our great need of a great Savior and so lift our eyes to the heavens that we might see our ruling and raining Christ and our worship to Him would be pure and full and bright and hopeful. Will we come here this morning to see Jesus, be our hope Lord, overwhelm us with your presence, for we make our prayer, our morning prayer in the name of Jesus, our only hope. Amen.
We take part of our service to profess what we believe about Him to remind ourselves and to proclaim to one another the truth of God so that we would worship Him together. It's my prayer that your passion would be joined with this orthodox statement as we affirm our faith by saying together the Apostles Creed Christian, what is it that you believe? I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ is only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sit it on the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. You may be seated. When we craft our worship service week to week, we do so with the intention that we would be led to see the Lord Jesus Christ and to worship Him. But we also want you to know that this service is laid out in such a way that you can use it throughout the week at home for your own private devotion, or as you lead your family in your family devotions. We'll walk right through this call to worship, songs of praise, a time of profession, and then confession and assurance, and then a time where we submit ourselves to the word of God, the means of grace by which God reveals Himself to us. So I want to encourage you to use this bulletin throughout the week. We come to the time where we confess our sins to the Lord, where we seek to say together as members of his body, the things that the Holy Spirit has brought upon us. I'll lead us together in a confession of sin which we'll read together, and then we'll provide a quiet silent moment or two for each of us as individuals to confess our sin. So would you join me in this confession, saying, you owe God our love itself, yet I have acted as if I hated you. I have contrived to tempt you to the other most, to wear out your patience. I have been evil in word indeed. Had I been a king, I would have long ago crushed such a rebel. Had I been a father, I would have long transdisciplined my side. O father and king of my life, cast me not into destruction, drive me not from your presence, but wound my heart that it may be healed. Break it that your own hand may make it whole, and now take a few moments and silently confess your sin to the Lord. O Lord our God, here are prayer of confession, and forgive us our sins. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. And now invite you to lift your eyes to the Lord your God who forgives you, and hear these words of assurance. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Let's go to him in prayer of Thanksgiving. O Lord our God, we thank you that you are a God who justifies the wicked, that you are a God who came to your enemies, those who were dead in sin, those who were allied against you, and you made us alive by the power of your Holy Spirit. We thank you that you are a God who forgives sins, that you are a God who raises us up from the dust and makes us stand in your presence in your very throne room. O Lord God, we thank you for your grace, we thank you for your mercy. It is my prayer that if there is anyone here who is weighed down this morning by sin, sins that have defined their lives, sins that they've been battling against for many, many years, we pray that you would release them from the bondage of sin, that you would remind them that they stand not as themselves anymore but as adopted sons and daughters, that they have been made part of your family and that we are no longer defined by those things that we were, but now we are defined by the person that we have become because of your blood Jesus poured out for sinners, that removes our sins as far as the East is from the West, so far you have removed our sins and transgressions from us. O Lord God, I pray if there's anyone here who is defined by some sin committed against them by abuse, by neglect, by sins that they have long ago suffered and yet they still feel the pain of that sin, I pray that you would set them free and release them. Remind them that they are not who they were and they are sons and daughters now because you are gracious. O Lord God, drive the truth of our justification into our hearts that we may live for you and Lord even as we make this prayer this morning, we pray the words that you, Lord Jesus, taught your disciples for that is who we are, we pray those words together this morning saying our Father who art in heaven, how would 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 to live us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. You may be seated. We come now to the time in our service where we are going to be welcoming some new members into the fellowship of this body. So I'd ask you if your new member come forward please now so we can receive you formally. All of these folks that are coming up forward have attended a new member's class. They have been interviewed and talked to you by someone on our session or as part of our staff to have them share their faith with us to share their hope of the gospel and we are so encouraged by everyone here. As you'll see there are young and not as young. So membership is not for the young, it's not for the old, it's for everyone, it's for you. We want you to be part of this local body and so as you're seeing these folks here and thinking yourself well what you know I've attended first press for a long time or maybe I'm new but I really want to be part of this local body. I want to join the mission with this group. You can do that on February 26th, the last Saturday of February. We're going to have a membership class right over here in the chapel from nine in the morning to one in the afternoon. Everybody made it through. Good class. You got a lot out of it. You're here. That says something. So it's a great opportunity for you to get to know me and get to know Tim, our other pastors and here what exactly does it mean to be a follower of Jesus Christ right here at First Presbyterian Church. And so we're grateful to have them here. I'm going to read their names and as they do I was not organized enough to let them sit in any kind of order. So would you just raise your hand and you can see who we have here. In the first service we welcomed Heidi Newman who is a regular attendor of our early service and serves with our kids. So if you know Heidi and want to connect with her, welcome her to you. But we have here this morning Don and Joyce Self. We have Jim and Janet Tumlin. We have Larry and Nancy Ryan. We have Sharon Sorry. We have Daniel and Misha you, along with their daughter, Peyton Pelke. And we have Haley Harwood is here and Leanne Gross. Welcome. We're happy to have you here as members of First Presbyterian Church. I'm going to ask them these questions that they have already studied and gone over with with us in a number of different venues. But if you agree to these questions, would you please say I do? Do you acknowledge yourselves to be sinners in the sight of God justly deserving his displeasure and without hope saving his sovereign mercy? Do you? Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Savior of sinners? And do you receive and rest upon him alone for salvation? Do you? Do you now resolve and promise in humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit that you will endeavor to live lives as become followers of Jesus Christ? Do you? Do you promise to support the church in its worship and work to the best of your ability? Do you? And do you submit yourselves to the government and discipline of the church and promise to study and pursue its purity and its peace? Do you? I'm going to pray for you. Let's pray, Lord Jesus Christ what a great thing it is that these folks have come to worship here in this church that they have seen their great need of a Savior and have found you Lord Jesus and their only hope in the gospel of your death and resurrection for us for our forgiveness and everlasting life. Lord, we pray that they would live amongst us as servants of you that they would exhibit in their lives the Holy Spirit in the fruit of the Holy Spirit. As they live and worship among us and serve among us, we pray that they would correct us when we sin and that they would be open to correction when they are sinning. We pray Lord God above all that they would have the joy of your presence and that they would infect us with that same joy as we worship together and as we seek you together as we become disciples followers of you Lord Jesus. Here are prayer we ask this in your most holy name Jesus amen. We ask you all now as a congregation to greet one another and greet them in the name of our risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As I ask the the deacons to come forward we're going to come to the part in our service where we offer back to God a portion of what he's given us and we worship him through the giving of our tithes and offerings. In this act we acknowledge that we have been bought with a price and that price was Jesus Christ's blood which he shed for us and so because of the Lordship of Jesus Christ we acknowledge that everything that we have belongs to him we are stewards of what he has given us and so we give back a portion of what he's given us in order to acknowledge that he is the Lord that we are not defined by the money that we have. It does not Lord over us we have one Lord and one Savior and it is Jesus Christ and so we give out of thanksgiving for what he's done for us. Let's go to God now in prayer. O Lord our God we pray that as we give our tithes and offerings this morning that you would break the power of materialism over our lives. Lord God I confess how often it is that I am defined and defined myself by material things that I define myself by my salary that I hold on to the gifts that you have given to me with closed fists that I am not as generous as I ought to be. Father for me and for anyone else who is struggling with this sin I pray that you would release us from it give us a spirit of generosity a spirit of giving and I pray Lord that we would use all of these gifts that are given to pursue the peace of the church. I pray Lord God that as we worship together you would draw our hearts to the cross where we see the ultimate act of generosity the ultimate ultimate act of service which you Lord Jesus have done for us. And as we go from this place as peaceful brothers and sisters we pray that we would be agents of peace in our community. Lord we pray that we would be agents of peace throughout the world. Lord even as this very morning many of our thoughts have been drawn to the Middle East and in Egypt where there is great trouble and strife and uprising we are aware that there are many brothers and sisters that we have that are serving you faithfully in that area and we pray Lord that you would protect them and that you would be a shield about them that you would lift their heads and give them peace. Lord I pray for the world that we live in that is often at war that you would bring peace in our time that we would be a generation that would see swords and guns and bombs molded into plowshares and that we would live in a generation where lions lie down with lambs and where one man does not go to war against another man but there is great peace and within that context of peace that we can sow the seeds of the gospel and people can find true peace and true life everlasting. Lord may your kingdom come may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Here are prayer. We offer these things in the name of Jesus our Savior the Prince of Peace and Lord of our life in Jesus name in them. I appreciate that leading us in that piece of the worship discipleship is the topic for the sermon today and it is important for us in this church on so many levels one of those nomination of our elders and our deacons and we're coming up on that time of year when we ask you as congregants to nominate people you think are qualified for those offices and that's coming up in March and for some of you have been here for a while you're probably saying every year it seems a little different I want you to hear that a couple years ago the session determined to go to a rotating session and in that we've been very intentional and taking some small steps to getting a process whereby we can have that rotating session born and we not only want you to help us have an outward call for nominees and that is in March when the time comes we're asking you if you know someone you believe fits the biblical qualifications for elder and for deacon that you will nominate them that you will nominate you you will look in your bulletin and see when those times come for the deacon nominations the elder nominations are coming in March but we also want those candidates to fill an inward calling as well and so we're asking you if you're out there and you're considering in your heart and you feel the Lord may be placing on you a call to serve as an officer in this church whether deacon our elder that you'll begin attending our Wednesday night training on Wednesday evenings our teaching is also this year the training for our officers we want you to sit there and say as the Lord really pressing on my heart to fulfill to fill this role going through training is good for up to five years and we're going to be offering that every year from here on out and I want to encourage you if you're feeling that tug or if you're sitting there and going I'm not an officer but I really want to nominate so and so that you'll call them and encourage them and say I see in your life some things that make me think you would serve well as an elder a deacon and I want to encourage you to attend that training on Wednesday night having said that discipleship and shepherding is so important to us here that we want to celebrate it and we value it highly and in that regard I want to ask Lee actually one of our elders to come up now and lead us in our scripture reading Matthew 28 verses 16 through 20 now the 11 disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them and when they saw him they worshiped him but some doubted and Jesus came and said to them all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me go therefore and make disciples of all the 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 even to the end of the age this is the word of the Lord thanks be to God you may be seated thank you Lee I'm excited about preaching this sermon but I can't imagine this sermon being entered better than you're singing thank you for pointing our eyes to Christ this morning choir and others who've participated you know a disciple is kind of a generic word in our culture and I wanted to take some time to define it for us in order to do so I'll tell you a little story my best friend in first grade was Kip Sprague and Kip and I would play together in his yard all the time and out in the middle of the street because he lived on a cul-de-sac but across the street from Kip there's a man who raised dogs and not just any dogs he raised Grand National Champion Labrador Retrievers and it was fun for me to watch these dogs because they could do anything you say sit they would sit stand they would stand you know go read my homework for me they would they could do about anything as a kid I was so impressed by them and so I asked the man I said how did you just continue to produce a Grand National Champion's generation after generation because well I worked very hard on my first set of dogs until I developed one who was just a phenomenal Grand National Champion and then as they had pups those puppies would follow that dog around and they acted like the dog they just began to have this sense of who they were and and they followed and they became obedient and well trained and I was so touched by that and then I realized in a way that is what Jesus is talking about when he speaks of discipleship he's saying you are going to become like me he's gonna conform us to his image over time and you know what unless you look exactly like Jesus does you better be ready for some change you might want to think right now you know what I've got some changing to do if I'm gonna be conformed to the image of Christ but you're gonna become like your leaders so when you called your senior pastor that was a scary moment in fact just out in the hall I was walking out of the session room the new members were being received and Joel and others were leading and my wife happened to be there and so we just reached over and gave each other a little kiss and one of our elders saw it because I saw you and I said what'd you think about it he said I'm for it so if your wife's here you just lean over and give her a little kiss just say I'm being a disciple right you see the Lord is gonna conform us so that we'd look like him the word disciple means learner it's a very simple word it it simply means learner and so by definition you're a disciple if you're a learner right Plato had a very famous disciple his name was Aristotle right they didn't necessarily spin their time studying God but it's that learner teacher relationship and so throughout the scripture we we see these examples of the learner teacher you might think to yourself and realize well we had we had Moses and Joshua we had Jonathan and David in the New Testament we've had Paul and Timothy we had Jesus and his disciples you see we're in the middle of a series right now that is explaining to us our new vision and the new vision has come right from God's word Matthew 28 as Lee was reading you heard him say they saw him and they worshipped him if you look at the front page of your bulletin you'll see right underneath that sketch of our building worshipers of Jesus Christ is who we are missions and discipleship is what we do W-2 it's who we are it's what we do when somebody asked you about your life in this church you can simply look at them and say W-2 it's who we are it's what we do and I say what's that mean you're gonna say first and foremost our church is comprised of worshipers of Jesus Christ who are about God's business by proclaiming him to the world and proclaiming him to each other what is worship worship is our response to the proclaimed and revealed Jesus what is missions proclaiming Christ to the world what is discipleship proclaiming Christ to each other because when we see him we worship him and so God's called us to be learners but I want you to recognize something that's very important here I want you to recognize that we're learners who are in relationship we're learners who have a meaningful relationship with someone else we don't simply go home all by ourselves and read our Bible and read Christian books although that's excellent I'm thrilled for those of you who are doing that a number of you are memorizing Ephesians with me I hear it in your prayers when we pray together I hear it in your words you're using those words to encourage me what are you doing you're discipling me how you're speaking God's word to me and I see Jesus and I worship him that's discipleship proclaiming Christ to each other but we do it in meaningful relationships I want to encourage you to think about what meaningful relationships do I have that are gospel centered I'm learning about God because I'm spending time with this person we're walking together we're a Jonathan and a David we're walking along together I want you to recognize a few things first of all David said in Psalm 34 11 come with me little children listen to me and I will teach you the fear of the Lord do you have anyone in your life that when they listen to you they learn the fear of the Lord what is most important for us to be speaking about we speak about the Lord to one another we encourage each other we challenge one another we correct one another we need each other we're not marching to heaven alone we're walking together as a community we're we belong to each other we belong to the Lord we're learners together in meaningful relationship with one another I want us to recognize that I want us to recognize that some people go more slowly than others and some people go rapidly but we walk along together in God's word in relationship we see one another and we might think oh I wish he knew this or I wish he knew that you know one of the things I've found in my relationships in the body of Christ especially with men is that many men are all alone in their walk with the Lord you know in our business culture over the years we typically get rewarded by hearing a problem going to our office coming up with a solution and then bringing it back out and solving everything and we're the big hero we get promoted for that in the body of Christ you're an immature believer if you do not have very close Christian friends you're not as mature as you could be if you had a close Christian friend who would speak to you so often when people come to me for counseling I could simply and honestly say if they had a godly spiritually-minded word-centered friend they wouldn't need to come speak to me because I listen to them and I speak the word of God to them as it applies to their situation you know the kind of people I'm talking about maybe you are one I tend to get the privilege of approaching the autocratic jerk who calls himself a Christian the person who when he speaks everyone kind of tenses up and backs away a little bit and then when he leaves they're all can you believe that guy what's wrong with that guy oh that's just the way he is oh really he's not worth the trouble to rub that rough edge off so we just let him go we let him go we let him go and we let him wreak havoc in the body of Christ and as one of the shepherds of the church I have the privilege of humbly approaching those sorts of people as iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another more faithful are the wounds of a friend than the kisses of an enemy so what happens to these men who kind of bull their way through life they're lonely and they're immature they haven't been developed they haven't had anybody who loves them enough to see through their gruffness and so they continue to be gruff or can't continue to hide behind their intellectual standards whatever it might be filling the blank the gospels bigger than that and true disciples lean into one another many of you know that I know nothing of the Christian life apart from discipleship I know nothing of the Christian life apart from discipleship word centered meaningful relationships so I started by defining it as a learner I moved us to relationship and now I've added another term word centered word centered relationships how do people come to know Jesus well they hear us proclaiming his word so his word accompanied by the Holy Spirit is the converting agency that's how we are converted that's how we're given new birth how do we grow in Christ God's word the very same means of grace that converts us in power of the Holy Spirit changes us in the power of the Holy Spirit let me take you over to first Peter chapter 1 it's toward the back if you're new first Peter chapter 1 verse 22 listen carefully having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth having purified your souls by the obedience to the truth listen to this for a sincere brotherly love love one another earnestly from a pure heart so that's that sanctification piece or that discipleship piece listen to the conversion piece since you have been born again not a perishable seed but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God how are people born again through the living abiding word of God how do they grow in Christ word centered relationships where in community we obey God together we rub up against each other we say things to each other we might not want to hear but we say it in love or we keep our mouth shut until we do love that person enough to speak to them the way we would like to be spoken to when we're being corrected is this mutual loving application of God's word that changes us and we grow together are you perfectly conform to the image of Christ at this moment no get ready to change how do I change pastor I worship the Lord I'm actively involved in proclaiming Christ to the world and I'm in meaningful word centered relationships that's how I grow in Christ that's how we walk together that's how we grow together you know I had a wonderful experience recently this process of discipleship has always fascinated me I went to the Chattanooga bakery by the way different people say Chattanooga Chattanooga different ways I've learned in the last 11 months I went to the Chattanooga bakery and while I was at the Chattanooga bakery I watched them make moon pots and they started out with sugar and flour and a few other ingredients and they mix that together into a dough and then that dough is slowly thin down until it's paper thin and then it goes into an oven that is about 100 yards long that's a long oven I wanted to be at the far end of that thing when those hot cookies are coming out right and then they get those hot cookies out of there and then they put some marshmallow and some coatings and they wrap them next thing you know they're in boxes this production was amazing I've fascinated by it and I'm fascinated by God's production of disciples what are the ingredients that God uses and the conditions with which he places those ingredients to produce disciples well I'll tell you one ingredient is that the word of God is a central ingredient in the heart of a disciple and that word of God is spoken of and compared and related to so that we sharpen each other we grow together we say hey I tried to witness to this kind of guy and I don't know how to do that do you have any ideas on that maybe we do maybe we don't but we can learn from each other now I'm about to share something with you that's very personal in fact I've asked my wife's permission before I share it when I said that at the 8.30 hour everybody lifted their head and sat up straight they're like what my wife has had trouble breathing for the past five years of her life she has a tracheal stenosis it's a restriction within her trachea her windpipe that does not allow her to breathe and get the amount of air in and out the way that we do we've sought help all over the United States and we have found the doctor who does the most the highest number of these surgeries in Boston at mass general hospital and on February the 10th we're going to Boston so that my wife can have a surgery done on her trachea it's a very delicate surgery it's also a surgery that is uncommon this this malady is only found in women we were fortunate enough to have a friend of arts a doctor in Dallas diagnosed her tracheal stenosis simply by listening to her as she was breathing we thank the Lord for Tim Trone and how he used him to diagnose that problem you know what I noticed once Tim did his research he began to compare notes with other doctors around the world and as he compared notes with other doctors around the world he learned a little bit from this guy and a little bit from that guy we met a number of doctors who were willing to do the surgery oh I can do that surgery I'm a pulmonary specialist and I would simply say how many tracheal resections have you performed zero but I know how to do it and you don't know how to do it on my wife I'm glad you're confident in your ability you can reset your wives trachea but from my wife we're gonna go to the one who's done the most these so we compared notes and we landed on this doctor in Boston and we're going the the recovery's very difficult my bride's chin will be sewn to her chest for eight days after surgery she will not be able to speak or eat or drink for eight days after that for a month or so she will not be able to drive or lift anything above two pounds it's an arduous recovery we know we have a great god and our faith in him is greater than our fear although we do have some fear why do I tell you that you did not blink one moment when I spoke to you about how doctors confer well of course they confer that's how they learn that's how they know oh you've done more of these than I have tell me about it what's the recovery what how do you handle this who who are the people who are eligible for this surgery you learn so much do you know in the body of Christ particularly men we we go it alone we go it alone and we don't learn from one another we're afraid we're wrong we're afraid that maybe we'll say something that's not completely correct or say it with the right theological wording I want you to know this is a safe place here you don't have to know any buzzwords to be a disciple in this church you need to be honestly approaching the word of God and say when I see Jesus I worship him and I'm about the work of missions proclaiming Christ to the world and I'm a disciple I'm a learner who's involved in meaningful word-centered relationships and it's okay for my friend Elaine into me and say when you speak like that you offend me and I'm not gonna put up with it we're gonna talk about this together because we're gonna grow grand national champions here because we're gonna be conformed to the image of Christ now the staff the pastors the session the deacons have come together to craft a form that I've titled a w2 form it's a spiritual w2 form w2 it's who we are it's what we do we're worshipers of the Lord Jesus Christ that's the w the two is missions and discipleship so as you leave this building this morning they're gonna place our ushers are gonna place a little piece of paper in your hand and it's gonna summarize the last three weeks of my preaching and they're gonna be three boxes and the key words in those three boxes are gonna be worship mission and discipleship and I want you to fill out this form for you for you and I want to know where you are in your worship I want to know where you are in your effort to proclaim Christ in Chattanooga and around the world and I want to know where you are in your discipleship relationships you see we have a direction God's grace has an agenda it's not enough that you're just here it would be okay with me but Christ doesn't stop there he says when you see me worship me proclaim me to everyone in the world click on every garage door and be involved in word-centered relationships so that you can grow to be conform so I want you to fill out this form you don't have to turn it into anyone I would like you to share it with a friend with your spouse maybe your children and just get a sense of where you are and over the months ahead as our elders and Deacon shepherd us we'll use this to shepherd one another and say hey this year what's your goal for missions hey this year how are you gonna improve your discipleship efforts you see we're not gonna box you in to one little path we're gonna say in the power of the Holy Spirit how are you worshiping where are you involved in missions maybe you're a young family and you can't go to Nairobi with us this summer but maybe you could go to Nairobi with us this summer if you're in another place in life make this work for you as we head toward heaven being conformed to the image of Christ let's pray together father I'm so grateful for your leadership yours you make things so clear to us and I pray that we would be faithful to follow and to obey you when you say go we need to go and when you say make disciples we need to make the disciples and when you say teaching them to observe all that I have taught you we need to teach them to observe all that you have taught us that we might grow together in this Christian community thank you Lord for a clear vision thank you Lord for a biblical vision and thank you for a people who are passionate to obey you and to worship you oh Lord what a privilege to serve you here what exciting days we have before us we thank you when we praise you oh Lord we may not want to change but we need to change so in the power of your spirit a company company your word and our our friendships and make us look more like Jesus we long to see Jesus we long to be like him we thank you we make our prayer in your name Jesus and all God's people said amen would you please stand for our benediction before we sing our closing hymn and now may the Lord bless you and keep you may the Lord causes face to shine upon you be gracious to you may the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace both now and in the life everlasting