4 Steps of Discipleship

Turn with me, if you will, over to Matthew 28. I want to look at a very, very well-known set of Scriptures. We all know these Scriptures, but let's look at the commission to the church, the church that Christ gave as He was about to ascend into heaven after His resurrection. Matthew 28 and 19. As we read through this, I want you to think about the action words that are in there. I remember the church. The church is the body of Christ.

The church is the called-out ones. When God calls people, He puts them in His church if they follow His call, if they respond to His call, if they repent, if they let His Holy Spirit guide and direct them. Chapter 28, verse 19, Christ says, and says, Go, therefore, go, and make disciples of all the nictions, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.

There's a lot in that short verse. Go out, make disciples of all the nations, baptize them into the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teach them to observe all things I have commanded you. Not the commission that He's given to each of us, but He's given to each church. That's what He wants the church that He started, the church with a capital C that Mr.

McNewley mentioned last week. That's what He wants His church to do. And as we look through that list, we can say, yeah, we know that. We've read those scriptures many times before, and the church does all those things. We teach right from the Bible. We teach people to observe what the Bible says.

We baptize when people are ready to be baptized, and they've demonstrated the fruits of repentance, and they have repented, and they're ready to dedicate their lives to God. We also make disciples. Making disciples is something that we've talked about, or maybe we've said the words. I don't know how do we make disciples. Is there a manual we can go to that says, here's how we make disciples?

You can go on the Internet, and you can find some things where some other churches have said, you make disciples. We do this evangelistic thing, and we do this, and we work up the emotions, and we have these bands here that play this song, and this is how you make disciples. But Christ wasn't talking about making a disciple for five minutes or a year. He's talking about making a disciple that would give his life, his or her life to him, that would yield to him, that would be teachable, that he could mold into who he wants to be, that they could become perfect, as you heard Dave talking about in the sermon at.

Making disciples. Where would we go if we're going to find out how to make disciples? And are we doing what God said when he said, go and make disciples of all the nations? We certainly have enough information out there. We provide through Internet, we provide through the printed Word, we provide through TV, we provide through videos. All the information that people could want, they can go online and find anything they want about us, what we believe and what we teach.

Is that making disciples? Well, certainly is going out and preaching the Word. It certainly is going out and making known what we believe and telling the gospel that Jesus Christ commanded us to teach. If we're going to make disciples, there's something we have to know first, and that is, what is the disciple? Are we truly disciples? Are we becoming disciples? It's like I mentioned in the letter yesterday. We can't really make disciples unless we're disciples ourselves. You can't really be an example of the way of life of God unless you're living the way of the life of God.

So we can't really make disciples until we are disciples. What is a disciple? Well, as Christ said, everyone who is a disciple becomes like his teacher. Not only learns what he says, he's not only able to repeat back the Scripture and verse that is given in the Bible, but he studies the person. He wants to be like him.

We've all been in school. We've all had teachers, professors. We've learned from them. And there's some professors or teachers that we looked at. We thought, you know, we really, really like you. I want to be like you. What you stand for, I'd like to stand for. And sometimes college kids get themselves into a mess. They like a professor who may not stand for any of the things that they really know he does, but they want to be like him. Christ said, if you want to be a disciple, be like Christ.

Study him. Look and see how he did things on this earth. How did he relate to people? How did he preach the gospel? How did he relate to new people that came to him with questions? What did he do? You know, we know that he wasn't like the Jews of that day. He was willing to sit down with sinners. Much to disagree with his fellow Jews. He was willing to talk to the Samaritans. He didn't look at them as if they were a class that he just couldn't even relate to. He was willing to give his life for everyone, not just the people of that region, but he was willing to give his life for all of mankind, you and I included.

He was sociable. He was quite a man. And he's an example for us to follow in all things, Peter says in 1 Peter 2, 21. Be like him. Follow Christ. Follow his example in all things. In 1 John 2, verse 6, it says, Walk as Christ walked. Now, we have plenty of references in the Bible of how he walked, of how he was, even of how he said you and I, or how he would make disciples.

So, if we're going to look at making disciples, or what a disciple is, we can look at Jesus Christ. What did he do? What did he do? And what has he done with you and I? So, let's look at that today and let's look and see the steps that a disciple would go through.

Because there are steps we see in the Bible to becoming a disciple in Jesus Christ's own words. We have record of that. Let's go back to John 1. John 1. We can learn something about disciples. We can even learn something about ourselves. I would hope everyone here would want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, would want to learn and be like him, believe what he is, allow him to direct our thinking and our minds.

In John 1.35, we have John the Baptist. He's baptizing people. And one day, as he's baptizing, Christ is there. John 1.35. So, again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples, two of the people that were following him, listening to him say, repent. Repent and believe the gospel, or repent. Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as he walked, he said, Behold, the Lamb of God. When he said that, those two disciples of his, their ears perked up.

The Lamb of God? The Messiah of God? Is that who you're saying that is? They were interested. When Jesus turned, the two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus. We want to see what this is about. He's the Lamb of God. Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, he said to them, What do you seek?

What are you looking for? And they answered, Rabbi, what are you saying? And he said to them, simply, come and see. Come and see. Look for yourselves what you are hearing about. Here's people who were seeking. When they heard, here's the Lamb of God. When they heard, here's the Messiah, Christ said, What are you seeking? We can all relate, right? We've all, at some time in our life, we've been seeking the truth. We've been looking for the truth of God. We've been trying to find what is the truth of God.

Many of you here, as you talk to me, you spent a long time looking for the truth of God, and God finally led you to it. What do you seek? And Christ said, Come and see. Just come and see. He didn't spend all the rest of the time explaining to them every single belief that he had, all the differences between what he believed and how the Jews were living in their lives at that time. He just said, You come and see. You see what we're doing. You see how we're acting. You see how my followers are going to live.

You hear what I have to preach, and you make the decision for yourself as God leads you. Is this the truth? And he didn't say it, but I was thinking, I'm not a saka. You come and see yourself. You know, that's a successful step. Someone is seeking. They're a seeker. They're looking for the truth.

They hear some friend tell them that here, they pick up a Beyonce acting. They come to a little theater or something. Here, someone says, I know the truth. I found support. There's the teaching. The truth is, I know what they do best. And see. Come and see. Come and see. This is the truth. Come and see. This is the truth. Come and see. This is the truth. When the people saw that that truth was a step up, they said, wow, that truth is true to people, that is, but it is in your view that the truth is people.

Your friends and your 13-year-old son said, as long as those that you are mine is equals. If you get a lot of love, you get a lot of love. A lot of people get back up, every single one of us, every single one of us has a heart in making the site. Every single one of us has a heart in coming to see. As people are leading the truth, and we say, come and see. I get a call from someone that once said, find the truth, and they want to see what the building wants. Come and see.

Come to church. Come and meet the people. Come and hear what we have to say. Find out what is building on it. Come and see. Come and see. See. It is time that these words, time for return, is this the truth? Is this what the eye has to let you do? We go the program down and we have one. You see, build it. Build it in the name of Jesus Christ Jesus Christ. God of earth, 44, says we come from the city of the city of Andrew the dear, and build up the verse 45, by the name of Jesus.

And He says again, we found Him, of whom Moses is the law, and also the cross of the cross. We found Jesus as the head of the son of Joseph.

We found Him as the fire. He was excited, just like you did in the time you had told your hand to the son of God. I found Him as the way God would get us to live, not that we've been living all our lives today.

Thank you. We are looking for the truth, or we're looking for the truth. Wow, that sounds better, doesn't it? Sounds... looking for the truth. But they have a responsibility too, because you know, every single one of us were in that stage of discipleship sometime in our lives. Every single one of us. And I think every single one of us who continued on to the other steps to discipleship did some things. We came and saw. We met the people.

We listened to the messages. We read the magazine. We listened to the TV program. We did the things. And I hope we went back and we looked in the Bible to say, if these things really are so. Back in Acts 17, we have a group of people who did exactly that.

And Christ commended them, or God commended them for it. He recorded about them here in Acts 17. They're the Bereans. They were hearing Paul talk, and they heard these things that they hadn't heard before. And it sounded really true to them.

It rang true. And they thought, ah, what do we do now? And in verse 11, they did exactly what those who were coming and seeing and those who are seeking should do. It says in verse 11, these were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness. They were eager to hear it. It was exciting to them, just like it was to all of us, to hear the truth of God, the Creator of the universe.

This is His Word. This is His plan. This is what He had orchestrated. And for some reason, He called us, me, to open this understanding to us. They were more fair-minded. They received the word with all readiness, and they searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. They searched the Scriptures.

They just didn't believe what they heard someone saying. They didn't just believe it because they read it in a magazine. They searched the Scripture. Is this true? And as the Spirit of God with them, leading them to see, ah, the pages are open, the darkness is gone, the lights turned on. Yes, this is what God said.

And the Berean says they learned it. They grasped it. They wanted to hold on to it. They knew they had been led to something that was tremendous. The same feeling that I hope all of us in this room have. A truth so astounding that it doesn't compare to anything else in this world. Nothing that we've ever done, nothing that we ever will do, nothing that we could ever achieve. And this life could compare to what God has opened our minds to see. It's a gift from Him. But people come and they see and they search the Scriptures and they learn.

This is what God would have us do. This is the truth. They said, back in the time of Christ, I found the Messiah, the one we've been waiting for. The Bible tells us what to do when we find the truth. The Bible says, prove all things in 1 Thessalonians 5.21. Prove all things. Search the Scriptures. Look at them. Don't just read them. Search them. Study them. Know what's in them. Know how it applies in the life. And think about how does what happened back here in Abraham's life apply to me today?

How did what happened here in Corinth apply to me here today? Because they're principles that we all need to know. The answers to life are here in the Bible. Prove all things it says, and hold fast. Hold fast, that which is good. Don't let it slip from you. You hold on to it. Paul says, don't let any man take your crown from you.

God has opened your mind to it. You hold on to it. And when you prove truth, when you prove where the truth of God is, you don't let it slip through your fingers. You make sure that you hold on to it. It's the most precious thing that you will ever, ever have. Let's go back to Matthew 13. Christ spoke of his very things when he was speaking of the kingdom of God and spoke some parables regarding that.

Matthew 13, verse 44, two other parables, again, well known. He says, the kingdom of God, verse 44, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. It's hidden out there somewhere. I've been seeking for it. I want to find it, which a man found, and hid. And for joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. When he found that treasure, nothing else compared. He was willing to give everything up because he found what he had been looking for.

And that's the way the truth of God is. You don't let it go for some care of the world. You don't let it go for some of the things that you personally want to have happen. You see the truth and you live by that truth. And you adjust your thinking and you conform to what God said and let him transform your mind. So all that they had by that truth, verse 45, again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls.

They're seeking who when he had found one pearl of great price went and sold all that he had and bought it. If that important, I'll give it all up. I found it. I found the truth. I found, Philip would say, the Messiah. I found, the other disciples would say, I found him. And then they would tell those who asked, who had the interest, come and see. Just come and see for yourself. You search the Scriptures. You let God lead you. You let him show you. Turn the light on in you and we'll see. Let him lead you. But when you find it, you hold on to it.

And you follow what it says, be willing to give up the other things that are in your life. Even some things that you may think are very dear. Because, you know, back in Matthew 10, Christ says, anyone who loves something more than him, his truth, is not worthy to be in his kingdom.

Him first, truth first, everything else second. Will he give up self? Will he give up family members, if need be? Will he give up ideas, thoughts? Conform to what God says. I must be speaking too loud, so I'll tone it down. We're going through batteries quickly here today. When we find the truth, when we are done coming and seeing, when we determine what it is, we can go on to the next step.

And the next step is very important too. Can't ever discount the first one, seeking and coming and seeing. But if we go back to John 1, we see another phrase that Christ said here. As he was working with people and as God was calling them and opening their minds, and everyone here today, God has opened your mind. Whether this is the first time you're here or whether you've been here 50, 60 years, it's God who opens minds and leads us to his truth. Back in John 1 and verse 43, after he spent the time with the two disciples of John that day, he gave them time to...

He didn't run away from them. And in verse 43 it says, the following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee. And he found Philip and said to him, follow me. Philip already knew that he was the Messiah. He went and told them, the Daniel, we found the Messiah.

Christ knew that he had found the truth. And he said, now you follow me. You can look up the Greek word for follow. It's a long, long word. It's number 190 in Strongs. But it means you come along with. You follow behind. It's specifically used as a disciple of Christ in the Bible. It has that, that you stand by him. You side with him. He is your priority. You are following him. A few chapters forward in John 8.

Christ makes clear what he's called the sin to, and he uses the word follow again. John 8, verse 12. John 8, 12. Jesus spoke to them again, saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. And that's exactly what God called us out of, isn't it? He called us to light.

Our past life was darkness. We thought we knew what God wanted us to do. Or we didn't even care, maybe, what God wanted us to do. But then one day the light shone on. One day something piqued our attention. Someone said something. We heard something. We saw something on TV. We were flipping through the Internet. We saw something, and the light went on. Ah! God was calling. What is it that's out there? And all of a sudden, light began to dawn. All of a sudden we began to understand that this Bible that we've heard about all our lives really is the instruction book of mankind.

It really has truth that applies to us today and that can lead and guide us today. And all of a sudden the darkness of our past over time began to dim. And light was the thing that God called us to as we followed Him and as we came to the point where the coming and seeing, where we had proved that this was the Word of God, proved that the Bible is true, proved and know where His church, where the capital C is.

Something's happened in our lives. And it's time to move on to the next step. Follow Me. Now when we move into the Follow Me, the follower stage, if we want to call it, there are some things that we make decisions to in our life. We find ourselves repenting and understanding that the way we've lived before, the things that we did are no longer the things that we can do.

We have to follow God. We understand His Word. We find ourselves baptized or being baptized, ready to commit to God. Not during the come and see stage, but in the follower stage. Because the come and see stage is the time for seeking, improving and knowing. So the church of God, when you come to it, isn't like some of the other churches that I hear about.

You know, we don't have an altar call, every service. We don't try to rev you up with emotion. We don't say, come on down and let's baptize you right now. No! It's something you count the cost for. It's the most important decision in your life to make. So come and see.

Come and learn. You prove. You know that this is the truth. You know that this is where you need to be. And then, God says, follow me. Follow me when you are ready to give up everything else in your life, if need be.

Including, perhaps, the way you think. Including, perhaps, some of the things that you do on Friday night when you come to learn the Sabbath. You come to the stage of follow me. Of follow me. And you know, when we come to the point where we know the truth, God has some responsibilities for us then too. He wants to see us take action. And not simply delay it, just for some reason. Back in Luke 9. Luke 9.

And verse 59. Christ, again, talking to people and He says, follow me. They knew who He was. They knew that He was the Messiah. They knew that what He was preaching was correct. We'll break into the whole scenario here. But in 59, He says, He said to another, follow me. Follow me. Give your life to me. Follow what I said.

But this man said, Lord, let me first go and bury my Father. Can I just delay it for a while? You know, I've got this responsibility to family. I'll just finish out the responsibility I have to them. I'll be back in 5 years or 10 years or 15 years. I just need to finish this up. I know that it's true. I know that you're the Messiah. I just don't want to do it right now.

Not an unheard of thing. Christ said to Him, let the dead bury their own dead. You go and preach the Kingdom of God. You do it. You do it. You take the next step. Another also said, Lord, I'll follow you. But let me first go and bid them farewell or who are at my house. Just give me a little more time. I just kind of want to do the things that I want to do a little while longer. The things that are important to me. Christ said, no one having put his hand to the plow and looking back, it's meant for the Kingdom of God. When you know, you know. When you know, you commit. But it still isn't our power, isn't it? God would say, follow me when we've come and seen. When we're done seeking. When we know we've found the pearl of great price, he'd say, now follow me. Commit to me. Let my Holy Spirit be in you. Change from the way you were to the change that I to the way I want you to be. But at any point in the process, we can say, no, I've done enough. Some stop during the come and see phase of discipleship. Now I don't want to progress any further. Maybe what you say is true. I just don't want to do it. Or maybe I just don't want to let go because, you know, it's still important to me what I want as opposed to what God wants. So we're all here because of what God wants, right? We're all here to yield to God and not tell Him what we want, but ask Him what He wants. And the follower and the follower step, we can do the same thing. We can stop. We can just say, no, I don't want to follow. I don't want. I want to just wait. God will keep working with us. He won't leave us. He won't forsake us, but it's always in our control to say, no, not going to the next step. I stop here. And He'll let that happen. But you know when we begin following God, when we repent and when we're baptized, we become new in the church. We become new in His church, like little children, like the little children that we have with us today. They have to be brought up. They have to be trained in the admonition of the Lord. They have to be nurtured in the truth. They have to be nurtured in your household. You know, on day one, the baby isn't telling you what to do. You're a teen, you should get what to do. At age three and four here, the baby's not the young, the adults, they're not adolescents, then what are they? Toddlers then, when they're three and four. They're not telling you what to do. You should be telling them what to do and training them in the proper behavior, the rules of the house, the ways of God. And so it is in the church of God. We grow over time. We become new children. And in Matthew 18, when Jesus Christ said to the disciples, don't refuse the little children to come to Me, He said, unless you become like little children, unless you become converted, unless you become humble, unless you become teachable, until you become reliant on Me and dependent on Me, and trust Me with all your heart. He says, if you can't become like that, you won't be in the kingdom of God. We're here to do what God wants. Learn what God says. Do what He says. And during the follower stage, that happens. We learn. We read. We listen. We look at our lives and say, oh, I've got something different. I'm doing something different than what God said. There's always a choice to make. I'll keep doing it the same way. Or I'll do what God says. Oh, this is different than what I wanted to believe.

Well, we believe what God says. Let Him teach us. Or not. It's our choice. During this stage and during the come and see stage, you know there should be a lot of questions. There should be questions. Jesus Christ, when He was working with His disciples who became apostles, you know they asked questions. We only have a snippet in the Bible of what the interaction between them was every day. But you know that they asked questions. They were listening to Him talk. He was telling them things they hadn't heard before. They knew He was the Messiah and they were having to undo a lot of the things that they had learned or thought that they knew. And they had to replace it with what God's truth was. And there was a lot they had to learn. And there's a lot of questions that they had. And sometimes they didn't worry, I don't think, about, are my questions really, really smart? Is Jesus Christ going to be offended if I ask this question? They just asked. Because there's one way to learn, right? When our 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 year old children come and ask questions, we don't say that's a really dumb question. We want them to learn. We want them to find out what life is about. We want them to learn from the experience that we've had.

You know, when the disciples, after they had walked with Christ for the time of his ministry, they came to him and said, after when he was giving the Olivet prophecy, and they said, Lord, who will be the greatest, who will be, can we be the greatest in heaven? I mean, that's a question they asked. Christ didn't say, he didn't like roll his eyes and say, really? This is what you've learned after all these years? Who's going to be the greatest? Can I be the greatest in heaven? He taught Jesus an opportunity to teach. He didn't say, that's a really dumb question. Where have you been the last 3 years? And, you know, no one in the church would say that. No one in this room, so you don't have to thank who said it. I got an email from someone, and they said, oh, I've got a question, and I know you're really busy, and you probably don't have time for a question. And I think, what? I mean, you know, there's a couple things that get hairs on the back of my neck. Rising. And one of them is, you're so busy, you don't have time. I have time. That's what I'm here for. No one should ever say, he doesn't have time to answer a question. Yes, I have time. Yes, every minister has time. Yes, Doug has time. Yes, Stan has time. Yes, Perry has time. Yes, John Johnson has time. If you don't want to ask me, ask someone. Don't just let us sit there. We may not be able to get back to you in 5 minutes. We're going to get back to you, though. Iron sharpens iron, it says. We ask questions and we learn from one another. If you don't know, if you don't understand, it's okay. That's what we're here for, to learn, to grow, to understand God's way, to implement it into our lives. And sometimes you're going to ask me a question. I'm going to scratch my head and say, I've got to go back and research it. But I will. And I'll get back to you. And sometimes what I've thought isn't exactly what the Bible says. And I've had to undo some of that in my thinking. But we constantly, the rest of our lives, search the Scriptures because we're always seeking God's truth. And to live it and to become perfect in our lives, perfect in our understanding, that God would lead us and grow us in the way that He wants us to be.

Back in Ephesians, Ephesians 4, Paul records here a few verses that pretty much talk about these first two steps of discipleship, seeking and following Him. Ephesians 4, verse 1. Paul writing, he says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord. That's a good thing. The prisoner of the Lord. I'm no longer a prisoner to my own self. I'm no longer a prisoner to the world. I'm no longer a prisoner to my own ideas. I'm a prisoner to God. I let Him choose and teach. Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. Walk worthy of it.

Doesn't mean you need to know everything on day one. No one knows everything on day one. No one knows anything as long as we are physically alive.

Verse 2. Walk with all lowliness and gentleness, just like Christ was. Humble. No one can come to Him. No one can learn unless they're humble and teachable.

And gentleness with long suffering, bearing with one another in love. Not looking down on one another, not beating our chests and saying, I've been in the church for 20 years. What's your problem? You should know that? No, we're all part of the family. All part at different stages.

Every single one of us is at a different stage in our lives. We love one another. God puts us in this to work with one another, bear with one another, help one another, encourage one another, exhort one another. Every single one of us is here for a reason. Every single one of us, from the very newest to the one who has been here in the church for longer than the rest of us.

Bearing with one another, never saying there's not time, never saying I'm not interested, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And shouldn't that define God's church? Unity, in the bond of peace, doesn't mean we're never going to have a disagreement between people, but we work it out.

We talk about it. We see and analyze what's going on with us. Are we? Sometimes it's a hard thing. Are we at fault? And we always thought they were at fault?

When we look at ourselves, the body is wide open, we can come to peace. There's one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all.

Followers, learning, being taught, and many here are in that stage. And that's good.

In that stage, God is doing something else when He says follow me. Let's go back to Matthew. Matthew 4.

We grow up, we mature, we understand more, the way of God becomes more and more in our lives.

In Matthew 4, verse 19, when Christ was talking to Peter, verse 19, He said to Simon, to Peter and Andrew, follow me, follow me, you're ready, and I will make you fishers of men.

Now, they were fishermen. They weren't fishers of men at that time. He said follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

This is what your livelihood is now. But if you follow me, if you cast your lot to me, I will develop you into who I want you to be.

I will make you fishers of men. And God did that. Not on day one, not on day twenty-one, not on year one, not on year two, but they became fishers of men.

They turned the world upside down, it tells us in Acts. They went out and they preached the gospel with boldness.

They preached the gospel without apologizing to anyone, and they turned the world upside down. They weren't ready to do that on day one. They weren't ready to do that on year one, year two, year three. They weren't even ready to do that on the eve that Christ was going to be arrested and then later crucified.

But they became ready, and during all that time, God knew what He had in mind for them, just like He knows what He has in mind for you and me.

And when He calls us, and when we respond to that call, He knows exactly where He wants to take us. He knows exactly what He has in mind for us. And it's not all the same thing. You know, Paul gives very good analogies in 1 Corinthians and Romans when he says, you know, it's a body. It's a body He's put us into. Our body isn't just all a hand, is it?

We'd be pretty sorry people if every, all of us was just a hand. We could do things, but we didn't even know what we were doing.

If we were just a brain, that wouldn't be good either. We have to have all the parts working together in order to accomplish things.

And Paul says that, and God says that about His body.

I know what I want you to be. I will make you, Peter and Andrew Fishers, a man. But He made the other apostles something different.

He will call you and He'll say, I'm going to, this is what I have in mind for you, wish you follow Me.

We go back to Ephesians here. We see exactly how Jesus Christ worked with His church and what He's doing as He puts us in a body. And as we yield to Him in Ephesians 4, He says He Himself gave some to be apostles.

Some, not all. Not all the people who followed Christ were apostles. Some became apostles.

Some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

So that it all can be brought up so we all can learn how to serve.

Verse 15, speaking the truth in love, that we may all grow up in all things into Him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body, the whole body, because becoming disciples, making disciples, is a whole church effort from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effect of working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body, for the edifying of itself in love.

Pretty powerful words. When we see what God is doing, what He sees, what He is working with, that He is developing us individually and is developing us as a body, and working with us for the goal of perfection, as it says in Ephesians 5, 27, so that He may present it to Himself a glorious church, without spot and without wrinkle.

Pretty high calling. Pretty high purpose.

People in the follower stage, when they're learning, when they're growing, and they're ready to move on to the next stage, they know the truth of God.

And they know who they are. They know they're a child of God. They know who God is. They know who Jesus Christ is. They're understanding His plan.

They've implemented in their lives, and they've seen the benefit of living His way of life.

And they know the church that they belong to, and it's the temple of God.

The temple of God, as it says in 1 Corinthians 3, 16, they know who they are and what they're a part of, and they're committed to that purpose.

And they've grown up, and they're ready to serve in the next function.

Let's go back to John, John 15, this time, and see what Christ said to His apostles, to His disciples.

After they've walked with Him for three and a half years during His ministry, after they were with Him day in and day out, they saw what He did.

They saw how He interacted with people. They asked questions. They learned the truth. They saw where the differences were between what they used to believe and what they believe now. They saw the growth in themselves. And the growth wasn't over because some of them, Peter specifically, was going to learn even more that night about Himself. Because as long as we live, we continue to grow. God continues to work with us, continues to strengthen, continues to purify.

In John 15, verse 1, on the eve of Christ being arrested and then crucified the next day, He says to His disciples that are there with Him, after the Passover, He says, I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser. I'm the true vine. I am the Messiah. I am truth. And God the Father, my Father, He says, is God.

He's the One. He's the Creator. He's the Seder. He's the provider. He's everything. Verse 4, He says to them, abide, abide in me and I in you. Abide in me. You let your life, I've seen you grow. I've seen you develop. Now you let me always live in you.

You abide in me and I'll abide in you. My spirit has been with you and you have been yielding and you have been allowing the Spirit to grow and transform your thinking, as it says in Romans 12, Romans 12 and 1, to the conformity and to the truth of God. You abide in me. You become like me. This is the whole mind, whole heart, whole soul process. We talk about that and, you know, I think at every stage we probably say, I love God with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind.

But when we go to the next stage, we think, oh no, I didn't really. I didn't really love Him with all my heart, mind and soul. I've learned that there's more I needed to give. And when we move into the next stage, we say, oh no, there's more. There's more I need to do, but I want to. I'm there with Him. I understand. I'm not turning back.

This is the way I'm willing to give up whatever it takes to follow Him. Abide in me and I'll abide in you. And it's a time then that we work. We've grown up. We're mature. Now we can be doing some of the things that God has called us to do. We look in verse 4, continuing in it.

Abide in me and I in you. As the branch can't bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. Bear fruit. I want to see you producing something. I want to see you working on something. I want to see the benefits of what I've done. You've yielded to me and it's time now that we see the fruit. And the fruit of the Spirit, you know what it is. We see the love, we see the joy, we see the peace, we see the gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith.

We see the attitude of service, right? We see the attitude of service is there. And as we watch people in our family here in Orlando, we begin to see as they grow, they want to participate more.

They want to do this, they want to do that, they want to be part of the body. There comes a time for that. And it's not, it doesn't have to be. I mean, it's not wrong if it is in the come and see. It's not wrong if it's in the follow me time. But there's a time where we want to be part of things, where we want to serve, that our hearts just go out that way because what was Jesus Christ?

He was the greatest servant of all, wasn't he? He loved in a way that all of us have yet to learn what that love is. When he saw a need, he met it. He had mercy, he had compassion, he was a friend, or he was a companion, or had mercy to all of mankind.

He was willing to give his life, something all of us still have to learn, to grow in. And we will, as long as we don't stop the process at the come and see stage, or at the follow me stage, or even at the abide in me stage, because every single person has to move through. The stages of discipleship, we have to move through those things until we're ready to be born into the kingdom of God when Jesus Christ returns.

So, God says, Christ says here, let's read verse 5, I'm the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, abide in me, now we're in the service, or servant stage, you abide in me, and I in him bears much fruit. For without me you can do nothing. In verse 8, he says, by this my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit. So, you will be my disciples. So disciples bear much fruit. If they continue to let God take them through the process, if they don't stop it along the way for whatever reason it is, by this is my father glorified, if you bear much fruit.

We serve for the rest of our lives. John 5, 17, Christ said, my father works until now and I work. If they're working, we work. We continue to do the things that God called us to do. It's not a time in this lifetime that we can say, done enough, I don't have to do anything anymore, and I don't mean that physically necessary God is always working with us at things at different stages of our lives.

The oldest people in the church can be so valuable to those that are coming up, just as it says in Titus 1, there's always something that we can give, always something that we can do to help build each other and mold each other and bond each other together.

Sometimes in this stage, in the following stage, it can be kind of painful, can't it? You would hope that in the abide-in-me stage that everything is just wonderful. Nothing but joy, nothing but happiness, and we find out that's not exactly what goes on at all. Because in those stages, there's something painful that goes on. 15 verse 2 says, that it may bear more fruit. Pruning can be a pretty tough process, can't it?

Orange trees could speak. I think they tell you, when you prune them, it doesn't feel good.

The grapevines, when you prune them, it doesn't feel good.

When we run into problems along the way, when God tests us and tries us, and we have health trials and financial trials or whatever relationship trials or whatever it is, it isn't pleasant.

But we learn through those processes. We learn to look back to God. We learn to look at ourselves. We learn to mold ourselves and see, what is it about me that's causing these problems? What do you want me to learn? This is a painful process I'm going through. Is there something I need to learn that I become more like you, that I can bear more fruit?

Because that's the reason that God gives us those trials. It's the reasons that He has us go through those things. We seek. We follow. We serve and we work and do what God wants us to in this life. And during those times, we need the fellowship of each other.

You've heard me say before, God isn't working with lone wolves. He develops people in His body. He develops us in His church. He wants us to be where He can work with us individually, but also collectively.

Don't think it's just you. It's you, but it's also the body He puts you in. And every single disciple goes through the process. Peter did. James did. John did.

They all go through it. And you and I must go through it if we're going to be in the Kingdom of God. Developing through those stages, becoming a disciple, a true disciple, the way Christ would have us be.

And then there's a fourth stage after we've progressed through the other three. And as the Apostles were sitting here with John 15, later on in the same chapter, Christ said something that's just beautiful to them. In verse 14, He says, In verse 14, He says, But I have called you friends. Friends. For all things that I heard from my Father, I've made known to you. I don't think I even have to spend much time talking about friends.

When God calls us a friend, that means we have done. We have followed Him. We have sought Him. We have proven what is true. We have followed Him. We have let Him abide in us, and we have abided in Him. We've gone through the trials of life. We've gone through the things that God has put us through, and He says, Now I know. Just like He said to Noah, Now I know.

Now I call you friends, He said to the apostles. And that had to warm their hearts, even more so after He was resurrected and then they were out doing the things that God called them to do.

You think about the people that God called friends. Abraham, friend of God, it says in Galatians. Moses, friend of God, God spoke to him face to face. David was a man after God's own heart. The apostles, every single one of them, He says, I called you friends.

And you know what He would say to you and me? If you follow Me, if you abide in Me, if you let Me abide in you, if you continue on the path and you don't give up and you don't stop the process someplace, if you continue to weed out all the imperfections that I show you as long as you get the darkness out of your life and let Me replace it with light, when you get the weaknesses out and the faults out and you become perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect.

I'll call you friends. Is there anyone here who wouldn't want to be called a friend of God? An amazing, amazing thing when you think about it.

Well, there's a lot we can talk about when we talk about disciples. When we talk about the four stages, you know, we can look at ourselves maybe and say, where am I?

It's not bad if you're not at the fourth stage. Not bad if you're in the first stage. It's where you are where God wants you to be. Do we continue to yield to Him? Do we continue to allow Him to...or do we continue to make the choices to eliminate the things in our life that separate us from Him and allow Him to develop us in the way that He wants to?

Do we allow Him to take us from one stage to another to the point where He says, you are my friend, and now you are ready for the position that I have in mind for you in the kingdom of God? Kings and priests, as it says in Revelation 1. May we all learn to be disciples and to allow God to develop us to who He wants us to be.