We're back to Luke chapter 5, verses 1 through 11, and go ahead and stand if you will, and we're going to read God's Word together. On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the Word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake. But the fishermen had gone out of them, and they were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and he taught the people from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. And Simon answered, Master, we toiled all night and took nothing. But at your word, I will let down the nets. And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boats to come and help them. And they came and filled the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. And he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that had been taken. And so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, Do not be afraid. From now on, you will be catching men. And when they had brought their boats to the land, they left everything and followed Him." Go ahead and have a seat. Heavenly Father, Lord, we just praise You and we thank You one more time, Lord. We just want to rejoice at Your Word, at the wisdom and the economy of Your Words, at what You have done to teach us and show us Your wisdom through Your Word. Now, You can take a small economy of words and speak so much truth. And we pray this day, Lord, as we come to understand an instruction into discipleship. In Jesus' name, Amen. We've studied the deity of Christ, the Messiah, in the passage that we've been reading. And I think that we've come to the conclusion that this passage, more than many other narrative passages in the four Gospels, that we see the deity of Christ is clearly on display here. We see the divine attributes of holiness and omniscience, omnipotence and grace. We see longsuffering and mercy in such a great contrast here. These attributes are uniquely expressed in the Godhead, though we may try to claim that we have something of them. We can see clearly that these attributes belong in its purity only to God. whether the fullness and the totality of these attributes is only found in the Godhead. Peter knew that and would never have worshipped any other but the God of the Israelites. But note that in verse 5, Simon began to answer Jesus with this one word, Master. We've all heard that word Master before. We've heard that word master in so many different connotations throughout the Scriptures and throughout preaching history. Well, this word here in this particular case, however, is unique in the New Testament and it's unique in the synoptic Gospels of Matthew and Mark and Luke. It's an Aramaic word and it's only found in this form in Luke. in the Gospels. And it's actually found in Luke chapter 5 verse 5, which we just read, in Luke 8.24, Luke 8.45, Luke 9.3, Luke 9.49, Luke 17.13. It's almost exclusively used by the 12 disciples of Jesus, with one exception, and that is actually found in Luke 17, 13, where the 10 lepers came to Jesus crying, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. In a secular language of the time, what's called Koine Greek, Greek was commonly used at that time. It was a hodgepodge of dialects. I want you to kind of understand what's being said here. It was a hodgepodge of dialects and words that had many different meanings and it had a rich, varied usage. For example, master in Koine Greek can mean, I'm just going to give you a few possibilities. One who watches over a herd. or driver of an elephant, or Egyptian taskmaster. It can also be used to speak of the Greek games, one who's a leader in athletics. But it can also be used as a temple leader, like the chief priest. So, in the Koine Greek, it has so many varied meanings that you could get very confused by these different meanings as to what Jesus was being called here. I believe that Luke knew this by the power of the Holy Spirit, and he used the Aramaic word as translated rabbi. Now, everyone's heard the word rabbi before as well, right? Anybody not heard that word rabbi? But not in the way that the disciples used it. You see, when we've heard of the word rabbi, we've heard of it as teacher in conjunction with Jesus, my rabbi or rabbi. You know, you'll hear that the term rabbi used today even of different teachers of Old Testament, New Testament law, especially with the Jewish people, we see rabbis continuously today as well. But in this context alone, The disciple used this word, master, in a way that was unique. It was unique. And what they were saying was this. This passage gives us clear example that Luke is using the Aramaic word here. It's a more powerful word. And Simon is literally calling Jesus, my master, my owner. He's not just saying really good teacher. He's recognized that Jesus is the Master and the Owner, but He doesn't understand that He is God incarnate. He understands at the beginning that this is the Master. This is the One who is the King, but He doesn't understand that He is God incarnate. That's why He has to go through this entire process to be taught, to be instructed, This passage gives a clear example that God is showing His mercy and His great long-suffering to Simon to point out to him. This is a way some people, some believe, according to this, that Simon was already saved because He called him, My Master and My Owner, when He's calling him My Master, when He says Master. I happen to believe that in this narrative story that Simon and James and John's conversion and commencing into the missionary training is happening right at this moment. And the reason I believe that is because of this account of the conversion and the commencing into ministry training, or discipleship training is Simon Peter's confession, if you will, of his sin and his depravity, his wickedness, and his need for salvation. If you'll notice there at the very beginning, well, I'm sorry, not at the very beginning. If you'll notice here, he says, verse 7, verse 8, but when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying what? When he saw it, he didn't say, my Master and my Lord, I praise You for what You've done. Oh, I knew You were the Messiah. I knew what You were going to do. Oh, this is so powerful for You to show Yourself off in this wonderful display. No, he didn't say that. He said, depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful, wicked man. I am depraved. I deserve the wrath of a holy God. Because he's seen the omnipotent and omniscient power of that great God standing in the boat with him. This passage is a clear example of how Christ finds and produces disciples. It's a pattern that we need to follow as we seek to be faithful to our master and to his great commission of all of his disciples. Now, I'm going to give you an alliteration of sorts. We're going to look at four landmarks. I'm going to get as fast as I can. These four landmarks are going to be this in order to truly disciple anyone. And it doesn't matter what context we're using. You see, first is an introduction. And the second thing you're going to see is an invitation. The third is instruction. And since I am so terrible at alliteration, the fourth is going to be a commissioning. Now, we're not going to get to the instruction. The instruction of the commissioning today because like I promised you we're going to get a little bit try to get a little bit early out of here Okay, but I want to really focus on the introduction invitation today if you'll just look in this passage you're going to miss the first stage which is the stage of the introduction and So if you just look in this one passage, you're going to miss it. There's a reason. Luke didn't start out with the introduction. John did. So everybody go to John chapter 1. We'll start in verse 35. If you look in John's gospel, you're going to see that Jesus had interaction with Simon and his brother Andrew prior to the passage here in Luke. In John 1.35, it says this. The next day, John was standing with his two disciples. That's John Baptist. John chapter 1, verse 35. OK, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, behold, the Lamb of God, verse 37, the two disciples heard him and and say this, and they followed him. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, what are you seeking? And they said to him, Rabbi, which means teacher. OK, they're coming to him as a teacher. They're not coming to Him as Master and Lord. They're not coming to Him as God and Savior. They're coming to Him as a great teacher, a good teacher, a teacher of great morality. One with power, granted. One with great authority, granted. But they don't understand who He is yet. They said, Where are you saying? And He said to them, Come and you will see. And they came and saw where He was staying and they stayed with Him all that day. Or they stayed with Him that day. For it was about the tenth hour." And he starts from the midnight calendar, the Greek calendar time schedule, so he started at midnight, it was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon's Peter's brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, we have found the Messiah, which is the Christ. He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas, which means Peter. You guys have heard, it's the rock, it's the rock, it's the rock. Yes, that means little stone. But his name is Peter. Peter is that rock, that little stone. And I'm going to explain to you, it's probably going to be next week or the week after, I'm going to explain to you why. So John the Baptist proclaims, Behold the Lamb of God, and John's disciples call him Rabbi in the sense of the teacher. Now why don't you listen to Dr. John MacArthur. He says, They follow Jesus, although the verb follow usually means to follow as a disciple written of the apostles. It may also refer to a neutral sense of following The following here does not necessarily mean that they became permanent disciples at this time. He says the implication may be that they went after Jesus to examine him more closely because of John's testimony. This event constitute a preliminary exposure to John the Baptist disciples to Jesus, one of them being Andrew. But I want you to look at the structure here. I want you to look at the structure here. I agree with his assessment. And at the same time, we see that this same thing happens to every single man, woman, and child that's ever been born again. Listen to this. Some crazy person on the street, in a store, over here on Shopping Day, over here on Thanksgiving, we call it Thanksgiving, but Shopping Day, they're standing out here proclaiming, Behold the Lamb of God who's come to take away the sin of the world. And they use this very passage, and they're proclaiming the Messiah. They're proclaiming Christ as Lord, as King. The next thing you know, you're right in the midst of a gospel presentation. You're being invited by God to evaluate these things and to learn of the Messiah. There's many people that say, oh, you can't put God on trial. You can't put God on trial. God says, who comes to me without evaluating if these things are true? He says, who comes and goes to war against the king unless he knows he has the troops to overtake that king? There must be an evaluation, an introduction where you are evaluating what is being said about this Messiah, where you are being driven to do that. But there's a problem. Brother Sergei said it. We're slaves to sin. We can't come to that. That must come to us. Think of it this way. You hear this gospel presentation. You're being invited to evaluate. God and His Messiah, and the general call goes out to the world constantly, and many, many hundreds and thousands hear that message across every day, across sermon audio, all over the radio, the internet, out in the streets. We hear it. It's constant all over the place. People are hearing the gospel. It's being set forth and proclaimed in the streets in a general way. And it goes out to the world. And if you notice here, John Baptist, he proclaims the same message. Behold the Lamb of God. He's been proclaiming the same message everywhere he goes. And even the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they heard it. All the people that were in Jerusalem, they heard it. All the people that were around him, they heard that message. And some came to faith in Christ. Some came to believe this is Messiah. And Andrew was one of the some. Think of yourself and every person that has ever lived of being like Lazarus in a tomb. You're dead in trespass and sin. You cannot respond to any outside stimulus. A dead man cannot do what? They can't walk. Can they rise? Can they respond to any stimulus whatsoever? If I say to a dead man, raise up dead man, walk dead man, how many times is he going to respond? He's not going to say anything to you because he can't hear you. What has to happen? That dead man must be given life or he will not respond until God regenerates you and me and gives us a new heart with a new spirit according to the Word of God and effectually begins to draw us. Not just the general call, but the effectual call given to each one of us. God uses his own people like John Baptist here as that vehicle to awaken that dead heart. He doesn't just do it just like a magic pill that he throws out. No, he uses the means of the gospel, the means of the church, of the body of Christ. That's why we're commissioned. God uses his own people. The initiation process, that invitation, that introduction process, I'm sorry, is the first hearing of behold the Lamb of God. It's the first time we hear it and we're introduced to something of God. And it may not be a perfect introduction. But that gospel seed is sown. Notice that right after they heard the Lamb of God, they became curious and wanted to know. They were drawn effectually to want to know Him. They followed after they had heard those two, Andrew and the other man. This first phase can take years. It can take years, folks. where someone has heard some truth of the Messiah, and it may be a muted truth, it may not be a perfect truth, but God progresses along and leads that person to know more and more and greater and greater truth until one day they realize they need that Savior. Amen. They come to know they need that Savior. But there are times when an introduction to the Messiah A person is so driven to know Christ that they will not rest until they know the truth of the gospel. In this passage, John's disciples heard the truth of the Lamb of God. They heard John Baptist say, Behold the Lamb of God. And they came right straight away after him. Then in verse 40, Andrew, Simon's brother, heard all this and went to get who? Went to get his brother Simon. Says in verse 40, One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, we have found the Messiah, which means the Christ, and brought him to Jesus. So John's disciples heard the truth, and one of them was Andrew, and when he heard the introduction, he also heard an invitation. to come and you will see." And when he stayed all day, when he stayed that entire day with Jesus, Andrew's response was faith. Andrew's response birthed faith because he had been with God. He had been with the Lord and the Lord had drawn him out and exposed him to truth. Listen to this. He goes, immediately, He goes to proclaim the gospel to his brother Simon. He says, we have found Messiah. That's called faith. That's called faith. He's went from being a person who has been introduced to behold the Lamb of God to a disciple who is now crying out to his own brother. The Messiah is here. And in faith, he cries out, you must come to know him. I believe that this was the account of Andrew's conversion. I believe we see it right here. But for Simon, the process starts all over again. Each one of us in our lives, you think about this. When you came to Christ, that does not automatically mean everybody in your family is a Christian. Amen. When you came to Christ and to know something of the Messiah, that does not mean that everybody you know and love will come to Christ. I'm sorry. Amen. But what that does mean is God births a great commission in your heart. If you're truly one of His, Spurgeon said it this way, every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter. And the reason he said that is because, I'm going to give it to you, it's really profound, every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter. It's just the way it is. I'm sorry, you can't be silent when the God of the universe has given you a new heart with new desires. You can't be silent. You have to tell somebody. You have to say, brother, I love you all to pieces, but you're going to go to hell without Christ and you need Him as Savior and Lord. Oh, but I'm a Christian. Look at your life. Look at the fruit. Look at the evidence. What kind of Christian is that? Let me tell you what the Scripture says. I want you to meet the Messiah. Amen. God gives you that new heart. He gives you that new desire that you want to tell people of Christ. So Simon's process, it starts all over again. It goes from you to another person and that introduction, that invitation, it starts all over again. And for Simon Peter, for Simon here, that process started when his brother came to him. and initiated that process by the power of the Holy Spirit, by the driving force of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, predestined before the foundational world. Every step of it was planned out by God. How do I know? Because he wrote it in his book. Every step of it was founded before the foundational world that he was going to have Simon Peter as his own. It wasn't an accident that Simon Peter was an apostle or a disciple, was it? Would anybody in this room say it was an accident, it just happened by chance? No. You'd be a fool to think that. And it wasn't an accident or chance that God saved you either. God did it on purpose because He purposed to love you for the glory of Christ. Now listen to this. He starts this process all over again with Simon Peter. There will not ever be a successful teaching, mentoring, or discipleship program that does not start, is not centered and saturated with the preaching of the Word of God and the pure milk of the Gospel. If that Gospel message does not come out, all of your ventures are wasted time. I don't know who said it, but every word that comes out of the mouth of a man that does not revolve around Jesus Christ is insanity. I don't know who said that quote, but I love that quote because it's true. What is the eternal benefit is the gospel, the proclamation, the truth, the word of God. And Andrew did the thing necessary. He said, behold, the Lamb of God to his own brother. We have found Messiah. Now, next thing I want to point out to you is the invitation. And yes, I know everybody here is going, he's talking about invitation. I'm going to throw rocks. OK, hold on. There's two stages in this issue of invitation. First is the general invitation. I'm not talking about asking Jesus into your heart, 16 Sansas, or just as I am. I'm not talking about that. Listen to this in John 1, 42. You are Simon, the son of John, and you will be called Cephas, which means Peter, the little rock, the little stone, more literally. Jesus didn't ask permission. Did you see that? At no point in time does Jesus say, I would like you to ask me into your heart. At no point in time did He say, if it's OK with you, I'd just like to come in and we can be friends and buddies. No, He said, I changed you. You are mine. I am your master. Brother, you are the slave. At no time did He ask permission. But listen to this. Then he commands an invitation. You are Simon no more. You will be called Cephas Peter, the little stone. Jesus didn't ask him permission. He initiated an invitation. Here again, you have to think outside of our own little pathetic language, because, guys, you've got to understand, the English language is a tragedy to speak. I mean, we mess up words so often. Man, that's cool. That's hot. Hey, man, that's bad. The crazy stuff we do to our own language, we destroy it all the time, and we don't even understand what an invitation is. Invitation doesn't mean, oh, come up here, please. It's a command. It's a command where God Himself says, you come, because you don't have another choice. You are mine. You don't have a choice. It's not a request. It has never been seen as a request except for here with our culture since the 60s. It was never seen as a request until since the 60s on. Listen to this. Jesus didn't ask permission. Here again, like I said, we have to step outside of our own little thinking here. This invitation is Jesus provoking Simon to become Peter. He's Simon, the old dead man. He wants him to become Peter, the living stone. How many times was Simon so wishy-washy that Jesus says, Simon, you don't even know yourself. Simon, you're going to deny me three times. But what does he say to Peter? Well done, Peter. Well done, Rock. Well done, Stone. He's going to have to be the one that upholds truth. He's going to have to be the one that stands on truth and not be shifting in the sand of the old dead man. So he has to be prepared in discipleship. See, that's what we have to do here. I don't want children. I don't want adults who are going to be shifting in the sand of the old dead man. If you're living in the old dead man, it might be because you don't have life. I'll just tell you now, if you have a resentful heart, a heart where you're always looking and bickering at other people, if you have that same dead heart, that old wicked heart, it might be that God hadn't done anything to you. If you still have this desire to live like the world and act like the world and think like the world. OK, Simon. Sit down and shut up. Evaluate what God's saying. Listen to His Word. And either repent and believe the gospel, or repent and get back on track. Amen? Amen? Listen to this. Jesus invites in the sense of provoking every single person that He saves to become completely different than they are. Listen to 2 Corinthians 5.17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he can become a new creation if he wants to. Oh, it doesn't say that, does it? Didn't say that anywhere, did it? If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. So that old dead man is dead. He's dead and you don't want Him around. You don't want to be like Him. You don't want to act like Him. The old dead things of the world, they're all done. And for Simon here, he's saying, you died. I killed you. And then I've made you alive. I've made you a new creature in Christ. I've given you a new heart with a new spirit and new desires, not only to understand, but to know me, to know how to live, to know how to be righteous. But you've got to understand something. He didn't stop there. He then disciples Him. He keeps growing him. Jesus invites him in that way on 2 Corinthians. But you've got to understand that Jesus, He hates who we are in our dead selves because He is love. Think of it like this. I love babies. Right? Amen? You guys agree with that? You all love babies? How do you feel about abortion? Are you neutral about it? If you are, we've got major problems and we're going to have a conversation If you love babies, you hate abortion. I love Christ. I hate the things of this world, even my own dead heart sometimes that tries to well back up in me and kill me. Like Paul says, the things I don't want to do, those things I do. Those things I do want to do, I don't even do those. Oh wretched man that I am, present tense. He's been given a new heart. And Jesus Christ can't stand who we are in our wickedness. That's why when He stands before you, He must convert you. It's not a choice. Either repent or die. Because He's going to judge. He's going to either judge Himself on the cross on your behalf, or He's going to judge you in your wickedness. Listen to this. Revelation 3, 17-19. Listen to what he says. This God of holiness who looks at you, looks at me, and he says, I won't have it. I will not have your wickedness. I'm going to judge it. Listen to him. You say I am rich. I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched and pitiable and poor and blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments, so that you may clothe yourselves, and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I let them do whatever they want to do, just as long as they're happy. Amen. That's what the Bible says. No, it isn't. Come on. Those whom I love I reprove, I discipline, so be zealous and repent. What's he saying? If I love you, repent. I'm counseling you to buy what you can't buy. I'm counseling you to take what you can't have. It must be given freely. It must change you. Has the gospel actually changed you from, remember what you were quoting earlier about the old dead man, that old sinful, wicked flesh, the lust and the greed and the hate and the envy and the revelries and strife and the deceit and all that envy and always looking and backbiting and all those gossips and arguments? Has the gospel taken you from that man and made you a new creature in Christ where you have the Holy Spirit living inside you and He's making you new? This is Simon versus Peter. This is Simon, the old dead fisherman, to Peter, the fisher of men. Amen. Here's the next stage. Well, first, John 1.42 says Jesus invites Simon to come and learn of him as sort of a part time disciple. And we can tell this is true because in Luke, Simon is still working at the Bubba Gump fishing company. Y'all missed that so bad. The first stage is over. The next stage we call that effectual call. The imitation might look different in different contexts, but it's always the same proclamation of the exclusive divine holiness of God and the establishing of the depravity of man, the exposing of sin, the desperate need for salvation. leaving a person dangling, if you will, where he's fallen before the holiness of God and said, department from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man. Where you've recognized God and His holiness, and in some fashion you see that you deserve nothing but the wrath of God. But listen to this. Back to Luke 5. We see that effectual call that takes place with Simon, whom Jesus has already nicknamed Peter, by the way. I think Luke differentiated between Simon the old sinner and Peter the disciple here by interchanging the names when Simon Peter was acting like his old self. And you see that not all the time, but you see that a lot of times throughout the old scriptures. When he'll tell him, you know, depart from me, you know, Satan, Simon, or he'll talk about how Peter was. He talks about his old versus the new self, that he was being the Christian leader that God was teaching him to be. But see in chapter 5, verse 4 through 7, that Jesus shows Simon that Jesus is God in the flesh, because he did the impossible. And we've talked about that before. And here is what exposed Simon. He knew that Jesus is Lord. Now, catch this. He knows that Jesus is Lord, that He is Jehovah, and He recognizes that this is not only my Master, but my Lord. Okay? Not talking just in the rabbi sense, but in the, this is my God standing in the boat with me. He gets that invitation that nobody can resist. Can you resist God? How many can? Absolutely not. Listen to this. Here's what he's being exposed to, that Jesus Christ is Lord and Jehovah, and that God is sitting in the boat, and that Jesus could see every bit of him. According to the Old Testament, there's nothing. We are naked and exposed. According to the Old Testament, our hearts are an open book. He knows everything that we're going to say before we say it, and He gives us words before we can speak it. He knows everything of us, and He's ordered and numbered our steps according to the Scriptures. Every single thing of us is naked and exposed before a holy God, and we stand before God complete, open. And when God shows us that truth, we have no choice. There is no option but to cry out to Him, because in His great grace, He shows us that He is the way. In His great mercy, He shows us, and listen to this. Wow, it's just amazing to me. Simon Peter's been exposed to this, and Simon knew that he was naked and exposed before the God that was going to judge him completely. And he's already judged himself as unworthy. He's already judged himself. And what does the Scripture say about that? Judge yourself so that you will not be judged. The world says, I'm a good person. I don't need God. I can get there on my own. Surely I can merit something. Simon Peter says, Depart from me, Lord. I don't deserve it. I'm dead. I'm wicked. I'm vile. And that's every Simon Peter in this room, I hope. He understands that he deserves hell. The greatest place for a condemned hellbound sinner, the place of absolute terrifying comfort, peace and rest, is at the knees prostrate before the judge who has found you guilty. Without one plea and no ability to pay the debt, When the judge says, listen, do not be afraid for from now on you will be catching men. The judge of the universe knows you completely. And if he's called you out of his own, he's going to bring you to that point of service. of use for his kingdom. And the way he does that is he exposes you to your depravity, your need of salvation, and your unmerited favor before him. A more literal rendering of that passage should or could read something like this. If you go look in the Greek, here's what it would say. Cease panicking because from this moment forward you will be catching men alive who were dead. You see, he was a fisherman. He caught live fish to die. Jesus was saying, no, now you are a fisher of men. You catch dead men to live with a new spirit and a new heart. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that just, I just love that. Isn't that beautiful? Jesus has now provoked Simon to leave himself behind and to die to self and to take The mantle of Peter the little stone or the rock. Discipleship, listen to me, it cannot happen when a person in need of being taught will not let go of false teaching. When they will not repent of sin, discipleship is impossible. Do not get the cart before the horse. If you seek to disciple someone in Christian circles without exposing them to their need of a Savior, without giving them the invitation of the Gospel, without introducing them to the Messiah, they will fall away. They will not come to Christ as Savior and Lord. They will not continue this course. They will not run the race to its full completion because they cannot be discipled apart from a new heart with a new spirit. Why do you think so many people come in and hear this hour, hour and a half long, okay, mostly hour and a half long preaching and they say, this is too hot. Man, this is too much. I can't handle this. And why do you think it is that most of these teenage kids all the way down can sit here and listen and are growing and learning, and even us old kids are growing and learning in the knowledge of the Word of God? It's not because of us. It's because God's given us a new heart with a drive. I love Andrew. Oh, he wasn't the flashiest or the showiest, but as soon as he heard, he ran with all his heart. Until the day he died, he ran hard. Next week, we're going to talk about something of instruction, discipleship is another way of looking at that, and commissioning. You see, you can't have just a commissioning if there is no discipleship and instruction. So many people come into the church here, and you guys have heard it. Oh, God told me to do this. God told me to do that. And what have I told every one of them? Sit down, be quiet, and learn. Amen? Why? Guys, if I ran up here and decided I'm going to be the pastor, I'm going to go ahead and start teaching without God calling me to this and teaching me to do this. Kenny, how many years? Seven years, eight years of just growing and teaching and being learned, being taught by so many different people. It's just been years and years. I didn't go to seminary. OK, so how did I learn? I can't be a pastor. Right. I mean, how many people said that? There's been people say all the place. God has used men, sound men of God, teaching. I mean, I can read, right? Praise God, I can read books and I can understand, I can be taught and grow and be discipled. That can't happen unless you've been regenerated. That can't happen unless you've been given a new heart. You know why you're having so many troubles with your kids today? You want to know why you're having so many trouble with family and friends? They refuse to be discipled. Why? Because, brother, you said it. You're trying to lead them to spiritual truth. You're trying to teach them the ways of God. They want the moral principles. They don't want the truth. Amen. That's what they want. They want all the good feel good moral teachings because it's going to be good for them. You know, Christ never said come to me because it's going to be good for you. You know what he said? Come and take a cross up and go die. So many people get mad at me when I say that. That's what Christ said. Come pick up a cross and go die. You know, Leonard Ravenhill said this. You always knew when a man was serious about his faith, when he was walking out of town, holding a cross and going up on a hill. You always knew he was serious about his faith because he was prepared to go die for truth, to die to the gospel, to die to self, to die for the proclamation, the Word of God, so that others might be saved. Has God introduced you to Himself? Has He initiated an invitation, contact where He's driven you? I'm not talking, has He played games with you in 16 stanzas just as I am. Now, if you want to hear 16 stanzas, Diane can do it, but I'm not going to put you through it. You don't need one. If you're not saved, you know it. Why? Because you've heard truth. You've heard the truth. The word of God is the power, the gospel preaching is the power of God unto salvation. It's not my fancy whims and the fancy things I say and do. It's the word of God. That's why I stand up here and just drone on and on and on. And you guys keep going. This is true. Praise God is true. Hallelujah is true. Amen. This is true. Keep going. That's why I keep going. Because you want it, I want to give it, and God wants us to have it. He wants us to have truth that only happens when a heart has been converted and changed and wants to grow. My brother back there was telling us earlier, those of you that didn't hear it, my brother back here was telling us that, for those of you that didn't hear it, that he's the first generation of Christians in this culture. Okay? Now you think about this. As the first generation, God calls him out to preach the Word of God. He doesn't have everything perfect. He's not... Am I wrong? I'm a seminary degree. All this stuff has just been... Okay. You know what? Don't let any man look down upon your youth. Don't let anyone look down upon you because guess what? God used a fisherman to be a fisher of men. Don't let anybody look down upon you because you're at a small church. God sent 12 people into the world and they changed everything. Amen. What are you prepared to do? Are you prepared to be discipled, to stand up? If you've been through this, are you prepared to go through that arduous task of being discipled and instructed and prepared for the master's good use? See, this wasn't just, come as you are, I'm ready to teach you a little bit, I'm Christ, now go do your own thing. He went through a three and a half year, three year intensive program on who God was. And by the way, he put in mouth disease all the time. Okay, next week we're going to talk about instruction and commissioning. I'm going to try to start talking to you guys about who the disciples were. We're going to briefly touch on these two issues of discipleship and instruction, commissioning, but I really want to explain to you who these disciples were as we knew them so that you can get a better understanding that these marvelous godly men that are all over the world that you see in all these Roman Catholic churches that were saint so-and-so and saint this one and that one, you know, they've got what, 16 of the 12 apostles that were all their bones, right? Yeah, I mean they got run all over the place. So I mean you think about it these saintly men, you know who they were You and me Called out men of God used for a special purpose in a special way and all they were was ordinary men Okay, let's pray