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Well, good morning.
If you have your Bibles, and I hope you do, I want to invite you to join me in Luke Five and Matthew Nine this morning.
So we're going to look at those as well.
If you've been here the last several weeks, you know we're going to start off in Acts Two.
You don't have to turn there.
Our main focuses are going to be the Luke Five and the Matthew Nine.
I want to just echo a little bit what Dave said.
If you're not serving, we would love to help you connect in a way that you can serve in the life of our church, to serve one another as a family.
It's a wonderful outpouring.
It's a wonderful experience that you have.
People will benefit from you serving and you will benefit from serving people.
It's just what God does in that.
And so we want to encourage you to take those steps.
Well, this is the last week that we are in this discipleship study.
We'll be back in Genesis next week.
I'm looking forward to that.
But as we go, as you guys know, this is a message mixed with vision and practical approach to what we are doing starting September 10.
So very quickly, again, we did this quick last week.
Just a really quick overview on what our schedule here on Sunday mornings will look like starting September 10.
At nine to 950, we will have discipleship that's kids discipleship, student discipleship, and adult discipleship.
They will be meeting in different buildings.
We'll give you clarity of where you are to go and what you are going to do before September the 10th.
So be looking out for that.
And then it ends at 950, because from 950 to 1015, we have fellowship in here.
And that is for everyone.
That's for our kids all the way through our adults parents.
You will leave your discipleship class when it's over at 950.
Go get your kids.
We'll all come in here, somebody will spill orange juice, somebody will spill coffee.
We'll all eat a lot of sugar.
We'll call it a good day.
And then we'll prepare for worship, which will begin at 1015.
All right, some more clarity on that.
Our kids will continue to have kids worship except during special times where we have family worship in here together.
But our kids will have their worship at 1015 and then primarily with our youth and adults here from 1015 to 1130 ish all right, clarity.
Questions.
Every week we get questions.
And we love these.
So keep these coming to us.
We don't know what we're not communicating clearly unless you make us aware and you guys are doing that.
So three things I want to answer this morning before we get into this.
So you'll see we got these Willow studies.
These are all of our studies that we're going to be doing for our adults on Sunday morning during that 09:00 discipleship hour.
And we made an adjustment.
We made a change on one of the names of one of the studies.
So before there was a class that was going to be or a study that was going to be taught called Hurts Habits and Hangups.
And where we got that verbiage from was a lot of what we have been doing in our celebrate recovery and we felt like that communicated a bridge over but different than Cr and what we have been doing in Cr and allowing us to continue to build off of that.
And there ended up being some confusion with that.
So more accurate is defining God's peace and purpose in the struggles of life.
And so there is a description, this is on the second page, the inside page of that.
And so I want to encourage you to read over that gives a great description, better than I can say this morning of what this study is going to be about.
Robert Stevens and Mark Babb are going to be leading that, excited to see from their experiences as they've walked through these different things in their own life and seen God's purpose and struggle come through and see what victory lives like.
That.
In the midst of going through that, I want to encourage you to be a part of that.
So that was question number one, if you're like, why is there a new study that's in here?
And why is one that's been pulled?
We just changed a title for it.
Number two, do I have to sign up or can I just show up right now?
I get it.
Hey, I want to just show up and kind of see and experience and go and do it.
I'm not quite sure.
Here's what we're asking, all right?
We're new to this.
We're new to kind of doing things this way and we are a church that says, hey, just show up.
And we love that, right?
We love just being able to show up and do those things.
What we are asking, especially for this first round of class studies that we're going to be doing together, all right, is we're going to ask that you sign up for those.
There is a QR code on the back that'll walk you through that.
If you don't want to do the QR code, if you don't want to deal with all that, if you don't like technology, if your flip phone will not work with that, all right, you can come up, you can write your name on this paper.
You can circle the one you want to be a part of.
You can hand it to Dave.
Dave will get you connected.
All right?
He'll call you on your rotary phone.
We'll get it all worked out and you'll be good to go.
Okay.
Now, if you show up, if you're like, hey, I didn't even know about all of this, right?
I haven't been to church in the last six weeks, and I show up that day, and I want to be a part of a study because I hear that we're doing something like that.
I keep calling, trying to say class.
And it's a study, right?
Are we going to kick you out?
No, we're not going to kick you out, but there are certain studies that we have to prepare for, for the materials and the things that are going to be used.
And then there's going to be certain studies that if you just show up or if you've got a friend that's meeting here that day and they're not signed up either, so we're not going to say, no, you can't be a part.
You have to leave.
But it extremely helps us out on that.
If you can go ahead and sign.
Up because we are limited to space, there is a chance that some of these studies will get full.
All right?
And so we want to make sure that we can accommodate for that to eliminate as much confusion as we possibly can.
So please go ahead and sign up.
For the study that you would like to be a part of.
And then the other question we got this week is, what if I'm serving during the 09:00 hour?
What if I'm serving during the 09:00.
Hour and I want to still be.
A part of a study, though?
Okay, a couple of things.
Please remember, we are still continuing on with a lot of what we are doing with our small groups that will.
Be meeting at different nights and different.
Times in different places.
We got men's studies, we've got women's studies.
We've got all sorts of options that are there outside of the 09:00 Sunday morning, however.
But if you're like, well, I want to serve.
And I know that I serve at 09:00 A.m., but I'm only going to serve every other week or once every three weeks or once a month.
Is it okay if I miss because I'm going to serve?
And the answer to that is absolutely, it's okay for you to miss because you're serving, and you'll do that being transparent with you.
There's certain studies that are more open to someone whose schedule isn't going to allow them to be there every week because of that.
And so if you're curious, you can give us a call.
You can stop by, talk to Dave or myself, and we would love to.
Get you connected with that.
Okay.
Really excited.
Keep asking your questions.
We're going to still keep trying to give clarity the best that we can as we go into this different season that we haven't done things like this before, but we're excited to see what the Lord is going to do with that.
So for the last three weeks.
And this being week four, we're going to continue on with looking at Acts chapter two, verses 42 through 47 as we start off.
And what Acts 242 through 47 does is it gives you a glimpse into what life was like for Christians in the first church.
All right?
And so Jesus comes, dies, is buried, is resurrected, he ascends the Holy Spirit falls, people get saved, the church is formed and this is what the church looks like.
It's raw, it is perfected in Christ, but it's still working through its practices.
As you read Acts, you see that.
But what we see is this coming together of people of different socioeconomic backgrounds, different cultural backgrounds in some instances, different languages in some instances.
And they are coming together, they're becoming this church family and they are creating disciples.
And what we see in 42 through 47 is the overall picture of the church and the overall picture of the discipleship process that we see.
And what I draw from this as I read is that in this process, this one unified process that this church is doing is that there's different strategies to reach and to help and to connect with different people for the sake of the Gospel.
Okay?
So this isn't a small group that we're reading about.
This is this big C church, right, that scattered out in the practices of what we see.
So let's read this.
It says.
And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers and honor came upon every soul.
And many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles, and all who believed were together and had all things in common.
And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need.
And day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.
And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
So here's been what each week has been about.
There's three discipleship strategies that we see.
The first one we talked about at week two is relational discipleship where we see that believers come together to grow in a personal relationship with one another as they grow in personal relationship with God.
So this wasn't just friends hanging out, getting to know each other better.
This was a group of people who were not friends, who were coming together, who were brothers and sisters in Christ, who were deepening their relationship with one another.
And the foundation in which they do that off of is their relationship with the Lord.
All right?
So God is the focus and how God works as they come alongside together is to grow them in relationship with one another.
And so we talk about this that relational discipleship is one another ministry it's brother and sister ministry, brother and brother ministry, sister and sister ministry.
And so we look at this as this is peer to peer discipleship.
This is where life happens.
This is where discussions take place.
This is where you bear your burden and bear your soul.
This is where you come for your struggles.
This is where you celebrate your victories together largely at our church.
This is what we've seen in our small groups.
But we're continuing this on in different formats in some of these relational discipleship studies that you see that we're going to be offering on Sunday mornings.
But that's not the only discipleship.
We also see theological discipleship that takes place.
It says that they devoted themselves to the apostles teachings, right?
So you've got these young new believers, like young in the faith, believers all various ages.
And so they need to understand like what do we believe?
What do we believe?
And so this is what we see with theological discipleship.
Believers come together to grow in their right understanding of the word of God.
And the more that we know about God, the more that our faith is grounded in proper biblical doctrine.
And that's important for us, right?
We want to make sure that our foundation is set on Christ and that that foundation is set on solid belief.
So that when the storms of life come, right?
When the storms and the pole of culture comes, when the storms of different areas of thinking comes, that we know that our foundation is on Christ because we know what we believe, we know why we believe that and we know who that's for.
And so that's what theological discipleship is.
Theological is not a scary word, right?
It's a word that helps us understand what we believe, why we believe that and then who is that for?
And so our studies will be covering that as well.
We're going to be doing a systematic theology class that talks about the doctrine of the word of God that I will be leading along with Mike VOTT.
We'll be doing another class that's an apologetics class that answers why do we believe this?
And answers to tough questions.
And then we're going to be doing a mythiology class of understanding global missions, right?
And why do we go to the ends of the earth to share the gospel with men and women and children who have never heard and in a lot of cases do not even have the option to hear unless someone goes.
There's not a church down the road.
For them, for them to go to, right?
So that answers the who do we do this for?
We do this for the name and.
The glory of God and we do this for those who haven't heard, what do we believe?
Why do we believe it?
And then who is this for?
And then, so we call this theological discipleship.
This is truth ministry.
We want to understand the truth of God's word, right?
And if you're here and you're like, man, those sound like really hard classes.
Like my hope, my challenge for you, what I just want to press into you is to say trust what the.
Holy Spirit can do in you, all right?
Trust what the Holy Spirit can do.
In you and what God can teach you and how God can use you.
And so what these classes are going to look like this is more student.
To teacher discipleship, okay?
So you've got a group of individuals.
That have studied, that understand, that are constantly learning and what we would like.
To do is come before you and teach you, right?
What this says, let you ask questions in that as well.
And then lastly we've got missional discipleship where believers come together in their community to share the truth of Jesus Christ with those who are not yet followers of Christ.
We see in Acts chapter two that.
The Lord added to their number day.
By day those who were being saved, the spread of Christianity that started out.
Largely in a very small group of.
Close friends and followers of Jesus.
And then through the power of the Holy Spirit the gospel spreads and thousands upon thousands upon thousands come to know Christ.
And because of missional discipleship, you and I can sit here today and proclaim that Christ is our Lord and Savior because at some point in time a missionary did the work of the Lord to provide you the opportunity to hear the gospel, right?
And so when we see this as missional discipleship, this is believer to unbeliever discipleship, right?
How's that discipleship?
Because Jesus calls us to go and make disciples and we're to do that amongst lostness, not just amongst the church.
If we only raise disciples from those who are here, then the work and the move of God would die here.
And this is what we're going to look at this morning.
We have to go, we have to go.
And so missional discipleship is what we're going to refer to this morning as compassionate ministry.
All right?
Missional discipleship is compassionate ministry.
We'll see why we feel like this is the word that we can use to describe it.
So we've had this discipleship circle that we've used to help illustrate this for us.
And so we see this on the board.
My eyes are now so bad I cannot read the back and so I'm going to turn around and I apologize of this back view of me, right?
You're like but that's better than the front.
All right?
So we got our relational discipleship, we've got our missional discipleship, we got our theological discipleship.
At the very end of the message we'll come back into this and what we see is this fully engaged discipleship process for you and for me to be a part of, right?
This is not just for the church members, this is for all of us who call Willow Ridge home as brothers and sisters in Christ all the way through of what we're building into our kids, our students, our adults, our staff, whether you call this place home yet or not, right?
This is what we want to be a part of and what we want to do.
So let's look this morning, though, and understand where we understand that missional.
Discipleship, we have to go.
We have to go and do something with what has happened with us.
We've got to take it to people.
Who do not know.
Let's look at this.
Luke, five verses, one through eleven.
On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he, this is Jesus.
Was standing by the lake of Geneserate.
And he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing one of their nets.
So just kind of give you some biblical context of what is happening here.
Jesus comes up on a boat.
There's some guys that have been out there, they've been fishing that they haven't been super productive.
They're now cleaning and washing their nets, getting ready to be done for the day.
And then a teacher comes up and is going to engage this teacher being Jesus, okay?
So getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land, and he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
So great.
So I've been out working hard doing this.
Now you use my boat as my stage.
But Simon got to hear what Jesus.
Was talking about, and when he had.
Finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.
And Simon answered, Master, we toiled all.
Night and took nothing.
But at your word, I will let down the net.
So let me give you some context of what's happening here, okay?
Tuesday, Wednesday, Wednesday, we had a plumbing problem at the Bradbury house.
All right?
In my 44 years of experience, when it comes to fixing things, here's what I've learned.
I can make the problem worse, and I usually end up like the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
That phone a friend lifeline gets wore out, right?
So I'm like, let me read on.
The Internet, which is always the right.
Thing to do when you know nothing.
About the problem, but Google's going to help you.
So I see what the problem is.
And the Lord spoke to me and said, you can't handle that, right?
So I called a friend of mine and said, hey, here's what's going on.
Can you come by here today and take a look at this for me?
And he said, sure, that's not that big of a deal.
He meant, like, it's not a big deal to come by, but I kind of received it in the moment I was like, Anybody can do this, right?
So he came by and he fixed the problem.
The professional, the plumber fixed the problem.
And as he's fixing the problem, I asked a question.
I said, Can I stand back and just watch?
I promise I won't say anything.
And he's like, absolutely.
Now, I stood there.
I was quiet.
I watched, I observed.
I was amazed.
I will call him again.
All right.
How do you think it would have landed if this problem became more than what he thought it would be?
And you've got the guy who's standing there with a theology degree telling the plumber, hey, have you ever thought about.
Doing this instead of that?
Not well.
Jesus a carpenter, a teacher goes to.
A fisherman who by trade knows what he's doing.
And Jesus says to him, I see where you failed.
Let me show you how to do this.
Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.
You see, the fishermen would have never.
Gone out into the deep water at that time of the year.
And where they were, all the fish would have been in the shallow water.
And he would have known that because generationally, he was a fisherman.
It put food on the table.
It took care of the needs that he had.
He knew what he was doing.
But Jesus had something different in mind.
Verse five.
Let me go back to that.
And Simon answered, master, we toiled all night and took nothing.
But at your word, I will let down the nets.
And I think this is significant because I think he had sat there and he had heard Jesus's teaching, and he knew there was something special about this man, and he listened to him.
And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.
They signaled to their partners in the.
Other boat to come and help them.
And when they came and filled both the boats, so they began to sink.
But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus'feet, saying, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
For he and all who.
Were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they have taken.
And so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.
And Jesus said to Simon, do not be afraid.
From now on, you will be catching men.
And when they had brought their boats.
To land, they left everything and followed him.
Everything.
Can you imagine the greatest day of.
Your career, the greatest miracle day that you've ever experienced?
But you've experienced something even greater.
And so you leave that commission check, you leave that promotion, you leave those resources behind, and you walk away.
Must be something really special for that.
Here's what was special.
Jesus gives a call and Jesus says, I'm going to make you something.
I'm going to turn you into someone that's different than who you are now.
And that's what the Gospel does for us.
The Gospel does something for us.
There's this act of grace in the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus so that the Gospel can do something in us.
It can save us, it can transform us, it can sanctify us so that it doesn't end there.
So many of us as Christians are like, I'm good.
The grace of Christ, he saved me.
He's changing me.
And now for the rest of my life just gets to be about me.
But that's not it.
That's not the gospel, that's not the work of the Lord.
And we miss that if that's our mindset.
It's that God does something for us so that God can do something in us, so that God can do something through us.
We're not called to sit on the couch while the game of Christianity is played out in front of us.
We're called.
We're equipped, we're empowered, we're transformed so.
It can do something through us.
Jesus does something.
He does something for them.
Hey, here's where there's some fish.
Hey, here's the teachings of the kingdom.
Let me do something for you.
Jesus can do something in them.
He's remarkable.
Simon responded and obeyed to go back out and cast the nets as Jesus instructed.
And look at his response in verse eight.
Depart from me.
Depart from me, for I'm a sinful man, O Lord, right?
It's doing something in him.
And then Jesus is like, I'm not going to depart from you.
Here's what I need to happen.
You come follow me, and I'm going to do something through you.
I'm going to no longer catch fish, but you're going to catch men.
In Matthew four, Jesus uses the phrase, probably the one that we're most familiar with.
I will make you fishers of men.
So for these fishermen that day and for us today, jesus says, I'm going to do something for you, something that you're incapable of doing yourself, the work of the cross.
I'm going to do this for you so that I can do something in you, so that I can save you and be your Lord and Savior and king and bring you into my kingdom, into my family for my name, so that I can do something through you.
And this call for you to missions.
And so if you are a follower of Jesus, if you believe, sign sealed.
Put the stamp on it.
The day that I take my last breath here, I'm going to spend it in eternity with Jesus, then the call to missions is not a question.
Is this for me, the call to mission?
The question we ask ourselves this morning is this are you being obedient and saying yes to it?
You are called to it, and so am I.
It's not a question.
Am I called?
It's a question.
Am I obedient?
And what I love about Jesus.
Jesus is going to be our model.
For how to live on mission.
I hope some of you, at some point in time in your life, I hope your feet touch foreign soil.
Not because you got off of a cruise ship or an airplane for a vacation, which are wonderful and nice and I don't judge you, and I've done it myself, but that your feet touch foreign soil with the opportunity to carry.
The gospel to men and women and children who have not heard.
But every single one of us have an opportunity for our feet to touch the concrete and the asphalt and the grass of our neighborhood and live on mission for people that we know where.
We live, work and play, every single one of us.
So whether your call is to Afghanistan or your call is to your neighbor, we are all called to be on mission.
That's what we see.
So turned in Matthew nine.
Verse 35, that's the model that we want to.
Look at, verse 35.
And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and affliction.
And so what we get here, Matthew, what Matthew gives us in Matthew 935, is this snapshot of the daily ministry of the life of Jesus, of what he did.
Not everything's included, but it's this one little snapshot of what's there.
So let's draw from this what we can learn about being on mission and living like Jesus did in missional discipleship.
What we see from this is that Jesus went to people.
Jesus went to people.
As you read through the Gospels, you see city after city, town after town, lake after lake, opportunity, opportunity where Jesus went to people.
Now, people came to Jesus as well.
I don't want to say that never happened.
It does.
We see that.
But Jesus is always setting the example of what it means to go.
I read a guy this week.
Here's what he said.
He's a math guy.
He went and looked at geography and looked over all of these things in Jesus's three and a half years of ministry.
What this guy believes is that Jesus traveled roughly 2500 miles in three and a half years of doing ministry.
Let me give you some perspective.
That's charleston to Los Angeles.
You know how hot it is.
It's a long way, right?
Jesus went to people.
Jesus shared with people.
Says he taught in the synagogues.
We see him teaching in the streets, we see him teaching in homes.
We see Jesus with the big crowd and teaching, and we see Jesus in the small settings.
But Jesus shared with the people.
He wasn't just some guy to come up and give you his autograph and go away.
He was just not some guy to come get some things from that.
Jesus taught about the kingdom of God.
And Jesus called people.
But we also.
See that Jesus served people.
It says that he taught about the.
Gospel of the kingdom, healing every disease and every affliction.
So this is what Jesus did.
Well, I can't do that.
That's Jesus.
You can't do exactly these.
But look at this.
Jesus went to people.
Jesus calls you to go.
Jesus shared with people.
Jesus has given you a story to tell.
Jesus served people.
Now, you and I cannot touch a blind man and heal him.
You and I cannot feed thousands of.
People with a few pieces of fish and bread, but we can serve those around us with simple acts of kindness that meet basic needs and make them feel loved.
You're right.
I can't do exactly what Jesus did, but I can have the heart and do what he did to go, to share, to serve.
It's his ministry.
Verse 36 when he saw the crowds.
He had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Here's.
What Jesus saw.
I want to ask you.
What do you see when you look at the.
People of this world who are not followers of Jesus?
Let me ask it a different way.
What do you feel when you look.
At people of this world who are not followers of Jesus?
Anger, disgust, annoyance, pride, and self.
What did Jesus feel?
Compassion.
It says that Jesus saw the people in Matthew describes them as that they were harassed and helpless.
A literal translation of these words harassed and helpless is torn and thrown down, trash.
They were treated and felt like trash, discarded.
So what do they need?
What do they need?
They need confidence.
Do they need motivation?
Do they need empowerment?
What do they need?
No.
What the scripture says what Jesus says is that they need a shepherd.
They needed saving.
They needed Jesus.
Jesus saw people lost, broken, hurting themselves, hurting others.
He saw broken homes.
He saw broken marriages.
He saw people in sinful and destructive lifestyles.
And the solution was not more of what this world could provide.
Jesus did not believe that the solution to the problem was next term's election was more education, was more social programs, was a self help strategy.
Jesus said what they need is a shepherd, because they're sheep without a shepherd, they need Jesus.
How would you fix the problems of this world?
If your answer is anything or anyone.
Other than Jesus, then you've missed it.
Verse 37 then he said to the disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
Whoa.
Look at what Jesus said.
Jesus didn't say as the shepherd.
Hey, let's get some billboards.
Let's get some marketing.
Let's start.
We've been on Facebook for a while, but we've got to get our Instagram going, right?
We got to be active on Twitter.
And not just have the account.
Since 2005, we actually got to use it, right?
And we got to sell them on this program.
No.
Jesus doesn't say, how can I, in.
My time on earth that is limited in this capacity, make it to more and more people?
Jesus says pray because the laborers us are few.
Pray to the Lord to send them out into the harvest.
And so missional discipleship is to send out laborers into the harvest to do what Jesus did, to see what Jesus saw and to bring them what they need, which is Jesus.
And so that's why when we come to this missional discipleship is compassionate ministry.
And so what we feel that our approach to this missional discipleship, that what we want to help you and I do is empower us.
Empower us to connect lost people with Jesus, the sheep who needs a shepherd.
We want to go out to the people, not just invite them to another worship service.
We want to go and share with them and create opportunities where we can share with them the truth of Jesus.
And we want to serve them.
We want to provide them with something they need, whether they follow Jesus or not.
I got saved when I was 22.
I realized this this morning.
Most of you have heard my story of salvation.
I'm not going to share that this morning.
But I do want to share what started happening two years before that.
When I look at the life that I lived and led at that point.
In time, there was this.
Defiant, rebellious knowledge of it, rebellion against the Lord.
I'm going to do what I want to do.
I'm going to treat people how I want to treat them.
This is who I am going to.
Be knowing raised in church, knowing the.
Things of the Lord.
And because of that, especially in a small town that I grew up in, people knew.
Like, you didn't find out what I.
Did and go, really?
That guy never thought that.
Two years before I got saved, though, there was a guy, he was a seminary student who came to our church to be a college intern for the summer.
His name was Seth Stoddard.
Seth came up to me one day.
We bumped into each other somewhere in North Augusta.
He's like, hey, man, a group of guys are playing basketball on Thursday nights.
You want to come play?
Yeah.
Where y'all playing at?
We're playing at the church.
Oh, that's different, right?
Not where I really thought we'd play.
But got to clean up some of.
The things we talk about, I guess, right?
Playing basketball in the church.
Wouldn't play basketball.
Two years, play basketball weekly.
We'd get together, play basketball.
There was never a Bible study.
We never gathered around and opened up the Bible and had a conversation about God's word.
But as a group of guys building relationships one another, I would listen to the things that they were talking about it became very quickly to the realization to me that everyone else in here is saved but me.
And I thought I was the only.
One who had figured that out, right?
Built relationship.
Hear things.
They talk about the things of God.
They pray for one another.
They share, they challenge, they embrace and love me.
About a year later, I meet another guy named Scott Jet.
Coolest name ever, right?
He's a swimmer with a last name Jet, right.
He was on the 1996 Olympic swimming team, right?
He comes in.
He's doing some things with us.
He likes to rock climb and do stuff like that.
And he invited me one day to go whitewater rafton with a group of guys that come to find out was the group of guys that I played basketball with.
Again, I think I figured this out.
I don't think any of them have.
I'm like, what a coincidence.
On that trip, before that trip, everything that I knew fell apart.
Everything that I knew, my lifestyle had.
Brought me to a pit.
Those who were around me I felt like had abandoned me.
My world fell apart and I was just going to go rafting, and I didn't know what it was going to look like starting June 3, but I knew June 2 I could escape the troubles of this world and get out on a river.
And on June 2, Jesus saved me, right?
Because there was a group of guys who thought about more than basketball but knew a guy that needed Jesus and they could connect with him with basketball.
There was a guy who knew about water sports and knew that there was.
This guy that connect with that, and he invited him.
And what the Lord did in their.
Obedience was reveal Himself to me and capture my heart so I could surrender my life to the Lord.
That's missional discipleship.
It's not a class to come to.
It's not a debate to get into.
It's a moment where we can look at the things of this world and our life and how can we press forward into engaging those who don't know.
Jesus into a relationship with him.
But we've got to go.
We've got to share, right?
So we're going to be focusing more.
On providing missional discipleship opportunities for us as a church.
Our hope is with everything that we catch this.
No one told that group of guys to go start a basketball game and invite the most lost person they know.
No one told them to do that, but it was born in them through the gospel, is that this is what.
This looked like, and so this is what they did.
But what we want to do is this becomes more of who we are because here's what we realize, and I take ownership of this.
We say, go engage with lost people.
Go and share the gospel.
And there's so many of you who want to do that.
But your answer is, but I don't know how.
And we have let me stop saying we.
I have done a poor job of saying this is how we do this.
And so I don't want to do a poor job of doing that anymore.
And so this is how we are going to do this, so that we embrace this as a church, so that we can press forward through this in who we are as missionaries, whether it's Afghanistan or the other side of the.
Road, is what can we do to.
See this so in how God works?
I thought as we get ready for our studies, this will be our focus of studies.
And then when January comes, which I know it's 138 degrees today, but I promise it's not far away, all right?
As January approaches, we're going to take a greater emphasis and we are on Missional Discipleship.
And then I'm sitting there in my seat like I do every Sunday, right there, row one.
Come sit with us sometimes.
We'd love to have you.
All right.
And this announcement for Mankamp came up and I was like, bo, you're stupid.
You're stupid.
Because here's missional discipleship that's happening.
So what missional discipleship.
Is it's intentional gathering that meets the need for a group of people both lost and saved?
It's what mancamp does.
It provides guys with an opportunity to come together to do the things that they do right.
And it's something that meets the need for both the lost and the saved.
These gatherings that we will provide can either be a one time once a year gathering or it can be consistent gatherings.
They're going to vary with what they look like.
We're talking about one now that will.
Meet monthly, whereas we're talking about this one that will meet once a year.
What it does, it allows us, the.
Church, to meet the need of those in our world while also giving us.
The church, the opportunity to share the.
Gospel and minister to everyone who's there.
And I promise it's not a bait and switch.
We're going to provide what we say we're going to provide and build into the conversation and the narrative of what we're doing, the opportunities to talk about the truth of Christ with everyone who's there.
And then what it does, it allows you, as you're learning, it allows you as you're getting more questions answered, it allows you who's terrified to go over and have a full blown conversation and share the gospel with somebody who doesn't know Christ.
Here's what it allows you to do.
Just invite them.
Invite them.
Hey, man, my church is doing this.
And I know that you're interested in this.
I'm going to this.
Would you like to go to this with me?
Here's what I'll tell you about Seth.
Before Seth invited me to play basketball, he had repeatedly invited me to Bible study, which was on Friday night, which for a lost person who's 21 at the time, was the worst night that.
You could invite me to a Bible study.
And he changed his approach, right.
It allows you to invite someone who's far from the Lord to do something that they're going to be excited about.
And then in that, we create these environments where it may be just something as simple as hey.
As we've done this activity together, if you've got something you'd like for us to pray for you about, we'd love.
For you to write it on this.
Card and then leave it here.
And then we're going to pray for you this week.
And then here's what that gives us an opportunity to do.
Two weeks later, pick up the phone, dial the number.
Hey, I see where you were part.
Of this event that we did and you left this prayer request.
I want you to know that I've been praying for you every day for what you've shared.
Can I just ask you how's that going?
And now what we've done is we've bridged the gap and given us an opportunity to talk to them about Christ.
So here's the question for you.
What's next for you?
Let's put the circle back up on the screen for just a second.
We've asked you to take a next step.
We want to take a bold next step in following Jesus and over the.
Last few weeks we've laid that out.
Relational discipleship, theological discipleship, missional discipleship.
Well, here's what I'm going to ask you to do.
Number one, are you engaged in any of this?
Are you connected in any aspect within this in the church?
And if the answer is no, okay, it's okay, it's okay.
We want to invite you to take a step and so maybe for you, you're like, no.
I really want deep relationships with those.
People that I attend church with and grow in my relationship with them as I grow in my relationship with Christ.
Then we want to help connect you.
In relational discipleship if you're like.
Man, I'm not in anything but like.
Man, I read my Bible or I want to read my Bible, but I just don't really understand the things of the Bible and so I just want to learn more about what the Bible teaches and let that be the focus.
Then we'd love for you to join.
Us on the theological discipleship.
Maybe you're like, man, I'm just thinking through thinking through, thinking through with all of these things and man, this missional.
Discipleship and while all the pieces haven't.
Come out yet, you're like, that's where.
I want to land and go, great, great.
Man we're excited and want to celebrate what the Lord's doing as you take.
That step to find that path.
But you'll notice there's like these triangles for me as I thought through this, those are arrows.
And so maybe you're sitting here today and you're like, man, I've been a part of a small group.
I've been a part of the men's study.
I'm a part of a women's study.
And we're doing these things.
I'm relationally involved and engaged in doing this.
And so that's where I am.
So I'm good right here's.
What we want to challenge you with this morning is take another step.
You don't leave that behind.
You don't sign away from that.
But what would it look like for you to say, you know what?
While I continue in this, I want to take and also build into that this theological study so that I can do this or I want to build in in my small group.
I'm thinking like these three guys that I know right now that would come to go to man camp with me in October.
And so I'm going to take that step and do that here's.
What we want you to do is to look, to evaluate, and to see so that when you can take a step back and I know life gets busy.
I know there's all of these things that have gone on.
And so if you're looking at this like, man, I can only do one great.
Do what God tells you to do.
We're not trying to sell you on a program.
We're trying to help see that this is what the Lord's doing.
This is what we see in Scripture, and we have the opportunity to be a part of that.
And we want to challenge you to.
Do it with me.
After I got saved.
I waited a.
Week before I told anyone because I didn't think they'd believe me.
First person I told wept like a.
Baby and told me she'd been praying for me for years.
When I got saved, I had a group of people who invited me to their men's group.
We sat down and we talked about what it meant to be a man living for the kingdom of God.
Ironically enough, I had a group of high schoolers, which seemed a little deflating at the time, but was really good.
And they invited me to come to their early 06:00 a.m.
High school guy Bible study.
I was impressed by that.
And we went and they taught me the deep truths of Scripture and theological discipleship and then began to try to figure out who's the person I need to invite to play basketball.
And so what we see from Acts two is this fully engaged discipleship process.
And I don't know where you are on it.
I know where I am, all right.
And I'm ready to take another step.
I am.
And I want to challenge you to take one with me.
Would you pray?
God, thank you so much for this.
Time, lord, my prayer, Lord, this is not me may it may just resound in our hearts.
This is not me saying, you guys are wrong and you've been doing it wrong.
And I've figured it out and this is what you need to go do.
But Lord, this is Me that in the kindness and the grace of Your.
Holy Spirit opening and teaching and revealing.
To Me the truth of what we see in Scripture, that, Lord, we've got when we look out into our world, it's a group of people who are hurt and harassed.
They've been torn and discarded.
They feel like trash.
And Lord, in their lostness, they've embraced it.
And our job is not to look at them and cast judgment.
Our responsibility, our calling is to look on them and be compassionate.
Our call is to go and be the laborer in the field, Lord, the harvest.
You say the harvest is plentiful.
And in a world, Lord, where the church is declining rapidly in what we know, you say the harvest is plentiful.
The problem isn't with the harvest, God.
The problem is with the Church.
And we've stopped.
We've stopped going and harvesting fruit.
And so we're declining not because you're declining.
We're declining because we are declining.
And so, Lord, may we go.
May we go make disciples.
May we engage in relationship with one another.
May we carry one another's burdens.
May we share the depths and the hurt of our souls.
May we have a place where we can talk about the struggles in our marriage, the struggle in our identities, the struggle with our kids, the struggles with our jobs when we talk about the struggles of our work and be surrounded by a group of men and women who love you and who love us and point us to the truth of scriptures.
And Lord, do what your word says to carry our burdens with us so we don't have to carry them alone.
And so, Lord, I thank you for giving us relational discipleship.
Lord, can we be a people who acknowledges that Your Word was breathed out, is the very breath of God?
And it's profitable, it's beneficial, it's good, and it's sufficient for everything that You've called us to do.
And Lord, we do live in a.
World that causes us to question what we believe.
And Lord, we must know what we believe.
We must know who you are in the teaching of Your Word, or we will be like those who have been led astray.
But, Lord, what we don't want to.
Do.
Is build a place where we.
Gather and talk about how great it is to be saved while there's a world dying and lost around us.
Lord, I repent before my church.
Lord, I repent before you that I have not done what I need to.
Do to help us go to be mobilized, to share the Gospel.
And Lord, in your kindness and your compassion and your grace that you extend me, Lord, I thank you for that.
I am not deserving.
But, Lord, may my sin no longer stand in our way because you're somebody that needs to be asked to play.
Basketball.
There'S somebody that needs to be asked to a cup of coffee.
There's somebody that needs to be asked to come to a playground and bring their kids so they can sit around and talk while their kids play.
There's somebody that needs to be asked.
To come and go fishing.
There's somebody that needs to be asked to do something.
And in that it's more than the activity, but it's the creator of the world that is the focus.
And Lord, may we go and do.
That, god, may we take another bold next step in following Jesus.
And it's in his name I pray.
Amen.
Thanks again for listening and be sure to check back next week for another episode.
In the meantime, you can visit us@willowridgechurch.org or by searching for Willowridge Church on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.