Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Amazing. You can take a seat, guys. Thank you.
[00:00:05] I just checked with Joel that, that coming back to us would be a million, then. A million.
[00:00:11] My maths is good, I promise. How fun is that? I can't wait to see what God does as we follow his word.
[00:00:19] This morning we are going to be just taking a short break from we've been doing the ways of God, we've been doing the Ten Commandments, and, and we're gonna do that again. So don't worry, we're not gonna leave you halfway through. But this morning I just wanna pause for a minute because we'd love to talk this morning about discipleship, what it looks like to be a disciple of Jesus. And I think it's funny actually coming off from the dedications because those are promises about raising our children. And actually raising disciples is often very similar. It's no easy feat and we need the Holy Spirit to guide us. But this morning I want to start by talking about how, what it looks like for us to be a disciple of Jesus before we make disciples. We are disciples of the Lord. We know from the Gospels that Jesus called 12 young lads to come and follow him, to come and be his disciples. And that was quite common in that kind of tradition. He was a rabbi. And young, young men would leave their education, would leave their trade, and they would go into this education system of the Torah and become disciples.
[00:01:25] And you know, for each of us, when, when the Lord first calls us, he says, come, follow us. That's when we first given our lives to Jesus. But I believe as we journey with the Lord every day, we are being discipled by Him. We lean in, we hear his voice, we're guided by him. And we say, yes and amen to all that he's got for us. That's the invitation for us this morning. And so, yes, that one time invitation from Jesus is, come, follow me. And if you've never given your life to Jesus, then there's going to be an opportunity for you to do that today.
[00:01:59] But many of us have given our lives to Jesus, but He still calls us, come, follow me. Every day, every day. He wants us to lean in and hear his voice.
[00:02:10] But I'd love to start by reading in Luke 5 the first kind of story where Jesus calls His first disciples. So if you have a Bible, you can turn to Luke chapter five. And in this house, we stand to honor the word of the Lord. So would you like to stand this morning?
[00:02:29] His word is above my word. We're going to read this Luke, chapter five. One Day, as Jesus was standing by the lake of Gennesaret with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, he saw at the water's edge two boats left there by the fishermen who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch.
[00:03:02] Simon answered, master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.
[00:03:12] When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
[00:03:24] When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus knees and said, go away from me, Lord. I'm a sinful man. For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken. And so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners.
[00:03:40] Then Jesus said to Simon, don't be afraid. From now on, you will catch men. So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything, and followed him.
[00:03:50] Amen. You can take a seat.
[00:03:55] The first thing I notice when I read this story is that Simon actually let Jesus in his boat to begin with. You know, you can imagine Jesus was at the side of the lake preaching, and he realizes that, you know, the crowd's pressing in, and he's probably getting. And his feet were in the water. And there's this knowing look to Simon like, mate, can I get in your boat? Maybe Can I preach from your boat? And there's this openness to Simon to say, yeah, Jesus. Like, use my. Use my boat. I let you in my boat. And often it starts with that. I don't know if you remember when you first gave your life to Jesus, but it starts with that openness. Okay, God, if you're real, I'll let you in. And then Simon's faith led to this supernatural encounter with Jesus. You know, Simon is at the end of himself. He's been up all night fishing. He hasn't caught anything. He's tired, he's frustrated. He's used all of his resources.
[00:04:51] And yet this guy who's been this rabbi who's been teaching in his boat suddenly says, let's go out again. I don't know how you would feel. I'd be like, I've tried all night. Like I'm frustrated. I've been out there. This is my, this is my skin skill. You know, Jesus was a carpenter, it wasn't his trade. But Simon there is the expert. He's got the experience, he's got the resources, he's got the men, he's got the boat.
[00:05:16] He knows what he's doing. And yet in that moment, he has this mustard seed of faith to look at Jesus and go, okay, because you say so, I'll do it. I've tried everything else.
[00:05:27] But because you say so, because you invite me, I'll say yes. And then there's this miraculous catch of fish where they catch so much that the boats even begin to sink. And it doesn't even matter anymore because it's not about the fish anymore. It's about the Messiah in his boat.
[00:05:43] And it's a beautiful story and illustration of how we come to Jesus often. You know, we might have this mustard seed of faith, we might have tried a million other things. And we come and we turn up to Jesus tired and exhausted and nothing's working out. And we say, okay, I've let you in my boat, I'll do as you say. And as we do that, we watch the miracle take place in our life. How many of us have had an encounter like that? It's a beautiful invitation that the Lord invites us to. You know, we've got.
[00:06:12] I heard this story on Thursday at student church. One of our young leaders here, she's amazing. She works at a books bookshop and she was just telling us, I didn't know this happened, but she said lots of people come into the bookshop but, and they ask for self help books. Like, could you show me where the self help books are? I had no idea that happened. I mean, obviously people are really desperate to go into a bookshop and ask for self help. But they, but they go over to her and she says, well actually there's only really one book that helps you.
[00:06:43] How cool is that? And she leads them to the Bible section and she gives away. Well, she's not allowed to give away. She tells them to buy a Bible.
[00:06:52] How amazing is that? And anyway, a colleague of hers who didn't know Jesus, she was kind of watching this girl take people to the Bibles and she starts asking questions, well, why are you showing them the Bible? What does it mean to be a Christian? Oh, you believe in Jesus? Well, what does he say? What can he do for me and this girl? Later on we find out that Actually, she had tried everything. She struggled with anxiety.
[00:07:15] She felt this feeling of emptiness and isolation. She tried medication and therapy, but nothing would shift this feeling of heaviness.
[00:07:26] And so she tried everything else, just like Simon. But in that moment, there was an invitation to church.
[00:07:34] And she comes one Sunday, her first Sunday, this mustard seed of faith. Well, I've tried it my way.
[00:07:40] What about you, Jesus? And in the moment, in this. In this beautiful moment, the Lord encounters her, lifts off all of the heaviness and replaces it with this incredible joy. And it's like her face is shocking, shining, and she's so happy, and she doesn't know why. And then she nudges her friend and says, can you come down the front with me? I need to. I need to give my life to this Jesus. How amazing is that? And her life is completely different.
[00:08:05] I mean, she shared her. She got baptized a few weeks ago, and she shared her testimony. It was just amazing to see what that one step of faith looked like, the miracles that are happening in her life. She said to me, I don't even like horror movies anymore. I was like, me neither. I never like them. But she's like, she's changing.
[00:08:26] Jesus just needs this mustard seed of faith. There must be something more. Maybe you're here this morning. You've tried every other way but let the Messiah into your boat and see what he can do.
[00:08:36] The Lord is after you.
[00:08:38] And Simon, like the girl in this story, realizes that after this miraculous encounter, who he's in the presence of, and he falls to his knees because he realizes that this is the Lord, he. And two things happen. Firstly, he says, you're the Lord, and then he repents of his sin. His sin, get away from me. I'm a sinner. There's this repentance, there's this understanding that he's in front of a holy God. And in that moment, he repents of his sin, and he makes Jesus his Lord.
[00:09:06] So he's a convert in that moment. Simon is a convert.
[00:09:10] Now, I want to say this morning, converts are good, but disciples are better.
[00:09:16] We don't want it to stop there. We want to be transformed and walk with him. So it's at this point that Jesus calls Simon to a life way beyond one encounter. You might have had lots of encounters, but he's calling you to a life way bigger than one encounter.
[00:09:32] And it was very common in those times to have rabbis and disciples, like I said. But. But Jesus does call each of us to be his disciples. Not just to have that one encounter, but to actually lean in and follow him.
[00:09:46] So when Jesus calls Simon, it's not uncommon, but Simon responds, I'll leave everything and I'll follow you.
[00:09:55] How does that apply today? You know, we don't have that kind of Jewish educational system where we follow a rabbi. We don't leave our education and all of that, but we are invited to follow him where our lives are totally entwined with his, where we listen to His Word and we're transformed into his image. So what does it look like to be his disciple? Firstly, I've got three things. Firstly, disciples leave everything behind.
[00:10:24] No, we read in this story that Simon got up and left everything to follow Jesus.
[00:10:31] And it's important to clarify that, you know, this doesn't mean for us in this day and age to just leave our jobs and get in a room and just soak with the law 24 7. Okay? That's not what this is teaching us.
[00:10:43] Jesus was a carpenter. The disciples still had a trade and it was forbidden to charge a fee to teach the Torah. So actually, most of the disciples and the rabbis still had a trade alongside their discipling.
[00:10:54] But the point is, they still left any other dependents except the being dependent on Jesus.
[00:11:01] Now, their. Their life wasn't built on the rock of career or success or money or family. Now their life was built on the rock of Jesus Christ.
[00:11:11] They left everything. They left the old life, you know, the BC life. Have you heard it been said like that? The before Christ life, You know, my BC life was me depending on me. It was a life of sin. My BC life was being in two minds where my own opinion, my own thoughts still trumped what the Lord said. You know, I take what he'd said and I'd weigh it and decide, does it fit into my life or does it not? But we're to leave that behind because we're dead in the water at baptism. And when we rose again, we rose with Christ and now we live with him as our Lord. Make sense? Yeah. So what he says goes. It's, yes, sir.
[00:11:50] The call of Jesus requires us to leave it all behind. There's a beautiful lady in our church who is a Muslim convert and she was just talking today. She's known Jesus for a number of months now, and she was just talking the other day about how she feels like God has spoken to her about sharing her faith with her family, which is a big deal, right?
[00:12:11] And to do that, she would need to move out of her accommodation. You know, she'd need to find somewhere in Leicester. She'd need to rent a room. She wouldn't be getting free meals and free accommodation anymore. She would be going into the risk and the uncertainty of how her family are going to respond.
[00:12:26] We've just got a disciple, not a convert.
[00:12:29] She's not just converted to Jesus to given her life to Him. She's actually said, I'll leave it all behind and I'll follow Him. No matter what the cost, no matter what the risk, he is still the Lord of my life.
[00:12:42] That's what it looks like to be a disciple, laying our lives down, leaving the clutter behind us.
[00:12:50] Okay, can you just promise me that you're not going to judge me?
[00:12:53] Thanks, everyone.
[00:12:56] I trust you.
[00:12:57] Just. I wanted to share a really simple, funny story of me. Just the other. The other week, I started watching a Netflix program.
[00:13:07] It wasn't a documentary, it was like a whatever series. And I was quite enjoying it. There's nothing really that wrong with it. But I was in the worship one Sunday, and I don't think it was a Sunday show. I was at home. But I just felt like the whisper of the Lord said, we're not going to watch that anymore. And I was like, I don't think. I don't think that there's anything wrong with it. It's CIA. It's like, you know, police and stuff, like, going and finding who the terrorist is and, you know, like, like war and like, I love action films. So all of that is right on my street. And I just was like, nah, I don't think that that is the Lord. Anyway, episode six, guys, it hit hard.
[00:13:46] There was like, it went down. I'm not going to tell you what happened, but suddenly I was in my lounge and the conviction of the Lord was on me. And I looked to this. Have you ever looked to the side and realized, have you seen Jesus's face, like, kind of smiling like, I told you so? Has the Lord ever looked at you like that?
[00:14:06] Come on. It's not just me.
[00:14:09] I looked to the side. No one was even in the room. But I looked to the side and it was like he smiled at me. Like in this.
[00:14:15] Never do that again and I told you so, but it's also going to be okay.
[00:14:19] Like, that conviction. And I knew in that moment. By the way, I haven't watched the rest of it. There's only eight, but I didn't watch seven and eight just to save some grace there.
[00:14:28] But gosh, we just have to be so quick at dropping things, don't we?
[00:14:33] We don't weigh it all up. For days on end and need a 50 minute prophetic word about something. If he says it's yes, sir, because you say so, I'll let down my nets again and I'll trust you, God, I'll be a disciple. I'll leave everything behind. My opinion, my need for attention, my need for success, what my family think of me, whatever it is, we leave it all behind and we live for an audience of one. That's what it looks like to be a disciple of Jesus. So firstly, we leave everything behind. We let him in the driver's seat. Secondly, Jesus, no disciples of Jesus, know him and copy him. You know, the disciples would have physically followed Jesus everywhere he went.
[00:15:11] Like, they would have been like their lives were entwined together, living together, eating together, going on all the ministry trips together. They would have heard what he said, not just publicly, but privately, you know, they would have heard what Jesus said round the table. I always think about the scene, you know, when Jesus is taken out to the edge of the town to be stoned by the religious leaders and then he escapes. Like, what did he say over dinner that night? Was he frustrated? Was he annoyed? Did he slander them? Did he pray for them?
[00:15:42] What did he say about his mother in the secret place when she made him turn water into wine? And he was like, it's not my time. Like, how did he respond when he counted the money and he saw Judas counting the money and he knew that someone was going missing? How did he respond?
[00:16:01] You know, we get the beautiful privilege of being so close to him, of walking in intimacy with him, so that when we see him and know him, we copy what he does. It's that simple. We're being transformed by him.
[00:16:15] See, as Christians, we are little Christs.
[00:16:19] It was used as a derogatory term when the disciples were first in the early church, when they first followed Jesus, the people would be like, oh, you're little Christ. You're trying to be like little Jesus is. And they were like, yes, we are, we are mini Christs. We, we want to adore him, we want to honor him him, and we want to imitate him. We'll take the name Christians and that's how we, how we want to live our lives, being lifelong learners in his presence.
[00:16:47] Have you noticed, parents, how, how scary it is when your children start to copy you Again, just me, I, I was told by the midwife, make sure you smile at your baby, because that's how they learn to smile. And I was, come on, it's a natural response to smile, isn't it like, but apparently not. When you smile at your baby, they learn to smile back. You teach them.
[00:17:13] I was picking up Papa one day from school. She's my four year old daughter and she put her hand on her hip like this. She frowned and she went, seriously?
[00:17:25] I was in shock. I went home to Joel and I was like, you never believe what Harper did.
[00:17:31] Where did she get that from?
[00:17:33] And he just looked at me like, that's all you, babe.
[00:17:40] I did. I've never used an American accent, I'm sure. Anyway, I didn't know I frowned either. But she, she copies exactly what we do.
[00:17:49] Now, we've realized really quickly that it's our job to model loving Jesus.
[00:17:54] And some of this stuff is caught, not taught.
[00:17:57] Some of the things we do, we pray at least five times a day, three times for the meals that we have, you know, or we pray on the way to school and we always pray before bed. We always lay our hands on our children before bed.
[00:18:10] And you might say, well, that's a bit religious, Rach. No, we're trying to lean into the habit of talking to Jesus, that it's really normal that whenever we eat, we're thankful. You know, whenever we're going to school, we pray for certain things. Then we thank him at the end of the day because he did those things that we asked for.
[00:18:25] We're trying to get in the habit of talking to Jesus. We memorize scripture because we're teaching them the importance of being armed in the nighttime when they have nightmares, or in the school playground and they can go, Psalm 23, I lack nothing.
[00:18:39] When the Lord is my shepherd.
[00:18:41] They're being armed with these scriptures. We're thankful. Every night we have three things we're thankful for.
[00:18:48] Why? Because our kids copy us.
[00:18:51] And just like we are trying to train our children, you know, as we are in the face of the Lord, as we come into his presence and we read His Word and we read about the stories of Jesus, we become like him.
[00:19:04] Our faces shine. We become like the image of God.
[00:19:09] Not to be God, but to be like God. To be transformed into his image so that we would enjoy glory. To glory. To glory.
[00:19:18] Okay, so Ephesians 5 says this. Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. You know, when we read the Gospels, we read about how much Jesus talks about the kingdom. How couldn't we talk about the kingdom the same as Him? When we remember the design of the temple in the Old Testament. How couldn't we just put our trust in. In the provision and the abundance of heaven? When we read what the temple looked like, when he shows us the cross, hanging on the cross, looking at the Roman soldiers who murdered him and spat on him and mocked him and tore up his clothes.
[00:20:04] And yet he says, I forgive you.
[00:20:07] Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do. How could we not forgive people when we see our Jesus? Forgive.
[00:20:14] See, as we're in the face of King Jesus, we reflect him and we become like him. Are you good?
[00:20:21] One, we leave everything behind.
[00:20:23] Two, we imitate Jesus disciples. And thirdly, disciples make fishes of men.
[00:20:29] Jesus calls Simon to purpose. Not only are you a convert, not only have you acknowledge me as Lord, repented of your sin and following me, but now I have a commission for you. Make disciples. I'll make you fishers of men.
[00:20:46] We are to be a disciple and then make disciples. Matthew 20:8. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations. And then he gives really clear instructions baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. So baptism, teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you, and knowing that I'm with you always. To the very end of the age, we baptize people, we teach them to obey. No one likes that, do we? You know, in this culture it's. There's an invitation or you might like to. But we're to teach them to obey it, obey this word.
[00:21:22] We're to teach with authority.
[00:21:26] And surely I'm with you always. We're to know his presence. I wonder who is discipling you, if anyone. Is anyone discipling you in your life? Can you think of anyone?
[00:21:37] And who are you discipling? Is there anyone in your life you've been called to, to look after, to put your arm round and lead them on the journey with you?
[00:21:46] That's our. That's our commission by the Lord. I've had the privilege, most of my life of being surrounded by people who would speak into my life. And they prayed for me and they taught me to obey his scriptures. I was baptized at 14. I had my godparents there who continued to PR for me. I had a youth leader at church who used to make me pray out loud every Sunday. I was.
[00:22:09] I was so frustrated, seriously.
[00:22:14] But I was. I was a little bit gobby as a teenager, to be honest. She could never believe it. But I. I would be like, why do you need to make like, God hears me in my head. You don't need to make me pray out loud. But she would be consistent. Like, every week, you know, Rachel, you're going to pray out loud. Why? Because I was being taught that my words have power, that death and life are in the power of my tongue. And when I speak out lo, there's light in the darkness. There's life in the death.
[00:22:39] We have people around us who steward what God has put on our hearts.
[00:22:44] I had another Christian leader who used to challenge me. We were, like, so 90s. We used to go out on the streets and put, like, a blue tarmac and do, like, dance and drama. And then she would give me a microphone and tell me that I needed to share my testimony. And this was in my hometown where, like, friends from school were going to Mackie's. And I was like, jesus loves you. Like, just, you know, because the fear sometimes takes place.
[00:23:07] But let me tell you, those people who discipled me helped me overcome my fear and preach the Gospel.
[00:23:15] No. It is a privilege to be discipled, and it is a privilege to make disciples. I have too many stories to tell, but it has been such a fun journey to disciple people, to see what the Lord has put on people's lives. You. We do an encounter year here, and it's a. It's an honor to see where God has brought people from and to. We get to speak into their lives and call out the gold.
[00:23:35] And the call and the commission is clear. Be a disciple and then make disciples, just to say so. Baptisms. We've seen around 100 baptisms every year for the past few years. So in 23 and 24, and this year, we've seen nearly 100 baptisms. Pretty cool. We're seeing salvations every week, pretty much.
[00:23:55] And we're seeing the first steps of discipleship at New Life. So on a Tuesday, we have a New Life course. It's four weeks. It's the foundations of Christianity. And so there's the start of discipleship there for people.
[00:24:08] But church, we're going to take another step now in putting in place Chroma Discipleship, which we're launching today, but it actually starts on the 1st of January, 26. How are we 2026.
[00:24:23] But what we've done is we've put together 48 weeks worth of material.
[00:24:28] Deep breath. I know. A year. But this is a year for us to intentionally say yes to Jesus, yes to being transformed by His Word, and yes to doing this in relationship with others. So the way that it works is you'll get a mentor. We have some incredible mentors in this church who have journeyed with Jesus for a number of years. And so what we'll do, as you sign up, you'll be paired with a mentor. And then from the 1st of January, you'll start to receive video, like video footage. And is there an example of the sample material?
[00:25:05] So this is very beautiful. I didn't create any of this. There's many gifted people in the church. So this is like a sample of what you'll download. So when you sign up, you'll be paired to a mentor. You'll download this material, you'll see the video teaching. And this is about you every week, putting aside time for you to be discipled by him, by Holy Spirit. And then you come back into community with a group of people. You can do it individually, you can do it as a group of 10 and go on the journey of being transformed from glory to glory. Make sense?
[00:25:36] Great. So on your chairs, there's a flyer. What I want you to do is, I'd love you to take that home and pray with the Lord. Lord, is this something that you are calling me to?
[00:25:47] And he'll probably whisper, yes.
[00:25:50] Is this something that you want me to sign up to? If you've got questions, you can come and find me. But the point is this, that we would say yes to being a disciple of Jesus Christ and being transformed by him in a community of believers. Okay, Sound good?
[00:26:05] Amazing.
[00:26:07] So just to summarise, we are his disciples, and that means we are leaving the old behind today.
[00:26:13] Secondly, we know him and we imitate him. We look to Jesus and we become like him. And thirdly, there is a commission for us to be fishers of men, to go into the world and to make converts and disciples who love Jesus and walk with him and encounter the blessing in their lives. Are we up for it?
[00:26:33] Amen. Why don't you guys stand? I'm done.
