 All right, cool. So this morning, we are going to be talking about what is a disciple. We're going to try to answer that question. What is a disciple? And it was some time ago, and I'm expecting everyone to remember, but the last time I was up here teaching Sunday School, we talked about why we make disciples. We tried to answer that question. What is the reason for us as a church, for us as individual Christians to make disciples? So can anyone answer that question? Why do we make disciples? Anyone remember at all? Barbie, do we have a mic to go around at all? No, there we go. Perfect. Barbie, why do we make disciples? Yes. Oh, it's not on. It's a commandment from God? Yes, it's a commandment from God. It meant God commands us to make disciples. So if nothing else, right, if God commands it, it's something that we should do. Are there any other reasons why we should make disciples brahlio? We're to teach others to obey, to observe, to guard the Word of God, and it's for the glory of God. So it's assuming that we're evangelizing, so we're making disciples out of those converts to love Christ, to follow him, to obey him, and then to make other disciples. Yes, that's a good reason too, right? There's tangible results from making disciples. It's not just the command from God, but we see that on earth it's good for us to make disciples. Any other reasons? Josh? It was prophesied, so, or I should say, if we have a desire to see Christ come back, then we should be making disciples. The scripture I'm thinking about is Matthew chapter 24, verse 14, and it says, and this is the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the worlds as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come. Amen, amen, that's where we're getting at. Mr. Prime there, I saw your hand up. Do you have an answer too? I was going to say to make more disciples. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We make disciples, disciples are made, and then they make more disciples. Amen. So all of those things together, they're all true, right? It's commanded, we see tangible results, right? God is ordained, us evangelizing and making disciples, so that that's how he has decided for his kingdom to spread, and also ultimately, we have a forward, we're looking forward to the future. We're looking to the day where we are glorified, we are with Christ, and he has his final possession, his people, and we are all worshiping him. This is the end to what we're looking toward. So when you think of a disciple, when you think of the purpose of discipleship, you're thinking of seeing people on their way to heaven to worship the Lord Jesus Christ, so that Christ receives the reward for his suffering, so that Christ has his final possession, his reward. So today, we're going to speak not simply about why we make disciples, but we're going to talk about what is a disciple, okay? So I want to get from you guys, and we don't have to pass the microphone for this, you guys can shout them out, I'll repeat them, let's do it to the cattle. When you think of the word discipleship, what kind of things come to mind? Discipleship, what things come to mind? Don't everyone say it at once. A follower of Christ? A follower of Christ. Anyone else? You guys can just blur them out. Imitation, okay. Anyone else? A learner, okay. Discipleship, what do you think of? Anyone else? Pete, disciple or, let's broaden that a little bit, like what kind of activities do you envision when you think of discipleship? Evangelism, evangelism, prayer, reading the word, yeah. Edgar, fellowship, for some reason I thought I'd be able to write a lot faster than this. Anyone else? Who is it? Pastor Michael. Patience, patience. Mitch, loving, Barbie, rebuking, come eat, sacrifice, Sabbath day teachings. I'm going to shorten that. Barbie, encouraging. All right, so how about stuff like also do you think of one-on-one, right, one-on-few? You think of Braulio? Obedience. Did any of you guys think of like a classroom setting when you think of discipleship? At all? This one. This one, this class, yeah. So many things come to mind. I don't think anyone said anything wrong, right? No one said anything wrong here about discipleship. So, so let's look, let's look at what the Bible says about discipleship. Let's look at what the Bible says. Let's go to Matthew chapter 10, verses 24, verse 24. I'm going to read here. It says, A disciple is not above his teacher nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house beelzebo, how much more will they malign those of his household? What does this passage tell you about discipleship? The purpose of discipleship is that the individual who is being disciple is, that's why I said imitation, I was thinking of this passage, that he becomes more and more like the individual who he's looking to. So, when a Christian looks to Christ, he looks more and more like him every day. And so it's to be like, when so if you're a disciple of someone, you're attempting to be like this person, right? Mitch, you had your hand up. The same thing. Egger. It seems in the text that there's a connection between the idea of looking to learn or become like someone and their traits and characteristics, but then it makes a connection I think with a functional idea because it compares them to a slave. So the relationship here, it's interesting that a slave is not over their lord. There's an understanding that there's authority involved. There's an understanding that there is service, a completely, fully committed, regulated service that in this case would be regulated by the word of God. Amen. Like there's an aspect of submission involved, right? I'll pass for Michael. Let me call Barbie first. Sorry about that. Matthew 10, 24, a disciple is not about his teacher nor a servant of his master, meaning there's a completely submission to the word of God, no matter what we think. Amen. What the word of God says. Amen, complete submission. Pass for Michael. Yeah, I think in the in the passage where Christ is really doing is he's letting all of his followers know that there is a cost to discipleship and the whole aspect of a disciple not being above its teacher is basically to give them realistic expectations of what they may meet with or will meet with in following him as his disciple is that they're going to suffer just like he suffered. So whatever Christ encountered or endured hostility from sinners against himself in the way of discipleship, if you are a disciple of his, then you can expect to meet with that same type of adversity. Amen, amen. So we covered that the goal of the disciples to be like his teacher. We covered that there is an understanding of a master slave relationship, there's submission. We recovered that a disciple is supposed to expect the same results of the teacher. So if you're following someone, they act a certain way and you act the same way, you expect the same results. And just like Pastor Michael said, there's a cost and the fact that there's a cost, there's a consistent theme of Trump. There's a consistent theme, I'm sorry, of what we'll be talking about today. You're going to hear that word cost a lot. Thank you, brother. In verse 25, he says, it is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household? The context here is with Christ. It is Christ whom they called Beelzebub. He is the one who in this context is the teacher and the master. He is the one who is and so if there's a master-slave relationship, it is with Christ. Amen. It is not with a brother who is discipling. It is with Christ and he is the master and the teacher with whom we are to be conformed to. Yeah, amen, amen. And we didn't get to that particular issue yet, but yes, our understanding is we're all disciples of Christ. For instance, I am not, let's say Noel is spending time with me. He's quote, unquote, discipling me. I am not Noel's disciple. I am Christ's disciple. However, Noel will be acting in obedience to Christ by discipling me. Any other, oh, Sabio. So when I think of discipleship and this passage specifically, I think of learning about Christ. He's teaching and also learning Christ, learning to be like him. Amen, amen. So there's a few other implications we get from this, right? Like, so you can learn a lot about serving Christ from a classroom. Like you can learn a lot through instruction, right? Just verbal instruction. But there's an understanding here that this learning is a learning for transformation, right? This isn't just head knowledge. You're learning to be like someone. And what's implied here is you're attempting to be like someone. And in this particular case, you're attempting to be like Jesus Christ. You want to be like him. So let's look at Matthew chapter 8, verses 18 through 22. It says this. Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side and the scribe came up and said to him, Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Another of the disciples said to him, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. And Jesus said to him, follow me and leave the dead to bury their own dead. What is this passage? Tell us about discipleship. No, well, there is a cost to following Christ and that it could maybe not in everybody's circumstances, but it could potentially even cost you. It could cost you everything. It would be willing to make that commitment. Yeah, it cost you everything, right? Barbie. It says another of the disciples said to him, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. We are to make this partnership a priority. Yeah, amen, amen, amen. What what kinds of things here does Jesus specifically telling these people that following him is a priority over Logan? Relationships outside Christ and the church. Yeah, yeah. So the second one here, you see a relationship, right? He wants to bury his father first. It could have been he's looking for an inheritance. It could be that he doesn't want to leave his family. Various reasons. Was that Lauren or Sarah? Um, earthly comfort. You see that Christ doesn't have a place to lay his head, you know, implying that if you follow me, you will have that either. You may not have that either. Amen, amen. Christ is telling this guy, hey, look, foxes, um, foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests. Like animals, animals live better than I do. Right. Are you willing? Are you willing to pay that price? Raleigh. In verse 19, it says, then a scribe came and said to him, teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. And in this verse, it's not just a mere profession. Just saying I'm gonna do it because in verse 22, Jesus says, follow me and allow the dead to bury their own dead. So it's not just saying you're going to follow him. It's an action. It is an action. Amen. Everyone knows someone who always talks about what they're gonna do. Right. You know, I'm gonna do this. I want to do that. And then they never do any of what they say. Right. These people say, Jesus, I want to follow you. And he doesn't, he doesn't sit there and say, oh, that's great. That you want to follow me. Right. He tells them, oh, come follow me. Leave all that stuff behind and come. Come follow me, brother. Along those lines, you can see that discipleship is something that's immediate and continual. It's not something that you can put off. And it's not something that you can do for a while and then stop and then do for a while again later. It's something that's, it has to be, if you make a commitment, it has to be right now. And it has to be until the rest of your life. Yeah, yeah. My first thought when thinking about that, I think of when Jesus calls James and John, right? They, they leave the boat, like they leave the business. You can imagine their father calling out to them, hey, hey, we have work to do. And they're like, well, I'm retired now, you know, bye. Right. They, they know that their priority is with Jesus Christ. It's an immediate call and you, and you follow him. Discipleship is not, following Christ is not something to put off. And if you have that attitude, then you don't have the attitude of the disciple. If you put it off, Brian. It's also not a, it's not like a, like, what Christ does in that first instance there, where the person said that he wanted to follow him. He, it's not, he doesn't like to try to discourage him in so much as he, he wants him to understand that this is a serious commitment and you can't make it frivolously. Like, it's almost like, you know, if, if, if it was another church, they would have let him in the prayer, right? Yeah. But Christ, Christ says, okay, well, understand that if you come, you might not have a house or belongings or possessions. And he's trying to tell this guy that this is a serious commitment. And you really need to think about it. That's something that you really want to do. Amen. You have two, you have two principles in play, right? You can't be flippant. It's not, it's not spur of the moment as in, it's just a wild decision. But at the same time, it's something that can't be delayed. You have to, you have to make the decision. Brother. Yeah. I'm, in all of this, to sum it up, we're no half-hearted Christians. He's calling for us to be fully committed from that point to the end of our lives. Amen. Amen. Full, full commitment, Mitch. And to this point, Christ had manifest his, that he was the Son of God and the miracles that he had been performing. And so many who were there, many of that crowd knew who it was they were seeking to follow. Though many were deceived and what they believed to be a good motivation and he would have many turned away, they're not just following somebody dressed nicely to a, to a degree. You know, it was his miracles, his testimony of himself that they were following. Amen. He gave proof of himself, right? It wasn't, these people weren't making a, it wasn't just a guess. They knew what they were getting themselves into, right? Amen. Amen. Let's go to, so you put all the legions aside to follow Christ. You're not coming to a life of ease when you follow Christ. So the life of a disciple is not an easy life. And it's not a life where you can have multiple masters. You can't be pulled one way and pulled the other. You have a singular focus. You're following one person and that person is Jesus Christ. Okay. So let's look at Luke chapter 14 and starting at verse 25. Now, great crowds accompanied him and he turned and said to them, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king going out to encounter another king in war will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000? If not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Why the same principles, right? So what other things does this text teach us about discipleship? Barbie? You have to be willing to forsake everything and anything for Christ. Forsake everything and anything. Amen. So Christ is using examples. The first one, I think, the idea of edifying a tower. He's bringing up the fact that even in that time to build or edify a tower, there's expectations. There's a sense where there is a norm. This is what it's going to take. Jesus is saying if you cannot quantify, right, what we know is the cost to do that, then you're going to do it a halfway, which means you won't be successful, which means you didn't reach the goal that you're looking to reach. And I think there's a sense where the Word of God, where obviously we know this through further revelation, there's an idea of what it costs to follow Christ. And so if it's clearly understood to not clearly comprehend or take to the task of what that means, it means you're going to fail, which proves you're not a disciple. Yeah, yeah. Would you start building a house when you don't have enough money to complete it, right? There's no way you're going to get it done. He gives another example about common cause right after that. What was that with the king? Can anyone explain that one? Any chance? If you're a king, you bring your army, right? And you have 10,000. He has 20,000. Who's going to win? I won't win. How much? 20,000, right? So are you going to risk the destruction? Are you going to risk being destroyed or are you going to surrender? Ryan, do you have a handle? It's not related to the king. Yeah, go ahead. Okay. Just in the first verse of 25, the context of the situation helps too. There's great multitudes with him. And he turns to them and says this, so they're already people who are following him. And it's a multitude of people. Yeah. And he's telling them this very strong language about hating these relationships, these people that you're related to, and hyperbole, which are the closest finds apart from the disciple of Christ. And using them and the word hate to help describe the commitment level that is absolutely necessary to being his disciple. And it helps illustrate how we, all people throughout history, need to be on guard against valuing numbers over commitment. And I think that's this helps illustrate that because if the Lord was most interested in numbers, then he was the commitment that he's describing here. You wouldn't see him doing this. Amen. Amen. Yeah, these people weren't there to follow Christ, the person. They were there for some benefit that they can get from him, whether they wanted him to perform some miracles, some food, get some food, whatever it was, they were there for some personal benefit, but they weren't committed to Christ himself, brother. Also, I think the last couple verses, therefore, salt is good, but if even salt has become tasteless with what will it be seasoned, it is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile it is thrown out. He has ears to hear, let him hear. I think that's relevant to the cost of discipleship because just as salt has a function and a purpose, and if it has no saltiness, then you're just going to throw it out in the same way. If you have a Christian and the general pattern of his life is not fulfilling the purpose to which he's called, then he's useless and he's worthless and he's going to be thrown out. Amen. Amen. Amen. Brother. Oh, sorry. Either way, you guys have like a humble fight or something like that. What I really like about this entire text is how the Lord is telling us that we're either His disciples or we're not. Amen. And there's no middle ground and this scripture alone should cause us all to examine ourselves. And if these things are not happening, like we're not loving Him above all, we're not obeying His word, we're not in repenting, turning from our sin to Christ, then we cannot be His disciple. If we are His disciple, then these things are going to happen and it will be completed not by our own strength or power, but because God is working in us. Yeah. Amen. Amen. Brother. Yeah, exactly. That's what I was going to say. And to that point, it should give us a urgency or a sense of the importance of counting the cost when we're first discipling anybody that's new to the church or in evangelism because the Lord doesn't give an alternative to counting the cost. He says if that person that sits down and wants to build a house doesn't, otherwise, and then he finds out that he laid the foundation and can't build at all, it says otherwise they will mock him or they will just read it. So otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish it, all who observe it begins to ridicule him. And then with the King, it says, or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. And the ones that we go to war with as disciples of Christ are the flesh, the world, and Satan. And peace with them is, the Lord tells us that discipleship following Christ is in that he with the world and those things don't coexist. So if you don't count the cost, if you're not prepared to go to battle against the greater numbers, you're not going to, there's no alternative, you're not going to be a follower of Christ. Oh, I'm sorry, Keith. Just along those lines with the terms of peace, I see, maybe I'm wrong, you can correct me. As a unbeliever, you're coming up against the King of Kings. And terms of peace run his terms. We send him, okay, what are your terms of peace? It's not we offer this, we offer that. How can I surrender? Yeah, yeah, amen, bro. Like you come before the King who is able to destroy you and you must submit to him. So you consider the cost in one way. This is going to require this much of me to build this house. And then on the flip side, you understand, you know what, if I don't follow him, this is going to cost me dearly, it's going to cost me my life, my soul. So consider what we're going through here, so Jesus explains to the crowd, he explains to the crowd that they're to give up all of their allegiances to the point where it looks like you're not literally going to hate your family, right? But when you follow Christ, you leave your allegiances, is it going to look like that to them? Yeah, much of the time have some of us experienced that, not all of us who were Christians or many of us. You've experienced some form of that, right? It may not be the exact same people in your life, but you experience hatred for following Christ, for evangelizing to those who are lost, for not running with the same folks that you used to run with. And they will hate you for that. And you have to be willing to leave your friends and your family, because Christ is far better. You also have to count the costs, like we're just talking about. And you have to be willing, you have to bear your cross, you have to be willing to die, you have to be willing to give up everything. You're understanding that this life isn't about you, right? When Christ went to the cross, he wasn't going to the cross for his own pleasure. He came and he demonstrated that when he was on earth, his life wasn't, obviously everything is about Christ to us, right? You understand that? But what he demonstrated as a man was he demonstrated a life of humility and submission, and what it looks like to live life not for yourself, but to give it all. And that's what we are to do. So when you come to Christ, you're not coming holding on to anything. You come to Christ with an open hand. Now, we've been implying the same thing, and we get good teaching at this church, right? So we understand that a disciple is a Christian, right? And a Christian is a disciple. And we see that clearly. If you look at the surrounding parables, these are all about salvation, right? When you look at the language of what it means to be a disciple, the cost of following Christ, you see that this is repentance language. The call to discipleship is the call to repentance. So you cannot be a Christian and not be a disciple. You see, if you're a Christian, you're a disciple. And if you're a genuine disciple, you're a Christian. It's like you look at a pig, and one person says, well, that's a pig. And the other person says, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's a swine. We're talking about the same thing, right? It's just two words that mean the same thing. Okay? So the other thing I want to bring up, and I think Broly touched on this, is we all have to examine ourselves. And sometimes when you're in a church like this, where the Gospel is preached regularly and faithfully, going to passages like this, if you go out on corporate evangelism every week, some of you read this same passage every Saturday. I open this passage up a whole lot, right? And what's dangerous sometimes is that this can become very normal to you to hear these words. And once they convicted you a lot when you were first converted, you used to mull over them, you used to think about them, you used to examine yourself and say, oh man, you know, am I following Christ? Am I totally committed to him? Am I one of his disciples? But as you go along, you kind of get used to it. And then you forget to examine yourself. So I want to encourage you brothers and sisters to use this passage to examine yourself and these other passages. Think through it. Don't be the person in Matthew 7 who calls Christ Lord but does not do the things that he says that doesn't live for him. Be the person who not only believes this in their head, but obeys this with their full heart. Okay? But Pete. Yeah, that following repentance, okay, we're told that we need to turn to Christ by faith with a total commitment, as you mentioned. And in order to maintain that, we need to immerse ourselves in the means of grace, okay? And that's every Tuesday and Wednesday night, we have small groups where we have accountability and it's based upon the means of grace. And then we can also do that on our own, okay? We need to sit back and say, okay, am I reading my Bible? Am I evangelizing? Am I sharing all these different things in them that he has given us not only to sanctify us, but to keep us from stumbling? Yeah, amen. Amen. When we think through the church, the church is in place to facilitate discipleship. When you think about everything that we do, everything that we do as a church is for the sake of discipleship, right? What's our, I don't know what it's called, motto statement, whatever, what making disciples for the glory of God, right? Everything we do. And not every little pedantic thing, right? I'm not saying that, you know, if Joby is replacing a light bulb that he's essentially someone, right? But the purpose of even all of our service is to facilitate discipleship in the church. This is discipleship. So let's actually, on that note, let's go to Romans chapter 16. And one point I want to bring out, so sometimes when we think of discipleship, we kind of think of just the Gospels. And you see discipleship all throughout the Bible, especially the New Testament. And one little tidbit of knowledge, right? The word, the Greek word for discipleship is mathetes. That means to learn, be a learner, a follower, a learning follower. And that's a now. Well, there's an accompanying word to mathetes is montano. And that's the verb form of mathetes. It means to learn or to be discipled. Right? And you find this word, you find this word all throughout the New Testament. Take a look at Romans chapter 16, verse 17. I think we're, yeah, verse 17. I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been learned, taught, discipled, montano. Avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. And by smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the hearts of the naive. For your obedience is known to all. So that I rejoice over you. But I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. So he tells them, he tells them that they're to learn good doctrine, right? They're to be discipled and good doctrine. And I'm going to, I'm going to run a little fast. I'm starting to run out of time. I see. He also, he also does this so that they can be wise and obedient. And he looks forward to the final victory of Satan being crushed under their feet, right? But you see, they're being discipled. They're being discipled in good doctrine. So you as a disciple, you want to be discipled in good doctrine. See, let's go to Ephesians chapter four, starting at verse 17. Now this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you Montano learned have been taught Christ, been discipled in Christ, right? Assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life, and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God and true righteousness and holiness. So you're not only to be discipled or taught in good doctrine, you're to be discipled and taught how to live, right? How to put off the old man and to be renewed in righteousness, is to be discipled in that. Let's move to Philippians chapter 4, and starting at verse 8 here. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have Montano learned, have been taught and discipled, and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. But that I am speaking of being in need for I have Montano learned, have been taught, have been discipled, and whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. So you see the importance of a godly example in discipleship, right? Paul didn't just instruct them with his lips. He didn't just tell them what to do. What did Paul do? He was an example, right? He modeled what it looks like to follow Christ in front of these people to the point where he is able to tell them, imitate me, do what I do. Have you ever asked yourself, can I tell someone else that? Can you tell someone else that about your evangelism? Can you say imitate me and my evangelism as I imitate Jesus Christ? Can you say study the scripture the way I do? I'm not talking about, again, the pedantic details, right? Like, did you read Romans 1 yesterday? Like I did? No. But imitate your faithfulness to it, right? What about your speech? Can you tell others to imitate your speech? Imitate the way that you put off sin and are renewed in righteousness by putting on righteousness? Those are the things that Paul was able to say, and Paul is a man just like us, right? That's not the special duty of an apostle. These are the things that Christians are expected to do. Go one chapter back, Philippians chapter 3, verse 17. It says, Brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you, even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Right? So he's even able to say, imitate me in watching out for these people, for these false teachers. Imitate me and don't imitate them. Right? So you should be able to say those same things that Paul says. You should be able to say those same things. Let's go to Matthew chapter 28. So this is a quick recap, right? We, in the very beginning, we recapped on why we make disciples. We talked about what is a disciple. We talked about the cost of discipleship, how a disciple is to leave all of his allegiances to follow Christ. We talked about, we looked in the, in some of the epistles here, and we looked at some of the practical examples of what discipleship looks like. And it gives us some, it gives us some feet to how we're to do that in the church a bit, right? If you, and again, like I mentioned, if you think about the church, everything we do is discipleship, everything from corporate evangelism, small group, being here on Sunday service, Sunday evening, right? All of these things are discipleship. These are all put in place for you to follow Christ and to follow him better. Some of them are by instruction, by word. Some of them are by example. Some of them are a bit of both, right? But let's look at Matthew 28 because, and we already touched on it a little bit, but a disciple has a duty himself. Starting at verse 16, now the 11 disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him. But some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. What do we call this passage? You can blur it out. The Great Commission, right? So a disciple isn't just to sit back and consume, is he? Or her, right? A disciple is also to, to produce more disciples or produces in the right word. But we make disciples. By the power of the Spirit of God, we go and we preach the gospel. They come in to our fold and, and we teach them. And then they go out and they do the same. It's recursive, isn't it? Every disciple makes disciples. Every disciple is committed to making disciples. I mean, it doesn't necessarily mean every disciple is great at it, right? But every disciple does and is fully committed. Right? If, if you consider yourself to be a disciple, you say, I follow Jesus Christ. But you show either through your words or through your actions that you don't have interest in seeing other people converted and seeing other people, your brother, your brethren, sanctified. What does that say about you? Because you're not a disciple. You're not a disciple. Because that's what a disciple does. You see? A disciple is committed to Christ. And if you really think about it, right? What are some of the biggest, what are some of the bigger things that cause someone to refrain from being a disciple? Is it, is it just the Bible reading? Is it just a prayer? Those things can be difficult at times. They require some discipline. But the hard things are when you have to deal with people, isn't it? It's when you have to go and preach the gospel to someone who may hate you for it. It's when you have to go and talk to a brother or a sister after a small group about their sin. Or it's when, it's when you, as a disciple, have to be honest about your sin. And it's when it's, it's time to be held accountable. Those are the things that make it hard when you deal with people. And these are the first indicators that you may not be a disciple sometimes. When you're not willing to love your brothers and you're not loving the lost. And when you don't love your brothers, and we, and when you don't love the lost, right? You read the book of 1st John, it means you don't love God, right? You don't love Jesus. You don't have him. So it's very important to think through these things, right? Like we said these all the time, like this is not a new message. You've all heard this before many, many times. But if you're honest, it should never get old. All right. This is, this is central to what we do. So as you go through the day today, think about, am I committed to Christ? Am I fully committed to him? Am I willing to suffer for him? Have I counted the cost? I'm not talking about being introspective and going through every detail of your wickedness and sin. But you need to look at is the spirit of God producing fruit in your life, showing that he is in you? Are you, are you showing that you are one of his? And pray as God if you are. And if not, today is a perfect day to repent, right? Be committed to Christ today. Count the cost today. All right. Let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord, I pray that you would, you would bless on the teaching today. Lord, that, that your people and including myself would be encouraged from your word, understanding what it means to be one of your people, one of your disciples. Lord, as one of your disciples, I can, I can say very clearly, Lord, it is a joy to follow you. It is a joy, Lord, to be in service to you. Lord, I want and I know my brothers and my sisters want to be like you. I can't wait for the day where I'm glorified to be with you, Lord Jesus. And Lord, I pray for my brothers and sisters here and for every lost person in here, Lord, to examine themselves, to think through, are they one of yours? Are they one of your disciples? And to live it out. And for those who are already disciples to live it out better, better today than they did before. So Lord, may your name be glorified and then, although we praise you and we are very grateful, Lord, of this privilege of seeing what your word has to say about discipleship. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.