True Discipleship — Luke 14

0:00 Morning. It snowed in Minneapolis, and it was snowing really heavy when we landed in Cleveland. So very thankful to be here. Lord has been very gracious. I'm excited about the topic this weekend.

0:11 We're looking at the subject matter of discipleship. And as Andy said, tonight we'll be looking at what does true discipleship look like. And then tomorrow, God willing, we'll be looking at the topic, what are Christ's disciples to be doing? What should the church be occupied with right now? And then we're going to spend a whole session on mentoring relationships.

0:40 I think that's an area where we're lacking in what are the responsibilities of both the mentor and the mentee and establishing those relationships. What makes a good mentoring relationship? The necessity of a mentoring relationship. And then our final session will be... It'll be short, maybe fifteen or twenty minutes of ministry.

1:03 We'll look at what is a good spiritual nursery, and then we'll have some questions and answers. And then, Sunday morning, I have a stand alone topic. I wanna be thinking with you about what does real intimacy with God look like? And so that will be the subject matter, God willing, for Sunday morning. I was also asked to mention I have a book table back in the corner.

1:26 And, obviously, I can't... I ship books here. There are maybe, two or three books from from each title. But one thing I'll make you aware of is there's a flyer there for the Old Testament commentary series, and that's a 14 volume series. It's like 5,400 pages.

1:45 It goes through the Old Testament verse by verse, pulls out applications. So there's a special for that. I don't have those here, but if you want, sign up. I'll contact you after the conference, and we'll work it out, and I'll get sent to you. And if you're 25 years and under, everything on the book table is half priced this weekend.

2:10 Okay? If you're over 25, everything's double. Just kidding. It's how it all works out. Okay.

2:48 That's the pattern that the Lord Jesus gives us. If you think right now in the world, let's say that there's just, let's take a conservative view, a 150,000,000 true believers on planet earth. And if every believer would go out and be a witness for the lord and by the grace of god, see someone respond to the gospel message, come to Christ, and then do nothing but disciple that person for one year. At the end of one year, the original disciple and the new convert goes out, and by the grace of God, they share the gospel, someone comes to Christ. And then just for a whole year, they just disciple, teach all the things that that Christ taught them, passing down to faithful men that will teach others, as Paul tells Timothy.

3:37 Do you realize that the whole entire world would be saved in seven years? That's how doable the idea is of making disciples to build a church. The problem is we're not doing a very good job of it. And so I think it's an important topic. It's something I think every meeting needs to go back and hit, revisit, and explore.

4:02 It's also interesting when the Lord talks about discipleship as we see in Luke 14, that usually he will mention something about the gospel first, and then he'll talk about discipleship. Obviously, you can't even be a disciple of Christ. You can't do anything to please the Lord until you first have been born again. And so preaching the gospel is necessary, and then he teaches on discipleship. And that's the case in Luke 14.

4:29 So I'm going to read the text and then we'll probably not read as much after this. But I think this is a good portion of scripture to set the stage for for our entire weekend. He says in verse 15, so this is Luke 14. We'll start in verse 16. Then he, that's Christ, said to him, a certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servants and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, come for all things are now ready.

5:32 So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor, the maimed, and the lame, and the blind. And the servant said, Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room. Then the master said to the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in that my house may be filled. For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.

6:12 And so we have the story of certain man. He's going to have this great feast, and he wants a house full. And he goes out and he invites some. And the servant here represents the disciples. They're going to go out and they're going to share the gospel.

6:29 There's all kinds of excuses being made. There's materialism. Who buys a piece of ground without looking at it first? I mean, Bill Gates might, but most of us can't do that. Right?

6:41 We don't have the money just to spend and buy a piece of property without looking at it first. So there's materialism, there's jobs and careers, which is what's represented with the five yoke of oxen, and there's relationship. People make all kinds of excuses for accepting God's invitation to taste and see of Christ, to receive him. Notice what happened after this parable. The people loved it.

7:09 It was kind of like coming here tonight. Who doesn't love a nice dinner? Right? And that was very good. I really like that that red hot sauce on the Indian...

7:17 The curry. That was really good. So who doesn't like a big feast? And so it says in verse 25, Now great multitudes went with him, and he turned and said to them, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brother and sister, yes, in his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

7:51 And then he's gonna tell three other parables in just a moment. We'll get to them. And so the first point, as we're looking at what does the true discipleship look like, the first point is true disciples will be a minority. So here's the Lord. He's he's given this parable of the great feast.

8:12 He wants a full house. He wants heaven full of of repentant, redeemed sinners. And the invitation goes out. People are making excuses, turning up their nose at the invitation. Go out to the byways.

8:25 Bring in the blind, the lanterns by to come. I want my house full. Of light But the Lord knows the hearts of the people following him. And so he stops and he turns, and he's going to execute crowd control by teaching on discipleship. In other words, if you're following me, I want you to know what that means.

9:03 And it's a sad situation in Christendom today because I don't think that most of the people who have named the name of Christ understand it means to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus. It's it's really an all or nothing venture, and that's what the Lord is going to convey in these parables. But the first point is this, that, the lord is interested not in quantity but quality. And we... We're we're all like that.

9:33 Right? How many times have you gone to the store, you bought something, and you go home, you use it, and it breaks? It's so disappointing. We want quality too. Well, the Lord wants quality in disciples.

9:47 The modern church movement equates church attendance with success. The mindset is that big church meetings are obviously evidence of divine blessing. I would say that as we look at scripture and as we look at the spirituality across Christendom, that that is not the case. It... It's usually the minority that are really walking with the lord.

10:12 Not very... When the lord starts teaching about, like in John six that he's the the bread of life that came down from heaven, you have to eat of him, and you have to drink his blood. He was talking about by faith appropriating the work of the cross. A lot of people turned away, disciples. The Jews especially didn't like it, and so they turned away.

10:38 True discipleship is not going to be attractive to very many people. Only those are really sold out for the Lord, understand who the Lord is, understand the gospel message are gonna follow him. But this is something I would be thrilled to meet with 10 people that just really love the Lord, gonna submit to his word and go on with him, rather than a 100 that wouldn't. That district gathering for the sake of a meeting or social activities or whatever. That's not the kind of disciples that the Lord was looking.

12:24 Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land or for the dunghill, but men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. And so the Lord tells three parables here. The first is a man's gonna build this tower, and yet he doesn't count the cost.

12:49 He he doesn't take an inventory of what it will cost him in order to complete the project. And so he starts it, but he runs out of funds, and he's a laughing stock. Everything gets wasted that way. And then he tells another parable of a king. There's an invasion force that's coming.

13:10 They got 20,000 soldiers. He's only got 10,000. So the king is saying, can I confront this army of 20,000 and save my region, my country, city, whatever it might be? Which means if he's outnumbered two to one, the only way that he can engage the force and conquer it is if he's sold out. The army, the soldiers, everybody's gonna give a 110%.

13:45 Their total commitment. Commitment is the idea of being given over to a cause without reservation. And that's what the Lord wants in disciples. He wants, men and women, boys and girls who are redeemed by the blood to be sold out to his cause without reservation. And so the enemy, the king either says, I have to make peace with him.

14:09 I can't do it. Or if we do this, we got to go all out. And that's the idea. Salt is good for seasoning, it's good for preserving. There's a lot of things that salt can be used, but if it loses its saltiness, it doesn't add flavor to food.

14:28 It doesn't preserve. It's good for nothing, and you throw it out. Christ's disciples are to have a salty, uncompromising testimony. In Matthew five thirteen, we read that as well. So in these two parables that together, we see that the Lord wants quality, not quantity, and it's an all or nothing venture.

14:55 He doesn't want superficial people naming his name, receiving him as a fire extinguisher from hell, and then living their lives the way they want to. He wants total commitment. It's an all or nothing venture. I put these verses on the... This particular slide, Luke nine twenty three through 24.

16:05 When we lived in Illinois, our family was given a week vacation at a cabin up in Wisconsin. It was right on a lake. It was a wonderful gift from this brother to us. And I took, at that time, my boys were pretty young and they liked to fish. So one morning we went out fishing.

16:23 We're just fishing from the shore. And, there was a, a mom that came down the hill and she had like a five or six year old boy. And they got into this rowboat and she was going to take him fishing out into this lake. And I don't think they ever been on a rowboat before because they did a couple figure eights and trying to get it straight. And finally they got out maybe a 100 yards out into the the lake.

16:53 And I thought, man, this isn't gonna last long. You know, he had like one of these little snoopy poles and, you know, he's fishing. Sure enough, after about fifteen, twenty minutes, I saw her start rolling back in. And boys and I are fishing about ten minutes goes by, I look out there, man, she hadn't moved very far. She is...

17:16 You could see the wave. She's really digging in. And I thought, oh. So I walked over as close as I could get to her. I yell out, pull up your anchor.

17:29 I wish I could have caught the... A video of this woman's face when she realized what she'd been doing. She'd been rolling and rolling and rolling, and she pulled up this anchor, had like 20 feet of weeds and stuff on this plowing the bottom. She was getting exhausted from this. And she was so embarrassed when they got up to the shore, she didn't even talk to us.

17:58 She just went right up the hill. See, she's pitted out. It was terrible sight, Embarrassed. And I thought, you know, when we stand before the lord in all his glory, in his radiance, That's the kind of shame we're going to feel. Why did I ever think that was such an important thing in the world?

18:29 Why did I ever let that thing be an anchor for me so I couldn't follow the Lord the way I should? And so we have to forsake to follow. If we got our hands in all these things in the world, and these are really what's delighting us, they're where we're getting our satisfaction, it's where we're getting our our adoration and things that we're glorying in, it's gonna keep us from following the Lord. And so you gotta get rid of the stuff that's holding you back to to to be able to go forward. And so just think for a moment.

19:09 What is it in your life that's keeping you from really being all out for the Lord? What is it in this world that's got you and it's like pulling that anchor along the bottom of the lake? It's keeping you from, really pursuing the Lord with 100% commitment. So we have to forsake to follow. Everything that we clutch on to, hang on to in this world is gonna keep us from pursuing the Lord.

20:07 I'm living out his life. If you haven't studied identification truth in scripture, it will liberate you for serving the Lord. If you if you understand how God the father sees you, it's it's really liberating to understand this is not my life anymore. I'm with Christ. I must serve him.

20:29 So Romans six, there's five of them there. We've been co crucified with Christ. We co died with Christ. When Christ was buried, we were buried with him. These are positional truths or identification truths.

20:44 We were made alive with Christ. We were raised up with Christ. Ephesians two verse six, we are seated with him in the heavenly places. When you ever see with him or with Christ in scripture, that's an identification truth. Alright?

21:03 Romans eight, this one knocks your socks off. We are glorified with Christ. Well, you're all a bunch of fine looking saints, but there's nobody in this room glorified. But Christ is glorified. He's sitting at the right hand of majesty on high.

21:21 In positioning, we are in him. That's how the father sees us. That's why our citizenship is in heaven, and believers are ambassadors representing the lord here on Earth. We're gonna rule with him, reign with him. We're going to inherit all things with him.

21:42 So these are identification to... Time doesn't hold God. This is the way God sees us in the sun. You're either in Christ or out of Christ. I was talking with a brother when we were up in Wisconsin.

21:56 He he was struggling with security of salvation. I said, alright. I just got one question for you. Right now, are are you in Christ or out of Christ? Oh, he says, I'm in Christ.

22:07 I said, well, I'm glad to hear that. There's only saints and eights in the whole world. I mean, two groups of people. Right? Those that are in Christ and those that are out of Christ.

22:17 And I said, okay. If you're in Christ right now, when will Christ ever die again? And he said, he's not. He's only suffered once for sin. I said, that's right.

22:29 So if you somehow lose your salvation, when's he ever gonna die again that you can be back in him? He's not. So these are identification truths. They're outside of time. And if you see your salvation the way that god the father sees you in Christ, then you have security.

22:48 But you also have identification in that Galatians two twenty says, I've been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of god who loved me and gave himself for me. The Greek verb there that's rendered crucified, it's in the passive voice. It's also a perfect tense verb.

23:15 Passive is god is working on the subject. Perfect, he... What he does is once and for all. And so what god has done is he has reached down and carved us out of the world as a people unto himself, and it's perfectly done forever. We're we're not in the world anymore.

23:35 We're his. Our complete identification is in Christ. Ephesians two twelve... Actually, it should be Ephesians one twelve. Sorry.

23:49 That's a typo. Three times in that chapter, Paul says, you Ephesians, you are here for the praise of his glory. The first time is tied to god, the father. The second time is is tied to the son, and the third time is tied to the holy spirit. Triune god for our salvation.

24:09 Dear believer, the only reason you're on planet Earth right now is to make god look good for the praise of his glory. That's it. It's the only reason. And if you're not making god look good, you're wasting your time. There's nothing accounting for eternity.

24:27 So we must deny ourselves. We realize that I was born a child of the devil, child of disobedience, a child of wrath. I inherited this fallen nature from Adam. I was born spiritually separated from God, and I prove it out with my own behavior. And then when I hear the the gospel message and I trust it, at that point, we're regenerated.

24:55 We become one with Christ. Who I was in Adam, the old man is gone forever. I had a master before that. My flesh mastered me, the world mastered me, the devil mastered me, but now I have a new master. And so the whole idea as a disciple must deny themselves.

25:13 My life died with Christ. I I can't live that life anymore. He gave his life that I might live out his life. And so if we understand identification truth, how god, the father, sees us in his son, it's really liberating then to live for for the lord. Who you were who you were in Adam is gone.

25:35 We're only here now to make Christ look good and for the praise of his glory and it's only possible by living out the life that he gives us. True disciples must bear their own cross. In John 15, you'll find the highest concentration of the word hate in the New Testament. In the first part of the chapter, he talks about the love of god, mentioned 10 times. And then in around 17, 18, the last half of the chapter, it switches, and the lord is preparing his disciples for the hate of the world.

26:29 It's gonna persecute you. And so he tells them right up front that if you follow me, there is gonna be a cost to that. He was going to the cross to bear our sin. We come to the cross to receive salvation, but then we leave with the cross. We have to bear our own cross.

26:51 Look over at, Galatians chapter six. Galatians chapter six. He says in verse two, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. These are crushing loads. Barros is the the word for burdens.

27:24 It's a crushing load. And then he says in verse five, for each one shall bear his own load. This is a different word in the Greek. Forton. Fortion is is how it's pronounced for load, and this is like a soldier's backpack.

27:44 And so there's times in life where there'll be crushing loads, and we rally around each other, and we help each other through that. But as a soldier of the cross, the lord is assigning us our daily loads as soldiers bearing our pack... Backpacks. He's given us spiritual gifts. He's given us a calling.

28:02 He has something he wants us to do. We'll see tomorrow there's a work of ministry that each believer is to do. And so there is a burden that we are required to to carry each day for the lord. There's gonna be opposition. The world hates Christ.

28:20 Worldliness is all the spheres that exclude Christ from it. Whether it be social, political, academic, it excludes Christ out of that authority. The world hates Christ. And so a believer living for Christ is going to be persecuted by a system that hates Christ. So we come to Christ's cross.

28:41 We leave with our own cross. The cross is a symbol of shame and death. And Christ asks those who believe in him to follow his selfless example. If you see me... If we're back in the old Roman days and you saw me carrying a cross beam to the public place of execution, it means my daytime planner next week's clear.

29:04 Right? It's over. It's done. I'm gonna I'm gonna go through this grueling, shameful death. And that's the idea of being a disciple.

29:15 We understand that we were crucified with Christ. We were buried with him. And now I must live his life out. He gave up his life for us. I must live out his life.

29:26 We need to bear our own cross. Luke four twenty six, which we read, he says, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, his own life, also he cannot be my disciple. And the sixth point is true disciples must love the lord above all. Now we have the parallel passage in Matthew 10. It says...

29:54 The lord says, if you love father more than me, you're not worthy of me. And so we understand here that hate in Luke's passage is a comparative term based on the way Matthew records it. The idea is that every other relationship as compared to Christ is a distant second. About four years ago, I was working with a couple in marriage counseling. And after the second night, I said, I think I know why you guys are having difficulties.

30:29 And I asked the husband if I could take him out to a nice Mexican restaurant for lunch. And I said, I just have a couple questions for you. And he said, Yeah, sure. So we went out and we went to this Mexican restaurant, got our food. And he says, So just after two times, you think you understand why we're having marital problems?

30:51 And I said, I think so. I said, I just wanna ask you one question. Do you love the lord Jesus or your wife more? He didn't even hesitate, my wife. I said, that's why you have problems.

31:04 If the lord Jesus is not your forced love, everything else goes goes awry. That's the sticking power for the marriage relationship. If both people aren't pursuing Christ as their supreme love, then it doesn't work with a husband and wife. As you draw to Christ, you draw to each other. And so he didn't like that because it exposed in his heart that that maybe he wasn't even saved.

31:39 But it's true. The Lord has to be our first love. Young people, don't ever marry someone that loves you more than the Lord. It won't work. Their love for the Lord Jesus is what will carry you through the hard times.

31:54 Submission to him is what will allow obedience and faithfulness to each other. So the Lord must be first love. The Lord said that you won't serve two masters. You'll love one and serve him and hate the other. And so we can't have divided hearts.

32:15 We can't be half hearted saying, I'm gonna do this, this, you know, half a time and this half a time. The Lord wants a sold out commitment. And this was a problem at the church of Ephesus in the book of Revelation chapter two. They had doctrinal purity and they had good works. They were maintaining a blameless testimony.

32:39 They were serving Christ, but they didn't have the deep devotional love for the Lord. And twice he rebukes them. He says, Repent. Go back and do the first works. Go back to the honeymoon stage.

32:51 Love me like you used to. And the Lord really... He keenly felt it. They were doing good works. They were sound in doctrine, but they didn't love them like they should.

33:05 And he keenly felt it, and so he rebukes them. Total sold outness to the Lord. If if we're not... If he's not our first love, then we won't be sold out for him. We'll be half hearted.

33:23 B. Meyer. I always said Meyer, but he said mayor, he's from that area, so I guess he knows. When he was about 60 years of age, he had a life changing event. Right before he died in his early eighties, he he tells about what happened to him.

33:43 He was, preaching all over The UK. This would have been in the nineteenth century, And he was getting exhausted, he was getting burdened, and finally he was having a breakdown, and he just needed to get away. Lord Inverclyde, wealthy British merchant man, had a big estate, and he said, you know, why don't you just come to my estate, and and you can just stay there as long as you want. Just every every need will be met. You can just take walks in the in the in the woods and and just really enjoy your time and just replenish yourself and spend time with the lord.

34:26 And so, FB Mayer took Lord Inverclyde up on the offer, and he'd been there for a while. And one day, the two men happened to meet as FB Mayor was out strolling through his vast estate and through the woods. And FB Mayor said, Thank you so much for allowing me to be here. And Lord Inverclyde said, You know, if I was really a good host, I would show you my most prized possession. Would you like to see it?

34:56 And F. B. Mayor said, Yeah, I would. So the two men walked and made a turn, and there in an opening was a full size African mud hut. This is in England.

35:12 When David Livingston died, there were African Christians who brought his body back. He was buried at Westminster Abbey, and Lord Inficlyde had some of those African native believers stay on his estate just to show them hospitality. And they wanted to do something for this wealthy businessman to show their appreciation. And Lord Imricleid said, yeah, I'm not sure what what you could do for me, but he said, I I would like you to... If it's okay to build, me the actual mud hut that David Livingston lived in and was found when he...

35:55 After he died. And so they did. They chopped down the trees and they built this African mud hut. And so the two men are walking up to the entrance of this and he looks in, FB Mayer looks in and here's a simple bed, a desk, and a chair. And, Lord Inverclyde then left them to his thoughts.

36:19 And when they... When, F. B. Mayer looked at that, he went in and got on his knees. He cast himself on the bed and said, Lord, I've been a half hearted Christian all my life.

36:34 When he saw the simple existence of David Livingston and what he had done and accomplished in Africa, taking the gospel thousands of miles in uncharted areas, areas where white men never been before, taking with the gospel. FB Meyer said, Lord, I've been a half hearted Christian. He said, if you will if you will bless me, Lord, I will give you the rest of my life, and I will be a wholehearted Christian. Now at the age of 80, he's preaching, and he's saying, the last twenty years have been the best years of my life. Full commitment, not half hearted.

37:14 Loving the Lord, putting him first, and everything else comes into being. And so is the Lord Jesus your first love? If he's not, then there's something wrong. You won't serve him unless you really are love him and devoted to him. Number seven, must be, not become.

37:38 Did you notice the wording? We read Luke fourteen twenty six. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own life, he cannot be my disciple. So likewise, whosoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple. We don't ever read the idea of becoming a disciple.

38:03 It's being a disciple, and there's a huge difference. Becoming has a sense of arrival. Like if I say, Jack has become a father. Oh, well, he's a father. He's arrived.

38:19 But being has the idea of being active. It's not becoming. It's dynamic. It's active. It's the life of Christ that's being evident.

38:34 John ten ten, the lord said that he had come not just to give life but to give an abundant life, and that's what, the world desperately needs to see. If the world sees Warren Henderson, there's nothing attractive in me that's gonna draw them to Christ. But if the world sees Christ in me, not striking back when something has been done to me, giving grace, giving mercy when it's not deserved, reflecting the character of Christ. That's the life of Christ that needs to come out. So it's being a disciple of Christ, not becoming.

39:42 Actually, when I'm talking to people, I like to say the Lord Jesus or Lord Jesus Christ because that's like a gospel message in itself. I hear people saying Jesus' name all the time, but it's usually in a negative way. Yeah. He was the son of God, and he was born Jesus, God's son, the the lamb. And he's Christ.

40:05 He's the messiah. He went to the cross to bear our sins. But when you say lord, that means he's alive. He's raised from the dead. He's in heaven.

40:15 So the lord Jesus Christ, that's a whole gospel message in itself. And so the Lord is saying to his disciples, Don't call me Lord if you're not gonna do what I say. Sometimes, like at a youth conference, I'll ask, How many here wanna do the will of God? Boy, the hands go up, right? It's God's will and your sanctification that you abstain from fornication.

40:40 See, this is what the Lord says. This is his will. If you... If he's lord, you wanna do his will. And so a true disciple obeys the lord.

40:50 If you love me, you'll keep my commandments, John fourteen fifteen. And then in John fourteen twenty one, he adds this. Obey my commandments. If you let me, you'll keep my commandments. And then he says, and I will manifest myself to you.

41:08 And so this is the idea of being a disciple through obedience is the lord represents something, and I just say, lord, I'm gonna yield to that. I'm gonna I'm gonna obey that. And the lord says, that pleases me. That's that's practically demonstrating you love me. And he says, let me show you more of myself.

41:27 And you say, lord, I'm just gonna yield to that. I'm just gonna obey that. And then the lord says, that pleases me. Let me show you more of myself. You see what's happening is through obedience, we get we get drawn into the deeper things of god and experiencing him.

41:43 Paul writes this in Philippians four. It's like verse 12. He's telling the Philippians, whatever state I am, I've learned to be content, whether I have a lot or I don't have much. In other words, my contentment isn't based on circumstances. It's in the Lord.

42:03 And he says, I've learned to be content. And that word learned, the verb there is miao, and it means to be ushered into the secrets, to be drawn into the mysteries. And see, that's what got Paul is he had these circumstances. Yeah. He was a prisoner of Rome, and he had loss of liberty and so forth, but he said, it doesn't matter.

42:28 I have been drawn into the mysteries of god. I've been drawn into the secret place of rest and peace. And out here, it just doesn't matter. You see, that's what the lord wants. He wants to have a deeper and deeper relationship, but he's a perfect gentleman.

42:45 He doesn't force us. Obedience is the the means in which we're drawn in deeper and deeper to understanding the things of god and experiencing him. If you abide in my word, he said in John eight thirty two, if you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed. It's a proof. If if you just say, Lord says do it, I'm gonna do it.

43:09 That's the way a disciple behaves. Obedience. True disciples obey the Lord. And then the last point that we'll look at tonight, true disciples learn Christ. Mathatus is a Greek word for disciple.

43:25 It means learner. So what are we learning? We read in Matthew ten twenty five, It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher and a servant like his master. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher. And then the Lord says this in Matthew eleven twenty eight through 30, come come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

43:54 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle, lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So a disciple, a mathetist, is a learner. What are we learning? We're learning a person. We're learning Christ.

44:24 At the... When we're eating, we were talking about some of our old school days. And when I was in engineering school, there were certain classes that I just hated taking. And in case you're in that field, I'm not gonna tell you what those are, but they end with the ology. Okay?

44:41 And there was one particular class. I only went once a week. It was three days a week. I just hated it. I took it a pass fill.

44:49 I just wanted to get graduate, get a check-in the box and so forth. And in other words, I didn't care about learning anything out of that class. I was not really a learner. It was one of those necessary things, but that's not the way it is with, the Lord. Actually, Matthew eleven twenty eight through 30, as far as I can tell in the New Testament, this is the only passage where the Lord Jesus tells us something about himself.

45:21 He says, I'm gentle and lowly in heart. Why wouldn't we wanna learn from somebody like that? So we learn him. The disciple becomes like the teacher. And so discipleship is learning the person.

45:38 We're being conformed to his moral excellencies. We read that in Romans chapter eight and verse 29. He... We accept Christ as savior. We're born again.

45:52 That's an act of god. That starts the journey. He's conforming us to the moral image of his son that's called sanctification. We're being saved from the power of sin. And then the Lord's gonna come back.

46:05 There's gonna be a trump, a shout. Our salvation is complete. The body is saved and will be glorified. And so you have salvation really starting with an act on both ends. One that's saving the soul, one that's saving the body, and in between, we're being saved from the power of sin.

46:22 We're becoming more and more like Christ. And so as we learn him, we know how to behave. As we look at his character, that's what god wants us each and every day is for us to represent Christ. Paul represents this in Philippians, chapter one when he says, Whether I live or die, it doesn't really matter. He says, I'm gonna magnify Christ in death or life.

46:55 Christ is in the heavenly seated at the right hand of the father. So here we are on earth, every situation, I wanna bring Christ who's up in the heavenlies and bring him into that situation so others can see him. We're only here to make Christ look good. And so we bring him down, magnify him like a telescope. We're bringing him way up there down into our situation and...

47:24 So others can see him. If they see us, there's nothing that's gonna draw them to salvation. So we need to learn him, and we need the spirit of God to show us how to be more like him. John three thirty says, He must increase, I must decrease. And that's really the heart of a disciple.

47:50 All right. So just a quick review. True discipleship summary. Number one, true disciples will be a minority. Don't be discouraged about the masses.

48:03 Generally speaking, those are not spiritual movements. There's... In scripture and as we look at the church history, there's usually a minority that's really on fire for the lord and representing the lord. Number two, true discipleship is an all or nothing venture. The lord wants quality, not quantity.

48:24 Number three, true disciples must forsake to follow. Everything we clutch down here will be an anchor from keeping us going further along with the Lord. We must deny ourselves. We are a new creature in Christ. We have a new identity.

48:41 We... The life that we once had is now dead. We've been carved out of the world unto the Lord, and so we're to live out his life. Must bear our own cross daily. We come to the cross of Christ.

48:55 We leave with our own. And there's a daily load, a daily expectation lord has for us to live for him. True disciples must love the Lord above all, must be his first love. True disciples must be, not become. Become has a sense of arrival, like I've reached some plateau.

49:15 That being is a lifelong adventure of being drawn into the mysteries of God. And true disciples obey the Lord. A true disciple learns Christ. Mathetus is a Greek word that means a learner, and we're learning Christ. So, hope this has been helpful.

49:34 It's been good for me just to go back over these things. I remember listening a message about thirty years ago on this subject and it really reoriented the way I thought about my place in the body of Christ and what I should be doing. And perhaps this week, we'll we'll do that for you as well. So tomorrow, we'll be looking at... Tomorrow morning, god willing, we'll be looking at what are Christ's disciples to be doing.

50:03 Father, we want to thank you for our evening. We thank you, Father, for each one who came out tonight. Thank you for the safety, and we would pray for safety going home. And, Father, this is an important topic that we're looking at, and we would just ask that your spirit might have his way with us and bring about conviction, bring about encouragement, exhortation, reproof, instruction, whatever's necessary that you accomplish what is needful. We pray, Father, for just a real spirit of love and unity this weekend.

50:37 And we also, Lord, want to give you thanks for the refreshments this evening. We thank you for the young people and their efforts to bless us. And so we would just give you thanks for that as well. Thank you for bringing us here tonight. We give you thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus.

50:55 Amen.