Luke chapter 14, Luke chapter number 14,
if you don't have a Bible,
there should be one underneath the seat in front of you,
will be in Luke 14.
Luke 14, the Bible reads,
"And it came to pass as he went into the house
of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread
on the Sabbath day that they watched him.
And behold, there was a certain man before him
which had the drop seat.
And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees
saying, 'Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?'
And they held their peace.
And he took him, and healed him, and let him go,
and answered them saying, 'Which of you
shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit,
and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day?'
And they could not answer him again to these things.
And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden,
when he marked how they chose out of the chief room,
saying unto them, 'When thou art bidden of any man
to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room,
lest a more honorable man than thou be bidden of him.
And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee,
'Give this man place,' and thou begin with shame
to take the lowest room.
But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room,
that when he that bade thee cometh,
he may say unto thee, 'Friend, go up higher.'
Then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them
that sit at meet with thee.
For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abase,
and he that humbleeth himself shall be exalted.'
Then said he also to him that bade him,
when thou makest a dinner or supper,
call not thy friends, nor thy brethren,
neither thy kinsmen nor thy rich neighbors,
lest they also bid thee again,
and to recompense be made thee.
But when thou makest a feast, call the poor,
the maimed, the lame, the blind,
and thou shalt be blessed.
For they cannot recompense thee,
for thou shalt be recompensed
at the resurrection of the just.
And when one of them that sat at meet with him
heard these things, he said unto him,
Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.
Then said he unto him,
A certain man made a great supper and bade many,
and sent his servant at supper time to say to them
that were bidden come, for all things are now ready.
And they all with one consent began to make excuse.
The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground,
and I must need go and see it.
I pray thee have me excused.
And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen,
and I go to prove them.
I pray thee have me excused.
And another said, I have married a wife,
and therefore I cannot come.
So that servant came and showed his lord these things.
Then the master of the house being angry,
said to his servant, go out quickly into the streets
and lanes of the city and bring in hither the poor
and the maimed, and the halt and the blind.
And the servant said, lord, it is done as thou has commanded,
and yet there is room.
And the lord said unto the servant,
go out into highways and hedges and compel them to come in,
that my house may be filled.
For I say unto you that none of those men which were bidden
shall taste of my supper.
And there went great multitudes with him,
and he turned and said unto them,
if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother
and wife and children and brethren and sisters,
yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
And whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me
cannot be my disciple.
For which of you, intending to build a tower,
sitteth not down first and counteth the cost
whether he have sufficient to finish it?
Lest happily after he laid the foundation
is not able to finish it.
All that behold it begin to mock him,
saying this man began to build and was not able to finish.
Or what king goeth to make war against another king
sitteth not down first and consulteth whether he be able
with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him
with twenty thousand.
Or else while the other is yet a great way off,
he senteth an embassage and desireth conditions of peace.
So likewise, whosoever be of you that forsake
not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
Salt is good, but if the salt have lost its savor,
wherewith shall it be seasoned?
It is neither fit for the land nor yet for the dunghill,
but men cast it out.
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Brother Temmo, will you pray for us?
- Back to the evening service here.
As you all know, Pastor Thompson is sick,
so he asked me to fill in, so I'm filling in for him.
And you're there in Luke chapter 14.
Look at verse 25, it says,
and there went great multitudes with him,
and he turned and said unto them,
if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother
and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yay,
and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
And whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me
cannot be my disciple, and whosoever,
oh, I'm sorry, so likewise, whosoever he be of you,
that forsaketh not all that he hath,
he cannot be my disciple.
And the title of my sermon is, he cannot be my disciple.
So let's pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, I just thank you, Lord,
for this church, I thank you for the word of God,
I just pray that you would help me preach this message
that you put on my heart, and that you would fill me
with your spirit in the congregation as well,
in Jesus' name, amen.
So, this is a great chapter in the Bible
on being a disciple, and this is a sermon
that I preached in Seattle,
but pastor just kinda asked me last minute,
so, you know, it's one of those things
where I feel like you might not, in the flesh,
wanna say, "Yeah, sure, I'll preach for you,"
when he's asking, but like, I feel like,
in the heart of wanting to be a disciple,
it is something you would say yes to,
because we are called to follow the man of God
as he follows Christ, and I believe that of our pastor.
I believe that he's a man of God
that tries to follow after Christ.
So, I kinda ask myself, would I say no
if Jesus asked me to do this?
And I probably wouldn't, I probably would wanna say yes.
So, you know, hopefully I don't misread my notes
like I told you all to silence your vehicles,
and you know, nobody really said anything to me
but my wife, but it was only if you had your alarm on,
you know, I mean, I guess that still does apply,
but I meant your phone, so you could silence those now
if anyone ran outside and tried to silence their vehicle.
So, I got the idea to preach this sermon
because there was a little bit of a question being asked
that I saw online that was really asking
what should the focus of a church be?
Should it be on making disciples
or should it be on preaching the gospel
and getting people saved?
And I think it's very evidently clear in the Bible
that God would want us to focus on getting people saved.
And really, if you're making disciples,
that's what a disciple does, and we'll get to that too.
But the title being "He Cannot Be My Disciples"
because being a disciple is one of those things
where I don't know that I even put much thought
to the fact of how rare it is to actually be a disciple.
How rare it is to be willing to forsake all that you have
to like, yay, your own life.
And it says, "He cannot be my disciple."
And it's very strong language.
It really, you know, and we know just going out
and, you know, we got no salvations today.
That does happen where we'll get nobody saved
or maybe one person saved.
So we know that even just preaching the gospel,
it's a free gift, it seems easy.
It seems like people would just be lining up to say yes,
but not many people do.
So not many people get saved even.
And it's even fewer that would actually be able
to call themselves a disciple.
You know, the standard for Jesus to be a true disciple,
like a New Testament sense is somebody
who is a hearer of the word, but a doer of the word also.
Somebody who learns the word of God
and seeks to obey the word of God,
seeks to obey Christ, follow after him,
does what the Master says, seeks to be that perfect Christian
and not that they're walking on water like Jesus as we know,
but somebody that's complete,
somebody that would be just willing,
here am I Lord, send me,
somebody that is just willing to do the work.
'Cause ultimately that is what we do
out of the local church.
We go to the local church to be sent out to work.
Kind of like we go out to a job to get in a worldly,
in the world sense, to get our paycheck
and to earn the money.
You know, yeah, we could earn rewards here,
but we come to the church to be sent out
to do the work of God.
And so we are learning to be a disciple here
as long as we're taking the words in that we hear preached
and when we're going out and actually doing them.
We're going out and living it out in our life.
We are thinking about the things of God on a daily basis.
Right, the Bible says to pray without ceasing.
And I do think that's something that is attainable
because it's not something that like,
where you're just down on your hands and knees
and you're constantly just kind of running through
necessarily the whole prayer list.
Yes, should you set aside time to do that, yes.
But I think throughout the day most people do talk to God.
They're asking God things just within their head
because we're filled with the Holy Spirit
so we have God living within us.
So we do pray without ceasing 'cause that's what prayer is.
You're praying out and speaking to God.
You're asking God things, you're talking to God.
And I do believe that a lot of people, myself included,
throughout the day do feel like I am constantly running things
by God, constantly trying to bring thoughts
into subjection to Him.
Or if I have a thought that I'm like,
why did I, I'm thinking about that, Lord.
You know, God help me with that or something.
Because throughout the day, you know,
just living life can be a struggle.
So we do have to ask God and talk to God throughout the day.
But the Bible says, you know, when we preach the gospel,
it says, whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved.
And we tell people, hey, that means anybody.
That means any, it means you,
it means my soul-willing partner.
God just wants anybody to be saved, right?
But is that what it means in these verses too?
Where it says, whosoever does not bear his cross
and come after me cannot be my disciple.
Whosoever he be of you, it says,
that forsakeeth not all that he hath.
He cannot be my disciple.
So I was thinking, man, am I even a disciple?
I mean, am I willing to forsake all that I have?
It's a pretty high cost, and the Bible in this chapter
is saying that you do need to count the cost.
To be able to call yourself a disciple,
you have to be willing to count the cost.
You can't be easily shaken, right?
Whosoever does mean everybody.
It doesn't change in those verses.
And so a vision of a church should be,
if it's to multiply disciples,
but not necessarily get a bunch of people saved,
I would say that that would not be a very sincere way
to look at things if you're really looking
at what the Bible says.
And I think that we're sort of in a time right now
where there's a bit of a wet blanket
being put on soul winning.
I mean, I think that's why we wanted
to come to churches like our church,
is because we were all seeking for that church
that goes soul winning, that does the things of God,
that actually is seeking to create disciples,
'cause we had that yearning to be a disciple.
That is why I'm even in talking to people
when I first came to Sure Foundation,
and of course, what my wife and I were looking for
is we were looking for a church
that actually had disciples in it.
And it's an incredibly rare thing,
and that's why I think you'll see that the Bible's saying
that that shouldn't be the focus,
because that is something that is internal,
that you can't really give to somebody necessarily,
or you definitely can't force it on somebody.
It's something that has to be within you to want to do that,
and you have to be willing to make all those right choices,
you know, to be able to, you know,
be in that upper echelon of Christianity category,
'cause that's exactly what that is.
It's not just your normal Christian.
And God wants everybody to be saved.
He's not willing that any should perish.
So the focus on soul winning
definitely should be the priority,
because that is what's easiest to do.
That is why we don't see a lot of people that we get saved
come back into a church,
because they don't necessarily want to be a disciple.
But it is good to travel the country,
knock on random doors,
present the gospel to people
that you just end up leaving, right?
And moving on to the next town.
That's what we do.
We fill out a map
that Brother Alex gets prepared for us.
You know, once we get all that area knocked,
we move to the next area of the town that we're in, right?
It's exactly what God wants to do.
Turn to Matthew chapter four.
Matthew chapter four.
So the dictionary calls a disciple
a follower or student of a teacher, leader, or philosopher.
Look at verse 18.
It says, "And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee,
"saw two brethren, Simon called Peter,
"and Andrew's brother casting a net into the sea,
"for they were fishers, and he saith unto them,
"Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."
And they straightway left their nets and followed him.
So it sounds like they were prepared to be disciples,
right, they didn't even think about it.
They straightway left it and followed him.
But again, if a disciple, somebody who's following somebody,
that leader or teacher, then the disciple
is going to be a fisher of men very clearly in the Bible.
And again, I think we all knew that
when we started coming to churches like ours, right?
You can't say that we're not here to get people saved
and then call yourself a disciple.
We are here to get people saved as a disciple.
And yeah, we're here to develop followers of Jesus Christ,
but that is somebody that is going to go out
and be a fisher of men.
That's somebody that is going to go out
and preach the gospel.
And really, that is what God sees as most important.
'Cause really, if you do, even if you tried to say,
"Oh, my focus is on making disciples,
"not necessarily on going out
"and getting a bunch of people saved."
Well, then you are, year over year,
just by default, gonna increase your soul winning numbers.
Because if a disciple is a fisher of men,
then you're just gonna be creating more people
that are gonna go out there
and be zealous for soul winning.
But that's a tough thing to do.
It's a tough thing to get people
to consistently go out soul winning
and be zealous to do that.
Because that, again, that is something
that, you know, that fire has to be within you to do that.
And I think if you're willing to humble yourself
and follow after a man of God, you know,
that is living that out and have good people in your life,
then yes, you can be that disciple as well.
And should you disciple people?
Of course, you know, but really,
we barely have enough time in the day
to do all the things that we try to get done anyways.
You know, and so discipling the people closest to you
obviously makes the most sense within your household
or maybe a few close friends.
Because you couldn't just disciple everybody
you get saved at the door, it'd be impossible.
It wouldn't be a very fruitful venture to do that.
Because those people, I mean, how many times
have you all been told, oh yeah, I'll come to church?
I've been told a ton of times.
And did they come?
I mean, I think maybe one person ever did that said it.
But I've had tons of people say that they were going
to come to church.
Because, you know, they have to be the one
to decide to do that.
You know, you can't force that on anybody.
If you ever try to force-disciple somebody,
it just doesn't work.
It's just not going to be a good idea.
You know, my son found that out recently.
He says, OK, if I tell this, he goes a faithful word.
And he is in a situation where he needed a roommate,
because he's just like, it's getting
expensive to live out there.
I think we all know that, too.
And he wanted a roommate to kind of ease the rent.
So he was trying to-- he said, I want a Christian.
I want-- you know, he tried to post it to where, you know,
he attracted somebody that was a believer,
but it just wasn't panning out.
Nobody was taking the bait.
So he finally just got a guy that
was willing to still abide by the rules.
But then once he did that, he sort of
tried to force-disciple him.
You know, he was kept trying to preach the gospel to him.
And he was just trying to get him saved.
He invited him to church and kind of put pressure on him
to go and, you know, was really putting the clamps down on him
while he was there.
And the guy just kind of freaked out about it,
to the point where we went and visited
and he was complaining to Bobby and I,
and we just had met the guy.
Like the second Tino wasn't around, you know?
And so he realized that that's not a good idea
to try to force something on somebody
because they have to want to do it, right?
They have to want to be,
first they have to want to believe and get saved,
but they also have to want to be a disciple.
And so yeah, you have to really make sure
that you're using your time
that we have on this earth wisely.
And I think that like seeking to get people saved
is what the focus should be.
If you're still in Matthew chapter four,
look at verse 21.
It says, "And going on from thence,
he saw other two brethren,
James the son of Zebedee and John his brother,
in a ship with Zebedee their father,
mending their nets, and he called them.
And they immediately left the ship
and their father and followed him."
Again, showing that this is why they were the disciples.
They're clearly fit in that willing to forsake all,
willing to just, you know, father, mother, brother,
it doesn't matter.
They're willing to just everything let go
to give to Christ and be a disciple.
But that isn't what most people do, right?
And it says, wait, I must have put something wrong here.
Turn to Matthew chapter 19.
Yeah, most people don't really count the cost.
They don't understand what it means to be a disciple.
I think a lot of people in a church,
maybe they go consistently
and maybe they serve a little bit here or there,
would probably think that they're a disciple.
But man, it's a tough category.
It seems like the elite of the elite, really,
to actually be considered a disciple.
Matthew 19, look at verse 17.
It says, "And he said unto them,
"'Why callest thou me good?
"'There is none good but one, that is God.
"'But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.'
"He saith unto him, 'Which?'
"Jesus said, 'Thou shalt do no murder,
"'thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal,
"'thou shalt not bear false witness,
"'honor thy father and thy mother,
"'and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.'
"The young man sayeth unto him,
"'All these things have I kept from my youth up.
"'What lack I yet?'
"Jesus said unto him, 'If thou wilt be perfect,
"'go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor,
"'and thou shalt have treasure in heaven,
"'and come and follow me.'"
So he's saying, does this guy wanna be a disciple, right?
This guy, as we're gonna find out, has a lot of money,
and he tells him to give to the poor.
Now, giving to the poor,
that might not be something financially
we could do for everybody,
but what we can do is give them the gospel,
'cause that is what that chapter,
what we read was saying,
they were going out to the poor,
they were going out to the lame,
they were going out to the maimed.
They weren't necessarily trying
to find the greatest workforce there.
When Jesus is saying to go to those types of people,
it was going to the people
that probably wouldn't be a great workforce,
because God just wanted people to be saved.
But it says, if you keep reading, it says,
but when the young man heard that saying,
he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
And Jesus said unto his disciples, verily I say unto you,
that a rich man shall hardly enter
into the kingdom of heaven.
And again, I say unto you, it is easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
This is something that pastor brought up
in his sermon today.
Because when you think you have it all,
you know, and really, it's not even necessarily
somebody rich.
There can be people that aren't really super rich
that can still think they have enough,
or have enough to not necessarily want to seek after God.
And this guy said he was following the commandments, right?
But he wasn't ready to be a disciple.
And I think that there's a lot of people in churches today
that they do want to follow the commandments.
They want to try to be as best a Christian
as they possibly can be.
But they're not really ready to actually be a disciple.
Again, I mean, I think that every one of us
that has made our way into a church like this,
we did have a point in our lives where we're like,
you know what, I want to be a disciple.
We might not have said it that way,
but it was that yearning to do more.
It was that yearning to go out soul-winning.
It was that yearning to be somewhere
where people were zealous for the things of God,
not just sort of, you know,
chalking things off the list, you know.
Church is just a something you chalk off the list,
or it's a social thing or something.
You know, it should be that we have that desire.
And you know, having a goal to multiply disciples is great
because again, they're all going to be soul-winners.
Now, skipping that chapter to verse 29,
'cause this is where the rubber met the road for this guy,
I'm actually being a disciple.
'Cause it says in verse 29,
"And everyone that hath forsaken houses,
"or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother,
"or wife, or children, or lands,
"for my name's sake shall receive in hundredfold
"and shall inherit everlasting life."
Go back to Luke chapter 14 where we started,
but that's a high cost to think that you're forsaking
your house and your brethren and sisters.
And I think a lot of people have been in situations
where that has actually happened.
I've seen it happen even in my own life.
There's been lots of things that we go through
that are difficult, but you have to be willing
to count those types of costs and still stay in the fight
and not let that be something that would shake you out of it
if that is your desire.
Because again, nobody can instill that desire into you.
You can put yourself in the best position,
hang around the right type of people,
not be around people that don't want to do
the things of God, not listening to maybe
preachers or pastors that would discount
the things of God, or put a wet blanket on soul winning,
or put a wet blanket on coming to the house of God,
to church, because again, church is where
we are sent out to work.
If you don't want to work, then you probably
won't make church a priority.
That's the reality of it, because it isn't true
that everybody just gets all the same rewards
no matter what the work you do is.
That's ridiculous, and I think that's already been
proven sermon after sermon.
Pastors talked about it, and so I won't go there.
But Luke chapter 14, you look at verse 12.
It says, "Then said he also to him that bade him,
"When thou makest a dinner for a supper,
"call not thy friends nor thy brethren,
"neither thy kinsmen nor thy rich neighbors,
"lest they also bid thee again,
"and a recompense be made thee.
"But when thou makest a feast, call the poor,
"the maimed, the lame, the blind."
Again, it doesn't sound like the greatest workforce
he's looking for, right?
What he's asking them is to find the ones
that aren't necessarily gonna work
'cause he just wants people to get saved.
Turn to 2 Timothy chapter four.
And again, we have to be willing to stay the course.
I know there's always some sort of drama,
some sort of thing going on,
but the thing is, the Bible's filled with that.
That is what separates people that are willing
to be disciples or people that just really
are trying to find any sort of excuse
to not do the things of God.
And really, that's for the individual
to sort of, you know, that shouldn't be something
we look at and try to judge within people.
You just gotta focus on yourself.
But you know in your own heart,
whether you are running that race to win,
whether you're fighting the good fight,
that's what Paul said he was doing.
If anybody had a chance to complain about drama,
it would have been Paul,
but I didn't hear him complaining about it all.
He discussed some of it.
He called some of it out, but you know,
he said, hey, I've run my course.
He's running that race to win it.
And he was fighting the good fight
throughout his entire life in ministry.
Even having people leave him and forsake him,
like we see here in 2 Timothy chapter four at verse 10,
says, "For Demas hath forsaken me,
"having loved this present world."
And that's the case with a lot of people
that end up leaving church
or not putting an importance on church,
is that they actually love the world a little bit more
than they love church.
And that's just the reality of what that would be.
And it says, "And is departed unto Thessalonica,
"Cretians to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.
"Only Luke is with me.
"Take Mark and bring him with thee,
"for he is profitable to me for the ministry.
"And Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus.
"The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus,
"when thou comest, bring with thee in the books,
"but especially the parchments.
"Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil.
"The Lord reward him according to his works,
"of whom be thou aware also,
"for he hath greatly withstood our words."
And there's a lot of people that greatly
have withstood the words of even preachers within,
you know, our pastor or other good men of God,
where they're just completely contradicting
the things that they might have even believed in the past.
And it says, in verse 16, at my first answer,
"No man stood with me, but all men forsook me.
"I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge."
And that's a great attitude to take too,
that it might not be laid to their charge.
'Cause again, we should just be focusing
on ourselves anyways.
Not on any extra drama here or there, you know?
I mean, I know sometimes you can't help,
but have it shoved into your face
if you like at all get on your Facebook or whatever.
But it shouldn't be anything that you use personally
as an excuse to knock you out of what you need to do
or want to do for God.
But again, you have to wanna do that.
If it's fake, then you are probably just gonna find
an excuse to get out of the game, so to speak,
to get out of the fight, you know?
But, you know, if it is something you really wanna do,
none of that stuff should shake you.
That's what it means to be steadfast and unmovable.
Verse 17, it says, "Notwithstanding,
"the Lord stood with me."
And that's all we should be in need.
You know, we should only need,
we have a friend in Jesus, the Bible says, right?
But as long as he's standing with you,
then nobody could be against you anyways.
And it says, "And strengthened me,
"that by me the preaching might be fully known,
"and that all the Gentiles might hear.
"And I was delivered out of the mouth
"of the lion.
"And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work,
"and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom,
"to whom be glory forever and ever, amen."
And that's the way I see it too.
I see, hey, if my heart and desire
is to seek to be a disciple,
I do believe that God will deliver me
from every evil work too.
Yeah, life has been tough in certain regards,
but you know what?
God has delivered me from evil,
and I believe he will continue to do so.
And you know, and as long as God is with me,
and God is standing with me,
that is what strengthens me.
Yes, it is great to be in a church
where the people wanna serve God,
because your brothers and sisters in Christ
can really strengthen you as well.
I'm gonna read, you don't have to turn there,
but John chapter 8.31 says,
"Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him,
"if ye continue in my word,
"then are ye my disciples indeed.
"He shall know the truth
"and the truth shall make you free."
Again, like continuing in his word, right?
Being able to fight the fight
and not be shaken outside of that fight
and being able to continue
and be steadfast and unmovable.
Yeah, continuing in his word is hard,
but it says, "Then you are my disciples indeed."
That's what Jesus said.
And when you're willing to sacrifice at that level,
you won't be prone to being tossed to and fro
by every wind of doctrine or things changing
or little stupid things that wouldn't shake you,
little disagreements, you know.
Hey, Paul in those other verses I read said,
"Demis have forsaken me."
He's like, hey, let the Lord reward them
according to their works.
Let certain things not be laid to their charge.
You know, he had a good attitude about it
because there are going to be disagreements
and things like that.
But you know, hey, God's gonna handle all that.
God is, you know, it's not for us to really worry about.
You know, let us just continue to love one another,
fellowship like we had the great time of fellowship
with the food, and you know, still want to seek
and save the lost and get out and get into these towns,
going from town to town, preaching the gospel.
We don't want to be shaken from doing that, right?
We want to be able to, to continue.
And then, you know, that's how we can be good disciples.
You know, if that's what you want to be.
Now, you know, sometimes we're, you know,
we're going through seasons.
Sometimes people go through seasons where, you know,
you don't necessarily get to, you know,
do all the things that God that you want to do,
or you have a lot of kids and stuff like that.
It's always amazes me when these families go out there
with all their kids to go knock doors, but hey,
God will, I'm sure God has an extra special blessing
when you are able to do that.
But again, that's not something that you're always able to do.
It's probably a lot easier when you're not dragging,
you know, five or six or more kids around.
But you know, you still want to be in a church
that does put that as an importance, right?
You have to, you can't get to a situation where,
you know, church isn't important or that, you know,
you only go when you kind of feel like it
or when it's convenient, you know, it's just, you want to,
if you really want to be a disciple,
that will be a priority.
Because again, this is where, you know,
you're about your father's business.
Cause we have a father in heaven.
This church is, you know, it's run decently in order
for a reason because it is like the business of God.
It's like where God is setting up things for us to do.
And it is where we go to work and where you can learn
to be a disciple if you're willing to be,
put those things into practice, right?
That's why he gave those instructions
to the Jews that believed, right?
But most will not choose to be disciples, you know,
after they get saved from going to hell.
But you know, and it's the same then as it is now.
There's no new thing under the sun.
There's not gonna be a lot of people
that choose to be a disciple.
But again, that shouldn't be where anybody,
including any other preacher or pastor,
would put a wet blanket on soul winning
or sort of discount, you know,
the fact that there's churches that want to do that,
want to go out and go on missions trips.
You know, like we have the Alaska trip coming,
you know, and that is should be what the priority is, right?
Because again, this is why we, I believe,
came to churches like Sure Foundation,
like, you know, First Works,
which the name of the church alone
tells you what the priority should be, soul winning, right?
And all these things that we see happening
should just make the Bible come alive
because the Bible does talk about a great falling away.
And I think that, you know, you could say we're in that,
you know, and people are asleep at the wheel,
but like, you know, it's not just that,
sometimes there's just like pictures of that happening.
It might not necessarily be that there's a falling away
and this is that falling away
that it's talking about in the Bible,
but it is gonna happen.
And that just sort of kind of pairs things out.
It kind of gets, it separates the people
that do want to focus on the things of God
and be a disciple.
And it is a rare thing though.
That's why I said, "He cannot be my disciple,"
is the title because it's strong language
by Jesus to be using, you know,
especially when you look at what He said right before it.
What you have to be willing to do.
Turn to John chapter two.
It's kind of like, you know, you wouldn't like,
people that give money to like some lazy bum
who doesn't want to work, right?
Or they give them a sandwich or something, you know,
they don't sit there after they give them the money
and say, okay, now we're going to do a seminar
on how you can be the best possible employee
that you could be.
You know, I'm going to train you on how you can just be,
you know, you're never going to not be able to,
you know, you won't ever lose a job again
with this training, right?
And they would look at you like, no, I just want a dollar.
I just want a sandwich, right?
It'd be like us trying to force discipleship on somebody.
I'm just using that as an analogy of somebody
that just like, hey, that's not what they want to do.
Otherwise they wouldn't be standing there
just not doing anything anyway.
People we knock on their door and they're like,
ah, can you make it quick?
You know, I'm kind of playing a video game or I'm like,
you know, they don't care about the work of God necessarily,
but don't we want them to go to heaven anyway?
Of course we do.
But that's why being a disciple
would mean that you would want to be a fisher of men.
And it's why the getting somebody saved
would be by far the more important thing
that you should spend your short amount of time
that you have on this earth on.
Because our life is like a vapor.
And if God says, even in that chapter we read
that he's gonna reward us bountifully
for the things that we do, like getting people saved,
then that would still make more sense too.
I mean, you're just, it just,
all of it just makes more sense.
And you know, if you tried to force some, you know,
some bum that you gave a dollar to,
to come to your training on how to be a good employee,
they'd probably give you a dollar back.
I mean, 'cause they don't wanna work, right?
It's just like, they, or they would just make
a bunch of excuses as to why they, you know,
oh yeah, maybe come back to this corner next week,
and you know, and then they're gonna go
and find another corner, so hopefully
that you don't, you know, come back.
But look at John chapter two and verse 23,
and it is biblical to do that,
to just get people saved, right?
Don't necessarily focus on the discipleship side
until they come into a church or they're in your life.
John 2, 23, it says, "Now when he was in Jerusalem
"at the Passover, in the feast day,
"many believed in his name,
"when they saw the miracles which he did.
"But Jesus did not commit himself unto them,
"because he knew all men, and needed not
"that any should testify of man,
"for he knew what was in man."
So even Jesus, they're believing on his name,
so that's what it takes to be saved, you know?
But Jesus knew that he wasn't gonna commit himself
unto them to necessarily make them disciples right there,
because he knew what was in their heart.
You know, just like, we don't know what's in people's hearts,
so we're not supposed to judge that, but God does.
We do try to, as you get better at soul winning,
invite them to church, or answer more of their questions,
or tell them the importance of baptism.
You know, tell them about the King James Bible,
when you give them a Bible,
why we believe you should be reading that,
as opposed to the version they probably have.
And, you know, we do tell them,
get into a church like this, here is our service times,
but they have to want to do that.
They have to want to be the disciple.
You know, you're not going to be able to,
you know, teach them everything at the door,
because you are supposed to make disciples.
You are supposed to teach people all things,
but those are the people,
those are like the people that are like we were
when we wanted to come into a church like this
and hear the preaching and then go out and do it.
Turn back to Luke chapter 14, starting chapter.
I'm going to read Matthew 28, 19.
"Go ye therefore and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,
teaching them to observe all things,
whatsoever I have commanded you,
and lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world. Amen."
So again, like I said,
we do want to teach people to observe all things,
but we can't teach them that at the door.
You know, those are the things
that people have to want to do.
And it's pretty rare, it's pretty rare.
You know, just like it would be rare
for somebody to want to get off the streets
and actually take somebody up on the offer of,
"Hey, I'll get you out of this.
I'll give you the money to get you off the streets
and provide you with the training, the job training,
and get you off drugs and get you in a rehab program
and do A, B, and C."
Hey, there's tons of people that offer that
to homeless people all the time, but most people say no.
Most people say no, it's sad,
but that's the choice that they're making.
But, you know, and I'm not trying to draw that analogy
to disciples and bums and Christians and stuff like that,
but I'm just showing that picture.
It's the same sort of thing.
If you were to put all your efforts
into doing something like that,
it'd be just as much of a waste of time, honestly.
If your focus was just to say, "My goal is just to make
"as many disciples as I can."
If you can do that, great, 'cause really, again,
you'll just be making more and more fissures of men.
Your numbers from last year and soul winning
won't be down, they'll be up every year
if that was your focus, right?
It would just be by default.
In Mark two, it says, "Go ye into all the world
"and preach the gospel to every creature."
Didn't say not to go disciple every creature.
It says, "Go into all the world
"and preach the gospel to every creature."
'Cause everybody that gets saved can preach the gospel.
It's pretty easy to,
you should be able to preach the gospel
if you understood the gospel and got saved.
Now, is it hard to do?
Yeah, it is hard to do when you first start out, you know?
But you can still go as a silent partner,
but you still can get a lot more people involved
in going out and preaching the gospel,
like the Great Commission says,
than to go out and actually teach them all things
in the Bible.
'Cause most people don't even know enough
of the Bible to do that anyway.
You know, that's where we come to churches like this
and hear the preaching and then we take what we learn
and we go do what the Bible says that we should do.
That's when we have that heart to be that disciple.
Luke 14, look at verse 16, says,
"Then said he unto him, a certain man made a great supper
"and bade many and sent his servant at supper time
"to say to them that were bidden,
"come for all things are now ready.
"And they all with one consent began to make excuse.
"The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground
"and I must needs go and see it.
"I pray thee have me excused.
"Another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen
"and I go to prove them.
"I pray thee have me excused.
"Another said, I have married a wife
"and therefore I cannot come.
"So that servant came and showed his Lord these things.
"Then the master of the house being angry."
See God does get angry at us, right?
"Said to his servant, go out quickly into the streets
"and lanes of the city, bring in hither the poor
"and the maimed and the hulk and the blind.
"And the servant said, Lord, it is done.
"As thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.
"And the Lord said unto the servant,
"Go out into the highways and hedges
"and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled."
So here the Bible is making it very clear
that God's priority is to go out and bring people in, right?
It actually doubled it up on saying to bring in the poor
and the lame and the maimed, you know, again,
not bringing in the workforce type,
not bringing in necessarily the disciple,
just going out and going to the doors
and getting people saved because people, you know,
people still get saved.
People still believe the gospel when we preach it to them.
And we need people that still want to do that.
And God will send you to them, you know?
And again, though, when somebody, Lord,
you should tell them how great your church is, right?
We shouldn't just tell them, hey, you know,
you're probably at a great church, you know,
just stay there.
'Cause if they didn't know how to get saved,
they're probably not at a great church.
We should tell them they should be in a church like ours.
That's why when they get baptized,
the pastor says they're raised to walk in newness of life,
but they have to want to walk in that newness of life.
So even getting, you know, baptized,
it's not really a requirement obviously for salvation,
but you know, it is saying you want to walk
in newness of life, right?
You want to be a Christian.
You want to be a disciple is what I see that as saying.
I want to walk in newness of life.
Most people though, even in a Baptist church,
don't really understand what they're saying
if they think that they're a disciple though.
You don't have to turn them to read Romans 10, 14, 15.
It says, "How then shall they call on Him
in whom they have not believed, and how
shall they believe on Him in whom they have not heard,
and how shall they hear without a preacher,
and how shall they preach except they be sent."
And again, we're sent out of the church to preach the gospel.
And the Bible says, "As it is written,
how beautiful the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace
and bring glad tidings of good things."
So you know, turn to John chapter 14.
It's sad that these pastors,
they have to deal with so much backstabbing.
You know, you got pastors that used to be our friend
that now say that they're just trying not to hate you.
I mean, putting wet blankets on, soul winning.
It's a tough thing to be a pastor, right?
I don't know, that's why it's a pretty admirable calling.
But man, I could see why not that many people do it.
I told you to go to John chapter 14, I meant to read John 13, 34.
It says, "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you,
that ye also love one another.
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have loved one to another."
So that's a pretty big thing too, that showing that you love your brethren is how God's going
to know his disciples too.
And where are you going to show that?
I mean, more than likely, you're showing that a lot at church, right?
He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and he that loveth
me shall be loved of my father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself in him.
Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself
unto us, and not unto the world?
Jesus answered and said unto him, oh, I'm sorry, that is, we're in 14, I meant to tell
you to, that was, we're at verse 23 at this point now, because I told you to turn there.
Jesus answered and said unto him, if a man love me, he will keep my words, and my father
will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him.
He that loveth me not, keepeth not my sayings, and the word which ye hear is not mine, but
the Father's which sent me.
These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall
teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said
unto you.
Skip to chapter 15.
So here, we have the benefit of having the Holy Ghost within us, but we still have to
want to read our Bible.
We still have to be willing to be taught, but to be a disciple means you're taking those
things also, where God puts it into remembrance to you.
You're going out and still doing what the Bible tells you to do, and one of the biggest
things the Bible just continuously is telling us to do is go out and preach the gospel.
I told you to skip to 15, verse 8 says, "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much
fruit.
So shall ye be my disciples."
So bearing much fruit is how you're a disciple of God too, and what does much mean?
In Mark 420 it mentions that, it says, "And these are they which are sown on good ground,
such as hear the word and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty,
and some a hundred."
It sounds to me that if you're a good disciple then you're going to be counting some numbers.
That's why we count the numbers here, we say, "Hey, how many got saved out soul winning?"
Because God cares about the numbers too, or He wouldn't be telling you, giving you an
example of what it means to bear much fruit.
He's telling you, "Hey, nothing wrong with tracking numbers.
It gives glory to God.
We're not trying to give glory to ourselves by those things.
At least you shouldn't be."
We all know people that have done that, where they have these crazy numbers and they probably
really weren't getting people saved, but hey, it's biblical though to bring forth fruit
and show those numbers.
It tells you 30-fold, 60-hundred.
It's good to set goals like that.
It is good to keep track of your soul winning.
It's good to see maybe you have some holes.
Maybe you have some things that you need to study more in the Bible.
Maybe you need to have some answers for the area that you live in.
And if it's high Muslim, high Jehovah's Witness or Mormon population, you know, but most people
aren't taking the time to do that.
And so therefore then they start putting a wet blanket on soul winning because of it.
You want to stay away from that type of crowd because not many people are disciples.
But you know, even somebody that's working part time, I'll just call it, can still greatly
contribute to a lot of people getting saved, you know.
It's tough to fit in consistently the soul winning with all the things that we are required
to do in our life, but you know, it is what God wants to focus, what the focus should
be.
And I think it's like overwhelmingly clear in the Bible.
Turn to Luke chapter 6, 2 Corinthians I'll read, verse 5, 18 to 20 says, "And all things
are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the
ministry of reconciliation."
So again, it's saying that God wants us to reconcile people to himself, and how do we
do that?
And you get them saved, you know, and then from then on, they can decide if they want
to be his disciple, if they want to be closer to God, if they want to be called a friend
of God.
That's something that they have to have the desire to do, and then you can be a part of
that with somebody that does, but a lot of times that's just within your local church
as well.
But there will be a lot of people, as we see in Luke chapter 6, verse 46, that says, "Why
call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?"
So God does want us to do the things that he says, "Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth
my sayings, and doeth them," I will show you whom he is like, "He is like a man which built
a house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock.
And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not
shake it, for it was founded upon a rock.
But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built a house
upon the earth, against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell.
And the ruin of that house was great.
So here you have a contrast of two people, two people that are still, they're both probably
saying, Lord, Lord, but one has their foundation on, like we're sure foundation, right?
They have their foundation on the rock, they're looking at Christ, they're looking at him
as the example, they want to be a Christian, they want to be a disciple.
And that person, his house is on a rock to the point where when floods arise, like they
did all throughout the state and probably still are right now, you know, they're going
to be safe.
God is going to protect them when the storms of life are beating on them, you know, it's
the stream beat vehemently upon that house and the Bible says it could not shake it,
you know, because it was founded upon a rock.
But when you don't hear, when you're somebody that, you know, you hear the word and you
don't do it, it says then doeth not, then you're going to be somebody whose wound might
be great.
You know, and can't blame God for that because we all get to decide if that's what we want
to do or not.
We all get to make the decision of what we're going to place as the priority.
Turn to John chapter 6.
To me, the safer bet is to put your foundation on the rock, right?
You don't want to be on the sifting sands or, you know, you want to dig deep.
But again, it doesn't mean you're not going to have those storms because I mean, both
of these two individuals are going through the same storm where there's a flood arising.
There's, you know, the streams being beating vehemently against the house.
But one was not shaken.
One didn't use that as a reason to make an excuse, you know, oh, I got to go go do this
or I got to go do that.
No.
And you know, eventually, I what I believe is that if God has put it on your heart to
be that type of an individual that does want to be a disciple, and then you just buck against
that or you start to find excuses or you start to just, you know, lend your ear to somebody
who is preaching things that are putting a wet blanket on soul when you're something
like that.
You know, these are the times when you could be tempting God to where you put yourself
in a position where that ruin could be great because God is very long suffering and merciful.
But like, he also knows when he has somebody that can be a great contributor to the kingdom
of God.
And I do see that we have churches that do have a lot of people that have that heart
to be a great contributor to the kingdom of God because they want to, because they love
God, because they do want to be a disciple.
Not because they want to look good for other people or just try to have the praise of men.
They want to give the glory to God who deserves it.
God deserves all the glory, but it is in their heart to do that.
And it's those people like, you know, like Jonah, you know, Jonah didn't necessarily
want to do it, you know, and Jonah could have had a tough life because of it too.
He was, you know, he had to, he had to deal with some things too, I'm sure, because he
didn't really want to go, but he still did go.
We don't know exactly how the story ended for Jonah, but you know, he definitely was
kicking and screaming all the while through.
But the people that do have that heart, the people that I know, I've, I've ran into people
in our church for a long time now, some of them are gone now, but some of them showed
that same desire and you wonder did they just have like something they, you know, they got,
they got taken up by the fact that they did have a desire to be a disciple, but they really
hadn't counted the costs.
They really didn't count the cost and realize how difficult it actually can be having to
deal with drama, having to deal with different things coming up or contending for the faith.
It can be, it can wear on you.
It could be the storms of life that you would rather not be partaking in.
But you know what, as long as you're built on a foundation, God is always going to protect
you.
He's always going to get you out of it.
And He wants you to keep focused and look at the big picture of it.
John chapter 6, look at verse 60, it says, "Many therefore of His disciples, when they
had heard this, said, 'This is an hard saying, who can hear it?'"
And when Jesus knew in Himself what His disciples murmured at it, He said unto them, "Does
this offend you?"
You know, and this is when Jesus had just given them a hard truth that they didn't really
understand.
But I just like how Jesus gives them a hard truth or a hard thing to hear.
He's like, "Does this offend you?"
But that's true today, too, because sometimes, you know, the real meat of the Word can separate
people that aren't willing to really stick it out, because they are looking to be offended.
They're looking to have any sort of reason to get them knocked off the Course.
You know, any reason to justify really what would be more of a spiritual laziness.
"Does this offend you?"
Good.
We should be offended every now and then.
There should be things that we hear that offend us.
Verse 66, it says, "From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more
with him.
Then said Jesus unto the twelve, 'Will ye also go away?'"
You know, I'm telling you, people started out in the new IFB really on fire when I was
first coming to Sure Foundation, but you know, people fizzle out because they didn't count
the cost.
They didn't run the race to win, right?
They didn't run the race to be steadfast.
And you know, if it happened in Jesus' time when he was, they were seeing the miracles
and they were walking with him and he says some hard truths to them and they get offended
and they walk no more with him, I mean, of course it's going to happen to men of God
in our day and age.
This was Jesus.
This was God in the flesh and they'd walk no more with him.
I mean, you'd think, how could that even happen?
How was that even possible?
God is here on the earth and they're like, I can't hang with that because they didn't
count the cost because it's very difficult to be a disciple.
So Jesus said, if you're not willing to do, forsake everything that you have, you cannot
be my disciple.
Turn to Luke chapter nine, you know, a lot of people want to check off things off their
bucket list.
You know, I wanted to run a marathon, but I don't ever want to run one again.
You know, and I think sometimes people are part of something like this because they want
to feel what it feels like, but then once they do, okay, I did that.
Now let me just kind of go to like Lazy Bee Baptist and, you know, be a part of that and
not, you know, have a difficult life and deal with all this drama and all these others,
these controversies and these contendings of the faith.
But you know, hey, don't hate on people that want to be a disciple then.
You know, don't try to take down churches that want to do good things for God.
That doesn't make any sense.
Don't try to, you know, bite and devour one another and stab people in the back.
I mean, I just don't understand how people can make their ministry not a ministry of
reconciliation but a ministry of like creating chaos and dissension and, you know, getting
people out of the cause.
I mean, it makes no sense.
Luke chapter 9 verse 57 says, "And it came to pass that as they went in the way, a certain
man said unto them, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.
And Jesus said unto them, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son
of man hath not where to lay his head."
He's like, "Are you sure you want to do this?"
And he said unto another, "Follow me."
But he said, "Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father."
Jesus said unto him, "Let the dead bury their dead, but go thou, and preach the kingdom
of God."
And another also said, "Lord, I will follow thee, but let me first go bid them farewell,
which are at home at my house."
And Jesus said unto him, "No man having put his hand to the plow, and then looking back,
is fit for the kingdom of God."
And that's how we have to be.
We have to be not willing to look back, right?
But you know, to say that it wouldn't be what God wants to get people saved as opposed to
making disciples and, you know, just not leaving them at the door and stuff like that, just
wouldn't be, it just can't be sincere because the Bible just, it talks about this a lot,
this kind of thing.
Acts chapter 8, I'll just read that, says, you all know the story.
And Philip said, "If thou believest with all thine heart," so he got saved, "thou mayest,"
he's talking about getting baptized, "and he answered and said, 'I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God.'
And he commanded the chariot to stand still, and they went down bolt into the water, both
Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized them.
And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip,
that the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing.
And Philip was found at Azotus, and passing through, he preached in all the cities till
they came to Caesarea.
So it sounds exactly like what I've heard say is not a good idea.
It's like you get somebody saved, you leave them at the door, and you go to the next town.
It's exactly what the Spirit of the Lord had him do.
He just had him get him saved, and then he saw him no more.
So we're not holier than God, and the Spirit of God said that was a good thing.
Get this man saved.
I know that this guy is going to get saved.
Sometimes we have these divine appointments where we're like, it's amazing when you talk
to somebody that they're like, I can't believe you're at my door.
And I've had that happen so many times, too many times to count, where God just sets something
up like this eunuch here, where God just wants you to get there, get that person saved.
And do you try to get him to church?
Of course you do.
But I haven't seen some of these people that I had an experience just like this almost.
Not exactly like this.
I didn't get carried away by the Holy Ghost, but I did have them just shocked that I was
there.
I was just talking about this, and I know you've all had the same thing happen.
Turn to Matthew chapter 12.
So we have these moments, and if the Spirit of the Lord was willing to catch them away
where He saw them no more, God's okay with us not sitting there and making them a disciple.
Because that eunuch has to decide to be that disciple, and then He's going to go find
them a good church just like we did, and He's going to read His Bible, He's going to be
disciplined to the things of God, He's not going to take His good church for granted.
Because that's how, I think that's what happens, it's like we find these good churches and
then all of a sudden you realize, "Oh, they're human beings too, they have faults, they don't
say everything perfect, they tell you to silence your vehicle, they make mistakes, they do
things wrong sometimes."
But that shouldn't shake you, that's actually a pretty mild thing.
That's not really a storm, so to speak, of life that you're having to deal with.
We have to be able to be not easily shaken.
God's looking for, you know, He is looking for like that special forces type of people.
And we're the ones that really, you know, we're the ones that are going to be able to
stick it through when the great tribulation actually happens.
But if you aren't training to be that, you won't.
You know, if you're not keeping the things of God as the utmost of priority and importance,
you probably aren't going to be the one to get saved through those situations to where
you're able to be protected by God and used by God because He knew even when things were
a lot easier, you still were steadfast.
Even when maybe the trials were difficult but not on that type of level, you were able
to handle them no problem.
It wasn't even a question.
You know your disciple, they used to have that, how do you know you're a redneck?
And they'd say some things like, well how do you know you're a disciple?
Well probably nobody in your house has to say are we going to church today?
Because the answer's always yes.
If it's ever that then you're probably not a disciple if somebody ever has to ask that
in your house.
And obviously I'm talking about being sick and things like that.
Or if they don't ask at all because they know you're not going, then you're definitely
not a disciple, right?
Matthew chapter 12, look at verse 46, it says, "While he yet talked to the people, behold
his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him.
Then one said unto him, 'Behold thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring
to speak with thee.'
But he answered and said unto him and told him, 'Who is my brother and who is my brethren?'
And he stretched forth his hand towards his disciples and said, 'Behold my mother and
my brethren, for whosoever shall do the will of my father which is in heaven, the same
as my brother and sister and mother.'"
So God is putting a clear priority and importance on a disciple, but again, there's not many
people that are actually going to be a disciple.
It's something that we should strive to be, and it's something that we should pray for
the people that are, and we should love the brethren because that's how God says He knows
that other people know that you're His disciples, but nothing should ever be done to put a wet
blanket on soul winning.
It seems to be something again that is happening way too often right now, but we have to be
able to stay the course and you know we have to be able to be steadfast and unmovable.
If you want to be a disciple, all I'll say is it's a difficult thing to be asking to
do and you have to really make sure that you count the costs.
So let's pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, I just thank you Lord for the word of God and thank you for the
people of our church too.
Pray that you would bless them and their families and their lives and help them Lord if they
want to be a disciple.
I pray that you would always help and protect them and help them to be able to live that
out in their lives Lord and get past any storms of life Lord.
We just love you and pray this in Jesus name, amen.