Please open to Psalm 127 for our scripture reading this morning. Psalm 127. Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so he giveth his beloved sleep. Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate." Let's pray together. Our Father, we thank you for the blessings that you give us in this life. We recognize that you are the builder of the house. You are the keeper of the watch over the city. And we recognize that in our own strength, we can accomplish nothing, whether that comes to building a family or building a church. And we pray, Lord, that you would help us to be humble before you, to recognize that in our own strengths, we can do nothing. But by your strength, we can do all things through Christ. I pray, Lord, that you would help us as believers To be living our lives in obedience to your word and to walk by faith, believing. that not only have you saved us, but you have a useful purpose for us in this life, that you want us to be useful to you as useful vessels, as servants in your kingdom. I pray that you would prosper us as we serve you. We ask your blessing on our worship time today. May it be a time of wonderful, enriching and encouraging singing. and praying and giving and hearing your word proclaimed. We ask in Jesus name. Amen. Please open your Bible to Luke chapter nine. Want to resume now our series in the Gospel of Luke. As we turn the chapter to chapter nine, We're about at the midpoint of Jesus earthly ministry. Recall that he had an approximately three years of earthly ministry from the time that he was baptized until the time that he was crucified. And we concluded our series in Chapter 8 with a series of very dramatic miracles. And these miracles were performed in the presence of those disciples. They were eyewitnesses of what had happened. Now as we turn the page from chapter 8 to chapter 9, Luke, the writer of the gospel, omits a few things that are recorded in the other gospels. For example, Jesus went on his final tour of Galilee. He also made a final return to his hometown of Nazareth. But that's not real central to Luke's theme, the theme of his gospel. He's now going to shift our focus. From Jesus public ministry. To his private ministry with his disciples. Now, it's not going to be a sudden and complete shift of focus. We're going to continue to see Jesus is carrying on his public ministry, but we're going to have more accounts where he is interacting with his disciples. Specifically, those 12 men, those apostles that he had called to follow him. And so, as we begin chapter nine, let's take note of this new focus. Chapter nine, verse one. Then he called his 12 disciples together and gave them power and authority over devils, over all devils and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. And he said unto them, take nothing for your journey. Neither stays nor script, neither bread, neither money, neither have two coats apiece. And whatsoever house ye enter into, there abide and thence depart. And whosoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them. And they departed and went through the towns preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for these gospel accounts that we have, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. We thank you that you, through your Holy Spirit, have inspired these men to write these accounts. This is scripture. This is divine truth. This has all power of your truth in our lives. And I pray, Lord, as we look at this passage today. That you would speak to us. That you would help us to see how this applies to our lives as disciples today. I pray in Jesus name. Amen. Now, of course, this is a very important step in Jesus ministry, very important development in his ministry program. If you recall, it was a few chapters back where Jesus selected his twelve apostles. And even before that, we can see that he had a purpose in drawing these men unto himself. In Mark's gospel, chapter three, it says he ordained twelve that they should be with him. And that he might send them forth to preach and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out devils. So from the very beginning, this was his plan. This was his program. This was his approach. He had enrolled these men in his school of discipleship. And he was pouring into their lives, he was spending time with them, he was training them, they had spent a lot of time with him. He had given them a lot of instruction, but now the time had come for them to get out of the classroom and into the world and begin to put into practice some of the things that he had taught them and shown them. And so he is thrusting them out, sending them out. In fact, the very word apostle means sent one. And so he sends them out. And what we have here is a pattern for discipleship. What we see is that Jesus calls disciples. He empowers them. He instructs them and then he sends them out. We have here a pattern of discipleship. This is the way discipleship works. All those who enroll in Jesus School of Discipleship and that is every believer. If you know Christ as your Savior. You have been enrolled in Jesus School of Discipleship and we are to follow this same pattern. We are eventually to be taught and empowered and then sent out. You see, the principle we have here is that true disciples become disciple makers. True disciples become disciple makers. Think of how Jesus had poured himself into these men, how he had devoted himself to instructing and training these men and preparing them for ministry. He had lived with them. He had eaten with them. He had performed miracles before them. And not only that, but he had led an impeccable example before them. They could look at Jesus as the ideal example of how to live the Christian life. Well, guess what? We can do that very same thing today, can't we? And so he gave them a perfect example. He was preparing them for ministry. Now, up until this point, Jesus had done all the ministering. But now what he was going to do is multiply his ministry through these men. He was going to send them out to perform ministry on his behalf. So, all this time, Jesus has been preparing the way for this. He has been training these men not just to be disciples, but to be disciple makers. That's the preparation that he had put into their training. And he's preparing them now for what is yet to come. Because Jesus knew that his time on earth was short. He knew that he would not forever be on the earth, that the day would come when he would die on the cross, he would be buried, he would be he would raise from the dead and then he would ascend to heaven. He would leave them. And so it was important that he prepare these men for that future reality. that they would be prepared to carry on his ministry in his absence, to establish his church, to see it grow, to spread the gospel, the initial spreading of the gospel. All of that responsibility was upon the shoulders of these 12 men. Now, it is God's plan after all. that God's work would be carried out through his instruments, that is through his people. Even in the Old Testament time, God was using the nation of Israel to show the world the way of salvation. And of course, in the New Testament time, we have Jesus and then his followers and then their disciples and their disciples and their disciples on and on down through the centuries to us today. And it is still God's program. He has kept you here, believer, for a reason. It is still his program that he is going to use you as his means to carry on the work of the kingdom. To establish and grow his church. And so this this pattern of disciple becoming disciple maker is to continue in our day as well. In fact, we bake this idea into our church mission statement. You know, our church mission statement, if you look on the cover of your bulletin to proclaim Christ to the world through the ministry of this word, to make and grow his disciples for the glory of God, to make and grow his disciples. That is central to the purpose of our church. That's why we're here to make disciples through evangelism, sharing the gospel, and to grow those disciples. That's my desire. And when I stand behind this pulpit is to help you as a disciple of Christ to grow. But I hope beyond that you become a disciple maker and you in turn help other disciples to grow. True disciples become disciple makers. Let's look closely at what Jesus does here. He calls. He empowers, he trains, he instructs, and then he sends forth. And what I'd like to do this morning in the time that we have together is look at each of those four aspects of Jesus' disciple training. First, Jesus calls his disciples. If you look there at verse one, it says, Then he called his twelve disciples together. Here, this is a call for service. He's commissioning them for service. And it's actually the fourth stage in the apostles call. There are other times where Jesus calls his disciples to him, his apostles to him. Of course, the first time is that initial call that his disciples would just simply follow him. And we really look at that as a call to initial faith, saving faith. That's true of every believer, our initial call is a call to saving faith to simply follow him. And then beyond that, he called these men to permanent full time discipleship, we have that recorded in Luke, chapter five. And basically, this is a call where Jesus says, learn from me. Learn from me. And then in Luke, chapter six, we see that he selected these 12 men out of all of the disciples that were following him. He selected these 12. He handpicked them so that they would be with him. And so this was a call. Be with me. Now, let me just point out here that there were only 12 apostles. There's only the first generation, there's no second generation of apostles. There's no perpetuation of apostleship down to the present day. There are no apostles today. There are only these 12 men. They were called by Christ to be with him to establish his church and to be sent out, which, of course, is intrinsic in their name. So Jesus called them to follow him, to learn from him, to be with him. And this really then is the fourth call. He's saying, serve me, serve for me. He's calling them to service, he's commissioning them for ministry. And the final stage would be at the Great Commission, at the end of Jesus' earthly ministry, he's preparing them for this yet to come. And I would say that is a call to make disciples for him. He's saying, make disciples for me. So that's the progression we see in the life and ministry of the apostles, and it certainly applies to us today. I mean, Jesus is still calling people today unto salvation. He's still calling people. His arms are wide stretched. Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Jesus is still issuing that worldwide call for people to come to faith in him to follow him. And so when a person comes to the point of saving faith, they are really responding to God's call. Now, theologians call this the effectual call that we hear God's call to salvation and we respond in faith to it. That's God's call made effectual in our lives. I think it's interesting as we get to the end of our Bibles and Revelation 1714 has an interesting way of referring to the believers to disciples of Christ, the true disciples in that verse, the true disciples of Christ are are referred to as the called the chosen and the faithful. True disciples are called chosen and faithful. I hope that's a description of your life. If you're a true disciple of Christ, that description should fit your life. He calls all of us. He chooses us to become his disciples, and then we are to faithfully serve him. We are to renounce our sin and follow Christ. That's what happens at the point of salvation. The sinner recognizes his sinfulness, his need for salvation. He renounces his sin and he decides to follow Christ. a point of decision, a call into salvation. But salvation is just the starting point, just like that initial call of these disciples was just the starting point, just the beginning. And you can think of the Christian life as a series of subsequent calls to ministry service, we might think of these as ministry assignments. The Lord has called us to salvation. That's the beginning of our Christian life. But then he he issues a series of calls. He says, I want you to go and serve here. I want you to go and serve there. He sends us here. He sends us there. He wants us to be involved in his service. And so the Christian life is really a series of calls into ministry service. I would illustrate it this way, you know, in the armed forces, we have this idea of being assigned to a military post. If you're in the service, you receive your orders and when you get your orders, then they ship you out and you are dispatched to go to your assigned military post. What do you do when you get there? You carry out your orders. All right. That's a good way to illustrate what happens in the Christian life. The Lord Jesus issues a ministry call. That may be for you to be assigned right here and to do a ministry right here. And so you are to go where he sends you and to do what he sends you to do to carry out those orders that are issued by the divine commander in chief. That is a commissioning unto ministry, and that's really what was happening in the case of these apostles. Jesus was calling them together to commission them for their ministry service, and then he sent them out to do it. So if you have put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and his death, burial and resurrection, if you know him as your savior, that makes you a disciple of his. You are called, you are chosen and you are to be faithful in serving him. And it is now your duty. To go to the post that he's assigned you to and to carry out his orders. That's what Jesus wants you to do. So this is the first thing we see here is that Jesus calls his disciples. And the second thing we see also in verse one is that Jesus empowers his disciples says in verse one that he called his twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases. So Jesus empowered his disciples. He gave them power and authority, a very specific kind of power and authority. He endued them with power. He conferred authority upon them and he did this all in a single act. They were given power and authority. Now, of course, we want to make sure that we don't make the mistake of thinking that this very same power and authority is given to every believer because it's not. The power and authority that was given to the apostles was specific to them. To them, he gave power and authority to cast out demons and to heal diseases. The apostle Paul referred to these kind of abilities in Second Corinthians 12 12 as the signs of the apostles. Specific signs. Specific power and authority that they were given. And later on in the same chapter Paul rhetorically asks all are not apostles are they. And so we understand that not everyone has this very same power and authority to cast out demons to heal diseases. But what is true in every case and for every disciple of Christ is that God will empower you to do all that he's asking you to do. Do you believe that. God will empower you, he is empowering you to do all that he's asking you to do, all that he's called you to do. All that he wants you to do in service to him. Now, to convince you of that, I'd like us to turn over, just hold your place here and turn to Romans chapter 12. And let me just as we're turning there put a little plug in for an upcoming Sunday School series. We're going to be starting probably sometime next month as Pastor Putnam finishes up his series on the fruit of the spirit. We'd like to start a series on the gifts of the spirit and Pastor Walker has agreed to teach that series. And I think that will be a very good series talking about the spiritual gifts and and the ability to serve the Lord in ministry. But here in Romans 12, let's see what it says here about the disciples and their enablement in verse five. So we being many are one body in Christ and everyone members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us. Whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith or ministry, let us wait on our ministering or he that teaches on teaching or he that exhort us on exhortation. He that giveth let him do it with simplicity. He that ruleth with dignity. He that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. Do you get what is being said here? It's saying that all of the members of the body of Christ, all of the believers who come together in a community that we call the church. Are gifted by God, each one is uniquely gifted and enabled by God to carry on their function in the body of Christ. God enables you to serve him. The Lord Jesus enabled his disciples. He gave them power and authority. He empowered them to serve. And God also empowers you to serve. And so every disciple of Christ has a place of service in the kingdom of God. And most of the time, that's going to be in the context of a local church. serving God and carrying on the ministry to which he has called you for this time. It may not be a lifetime long call. He may call you to serve now in a certain capacity. He may call you in a different direction to serve in another capacity later. And that's really a part of my testimony. I can tell you that the Lord can do that in your life. So, we see here that Jesus calls his disciples and Jesus empowers his disciples. And the third thing we see in Luke chapter 9 is that Jesus instructs his disciples. He instructs them. In verses 3 through 5 of Luke 9, Jesus gives some remarkably specific instructions to his disciples. It's interesting really to look at the detail that's included here. And what I'd like to do is take a look at each of these three verses and extract a timeless truth, a principle that we can apply to ourselves today as well as those disciples who want to receive Christ's instruction so that we can go out and serve him. So the first one here is in verse three, and I see here that Jesus instructs his disciples to walk by faith. Let me reread that verse for you. And he said unto them, take nothing for your journey, neither staves nor script, neither bread, neither money, neither have two coats a piece. Now, some of these words are words that we don't use today. You know, what's a stave? Well, it's a staff. We might think of it as a walking stick, if you want to think of it that way. It's not something just to steady yourself. You know, as you're walking along, but something that might come in handy, say you're attacked by a wild animal or by a robber on the way. And so what was maybe a walking stick would suddenly become a defensive weapon. So that's a stave. A script was a traveler's bag. It's basically the bag that you would throw over your shoulder and put all your provisions into. You know, today we would strap on backpacks. OK, you might think of it in those terms. A coat here refers to the tunic. That was a long shirt that they would wear underneath their cloak. And so basically, as you step back and look at this verse, what you understand is the common practice of the day for a traveler, somebody getting ready to go on a trip. OK, they didn't have cars or buses or planes. How did they get from point A to point B? Well, usually they walk. Maybe occasionally they would ride on a beast of burden, but usually they would walk and so they would prepare for the journey. They would prepare the way. They would make every provision that they could for every contingency that might come up. A wild animal, some kind of unanticipated delay, maybe bad weather. Maybe cold, maybe hunger, maybe thirst, they would make provision for all these things. And in case they forgotten anything, you know, bring a little money just in case so you can buy it along the way. Now, we do the same thing today, don't we? I don't know about you, but our family kind of has this ritual we go through if we're going to go on a vacation and everybody gathers up their own things and packs their own suitcase and their own travel bag and so forth. Now in the hockey household with my engineering background, I have these long detailed checklists and we go through and we check everything off and we double check everything off to make sure that we don't forget anything. We try to think of every contingency that we might run into along the way. I throw a few random tools in just in case. We all make sure our cell phones are fully charged. We make provision for the trip. And so when it comes time to leave, what is our van look like? I mean, it looks like we're going to spend a month in the wilderness. We've thought of every contingency. In fact, in the process of loading the van, it's been so cumbersome and so tiresome. Now we're all worn out and we need a vacation from the vacation. You ever feel that way? And so we do still today tend to plan for those contingencies that might come up when we travel. So, isn't it shocking what Jesus is telling his disciples here? He's telling them, don't do any of that. Now, of course, the Lord doesn't want us to be foolhardy and he's not encouraging that. But what is he encouraging? He's encouraging his disciples to walk by faith. To quit making provision for themselves and to think of every contingency, but to step out in faith. and believe that God is going to provide for them. It's a walk of faith. So Jesus is instructing his disciples to walk by faith, and that's the encouragement for us today. Now, we're not to put God to the test. We're not to do foolish things. We certainly want to use our good common sense. But how often do we hesitate? How often do we just contemplate all of the different contingencies that might happen? And we eventually become like the sluggard in the book of Proverbs, who says there's a lion in the street. There are too many obstacles and too many dangers out there. I think of the mission conference we just had. And I think of Brother Capps and the message he shared. And he got to that point where he said, you know, people come up to him all the time and talk about the region that he lives in there in Mexico. And they say to him, well, isn't that dangerous? Or I think his words were, is it safe? Is it safe? And his answer is, well, no, it's not safe. What do you expect? It's not safe to be in that place, but that's where God has called them. That's God's will for them. They're right where God wants them to be. And God's going to protect them. Well, that is living by faith. So Jesus instructs his disciples to walk by faith. The second instruction we see here is in verse four. Jesus instructs his disciples to evidence contentment. Verse four, and whatsoever house you enter into there abide and hence depart. Now, it helps to understand kind of the context of the culture of the day and how in Jesus day, there were these kind of traveling philosophers that would go from town to town and village to village. And they they went on their fame, the fame of their name. And when they got to town, they expected some kind of reception and they expected actually many people to be offering to them hospitality. And so what these traveling philosophers would do is they would take somebody up on their offer and they would go to their home and they would enjoy the accoutrements of that host. But then if somebody else came along and gave them a better offer of a place to stay, they would say goodbye to that host and they would move on to the better place. And that's what the philosophers would do of the day. But Jesus is telling his disciples not to behave in that way. He's telling them when you go to a town and someone receives you into their home and the implication is they're receiving them and their message, the gospel message. They were to stay put in that home and they were to depend on the goodwill of their host and they were not to go looking for some better place to stay. And so really, Jesus is instructing his disciples to be content with where they go. Now, of course, this is a good rule of conduct for us today. We should also be content in the circumstances in which God places us in the ministry to which God has called us in the service for which we are doing for the Lord. In Hebrews 13, five, it says, Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have. And the apostle Paul put it in these words, I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. Now, he wasn't referring to the state of North Carolina or South Carolina. He's saying whatever circumstances that he found himself in, he experienced contentment. He said to himself, this is perfectly fine because this is where God wants me to be. I hope that we can find that well of contentment within us when we realize that God has us exactly where he wants us to be. And we should just get busy serving him and stop complaining and be content. So, Jesus instructs his disciples to walk by faith and to evidence contentment. And the third instruction we have here in verse five is Jesus instructs his disciples to demonstrate resolve. Verse five, and whosoever will not receive you. When you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them. You see, these apostles were going to go out with the message of the kingdom sent out by Christ himself, and Christ is preparing them for the reality that they're not going to be well received everywhere. Some will receive them, some will welcome them in. There will be reception. But what's the opposite of reception? Rejection. There will be rejection, too. Many will reject them. It won't be a cakewalk. These disciples would face rejection and primarily on account of the message that they brought. Well, folks, we're bringing the same message today. The gospel has not changed in 2000 years. We're bringing the same message of the gospel today. But some people are offended by that message. They don't like thinking of themselves as sinners. They don't like being accountable to God. And so they will reject our message and they will reject us. So Jesus is preparing his disciples for that kind of rejection. It's interesting what he tells them to do here. This idea of shaking off the dust from their feet is actually a Jewish custom. The Jews, when they would travel outside of their homeland and into Gentile territory, they saw that Gentile land as ceremonially unclean. And so what a traveling Jew would do is when they came back home to Jerusalem, to Judea, to their homeland, they would shake off the Gentile dust from their feet. They would get rid of all of that unclean dust off of their feet. Well, Jesus is adopting that custom, and I think it's very interesting the way he's adopting it. He's telling his disciples to shake the dust off of the of the feet of their disciples to shake the dust off. That comes from the towns and villages that are inhabited by Jewish people. You see, the change. As a testimony against them for what for having rejected the message of the gospel, the message of the kingdom, for having rejected the servants of the king. So, it was a testimony against them that God would judge them for that. Now, as we think about what Jesus is telling his disciples here from the perspective of the disciples themselves, I think this is conveying an attitude. He's telling his disciples, when you go into a village and you face rejection, what should you do? Well, you leave that village. You shake off the dust of that village as a testimony against them. And then what do you do? You go on to the next village and you don't let that deter you from the broader mission. Jesus sent his apostles out, they were to go traveling from village to village and proclaim the good news of the kingdom. If they encountered a village where there was total rejection, They shook the dust off from that village and they went on to the next village. They just kept on trucking for the Lord. And that's what we're to do, too, as believers who get involved in ministry and maybe go out on evangelism and you go up and maybe you knock on that door, you visit that neighbor and you encounter rejection. And the door gets slammed in your face. I was recounting a story in our home with Stephen. Stephen often goes out on evangelism and I was recounting a story to him of one time where I went up to a door and I got the door slammed twice in my face. And how does that work? She slammed it once and then she opened it again and basically said, and don't come back and slammed it. You know, that's going to happen. There's going to be rejection. Well, believer, what are you going to do? When you face that rejection, when you encounter that discouragement in ministry, what are you going to do? Jesus says, shake the dust off and keep on going, keep serving, keep doing what he's called you to do. You should be able to say, as the psalmist did in Psalm 118 6, the Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do unto me? That's a good attitude. That's the boldness and confidence that we should have even after we have encountered rejection. All right, so we've seen that Jesus calls his disciples, he empowers his disciples, he instructs his disciples. And for what all this is leading up to him sending them out, Jesus sends forth his disciples. Look at verse two, and he sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. Verse six, and they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. So in verse two, Jesus commissions them for ministry, and in verse six, they go out and they do what he told them to do, what he sent them to do. They were to proclaim the gospel and they were to show compassion. I think if we generalize it, that's what we see here. They were to proclaim the gospel and they were to show compassion. Well, guess what? That's our calling today as believers. We are to proclaim the gospel and we're to show compassion. I hope we're still doing that. It's the commission of every Christian. Now, when Jesus sent them out, this was really kind of like a short term missionary assignment, you know, a short term ministry that they were to do a proving ground. It was a test run, if you will. One commentator called it a rehearsal for what was to come. That would be the Great Commission when Jesus would commission them to go and make disciples and then he would ascend to heaven and leave them behind to carry on his work. So this was in preparation for their Great Commission. And they went out and they did what Jesus sent them to do. And then in verse 10, it says that they came back and the apostles, when they were returned, told him all that they had done. And he took them. and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the city of the state. So, he is working with his disciples. He's preparing them. He's training them. He sends them out. They go out. They carry on the ministry that he sent them to do. They come back, I think, with a lot of excitement in their voice. Excited about what the Lord did through them. The power that he gave to them to do those things. And they came back with that report. And then what does Jesus do? He takes them aside for a period of rest and rejuvenation. So, Jesus called, he empowered and instructed. Up to that point, these disciples were just learners. They were listening, they were taking in. But when he sent them out to do the work of the ministry, now they were doers. They went from learners to doers. They went from those who were being taught to those who did the teaching. They grew up as disciples. They had been the disciples, the followers of Christ. Now Jesus was sending them out to become disciple makers. This was all part of their progression and their discipleship training. It's the normal pattern of Christian discipleship. It's the same pattern that we observe today. Someone hears the gospel and they get saved. What are they? They're a new disciple. And as a new disciple, we want to help them get grounded in the basic truths of Christianity, the basic truths from the Bible. And so those new disciples then become growing disciples. They get grounded in those basic doctrines. Now they're growing in their knowledge. They're growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And then those growing disciples become disciple makers. That's really exciting to see someone progress in their discipleship to the point where now they're not just taking it in, but they're actually going out with the gospel and trying to lead other people to Christ. They become disciple makers. And then those disciple makers, once they have seen someone come to the Lord, they become disciplers. They now have a new convert, a new disciple that they are going to disciple and train and help to grow. And so they become disciplers, helping the new disciples to grow. We might ask, what's a reasonable time frame for this progression to take place? Well, I would refer to the example of Jesus. He had only three years with those disciples. Three years. That's not long. Now, granted, these men live with him day in and day out. I mean, it was intensive. It was it was a 24-7 kind of discipleship training. We don't really do that today. But three years as a benchmark. For how long it should take for someone to progress from a new disciple to a growing disciple to at least a disciple maker. Well that's convicting isn't it. To think about I won't ask for a show of hands but how long have you known the Lord. How long have I known the Lord. Have I progressed. Have you progressed from being a new disciple to a growing disciple to at least a disciple maker. And then recognizing that ultimately you still haven't reached maturity until you are a discipler. That's the progression that we see here in this passage. So true disciples become disciple makers. Jesus calls, Jesus empowers, Jesus instructs, and then Jesus sends. He sends them forth into ministry. I think today's message is very timely. I'm just preaching through the book, folks. The Lord does this. He orchestrates this. But I think it's very timely that we would consider this immediately following the missions conference. Because I think the impact of the missions conference ultimately should be. Is it something personal? Do you have a personal mission? That you sense God has called you to perform. Is it something personal? Do you see yourself as merely a disciple of Christ or do you now view yourself as a disciple maker? That's the progression. That's the expectation of this passage. That's the expectation that our Lord has for each of us as believers, that we would make progress in the gospel. that we would become disciple makers and disciplers. Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this powerful passage. We thank you that these events are recorded for our learning, that we might look at them and gain understanding. I pray that we would come to understand your plan Your pattern for discipleship. And I pray, Lord, as we any of us may be feeling conviction from this today. That maybe we are not progressing. As you would expect us to, I pray, Lord, that you would help us to deal with whatever obstacles may be in our life, whether it be sin, whether it be a heart that has lost its first love, whether there be a need for personal revival. Whether there we need to just declutter our lives and make room for us to serve as your ministers. So I pray, Lord, you would speak to us today. Do your work in our hearts, help us to take that step forward to make progress as your disciples, to ultimately see our goal of becoming disciple makers and disciplers of others. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.