Branded by Discipleship : What It Means to Follow Jesus

Praise God. Well, we’re not going to take a fellowship break this morning. So grab your Bibles. We’re going to jump right into the word of the Lord. And as we’re doing that, I do want to mention that as a part of Como mission, we were asked to go over to Dave and Cheryl Harz shop and grab some trees. And so when you come to church this morning, you might’ve seen over here by the church, the garage, there’s a bunch of, of oak and maple trees. And we’d like to give you one. Uh, we’ve already, uh, already got, we’re one less than we had originally. I think somebody has already taken one, but if you would like a tree, a free tree to plant in your house or your home, uh, please check those out and we’ll get you a tree. And thank you to Cheryl and Dave for those, those trees. Okay. This morning we’re continuing our series called branded whose brand are you wearing? And so I’m preaching this message, a series of messages. And next Sunday, pastor Ellis is going to be preaching right along this same theme. Yes, you are. He’s shocked. He’s like me what? We believe that as a Christian, you’re like a cowboy. As a disciple, you’re like a desperado. You don’t fit in with the culture around you. Come on church. You’re not like everybody else. If you’re going to walk with Jesus, you’re going to be different because you’ve been marked. Last week we talked, or the week before last, we talked about you’re marked by repentance and you’re marked by following the spirit. Right? And so this week we’re just talking about marked by discipleship and marked by following Jesus. Let’s, let’s read in Mark one 14 through 20 and Mark three, 14 and 15. So I’m going to begin in Mark’s gospel chapter one and I’m going to read here in verse 14 all the way through verse 20. After John was put into prison, can I just pause there and say, it’s not always easy serving the Lord this side of heaven. I’m going to read that again. Verse 14 after John was put in prison, I mean, what did he ever done to deserve that except live for God? After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming the good news of God. And I’m reading from the NIV. The time has come. He said, the kingdom of God has come near repent and believe the good news. Jesus, as Jesus walked beside, this is verse 16. As Jesus walked beside the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake for they were fishermen. Come follow me. Jesus said, and I will send you out to fish for people. And once they left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James, son of Zebedee and his brother, John, and a boat preparing their nets without delay. He called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him. And now I’m going to turn to Mark chapter three, and I’m just going to read verses 14 and 15. Mark chapter three verses 14 and 15. He appointed 12 that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. Will you pray with me? Lord Jesus, thank you for your word. Lord, we thank you for the Bible for these 66 books, Lord, that are God breathed and given to us as examples to us for doctrine, for teaching, to teach us how to live our lives. Thank you that the kingdom of God has come. The heavenly kingdom has come to earth. Lord, help us to live under your rule, under your government, under your authority, the kingdom of God. Lord, I pray this morning that you’d speak to all of our hearts. Lord, challenge us to be marked by Jesus. Challenge us to be branded by discipleship. We give you all the praise, all the glory in Jesus name. Amen. Well, the first question I want to ask this morning is what is discipleship? Discipleship is learning. And unlike the modern university of today, which is really focused on theory, right? Discipleship is more like a trade school. And I just want to pause and say, I like both. You know, I like university. I like trade schools, community colleges. They’re all good if they’re helping you learn and grow. But when you think about the discipleship of the new Testament, it’s much more like mentoring or apprenticing. It’s much more like a trade school where you’re learning hands on practical stuff. So let me just use the example of teaching someone to fish or learning to ride a horse or learning to play an instrument. I’ll start with an instrument because we got some great young people growing in our church on their instruments. And I just love that. So shout out to the worship team and thank you for all you guys are doing. But I can tell you, they don’t just show up here one day and go, oh, let me just try the guitar for the first time or let me just try the piano for the first time. It takes a lot of practice. It takes a lot of hands on learning. So if you’re going to learn how to play an instrument, well, someone’s got to tell you some stuff and then they’ve got to show you some stuff and then they’ve got to give you an opportunity and then you’ve got to try and maybe not do so well and then do better and then try again and then do better. That’s how you learn, right? That’s how you grow. It’s the same with fishing. You don’t teach someone to fish by putting them in a classroom, you know, and saying, let me tell you the seven principles related to good fishing. I mean, there are some things you need to know, but really what you need to do if you want to learn to fish is you’ve got to get out there and you’ve got to put the hook in the water and you’ve got to try to fish and before long you learn a thing or two. Remember that old insurance commercial? They’re probably still doing it. I know a thing or two because I’ve done a thing or two. Is that how that goes? And we’ve got a few jokes about that on our, from our fishing trips and I’m not going to, I’m not going to tell any joke, any of those stories right now. But so, so whether I’m learning how to play an instrument or I’m learning how to fish or I’m learning how to ride a horse, you know, there’s, there’s actually quite a lot you’ve got to know about horses and saddles and bridles and, and you really need to get familiar with all of that information. But that doesn’t work in a classroom. I mean, knowing that in a classroom is not enough. It would be like reading the manual. Let’s say you buy a new car, right? I love this illustration. You read the manual, but you never drive the car. One, that’s not very exciting, but you never really learn how to drive the car. It’s when you get out in the car and you can feel the engine and you can feel that wheel. It’s the same thing riding a horse. Yes, you can learn some things about the gear and learn how the horse behaves, but it’s when you spend time with that horse and you begin to ride and you really begin to understand, okay, that’s what it feels like to ride a horse. Friends, that’s discipleship. You see, there’s a lot of great teachers when you study ancient history, Cicero, Plato, all these different people, Socrates. But interestingly enough, it’s only Jesus that said, come follow me. He didn’t just say, come follow these truths or listen to these things that I believe, but Jesus actually says, come and follow me. That’s discipleship. And what I love about the gospels, and we’ll look here, why don’t we do it right now? Let’s look at Mark chapter two, verse 13 through 17. This is the story of Matthew, Levi, the tax collector. What I love about the stories in the gospels is it’s clear Jesus called all kinds of people. He didn’t just call the poor or the rich. He didn’t just call the educated or the uneducated. Jesus called anyone who would come and follow him to come and to follow him. And so it doesn’t matter our background. It doesn’t matter where we come from, who our parents were, how much money we have in the bank or don’t. Jesus is calling you to come and to follow him. Look with me at chapter two, verse 13. Once again, Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him and he began to teach them. As he walked along, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax collector’s booth. Follow me, Jesus told him and Levi got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? And we love verse 17. This is a part of the gospel. This is a part of who we are as a church. On hearing this, Jesus said to them, it’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. And what I love about verse 17 is it’s in this context of Jesus calling Matthew, not just to come and learn a few things, but to actually be one of the 12. That’s powerful. You know, the truth is, if you looked at the 12 men that Jesus called to be his disciples and took that list to a modern day, let’s say you’re starting a new business or you’re starting a new school or something, you wouldn’t have selected most of those guys. I mean, they were fishermen. They were tax collectors. One was a zealot. He was a terrorist. They were an oddball group of people. But Jesus selected them. He chose them. He called them. He spent time with them. He walked with them and he changed and transformed their lives all because they were following closely after Jesus. I was thinking about how to illustrate this morning what it would look like to follow closely after Jesus in your life today. Now, back in the first century, it literally meant the dust of your master’s sandals were getting all over your face and all over your clothing. I mean, you were with him wherever you went. But I think the best I could do for us today is to think about following someone with your eyes closed, because I don’t like that at all. Have you ever just tried that to just you’ve walked through your living room, do that this afternoon, but make sure you get help. And if something goes wrong, I didn’t tell you to do this, OK? But but just try to make it from your living room to the refrigerator. I think we’ve all been there so we can do it again and do it with your eyes closed. Then try it a second time with maybe your spouse or one of your kids would be even more fun and let them hold on to your hand and just see how much more confidence you have. Your eyes are closed both ways, but either either way, your eyes are closed. But one, you’re trying to get there by yourself. I’ve tried this in the pool, by the by the way, before. And I swim a lot for like for a long time. I’ve been a swimmer since I was 10 years old. But even me, after all the swimming I’ve done, if I close my eyes too much, I end up going that way or that way. Right. You know, I like lose my direction. And that’s probably what’s going to happen to you if you start go home and try to walk through your house with your eyes closed. Eventually, you’re going to lose your way. But what discipleship looks like is Jesus holding your hand and you staying connected with him. Your eyes are closed. You are 100 percent dependent on him leading you. That’s discipleship. Lord, help me get to that place in my heart where I can just rest in you and I can just hold your hand and I can close my eyes and say, God, you’ve got this. I don’t have to look at what’s going on around me. I don’t have to focus on my circumstances or the struggle, but I can close my eyes. I can hold your hand and you’re going to lead me safely through. That’s discipleship. I want to go back now to Mark, chapter one, and we were reading in verse 14. And I want to go back up here to 14 and 15. After John was in prison, Jesus went into the Galilee proclaiming the good news of God. And of course we know, and your Bible, this is the NIV, might say gospel. We know gospel is a Greek word, really, that means good news. But I want to ask the question, what was the good news that the Jewish people in the Judean countryside, what were they looking for? When Jesus came and Matthew tells us and Mark tells us and Luke tells us and John tells us that the first public message of Jesus was repent and believe the gospel for the kingdom of heaven has come to earth. That was the first public words of Jesus. What were they looking for? What was Jesus saying that good news has come? So I began to think about if I was a first century Jew, what is it that I thought was the good news? Well, they were expecting an end of time, last day’s arrival of God’s special messenger, the Messiah. The Messiah would establish God’s government, God’s rule, God’s reign on earth. He would bring justice and truth. He would make the world right with God again. Specifically, they were anticipating a victorious Messiah, a conquering king Messiah who would overthrow the Roman occupation, restore the political sovereignty of Israel and usher in a golden age of peace, prosperity, and national supremacy. Do you know that Jews today are still looking for that Messiah? They’re still looking for that aspect of what prophets like Isaiah and Micah and Daniel and Zachariah and all through the Psalms envision. They’re still looking for that conquering king, national political leader kind of Messiah. We know that there was another aspect to the Messiah that Isaiah 11 and Isaiah 61 verse 1 and 2 and Micah 5-2 and Daniel chapter 7 and chapter 9 and Zachariah 9-9. We know that there was a suffering servant aspect to the Messiah. And so when Jesus came, he came declaring the good news that the end had come, the Messiah had arrived, only he didn’t come to set up God’s heavenly kingdom on earth in like government or like a rule, a political rule. He came, get this, he came to set up God’s government in your heart, in your life, in my life, in my heart. And so when Jesus comes, there was a little bit of a misunderstanding in the first century. They were expecting the conquering king, political leader who would make all things right. And that’s coming, praise the Lord, that’s coming. We’re looking for the Messiah to come again. And when Jesus comes again, he’s going to reign as a conquering warrior and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess and say, yes, Jesus is Lord. But when he came the first time here in Mark’s gospel and he said, the time has come, the kingdom of God has come near. You see, the good news was that now we could all have a relationship with God through Jesus. All of our hearts could be changed. In the Old Testament, it was kings, priests, and prophets that received an anointing, that served God in special ways. But in the New Testament, passages like Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34 tell us that God’s word is written on your heart and your mind. You can all know God. You can all have a personal relationship with the Lord. God’s government, God’s rule, God’s reign can come into your life. And then in your sphere of influence, your home, your relationships, your finances, you can live as if God’s authority, his reign, his rule has come. Are we doing that? I hope we’re doing that. I hope we’re living as Christians, as fully devoted disciples of Jesus, marked by the kingdom of God coming into our hearts, coming into our lives. You see, Jesus offered a spiritual kingdom rather than a political or physical kingdom. And that was the good news. The good news was that your sins could be forgiven. You could have a relationship with God. You could be rescued and regenerated. You could be renewed. Your whole life could change as you walk with the Lord. You didn’t have to live in the world and suffer the consequences of worldly things. You could walk with God. That was the good news. And as the church of the Lord began to spread and as people began to walk as if God’s kingdom was ruling in their hearts and their lives, the world could become a better place. I believe that also. See, we live in a dark world that needs the church. We live in a dark world that needs Christian homes. We live in a dark world that needs Christian young people to stand up and say, I will follow though none go with me still. I will follow the Lord. I will walk with Jesus. That’s the good news. You see, the good news is personal transformation, but it’s also as Christians begin to walk with God, the kingdom of heaven comes to earth one life at a time. So this morning, I want to go verse by verse here and just think about in this passage and in Mark chapter three, what it means to follow Jesus and what it means to be called to follow Jesus. One thing I know for certain is the most fulfilled people on the planet are people who are living with a sense of calling. I was reading an article this last week that talked about that very fact that there tends to be two main factors in determining human flourishing and fulfillment or what we might call happiness. And the first is, do you have a sense of calling? I’ve watched people over the years. I’ve watched some people who do very mundane jobs that they don’t particularly enjoy, but they do it because they love their family. They do it because they want to take care of their family, but somewhere along the way, they invite Jesus into that mundane job. And there’s some of the happiest people in the world. You would look at their job and go, I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to pick up trash all day. And they’re out there singing worship songs and they’re praising Jesus. What happened? They figured out a way in the midst of difficult things to say, Lord, I believe you’ve called me to this. I believe you’re walking with me. They have a sense of calling. They have a sense of vocation. The happiest people on the planet are people who have a sense of, hey, I’m supposed to be doing this. This is the cause that I’m living for. And I want to ask you as a Christian this morning, do you have that sense of call? Because in the Lord, you should have a sense of calling. In the Lord, every area of your life, you can have that sense of calling, even in the way you recreate, even in the way you spend your money, even in the way you save your money, even in the way you invest your money, your work, everything you do, your family life. If you can get that sense of calling that God is wanting me to live like this, God is wanting me to do this or that, you know what will happen? Your fulfillment quotient will go way up and you’ll be able to do things that are making other people miserable, but you can do it with joy. You can do it with peace. You can do it with meaning and significance because you have a sense of calling in your life. I hope that every believer here and online can honestly say this morning, I want a sense of calling. I want to hear God’s voice in my life. I want to study scripture and figure out what does God want my life to be? What am I supposed to be doing? How am I supposed to be living? Because when you have that sense of calling, you can go through hard things and you can experience fulfillment, satisfaction, meaning, and purpose. And so we’re called most just foundationally as Christians, we’re all called to follow Jesus. So number one, it comes from verse 15, and I’ll read it again. The time has come, he said, the kingdom of God has come near, repent and believe the good news. So what are we called to as we follow Jesus? We’re called to repent and to believe. We’re called to repent and to believe. As disciples of Jesus, we’re like desperadoes. As Christians, we’re like cowboys. We’re different. We don’t fit in. We’re not like you. We’re not like them. We’re different. We don’t fit in. We’re not like everybody else. Do you know that the average person that you rub shoulders with today, they are perfectly happy in the way their sinful life is going. It’s only the Christian once the spirit of God has come in and you’ve experienced the grace of God. And this is one of the ways I know I’m a believer. I am miserable in sin. Can’t stay there long. Makes me miserable. I lose my peace. No contentment. Now an unbeliever, they’re blinded. They’re perfectly happy. I’ve known people over the years that they can do the most ungodly thing. Doesn’t bother them much at all. They just don’t want to get caught because they don’t want to lose their job or whatever, you know, but it’s not bothering them. They’re like, I’m good. This is just the way I live. But once the spirit of God, once you’ve come into contact with Jesus, once you have met the Lord, once you’ve read his word, once the spirit of God has done something in your life, you will never again be happy living like the world lives because Christians are like cowboys. Disciples are like desperados. We don’t fit in with the world. We don’t fit in with the crowd. We’re different. We’re called to repent and to believe the good news. The word for repentance is simply a change of mind. That’s where it starts. It starts in our mind. How do you repent? You invite God to change your mind so that you start thinking the way God thinks. You start agreeing with God in your mind. And as you begin to repent in your mind and in your heart, and I believe faith comes out of our heart. Repentance starts in our mind. As you begin to repent and to believe God is invited into your life and you begin to change. You experience a metamorphosis. You experience a transformation. You see, when we repent, we change our mind about sin, about righteousness, about goodness, truth, beauty, and we begin to believe and we begin to trust God’s word, God’s truth. And we not just his word, but we trust who God is, that he has what’s best for us. Can you just whisper that to yourself this morning? God has what’s best for me. God has what’s best for me. Not my flesh, not the world, not even our emotions that lie to us on a regular basis. God’s word and God himself has what’s best for you. And so Jesus, just like in the first century, just like in the pages of these gospels, Jesus calls all kinds of people, tax collectors, zealots, fishermen, all kinds of everyday people to come and to follow him. And so for the Christian, that is the most basic of calls. That’s where we get our identity. That’s where we get our sense of purpose and meaning. I am a follower of Jesus Christ. And I hope this morning that you’ll press into that. Secondly, from verses 16 and 17, Mark chapter 1, we’re not only called to repent and believe, we’re called to follow Jesus. We’re called simply to follow Jesus. Verse 16 and 17, as Jesus walked beside the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will send you out to fish for people, or I will make you fishers of men. I love it here that Jesus doesn’t say, come and follow these truths, come and follow this doctrine, come and follow my traditions. Jesus literally says to his first disciples, come and follow me. Religious leaders, and you’ve heard me say this before, but I’ll say it again this morning, if I stood up and said, hey, if you want to find God, come to me, you’d all know I was crazy. And so it’s not necessarily normal for a religious leader to say, hey, if you want to grow spiritually, if you want to experience the kingdom of God, if you want to have truth, come follow me, right? That’s a little odd. But we know from the Gospels, Jesus, he was special. Jesus was different. Jesus was unique. He was the son of David. He was the son of man. I just read something recently that told me that in every chapter of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus declares himself as God. In every chapter, with different titles, son of God, son of man, which is easier, to forgive sins or to say, rise, take up your bed and walk? In different ways, in every chapter of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus declares himself as God. You see, Jesus was more than a teacher, is more than a prophet. He was more than just a special messenger. He was all of that, and he was God. And so Jesus says to his first disciples, come and follow me. And I want us to think about what does that really mean in our lives today? And when I turn in my Bible to Mark chapter 3, verse 14, I read that Jesus selected 12, and he called those 12 first that they might be with him. And then he sent them out to preach, and to preach the Gospel, and the good news, and to cast out demons. But the primary call of following Jesus, Mark chapter 3, verse 14, is just to come and to be with Jesus. We’re called to be in his presence. It’s what marks us. We’re called to build a relationship with Jesus. And friends, I don’t want to get, at this point in my life, I am done. I’m so done with being super spiritual, religious about what that looks like. That doesn’t have to look like an hour and a half on your knees crying. If that just is like, pastor, that’s not me, it’ll never happen. I’ll tell you, at this point in my life, I love praying at the church altar. I love walking and praying. I love listening to worship and praying. And my favorite place to pray is after I’ve caught a really good fish. And it’s just a wonderful day on the lake, and I just am able to unwind and just talk to the Lord. So I don’t know how you’re spending time with Jesus, but let’s not be super religious about it. Let’s not turn it into something that feels impossible. When you get your coffee or your tea in the morning, or you’re driving to work, just turn on some worship music and just spend some time in the presence of the Lord. Just begin to talk to the Lord. And it might start out like, help, it’s me again, Lord. I’m struggling today. That’s a perfect prayer. Or it might be a little deeper than that. Some days we’re like, Lord, thank you for what you’re doing in my life, and thank you for who you are. And I see that you answered this prayer last week, and my faith is growing, and I’m just excited to be walking with you this week. And then the next week comes, and maybe you feel like a prayer’s not getting answered. And you’re like, Lord, I’m really kind of ticked off at you this week. Isn’t that what a real relationship is like? So the Lord calls us into following him, which means getting around him, spending time in his presence, growing in that relationship. If you’ve ever been a dog whisperer or a horse whisperer, in other words, you’ve ever spent time training a pet, you understand that pets, good example of, they need to know who you are. And that’s a good example for us. If we’re going to build a relationship with the Lord, we’ve got to get around him and be in his presence and get to know who he is. How do we do that? We spend time in the word, and we spend time praying. We spend time talking to the Lord and hearing from the Lord. We’re called to follow Jesus. I want to turn in my Bible to what I think is a favorite passage for many of us. It’s Matthew 11, verse 28 and 29, because I think this passage is really important. It’s the words of Jesus. It’s also a big part of what it means to come and follow Jesus. We come and we get in his presence. We come and we spend time with him, Mark 3, 14. But Matthew 11, 28 tells us what this should look like, what this should feel like. And so Matthew 11, 28, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. So we come and follow Jesus, and he gives us rest. I mean soul level rest. And if you’re not experiencing that, keep coming to Jesus. If you’re having a week or a month or a season in your life where you feel like, pastor, I’ve been coming to Jesus. I’ve committed my life to the Lord, but I’m just not experiencing that rest. Just keep coming to the Lord. Just keep spending time in his presence. Because this discipleship relationship shouldn’t feel hard. I mean, I know there’s a lot of hardships in life. But what Jesus is doing here in these passages, if you’re in this passage, if you remember, he’s comparing what it’s like to follow him compared to the yoke of the Pharisee. What’s a yoke? That’s something, it’s an instrument you put on the shoulders of an ox or a donkey or a mule, and they’re able to pull weight together. But Jesus isn’t really talking about that here in Matthew 11, 28 and 29. He’s talking about the teaching of the Pharisees. Because the Pharisees, they were strict. I mean, the Pharisees were religious. The Pharisees, they knew what you were supposed to be doing every minute of the day, Monday through Sunday. And you needed to have this kind of clothing to dress this way. And you needed to only walk this many miles. Exactly. You only walk this many miles this day. They had a rule for everything. I think there’s 613 or 633 laws in the Old Testament, and they had given a commentary on all of it. So they had thousands of rules. And so Jesus is saying this to us in that context. Here’s what Jesus is saying. He’s saying, come to me. Don’t go to the Pharisees with all the rules. Come to me if you’re weary and you’re burdened, and I will give you rest. You won’t have to try to prove to be the best person. You won’t have to be better than everyone else. You don’t have to keep every religious rule. Jesus says, take my yoke, which he’s saying, take my teaching upon you and learn. So what does it mean to just follow Jesus? It means to come and rest. It means to come and learn. Jesus goes on, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke, my teaching is easy, and my burden is light. Friend, if you’re struggling in your Christianity this morning, just rest in the Lord. Rest in the grace of God. Don’t just keep struggling and feel like I’ve got to do it all myself. You might feel this morning like, I’ve heard pastors tell me I’m supposed to change, but I’m still struggling with this sin, or I’m still struggling with this issue in my life, or I don’t see God answering. Just rest in Jesus. Just rest in the grace of God. He’ll do the work. You don’t have to do the work. He’ll do the work through you and with you. I love Matthew 11, 28, 29, because it helps me understand what it looks like to follow Jesus. We come and we rest. We come and spend time in his presence. We come and we learn. Third, and I think this is the final point this morning, if you can believe that, because you guys know me, I like the number seven a lot. But third, we’re called to change the world. You see, remember what I said that one of the key ingredients to a fulfilled life is to have a sense of calling. You’ve got a cause that’s bigger than you. For me, for most of my life, that’s been my spouse and my kids. That’s been my family and obviously my call to ministry. But I’ve seen a lot of people put their call to ministry so high. When we were on the mission field, I know families that put their call to ministry so high. It was like above their family. Don’t do that. God, family, then your calling. God, family, vocation. Not God, vocation, and calling, and then maybe my wife and my kids. No, it’s God, wife and kids, and then whatever God’s calling you to do for your vocation. That is what will produce fulfillment, satisfaction, and flourishing. But as we look at this basic call for the Christian, the call to come follow me there in verse 17, and then he says, and I will send you out to fish for people, or I will make you fishers of men, we see that we are actually called to be influencers. We’re called to make a difference. We’re called to change the world and make the world a better place. When we read the words, I will make you fishers of men, we all know what that means. We’ve heard it again and again. Jesus wanted his disciples to come and spend time with him. But more than that, Jesus wanted his followers to participate in his mission. That’s why we’ve made our mission on mission with Jesus, knowing God, building people, sharing hope. I believe that can change your life. I believe that can change our church. It can change this community. If we all really believe that when I work, when I play, when I eat, when I spend, when I save every area of my life, if I could be on mission with Jesus, if I could align the way I live and the way I think and what I’m doing with what the Lord wants for my life, we could change the world. We could change the world. And that’s what we’re called to. We’re called to be world changers, to be influencers. You see, as Christians who are following closely after the Lord Jesus, we’ve been transformed by a greater cause, by a greater cause. We live to honor God, to help others. We don’t live for ourselves. Again, Christians are like cowboys. Disciples are like desperados. We’re not trying to ride with the group. We’re not trying to be like everybody else around us. When we are with the crowd, we’re wanting to be a world changer. We’re wanting to be a disciple who is both following Jesus, but also making fishers of men. You see, what Jesus does in our lives when we begin to follow him is he takes everyday people with everyday areas of life, and Jesus and his call gives meaning. And I can testify God’s done that in my life over the last 35 years or more. God has at seasons and moments in my life that would have had no meaning and no purpose and just struggle and just suffering or just hardship, but because I knew the Lord was with me, because I knew the Lord was leading me, because I knew that the Holy Spirit was working in my life and that I was following Jesus, it brought great meaning and purpose to my life. And he wants to do that in your life as well. I want to wrap up with 1 Corinthians. I know I’ve gone to a number of scriptures this morning, but I want to wrap up with 1 Corinthians 9, 24 through 27, because here the apostle Paul talks about, he writes about his passion, his passion to know Christ. Because this passage, I believe, is what the life of a disciple looks like. Let me just read it. 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 24. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. That’s what I call desire, right? That’s passion. That’s your appetites. And when you’re called to follow Jesus, he’s going to change your desires. He’s going to give you new desires. He’s going to change those old fleshly desires. You’re not going to sit around and just think about and talk about everything that they do in the locker room and everything they do at the coffee corner at work, because you’re marching to the beat of a different drummer. You’re a Christian. You’re a disciple. And you’re thinking different. You’re thinking like God’s thinking, because he’s changing your desires. Paul says, run in such a way. Run with passion. In other words, you’re in a race. You’re in this Christian race. You’re not just running to participate. You’re running to win. You want to get the prize. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. But verse 25, he goes on to talk about discipline. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last. But we do it to get a crown that will last forever. And you can tell I’m not really a boxer, but I’m trying to illustrate it. I’ve never boxed an inch in my life. Thank the Lord. But Paul here in verse 25, he’s saying that desire is good, but what do you have to add to your desire? You have to add discipline to your desire. Remember how I said there’s usually two factors to people who are fulfilled in life. The first is a sense of calling, desire. The second is self-control or discipline. I think you can probably remember, I’ve shared this illustration before. Remember the illustration, and there’s been a study that was done on this. It’s a long study, like they did a 20-year study. They took kindergartners and put them in a room with a cupcake there. Remember this study? You can Google this. It’s a real deal. And they put cupcakes there, and they brought five-year-old in. And they would say, hey, if you’ll wait for 10 minutes and don’t eat that cupcake, then they would say, then you can have two or something like that. But that was just, and so some ate the cupcake, some waited. Okay, not a big deal, right? We all do that. But you know what they did is then they studied those same kids out to when they were like 20, 30 years old. And you know what they determined? The children that had self-control, the children that are able to discipline themselves and have delayed gratification, they’re the ones that end up being successful and fulfilled in life. Wow. So that’s what we’re preaching this morning. That’s what we’re saying. Jesus has called you, come and follow me. That’s the desire part. If you have the desire to follow Jesus, then I want to encourage you with every bone in my body, come to Jesus, follow him, spend time in his presence, get close to the Lord, learn all you can, rest in the Lord, be thankful for your salvation and eternal life, but let Jesus and his teachings begin to transform your life. But to that desire, you’ve got to add discipline, self-control. That’s what we see here in the words of the apostle Paul. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. And then Paul goes on to talk about determination, desire, discipline, determination. I don’t know where you are in the discipleship process this morning, but I want to encourage us to be marked, to be branded by following Jesus. There may not always be immediate gratification, but there are long-term benefits. There are long-term ramifications. I believe there’s some immediate blessings too, but I want to encourage you this morning to follow Jesus. Will you stand with me today? I’m so thankful for the good news of Jesus in my life today, that I can walk with him, that I can follow him, that I can learn from him, that I can rest in him. And I want to call you to that this morning, to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. In just a minute, I’m going to pray for us. I’m going to ask that you pray, but I want to give someone here this morning an opportunity for the first time to say, pastor, I want to follow Jesus. I think Sophia just said she wants to follow Jesus. Yes. But if you’re here this morning and you have never put your life under the rule of Jesus, the teaching of Jesus, the authority of Jesus, I want to give you an opportunity to do that this morning. Would we just, if you would just bow your heads, begin to pray. Lord Jesus, thank you for each and every person that’s here today. Every family, every mom and dad, every grandparent, every child. And Lord, we pray that your Holy Spirit would work in our hearts. Give us that hunger, Lord, to know you, to walk with you. Give us that thirst, Lord, that we might follow you. Fully submitted to you. Fully submitting our lives to you. If you’re here today and you want to take that step of faith, would you just slip your hand up and say, pastor, I want to follow Jesus. And I’ve not really been following Jesus, or I didn’t know that I could follow Jesus, but today’s the day I want to declare Jesus as Lord and savior. And I want to follow him. Praise God. I see your hand. Amen. Anybody else? I want to follow Jesus. I want to follow Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. The Lord sees you. Thank you, Lord. Anyone else? I just wait for just a moment. Lord, we, we lift those up here today who are saying, Jesus, I want you to be Lord and savior. Jesus, I want to follow you. Jesus, I want to be close to you. Thank you, Lord. Lord, would you be with them? Would you bless them with your presence? Holy Spirit of God, we know that you’re right here with each one. You’re with us here in this house of prayer. And I pray that you’d minister to each one today. I want to give you an opportunity to do something really crazy. So if you raise your hand, would you take one more step of faith and just meet me here? And that’s, that’s really, that, that helps, right? Cause like you’re following Jesus. Jenny, would you be one to just step out just as an example? If Jenny can do it, you can do it. Praise God. You can do it. Amen. Praise the Lord. Anybody else? You just want to come and praise the Lord. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Anybody else? You just want to say, I want to follow Jesus. I want to follow Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Brittany, will you come and just help us pray as well? Amen. Thank you, Lord God. Thank you, Lord Jesus. You guys just pray for her. I’m going to lead us all in a prayer this morning and let’s, let’s say this prayer together. Okay. We’re, we’re going to just, all of us allowed. We’re just going to pray this prayer together. Dear Jesus, I need you. I want you. You are my Lord and my savior. Forgive me of my sins. Help me to live for you. Help me to live in resurrection power. Thank you for my salvation. I’m going to live every day for you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Praise the Lord. Thank you, Lord. Lord, we thank you that you are alive and at work in your church, Lord. We thank you, Lord God, that you’re at work at each and every heart here today and online. Lord, we pray that you would call us to draw closer to you. And then when we hear that personal individual call from you, that we would respond and come to you and learn and rest and follow you, Lord, because you want us to change our world one life at a time, starting with our home and our neighborhoods and our friends, Lord, and the people we come into contact with. We need your help, Lord. We need your help in Jesus name. Amen. Hi, I’m Pastor Tom Ragsdell. I’m Pastor Ellis Benus. And we’re from Columbia First Assembly of God Church Columbia, MO Missouri. We are a church that’s on mission with Jesus. Our vision is simple. We want to make Jesus famous in your heart and in our community. Absolutely. Thank you so much for connecting with us online. We would also love to connect with you in person. We are located at 1100 North 7th Street, right in the heart of Columbia, Missouri, right across the street from Hickman High School. So if you’re in the central Missouri area, and you’re looking for a home church, come hang out with us. If you’re just connecting online, and you’re nowhere near us, then please connect with us in the comments. If you have a prayer request, if you have a question, if you’re if you’re wondering anything about the Lord or Christianity, please let us know, and we’ll be happy to engage with you in the comments. We believe God’s doing something special at our church, and we want you to be a part of it. We’re a multi generational church, we have people from all different backgrounds. We’re a church of the word, we’re a church of the spirit. We believe Jesus can transform your life. That’s why we’re on mission with him. And we want to help you know God, we want to help you grow in God, and we want to share hope in our community. So connect with us and we want to connect with you. Awesome. Have a wonderful and a blessed day.