You are called to be the answer to prayer by stepping out in obedience to share the gospel. Commit to sacrificing one time slot this week to invest in a new believer or returning friend. As you pour into their lives, watch God multiply the kingdom through your faithfulness.
So remember, if if you didn't see what may maybe you were hoping to see, that obedience is our success. Right? Amen. Amen? Because we can't control how people respond, but we can control how we obey God.
That's good. Well, there's my first 1 liner of the day. There you go. So for our group, we were in Dick's Sporting Goods and it was the last guy I talked to inside of that place and this guy's name is Lucas. I woke walked up to him, hey, man, I came here to share the gospel with someone.
Is that you? He said, okay, y'all listen to the gospel. And and it's exciting when I find that because I had many rejections beforehand. But I guess what? I could just kept moving because like I said, it's just not in season for that fruit.
So I found the 1 that was already "low hanging", the tree shook, the apple was beginning to fall, and shared the gospel with him. He already had understanding of of Jesus. He's like, I'm trying to make my life right with God. And I said, but have you been born again? He says, no, haven't.
And so I got to share what being born again meant to him, being born meant in the word of God. And and he said, yeah, I would love that. And so we prayed right there for him to be born again. Got his contact info. He's willing to come and and get coffee or or come to 1 of our services.
So I'm excited for that. And it's beautiful because we when we're going out, we're not just looking to find decisions for Jesus, we're looking to find *disciples* of Jesus. And so, Mike shared earlier, it's funny, all of today is kinda like us "threading a needle" in the same cloth, and we're stitching it all together because we're we're talking from the same DNA. We're talking from the same perspective of making disciples. So you might hear me share some of what has already been shared, you'll see it in a different context, because we all come in different packages, right?
And so what you get from me will be different from what you get from Mike, from different what you get from David. And every person on the street needs a different message because they need you to be that package for them. And we're simply the delivery boy. Come on. And when we pray, when we were in the prayer time, we pray, Lord, lead us by your spirit.
And with that, I always connect, lead me to the 1 you've prepared. So when I go out, I expect that prayer to be answered. And so it's not even 1 day shipping, it's just 2 hour shipping. Delivery on demand with the kingdom of God. I like what Chris Donald says.
He says, when we pray, prayers go up and then God sends those prayers back down to those who he knows will obey. Because we are called to be the answer to prayer. So out of obedience, we go out. And if they're saying no, you can tell if someone's heart is already hardened. Right?
So in that case, we're supposed to argue them into the kingdom. Right? No, of course not. Who softens a heart of man? God does.
And how does he do that? He waits for praying people to begin to pray. And then he sends those prayers to affect the people in this environment. And so what happens is we need to have a prayer movement that's also combined with the outreach movement, that's also combined with the discipleship movement, and then we will see synergy happen and revival comes. Oh, man, I wanna host his presence everywhere I go.
I want I wanna be able to carry him and actually give them Jesus. Because I'm not going out just sharing about me, I'm sharing about the 1 who I love. So who softens the heart of heart of man? It's it's not by your own knowledge or our own arguments, but it's only through prayer because through prayer, the hardest of hearts begin to be begin to be soft that they will then receive. And so when I go out, I'm we already prayed, Lord lead me by your spirit so my eye is fixed on the 1 who's gonna gonna say yes to Jesus.
There was a time where stepped into Walmart, I approached this guy, he says he's Muslim. I said, are you firm in that right now? Like you you aren't gonna budge? He's like, yeah, I'm pretty firm. I'm not moving.
And I said, okay, you have a blessed day. And I kept moving 2 aisles down, I found 2 guys named Joe and Abel. They heard the gospel for the first time and they prayed to be born again. So if I got hung up in argument with the the first dude, I would have never seen the second. And so we're looking for the ones who are ripe because that's what we pray for.
And we're simply looking out to obey what those prayers are gonna create. And so we're looking not only to find people to be have a decision for Jesus, we love that. But we want those disciples. And in order to understand discipleship completely, we need to understand what Jesus did and how he modeled discipleship. How did Jesus multiply his kingdom?
See Jesus, he had the crowds, he had the 5,000, he had the 4,000, he had the 72, he had his 12 and he had his 3. And the ones that were remained at the end of his ministry, the ones who didn't flee away, he was left with a 120 at the end of his ministry. And so I'm I'm convinced Jesus is not concerned about the crowds. That wasn't his way of multiplication. He gave his personal attention, care and nurture to the 12 the father had given him.
The ones that wouldn't be offended when he spoke and said, eat eat my flesh and drink my blood. *Jesus* even gave them the opt opting out. He's like, y'all fall on them too? Peter's like, you're the only 1 with the "words of life". So he found the ones who would stay and remain.
Oh, come on. Jesus' model of discipleship was not in the crowds. Although he did minister to the crowds, he fed the crowds. There was even a whole city that said, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest. And the very next week they put him on a cross.
He wasn't concerned about the the numbers. He was cons he he just knew that if he were to multiply himself, he was to take care and protect the ones God has given him. And so in my life, I understand that when we make just 1 disciple, if we just decide this year, let's just make 1 disciple, you already doubled your kingdom influence. So for the rest of your life, if you just chose 1 to invest into, and they begin to produce fruit, and then you teach them how to make disciples, all of a sudden, kingdom expansion happens even if they just have 1 challenge of discipling 1 person a year. Oh, that was the way of Jesus.
That was the way that he chose to do it. If he wanted to, he could have built a kingdom in the clouds and said, everyone worship me and everyone would have seen that as a sign like, oh, they would that would have been the sign that they asked for. But Jesus refused to give a sign because he knew he had the few. And so in the success rate of American churches, we would probably look at Jesus' ministry and not actually be in all of that when we talk about numbers alone. Well, had 12 and he ended up with a 120 even though he had the 4,000, the 5,000, the other 72.
And and we we might today call that a church split or a falling out. We we would have by by by by church growth in today's standards that would not have been like a known, a well known thing or recognized thing. But Jesus' model, the way he did it, he he actually, if you look at his intention and what he was purposed to do, he invested in the 12 and he 10 times his ministry. And then the and then after Pentecost, they received the Holy Spirit, which is the reproducer. 3,000 were added in that next day.
And so there is a *kingdom* reality where if we focus on the few God gives us, he he will expand. And it will expand way faster than 1 time decisions in a crusade. Oh, but we are created to make disciples. Y'all with me? I find it interesting because if if he would have chosen the big crowds, he would not have had the time in his ministry to give each person the individual care and nurturing that they all needed to have that replication.
To have that multiplication in their lives. Instead, he chose the few so he could spend a lot of time and care with them. It's powerful. And then through the Holy Spirit, we personally get to encounter him as a personal Lord and Savior. And it's by his spirit, it's not limited to him in his flesh.
And that's why even Jesus said, it's better that I go so I send the counselor. Because then multiplication happens even quicker. So once once Jesus poured out his spirit, he said, go and make disciples. Jesus was telling his disciples to go and do the same thing I just did with you for 3 and a half years. And so as I was studying what *discipleship* actually means, I I read a book, it was it's called Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus.
It's very interesting read if you are into the culture of what Jesus would have lived in that day. So this this researcher, this author, she's in Israel and she's writing out all this stuff about modern day rabbis and how in this culture what rabbis would actually do. Because if you didn't know, rabbis were a normal thing even in the day of Jesus. And just having disciples was a normal thing in the day of Jesus. So John the Baptist had his own disciples and that sort of thing.
So what happened was is is these rabbis when *students* became a certain age, they would go to these schools and and choose out students to pick and follow them. And then the understanding is I'm gonna lay my whole life down and follow this rabbi because I believe that how he lives and how he walks is his understanding of the Torah being fulfilled. And so what we find out is that every little thing that is said, taught, it was known the students would It was required to begin to memorize how they are actually teaching so they could teach it themselves because the idea was, if I'm learning it from my rabbi, he's gonna make me 1 later. And and he and so as he's walking out and and showing all these teachings, he's supposed to model out and be the exact example of what he believes the Torah is interpreted to be. This is just just Jewish culture.
And so when we think about *Jesus* oh, 0, hang on. Before I get there. So as this lady is she's writing out some of her book. She saw a rabbi who was a older gentleman. He's walking slow 1 step at a time.
He's kinda got a hunchback and he's walking really slow at a very slow pace. And behind him are 7 other disciples who's aged 16 to 20 and they're all walking with a hunchback and slow behind him. And every step they were fulfilling what the rabbi was doing. Why? Because they were intending to get on the perspective of what their rabbi was living like because they believed what he was living out was the Torah.
And so they got on his perspective, his level, and they followed everything. And you know, that requires a denial of self if you're a disciple of that. Right? Like they can they're young guys, they could run around. But they decided to get on his level and and walk the same walk.
And so if the rabbi's goal is to live and model out the Torah, How like we we serve Jesus who is the word that became flesh. And so everything they saw Jesus do, the disciples do, they began to understand this is the scripture fulfilled. This is the word of God fulfilled. And they gotten his perspective. And then when they saw Jesus heal the sick, they were amazed because they realized that's not just for my rabbi, I'm intended to follow.
They weren't shocked by him raising the dead. Well, I'm sure they were at first. But they were probably more shocked that that means they get to as well. When Peter saw Jesus walking on the water, no wonder he said, Lord, if that's you, can I walk on water too? And then he just steps out and he's walking on water because he saw his rabbi do it.
They'd gotten his perspective, his level, and they were "walking his way"s out because they knew as he is, so are they supposed to follow. They had a new rabbi that was like no other. He brought a different kingdom that was not of this world. So Jesus became flesh. And it makes me wonder too, like they saw the miracles, they saw how he responded to the pharisees, they saw his teachings.
I'm curious what went through their minds when he picked up a cross. I'm curious if they got a revelation of the crucified life on that day. A denial of self that my life is not my own. They hung him up as a criminal even though he was justified and he's never sinned. And so false accusations, they were seeing actually, I'm sure partially the reason they scattered was because they didn't necessarily wanna follow that footstep.
But the Holy Spirit prompted them to because at the end of their lives, most of them were murdered. And Jesus or Peter, the 1 who denied Jesus 3 times, he ended up being hung upside down because they were gonna put him upright, but he refused. He said, put me upside down. I I'm not worthy to be to die the same way as my savior. And so that is the impact of discipleship.
*Jesus* lived his life among these imperfect 12. Because *discipleship* is messy. Discipleship is in the nitty gritty of life. There's like so much to handle when it comes to walking with people through their problems and issues. But Jesus lived life on life with these guys and produced in them men of God who would die for their faith.
Die for Jesus. Oh, man. And then when they got the Holy Spirit, they understood fully what that was supposed to mean. They lived them out. It's powerful.
So Matthew-28:18 through 20, we've already quoted this, but hey, here we are again. Hear it differently, honor it. *Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority* has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Jesus has authority on heaven and on earth. That's a big deal.
And then the very next phrase, like you you kinda wanna buckle up your seat belt. You wanna kinda like, let's take note of what else comes after this. The man of authority, the God man of authority of heaven and on earth. What's he gonna say? He says, go and therefore make disciples of all nations, baptizing in them in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Teaching them to observe all things I have commanded. Commanded you and though I am with you always even to the ends of this age. Amen. And so we were created to make disciples. He disciples us.
And and we received discipleship from each other because community is healthy. I always tell people who like, I just don't like going to church. I said, if you were to be in Jesus' day, the only way you could actually follow Jesus is to rub shoulders with his friends. So Jesus loves his church, that is his bride. We're called to be among community and we sharpen each other.
So he calls us to make disciples, but the reality is we are not rabbis. We're nobody's rabbi. We're not pointing people to us, we're pointing people to Jesus. And we're simply saying, join me as I follow Christ. Would you join me in this journey of life as what we follow Jesus?
You know, the word discipling is not in the bible, the word disciple link. The word disciple was not used as a verb, it was used as a noun, meaning a person. Now we've we've turned it into a verb, we disciple We now say discipling people. But modern terms, the word disciple actually is more like an apprentice or student. So when Jesus says make disciples, he's not saying, you walk out their Christian life for them.
He's saying, make them a student or an apprentice of me. Learn how to grab their hand and put it in the hand of Jesus. Teaching them how to observe everything Jesus has told you. And so it's important to realize we're not living other people's Christian life out for them, but we're simply saying, here's the Christian walk that I am walking out. Do you wanna join in and I'll help you as best as possible, sharpen you as best as possible.
But ultimately you've got to choose for yourself. Are you an apprentice of *Jesus* or are you not? Because many people decide to give their life to Jesus. It seems to be easier to call Jesus savior, but forget that he is Lord. And so that's what discipleship is for is we're turning the perspective of, yes, he is savior.
He's forgave me of my sins, but also there's this lordship peace we must have. So discipleship is teaching others to follow the way of Jesus. Jesus called himself the way, the truth and the life. We like sharing about the truth, we like sharing about the life. But Jesus called himself the way.
That means his way of life is everything that we're called to. Multiplication, *Jesus* modeled out the best way of multiplication because he invested into the few. There, when we were in Uganda, the Ugandans, we equipped to go share on 1 on 1 outreach similar to what we did today. And some of the pastors were so excited and they were, they said, you know, if we just did this all the time, there wouldn't be a need for crusades. Because they're so used to paying a lot of money to get all these crusades put in and then the people have a 1 time encounter.
But what we were showing is that they could actually have follow-up and disciple. And so what they did is they had, it was over 800, follow-up cards that they gave their congregation. So when people made that decision for Jesus, the congregation is now following up. And before they're bringing them to church, they're inviting them into their homes to have a meal. Come on.
That's discipleship right there. I'm gonna skip some of these pieces here. The gospel So the gospel has to have transformation or it's not the gospel. A self serving gospel is not the gospel. We're created to deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow him, consider ourselves dead and and look to him.
See, Jesus paid a high price to rid us of sin. And if we water down the gospel, we "rid it of its power". Even in Romans-6, Paul addresses this, shall we continue to sin so grace may abound? Absolutely not. Consider yourself dead to sin and live unto God.
And so we teach people, they must **deny themselves**, "pick up their cross" and follow him. But I'm also familiar. So in 2 Corinthians-4, it talks about a veil that is over the face of unbelievers, that Satan has put a veil over their face, but it's only when they receive the gospel that that veil is torn. So let me tell you about my friend Lorenzo. I was at Countryside Mall the other week, I met a guy named Lorenzo.
I'm sharing with him. I just simply asked if I could pray for him. He says, I don't think your God would accept a prayer for me. And I said, what do you mean? He says, I'm gay.
I said, okay. Well, let me share the gospel with you. I I explained how we're all born opposed from God. But we must be born a second time. And I I shared that, you know, our first birth has to be renewed.
We must have a second spiritual birth that produces a new life in us so we can walk out his way and his holy spirit causes us to be born again to continue walking his way empowered by him. So I share this with him and I simply say, so are you willing to obey God's voice no matter how he tells you to transform your life? He says, yes. I said, I actually checked in like 2 other ways. Like I said, I just reworded it a different way.
So you're saying, no matter what God asks you to give up and transform your life, you're willing to walk his way over your way? He's like, yes, I would like that. Like, alright, well, let's pray to be born again. And some of you might, you know, you might disagree. You might, well, you should have went a little bit deeper.
But man, he's not he there's only so much we cannot be holy without the Holy Spirit. And so he he had recognized that he needed a a depth in his relationship with God, and he was willing to say yes to obedience no matter what it looked like. I'm like, well, that sounds like denying self. So let's pick up our cross and follow Jesus. And now I got his phone number and we're gonna meet up for coffee.
And so he prayed to be born again with me. And and but there's this there's this thing that we've gotta get past. Like, we're not supposed to just make sure they're sanctified a 100% right in the moment. We have to trust the Holy Spirit does his fine work. And so I believe the deposit of the Holy Spirit came upon Lorenzo and something shifted on the inside whether he sees it or not.
And even afterwards, he felt the presence of God and he knew it was real. People were longing for something they didn't realize they were designed for. His name's Jesus. And then I see another side of it where my buddy Zach, so I met Zach on my very first Belong outreach when I moved here in March. We went to Publix, met him at the fruit aisle.
And he saw us, he says, it seemed like when you walked up, were already like family. Like you don't hear that often, but that's cool. And so I share the gospel with him. He he prays with me to be born again. He's texted me once in a while, then he drops off for months.
Well, I've been in contact I've still just prayed for him. His mom texted me last month from his phone And he's saying, please don't give up on my son, keep reaching out, he needs encouragement. So 2 weeks ago, I sent him a prophetic word. And I tell him, I just I just sent him a prophetic word, nothing else. I didn't invite him anything.
He says, I'll be at Belong tonight. I was like, well, that's cool. That excited me. So he comes in to belong, he then tell he experiences the presence of God again. He then begins to tell me that ever since we met him in publics, there's been an internal voice guiding his life.
I was like, that's the Holy Spirit, bro. He's also telling me that he's he's now he's saying he's on fire for God. And his mom and his sister, he's been praying for because they need to be born again. I'm like, that that was the first time I found out. Your mom texted me.
Not even being born again, she texted me to continue reaching out to you. That's that's amazing. So there's something powerful about these seeds because every time we give Jesus away, we create another house plant. Another house church is built right there because now there's a "priest in that home". Come on.
There's a wildfire when we get a hold of these ideas and and the revelation God has has made us to be. This is the book of Acts. Because because there's now a priest in that home, there's now a presence filled person inside of that home that once was not. And then that internal guiding voice, the Holy Spirit, has already been convicting him on lust and convicting him on music that he should change. I'd never said a thing.
Which is another point that I wanna make. 50% of discipleship is just showing up. Just being there, helping people process some stuff. If they have questions about God, being able to answer. Like often discipleship, it doesn't come with me coming there with an agenda.
I'm not just trying to share a new teaching with somebody. I I wanna hear what their life is genuinely like so I can then speak into that with any wisdom the Lord wants to give them. So part of it is just showing up, being present with someone. Can you just sit with somebody so they don't feel alone in the room? Micah hit on earlier, we were given the ministry of reconciliation.
Part of that *reconciliation* is is just being a friend to someone else. And I love something that 30 third company is hitting on right now in this year has been, win as many people to the lost as you can and then be their friend. It's a simple vision. But that's kind of like what we've just been doing and we're we're slowing down. We're learning to slow down for God to "fill the nets" of our lives and pockets and times of discipling others.
Another story, Dan, I wanna share. So Dan, I met him at his doorstep. It was 1 of those moments, he's like, this is crazy timing because just this last week I went to church the first time and I started following God again. He said, my parents are ministers and I've had a hard time because what he saw on the church, he didn't see at home. He was dealing with that religious *spirit* type of thing, that hypocritical thing.
So I met with him, I saw him at coffee shops, just began to pour into his life. I really didn't bring much teaching to him. I really just sat and listened to his story. And I sent him some scriptures here and there. I sent him voice memos to pray over him as I felt led.
Well, as time passed, he ghosted me. I mean, was 1 of my guys that belong, like he came every single week, but then he ghosted me over text. He didn't He didn't come back. But then when he did, when he did, I just received him happily. You know, I I just like celebrated, man, you made it back.
So glad you're here. I didn't even ask what was going on. But then he opened up, he's like, man, I was around the wrong crowd, but I realized that I know God too much now to enjoy my sin. That's a great place to be. You know God too much to enjoy your sin?
Come on. More Christians need that conviction. Oh, but there's something about that is moving. And so when before I moved to come here, I I had my last coffee with him and he just began to pour out and he's he was just thanking me. He's like, I've been to church every Sunday even though you haven't seen me.
I haven't been to belong and I haven't responded to you every single time, but just know every single time you did text me or reach out, it was encouraging and it was the right time that I needed to hear it. I was just in shame. And so shame actually overtook him, not overtake him, but shame caused him to not continue speaking to me at times. It was shame that caused, him to ghost me once in a while. But he's now going to church every Sunday, he was telling me he reads his bible every single day, he prays and thanks God for his life every single day.
He's having daily encounters with the Lord and he said, now my parents are even saying thank you, Robbie, because they've heard about me. And that that is what we're looking for. That's the type of fruit we wanna see is, can we find the 1 who would be willing to give their all to say yes to Jesus and follow him, to be consistent. Like for me, I wasn't threatened or it's like, hey, why weren't you coming to belong with me? Like you should have been disciple.
I have more to teach you. Like, no, I'm celebrating what God is doing in his life. So part of discipleship is approaching it and saying, God, what are you already doing in their life and how can I edify it? We're building on top of the flame God's put there. Yes.
*Jesus* left the 99 to find the 1. And once we get that 1 established, we have another yearning prayer in our hearts, Lord, give us another 1. When we get that 1 established that we've been praying for, we say, Lord, give us another 1. Because we don't wanna be satisfied with just 1. Man, we wanna be used however God wants to use us in no matter in whatever ways.
And often he'll give us what we can actually carry, Harry. He'll give us what we can actually carry in our capacities. So as we open up, as we build nets in our lives to to make disciples, that's how much God will begin to fill those things. So I'm gonna teach on follow-up. We teach We taught on how to share the gospel, we taught on how to share testimony.
Man, we taught on prayer. But here's a vital part that that we do that will change outreach if every evangelist gets ahold of this. See, we're not just looking for another number to add to the board. We're looking for new friends to add to our lives. We don't wanna give people a godly encounter that's actually life changing.
Hey, would you like to give your life to this person named Jesus? Okay, great. You said a prayer, bye. Like why? We're leaving encounters.
We're leave like, we we don't wanna just leave an encounter, someone who said yes to their life changing, and then never even offer to be a mentor of that. We want to be available so we can pour into people's lives. But that happens through follow-up. Like today with a guy named Lucas, man, got his contact and I I just said, man, I love to just befriend you and get some coffee and we play pickleball once in a while. So part of part of follow-up is we have to get their contact info.
And and so not everybody's open to that, but I'll usually pull out my phone like, hey bro, I'd hate to just leave you in this moment without any type of follow-up. Like, would you you wanna grab my phone number or I grab your phone number and I'll send you like the church info? Or how we or we could set up a coffee shop meeting and and I would just love to hear your story. And so I hand them my phone, punch the phone number in, and and then I text them before the night's over. Said, hey, man, I just wanna let you know it was an honor meeting you today.
Let me know how I can continue to pray for you and let me know when I can meet you for coffee sometime. And so we have those pictures up. So practically, here's what I do. So on iPhone, I don't know how Samsung does it. On iPhone, can categorize text messages or contacts.
So what I did was create a list for belong and what you see there is emojis beside them. So for red, that means they haven't responded to me in quite some time or never responded to me, which is fine. But in green, those are responsive people who I continue to reach out to every single week. Hey, man, how can I pray for you? What can I send you?
Like what asking the Lord, what scripture should I send them this week? Or send them a voice memo praying for them, or even sending a 1 minute video clip just encouraging them and inviting them to church or belong or something else. And so go to the next photo. And so there's my boy, Dan on his doorstep. That was when I first met him.
That night he came to belong and he got delivered of demons. He got delivered of demons. He went through a process of forgiving people. And then he was radically, he was just radically changed. And so as you could see in my notes, so you can put notes in your context, met at his doorstep was already born again, but coming back to God.
Just something small to help me remember them. And if you have a photo, that's a lot easier. So you can recognize who they are. If you do this a lot, you find out. And so so there there's a practical side of this of, man, we wanna get their contact info, we wanna create, nets because we wanna steward souls that God's handing us.
If if we're out there, we're being an answer to prayer in the community, we wanna steward what God is actually answering and be available to be people's friends. Now, if you're the opposite gender, I often I'll send them to Heidi or I'll even put them in a group text. So a 3 way text between me, my wife and that other person, whatever it may be. So it's something practical. So do I send them in these moments?
Well, I'll send them info for church or belong, I'll send them scriptures or prophetic words, or just invite them to hang out. But another piece of this, a follow-up is creating a discipleship net in our life. And so we are to create a net so God can feel. God spoke to my friend Chris Donald, create a net and I will fill it. This was in the regards to disciple making.
And so when I I first heard this, I loved it and was pursuing it, I was praying for it, but I realized there's There was a time where I didn't have a true revelation of that for myself. Like I'm praying this, I want it, but I'm not seeing much come from it. So like I just need a deeper revelation for myself on this. So I went on a prayer walk and I asked the Lord, Lord, I believe what you said to Chris is true, I believe it's godly. Would you give me the same revelation?
And I stayed on that prayer walk until I felt the presence of the Lord come and I just heard the Lord's voice speak to me say, create an it and I will feel it. And it made it personal for my own self. Made it personal for me. So just know like if there's a revelation that you don't quite have a grasp on, seek the Lord. Keep pursuing him.
So creating a net, what does that look like? Creating a personal net means you can grab coffee or lunch with people, invite them to have a home cooked meal with you. Play some pickleball or longboard with them. If you're into video games, play some video games with new believers or invite them to bible studies or small groups. Just just some point of contact where they can actually see life on life.
Remember Jesus lived his life completely in front of his followers. And so even having a new believer watch how you handle conflict can be ministry to them. Even even in the depths of of, I don't know, complications in your own life, how you handle trials, how you navigate problems, that could be ministry to other people's lives. And that's something that they will catch more than they would learn by a teaching. So whatever you enjoy doing in your life, whatever hobbies, just invite them into it.
It doesn't have to be something set like that. So for real church belong is a discipleship net. You may know belong as we That's where we'd go and do outreach. Well, that's a piece of belong. You know, show up at 06:30, go do outreach.
But the purpose of belong is to fill that net of discipleship. And I'll say last This past Tuesday, had 7 new believers in the room and 5 of those were brand new comers. 4 of them made a decision to make Jesus their Lord that night. It was powerful because God is beginning to fill the nets we've so urgently been praying and tilling into. And so belong is simply an environment created for new believers.
We sing 2 songs just to have the presence of God encounter new believers, So they can get a taste of what *Jesus* is like in the presence of God. And often like last This past week, we had a guy he said, this just feels like home. He said, this is my first relational and personal experience I've had with anyone since February. That's what belong is for, is for those who are looking for Jesus, they're coming back to Jesus, or they're just new non believers who are just kind of interested. And so if you come and expect belong to be a service for you, well, lovingly I will send you on outreach.
And because that's where maturity will will grow in you is, hey, go on outreach, find the 1 that you can bring in and disciple. That's the We're making disciples, we're reproducing and expanding the kingdom of God through what's happening at Belong. And so we we created this Belong net to serve new believers. So whatever that looks like and whatever that takes. So my conclusion here is, will you answer the call to make disciples?
If you can commit yourself to 1 thing this year, which is like, by the end of this year, I want to say, I have 1 new believer I've been discipling or returning believer. Because the lost are looking, but the prodigals are being pursued by God too. Allow your kingdom impact to double if you just invest into 1 person and pour your life into them. We might share the gospel with the masses, but we focus on the few who are willing to follow. And we're learning how to steward these new believers to not only know him as savior, but to make him Lord.
And making him Lord is a "day in and day out" thing. And so I'm not gonna do any type of invitation, but I want us all to just stand. I wanna pray over us. And I want I want to just make this a moment where we can in our own hearts decide, I am going to commit to making 1 disciple this year. If we say yes in our heart now, we don't have to live by feelings later.
So Jesus, ask that you would produce in us disciple making. *Lord*, teach us to be teachers of what you say. Lord, teach us to lay our lives down for discipleship to to pour into people's lives however it may fit. And I ask that you would overwhelm everyone in this room, the few who stayed, that you would impart to them the heart of discipleship and a movement of your presence, God. Lead them by your *spirit* and let us become "friends of sinners" just like Jesus.
Amen.
I wanna take that just a a little bit deeper as we close and we'll be dismissed. You guys heard the call to come here. You knew this was gonna be telling you about how to share Jesus with people and how to make disciples. And you chose to spend your Saturday from 10 to 4 doing this, I'm proud of you. I mean, it's amazing.
It's a big deal. And so with that, I wanna take this call that he said a little bit deeper because I think God wants to use you more. Here's the here's the here's where I'm gonna take it. I'm gonna step up here because you're all standing up so I can look at your faces. And this is what I heard the Lord say back there, I believe.
And so you hear this, sense and discern if it's the Lord, pray about it. And if it's a yes, then say, yes, Lord. My challenge to you is to next take make an amount of time, whether it's the next 6 months or the next year, and and take 1 **time slot** in your week that you can and devote it to making disciples. 1 time slot. If it's Tuesday nights, come to belong.
If you can do Tuesday nights, hey, do Tuesday nights. Come to belong. If you can't do Tuesday nights, take 1 time slot in your week and devote it. Sacrifice what you would normally do in that time slot for a year. 1 year of your life.
Whether it's Wednesday nights, Thursday nights, Friday nights, Saturday nights, Saturday mornings, whatever it is, and devote that 1 time slot to making disciples. What you're doing is you're **sacrificing yourself** for his sake to create a net to make disciples. Now, what that's going to look like is you first trying to fill the net. Sharing the gospel, inviting, finding new believers, stepping outside of yourself, and inviting them to the net that God had you create. Now, if that's a Tuesday, great.
The net's already made. But don't let Sunday be Sunday morning be the net. Invite them to church too. But my challenge is for you to to sacrifice a time slot of of your week for the purpose of making disciples. And as you start to do it, invite others too.
Some of you already doing it. Debbie's going to the Lake house on on Tuesday morning Tuesday mornings. I mean, it's amazing. When you do that, it's gonna be fulfilling. Amen?
Alright. Let me pray for you too, and then we'll be dismissed. We're having an impartation tonight that starts impartation night tonight starts at you're all invited. It's at 06:00. We'll be here.
We're gonna worship. Mike's gonna share his testimony and a powerful message, and then and then God's gonna do cool stuff. So you're all invited to come. Lord, I pray that you would "burn in their hearts" the great commission, which is not just evangelism, but making disciples. Speak to them about what they need to adjust and shift for that time slot.
And Lord, even if I never hear about it, Lord, let them do it for you because they're your student. And I pray for the same fruit that you saw in your life as you walked the earth for 3 years. In Jesus' name. Everybody said? I'm proud of you for coming.
Thank you so much.