Christian. Being a Christian actually means so many things to so many different people that almost means nothing today.

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That's because we're not called to be Christians. If you look into the gospels, you don't see

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Jesus mentioned the word Christian, do you? We're called to be disciples, not

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Christians. And we need to ask ourselves the question, every one of us, are we a cultural

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Christian or are we a disciple? You can come to church but not be a disciple.

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You can drop a dime on an offering plate and not be a Christian or disciple. You can say all the right words at all the right times and you're still not going to be a disciple.

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Jesus tells us in one verse, in one simple sentence, what it takes to be a disciple.

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Now there are four characteristics that are listed of being a disciple compared to a cultural

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Christian. You have to ask yourself by the way you live your life, by the way people see you, are you a cultural

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Christian or are you a disciple? Everybody here is familiar with the

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Amish, aren't you? Those quaint folks up in Pennsylvania and other places with their wide -brim hats and their plain clothes and their horses and buggies.

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Did you know that the Amish don't have churches? They don't have church buildings. They worship in groups of about 25 families, usually in a house, a large house.

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They have large houses because they have nine to ten children on average and they don't put a grandma in the nursing home.

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They build a room onto their house to take care of grandma. Very often they will meet on the second story of a large dairy barn.

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That's where they have their worship services and they don't have pews and they don't have comfortable cushions to sit on.

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They sit on plain wooden benches, no backrest whatsoever. So why do they do that?

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It's pretty simple. They believe that they're worshiping God, not their building.

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Too often today, cultural Christians place a lot of emphasis and a lot of value on their facilities and not on their ministries.

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I went to a church in Tennessee a few years ago. Massive. It was swallowed, this church, five or six times over.

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A couple thousand people in there. Three or four TV cameras going left and right like you see on and doing plays and other productions.

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The preacher came out for a contemporary service in a plaid shirt and blue jeans.

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Then he came back later for the traditional service in a suit and tie. Big production.

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A lot of emphasis on the facility and all the comforts that they have and all the wonderful things they had to offer.

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But is that discipleship? The four differences between a cultural

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Christian and a disciple are as follows. Number one, a cultural Christian follows

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Jesus if it is convenient. A disciple follows

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Jesus when it is not convenient. In Luke 9 23, then he said to them all, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

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The first requirement for being a disciple is that you have to want to be one. Jesus doesn't give us an invitation or gives us an invitation, not a command.

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He's only looking for people who want to become his disciples. That's why you have a choice.

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If you want to, you don't have to. It's whatever you want.

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There's a difference, however, between saying you want to be a disciple and actually wanting to be a disciple.

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Jesus is pro -choice. You hear that word a lot, don't you? About other topics. But Jesus is pro -choice.

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He won't force you. He won't coerce you. He will plead with you and he will try to persuade you.

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But it's up to you. You have to want to. I've always had a problem understanding why anyone would say no to Jesus.

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Isn't he the best deal you're ever going to get? Jesus can take you from darkness to light.

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He can change your life for the better. He can take you from death to life. He can also take you from hell to heaven.

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But some folks say, nah, I'm not interested. Not me, I'm good. But everybody is invited.

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And Jesus welcomes all kinds of people. Did you know that? You don't need a certain degree or a pedigree.

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You don't have to be a certain height, certain weight, certain ethnicity or nationality, not even a certain political party.

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Did you know that Jesus accepts donkeys and elephants? You don't have to be qualified to follow

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Jesus. You don't have to have your act together. In fact, you don't have to have any qualifications whatsoever.

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When you sign up for Jesus, you're going to follow Jesus when the sun is shining.

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You're going to follow Jesus when the rain is falling. You're going to follow Jesus when it's popular, but you're also going to follow

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Jesus when it's unpopular. You're going to follow Jesus when it's joyful, but you're also going to follow

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Jesus when it's painful. You follow Jesus when it's smooth sailing, but you also follow

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Jesus when it's rough seas. You follow Jesus when it's easy and you follow

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Jesus when it's difficult. Did you know back in the early church 2 ,000 years ago almost, there was no such thing as a cultural

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Christian? Because cultural Christians don't get criticized. Cultural Christians don't get condemned.

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They don't get arrested. They don't get tortured. They don't get crucified. That's why everyone in the early church days was a disciple, not a cultural

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Christian. Cultural Christians today are more concerned about toleration.

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That's another one of those words we hear a lot about, don't we? Toleration. They tend to forget that what

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Christianity is about is really transformation, not toleration. There are many well -known denominations in the world today are wrestling with this idea of toleration, inclusion, compromise.

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Famous Scottish missionary once said, compromise is a language of the devil.

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That's the key. Cultural Christians often see compromise over conviction.

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Haven't you all heard the saying, love the sinner but hate the sin? Too often for churches today, it's love the sinner, tolerate the sin.

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Some churches even celebrate the sin with drag queen shows and other events. It's easy going with the flow.

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Riding the current down the stream is more difficult to paddle upstream to go against the grain.

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And unfortunately, cultural Christians today would rather sleep on the very soft bed of compromise than stand on the firm floor of conviction.

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Discipleship is not for the faint of heart. It's not easy. A disciple doesn't point his finger and say, which way is the wind blowing?

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I think I'll go wherever public opinion is going today. Now, the second major difference, a cultural

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Christian asks, what can Jesus do for me? Not what a disciple asks.

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A disciple asks, what can I do for Jesus? In Luke 9 .23,

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again, then he said to them all, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.

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You know, the average person who walks into the average church today is into a culture of consumerism, not a culture of commitment.

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Me, me, me, gimme, gimme, gimme. Don't we hear that all the time?

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It's what I want. It's my will be done on earth while I'm here and maybe in heaven if I get my chance.

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The attitude of many in the church today is, don't ask me to serve. My time's all about me.

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Don't ask me to give. My money belongs to me. And there's a lot of talk today about pronouns.

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You hear about pronouns all the time, don't you? People often change their pronouns.

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They change them from what God chose for them to something else or they even make up stuff.

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He's a he, him, right? She's a she, her, right? You're not a they, them, zee, zem or whatever other ideas they come up with.

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But actually, there are four pronouns that we all need to try to excise from our vocabulary, myself and mine.

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When you become a disciple of Jesus, you no longer have a life of your own.

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Your life doesn't belong to you anymore. For the rest of your life, you have to put

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Jesus before you, ahead of you, above you, instead of you.

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You have to get to the point in your life where your life is all about Jesus and none about you.

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How many of us put Jesus over our family? How many of us put

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Jesus over money? How many of us put Jesus over career? Think about that.

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A lot of folks identify as Christians, but they have other priorities above Jesus.

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The third major difference is that a cultural Christian enjoys the benefits of the cross. A disciple embraces the sacrifice of the cross.

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In Luke 9 .23, then he said to them all, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily.

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The Romans were a pretty advanced civilization. They had a massive empire stretching from England all over Europe, North Africa, and part of the

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Middle East. They introduced all kinds of technological and scientific and educational innovations.

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They were a very powerful, very great civilization. But they also were a pretty creative bunch of killers.

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They had all kinds of ways to put people to death. They burned people alive. They beheaded them.

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They stoned them. But the very worst, most painful, humiliating, and agonizing form of death they could inflict on anybody was crucifixion.

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You don't become a disciple by just believing that Jesus died for you. The church is filled with people who believe that, that believe

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Jesus died for them. But how many of us die for him figuratively and some literally?

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How many of us give up the lives we've been living for him? You become a disciple when every single day of your life, from this moment forward, you die to yourself.

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When we choose Jesus, our old lives are dead to us. They're gone.

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They're buried forever. The apostle Paul said, I die daily for Christ.

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Why did he say that? Every single day, he sacrificed himself for the cause of Christ.

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Now, being a disciple is not a part -time job. It's not just a one -day -a -week job where you come put in your one hour, maybe two on Sunday morning, and think you're going to get paid overtime for coming on Wednesday night to the prayer meeting.

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You never get a day off. You never get a vacation. There's no comp time.

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No matter where you go, no matter what you're doing, you're always serving him when you're a disciple.

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So, you have to decide. You either live for Christ and die for him, or you live for you and you remain dead to him.

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Many people will say that being a Christian is hard. It is difficult, isn't it? Sometimes it gets so hard.

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So, what do we do? We make up an excuse. I'll try. I'll try so hard, but it's difficult.

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I try so hard. I try, but the way you live a

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Christian life is not by trying every day. It's by dying every day.

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You have to die that old life every single day. And the fourth and final point, the fourth difference between a cultural

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Christian and someone who is a follower or disciple of Jesus, the cultural Christian is a fan of Jesus.

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We see people all the time. They got a big old cross hanging on their chest, a great big one sometimes. They wear those wristbands,

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WWJD. They quote scripture all the time. They're toting the Bible around, flashing that all the time.

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You see a lot of people who are fans of Jesus, enthusiastic about him, and they try to express it that way.

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But a disciple is a follower, not a fan. He's a follower. Luke 9 23 says again, then he said to them all, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up the cross daily and follow me.

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Two thousand years ago, the disciples didn't go to school.

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They didn't have seminaries. They didn't have seminars. They didn't have conferences. Being a disciple was not then and is not now about information or knowing about God or quoting scripture.

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Being a disciple is about transformation. Transformation, not information.

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The information in your head is not going to be the same as the transformation in your heart. Transformation is not just wanting to learn what your teacher learned.

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It's when you want to live the very same way that your teacher lived. Did you know that walking behind someone is the same as walking beside them?

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Jesus is leading and you are following. But guess what? We're both going the same direction, are we?

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We're both going forward. We're going backwards.

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You want to look like your teacher. You want to talk like your teacher. You want to walk like your teacher.

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You want to act like your teacher. That's why disciples prefer to not be called

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Christians. They'd rather be called followers of Jesus. And you cannot follow

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Jesus unless you give up everything to him. You got to give up if you want to grow up in Christ.

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God doesn't need our time. He created time. God doesn't need our money.

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It's already his money. God doesn't need our service. He has angels to take care of that for him.

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God doesn't even need our worship. So what does God need?

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He needs us. All of us. Every part of us.

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And if we want to be a disciple, it's going to be costly. It's going to cost us. But if you don't want to be a disciple, it's going to cost you everything.

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Now, I would be remiss in a sermon at Calvary Baptist Church, and I hate that Deborah and their family aren't here today, but I always mention

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Henry Payer in my sermons here at Calvary. Henry Payer, for those of you who don't remember him, may not have known him, he was a wonderful Christian man, loving father, grandfather, great -grandfather.

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He just epitomized what it meant to be a disciple. Henry Payer wanted to be a disciple.

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Henry Payer denied himself every day. Henry Payer carried his cross daily, and Henry Payer followed

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Jesus. Henry Payer was not a Christian. He was a disciple. And a neat thing about Henry Payer is he made disciples.

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He doesn't just stop with us becoming a disciple ourselves. It continues. We have a job to do.

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We have to serve the Lord, and we also have to make other disciples for him.

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Finally, the bottom line is very simple. If you live with Jesus, you will never die with Jesus.