Good morning, church, I know that I'm along with a lot of you guys, just when we think that life can't get any heavier, or just the grief that we're living in can't get any stronger. It does. And this past week, I know that most of you are aware that our Pastor Mike passed away on Friday, and he left this temporary home and stepped into his reward of glory. And I know man, I know we're heavy. I've held it together all morning, I'm going to now. But I just want you to know that the family is doing amazingly well. They want you to hear from them how thankful they are for the love and the support and the prayers. This coming week is going to be a tough one, it's gonna be a tough one for all of us this week, we're going to be making an announcement this afternoon on what the plans for the week looks like. But I'm just going to be as honest as I can with you, it's going to be very difficult, because of the world that we're living in right now because of the virus that has taken Mike's life. And we're going to respect the family and their wishes in that. So, I just wanted to tell you that and also just want to pray just for the family this morning, Lord Jesus, God today is hard for families, for so many people that Mike touched their lives.  God for 30 years in this place in front of this people. God as a rock of this community as a faithful servant. God, we honor him today. And we honor the life that Mike lived in front of you and us. God, we pray for the family today. We lift them up today. God, we give them over into your arms today. We just ask you bring them comfort and peace, Lord Jesus, and it's in Your holy name we pray. Amen. Amen. 

You know, I've been battling yesterday meeting with the family and walking through the arrangements for the week and back over here at the office last night trying to get my mind around all of that. And today, and I'm not gonna lie all weekend this weekend I battle God is this the moment I need to pull back and I need to speak into a different thing? Do I need to take one of those audible calls that sometimes the Holy Spirit just presses into us and says, Yeah, go for this? And I mean, I tried my hardest to do it until last night, something hit me that said, you know what, if I turn this morning into a blubbering cry fest, and Mike finds out about it, he will kick my tail. I mean, he'll take me down. I don't know how. I don't know how that works up there. But maybe he could send a little extra mojo from some Angel my way. But here's what I figured out last night, I said, you know what? The message that God has already put on my heart. It's the message that he preached in front of this church for 30 years. So we're going to honor him today. By walking into what it looks like to live the life of a faithful disciple of Jesus, or as he would say, an obedient, disciple of Jesus.  We're starting a new series today on the 12 disciples and we're gonna look at these 12 the official title is the 12 that changed the world. Now I know when I say that, when I say they changed the world, you’re thinking well Matt a lot of things change the world. I mean, toothpaste, changed the world, toilet paper, changed the world. I mean, there's a lot of things that changed the world. But when I say the disciples of Jesus changed the world they did. They literally turned this world upside down. They laid the tracks of Christianity, they planted the church, and they began the movement of the Holy Spirit moving through people's lives from the first century Palestine. 

And the reality is, we are here today because of the faithfulness of these men, because of what they did. In fact, I read a story not too long ago, and it was Gabriel, and it was the angel Gabriel and the angel Michael is a fictitious story. So, don't take this as the Bible and they were talking to Jesus.  Jesus had just been resurrected. He had just ascended back to the Father. And the angel Gabriel looked at Him and said, Jesus tells us what it was like. What was it like down there as a human being as a flesh, I mean, on flesh and being one of them and Jesus talked to them and showed them?  They're like, let us see your hands and He showed them the nail scar.  Tell us what pain is and tell us what it was like for the Father to turn his back and to become sin. And He told them all that. And then Michael looked at Jesus and said, Jesus, how many of them know you? How many of them love you? And Jesus looked at him? He said, hundreds. And Michael, the angel said, hundreds, yeah, hundreds and they went. That's not very great Jesus. Only hundreds?  So, Michael said what are you gonna do about that, Jesus? He goes I already did. What is it? And Jesus looked at him says there's a plan. Here's the plan. The plan was that the disciples make disciples that make disciples that make disciples, that make more disciples, and they literally changed the world. And Jesus looked at him, and he says this, and they're gonna do it until we return. And they're gonna keep doing it until we return. And listen, that's what they did, right? That's what the disciples did, if you think about history, these 12 became 100s became 1000s became 10s of 1000s became millions and all the way to today, February of right now, right? I mean, we're right on it. We're here because of what happened in this moment. So here's what we're gonna do in this series, we're gonna look into the lives of these disciples, just like we did a couple of weeks ago. And looking at the original deacons and what it means to be a servant of Jesus, we're gonna look at the lives of the disciples of Jesus, we're gonna look at the prototype disciples of what we have been called to do, me and you and everybody on this planet that had been called to be disciple making disciples, and we're gonna pull some incredibly specific truths, we're gonna pull some incredibly specific generality principles of how we are to live our lives. But today, we're gonna spend some time looking at the group as a whole.  Next week, and the weeks following, we're gonna take a disciple a week, and we're gonna pull out who they were.  But today, I want us to see this idea of who the disciples were as a whole, and how they ended up becoming this group, this band of brothers that changed the world. Now, when you think of the 12 disciples, if you grew up in church, you know, that when you thought of the disciples, when they slapped that baby on the flannel board, you know what I'm talking about? Can I get an amen for the flannel boards of the world? When they slapped the Apostle Peter up on to the flannel board and you saw it, you don't know what I'm talking about flannel boards? Oh, y'all don't know, technology. You got smart boards, we had flannel boards, all right?  They were better than those.  The Wi Fi did not matter back then you slap them up, and he stayed there magically. That's how it worked. Right?  And so when Peter was slapped onto that thing, and you thought about the disciples, you thought about these guys as like Superman, as like the Marvel characters, I mean, like Wolverine, I mean, you want to mess with Peter, he'll grow some claws, and he'll take care of some business, and my mind, my sanctified imagination, when I was a kid, I thought that they were basically superheroes.  I thought that they swooped into situations, they would heal this guy and feed these people and they saved the day. And here's the thing, there's, part of them that they did that. That's kind of what happened in the end. But there's an incredibly other big part, when you really start looking into the life of these guys that I think sometimes that we miss. You see, I think sometimes we miss that one of the primary characteristics of the disciples is that they were incredibly ordinary. They're just incredibly ordinary people. They were just average Joe, people off the street. Now, don't let that deter you. I know I just busted some of your bubbles. You mean like they didn't, like levitate everywhere they went. I mean, they didn't have like, super beams come? No. The disciples were ordinary people. 

And when you think about this, you can either let that discourage you, or here's my hope for us. We can see that there were people just like you, they were people just like me, and they became instruments that Jesus used. In fact, I want you to write this down. Here's the first observation for the morning. I just want you to put in your notes somewhere. I want you to see this. The disciples were ordinary people selected by Jesus, listen to this, to impact the world. Now I want you to let each one of those sections just sit just for a minute.  I know it's three words in the app, you got to type a little more than normal, but I want you to feel each one of those chunks. They were ordinary people that were selected by Jesus. They didn't select Jesus, Jesus selected them, and they were sent to impact the world.  Now, this is what this means. This means when Jesus chose these disciples, all right, they didn't go begging for this. When Jesus chose these disciples, Jesus knew their faults, knew their ways, knew their personalities, knew their backstories and catch this. He knew the secrets that nobody else knew. Why?  Because He was God, He knew. Not only did Jesus know their faults, it means this.  It means that when Jesus chose Judas, right, if you ever noticed Judas, his name is always last on the list. There's a reason for that it didn't end up well for him. When Jesus chose Judas Iscariot, not the other guy that gets the blame. Listen, He knew that He was gonna deny Him. He knew how it was going to end.  He knew the sovereign plan of the Lord. He knew how Judas was going to turn his back, but listen, He chose them anyway. Now this is incredibly comforting for me. And let me tell you why. Because Listen, at the moment of my salvation, catch this, Jesus chose me noing in my past anyway.

Jesus chose me noing my future faults, anyway.  Jesus chose me knowing that I was an incredibly messed up ordinary, little chubby eight year old kid in 1986. When Jesus called me, he knew every single one of my faults because this, He loved me anyway. He loved me anyway, he gave me life anyway. So, it's incredible parallel to see that when Jesus chose these men, it's just a picture of what the gospel looks like. And He chose them out, He set them apart. And now the gospel is resting on the shoulders of these 12 men who had one primary characteristic, that tied them all together. And it was that they were ordinary. They were just ordinary. But Matt, hang on a minute. I'm feeling it, I can feel tension right now. But Matt, they got the walk with Jesus. Okay, I'll give you that.  Right? Can't argue with that one. But do you realize if you do the math in Scripture, maybe you've done this before? I don't know. If you do the math in Scripture, do you realize that these guys only had 18 months with Jesus? If you look at the ministry, prior to them becoming apostles, we're going to see this in a minute. And if you look at the mission, the ministry that is post the ascension after Jesus returns to the Father, when you do the historical picture of what those days look like it was right at 18 months, that means that Jesus had 18 months to take a group that was incredibly ordinary, incredibly normal, and incredibly, just average. And he took them to be guys that change the world, to which here's what this tells me. This tells me there's some of us that have been walking with Jesus for 50 years, and we've never transferred over into the making a difference. And it's time. You see, they were called, they were called the apostles. And I love the way the Bible talks about him. The Bible uses a couple different words, when they describe them, they use his disciples, right? The word disciple is just a fancy word. That literally just means that wondering, follower.  It means a follower that is a wandering learner, it means somebody that almost walks behind a person that knows what they're doing and takes note of what is happening. That's what a disciple is, it is a learning following student, but then sometimes as you as the Bible progresses, it uses this phrase, the 12.  This is probably my favorite phrase, when we talk about the disciples, I love this language that the writers of the Gospels used.  It used this word, the 12 or the saying the 12, because they wanted us to feel just the cohesiveness of the group, the idea that they had this common thread among them that they were moving in a direction together. And it gives us this band of brothers that were together that moved in a direction that did something together.  So, the disciples, it uses the 12 and then it uses the word the apostles.  And we don't have time to kind of look at the etymology of what that word looks like and all that because I promise you, we've got a lot. But here's basically in a nutshell what it means. 

The word apostle just means one who is sent to represent another. That's all it means.  It's an ancient word. It goes way back, the Jews knew exactly what was being talked about when you were an apostle, that you were somebody that was an official representative of and it carried this notion that you never spoke on behalf of yourself, but you spoke on behalf of the one that you were following. That is what an apostle is. So, when we look at the 12, we see that they had all kinds of different personalities and different vocations. They were incredibly different on the political ideas. Their religious upbringings were different. I mean, you had one guy over here that was serving Rome and probably ripping people off and you had another guy over here that was a zealot.  They carried a knife all the time that killed the people that work for Rome when it was nighttime. So, you had all of this going together with different kind of levels of who they were and their personalities. But the one trait I know I keep coming back to this because I want this to be the kind of nail in this deal that we're talking about here. The one trait that tied them together is that they were ordinary. And I love this, can I tell you why?  Because that's what God is looking for. God is looking for people like you and for people like me, that are ordinary. He's looking for ordinary. How do you know that?  1 Corinthians 1, if you have a copy of Scripture, I want you to go there with me just for a minute.  In 1 Corinthians 1, the apostle Paul is speaking to a church that is incredibly messed up, they got all kinds of outside problems, they got all kinds of inside problems, they got so much going on. And in the first chapter, or in the first kind of paragraph of this letter that he is writing to the Corinthian church, I want you to see what Paul brings them back to when he talks about Jesus, when he talks about their following of Jesus.  1 Corinthians 1, catch this, I love this, it tells us the people that God's looking to use. He says, "Brothers and sisters, think of what you were, when you were called," think of what you are when you're calling now pause right there, we'll leave that on the screen. Because I just want you to know that is an incredibly big discipline for life. If you can continually remember who you were, before you were called, you will continually be thankful for what God has done for you. The problem is some of us have been Christians for so long. We forgot what it's like to be lost in need of a Savior. It's a great discipline. Remember who you were when you were called? Watch this, “Not many of you were wise by human standards. Not many of you were influential. Not many of you were of noble birth." Now what is Paul saying there?  He's looking at these people in this Corinthian church and he's going, Hey, you need to understand that you had the wrong birth. You're not Noble. You weren't born into the caste of the upper class. You weren't born into the system where you are guaranteed to be an influential leader, overall people.   Paul looks at them and goes, first of all, you were born in the wrong place. But then catch this verse 27. "But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise." Amen, right.

"God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of the world, and the despised things." Paul brings it up another level and he looks at these poor people. It's almost like, we feel like Paul's breaking them down a little bit. But Paul goes, not only were you born into the wrong class, not only were you born kind of a second-class citizen, but number two, he's looking at them and he's saying, hey, you aren't even the definition of what the world says a leader is, you're not even one of the people that gets picked.  They're like, Hey, we need some leaders, who do we need? We need some people to lead out in this thing. Who do we need?  Paul's looking at them and going, you're not even one of those people. Look, he keeps going, it gets even better or worse, depending on how you're looking at it.  Verse 28, "God chose the lowly things of the world, and the despised things," watch this, "and the things that are not." Now it's really easy to miss what this means. But here's what it literally means. It literally means that you're so low in the world, you don't even exist to the people that matter. You don't even exist.  He takes it to the third level right here. He's like, you're so lowly, you're so mundane. You're so below the cultural norms. You're born in the wrong place. You're not the picture of what a leader is in the world, you don't even exist in their minds. But watch this. God chose the lowly things of the world and the despised things and things that are not. Watch this in verse 29, "to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before Him." Why does God do this? Why does God choose the ordinary people? Why? Because what does it do? It puts us in a position to not boast on ourselves, but to boast on the one that gives us the power. It puts us in a position to not look at ourselves as a nobly bought person that is up on a pedestal somewhere with all the qualities and all of the assurances of life and having the advancements of life and Paul looks at them and goes Hey, be glad, be glad you're second class, ordinary mundane, under the radar people that are ordinary. Why? Because those are the people that I'm looking for. Look at verse 30 says, "It is because of Him, that you are in Christ Jesus who has become for us the wisdom from God, that is our righteousness our holiness our redemption. Therefore, it is written let the one who boasts in the Lord."  We can sum up this whole paragraph right here by saying this, God doesn't choose the noble and mighty. In fact, his favorite instruments are the ordinary, why?  So, we can always know where the power of God comes from. That's why.  Maybe you're not feeling this like I am. But you know what this does for me? This encourages me. This encourages me that I don't have to have my life all together, encourages me that don't have to be the smartest, the most intellectual, I don't have to be the best looking thank goodness, I don't have to be the youngest, I don't have to be the oldest, I don't have to be of noble family, I don't have to be a means for God to use me. In fact, God wants the ordinary, so that it is Him that receives the glory and not me receive the glory. When you look at these disciples, I just want you to know, not a single one of them was a rabbi, or a priest, not a single one of them was a high priest, not a single one of them was on the high religious courts of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Not a single one of them was a world leader, ruler, or cultural influence, not one of them was part of the religious establishment. They were fishermen, they were farmers, they were agriculture workers and one of them was a tax collector, that is all that they were. Why? Because they were ordinary. And Jesus wants us to feel this. 

Remember, back when we could travel? Remember those days? Maybe some of you have visited, like some of the major cathedrals of the world, maybe in Europe and some of the old cathedrals. And you walk into these places. And it's incredible to see, like the stained glass like murals they have and how the light comes through them. And I mean, it is, it's like breathtaking, and some of these places. But here's what I want you to see, sometimes when you walk into these places, you'll see like the one of Jesus and then there's like the weird ones that you're like, I don't know, really what that is. But then every now and then you'll see like there's six windows on each sides of a church and it'll be the apostles, right? It'll be the apostles, Judas, he never really gets it. So, most of the time, it's only 11. And you'll see that they're there. And when you see these guys, I mean, they'll have some big hat on and a sepulcher, it's almost like they're floating in air, and everybody's bowing down to them. And look, I get that. I mean, we do, yes, there's a sense of honor, I mean, they are going to sit on the 12 thrones in heaven and judge. But there's also a sense that there's a shame factor in the fact that we've never seen ourselves as worthy disciples, because that's the only view that we have of them. What I just want you to feel today is that they were ordinary people that Jesus chose. And when Jesus chose them, He was the potter and put His hands around them. And He walked with them and He taught them, and He walked them through this process, and He shaped them.  And it wasn't their earthly talents. In fact, they had so many faults, which leads me to kind of my second observation today, I thought about this this week. And I can promise you this, number two, Satan is gonna attempt to convince you that your shortcomings make you useless to Jesus. Listen, let me just have like a little heart to heart talk with you. If you're a believer in Jesus, there's gonna come a moment in your life, to where there's going to be a battle in your soul, to where Satan tries to make you feel useless, tries to make you feel unworthy, tries to make you feel not up to par, tries to make you feel second part, tries to make you feel, listen, ordinary, ordinary.  Can I tell you that this morning, as we're looking at these guys, I want you to know that that is an incredible moment for you? Why? Because you are in the company of the apostles. And let me just give you some ammunition to speak back at Satan when he begins to press into your soul. Why don't you just speak back to him and go, You know what, Satan, I am ordinary, and I don't deserve it. And I'm basically a nothing, but I am one thing and I've been adopted into the family of Jesus, and it is now His power that comes through me. That's what we're seeing in these guys. And I love it. I know I'm the only person in the room that's excited about this. But I love the fact that He can take this guy right here who doesn't have a lot to offer. I promise you I am as plain Jane boring, normal, average, everyday guy that you will ever find. I'm not an exciting person. I'm not. I know that about myself. I'm grumbly a lot of the times and some of the times I just want people to leave me alone. I'm not I promise you that. But God can use all of us as ordinary people, not because of our talents not because of our abilities not because of our earthly political influence. In fact, John MacArthur says it like this. I love it. He puts it in one sentence that I just said like 45 minutes that's why he's so good. Listen to this. He says, "God chooses the humble, the lowly, the meek, and the weak, so that there's never any question about the source of power when their lives change the world. Man, I love this, why? Because what did Paul tell us in 1 Corinthians?  He says, Hey, God chooses the foolish. Why? So that I'm not resting on my intellect hallelujah. God chooses the weak. Why? So that I'm not resting on my pride, hallelujah. God chooses the lowly. Why? So that I can't ever boast because people know that surely isn’t that person.

This is great news. And listen, that's what he did with these disciples. In fact, if you remember, in the book of Acts, we get a clearer picture of kind of the late years for these disciples. In the book of Acts, Thomas spoke for me last week when I was in the timeout penalty box. But we're all good. And he gave the story of Peter and John healing the beggar on the road. And then if you fast forward that story a little bit and and you see what Peter stands up in front of the crowd, and he begins to speak to the crowd, and then he gets in trouble. And they end up being in prison because of what they said. And then all of a sudden, they call the whole Jewish High Court in and this high court had like 70 plus people on it. It's the same court, they've actually put Jesus to death. And they look at Peter and John, and they say, Hey, how did all this happen? And I just want you to see this, what happens right here, and I'm going to skip down to verse 13. After Peter kind of looks at him and calls them to repentance, and after he absolutely kind of reams them a new one on the name of Jesus and repenting to Jesus. I want you to see Acts chapter 4:13, it says this, "When they saw the courage of Peter and John, they realized that they were unschooled and ordinary men. They were astonished. And they took note that these men had been with Jesus." Now, look, I just want you to feel this. I mean, it's one thing for us to look back in history and go, Man, these guys are just ordinary guys, we can see that. I just want you to see that even while they were living. People looked at them and went, they ain't got nothing to offer. They would never be picked even to the top five on the kickball team, right? That's what it's saying. That's all it is bringing up. Even the religious people knew these incredibly common people were living an uncommon life, because they had been touched by Jesus. I mean, the more I studied these guys this week, and last week and the weeks before, the more I got encouraged, the more I could breathe a little bit easier. Do you know why? Because Jesus was mad at them all the time. Remember, Luke, chapter nine? About a third of that chapter is Jesus just railing on them about something. Jesus being mad at them, he says, Hey, do I always have to repeat myself, you have incredibly high unbelief. You're unstable in what you're doing. You can't even do what I asked. You're not understanding what's happening. Your pride is in the way, this is all in one chapter, in Luke when Jesus is dealing with the disciples, you are intolerant, you're racially, you're just bigots, you don't even like kids, he says to them.  And who doesn't like kids? I mean, He's telling them you don't even like kids. But Jesus takes this group, just like He takes me and just like He takes you and He leads them into a relationship with Him that eventually changes the world. That eventually busts hell wide open. Eventually, Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2, that it's on the foundation of the apostles of the prophets, with Christ himself being the cornerstone that the church is built. Are you seeing the tension? The world looked at him as lowly. They looked at him as lowly. Jesus was angry at them all the time. But Jesus walks with them and they changed the world.  Have you ever thought about how it happened? You ever thought about how does a ragtag group of people like this move in a direction so strongly that a movement that absolutely 2000 years later is blowing up the world happens? I want to show you this morning, the backside of this message, I just want to show you the journey, that these disciples walked through from being ordinary to being called to be extraordinary, and here's why. I don't show you for history. All right? I show you because it's the same journey that Jesus wants you to walk on. So, I want you to chime in to this.

If you weren't into the deal on the first part, chime into this, because this is the journey that God is calling you. And he's calling me to the journey of the disciples. Number one, first step on their journey is that they were introduced to Jesus. They were introduced to Jesus.  You say Matt what does that even mean? That means there was a moment in their life that there's a guy named Jesus popped onto the scene and there was a holy curiosity of what was going on with this guy. Jesus is baptized in Luke chapter 3, the Holy Spirit descends on Him, He goes into the wilderness, right? He's being tempted. He comes out of the wilderness. And I love it, that one of the first places that Jesus goes is the synagogue that He grew up in. He teaches the synagogue; He reads the Isaiah 61 passage saying that he was the Messiah. And the people got so mad at Him, the first thing that Jesus ever preached caused them to drag Him out of the city up on a hill and they tried to kill Him. He got away. I don't know how I can just see him just kind of vanishing for a moment and appearing. I don't know how it happened, neither does anyone else. And then what does he do? He moves to the next town and He goes over to them, and He preaches in a synagogue again, He moves to another synagogue. But at this synagogue, there were some families at it. There were some families that led Him to some guys that were just curious about Him. In Luke, chapter 4:38, says this, "Jesus left the synagogue, He went to the home of Simon." Now just a little bit of a sneak peek right here, Simon becomes Peter later on. "Now, Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. So, he bent over her and rebuked the fever and it left her and she got up at once and began to wait on them."  One of coolest miracles of the whole Bible. Nobody even really knows who Jesus is at this point, they just know that He was preaching over here saying some cool stuff. And Peter was just like, Hey, my mother-in-law is sick and when your mother-in-law was sick, you better do something about it. Right? So, Peter says, Hey, come on over here and do something. Jesus bends over and heals this lady, and she gets up and bakes them some cookies. I mean, that's basically what it says, right? And they start to realize, wow, this guy is different. Something's different about this man named Jesus. They're being introduced to this guy named Jesus. And then all of a sudden, the next morning, we find Him in Luke chapter 5, sitting at Peter's boat.

Sit on the shore, there's so many people around Jesus jumps on this guy's boat. Look, He just killed his mother-in-law, so you can get in his boat, right? You can do what you want to at this point.  He jumps in his boat, and he says, Hey, push out and look at this. Luke 5:2 it says, "He saw at the water's edge, there were two boats left there by fishermen who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon and He asked Him to put out a little bit from the shore. And then He sat down, and He taught the people from the boat."  Listen, when we read this, we automatically think, oh, they're already following. They already know Jesus; they already recognize who this guy is. No, they didn't. They had this holy curiosity about Him. They had this holy curiosity about this guy that was doing miracles. And He jumped in the boat, and He said, Hey, I need your help for a minute, and they were just good people. And they'd seen what he had done. They had heard his message. And they were curious, here's my question to you this morning. Are you positioning yourself in a level of curiosity to see who Jesus is? Because that's the first step; to just say, Jesus, I don't really know where I'm at in this journey, but will you show me.  But it led to step number two, not only were they introduced to Jesus, but number two, they were called to a personal relationship with Jesus.  They were called to an intimate relationship with Jesus and it kind of happens in like two little phases. The first phase happens at this story, Luke chapter 5, check it out. It says, "Then Jesus said to Simon, don't be afraid. From now on, you will fish for people. So, they pulled up their boats on the shore, they left everything, and they followed Jesus.  The first mention of them kind of being called into this discipling role of Jesus. Here's my question to you this morning. Have you had a moment in your life that you've moved from just being introduced to who Jesus is, a head knowledge of Jesus, a historical knowledge of Jesus moved into a knowledge of now I not only know about Jesus, but I'm following Jesus? That's the difference right here, right? This is the second step on the disciple’s journey. If you haven't hit this step, then you're not a believer in Jesus. You're just casually dating. There's no commitment. You haven't had a DTR, a determine the relationship yet. I mean, you haven't come to that point where you're like, yeah, you are mine. But is He knocking at your doors or something in your soul? Even right now, that's going, you need me. That's what He did right here. There was kind of a second step that happened. And we see it in Luke chapter 6:12. It says, "One of these days, Jesus went to the mountainside to pray. He spent the night praying to God. When morning came, He called the disciples to Him," and watch what he did. "He chose the 12. This is the 12 we're talking about.  "Whom He also designated apostles, Simon, who He named Peter, his brother, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas James, the son of Alphaeus, Simon, who is called the Zealot, Judas, the son of James," it's a bad choice of his first name, because he gets a lot of bad press because of, "Judas Iscariot, who became the traitor." Here's what happened.  All of these disciples, they started following after Jesus, they met Jesus. And then all of a sudden Jesus realizes that He needs a band of brothers with Him to carry the gospel to become disciple making disciples, and he calls out the 12 and stamps them and makes them the apostles. How many people did he call them out of? I don't know, I know that it's more than many, because many had already left him after He said the hard words in the chapter before. But we're seeing right here, this principle of God calls us our response is to step into the role of a disciple. But I want you see step three, because I don't know some of you've already made those first two steps. Step three is that they were taught the principles of godly living. You see, as they walked with Jesus, what would Jesus do? He would stop, he would teach the multitudes. Right?  He would give them the message of hope of the gospel, of Jesus, He would teach all of these messages through parables. And then what did Jesus do on the backside of those parables? He would take the 12 aside after them, and what did he do with him? He's like, all right, boys let's have a little team meeting and let me explain what I was saying right there.  He was teaching them the principles. Here's my question to you, are you putting yourself in a spot where you are hearing the principles, where you're being taught the principles of Jesus, this is what moves us from being ordinary to extraordinary is when God begins to pour his principles inside of us. But then step four, check this one out. They were mentored and living the life of a servant of Jesus. They were mentored and living the life of a servant of Jesus. Now, you say, Matt, did we just talk about that on being taught? No. And let me just speak to you just pastorally for a minute.

I think this is the disconnect of the American church right here. I think that the American church does an incredibly good job of kind of being introduced to Jesus, I think the American church does an incredible job of being invited into a relationship with Jesus. And even stepping into that relationship. I think we do a great job of kind of putting ourselves to hear the principles of Jesus a lot, I'll give us that. But I think where the downfall comes, is the fact that we struggle in committing ourselves and submitting ourselves into a mentoring relationship with a person or persons that will spur us on in the Gospel personally, and that are not afraid to call us out when they're wrong and push us when we need encouragement. You see, I think this is the difference between casually dating the church and moving into a mentoring relationship with Jesus. This is the one right here, this is where Jesus was hard after them, he was constantly one step ahead of him. And when you read the Gospels, and you read about these 12, you will constantly see Jesus putting them into situations to where they didn't know what they were doing. And they would come back to Jesus and go Jesus, this didn't work. We couldn't do this. We couldn't heal this. And Jesus would constantly and graciously encouraged them, and patiently instruct them and He would lovingly correct them. And Jesus was forgiving them all the time, because they were a messed-up group of people. I love Matthew chapter 15. Matthew 15, Jesus speaks out to them in two different verses and it says, "Don't you get it? Why don't you understand?" Luke chapter 24 - look at what Jesus says to them. Jesus says to them, he's talking to the disciples, "How foolish are you?" This is Jesus talking. We think of Jesus like this mild manner, like floats around, you know, is nice to everybody. He looks at his disciples. This is mentoring sometimes, right? And He says, "How foolish are you? How slow you are to believe the prophets? What is he doing? He's mentoring these people. Let me ask you just a serious, heartfelt question. Who is in your life right now that is one step ahead of you spiritually? I'm not talking about like, cast deal that's pouring into your life, personally?  I'm not talking about this setting. This setting is great for information. But transformation happens when you're sitting in a circle with a couple people or one person going Hey, I'm struggling. Can you show me how? Who's that person? This is what takes us from ordinary to extraordinary. The disciples. I love this. They were lacking in understanding they were lacking in faith; they were lacking in humility. They were lacking commitment. I mean, Jesus even rebuking these guys after he raises from the dad about not believing it gives us this incredible model that we're all messed up ordinary people. They just need to be on this discipling journey. I want you to see something right here. This is incredibly important. Jesus never gave up on them.  And can I just speak to you this morning and tell you this? He never gave up on you. And catch this. He never will give up on you. Never, why? Because he wants to see his glory, renounce. He wants to see you become a disciple making disciple because here's what happens. Number five, these guys were transformed by the Holy Spirit. You see, these guys had to wait till Pentecost to see this happen when the Holy Spirit came, Acts 1:8, "You'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth." But listen, we get this. When we give our life to Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes and lives in our life, if the Holy Spirit is not in our life, we're not saved. But then number six, I want you to see that this is the final step of the journey? They were sent to engage in the mission. There were sent. What does this mean? This is just the Great Commission, right? Go therefore, into all the world, making disciples go. I want you to feel this weight. Because what started as come and be my disciples, listen, that's the starting point. changes for all of us to go and make disciples. That's the completion of the process.  You say Matt, I'm not feeling it.  Let me give you an image some of your image people, right? Check out the slide right here. This is the process we just talked about. We and the disciple is what we're called to introduce the Jesus we're placing ourselves in that position. We're called into a relationship with Jesus, when Jesus knocking on our doors going, you need me.

We're taught the godly principles of who Jesus is. We're mentored people around us are pouring into us. We're transformed every day, every day, more and more and more by the power of the Holy Spirit. And then what happens in our lives is we are absolutely sent to make disciples. And listen, this is for ordinary people. Ordinary, if you were extraordinary, I'm really happy for you. This is for us ordinary people. for us ordinary people.  You know what this means?  There's no excuse for any of us. Here's my question, as I close, that's not even a preacher trick we're closing. Where are you? In the process? Where are you? This is what I want you to do. There's next moment we're going to have a worship. I want you to ask yourself, where am I on the process? Maybe today, you need to meet the Lord and move from knowing about Him to knowing Him. Maybe today you need to submit to being taught maybe today you need to submit to being in a mentor relationship. Maybe today you're calling on Him to transform you by the Holy Spirit. Maybe today you're looking at what it means to be moving in a missional direction. I don't know. Where are you at on the process? Number one. Number two, here's the goal. What would it take this week for you to make one step? I'm not talking about completing the loop. All right? Let's make one step. Every single one of us. You know what happens when we complete this process? We start it over again. And we start it over again. We start it over again. You know what it does? It becomes who we are. It becomes how we live. It becomes second nature. And we crave the things of Christ. And we lead others to love it as well. Disciple making disciples. 

Lord Jesus today, in these next moments, Lord, touch us and push us for whatever that next step looks like for us. It's in your name. Amen. 

Let's stand and sing as we're singing. I just want to encourage you on the app, there's a next step button. Talking about some steps today. If yours doesn't follow into one of those categories on there, that's fine. We just love as a pastoral team to see what it would look like to take you to the next step this week. Let's sing together.