2025-01-26 Following Jesus

You can follow along, but it’s mostly what is in the slides, so feel free to take the notes home and not worry about it now

Well, we are starting a new series this week called / / Following Jesus!

As David and I were praying and meeting together over the last couple years, we continually found ourselves feeling this place of Jesus inviting our communities to a place of discipleship. What does it truly mean to follow Jesus in 2025 in Cutler Bay, FL, or Miami, whatever area you live in.

And this begs the question, / / Is discipleship today different than 2000 years ago when Jesus said, “Come, follow me!”?

That’s what this series is about. It is about the ways in which Jesus has invited us to follow him. Because Christianity is more than just coming to church on Sunday. It’s more than trying to fulfill some moral code of conduct. It is a dedicated journey to following Jesus and the way he lived, to living in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, and coming into a greater revelation and awareness of the love of our Heavenly Father!

But to get there we need to time travel for a minute, going back 2000 years ago to see Jesus and the moment this invitation began.

A little bit about this Jesus:

/ / We believe and confess that Jesus is God the Son, a member of the Trinity, fully God along with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.

/ / We believe and confess that Jesus is the Christ, or the Messiah, the long awaited King of Israel and Savior of the world.

/ / We believe and confess that Jesus was born as a human child through Mary, a virgin, and lived a sinless life, was crucified, died, rose again and ascended to heaven.

And we also know that as he walked on this earth that / / he was called teacher, or rabbi, and that as a rabbi, he called people to become his disciples, to learn from him and do what he did.

Jesus was a young, brilliant teacher. Not the status quo kind of rabbi. And He traveled around, teaching anyone who would listen.

/ / Of the 90 or so times that Jesus is spoken to in the gospels, upwards of 60 of those times he is specifically called rabbi, or teacher.

This is important, because what we are going to look at is that this function of Jesus, this role he played in the first century world, is just as alive today in his resurrection as it was back then. He is still our teacher, he still calls humanity to follow him, to become his disciples.

Let’s read a few scriptures from the book of Mark.

Mark 1:16-20, / / Passing alongside the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men!” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

He saw them, he called to them, they followed.

Mark 2:13- 14, / / He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alpheaus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

He saw him, he called to him, he followed.

Mark 3:13-19, / / And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons. He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boangerges, that is Sons of Thunder); Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Mark 8:34, / / And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me…”

Notice how in each of these situations, Jesus doesn’t say, “Believe in me.” or “Come get saved” or “Come become a Christian.” or even, “Here, repeat this prayer after me…”

/ / He says very simply, “Come, follow me…” Why is that?

We’ll explore a bit more in a moment, but if a teacher, a rabbi said to someone, “Follow me” he wasn’t inviting them to click like and subscribe on YouTube or gain a follower on Instagram… He was inviting them to become a disciple of himself.

And the best way to really describe what that looks like is in our word apprentice. / / To follow a rabbi, was to become an apprentice of that rabbi.

If you know about the apprentice process, sometimes you apply, or you’re invited to apprentice under someone with the goal of becoming like them. If you apprentice under a plumber, by the time you’re done, after 3 or 4 years or however long it takes you, you’ll be able to work as a fully licensed plumber. Or electrician. Most commonly in the trades is where we see this term now.

And this wasn’t a Jesus original idea. Although I do believe it was a God original idea that paved the way for our discipleship to Jesus - but that’s getting ahead of myself.

This was part of the teaching culture in the 1st century world.

And that’s easy to see from other scriptural references.

In Matthew 22:15 it says, / / Then the pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully…”

Ok, so the Pharisees had disciples.

Luke 7:18 says, / / And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are you the one who is to come.”

Even Paul the Apostle before he became a follower of Christ says in Acts 22:3, / / “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers…

Gamaliel was a famous rabbi, and to say he was educated at the feet of, was to say he was one of his disciples.

Discipleship, or apprenticeship in this way, was a way of life in this culture.

And we need to focus here for a moment because we need to see the context of what Jesus is calling people into. If he did it then, and then told his disciples to go make disciples, who would have told those disciples in turn to go make disciples, and here we are 2000 years later, with the same mandate, be a disciple to the point where we are able to disciple others, then we need to know the process.

John Mark Comer, who we will reference quite a bit in this series as he’s literally written the book on Practicing the Way of Jesus, explains the three levels of the Jewish Education system as this:

/ / Beit Sefer // The House of the Book

The book, of course is the Hebrew Bible.

This is where both boys and girls at the age of 5 would attend a local synagogue and be taught by a rabbi and emphasized reading, writing and memorization. By the age of 12 they would have most of, if not all of the Torah memorized. The Torah is the first 5 books of the bible. So, if you’re reading along with us so far this year, imagine memorizing by the age of twelve, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy!

Upon completing this by age 12, the girls would go on to get married and have children by age 13 or 14.

Boys would go on to apprentice under their father in his trade.

At this point the boys were allowed to start participating in Temple worship.

But if you really stuck out during your first years at Beit Sefer, you might be invited to go on to the next level.

/ / Beit Midrash // The House of Study / Learning

This was a school room built off the side of a synaguge and was only for men age 12 - up to 18 who would now learn from a full time paid teacher and learn and even possibly memorize the entire Bible, our Old Testament.

But you had to be the best of the best to get invited to this. And equally, to forsake apprenticing with your father in the family trade, you had to be good enough to go on to possibly becoming a rabbi. This is like going to four years of university and hopefully having a job in your field in the end. You want to think about whether that’s the smart thing to do.

Or go home, learn from your dad, and be able to provide for your family with a useful skill set.

Even today, a lot of people go to Bible college and Seminary, or even just hope to be in full time Christian ministry, and I think the statistics of paid Christian ministry positions is like 2% of the church at the most. It’s a pretty small labor pool.

Now, there’s a third level, but this was only if you were an absolute standout above everyone else, I mean, the best of the best of the best… You would be invited by a rabbi personally to join the / / talmidim, the group of talmid, that would apprentice under that particular rabbi.

This was not an easy process. If you were lucky enough to get asked, you would sit with this rabbi for an interview and he would grill you on all things scripture, and commentary, and the learned rabbis of the past, to see if you were really committed enough and have the work ethic and drive to become a rabbi yourself one day. And if you did, then and only then would he say to you, something like, “Come be my talmid…” “Come follow me…”

That’s a long process. And really, you’ve just begun. This would be like a medical student going through all of their schooling and then applying for and getting accepted into a residency program at a hospital. They got the exams out of the way, memorized as much as they could, but now they follow on the coat tails of the doctor who really trains them in the field of medicine.

Now you’re starting to get what it might sort of feel like for a rabbi to say, “Come follow me…”

/ / And the idea behind discipleship was to become exactly like your Rabbi.

You were being invited to partake of their lives and learn directly from them. It was a high honor, but it was also a high call.

There is this 1st century Hebrew blessing that says, / / “May you be covered in the dust of your rabbi…”

Remember the world they lived in. Not so many paved roads. The role of the rabbi, the teacher was to travel around and go from town to town teaching. So this blessing implies that you are following your rabbi so closely that the dust as he walks is being kicked up and you’re the closest of all his disciples and you’re covered in the dust of your rabbi.

The goal of the disciple was to become a carbon copy of their rabbi.

I mean, you would follow them everywhere, literally copying everything they did so you could become just like them.

Your tone of voice

Your mannerisms

The way you dressed

All of it…

And sure, for the ones who gave it their everything in Beit Sefer, with the hopes they could make it to Beit Midrash and on to becoming a Talmid, maybe it’s easier, maybe they were ready to be called by Jesus. But that’s not who Jesus called.

The ones Jesus called in the stories we read in Mark, were not what I’ve just described. He didn’t go to the local synagogue, and sit in on a few sessions in the Midrash, the house of study, and identify the few great students and ask them to follow him.

Simon and Andrew were standing on the seashore casting nets into the sea…

James and John at least were with their father Zebedee, maybe that implies they were apprenticing with him in the boat…

Matthew was sitting in a tax collectors booth.

This is the most wild one because Matthew being in a tax collectors booth lets us know that not only had he decided he didn’t want to continue learning about the Jewish faith, but he had turned his back on his people and their culture entirely. He was more concerned with becoming like a Roman than he was becoming like a Rabbi! The tax collectors were hired by the Romans to get taxes that no one wanted to pay, often from their own people, and often times they would extort the people to get rich themselves, all while working for the occupying army that was dominating their region. They were seen as traitors.

Here’s what we need to see first:

/ / The invitation of Jesus to become his disciple has nothing to do with how smart you are, with what family you came from, or what your family has done in the past, how you have behaved or how you have succeeded or failed at life, or even what you have done that is completely counter-cultural to the way of God’s people.

Becoming a Disciple of Jesus has everything to do with Jesus calling you and you saying Yes!

And in that moment that you say “Yes!”, everything changes!

/ / What was for a select few that could prove themselves in their own merit, has become an invitation for all.

Read Mark 8:34 again, / / “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

The NIV says it specifically, / / “Whoever wants to be my disciple…” WHOEVER! ANYONE!

And / / our confidence is not in our ability to be a great disciple but in Jesus being a great teacher!

Listen to what Jesus says to Simon and Andrew. They are fishing and he calls out to them, / / “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”

Jesus isn’t telling a joke here. This is another well known Jewish saying, or idiom to describe a great teacher. A well known, well respected teacher, a rabbi, would get called a “fisher of men” because as they talked to people it was like they were casting out a net and capturing the hearts and minds of the people and drawing them in…

After the sermon on the mount Matthew 7:28 says, / / And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.

Jesus was a fisher of men, a skilled and anointed teacher.

Even at the age of twelve, we see in Luke 2:46-47, when Mary and Joseph had forgot him in Jerusalem when they went to the Passover, it says, / / After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understand and his answers.

There’s almost this play on culture here. His parents kind of scold him for being left behind he says, “Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house…” Remember when I said it was at the age of twelve that you completed that first schooling, Beit Sefer, and at that point would go on to apprentice under your father in his house.

So, it’s all fine and well to look at what this process was 2000 years ago, but what does it mean for today?

And that’s what this series is all about.

Now, you will hear us say this over and over again, you’ve actually been hearing us say it for months already.

This is actually the same process from 2000 years ago as is for today. This has not changed:

/ / To be a disciple of Jesus comes down to three things:

To be WITH Jesus

To become LIKE Jesus

To DO what Jesus did

And we’re going to go through these a bit this morning.

/ / 1. To Be WITH Jesus

Just like the disciples of Jesus day, we are to spend every waking moment with Jesus.

But, what’s that look like in 21st century America, not 1st century Palestine.

/ / We are with Jesus through relationship with the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit of God.

In John 16:7, / / “it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”

This is incredible. Jesus is saying that it is better that he goes away than if he stays. The best case scenario in Jesus opinion is that we have the Holy Spirit!

/ / This is the first and primary focus of the Christian, to learn how to live with an awareness of and connection to the Holy Spirit of God.

Just start carving out time in your day to connect with God.

In John 15 Jesus describes our relationship to him as one of a vine and branches.

John 15:4-5, / / Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

/ / (7) “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you…

/ / (10) “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love…”

This is right before he says he’s going away and it’s better because the Holy Spirit will come.

/ / Abiding in Jesus Christ is done through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit and dedication to the word of God, and obedience to his commands.

Dallas Willard is another name that will come up often in this series. He said:

/ / “The first and most basic thing we can and must do is to keep God before our minds. This is the fundamental secret in caring for our souls. Our part in thus practicing the presence of God is to direct and redirect our minds constantly to Him. In the early days of our practice, we may well be challenged by our burdensome habits of dwelling on things less than God. But these are habits, not the law of gravity, and can be broken. A new grace-filled habit will replace the former ones as we take intentional steps toward keeping God before us. Soon, our minds will return to God as the needle of a compass constantly returns to true north. If God is the great longing of our souls, He will become the polestar of our inward beings.”

The idea is this. We want to get to a place in our lives where we are constantly directed toward God. And you might think, “well, how’s that work?”

I agree. We are busy, aren’t we? We are distracted.

It will take practice.

It will take a life of intentionality, and possibly an entire lifetime of it.

It won’t just happen.

This is what the Spiritual Disciplines, or the Practices of Jesus are geared toward.

Things like silence and solitude, prayer, fasting, reading the bible, the sabbath rest.

These are 2000 year old ways in looking at the teachings of Jesus, to abide in the vine, to present ourselves before God, throughout our day.

This is not centering yourself.

This is not some weird new age practice of emptying yourself.

This is acknowledging the reality and the presence of God with you. He is Immanuel, God with us.

Hebrews 11:6, a well known verse, says, / / And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

A couple questions here:

What is the reward for seeking? Finding…

And, if you as a parent, are playing hide-and-seek with your kids…do you hide so you won’t be found, or do you leave clues so you will be found?

I’ll just leave that one out there…

/ / The best part about following Jesus is Jesus!

/ / The best part about seeking after God, is finding God!

/ / 2. To Become LIKE Jesus

/ / The more you abide, the more you are transformed.

Jesus said if you abide in the vine you will bear much fruit. Fruit is the outcome of our lives. The more we are connected to the vine the more what the vine has to offer is formed inside of us, eventually producing fruit out of our lives.

/ / The more you abide IN Jesus the more you become LIKE Jesus.

If you’ve ever heard the word Sanctification. Or maybe the term Spiritual Formation.

Dallas Willard defines it as such: / / “Spiritual formation in the Christian tradition is a process of increasingly being possessed and permeated by the character traits of Jesus as we walk in the easy yoke of discipleship with Jesus our teacher.”

That means we are so influenced, or captivated, that’s what possessed means, ok, and permeated, meaning spread through out, something that is fully mixed in has permeated… so when the character of Jesus has so influenced us and we have allowed him to work in us, that it’s mixed so thoroughly inside of us that you couldn’t tell the difference between one or the other.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “You are the product of the 5 people you spend the most time with!”

Not only is that true, but let’s put that into perspective, / / you’re most influenced by the one person you allow yourself to get closest to.

And that’s not a maybe, that’s a reality.

You become what you behold.

You become what you focus on.

You are what you eat, as the old saying goes.

The question is not, / / “Are you being formed?” In this less than Christian, post modern society that we live in is,/ / the question is “WHAT or WHO is forming you?”

We are being formed, always, but what we allow to have influence in our lives.

And / / if you plot the trajectory of your character out for the next 10, 15, 20+ years, where will you end up based on the influences and practices of your life right now?

This is why I’m in College at 42 years old. I looked at my life and said, where do I want to be in 10 years, and it was easy to see that if I want to be faithful to the call that God has on my life of leading, teaching and equipping people in the Word of God, then I want to be as well trained and equipped myself to do that. Easy decision. Not an easy process, but an easy decision.

Maybe we’re at a bit of a disadvantage culturally. The people 1st century knew what it meant to get that call, “Come, follow me.” We see it in the response of Simon, Andrew, James & John. They threw their nets down, jumped out of their boats and left all behind to follow Jesus.

Do you hear him calling to you today, “Come, follow me?”

If you want to be like Jesus, you have to live like Jesus, and that doesn’t start with being able to do it all, it starts with being willing to learn, willing to practice, and willing to change how you do things. It takes committing to the process.

I don’t know about you, but when someone meets me, I want them to feel as though they have encountered the Jesus I have given my life to. And I also know, I’m not there yet!

I want to become the kind of person that out of the transformation of my heart it’s easier to love my enemy and bless those who persecute me than it is to seek punishment, retribution, karma or whatever else.

Kelley and I were laughing the other day. We watched this ridiculous little video of a lady in court, looked like she was suing someone, and she says to the Judge, “I’m a Christian, but I’m also still street…” Judge says, “What’s that mean, you’re still street…” and she says, “Well, I’m conflicted because I don’t know if I’m supposed to pray for this man, or hire someone to beat him up.”

And we can laughed, but for how many of us is that true?

When I drive through that round about, where just 14 months ago someone hit me in my brand new car, and someone almost hits me again, or cuts me off, how do I react? What’s the overflow of my heart? What’s the character formation that’s happened up to that point that produces out of me either a Christ-like moment or a Rob-like moment.

Is it the character of Jesus formed through a life of following the teachings of my Messiah, or is it the character of Rob formed and forged through the fires of this world?

What about worry, anxiety and stress?

I want to be the kind of person that it’s easier to trust God than to worry.

Remember those verses?

Do not worry, but seek first the kingdom of God…

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, pray…

oh man… am I forged by the pursuit of Jesus and His way, or am I steeped in worry and anxiety of the unknown?

This is the transformation the writers of the New Testament are talking about.

And this transformation is a process. It doesn’t just happen over night, or over a week or two, or even an 8-week series. This is a life of dedication toward the way of Jesus Christ.

We follow him, and we follow his teaching so that we can become like him.

So, / / Be WITH Jesus, so you can become LIKE Jesus, so you can

/ / 3. Do What Jesus Did

This is the ultimate goal of apprenticeship, to come to a place where your rabbi says, “You’re ready…go and make disciples yourself.”

/ / Our goal in being a Christian, a disciple, an apprentice of Jesus is not to simply know what Jesus knows or know what Jesus teaches, or even teach what Jesus teaches, it is to be able to do what Jesus did.

There is so much I want to teach here, but I am going to pare this down as much as possible.

To think that you or I individually are supposed to be able to do all that Jesus did would be unbelievably overwhelming. This is why Paul explains that we are the body of Christ and are each individual members, not to do all, but to do our part. Remember what Cameron said last week, Christianity is a Team sport!

Ephesians 4:16, says / / …the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Romans 12:4-5, / / For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

And then in Ephesians 5:23 he says, / / Christ is the head of the church, his body…

So, as we are transformed into the likeness of Christ, both individually, and as the body, the church, we grow and mature to a place where we have the capacity to join in Jesus’ kingdom work in our home, our workplace, our school, the mall, the grocery store, wherever you might be. You become the ‘sent one’ of Jesus to represent the kingdom of heaven.

That’s what we are in Christ, as the body, the church. And we do that by being WITH Jesus, becoming LIKE Jesus, and DOING what Jesus did. A life built around these three goals.

And being a disciple does not mean giving up your job to be in full time ministry, or be a pastor. It might, but that’s not what discipleship means. It’s not a job for some and a hobby for others. In fact, it doesn’t really work as a hobby. It makes the most sense, and really, the only sense, if it becomes the main purpose and function of your life.

That doesn’t mean you can’t have hobbies. You can still go rock climbing, or running, having your kids in sports, music, dance, cheer, choir, all the fun things we do in life. The point of true discipleship is not live IN The church, it is to BE the church, the BODY, in all that we do by being followers of Jesus, our teacher.

The world wouldn’t function if everyone suddenly felt the need to quit their jobs and go be at the church all the time. It wouldn’t work.

As a pastor, I am as much a disciple as you.

As a leader in the church, I am as much an apprentice as you.

There is no distinction here in our discipleship to Jesus and our function in life.

Whatever it is you are doing in life, be His disciple in it.

Be a disciple who also is a car sales man. You’ll end up being the most honest car sales man there has ever been.

Be a disciple and be a janitor, an investment banker, a nurse, a cashier, mom, dad, student, real estate agent, insurance agent, it doesn’t matter, the goal is to follow Jesus wholeheartedly while living in this world as his ambassador.

The offer is open to all… “Come, follow me…”

Disciple is used over 250 times in the New Testament to describe our relationship to each other and Jesus. More than any other word. Christian is used, 3 times I think.

We have relegated becoming a Christian to saying a prayer and moving on with our lives, and Jesus is inviting us to truly follow Him to a way of transformation that will revolutionize your life.

The first time I listened to John Mark Comer teaching on this topic, it was from 2017, 8 years ago, and he said that the statistic at the time was that 73% of Americans said they were Christians, but a number of different surveys put the actual number of people following the way of Jesus as a dedicated disciple at around 8%.

That was 8 years ago. I was listening to his updated teaching the other day, that I think came out early last year, those numbers have changed to 60% of people saying they are a Christian, (which, I don’t know how they get that number, but I know they put a lot of time and effort into these statistics), but those who actually follow Jesus is only at 4%.

In the last 7 or 8 years, the number of people who truly and intentionally follow Jesus was cut in half and only a mere 7% of people who say they are Christians actually are intentional with their discipleship.

We have two groups of people here. How did this happen?

Even in Scripture there were two groups of people around Jesus. There were the crowds and there were the disciples. And by disciples I don’t just mean the twelve named ones. Paul says that after his resurrection he appeared to 500 at one time. Many made the decision to follow, to truly be a disciple. Men and women alike. But many just liked to be around him in the crowd. And when push came to shove they were gone.

See, there are those who like the idea of Jesus.

They like what Jesus does.

They come for the signs, and wonders, and the miracles.

They come for the show.

They come to be entertained.

They come to hear a good word, a good preach, something that will help them succeed in life maybe.

They come to feel the Spirit of God because just being around someone like Jesus feels good.

So, they come to be propped up, encouraged, and sent on their way.

But they never truly follow Him…

Now, those who come don’t need to feel bad. This is actually the first step for many. To hear the voice of Jesus is to be invited to follow, and the more you hang around, in my opinion, the more you are likely to follow when you hear his invitation.

I’m not saying we have it all figured out, but I am saying that as a church we want to make the most concerted effort possible to truly follow the way of Jesus Christ as His disciples, to be With Him, to become like him and to do what He did, so we can effectively be his ambassadors in this world, his ministers of reconciliation to those who need Him.

Invitation

You might be part way on this journey. This may be old hat to you. It may be completely brand new. That’s ok. That’s the beauty of the invitation of Jesus. It’s truly open to all.

Paul the apostle says that he was a pharisee, which means he made it through all those levels of school we talked about earlier, and he was a disciple like we get to be a disciple, after the resurrection of Jesus.

Jesus also called Peter. Scripture says Peter was out fishing, and we also know he was married, because he had a mother in law, so it’s very safe to assume he’s past the age of being invited to be a disciple by a Rabbi. He didn’t pass the test. Yet, he was called.

Jesus called Matthew. Who had turned his back, walked away, didn’t want to be associated with even his Jewish culture and heritage or religion. Yet, he was called.

Wherever you are in your journey, the invitation stands.

And if you’ve never made a commitment to be a disciple of Jesus, please talk to one of us after the service. We would love to help you in the process.

Closing

So, each week in this series, we are going to bring an aspect of practice, where we can not just talk about these things, but practically begin to put into practice the way of Jesus Christ.

For this week we want to focus on this idea of / / being WITH Jesus.

What does that look like?

One of the best ways ways we can practice being WITH Jesus is to / / develop a daily prayer rhythm.

We need more than just information if we want transformation. The practices of Jesus, turn the idea of following Jesus into a reality in our daily lives. I’ve said this before, the spiritual disciplines, fasting, prayer, reading scripture and all the rest are seemingly very natural practices, yet yield very supernatural results in our lives.

So, developing a daily prayer rhythm. This isn’t about being legalistic, or religious about it, it’s about being intentional. We are learning the rhythms of grace as we follow the real and true Jesus. Here’s a good saying, / / “It’s not about trying, it’s about training…” We aren’t trying to be perfect, we are training ourselves in the way of Jesus.

There’s no set way, or right way to do this. You can choose. The early church, in the teachings of the apostles, known as the Didache, encouraged the early church to pray the Lord’s prayer three times a day.

So, a few simple steps you can follow. Again, you decide what works best for you, but this is our encouragement.

/ / Find a quiet PLACE (preferably distraction free)

You’re like…. you don’t know my life. I get it. To the best of your ability. I know you work, i know you have kids. I know life is crazy.

How many know the story of Suzanna Wesley, the mother of the great reformers John & Charles Wesley. She had 19 children. It was impossible to find a quiet, distraction free place to pray. But she would take her apron, and sit in her chair, and put her apron over her head, and everyone in the house knew that when mama was in her chair with her apron over her head, she was in a time of prayer and you best leave her alone…

/ / Find a quiet TIME

This might need to be a early morning walk.

It might be waking up 10 minutes early before the rest of the house is awake so you can get a coffee and sit on the couch alone.

This is less about HOW you do it, and more THAT you do it.

A general rule is that you Give God your best time of day. Don’t make spending time with God an afterthought.

“Oh shoot, I gotta get my 10 minutes in…”

Maybe even think about it the night before… Make that your last prayer of the day. “You know what, I’m going to spend time with You at 6:45 tomorrow, before the kids get up…” Can you hear the Father saying, “I’m excited… can’t wait to see you.”

/ / Come to a QUIET place

This one we don’t mean physical, but internal. My assumption is that even with her apron over her head, those 19 kids weren’t dead silent, they just knew not to interrupt and the rest was up to Suzanna to come before the Lord, quieting herself.

Psalm 62:5, / / For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence…

David knew he had to tell himself to be internally quiet.

If at all possible, put your phone away, even in another room. My guess, the world will continue on without you for a few minutes.

Do your best not to hurry, not to rush.

/ / Open Your Heart to God in PRAYER

Again, no right way to pray. There are some Psalms that are really good for prayer. Many people do that. I’ve put some there on the paper.

Have you read the prayer of St Patrick? It’s beautiful:

“Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I rise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.”

Sometimes I pray the Jesus Prayer:

“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.”

As a recovering addict the prayer on my lips and heart is often the Serenity Prayer:

God, give me grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, the courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish one from the other. Living one day at a time. Enjoying one moment at a time. Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, Taking, as Jesus did, the sinful world as it is, not as I would have it. Trusting that you will make all things right if I surrender to your will, so that I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with You forever in the next.

I have a good friend that would walk around his home all day just simply praying and singing gently, “You are holy…” And it just brought a sense of the presence of God in the midst of whatever else might be going on.

This whole practice can be 5 minutes, or it can be an hour, that’s up to you.

The key here is to start where you are, not where you feel you “should” be. If two or three minutes is all you can make happen, be intentional about those two or three minutes. Whatever that time might be, I encourage you to simply be intentional about itl Set your alarm 5 minutes early and force your tired butt to get out of bed, so you can focus on Jesus.

You might just see that when you do this you WANT to prioritize your time differently moving forward. In fact, I can guarantee it.

/ / When you are WITH Jesus, you want to be with Him more…