16th of the Lord, let us sustain, tell the dissalvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples. We're grateful to the Lord, and grateful to be praised. He is a senior leader of all of us. We are going to be singing together, speak, O Lord. We have it sung this in quite a while's a congregation. So what we'll do is I will sing the first verse for you, and then you'll join me in singing praise to God in the second and third verses. Speak, O Lord. Jesus, your people, once you, for if you speak to us, we will surely die, Lord, you send a mediator, Moses. In Lord now, we can sing a song about you speaking to us, because we have a great mediator and a great high priest, Jesus Christ, our Savior. Who intercedes for us and speaks on our behalf, and now we have access to the throne room of heaven because of the work of Jesus Christ that's been completed. O Lord, we thank you, and we do boldly proclaim and ask for you to speak to us in this worship service, that we may be changed forever, and that the glory of the gospel may bear fruit in our lives in your kingdom, megro, in Jesus name. Amen.
So we recite the question 26. I want to ask you one question. Do you trust him? Trust him. As Christians, we believe that God not only created this world out of nothing, but it's in Jesus Christ that he sustains this world, that he upholds this world, and that he is intimately involved in our lives. This catechism addresses those things. So I ask you this morning, Christian, what do you believe? I believe that the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth and everything in them, who still upholds and rules them by his eternal counsel and providence, is my God and Father because of Christ his Son. I trust him so much that I do not doubt he will provide whatever I need for body and soul. And he will turn my good, whatever adversity he sends me in this sad world. He is able to do this because he is Almighty God. He desires to do this because he is a faithful Father. Amen, you may be seated. You know, we are not deists. We do not believe that God created the world and didn't just let everything go, but we believe in the intimate involvement of our Lord and our lives, and that's clearly seen as Jesus Christ took on flesh and dwelt among us. And it's really what we're reciting in our confession of sin that it's in the divine providence of Jesus Christ who ordains all things that we live and we move. We have our being. We're breathing right now because Jesus Christ is upholding you. Your heart is beating right now because Jesus Christ is in control. As a great truth. Often forget that truth, and that's why it's important for us as a body of Christ to have a time where we confess our sins together as a body, and we confess them silently to the Lord. So I encourage you this morning to recite this confession with me as the body of Christ, eternal God in whom we live and move and have our being, whose face is hidden in our sins. And whose mercy we forget in the blindness of our hearts cleans us from all our offenses and deliver us from proud thoughts and vain desires that with reverent and humble hearts, we may draw near to you, confessing our faults, confiding in your grace, and finding in you our refuge and strength through Jesus Christ, your Son. Amen. Lord Jesus, we thank you that in your words you tell us that when we confess our sins that you're faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, Lord, we are all together unrighteous. And Lord, we need your mercy and your forgiveness. And we thank you, Jesus Christ, that you're faithful and that you are just and that you forgive us of our sins. And we thank you that you gave your disciples a prayer, that in the times when they did not know what to pray, they could refer back to it and pray that we would do the same as you taught your disciples saying, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. And all them. I would ask for Jane Rebecca Woods to come forward with Anne Marie and Mike Austin to come up as my assisting elders. Maddie coming up too, that's awesome. Hey there. Do you want to recognize James and Mary Woods and Tom and Charlene Sierra are with you as grandparents to Aunt Lisa and Theresa and cousins and other close friends who have come today to be in our service to celebrate this occasion for Anne Marie. We're so thankful. Jane Rebecca are dear friends of mine and I know that they have such a heart for children and for the Lord and it's a joy to come here. To celebrate baptism which was instituted by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and just as the Lord supper shows the faithful's perseverance and fate through the Holy Spirit. So baptism recognizes the entrance into the covenant community of faith. Parents bringing a child to be baptized or exhorted to teach the child to read and understand the word of God, to instruct the child and the principles of the faith, to pray with and for the child, to set an example of piety before the child and to bring the child up in the admonition of the Lord. I always in baptism remind us that the act of baptism, the water is similar to a wedding ring. My wedding ring is not my vow to Heather. It is Heather's vow to me. And in the same way the waters of this baptism mark God's promises and we pray that Anne Marie would never know a day where Jesus Christ was not her Lord and Savior and that she could sleep that peacefully in that knowledge. Parents do acknowledge your child's need for the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ and the renewing grace of the Holy Spirit. Do you claim God's covenant promise in her behalf and do you look in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ for her salvation as you do your own? Do you unreservedly dedicate your child to God and promise and humble reliance upon divine grace that you will endeavor to set before her a godly example that you will pray with and for her, that you will teach her the doctrines of Christianity, that you will strive by all the means of God's appointment to bring her up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. To those who remember as a first Presbyterian church, I ask you and please respond by saying, I do, do you as a congregation undertake the responsibility of assisting these parents in the Christian nurture of this child? Let's pray. Father, I pray your sovereign grace be poured out on the life of Ann Marie. May she never know a moment when she doesn't know you as her personal Lord and Savior, that as she grows the faith of her parents and the faith of this church might be embraced as her own. We ask it in your name. Amen. Amen. You're going to wake up, aren't you? You want to go quick? I know, I know, I don't know. I'm not nearly as comfortable. All right, all right, babe. Ann Marie Woods, I baptize you in the name of the Father and the name of the Son and in the name of the Holy Spirit. Father, this precious child, Lord, may she know you all of her days and Father, may she know your love and your grace in her life. May the Christian life for her not be one of pursuit of doing the right thing to earn your favor, but understanding the need to fall into the Father's arms. Lord, that not only was she walk faithfully with you, but there would be great joy in the journey. In Christ's name, we ask it. Amen. Hand it back to that. And would like you all to take an opportunity to greet and meet those around you. And certainly, if you're up here close, tell this couple how much you love and support them. Let's once again go before the Father's throne of grace. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, it's certainly appropriate as we come this morning. Our nation calls it Father's Day. And you have shown us the way of how to be fathers. You've been a father to the Fatherless. You have been a father to each one of us who bears the name of Jesus Christ. You've paid the ultimate price in sending your son, giving up the greatest, most intimate and unbroken fellowship ever imagined or conceived of among the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, even for a brief time that we might be saved, that we might be redeemed. Lord, may earthly fathers who bear your name understand the privilege and the calling that you've called them to. Lord, it is a great position of honor and recognition. And we would pray for all the fathers represented here this morning and whom our congregation touches. It is a position worthy of much honor. And Lord, we confess, we recognize that it is impossible to achieve being the Father that we're called to be apart from your grace moment by moment, apart from your supernatural power. Lord, we do ask for that grace to be in each and every household this morning. And we pray that as fathers, whether currently ministering to our families or from a more extended time as we may be grandfathers, they're great grandfathers. Lord, you continue to call us to be prepared to offer counsel when asked to continue to pray for our extended families. Lord, each and every time we recognize that as fathers, as men, as husbands, we do not know exactly at a proceed that is a clear calling once again of how much we need to have you in residence, how much we need to be walking with you, how much we need to cling to you. Looking for the power we don't have, the wisdom we don't have, the strength we do not have, apart from you. Therefore, Lord, let it be, even Father's day, be a great time of celebrating and recognizing those who have stood in that capacity and touched our lives, but also, Lord, may it be a clearing call for fathers everywhere of their need to cling to Christ and to walk with you day by day. Lord, even as we continue, we pray for many needs that are unspoken, they're being silently lifted up even now or have been throughout this service. Lord, we pray for many whose needs we do know, they're way too numerous for this brief prayer. We are thankful for many who've been able to go home from hospitalization this week or to go to rehabilitation. They're making progress, they're encouraged, may you continue to encourage them. We continue to lift up Ken Simon as he deals with health issues in the hospital. We lift up particularly darlingship during this walk in the valley and we pray for Randy and for the children in the greater family. It's been a very long, hard time, particularly in this last week or two, Lord, we pray for your special mercies and grace for them. Hear the prayers of your people on their behalf. Lord, there's some many other things we give to you. We pray as well for the safe return of the 48, 46 somewhere in that range who will be coming back from the trip to Israel to rejoin us once again this week. We pray for their safekeeping in their travels. And Lord, as we come and as we prepare to give our ties and offerings, may we be reminded. You've taught us everything we need to know about giving. Every time we simply look at the cross and think of the giving of your son. We pray it in Christ's name this morning. Amen. Not in the same manner at this point. If you had rise with your Bibles and we will read God's Word, actually going to read three very, very short passages. And I'll repeat them again if you want to write them in your bulletin for further reference. Going to begin with first Peter 2.2, Peter says, like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk that buy it, you may grow up to salvation. Then turning over to 1 Thessalonians 2.8, the Apostle Paul. 1 Thessalonians 2.8, so being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you, not only the gospel of God, but also our own selves because you had become very dear to us. And then the passages listed in your bulletin, 2 Timothy 2.2, I'm actually going to read verses 1 and 2 to give context. You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses and trust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. This is the Word of the Lord. You may be seated. Last week we began a, if you will, a summer series on the idea of discipleship, not the idea, the clear picture of discipleship. And what it means to the body of Christ, what does it mean to Christ calling to us? Jerry got us off on the whole subject of discipleship with an introduction last week. And my message this morning may be somewhat introductory as well. But I hope to also get into a little bit of the grist of it. And then as Tim returns with us next Sunday and through most of the summer, the introducing different aspects of what discipleship is, how we can incorporate it and how it can indeed change the body of Christ and is intended to change the body of Christ in our growth and relationship with Him. But why are we making so much of that, you might say? All summer long discipleship, really? Come on, Chris. That seems like an awful lot of time. There's so many other needy areas that we can be addressing. Current events or other things in light of God's Word, that's true. But why is discipleship so important? And why are we giving it such a focus? If you know the great commission, then that should be a pretty clear directive as to why discipleship is so important. If you're not familiar with it, or if you need to be reminded, I would just refer you to Matthew 28th chapter, the 19th and 20th verse. We call this Christ-great commission to his disciples as he was about to ascend into glory. Let me read it for you. Last two verses of the gospel of Matthew. 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 ends of the age. I just want to make an observation that in the first half of the great commission passage, and we understand that Christ gave this to his church. Now he gave this to his church right before he was ascending. There has to be a good bit of significance to that. There are several active verbs going on in this passage. You're immediately confronted with the word go. You're also confronted with the word baptize, teach, make disciples. Those are the four key action verbs in the first half of the great commission passage. So what is the focus with all this activity going on and all these directives? What are we to make of that? I would say to you that discipleship, and this doesn't come from me. I wish I could say that I was the first one to come up with this. But if you look at the Greek words themselves, these words, the Greek verbs have different levels of importance and significance depending on their tents and everything else. And in this passage, the prime directive is the word make disciples. If you want to bowl the great commission down and it would be an injustice to take it down to two words, but if you had to summarize it, it's make disciples. That's why discipleship is so important to the church of Jesus Christ. And it should be important to first press to your church of Chattanooga. The going is very critical. The baptizing is very critical. The teaching is very critical. It's not to dismiss any of those things, but they all hang and have their connective significance in the prime word or words which is make disciples. That's why discipleship is so important to the church because Christ commissioned his church to be about the business of making disciples. Now Jerry referred to the process of evangelism, not so much with using that word, but evangelism is the very initiating point of discipleship. When you come to faith in Jesus Christ, when God supernaturally works to call you to regenerate your heart by the spirit of God, to where you can receive the good news of Jesus Christ, faith in Christ alone. The only way in which you have redemption from your sins, forgiveness of your sins and life eternal. That's the gospel, that's the good news. Evangelism coming to Christ is the beginning point of discipleship, but at the point that you know Christ and have a relationship with Christ, you are a disciple of Christ, even in that early baby-like stages. But notice that Peter says there in first Peter, he says, but grow up into your salvation. Immediately goes from the justification of Christ, which only Christ could do as the Son of God, perfect and sinless. He went to the cross, he atoned for our sin, took the penalty of our sin upon himself and instead gave to us his perfect righteousness. He justified us by his complete and finished work to the cross and he overcame sin and death and went to glory. That's our justification, that's totally of God. We could do nothing of that. We had nothing to do with that. That's justification. But at the point of justification, you are a disciple of Christ and you move forward in a process of what we call sanctification, which is the rest of our Christian walk with the Lord this side of glory. We're still sinners, we still sin daily, but in that struggle we begin to see victory, we begin to see growth. We begin to see a greater love and appreciation for who Christ is in our lives and our His Lordship over us. That's our sanctification. And God in His own special economy, it's also part of His supernatural working that we're being sanctified. The Spirit of God takes the Word of God and brings it to bear in our hearts and minds, makes it alive, brings it to application. But He doesn't solely make it a supernatural thing so that we just stand there and say, okay, sanctify me. Would that it was that easy? He also includes that we, as men and women, together as the body of Christ would have a role in each other's sanctification. That's part of being the body, being the body. And that's what it means to be a disciple. My first point of two is that discipleship is personal. My second point will fit in with that. But first is discipleship is personal. Jerry used the words last week, life on life. That's not the whole of what discipleship is, but it is a very, very important part of it. You can't disciple someone by remote control. You can't disciple someone by remote audio education. Poring out content is critical to our understanding of our Christian faith, but content is not discipleship. Sending it by electronic wire around the world to a classroom, someone else is not discipleship though it may be helpful instruction. It's life on life, it's very personal. If you know your Greek mythology, all you may remember this account, it's a weird one and I don't know why I remember it, but as you know in Greek mythology, the head god in their mythology was Zeus. He was the head of the gods and in the account, one day he was having a severe headache. And so he went to, and I don't remember the god's name, he went to the god to get some medical help or to get relief and this other god that he went to, just walked up to him and split his head open. I hope you all are doing better than that with your medical treatments. But anyway, he split his head open and with that amazingly, Athena, his daughter, jumps out, fully grown, and oh yes, in full body armor. Now can you imagine a scene like that? It's a crazy, crazy tale. Here she jumps out full grown in a full body armor because she's the goddess of war among other things. Well, you know that's a crazy story and we think about that. That has nothing to do with what we're talking about. That has nothing to do with this scholarship. There are many things, believe you, me, things that are difficult and involve labor and involve time and process and seasoning and maturing. Oh man, I'm getting tired just thinking about it and talking about it. But most things in life, physically and spiritually that are worthwhile, you understand. Don't come by just adding water. They don't come instantly. They come through a process of genuine labor and seasoning and time. Many years ago when I was a new father, I can't even remember how many of my four children were gracing the world and our family at that time. But we pretty much went through this process with each one of them as many of you have. If you've had children, it's Christmas time. And there are a lot of things to get done and it's about 2 a.m. in the morning. And there's still that big gift for one of the kids that needs to be drug under the tree and dealt with. And all you wanna do is go to bed. Anybody been there? Any of you, your father's particularly been there. And you know there's gonna be a early wake-up called the next morning because the kids are at that age and now when we have our kids there, I mean we're all adults and you're lucky you can get us out of bed by one in the afternoon. I mean we're just, last thing in the world we care about is getting up early. So, but you know the kids are gonna be in there early. It's gonna be a short night. So I had purchased this bicycle and it was in a box and I drug it out under the trees about 2 a.m. And all I wanna do is go to bed. And right as I'm about to tear the box open and pull the bike out, I see those feared words, at least feared to me, three words, some assembly required.
I have not allowed for that. I have not allowed the time and I didn't have the inclination and besides that, as you know from past illustrations, I'm somewhat mechanically challenged. So immediately I came to the edge of a catatonic shock. Some assembly required. I'm just not sure that I'm ready to handle this thing. I'm particularly at 2 in the morning. I remember those were strike fear in me because I remember some years earlier, a gas grill being purchased very thoughtfully as a present. And on the box it said, some assembly required. The men that have put together gas grills are laughing already. They understand. It's ridiculous. Some assembly required. Yeah, and so is understanding Einstein's formula. I mean, four or five hours into assembling that grill, it looked like a stock car that had come into the wall at Daytona. I mean, it was just a mess and it was not working. And there were about another six or seven parts over in a pile that weren't even sure where they were going. So as I thought about that scene and some assembly required, I immediately was fearful when I read it on the side of the box. The good news is, as many of you know, with the least most bicycles, I can't say all. You pull it out and it was about four or five things you have to put on it. But even the mechanically challenged among us can usually do that. And so I did get some sleep that night. But some assembly required. I think of that when I read in scripture about what God says about the discipleship process, our sanctification as believers. God could just do it by divine theodic. It could do it supernaturally, just as he does our justification with us having nothing to do with it. But God understands in his own economy of the way the body works and of the way he needs for us to grow and understand our growth that in discipleship, he includes the process and the methodology of men to men and women to women. Some assembly is required in our discipleship. And that's a good thing. That's a good thing because it requires of us not only to lean on the Lord, it requires of us to depend on each other as well. It's a good thing. Peter says, grow up in your salvation. Randy Pope, many of you know of Randy Pope, he's right down the road in Atlanta. He is the senior pastor and the founder of the perimeter, well, the Lord's the founder, but he started the perimeter group of Presterian churches in the greater Atlanta area. And has been a senior pastor of perimeter, Presterian church ever since he got out of seminary, which is only a couple years ahead of me. He is considered an international authority on discipleship. That's where his gifts are, that's where his focus has been and it is shown in the development of the perimeter churches and the leaders that have come out of those churches. His definition of discipleship I'd like to share with you. It's discipleship is life on life. In other words, it's personal. It's personal, but some assembly is required. Now, that's not the whole definition. My second point will be the rest of the definition, but it's life on life. Jerry mentioned it last week, and I just want to re-emphasize it. Look at Paul's words in that second verse that I read to you. First Thessalonians 2.8, let me read it for you. So being affectionately desirous of you, this is Paul talking of he and his co-workers to the Thessalonican church. Being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, absolutely important, absolutely necessary, but also our own selves, because you'd become very dear to us. Life on life. It's not enough to transmit content. It's not enough to say this is what you ought to be doing. We all know as parents that more is often caught than taught. It's a combination. You must have content. You must have the word of God living and active in your own life in order to be any kind of model for anyone else, but you also have to be committed to pouring that life out into another's life. Paul said, we didn't just bring you the gospel. Now the gospel is critical, but he said, we brought you the gospel, but we brought our own lives in combination with the gospel. Because we recognize you need to see it, living and active in our own lives. You need to see what God is doing and sanctifying us in our walk with Him as you understand your own sanctification. It's as if the word itself became incarnated in real person and it did in Jesus Christ. Paul and his fellow worker says, it's impossible then to just give you the gospel without pouring out our own lives to you. They're that much connected as a follower and worker of Christ. In Mark 3, 4, TV reads that Jesus Himself called them to be as disciples and he appointed them for the purpose that He could be with them. Jesus called His disciples to Him in order that He could be with them. A couple months ago I had a lot of slots to fill on a very rewarding and valuable ministry within the church and in the process of trying to fill those spots and find out who got head for it. I walked to one individual in the church as a man that I won't mention his name, but I asked him if he'd be willing to consider serving in the capacity and he without a lot of hesitation very graciously said, no thank you, no, I don't want to do that. But then he explained, he said, the reason I don't want to do that is that I want to be pouring my life into other men here at the church. Man, you know what, I went away with a bigger smile on my face than I ever did when I approached him because my knowing that he believes that God is calling Him to share his life and to pour his life into other men's lives here at the church. It's only going to lead to good things. God's only going to lead to blessing this church as that being one example of what He is doing. I had no problem with not getting that slot filled by His answer, His response. It's life on life, but there is some assembly required. The second aspect of discipleship that I want to present to you here this morning is not only that discipleship is personal, but it's purposeful. Discipleship is purposeful. Again, the rest of Randy Pope's definition, and this is not a scriptural definition pulled out of a verse, it's his definition, but is one who is found practically and affected discipleship in his church, I thought it was worth sharing in terms of some of the high points. Discipleship is life on life, Randy Pope says, laboring in the lives of a few. Laboring in the lives of a few, isn't that interesting? You're going to take a rifle approach or a shotgun approach. Some of us are very good at the shotgun approach. We try to hit as many as we can, maybe we can graze them a little bit. The idea of discipleship, those seems to be more clearly in the long-term view of it for the sake of the body of Christ, is more of a rifle shot. It's more focused. Think about what Jesus did. Think about what He did. He went to the masses, and He gave time for the masses, and there was an importance in showing signs and showing who He was. But He did not make that His main focus. He had 70, and He recognized them, and He sent them out and empowered them to go out and do deeds of service and power in His name. He, most of the time spent it with the 12th. There's a famous discipling book called The Training of the Twelve. Jesus spent most of His three and a half year ministry. We call it the public ministry, but He actually spent more of it with the 12, refining and honing what He did, why He did it, explaining what He did, unpacking it for Him, asking them critical questions, and then giving them application, and then charging them to go out Himself. And then many of you know that He narrowed it down often to James and John and Peter, the three. Some of the most significant things that happened in Jesus' time on earth, He had just the three with Him, the transfiguration, the Garden of Gisemini, and others. Jesus had no problem narrowing it down to life on life for a purpose. It wasn't, I've got to reach as many people as I can, I've got to reach millions of people. It was no, I need to pour my life into a few, who in their calling can go out and multiply and make a difference. Look at 2 Timothy 2, 2. That's the verse that's actually in your bulletin. I don't know if you caught this, you may be familiar with this already. Again, first look at verse one, you then my child be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. I just note you that the context of that, Paul is saying to Timothy, his disciple, the one he's been mentoring, be strengthened by the grace of Christ. If any of this is gonna be possible, you must be, in other words, you must have a vital personal relationship with Christ if you're gonna go out and talk to other people about having a relationship with him. If you're gonna pour your life into them and have any meaningful significance, then your own walk with Christ needs to be healthy and it needs to be daily refreshed. Jesus said, if any man will come after me, let him take up his cross daily. It's in the Gospel of Luke. It's not in all the other gospels. Take up his cross daily and follow me. It has to be a daily refreshing relationship with Christ. But then in that, look at what follows in that second verse. The things and that's a different translation. The things that you have heard from me, Christ's instruction, the word, the gospel, whatever you wanna fill in there, all that you've heard from me, Paul says. He says, and what you've heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, in trust, that word means to deposit. It's to make an investment, to make a commitment. In trust these things that you have learned and heard and that are making a difference in your life. And that are part of your own walk with the Lord and trust these two faithful men or in some translations, reliable men. Most likely, that's addressing the elders because Timothy was being asked to work with the leaders in the churches where he was at. But then after that, that these reliable, faithful men would then take it to others. Do you see that within that one verse, there's a mention of four spiritual generations. Paul got it from Christ and from the Word, Paul, Timothy, faithful men, probably elders, others, the body of Christ, the rest of the body of Christ. We have a process, then, we have a methodology. Christ is calling men to men and women to women. Don't think it's a good idea unless it's in a big group setting to cross that over, but we're talking about pouring your life into it. We're talking about one in one or one in a small group which is quite possible. It shouldn't jump gender lines for a lot of very obvious reasons. And trust and invest to these. You know, next month, as I bring this to a close, next month is the Summer Olympics in London. Many of you know about that. Out of jealousy, I'm not gonna ask if any of you are actually gonna go over there and be live to see any of the Olympics, but many of you will be watching it on TV. You probably know the process. The symbol for the Olympics is the Olympic torch. It's lit. They started a little over a month ago, about 35, 40 days ago. And they lit the torch in Athens, Greece. And runners have been running with the torch ever since then. And it's gonna run all over London. Don't ask me how they get across the English Channel, maybe through the train, under the channel, whatever. But anyway, they're gonna run all over London. And then, of course, for the most dramatic, the opening ceremonies of the Olympics next month, they'll run into the stadium of the torch and light the big fire that'll burn off through the Olympic ceremony. Many of you will watch this on TV. It's quite dramatic. It's quite a spectacle. You realize that it's over 70 days that this torch is being run around. And over 8,000 runners are gonna share the privilege of passing the torch on. It's kinda neat. It pales in comparison to the torch, which is our call to discipleship and to passing on the treasure that is God's word that we carry in these earth and vessels. Have you ever really thought about it? Have you ever really thought about the fact that if if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, if you have faith in Jesus Christ, doesn't matter how much you've grown to this point because of your own sin or other people's sin or whatever, you are a disciple of Christ, whether mature or immature. Do you realize you trace a direct lineage of the passing of the torch of discipleship, life on life, laboring in the lives of you all the way back to Jesus Christ Himself? We're talking about almost 2,000 years of the church as Christ commissioned His disciples in the apostles. If you think about it, there is no way that you have not come into that lineage if you're a believer in Christ. It's almost like the passing of the spiritual torch. You can go back all the way to Christ Himself through that process. You can get a picture of how important that is, how significant it is, quickly an application for just a minute or two and then we'll close. Again, we have this treasure, the treasure of the gospel, the treasure of changed lives by virtue of God's gracious work in our lives. But He also says that our sanctification, our discipleship, comes with some assembly required. There is a maturing aspect, there is a need to grow, there is a need to rub against one another. We can get in, you know, that'll be some of the specifics of us there. We don't talk about accountability and about mentoring, but those are all aspects of it. But you see, it's all a part of the body being the body. We just look like a church if that's not going on in our midst. If discipleship is only a label or a theory or even a teaching aspect, if we're not engaged in each other's lives, often older to younger because Scripture really pushes that, but it's not always that case, then we're just kidding ourselves that we're really, really being the church of Jesus Christ. So I would ask you, have you identified, or by God's grace working on your heart, have you identified more than one person or even one person to have a life-on-life relationship? Have you put yourself in a position to be equipped in order to equip others? I understand that it takes a little bit more, although I would venture that anybody who's come to faith in Christ and has a concept, a real concept of the gospel, has something that they can pass on to someone else, even another believer. Are you being used to make a difference in the life of one other person at this time? These are, I know these are convicting questions, and I can't answer affirmatively to all of them. I'm doing this for my benefit as well as yours. Are you being discipled by another? The discipling process, it's very personal, and it's very purposeful, and God's calling us as His people to be a part of that. But understand that there is some assembly required. I close with this illustration. Layton Ford is the first one I ever heard share of this, and he's talking about that the church oftentimes is like a football game, a football stadium and a football game, some of you may have heard this. To sinkley, put it like this. You have 22 people in the middle of the stadium who are desperately in need of rest, and you have 60,000 people around in the stadium who are desperately in need of exercise. May we as the church of Jesus Christ not talk about discipleship, but basically be characterized by that illustration. God has called us, life on life, laboring in the lives of others. That's how the body grows and benefits, and every one of us is a disciple, and we're all called to do that in order that the great commission would be fulfilled in Christ would come again. Let's pray. Lord, we thank You. This discipleship thing is certainly bigger than we conceived of, it's bigger than we can imagine. And Lord, some of us are experiencing it well, and some of us quite honestly, if we're honest or kind of clueless about it, but Lord, the fact is we need to be willing and ready to step forward, not with all the answers. But with the willingness to engage one another, to invest in one another's lives for the sake of your glory
and your church, amen. Ship is the means of grace being given to each other. One of those greatest means we're talking about and discipleship is the fellowship of the believers. But this morning we've celebrated the means of God's grace as we gather together. We've celebrated and heard God's word, and we grow from that means of grace, and then God has given us a visible picture of the gospel to strengthen our faith, to once again be renewed and reminded of those covenant promises that God gave us. I will be your God, you will be my people. And He gives us this as a visible picture of what he's done for. So I wanted you to reflect upon these words in your bulletin, as we get ready for the Lord's Suppers, is during the night of his betrayal, our Lord Jesus instituted the celebrated sacred event marking the sacrifice of his body and blood called the Lord's Supper. He instructed his church to observe this sacred event until the end of the world. It is a continual remembrance of the sacrifice of himself and his death by participating in what the Lord's Supper signifies authentic believers have guaranteed to them all the good consequences of Christ's sacrifice. This includes our spiritual nourishment and growth in him and our participation in and fulfillment of duties owed to him. The Lord's Supper is a bond and pledge of our unity with him and with each other as members of his spiritual body. And it's in the midst of this that we have the responsibility based on the authority of God's Word to give you a warning which God gives in 1 Corinthians 11. Now this is a table reserved for those who have placed their faith in their trust in Jesus Christ alone. If you are here this morning and you have not put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we ask is the elements are passed by you that you take time to examine your heart and understand that God's Word says that the wages of sin are death. And you desperately need the blood of Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins. There's not only a warning to the unbeliever but there's warning to the believer in 1 Corinthians 11 that it says if you take it in an unworthy manner and you don't examine yourself properly that you're eating and drinking judgment upon yourself. And so I encourage you this morning that if you're harboring sin in your heart, and you're clinging tightly to that sin and you don't wanna let it go, I warn you on the authority of God's Word, it may be a time this Sunday that you let the elements pass because God may be using this time to convict you and to draw you once again to the cross. You may be thinking, well no one's gonna come to the table this morning. But if you're here as a fellow struggling, you're in the war, you're in the battle fighting against your sin and you hate it and you don't want anything to do with it. And you're pleading for the mercy of God and the grace of God to help you in the midst of that. I urge you to run to the table, not physically, spiritually running to the table and saying, Lord Jesus I need to feast upon your body and your blood again because I need your mercy and forgiveness. This table is not for those who are perfect. It's tables for struggling sinners because it points us once again to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Lord Jesus we need your grace this morning as we partake of the Lord's supper. Lord I pray that we would all once again remember the sacrifice of your son. Lord we would reflect upon our own hearts and we would once again have a sense of a covenant renewal in our hearts that you are faithful to your promises and that you love us and you forgive us and you cast our sins into the depths of the sea. May we feast upon this gospel this morning in Jesus' name. Amen. As the words of scripture remind us the Apostle Paul and 1 Corinthians 11 said that which the Lord gave to me so I pass on to you that in the night in which he was betrayed and the presence of his disciples he took the bread and he broke it saying this is my body broken for you is often as you eat this bread you proclaim my death until I come again take and eat. It's in your bulletin but again if you're unfamiliar with our prices we hold the elements until everyone's been served and in partake of it together. That same evening and in that same manner our Lord took the cup and he said to the disciples this cup represents the new covenant or testament of my blood shed for you. As often as you drink this you do so in remembrance of me. Again our Lord invites us to take drink all of it. Let us pray. Our Father we thank you for this means of grace. It is a victory. There is both solemnity and this celebration but there is ultimately victory. Christ has paid the ultimate price. He has won the victory over sin and death and he sits at your right hand and reigns in glory and we prepare even through the supper for the great wedding feast of the Lamb for all who are in Christ. We rejoice at that victory and Lord may it resound in our hearts and minds as we go forth from here to serve you with purposefulness in your name we ask it. Amen. Let's stand for the benediction and now may God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit be and abide with each one of you both now and for all eternity. Amen.