“The Cost and The Call of Discipleship”

I would encourage you to do the exact same thing. A man, any way that you can, any way that you can if you Bible's let's start a Genesis Chapter 12, verses one through four, Genesis Chapter 12, verses one through four. In my Bible, it has a subtitle and it says The call of Abraham or actually says The call of Abraham.

And so this is before Abraham became Abraham, the word of the Lord read as follows The Lord has said to Abraham, Go from your country, your people, your father's household, to the land. I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great and I will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you and whosoever curse you. I will curse in all the people in the earth will be blessed through you. So Abraham went, So Abraham went. Today I just want to kind of really just set the tone for where our message is going today. And I'm reminded, as I always often say, that every New Testament concept has an Old Testament precept.

The scriptures that we just read said that Abraham went that God has called Abraham to go in, that he went. Last week we went through a sermon where we began to reveal that God has called our church that this would be the year of discipleship, the year that God has called us to be more than just Christians, but He has called us to be disciples.

And as we begin to look at what discipleship is and what discipleship means to follow God, we can look at Abraham because he's the beginning of all creation through and through. Adam Good God of money. It's okay, man. I'm going to say. Moses We can look at Abraham. It began to really begin to see the journey of our faith and how Abraham began to walk out his calling in life.

Our God is called Abraham to go. And so we see here that Abraham is called by God into a relationship with God for a unique purpose. God tells Abraham just to go. Not only that, he says, You in your household, go, Abraham, you go, your household go. And then I will show you now that Abramowitz Show you, then go.

But no, I need you to walk out by faith, and then I will show you where I'm telling you to go. He says, Abraham, I want you to leave for what's familiar, Abe. I want you to leave what's comfortable. I want you to. I will show you what I want to do in your life, of your family and you.

But to do that, I need you to go see. This story is about trust. The stories about faith, the stories about walking with God, even we don't know what is next. And I'm reminded of a quote by C.L. Lewis, and he says this Most Christians don't need a new revelation. We only need it to be reminded of the old one.

Right? So Lewis, a great theologian, he says that most Christians don't need a new revelation. So I'm not going to sit here today, preach something that's new that you probably have heard before. Is this something that's going to be, tried and tested? So we as believers, we don't need a new revelation. We just need to be reminded what was old in the past.

Last week we talked about the mission of Discipleship. That was the title of my message, The mission of Discipleship. And we went to Matthew chapter 28, where you know this the Great Commission, where Jesus told us to go out and make disciples of all nations right? I want to realize that Jesus, He was just talking to regular people, just recapping what we talked about last week, like Jesus was talking to regular people.

He wasn't talking to the Pharisees or the Savages. He was talking to just people like you and I, regular old people, not pastors that missionaries, but regular old people. And last week we lift up and we begin to realize what Jesus was saying, that Jesus was asking his disciples, Will you make my agenda, my father's agenda, guys, agenda, your agenda, right?

That's what God was asking. God was asking and telling. Jesus asking the disciples, Will you make my father's agenda, your agenda today? And so when we talked about last week that, you know, the mission of discipleship is talk about the mission of discipleship is when he calls us to go, go and make disciples. And last week we talked about when he talked about go, he says just now talk about going to Africa or South America or going to different places, like going, it's just your regular journey to work.

Is it going to target a Wal-Mart, going to the grocery store, are going to go into Harris Teeter. It's just going to the places that we go every single day. That's the going. And I did a brief illustration, which I want to just kind of read, demonstrates that where you guys kind of understand what the going looks like when God tells us to go in as you're just going about your regular service and things and you see somebody that God says, you know what, that person may need some Jesus in their life, so he's going to grab this person by the hand.

Come on now, don't act like you didn't do this last week. Right? So, no, we're not matching whatever. So when God calls us to go and you encounter somebody, you begin to walk and do life with them. You get to kind of walk in, begin and see how you doing and kind of have conversations in, can I get your number later on?

Not that type of conversation, but you begin to kind of have conversations about your life and you begin to kind of exchange and, you know, your beliefs and what God is doing, what God is not doing with who you believe God is in your life. And you begin to ask some deep theological questions that we begin to kind of walk through what God is saying.

And I begin to tell you how God has transformed my life and what he's doing in my life. And even through the struggles and the challenges, you know, we're still walking through this journey of going together. And oftentimes we got to saying, are you willing to go hand in hand with somebody that may not look like you talk like Cuba, be willing to say, can you pour and invest some time to other people as you meet them in different areas of your life?

And so as we're walking together, we begin to build a relationship and you ask questions about who's this person in your life that you that you're serving, that I want to know who it is. And I begin to tell you that this person that I gave my life to, his name is Jesus Christ. He died and he rose and he's coming back and it's a free gift.

You don't have to do anything for you. Don't go knock on door. You don't have to go. So cupcakes or cookies, you know, it's a free gift, you know, And it's a gift that you don't eat, that you don't even have to pay for it. And then you begin to ask, how can I get this gift? And I begin to show this person what this gift looks like.

And then you grab that gift and you hold onto it. And it's a gift that he says is yours. Because I laid it down freely. And then I begin to walk with you and show you what it looks like to walk with other people as we walk and begin to do life together. Right. And then as we begin to make disciples, you caught the vision that disciple making is not just for the pastor or the missionaries or the worship leaders, or even the deacons or the elders that God has called you to actually disciple somebody for yourself.

So what I need you to do because we walked out together and I need you to go disciple someone else. And so what God is calling me to do is to continue to disciple people just because I'm kind of just gun shy. I like to disciple people who look like me just because that's just what is. And your brother and I need to come here because it's comfortable.

It's comfortable for me to walk with somebody who looks like me and kind of talks like me and maybe live a shorter to me. But it's all good. It's just it's all. And so we get to do life together and we get to kind of talk about, you know, the cowboys, how they sitting on the bench this season and, you know, yeah, I'm getting I'm gonna get a couple of emails off of that one.

Yeah. But if y'all don't know, this is still a nation in this house. They may All right. Not really, but it's okay. So to begin to kind of walk and do life together, we kind of talk through things and we begin to see what God is doing. Your life. Maybe you're asking the same question like there's this burning desire in my life that I can really begin to understand what it is.

But there's something that's in me that I don't know what it is, but I just can't put pen and paper to. Or there's that feeling when I come into the church or with other holy and sanctified people who's been far baptized, speaking in tongues, you know, whatever that may be for you. But you want that, you want that same desire.

And then we walk through the same process where we get to do life together and we we're asking questions and we're breaking bread and we're fellowship and we're going over each other houses and we, you know, we're just kick it around. It's just, you know, we just just live a life together. We're going out to salsa readings and eating tacos and all of that great stuff, right?

Yeah. No, it's not this. So it's actually discipleship. So we come before you. So what is that now? You've caught what I've been pouring into because you're ready to receive it. Now you know what discipleship looks like. And so you say, You know what, Ryan? I think I'm ready to go make a disciple myself because that's what God has called us to.

That's the whole Matthew 28. And then as Felicia is walking with her people and they caught the vision, and now you're going to go walk with somebody else because you you kind of kind of mentor, you walk with you and do life. And so I'm gonna go to the hardest of the hardest part of the city where they need help because they don't know what discipleship is and salsa.

Reedus A man, Alma, come over here and get them and Selma Go grab some people that I just love. Want to love again. okay. Caitlin Come on. Just because you sit in the front row, UNICEF, second row, she needs discipleship. Because if you see her, sure, it says reflect in reverse. And so we're going to just kind of talk about Jesus and how we love Jesus.

And Felicia, you're you're still disciple, and it's it's time to cut the cord and branch out and get other people. And so what we're going to do, Caleb, we're going to just continue to talk about Jesus and. No, no. Yeah, keep it going. Keep it going. And we're going to just talk about Jesus and what God is doing in your life.

And you tell me how some things you've been walking through and there's some questions because you was raised in a different type of church. You may I grew up, you know, the frozen chosen or you could have been like Catholic or, you know, Mormon, and you want to know about the theology of what Mormonism is. And I begin to kind of talk through what Mormonism is and what it is not.

And and what the scripture tells us that how God has called us to walk through the blood of Jesus Christ, that's the only way. There's no other way to the father except through the son. And so I'm giving you the gist, the basic foundation where discipleship is. And you got to know that at some point in your life that God has called you to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ.

And so you say, You know what? I got this. Like, we've been walking together, we've been going out to eat and doing different things and just hanging out. And so you've got the vision and now you're going to go grab somebody else because you know what discipleship is. And so what God is saying when he tells us to go and make disciples, he is just not saying that you have to go near far.

You have to go to South America or Africa. Like he says, No, you're near and far, even close. Could be the Wal-Marts in a few lines and the hair is teeters. And so, you know, we have to go out and just go seeking after people. And then what the beauty is, is, is that when Gar calls us to go seeking after so when it's not the people that may look like you or talk like you may be from a different nationality.

I'm in church and may be somebody from a completely different culture. So guys that, you know what? Let's do this together, even if there's a language barrier. And then he says, You know what? There's a generation of disciple makers that we don't see. I need to grab the older generation because the older generation is what is kind of really set the pace for for who I was and how I was raised.

And so I'm grabbing is older generation. They're going they said, don't pick me, don't pick me, Obama, Pick them, come on and share. There's a beauty about having an older generation with you, walking with you, doing life with you begin to pour into you begin to tell you like when I was a little child, you know, you know, they begin to, you know, just do great things and tell me how to bake cookies with flour versus the Easy Bake stuff.

Right. And so this is what God is saying, that because we are truly disciple makers. BESHEAR She got it because she she know what discipleship is. So you going to grab somebody else if you. All right. And so what I want you guys to see this as we're making disciples who make disciples, who make disciples, there's a multiplication process taking place.

There's something that God is doing different. And I love to see the beauty of what God is doing because I don't see black in black. I see Asian and Latino and white and different things. And that's what God has called us to do to go make disciples of different nations. Hey, Amen. All right, guys, let's give everybody a round of applause.

And I was just a quick recap of last week because when we look at Matthew 28, many people believe that my Matthew 28 is a calling for discipleship in a different country. And we've we've gotten it wrong over here in the States, like discipleship is a one on one. It could be a two in three. But what God is saying, like when you make my agenda, your agenda, are you willing to say and go places where you may be uncomfortable?

And what I want to impress upon our church this whole year, and it's this discipleship guide this year of discipleship, as I said last week, it's not a one year process. This is going to be a 2 to 3 year word that God has given us. So just go ahead and lock it in right now. So 2025, guess was the year discipleship times to year 2026 is going to be the year discipleship.

Q three right, for those educators out there. And so what I want to I want us to really begin to see this as we disciple and God want us to cross ethnic boundaries that when we disciple, that He want us to cross economic boundaries, that when we begin to disciple, that we have to begin to cross linguistic boundaries, language that may be uncomfortable, it may be messy, but even to the point where as I'm walking around the room like me, I'm asking myself, will I be received by this person?

Right? Because to approach somebody and say, well, you begin to walk with me, do life with me, are you willing to just kind of share your story as I share my story and I begin to share his story, right? That's what discipleship is all about.

It's about me. Share my story as you share your story. But ultimately, guess what? You want to hear his story. That's what discipleship is. As you begin to lean into the scriptures and pull it out, because there's one common denominator, it's the gospel. You may not be called to preach. You may not be called to Pastor Church. You may not be called to be a worship leader, a deacon, an elder.

But we're all called to be a spokesman of the gospel. God expects every believer to be the hands and feet of the gospel. You want us to turn to declare his grace, his mercy and his glory? Because we begin to understand that this gospel that we have is is too great and this message is too urgent, that he want us to really begin to proclaim who he is to the earth.

And I said this last week because I hit pretty hard in it, and I'll say it again, because if your response to Jesus death on the cross is only expressed by Sunday morning attendance, then you're diminishing his dead, Right? If your response to Jesus Christ, who did, who died and bled on the cross is only on a Sunday morning, attendance and not a monday afternoon steady or with a Tuesday morning devotional or a Wednesday morning devotional where you open up your Bible or your Bible and begin to get into the word of God, to begin to see who you are through the Scriptures and how God began to peel away those desires is not of

him is only seen on Sunday morning. Then his blood. I won't say that is wasted, but you're not getting the full effect of it because discipleship demands stewardship, discipleship demands stewardship. See, God desires to use your time. God desires to use your talents, and God desires to use your treasures. See, discipleship wants us to be He wants us to steward our time, our talents and our treasures.

Perry Noble said this If you're not dead, the guy's not doing right. I love Sam Perry. No. Perry said If you're not dead, God is not dead. That means that God's to have a purpose for your life. And so today, as we lift up a few passages of Scripture, Luke, Chapter nine says, This verse is 57 through 62, Luke, Chapter nine, verses 57 through 62.

As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus reply Foxes have dens and birds have nest, but the son of man has no place to lay his head. He said to another, Follow me. But he replied, Lord, first let me go and bury my father. Jesus said to him, Let the dead bury their own dead.

But you go and proclaim the Kingdom of God. Still, another said, I will follow you, Lord. But first let me go back and say goodbye to my family. Jesus replied, No one who puts his hand to the plow, looks back, is fit for the service of the Kingdom of God. So if I had to give a message to my message today, it would be the cost and the calling of discipleship.

The cost in calling of discipleship. Because we know that there's a cost in a calling of discipleship, because walking into your calling means that you have to walk out of your comfort zone. Let me say that one more time. Walking to God's calling for your life means that you may have to walk outside of your comfort zone. Was comfortable for you.

Was easy for you. Was familiar for you. Got to say, no, I'm not. That's. That's not the walk that I'm giving you. That's not the walk as we have as Christians, as we see this first guy, he says, it's Jesus. I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus response is this. He says, Boxes have holes and birds have nest, but the son of men have nowhere to lay his head.

What is Jesus saying? Do you really want to follow me? Do you really want to follow me at the cost that it may cost you? Do you know who I am and what the world has done or will do to me? Jesus. Say, are you willing to follow me? Not knowing what may happen. Are you still signing up for this?

See, discipleship is becoming more like Christ is learning how to pattern our lives after Christ, learning how to pattern our language after Christ, learning how to pattern our behaviors after Christ. See? See, this first guy did not put his feelings over his faith. Have you ever seen someone that was committed to living a life chasing after the world?

They're chasing status, they're chasing influence. Do you see one who's committed to giving a life to Christ? Jesus is asking this first guy, Do you value what I'm asking of you? See, discipleship isn't about just knowledge. Discipleship is not just about theology. Discipleship is in a loving living relationship with our Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ. To follow Jesus means that we should pattern our lives after Jesus.

Are you going to put faith over your feelings? The second guy comes up and he says, Lord, but let me first go. Let me go Bury my father first. Now begin to look at this. And I've always thought about this particular piece of passage is all about family, right? Like, you know, every time that I study this and God gave me a new revelation, I had to kind of dig a little bit deeper in this.

And God began to show me like it is about family one context, but more or less, the next person that we're talking about is more about family. But this particular guy is not about family. If you look at just the context of what this is saying, he says, Lord, let me first go bury my father. See, by first appearance about first glance, you would think that his devotion is to his family, but it's not.

Let me ask you a question. After a person dies, what happens? What is left behind? An inheritance. This particular young man, this person was more concerned about his inheritance than following Christ.

He placed his faith well. He placed his finances over his faith. God is asking us to place our faith over our finances. Don't worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow is going to take care about it. Take care of itself. Because we understand that once he buries his father, that there is an inheritance. Because you have to remember, contextually speaking, the male child would get the inheritance, not the ladies.

So he said, Let me go bury my fathers. How can we get this fat paycheck I'm about to go get right? Come on, Church, let me go get this paycheck. What he's really wanting to do is go back to his and get his father's affairs in order rather than in Jesus Christ, who gave his father the abundance that he has.

He says, You know what? I want to follow you, but let me let me get my financial situation squared. Let me get let me let me get this. Things taken care of. He was more concerned about his finances than he was about following Jesus. This third guy, as we look in Luke chapter nine, it says, Lord, I will follow you.

But let me first and go say farewell to those who are at my home. This is where we see family over faith. Now, he wanted to go back and take care of his family outside of taking care of his faith. Jesus says no one who puts their hand to a plow looks back, is fit for the kingdom. Life will always throw a situation and a circumstance that would test our devotion to Jesus Christ.

When we come into a situation, the first thing that will go that we will always want to go back and look back to what things were, the way that things used to be. He wanted to go back to what was familiar versus going back to what God was calling him to do. He said, Let me go back to what I know.

Let me go back and just make sure things are in place. So what do you do when life throws you a curveball, when you're ready and wanting to to turn back to those old things? I believe this God is asking you and I today, are you willing to let my purpose, God's purpose, higher than your pleasures? Are you willing to lift my purpose?

The Kingdom, the Word of God higher than your pleasures, The pleasures of your finances, the pleasures of your family, the pleasures of the things that you want to be comfortable in. It's easy to go back to that, but where God is calling us to walk with Him and be disciples of Him. We have to begin to lay down our pleasures for His purpose.

Let me do this. Let's. Let's look at Luke. Chapter 14. Luke. Chapter 14. If you have it, say amen. All right. Verse 25. This particular passage of Scripture is what we call the cost of discipleship. We just looked at the calling of discipleship, where we begin to look and realize that oftentimes when God is calling us in to a discipleship relationship with them, we place our family over him, we place our careers and our finances over, and we even place our feelings, the things that we feel like we are entitled to and got to say no, like your pleasures.

Don't trump my purpose or shouldn't trump my purpose. But we allow our pressures to override God's purpose in our life. So now we want to take a quick look at what the cost of discipleship is going to cost us. Verse 25 Large crowds are traveling with Jesus turned to them and he said this Let me just stop right there.

It says large crowds were following Jesus just because you are in a crowd doesn't make you a disciple just because you go to church. Don't make you a Christian Just because you are in a cloud of witnesses doesn't make you a witness. My grandmother used to tell me, You have to know that. You know that you know. And my prayer is that today that you know that you know that you know that you know that you are a believer.

That you are a Christian Christ following a believer because you can be in the masses. Yeah. And still go to hell. I'm just saying, he says and verse choices. Anyone comes to me and does not hate their father and their mother, their wife and their children, their brother and sisters, and yes, even their own life. And such a person cannot be my disciple.

And I'm like, my God and goddess. That's that's the Old Testament right there. That's that's my that's my capital. Jesus would. goodness. He's like, if you don't hate your mother, your brother, your sisters, your mama, your granny, nanny, all of them, you can't be my disciple. And then had to go back and look up the word hate in its original context.

In this context, because, you know, scripted says that we're not called to hate anyone. Right. But in this context, it says to love less. That's what he's saying. If you don't love your mother less, if you don't love your father less, if you don't love your wife, your children less, then you can't be my disciple. Despite probably the sun and the moon and the stars are rising.

Your children, booboo, or your husband or your wife. Sometimes we elevate our children and our spouses in places where God does not even desire them to be. We need to put that back in right alignment. God is saying if you love them more, then you can't be my disciple. Sometimes God will put position him in a place where make you forces you to realign your perspectives.

Right? Your love for money, your love for your your family, your love for career advancement, your love for whatever it may be. He may he may remove that out of your life to realign things properly.

Verse 27 Whosoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciples. This park right there. Why is there even crucifixion? What's the purpose of the cross? The cross is they're forced to nail the things that God is die for. The things that we struggle with. Right? The things that we transgress. The scriptures against. His love.

His his. His word against lying, cheating, stealing, gossiping, all of that. Those are the things that we nail to the cross, our struggles, our habits, our hangups. Those are the things that we hang up on the cross that we nail to the cross. And so basically what verse 27 is saying this now we should die to ourselves daily.

And to be honest, that's sometimes that's hard. Come on, write church like this and things I love to do. There's some things I wish I can go back and do, but I can't do that. I want to do that to do. Kumari Romans yelling this in the Scriptures. It's in. Romans Read it. I think it's Romans Chapter seven.

I can't do what I want to do because if I do what I do and all I have to do is just go back and read the scriptures. Suppose one of you wants to build a tower, Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost and see if you have enough money to complete it? Verse 29 For you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it.

Everyone who sees it will ridicule you saying this person begin to build and wasn't able to finish. Then it says, Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king, won't he? First sit down and consider whether he's able to win with 10,000 men opposed to what's coming up against the 20,000? What God is saying here, what the Scriptures to say that you need to count the cost too many, Too often times we don't count the cost when we do things.

One of my rows within our denomination, I'm one of I'm a multi-ethnic cavalry saying one of the things our coach and I develop coaches and pastors are walking through how to build and grow and just lead a multi-ethnic church. And I tell people like having a church of multi ethnicity, multicultural, multi-generational, multi denomination of all those multi is this it's difficult.

It's the hardest thing that I've ever done. I'm like it and it's not for everybody is not for the faint of heart but you have to count the cost. They will it will pass. Ryan I have a homogeneous church, meaning I have a church, all have one ethnic group. It could be all black or all white or Latino or all Asian cast.

And they would like, how do we begin to transition our church for one ethnic group and begin to broaden it to a multiethnic group? I said, Well, you got to count the cost. I mean, it's biblical, but are you willing to lose and lose heavily because everybody they may grinning and smile and say, this is what I know.

That's what the scripture says. That's Matthew 28. That's a great commission as one of Jesus's last period. John 1721 We you know, we know all of that, but have you truly counted the cost? Are you willing to lose people who are giving and tithing into your church? Because I can guarantee you 25% of them may go, Are you really willing to count the cost, you know, walking through this process and they begin to say this, Let me just tell you about my journey.

I said, you know, when I came on staff at a church, it was the exodus of people. When I came on staff and I'm talking about an exodus. People have had a life with them for six or seven years. I baptized their kids, went to their weddings, ate a little little cake that was vegan, right? We have vegan cake.

At least get the whip heavy whipped cream cake or whatever. But like, I'm just being fruit. Like after you've done life with people for a long time and then you thought that you know they're right to die and that you guys are family, that you're is boom comes and all of that stuff. But then you become in leadership and you are a pastor of a church, not this church, but a different church.

And there was an exodus of people, come on. And that that hurts. They're okay with you serving, Right. But they're not okay with you having authority. And so I'm like, I need you to count the cost. And then we begin to stand on the scriptures. And you talk about the scripture when you talk about immigration reform and you talk about things where God doesn't he he there's biblical justice in the Bible where we get has to begin to stand on what God has called us to call our brothers and sisters who may not look like us, talk like us, may they may not be document, but you want to do immigration reform.

So there will be an exodus of people outside your church. You have to count the cost when you begin to talk about how people who may not have the same sexual orientation as you, you may see them in heaven and people leave the church and you got to count the cost. So what the scripture is saying here, Lucas, that suppose you start a journey and if things get rough, you really counted the cost because you're losing more than you're gaining.

What do you do? You stay the course. What do you do when you're losing more than you're gaining? You stay the course unapologetically. You let the scripture speak for itself. You let the Scriptures fight your battle in the same way those who do not give up everything. Verse 33 You cannot be my disciples in the same way. Those who do not give up everything.

You cannot be my disciples. What keeps you fully from following Christ? Is it? Money is a status. Peter, James and John left their nets. Levi, the tax collector, left his business. The case gave up half his fortune to the poor, but yet one rich young ruler was not willing to give up his treasures to follow Christ. Do you guys understand that what God has given us is only a fraction of what He wants for us?

And when we give back to the church and we tie that, we sell in to the kingdom, God blesses that. For those who haven't caught on how to give monetarily to the church with your time, your talents and your treasures, I pray that you catch that revelation because you can't out give God God's math. Math better than anybody is math in the world.

Amy, we know in in Common Core math there will be math, but God's math is math All day long, over quickly. I got to pick up my sister in law. How are you doing this? Good, thank. There was some hesitation there. Did you guys see that? When I call Cash to come up front? She paused and thought about it.

When God calls you, there shouldn't be a pause and thinking there can't be if you're going to pray. But if you know his voice and he says, My child coming to me, there shouldn't be any hesitation because you have to begin to understand there's a difference in calling and coming right? We are all called, but not everyone comes right?

My sister, she she she's like, gosh, She put her down. She put her notebook down. She was taking notes as a student, but she came even in her delay, she came to see what the father wanted is not enough to be called because calling give us access to an opportunity to partner with kingdom objectives. When God calls you, it's an opportunity to partner with Him for a Kingdom appointment.

How? How would you get that? Access is not the problem Is your response? Thank you, sis. I still love you. Access is not the problem. It's our response. See, we have access to all of God's words and what his mandates and his pre his precepts is are you're calling to partner with Christ allows you and I to do kingdom work here on Earth.

It says our worship team make their way back up to the stage today we're going to close out and we're going to ask God to that. We will build our life upon him. We have access to God everywhere, every day in every season. God has called us to disrupt this city. God has called us to disrupt this nation.

And God is calling us to be disciples, meaning that we're walking with Him, that we're daily communion with him is going to have to look different. So last week we talked about the mission of discipleship. This week we talked about the calling and the cost of discipleship, the cost that that you may think may be too much for you.

I would say that is you can afford that cost because God wants to do something in you and through you. And as you begin to walk through this journey, this this year, as he begin to put things in place for discipleship and spiritual formation, I want you to begin to understand this, that God is called each and every one of us, young and old, to be disciples.

But the first prerequisite that you have to be his first. And if you're here today and you don't know that you're with Christ, crises in you, and if you were to die today, that you would go to heaven and you to come to the altar. While while the worship team is singing, just come to the altar. We want to just pray with you.

Our deacons, our elders are in place like we want to pray with you because you can be a disciple of the world all day long because you can be in the crowd of masses, but now really have Christ in you. Because tomorrow in that even this next hour is not even guarantee that you may be here. And so my prayers this as you leave this place today, that you begin to understand that God has called you more to me to be more than just a Christian.

He's called you to be a disciple of Christ. And as you do that, let's multiply more disciples that multiply more disciples. So as we stand today, I want you to know that you are enough, that you're enough. That you were created for a purpose, for plan and a God desires to walk with you daily. And so today, as we sing this song about building our life on Christ, I want you to know that that's the greatest thing that you can ever do outside of giving your life to him as a father.

Today, God, as we begin to wrap up, we ship series. Father, We just want to thank you, God, for what you're doing in the midst of this church and God what you're doing in the midst of your children. God, I pray, God that we desire to build our lives upon you, a God that we desire to place our faith over our feelings, God, that we desires, have placed our faith over our finances, that we desire God, that we place our faith over our families.

And if we have it out over to God, we lay now before you today, God, we desire to serve you in your Holy Spirit. Have your way. We thank you God and we only see Christ and we say Amen