Discipleship

Happy Sabbath, everyone! I appreciate the special music. It was two great selections, and I appreciate it. I see a few faces I haven't seen for a while. It's nice to be here. We stayed with the Smiths last night. We never stayed with them before, and something was quite apparent, though, when we first got there.

We noticed it. My wife and I talked about it. It's obvious that they're not serious about Christmas at all. It's like everybody else had all these lights and so forth, and there they sit, this little dark house. Well, Christmas is supposed to be over. Of course, it's not quite yet. They drag it out as long as they can. Let me ask you, how many of you—and I want you to hold your hand up and keep it up. I don't care what your age is.

I went to even the little kids to think about this. How many of you have never kept Christmas? That's probably close to 40 percent, maybe even half, of everybody in this room. I can raise my hand. Well, no, I did keep it as a child. Actually, good. You put your hands down. I can remember what it was like to keep it as a child. My wife and I drove by the outlet store here in San Marcos recently, and we looked at the crowds, crushing to get in to go shopping for Christmas.

And we said, oh, we're so thankful we don't have to go through that madness. But at the same time, about a month ago, I'm walking through a store, and my wife's laughing at me, because I can't remember the song, what it was, but it was a nice new rendition of a song. And I'm walking along, and I'm singing out loud, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Red-Deer. And she said, Gary, I was afraid you were going to break out like a musical, just running down the aisle and singing. Wow, I'd forgotten. You hear those things, and it's part of my childhood, so I do remember them.

And they're just there. Now, for all of you that raised your hands, there's something about Christmas you don't understand. That for people who really keep Christmas, now you and I know that many people don't really keep Christmas. It is a secular holiday where they spend money and they drink, and there's a lot of anxiety, an awful lot of anxiety around Christmas. In fact, it's the highest time of suicides throughout the year. So there's a lot of anxiety, a lot of fighting, there's drunkenness. Christmas is a secular holiday. It's almost turned into just a big time to get drunk and people have affairs.

But for very religious people, and I really want to stress this because we miss this, and not understand against sometimes. For religious people, for real conservative Protestants and Catholics, it is a very special emotional time for them. They worship. That Christmas tree actually means something to them. Exchanging gifts, the caroling, the midnight mass, that Christmas midnight mass. Going the services on Christmas, the manger scene where Jesus is there. That means something to them, and they get an emotional experience out of that that for half of the people in this room you've never had, because you didn't keep Christmas. And for others, you kept Christmas as a secular holiday, so you never had it.

I can actually remember as a child having that feeling. That somehow this was worshiping Jesus Christ. And it is a profound feeling when they go through it. And if you talk to people, now think about how many times you've said this. Well, I don't keep Christmas. And what is the first thing a very religious person says is, we don't believe in Jesus, right? But why do they say that?

You have to understand something. They have a profound emotional experience of both Easter and Christmas, and they define their relationship with Jesus by that emotional experience that they have at Easter and Christmas. And that's why when you say, well, I don't keep Easter, you don't believe in Jesus? They just, it blows their mind. Because I experienced something then, during those two times of the year, those people experience something, and that's how they define a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And it can be just as real as the personal relationship you have with your brother or your sister or your mother or father right next to you.

It is a very profound feeling. Now, the reason I bring that out is because it's important for us to understand that. You know, it's interesting on Beyond Today, we realized something a couple of years ago. We changed tactics just a little bit, and it actually, more people started to respond. Instead of just getting up and shouting, you know, basically, you pagans for keeping Christmas, we said, we know you get a benefit out of this, but is it what God wants?

Is this what Jesus wants to be worship-like? And we found that when we show that it's something that He would not accept, people who have that profound experience sometimes will say, well, that's right. How should I respond to Jesus Christ? I bring this out because I have a question I want to ask you today. That this really zeros in on those people who raised their hands, which most of you were very young. There aren't too many people in this room that are over the age of 40 that raised their hands. There's a couple, but not too many.

Because those who raised their hands, which about half the people in this room, you grew up in the church. You never kept Christmas. You have no idea what that experience is. It all seems a little silly. All you have the lights are pretty, but it seems a little silly or very negative, too. So I ask you a question. And we're going to go through some scripture. I want you to write some of this down today.

I want you to write down because we're going to go through step by step that leads to a conclusion. Okay, we're not going to start with a conclusion. We're going to work through this. How do you define your personal relationship with Jesus Christ? Because for many people, for hundreds of billions of Christians, it is what they feel at Easter and Christmas. And that's why they ask you, you don't believe in Jesus? Because that's how they define their relationship. Well, how do you define your relationship? Have you even thought about that?

You know, we define our relationship with God as our Father. And many people, even when I'm dealing with people who are going through trials in their lives, we take them through step by step. Understand God as a caring Father who believes in truth, who believes in law, who believes in right and wrong, but His approach to you is a Father. He doesn't want to hurt you.

He wants to bring you to good. He has your best interest at heart. And that's why He's telling you not to do this, or to do this, or whatever. It's because He is a Father trying to lead you to where you should go.

Okay? That's pretty simple for most of us. Unless, of course, you were abused by a Father or didn't have a Father, that can be difficult. But for most people, understanding God as a Father is somewhat easy. We can move into that realm. But how do you define your relationship with Jesus Christ? Have you even thought about it? See, we talk about Jesus Christ. We just had a song that talked about the Holy One, but it also talked about walking in the steps of your Son.

We sing about Jesus Christ all the time in our song service. We talk about Him as our Savior. We talk to Him about He's going to come back about Him as our High Priest. You know, He's serving as our High Priest. He's going to come back to be our Lord and Master. We're always talking about Him, but we're talking about Him in terms of titles. Here's all these titles. He's High Priest, He's Lord of Lords, He's King of Kings, He's Savior.

What I'm asking you today, and especially for those who never experienced Christmas in Easter, because I don't want you to have a Christmas Easter or Easter experience, by the way, don't have it. Because I'm telling you about something that's a whole lot better than that, and I know because I've had both of them. I've had the Christmas Easter experience as a child, and I've had the experience of what we could talk about today, and this is real, and the other is a very poor imitation.

But if you've never known the real, the poor imitation is what you think is real.

I really want to talk about how do you define your relationship with Jesus Christ.

Today's theme of today and tomorrow are spiritual tools.

And you're going to receive tools for your spiritual box, the spiritual hammer and saw, and you're going to receive tools. But you know what? Tools and raw materials, and the raw material, by the way, is you. You are the raw material, and you get tools. Tools and raw material by themselves will produce what?

Whatever you want it to make.

There has to be a blueprint to know what the tools and raw material are supposed to produce. Now, my one daughter is an architect.

And it's always interesting because not only does she make these 3D models on the computer when she's designing something, but sometimes you'll see her with these wee little pieces of wood making wee little models. What are you doing? Oh, I'm designing a room.

You know, in every piece of little wood she's dealing with is measured exactly to a certain scale, and she's got this little piece. It looks like little kids playing.

And she's working on designing something that eventually ends up as a 3D model that eventually could end up as a building.

It starts with a model. We're going to talk about the model for your tools, and we're going to talk about your personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

We know that when Jesus Christ was asked, what is the greatest command in the Bible?

He said, to love God with all your heart and all your might and all your soul.

That is how you are to approach God. Now that means it's more than believing in Him, right? You can believe in God and not love Him with all your might and all your heart and all your soul.

So you have to ask, okay, what part of my mind, my heart, my soul does He not want? What part of my strength? What part of who I am does He not want? See, the thing in that statement is, how do you love God? And the answer is, with absolute everything you are.

Or what we're doing is we have sort of an on-again, off-again relationship with God, where we tend to go to Him when we're in trouble.

You know, sort of like, God, I'm here again. I know I haven't been here for a while, but I'm in trouble again. Right?

So you say, okay, if I want to have a relationship with God, eventually what this has to develop into over time is, I love Him as much or more, more than I love anybody else.

Okay. Now we could give a couple of sermons on that, but that's not what I'm talking about. That is your relationship with God to Father and Jesus Christ, and that's what it's supposed to be. But we still have what is your relationship with Jesus Christ. How important is it? You know, I've talked about this over the years with people, and I've had people that were in the church for 30 years come up to me and say, I don't even know what that means.

I remember about, oh, 15, maybe 18 years ago now, having a conversation, and a minister said to me, when you say that, you actually have a relationship with Jesus Christ. And I said, yes, I do. He said, I don't know what that means. I don't even know what that means.

What is your relationship with Jesus Christ? How important is it? Let's go to John 16. Let's look at what Jesus Himself says. So we're going to have to define this. Okay? John 16, 26.

I know sometimes for young people, when I say young people, I'm not just talking about kids or teenagers. I'm talking about, well, actually, it could be all of us in this room, but I'm really talking to this group that grew up in the church. What happens is you begin to see this as a church of rules, and I define everything in my life by the rules. Now, the rules are important. Break the rules, and you'll find out how important they are.

Laws are laws. But this isn't just about—and I'll show you what I mean in a minute—the rules. It is why you keep the rules, and then it goes beyond that.

This is a very interesting statement. John 16, in verse 26. Jesus here, we're breaking in at the end of a long discussion he has about when he goes. He says, when I die, when I resurrect, of course, they don't know what's going to happen. When he goes, he didn't realize he was going to die and be resurrected. He couldn't understand what was going on, or the disciples couldn't. But he says to them, when this happens, I'm going to be at the right hand of God, and you're going to pray to God, and God Himself will hear your prayers. And you will pray in my name, and God Himself will hear your prayers.

This is why every time you and I pray, we say in Jesus' name. But think about how many times we say that, and it's sort of like you're tacking on just a goodbye. Like, okay, see you later. Goodbye. Right? You ever do that on the phone? Got to go now. See you later. We hang up the phone. No, we are to pray in His name.

Now, why do we say in Jesus' name, we pray?

At the end of our prayers. Verse 26 says, In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will pray the Father for you. He says, now you have to understand, when you ask in my name, I will be there with the Father, but you won't be praying to me as a way to get to the Father. Your prayers go directly to the Father. Your interaction is directly with God the Father. The next statement is even more profound. For the Father Himself loves you.

God lets us come before His throne. Believe me, we don't have a right to do this. You have tried to think of any right you have with God.

God, I've come to claim my rights.

We don't have any rights.

It's a privilege to go before God. He gives us this privilege, and we go before God, and there's a reason why He lets us go before Him, because He loves us. But the rest of this sentence is even more amazing, because He says, because. Oh, God loves us what? Because we're perfect. God loves you because you've always been in His church. God loves you because He sees you and says, oh, you're better than other people. God loves you because you keep the Ten Commandments.

How does He finish the sentence?

He says, For the Father Himself loves you because, Christ says, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came forth from God. And sometimes, if our prayers aren't being answered, maybe it's because we're not acknowledging Christ in the proper way. I have to admit, there's been times I've been in prayer, and it was like, okay, God, I've said everything I need to say in Jesus' name. See you later. Amen. Off I go. And I've literally walked back down and got on my knees and said, sorry about that. I really want to acknowledge Christ at your right hand. He's not an afterthought. But that's what I made Him.

I made Him an afterthought because I think of the Scripture and think, oops, God just said, well, none of those prayers are getting answered.

Because He says, you loved me. Now how do we love Jesus Christ? See, we don't think of those in terms. In deep terms sometimes, and there's a reason why. Christ wants us centered on the Father, okay? He says that He wants us centered on the Father. But there's Scriptures like this that says, okay, but you can't ignore me. Just because I'm having you centered on the Father, you can't acknowledge Me just at Passover. Which is a lot of times even what the people have been in the Church a long time do. We acknowledge Christ, it's very intense when, at the Passover and on Trumpets. Because He's our Savior. And because He's coming back as King of Kings, so we really look at those two times. And sometimes, for the rest of the year, we barely acknowledge Him.

Now think about that, except in titles. Except this title. So how do we show love to Jesus Christ? What does that mean? Well, we start with John 14, 21. You know, John, in the book of John, the Gospel of John, says a lot of time dealing with this. It's amazing how different writers, of course, deal with different aspects of our relationship with God and obeying His commandments and the things we're supposed to do. John spends an awful lot of time saying, okay, let me show you the relationship we're supposed to have with the Father and with the one who sits at His right hand.

And of course, John had a very special relationship with Jesus when He was on His earth. You know, He just calls Himself the disciple who He loved. He loved all of us, but we were like this. And there was something special between Jesus and John. Now, you say, oh, well, Jesus has favorites. Christ has favorites. As a human being, there were some human beings He got along with better than others.

As God, He wants every one of us the same. Okay? So it's not like you have to worry, does He got to pick favorites? But it says here in John 14, 21, Jesus Christ. Now, we're using His words. So we've set a premise here. If we want to have a right relationship with God, we have to have some kind of relationship with Jesus Christ because He says, you have to love Me. If God's going to answer your prayers, you have to love Me. Okay, well, how do I love Jesus Christ? I don't understand. I understand God is a Father. But how do I relate to Jesus Christ on a personal basis? How do I relate to Jesus Christ on a personal level? Which the people who keep Christmas in Easter think they do every year. How do we have something more profound than that? First of all, He says, He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is He who loves Me. And He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love Him and manifest Myself to Him. So He who keeps My commandments, love Me. And notice, and My Father will love Him, just like what He said in 16. Because you love Me. Well, how do you love Him? First of all, you keep the commandments. Now, that's just not, by the way, the Ten Commandments. That includes the Ten Commandments. But it's a whole lot bigger concept than that. And this is where a vision of who you are has to be seen by you.

You have to understand a vision of why God is showing you a special thing. And you have to understand that you are a special favor. Oh, I know in our politically correct world, you know, well, and nobody gets special favors. Let me tell you something right now. I don't care whether you are 35, 25, 15, or 5 years old. If you're sitting here today, it's because of a special favor of the Almighty God.

That's why you're here. Special favor from God, or you would not be here.

Now, you have to accept that.

Now, that special favor isn't because you and I are better than anybody else. It's because he gave... that's the thing about a favor.

It's a favor. Here, I give this to you.

He gave something to you. The question is, what are you going to do with it? He's giving you a favor. And I know you can understand this even as a child, because I understood it at 7 years old. So I know you can.

God has given you a favor.

Something you didn't deserve. You didn't like call God on the phone one day. Hey, God, can we do lunch?

God did something with you, and He put you here for a reason.

So you're here. And He says, now, obey Christ's commandments. That includes the 10. It includes more. Now, how I know that it includes more? Because that's what Jesus Christ says on the Sermon on the Mount. Now, I have a question. I'm not going to ask for answers, but I wonder how many of you... I wonder how many of any of us have taken the time to tear apart the Sermon on the Mount verse by verse.

Because this is Christ telling us how to love Him.

It's amazing, you know, Matthew 5, 6, and 7. In fact, part of that was quoted in the Sermonet, right? Matthew 7, part of it was quoted in the Sermonet.

Now, I always tell people, you really want to study something? Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. And in the left-hand column, write out the verses. In the right-half column, say, what is God saying to me?

And if you don't know, you'll probably need to do more study throughout the Bible.

So here we have, obeying Jesus Christ is loving Him.

But obeying Jesus Christ isn't all of it.

You know, as a father, I raised three children, and I wanted them to obey me. I did want them to obey me, though, because they were afraid of me, because they felt like they had to, or because, man, I can't wait until I get old enough to get out of here so I don't have to obey Dad anymore. I wanted them to obey me because they trusted what I was doing was right. And because they loved me.

God and Christ want you to obey them. Now, you say, well, okay, does Christ give me some different commands than the Father? No. This is where we're going to get into your personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

He doesn't give you different commands. What He gives you is the model of how to do it.

Go read Matthew 5, 6, and 7. He gives you the model. He says, here's God's way, here's God's commandments, but I have to show you. The Father and I can tell you forever, but I'm going to have to show you. He says, now listen, you know adultery is wrong, but you know the lust after somebody in your own head? That's just as wrong. Murder is wrong. Hating somebody is just as wrong. I'm going to have to explain how this works. I tell you what, I'm going to let people torture me to death and I'm not going to hate them. So you'll see what I mean. See, you start when you understand your relationship with Jesus Christ, you understand that everything in His life, every moment has something in it that is supposed to be a model for your behavior and my behavior. Everything in it? You say, well, where do you get that from? Luke 14. Luke 14. And verse 25, I read this to everyone who I baptized, and this was read to me when I was baptized.

Not every minister has used this, but a lot have over the years. Now, great multitudes went with Him, and He turned and said to them, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and his mother, his wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, in his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

I want to stress something here. First of all, hate. There's no real English word to translate that into. In Greek, it's interesting. You're comparing one thing with another.

Okay.

Vanilla ice cream is okay, but I love chocolate ice cream. Okay. In other words, you don't hate vanilla ice cream. It was the only thing around. Okay. His point is, okay, I'm comparing this. Yes, you are to love these people, your mother, your brother, your sister, your father. You're to love these things. But, he says, you have to love me more. Now, what's interesting here, he doesn't say you have to love the father more. You know why? That's a given. That's not even discussable. That's a given. He already said, said, the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart and all your might and all your soul. That was the center of his teachings. Okay. Everybody knew that because he, that was this, one of the center, central messages of his teachings. And then he comes along and says, now, wait a minute, you have to understand, there's another clause here. In your relationship with me, you have to love me more.

I see how many times we've read through that and everybody substitutes the father in there.

And that's not what he said. And why? Where you cannot be my disciple. He's defining the relationship you and I have with him. And that is that we are disciples. Disciples are not students.

Now, I want you to think about Jesus walking around through Judea with 12 men with him.

Maybe sometimes their wives and their children, you know, and other people at times coming in and out of this group. If you and I saw that happening in Houston, we'd call the police and say, there's a gang coming through my neighborhood, right? Please come arrest these people. Why did nobody think that strange? There was an idea that there were masters, there were teachers, there were rabbis, and they had students, but these students were just students. It wasn't like going to school. Disciple literally means imitator. You had to live with the master so you could imitate him. You know, if I said, let's go imitate the father, we'd all walk out of here saying, how do I do that?

I mean, God's sitting on his throne and he's lightning's coming out and angels coming back and forth and he's seeing everything and he's knowing everything. I can't do that. No, we can't. So, what are we supposed to do with our tools?

Remembering that you are the raw material. You're the raw material and you get these tools from God. And what's it supposed to look like when you're done? Ah, well, I'm going to send my son to earth and he's going to live in all this mess with you. And when you watch him, you'll see the model.

Just like I've watched my daughter take little pieces of wood and build these little models. Like, that looks pretty silly to me. Oh, no, I just got an A on my class. She's at the master level. You know, she's learning to be an architect. Oh, yeah, I just got an A on my little pieces of wood. God said, okay, I'm going to send my son down. I'm going to make him little pieces of mud. And in that mud, you'll see the model.

And that's how you love Jesus Christ.

This is what we don't do.

This is a major problem in the church and has been for a long time.

We understand our relationship with God. We understand the law.

We don't understand that every day of your life, you have someone you're supposed to imitate. You have a model of what this life is supposed to be and how it's supposed to work and how relationships are supposed to work and how you're supposed to respond to God and how you're supposed to obey. It is more than being a believer. It is literally, I watch you and I imitate you.

And see, you and I couldn't do that with the Father. He doesn't say, be a disciple of me. The Father says, be my child.

Jesus says, be my disciple.

Look at John. Keep a marker. We're going to come right back to here. But go to John 8. Because this is an interesting way that Christ puts this. John chapter 8. See, we talk about relationships all the time. And you can't put a relationship with a friend, your husband, your wife. I'm not using my words. This is what Jesus said. Your sister, your brother, above your relationship with him. You have to follow his lead. You have to imitate him no matter what anybody else does.

That's what he requires of me. And that's what it requires of you. So many of our decisions are made by, that's what my friends did. Or it's what this person did or that person did.

Jesus said, if you love me, you will be a disciple. If you want to be my disciple, this has to be number two. Number one is the Father. Number two is me.

And that means more than anybody else. He literally means that. You know, that worries me sometimes. I'm worried because there's people in my life that I've just built. But that relationship is so important to me. And I thought, have I ever made any relationship more important than my relationship with God or with Christ? Because if I do, well, someday they take that relationship away from me. Now, they're not going to. But you understand my question. Do I really do what this says? Because this is the promise I made in baptism. John 8, 31 says, John 8, verse 31, that Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, if you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed. Abide means, it's not a word we use too much in English today, literally means live. If you live in what I say. Now, He didn't say, if you show up at Sabbath once a week, that's what He said. He didn't say, if you don't keep Christmas, then that's all you have to do. It's part of it. I mean, you have to keep the Sabbath. You have to not keep Christmas. But it's more than that. You have to live in His word.

This relationship isn't a casual friendship.

Oh yeah, Jesus, I even talked to Him in a couple of months. I didn't give Him a call. Now, I'm being facetious. But you know, when you go to the Father, every time you pray, how do you end that prayer? If you just say in Jesus' name, like it's some superstition, it's just a superstitious way of ending. I know I'm supposed to say this. It's a ritual.

It's like, amen. I don't want amen, but I'm supposed to say it, so I say it. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay. What have you just done? What have you just done? We think what you've done is you're denying a relationship with the one who's sitting at the right hand of God who gave you the privilege. We don't get that privilege except through Him.

It's through His death and resurrection that you and I have a privilege to go to God, not a right. You know, a privilege can be taken away from you any time by the person who gives you the privilege. Right? A privilege isn't a right. A privilege can be taken away from you any time by the person who gave it to you. God gave you a privilege. Wow. Do you really understand that? Have you really digested that? Do you really know what that means when you're 11 years old or you're 19 years old or you're 35 years old and God gave you a privilege and this is all you've known all your life. And so it's sort of a, yeah, it's an E privilege. Yeah, God gave it to me. It's like that gift someone gave to you years ago and it's, yeah, you've kept this in a box someplace. Is that how we're treating Jesus Christ? He's in a box in our closet someplace. Oh yeah, that guy. We sing about him. I sing about him every Sabbath. And I use his name when I pray. This is a whole lot more than that. You know, if we go back to Luke 14. Luke 14.

Verse 27 was a verse, and I've said this a number of times at sermons over the years, but a verse that took me decades to figure out. It seems pretty simple, but I mean really figure out. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my imitator.

You're going to get a privilege to be an imitator of the Son of God. And if you want to be an imitator of me, my disciple, personally being taught, personally being shown how to live, personally being helped, he says you've got to pick up your cross and come after me. Oh, okay. I guess that means there are certain trials or something to go with it, right? Now let's put this in the context of the people he was talking to. You see, these people saw people carry the heavy cross beam of a cross all the time. All the Romans were good at it. They did it as a cross, they did it as a T, they did it as an X. They have found now that the Romans would build scaffolding so they can crucify 15 people at a time. Sometimes it was just scaffolding all over the place, and you'd know you'd see someone going through the street and they'd be carrying this great big dragging behind this great big cross beam. Now how far did you carry that? And that's when I finally figured this out.

Oh man, I've been carrying this a long time. I'm going to take a break. Hey, Roman soldiers, I'm taking a break. I'm going to put my cross down for a while, and then they beat you up until you pick it up again. How long do you carry a cross beam? Until they nail you to it. You carry that beam until they nail you to that beam.

And Jesus Christ says, if you ought to be my imitator, you're starting a life you will carry until they nail you to it. And I'm asking you, have you taken that challenge or is coming to church just your way of doing stuff? It's just your way of living. Yeah, I've gone to Sabbath services all my life. That's not what this is about. That is just a little part of this puzzle. What this is about is the Almighty Father saying, I want you, and I'm calling you to be in a relationship with me so you can be my child. And since you have no idea how this works, I'm going to let my son come down and be just like you. I'm going to make a model made out of mud. Now he's been here, he's coming there so he knows how to do this. And he's going to model this for you. And guess what your response has to be? Oh good, thanks God. Now your response has to be.

I pick this up and I carry it until they nail me to it. Are you doing that?

Is that how you live life at school? Is that how you live life at work? Is that how you deal with money? It's status? How do you deal with life? Is it an imitator? Are you easily offended by other people? Boy, look at a man who should have been offended. You talking about a man who deserved to be offended? How long will you carry that? I tell you what the requirement is.

And it took me decades. So when I finally figured it out, I really thought at some point I get to set this thing down. And guess what? I don't. And neither do you.

Do we understand the cost of discipleship? Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10.

If there was some way to get you to understand, this isn't just about information I'm giving you today. I'm hoping this hits you at some gut level. And you say why? Because emotions, the real, relationship of life happened at gut level, right?

There's a difference between, well, he's a nice guy, and I want to marry that guy, right? Those are two different emotions. One is at a gut level emotion. You have to have a gut level emotional relationship with God and one with Jesus Christ. And if you do not, then we have an interesting situation. Mark 10 verse 17.

Jesus is going out on the road. And one came running, knelt before him, and said, Good teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?

Man, I'm moving around so much here. I moved this little mat. I ended up all rolled up in a ball. Man comes to Jesus and falls on his face. Good teacher, I want eternal life. What must I do? You know, for those who are raised in the church, you never had that question.

You woke up one day and you were in the presence of the good teacher.

And people were telling you how to have eternal life.

Jesus says to him, verse 18, Why do you call me good? No, it is good, but one that is God. He says, Okay, let me answer your question. Do you know the commandments? Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and your mother. And he answered and said, And teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth. Now, he had, plus the others, this man had probably never bowed down in front of an idol or kept any pagan holiday. This man had always worshipped the one God. This man had never taken God's name in vain, probably, in the literal sense. And you know what? He had always kept the Sabbath. Is that you? Let's all go before Jesus Christ, and he looks at you and says, Have you kept the Ten Commandments? And you say, Well, yeah, pretty much so. I don't steal, and I go to the Sabbath service all my life, and you know I've never kept that stupid Christmas. Although the lights are sort of pretty, but you know, I've never done it. And I like that, I've moved off the red-nosed reindeer zone. But that's okay. But I haven't done those things, and I've kept the Ten Commandments. And that's good. Jesus doesn't say that's bad, because later, in other all kinds of places, he says, Keep the Commandments. Okay? This is good. Good. And notice what it says next. Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him. Jesus looked at this young man and said, Now this guy's got his act together. I love this. This guy wasn't being pretentious. He meant it! Master, I have done this. I have tried. I've tried to keep those commandments all my life. I've never committed adultery. Never once. I've never stole anything. I've always paid my ties. Is that you? I hope so. I hope that's you. Well, actually, none of us have done all that 100%. But just for the sake of this argument, okay, I hope all of you who come to church, all you who are this third, they have a second generation in this church. Now, I'm talking the third and fourth generation, okay? The two generations behind me. I hope all of you can say, Yeah, I can come to Jesus Christ and say, I've kept the commandments. I've kept every feast all 19 years of my life. Never missed the feast at Tabernacle's. I've played miniature golf at every one of them.

Yes, I've done it. And probably Jesus Christ would look at you and love you. He already does. You're already in a relationship with Him. You just don't completely understand it yet. The fact that you're in His church means you already have it. So He would say, He would look at you. If I was writing this story, and I would say, just like Luke or Mark did, and He looked at you, I mean, every third and fourth generation Christian is here. And He looked at that person and said, just fill in your name. He looked at, think your name, and He loved that person.

That's true. And then He says to him, great, you kept the tap commandments. Good, see you in the Kingdom. Ah, that's not what He says. He says, one thing you lack, go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come and take up your cross, and follow Me. The next verse says the man didn't do it. Now, I want you to notice, he didn't say, oh yeah, you're a breaker of the Ten Commandments. He said, good, you're ready now to have a relationship with Me. So come imitate Me. You're prepared. God's laws prepared you to imitate Me. Now come follow Me. If God wants you to give up everything, are you willing to do it?

Because that question bothers me because I've thought about it. If you haven't thought about it, you better. Because He may. Now, there's a reason for this. Remember, He's a model of what it is to be a child of God. To really have God as your Father, and to be a child of God forever, that's what this is all about. God is creating a family, and for some reason that we'll never totally understand, except it says we're the weak of the world. He took us in this room, and gave us a favor, and said, you can learn to become part of my family now. And when Jesus Christ returns, you can help Him. If you can capture this vision, you can help Him create a family out of the whole world. Now, if you don't believe that, that sounds like a fairy tale. You'll never follow this. You'll never live this way if that's a fairy tale. To really live this way, now I mean, you can live this way that you're okay, well, you're not going to go out and commit an adultery, and you're going to go to the church every Sabbath. I'm talking about being an imitator of Jesus Christ. If you're an imitator of Jesus Christ, it's because somewhere along the way, you bought into a vision that says, I'm going to be a child of God now. I'm going to learn this now. So when Christ comes back, I help Him change the world. And you have to believe that. You have to believe that at the core of who you are. And if you don't, you'll do this until something better comes along, or persecution comes along. It'll get hard enough, you'll stop it.

Something will get hard enough, and you'll stop it. Or you'll face losing friends, so you'll stop it. Or your face losing a job, so you'll stop it.

And you'll make decisions based on something different than imitating Jesus Christ.

I've been in this church for over 50 years. You know what? There are times we have not been imitators of Jesus Christ.

Not very well.

We've been good at keeping the Ten Commandments. And I'm telling you right now, if you give up the Ten Commandments, just to make sure you don't misunderstand how I'm saying. Give up the Ten Commandments, and you will sever your relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ. So I'm not saying we shouldn't keep the Ten Commandments. What I'm saying is, Jesus Christ said, Good! I love you! Now let me take you someplace else. Pick up your cross, which is His, and you follow Me. Well, how long? Till they nail you to it. That's a real commitment, isn't it? Till a coffee break, right? At dinner time, we get to set this thing down. Or when I get really tired, or when people laugh at me, or my friends turn against me, or family members turn against me, then I can set it down, right?

What a privilege we've been given.

In this context, there's one other passage we need to go to. Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2.

What is your relationship? It is as a disciple.

He is the model.

He tells us how to pray. He tells us how to fast. He tells us how to love our husbands and our wives.

He tells us how to deal with people who abuse us. He tells us how to stand up for the right. And He tells us at times you don't. He tells us how to serve. Read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Not as just, oh, I'm reading the Bible. Read it as, this is my master telling me how I'm supposed to imitate. This is how I deal with everyone in these situations.

Become a disciple.

Now let's look at Hebrews chapter 2, verse 14.

It is much then that the children, as the children, who are the children? That's us, by the way. Okay, that's the whole world in this statement. But specifically, you are already a child of God.

John said that. We don't know what we shall be, but we are now the children of God. Okay, so we're already in this relationship. That doesn't mean you can remove it. You can remove yourself from this relationship.

Your salvation, you can give up on your salvation. But you are already in relationship with a child of God. So God isn't going to give up on us. We have to give up on Him.

Inasmuch that as the children have forsaken a flesh and blood, He, speaking of Jesus Christ, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy Him, who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

Verse 11. I want to skip up to here. Now I want you to understand, well, first of all, what we just said.

What Paul just writes here is, Jesus Christ became flesh so that, and it's shared in all this, so that He could defeat Satan, sin and death. He is the one who defeated Satan. Satan, he defeats sin and death, he defeats, or sin, he defeats inside of every one of us. That's what we're doing right now. It's what the Feast of Unleavened Bread is about.

It's about sin being defeated inside every one of us right now.

How does that happen? Well, through the power of God's Spirit. But what's the model? If I have all of God's Spirit, I don't know what to do with it. What's the model? Oh, I have a model, and I am a disciple.

And He became like me. Chunks of mud put together, so He can model this force. But it's verse 11 that's so profound. For both He who sanctifies, and those who are being sanctified, being made holy, He who makes holy, and those who are being made holy, being made holy is us. Okay, that's you and me. Are all of one, for which reason, I want you to really think about this next statement. He is not ashamed to call them brethren.

We know that Jesus Christ is the one through whom the Father made everything. He made all things through the one who became Jesus Christ. Okay? So we're talking about the Creator of the universe.

That the Creator of the universe looks at you, and I just grab hold of this. Say, you're 15 years old, you're 29 years old, you're 70 years. I don't care how old you are. I want you to think about this a minute and grab hold of it. The Creator of the universe looks at you and says, Hey, sis, how you doing?

Hey, brother. Tough day, isn't it?

Been there, done that. It's tough. I've been tired. I've been worn out. I went to the Father at one point and said, Do we have to do it this way? Right? They're going to pray. Is there a better way to do this? It sure made sense in heaven. It doesn't make a lot of sense down to this mess.

But I will do what you will.

Are we an imitator of that? We could not imitate something we did not understand. So He became like us so that we would understand.

He became like us so He would understand. Or that we would understand. Incoming like us, this is that He would be, you know, He had some flaw that He'd fix. That's why He came. He came here for us. For us. And that's why verse 18 says, For that He Himself has suffered being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted. I know what that feels like. I know what that thought process is like. And let me show you why it doesn't work and do it this way. And you and I can imitate it.

He didn't have to do that, by the way. You know, God could have just said, I'll just give Him a bunch of commandments and laws. If they'll keep Him, I'll kill Him.

He could have done that, right?

Why would He do it this way? This sure is a hard way to do stuff.

I'm going to make you out of mud.

And when you mess it up, I'm going to take my son up here with the Word, he was with me, and I'm going to send him down. And he's going to be made out of mud. And he's going to walk around like the rest of you saying, look, you got this all messed up, do what I'm doing. And then you're going to kill him. But I'll resurrect him. And he'll come back here and he'll say, look, folks, I know what it's like because I'm your brother. You have a father and you have a brother.

Come be my disciple.

It is interesting that the end time in Revelation, Jesus Christ is shoved out of his own church.

He's outside knocking on the door.

The state of Christianity before Christ returned, true Christianity, even a true Christian, will be that many people will have shoved Christ out of their lives as Lord and Master, and they are no longer imitating him. They'll know the titles. I pray in his name. He's my Savior.

He's the soon coming King of kings.

But he's having zero effect on their lives.

Now remember, Revelation 2 and 3 is about true Christians, by the way. It's not about some false Christianity.

He is our brother, who modeled what the tools are supposed to be. What is the model that we're supposed to produce?

So that we could be disciples. That's your relationship with Jesus Christ.

How does he want me to do this? How must I think in this situation? How must I act? I don't know. Let me go look at Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and find how I'm supposed to do this. Let's find the model, and then go say, Would you please help me do it?

Is this really what you mean?

Yeah.

Do you really mean it? I have to pick up this cross and carry it? Now there's a whole other subject here I wish we had time for.

When he says, take my yoke. That's all. That's, you know, I'll help you carry it. You can't carry that yourself. I'll carry it for you. You see, when you look at discipling, Jesus discipled people, and you know what they did?

They went and discipled others.

You see, at the church, we can't be a group of people that just happen to meet every Sabbath. You know, any congregation, and that exists for any length of time, it becomes dysfunctional. You know why? We're all a bunch of dysfunctional people.

But you know what we're supposed to do?

We're supposed to look at each other as brother and sister. Why? Because we have the same father and the same brother. Unless you have a different father, I don't care how much you don't get along with that person next, you guess who they are!

Right? If we all have the same father and the same brother, we're the same family, right?

Right? How do you argue the point? I don't understand. No, I have a different father, but I'm at a different brother, and I have a different name, so I'm not part of your family.

That's not what we are.

We're all imitating the same brother, and it's not easy.

And then what happens is, if God calls new people, guess what we do?

We disciple them. Oh, good! I get that. I get, okay. People come over to my house, come into church. First thing we do is come over to my house after services, now I have a Bible study with you.

You disciple them by living with them, by modeling. You understand? We model it. They see it.

In the way we talk, in the way we act, in the way our families work. It's like, okay, these people aren't perfect, but they're sort of doing stuff different than anything I've known. Why? Because we're modeling. We're discipling, and we bring those people in, and they become part of our family. And eventually they say, wow, you people are very messed up, just like me. We'll say, yeah, but we're getting better. You want to get better? Come with us.

Because we have a brother, who shows us how to do it.

Do we understand that?

But I keep the Ten Commandments. Good. They go sell all that you have, pick up your cross and follow me. That's what Jesus Christ... He said, wow, am I glad I'm not that guy? I want you to understand something. That story I read, that is you. You are that guy. You are that girl. He has said to you, good you keep the commandments. I love you. Now, sell it all.

Pick up the cross, come after me. Follow me.

Oh, wow, man. But... Wait a minute.

Then are you any different than that young man who kept the commandments? Because he did.

Are you any different?

Oh, this is so much bigger than you can imagine.

This is so much bigger than you know.

And what is being offered to you is so much bigger than you could imagine.

And yet God has offered it. And if you're a disciple, you can't help it. You're going to reflect Jesus Christ which means you can hide it.

Every place you go, people are going to see you're different. Can't hide it. You think Jesus Christ can hide who he is today?

No, you're honest. You know, people would see him as different. You know what? They're going to see you as different. I read a story one time. I'll conclude with this. It was a body... It was after World War II. It was an American soldier walking through the ruins of one of the major cities in Germany. And the only thing left on this street was a bakery. And there was a bakery there. And it was still functioning. They were baking bread and stuff. There was this little guy, this little boy, German boy, looking through the glass at the bakery.

And the soldier looked at him and realized, yeah, he can't afford any of that. He said, hey, would you like one of those pastries? And the boy said, yes, he could speak English. He said, yes. Or he could... I forget whether he could speak German, he could speak English, but they understood each other. So he goes in and he buys him a dozen.

He walks up and hands it to him.

What you have is a starving child given something as a favor.

Right?

As a favor.

And as he stood there looking at it, the soldier started to walk away. And he found a little tug on the back of his jacket. And he turned around. The little boy looked at him, and just as serious as could be. He said, are you God?

And he said, yes, he is God. When was the last time?

I want you to think about this.

You know, the Church of God has become a place of conflict, a place of issues that have nothing to do with what God is doing.

When was the last time a person came up to you and tugged on you? Some hopeless person who has no hope in life and his life is so messed up that they came up to you and said, are you a Christian?

You're different.

But see, in some ways we're no different than the world anymore.

In some ways we're no different than the world.

We've forgotten the favor that was given to us. We have forgotten the responsibility that comes with that. We've forgotten the vision of what God is doing in this family he's creating, and we get the privilege of being part of the first fruits. And we've grown up in it, and it's just sort of what we do. This isn't sort of what we do.

This is everything. It's supposed to be everything. It has to be everything. It has to be everything.

It can be nothing less.

It can be nothing less because God sent his Son to be the sacrifice for us.

So that we can learn his commandments, and we can learn his way more beyond the letter of the law.

Because we have a brother who wants you to be his disciple.