Show the Word

Follow Me

Good morning. If you’ve got a Bible, and I hope you do, let me invite you to open with me to John 17. How do you make disciples of all nations? What does that look like in our lives here in Lake Charles. What does it look like when we put disciple-making at the center of the local church and at the center of our lives? What does that look like tangibly on a day-by-day basis? It’s deeper than just what we do at church or what ministry you’re involved in. This is what our lives look like on a daily basis.

So, we’re walking through different components of disciple-making. Last week, we walked through the first one, which a little review. Let’s do a little quiz here, to see if you were here not just physically last week but maybe even spiritually! The first component of disciple-making is to? Share the Word! So we’re here to Share the Word. That’s one component of disciple-making.

The First Component of Disciple-Making: Share the Word

Just out of curiosity, how many of you had someone lead you to faith in Christ? Anybody have someone lead you to faith in Christ? Okay, that’s a lot of us, if not most of us who are believers. The question we need to ask ourselves is, “How are people outside this building going to come to know faith in Christ then, if not through us, through us sharing the Word with them?” What I want us to do this morning is to dive into a second component of disciple-making, which is not only to Share the Word, but to Show the Word.

The Second Component of Disciple-Making: Show the Word

Now, on a tangent here, let me say that these are not necessarily chronological steps that you take—you do number one, then number two, number three, and number four, now you’re making disciples—that’s not the picture here. The picture is, these are all facets that we see in Jesus’ life as He poured His life into His disciples. He set the example for us to do the same thing in other people’s lives. So, sharing the Word and showing the Word and the others that we’re going to see over the next two weeks are all going to come together.

How do we show the Word to the people God has given to us?

I want us to look at John 17 and see what it meant for Jesus to show the Word. Remember the Word is at the center of disciple-making, the Word made flesh, Christ making His life known through us as we show the Word. Look at John 17:6. This is Jesus praying for His disciples and He says,

John 17:6–12 NKJV

“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me. “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

Now—disciple-making. We talked last week about how Jesus has given us the people; He has invested people into our lives. We are surrounded by people in our spheres of influence. We have the opportunity to impact for the glory of Christ. He’s given us the words; He’s given us the authority to share the Word with them. Now I want you to see how part of sharing the Word with them involves showing the Word to them. I want us to think about people that God has entrusted in our lives, to show the Word to, and what that means. First of all, I think it means...

We display His character to them

I want you to see how this unfolds in this prayer that Jesus is praying. From the very beginning in verse 6, you go back up there and it says, “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me.”

Jesus was God up close and personal to these guys. If you want to see a picture of the goodness, the grace, the mercy of God, you see it in the face of Jesus. He didn’t reveal it in some glowing, one moment, “Here’s my splendor.” What he did was over a process of three years with these guys He continually, on a day-by-day basis, revealed God and His character up close and personal to them.

Now here’s the problem. You get down to verse 11 of John 17, and Jesus says, “I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you.” So, if God, up close and personal, is about to check out of the world, then how is the world going to see God up close and personal anymore? That’s where you and I come in. I want you to see two truths unfold.

First of all, as disciples of Jesus Christ...

We are all His representatives

This is not just for the super-Christians. For every single one of us, we have—catch this—the responsibility from God to show His character to the world. This is not a responsibility of the church as an institution has, this is a responsibility of the church as individuals all across this room has. We are God, up close and personal, so to speak—His goodness, His mercy, His grace, seen in us in the world. That is the responsibility that God has entrusted to us, and it’s a huge responsibility.

How are the people in your home, or in your workplace, or in your schools, how do people in your neighborhood, in this community, how are they going to see the character of God? How are they going to see His unending love? His perfect patience in the middle of suffering and trial? How are they going to see His overwhelming compassion for those that nobody else cares about? How are they going to see His patience and His kindness and His goodness in the face of evil? How are they going to see His courage in the face of trial? How are they going to see those things if not in you and me?

God has given us people in our lives, just like He gave these disciples to Jesus and said, “You reveal my character to them.” Second truth...

We have all His resources

Don’t miss this. Everything that Jesus revealed to His disciples, the Father had given to Him. Look in verse 10, Jesus said, “All I have is yours, and all you have is mine” (John 17:10). So the Father had given everything to Him. Then look down at verse 11, as He prays in the middle of that verse, “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name”—your character—same phrase we saw up in verse 6—“the name that you gave me” (John 17:11). “You gave me your character; you gave me your person.” Verse 12, “While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name that you gave me” (John 17:12). Everything that Jesus had, the Father had given to Him.

Now at this point we’re thinking, “Well that was Jesus, He’s a little different than us. You know, He was God, and we are not. So how does that apply to us? How can you say that we have all these resources?” Here’s the good news. Everything that Jesus had from the Father, He promised to give to you and to me.

Look at this. It continues throughout the rest of this chapter. Look at what Jesus says in verse 14, He’s talking about His disciples and he says, “I have given them your word” (John 17:14). “Same word you gave me, I gave them your word.” Look over in verse 22, Jesus says, “I have given them the glory that you gave me” (John 17:22). We have the glory of Christ given to us. Verse 23, “I in them and you in me” (John 17:23). Don’t miss it here, the Father is in Jesus and Jesus is in us. That means all the Father has is in us. Look down in verse 26, the very end, it says, “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in”—who? “… in them and that I myself may be in them” (John 17:26). Jesus’ whole ministry, this whole process of disciple-making was Him imparting His life, Him giving away what the Father had given to Him into the lives of these guys. God has promised to bless His Word. And He has promised to bless us as we share His Word.

We may not realize it, but...

The world longs to see a demonstration of Christ that accompanies our explanation of Christ

I am convinced that our culture is desperate to see a glimpse of the character of God. They’ve had their fill of churchgoers who espouse all their conservative views on this or that issue. No matter how true they might be or no matter how aligned with Scripture they might be, they have heard enough explanations of those issues. What they long to see is a demonstration of the liberal, generous grace and mercy of almighty God. Their hearts long to see that.

It was Jesus’ whole method. What we see in the Gospels is not Jesus sitting down with His disciples and saying, “Some of you have wondered what God is like, pull out your pen and paper, and I’m going to give you a list of His attributes. First of all, He is Jehovah Jireh, which means He provides.” Instead, He showed them the provision of God up close and personal. What we’ll find is that when we begin to demonstrate the Word to people around us, it will enhance our credibility when we Share the Word.

What happens when our lives become the gospel track? What happens when it’s not a pamphlet we give out, but it’s our lives that we show?

What happens when they see Christ in us? When they see that Christ makes a radical difference in the way you give what the Father, the God of the universe, has entrusted to you. May our lives be a demonstration to accompany our explanation. Our evangelism, our sharing the Word, will take on a whole new shape because people will be drawn to Christ as they see in us.

Don’t you believe that? He is irresistible. He is good. He is gracious. If we would let the original disciple-maker that lives in each of us out, then He will draw people to Himself. The question is, are we going to take responsibility for showing the Word? Display His character to them.

Second, not only do we display His character to them, but second,

We live for His glory through them

Here’s where I want you to see, chapter 17, come back with me to John 17:9–10. These two verses here, they almost seem like, “What’s he really saying there?” You can almost skip over them, but they are loaded with meaning.

Look at verse 9, Jesus says, “I pray for them”—talking about the disciples—“I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them” (John 17:9–11). So there are the bookends on these two verses. “I pray for them,” “Glory comes to me through them.” What is He trying to show us here about disciple making? I think a few different things.

As we think about Jesus and the way He poured Himself into these guys, I think He’s showing us first of all, when it comes to the people that God has given to us by His grace, put in our lives, in our spheres of influence, first of all, we set our focus on them.

Set your focus on them

Jesus said, “I pray for these twelve guys, that’s who I’m praying for.” He would go so far as to say that He’s not even praying for the world, and we’ll get to that in a second, but He sets up all of His focus on them. “I pray for them.”

Here we are at the end of Jesus’ ministry. It’s almost a little surprising, that if you look at His life and His ministry that He spent with these guys, He actually spent more time with them as time progressed than less time with them. You would think they would start to get it and He could take off some time with them. But that’s not the case. He had to have more time with them. If He has only got a week left, He is spending all the time with these guys. Jesus spent more time with these guys than everybody else in the world put together. His focus was completely on them.

Now why would that be? Maybe it’s because building disciples and multiplying the gospel, takes constant personal attention and focus from our lives. We really need to hear this. Maybe this is a process that doesn’t happen overnight. Maybe you can’t make disciples in the newest and latest fad or program. Maybe this is a slow, tedious process that has ups and downs the whole way through. This is the picture we have in the Gospels.

Fast forward two thousand years to today, and what you see is that discipleship is most often referred to as a program in the church that involves an hour class a week. Whether you call it Bible study or Sunday school or whatever, we limit discipleship to what happens in that one hour in this one particular classroom. The world was Jesus’ classroom and He was modeling this to them day in and day out, week in and week out, in all of the things that He experienced in His life. If we think that we can “can” that and put it in an hour then we are deeply mistaken.

we have tried to do, on an assembly line basis, what it took Jesus to do in three years with these twelve guys and even one of them was lost. True discipleship cannot take place in a classroom.

It’s no wonder, and the evidence is there that half the people who come to faith in Christ and join the church end up falling away. Even many of us who have been in the church maybe all of our lives, still lack a deep knowledge of how to study the Word, how to pray, and how to share our faith. Why is that? Because we have tried to do, on an assembly line basis, what it took Jesus to do in three years with these twelve guys and even one of them was lost. Second, we...

See the world through them

He looks at them, He says, “I am praying for them, I am not praying for the world.” Now how do you reconcile that? John 3:16, “God so loved the”—what? “The world.” Jesus, God in the flesh, “I’m not praying for the world.” Well why not? You love the world. Why would Jesus say, “I am not praying for the world?” Why would He go out of His way to tell us, “I’m not praying for the world?” He does it, not because He doesn’t care about the world and He doesn’t want to world to come to know His Father’s love, but what He is doing is He is praying for these guys because they are going to be the means by which the world is reached. He’s seeing the world through them. He knows He’s about to go to the Father and it’s their lives that are going to have impact on the world from this point on. So He prays for them because everything is dependent on them taking the gospel, taking the Word and showing it and sharing it. That’s why He prays for them. This is so good, and it’s encouraging and this is comforting for us.

What we do here on a daily basis has the opportunity to impact the world for the glory of Christ.

Stake your life on them

This is where it gets really, really good. Stake your life on them. Jesus has said, “Glory has come to me through them, they are my glory. I have lived for them.” He has staked everything on these guys. Some would say that was not a wise decision, but He did, He staked everything on them. So what does this look like in our lives?

Well let’s take a bridge here from Jesus, and let’s go to a guy named Paul. I think Paul shows us this. Turn to the right with me to 1 Corinthians 10. You’ve got to see this. Here are some verses that I’m guessing some of you are very familiar with. But you’ve got to underline them, or put a little note beside them because you’re going to see, maybe a familiar verse, but you’re going to see disciple-making at the center of it for maybe the first time. Look at 1 Corinthians 10:31. It is a very common verse. Paul, the guy who is writing this, says,

1 Corinthians 10:31 NKJV

Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

So we do everything, to the glory of God. We do everything for the glory of God.

Now what does that look like? Well, that’s what he says next,

1 Corinthians 10:32–33 NKJV

Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God, just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.

“Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God—even as I try to please everybody in every way” (1 Cor. 10:32–33). Listen to what he says. This is the heart of a disciple-maker, “For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved” (1 Cor. 10:33). He is living for the sake of the glory of Christ in others. Now listen to what he says in 1 Corinthians 11:1,

1 Corinthians 11:1 NKJV

Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.

“Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” What a bold statement. For Paul to come on the scene and say, “Imitate me, and you will be imitating Christ.” Is that a bold statement or what? For you to say to people in your sphere of influence, “Follow me, and you will be following Christ.” Are we supposed to say that? Isn’t that a little bold? No, that’s exactly what we’re supposed to say. That is the essence of what this whole thing is all about.

It’s not just a moment where Paul was feeling pretty confident. Go over to Philippians 3, he says the same thing again. Look at Philippians 3:17. Underline these verses, make a note. This is a picture of what it means to stake your life on showing others Christ, he says,

Philippians 3:17 NKJV

Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern.

Follow my example. He comes down to the end of this chapter, and he says, in verse 20,

Philippians 3:20–4:1 NKJV

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. Therefore, my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved.

Paul looked at the believers who were in front of him in this letter and he said, “I love you, I long for you, you are my crown, you are my joy, you are my life.” When you get down to verse 9 in Philippians 4, he says,

Philippians 4:9 NKJV

The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

“Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you” (Phil. 4:9). He says, “Follow me, follow me and you will be following Christ.”

Turn over to 1 Thessalonians. You've got to see this one. Look at 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20. Listen to this. I referred to it last week. Paul is speaking again. He says,

1 Thessalonians 2:19–20 NKJV

For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For you are our glory and joy.

Did you catch that? Paul says, “When the Lord Jesus comes back, and I’m held accountable for what I’ve done with the gospel He has entrusted to me, and the mission He has entrusted to me, my joy will be you, your lives, living for the glory of Christ.” He says later in chapter 3:8, and this is the summation of the whole thing, he says, “For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord” (1 Thess. 3:8)—the emphasis being on “you.” Did you catch that? “I live,” Paul said, “because you are standing firm in the Lord.” My life is staked on you standing firm in the Lord. If you don’t stand firm in the Lord, then I miss out. So we live for the sake of others to see the glory of Christ, to show the glory of Christ. We set our focus on people, and we see the world through them, and we stake our life on them.

What happens when we live for each other? Now we’re getting to the heart of New Testament Christianity. It’s not this routine we go through on Sundays to come to a place; it’s the people that we are living for. Live for His glory through them.

We display His character to them, we live for His glory through them, and third,

We nurture His holiness in them

Come back to John 17. When you come to verse 11, and you see Jesus offer a petition, an individual petition, prayer, for these guys. He starts off in verse 11, he says,

John 17:11 NKJV

Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.

This is the only time in the Gospels that we see Jesus refer to the Father with that term, not that He hasn’t always been holy, but He emphasizes His holiness, why? Because He goes on to pray,

John 17:12 NKJV

While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

He prays to protect and keep them.

Now these words, if we had time, we’d dive into John and see, but most often this whole “keeping, protecting” idea is not as much intended to talk about physical protection as it is to spiritual protection that’s tied to all we’ve seen here. Protect them in your name is what He’s saying. Keep them showing your character. He said, “I have continually shown your character to them, I have kept your character constantly in front of them.” So as He prays for them, He prays that these guys would continually display His character. He has lived and nurtured His holiness in them and now He prays that God would keep them solid in that.

What we’re seeing is a contrast between the disciples and the world. It’s a contrast we see all throughout John 17. We’ll dive into it more two weeks from now, but the contrast is there. What we’re seeing all throughout this chapter is that when it comes to this idea of holiness, and I pray that over the next two weeks that God would transform our views of holiness and what that word means. We’ll see it more in the next two weeks. When it comes to holiness you’ve got the disciples in the world, and what Jesus is saying here is that we have to avoid two extremes.

We need to avoid the extremes...

Number one extreme is...

Total separation from the world

By separation, I mean mainly physical right here. Because, yes, holiness in the spiritual sense is separation. We have come out and we are separate, but Jesus is not saying here that His plan involves rescue planes coming in to get the disciples and taking them out of the world. “Gabriel, get the planes ready, we’ve got to get these guys out because it’s a tough place to live.” That’s not what He prays for. He doesn’t pray that the Father would keep them in a safety deposit box so that they are completely preserved from evil and suffering in the world. That’s not what He prays.

So we avoid separation from the world. We are in the world, and turn a deaf ear to the needs in the world and say, “The world is really struggling and in a lot of trouble right now.” We are in this thing and God has put us in this thing for a reason. So we don’t separate from the world, we’re not out of here.

At the same time we avoid the other extreme. The other extreme is...

Total saturation in the world

Total saturation in the world to the point where you’ve got the world, the church and you can’t tell the difference. These guys were going to be in the world, but they were not going to be of the world, it says in verse 13 and 14. So they were a part of the world, but the most effective way to make disciples in our culture is not to make yourselves indistinguishable from the culture, which is what some people think. If we are going to be effective, then we become like the world. Not like the world, we’re with the world, but not like the world. We’re not different just for the sake of being different, just to be these “weird” people, but we are in the world showing the character of God, including His holiness.

We’ve got to be careful here. If you know much about the church in England, you know it was just over a century ago that a guy named Charles Spurgeon was preaching to packed houses. People were coming to know Christ, and were coming to know the gospel in great numbers. Now about a century later, now, today, in England, the church is struggling. Those churches that may have been full a century ago, many of them empty. How does that happen in one century? Is that a humbling thought or what? As we sit here in a crowded room, to know that in a century from now, this building could be a warehouse for something else. How does that happen? I don’t want to over-simplify it, but there’s one historian that I was reading about in a biography. He said this: “In England, the church accommodated the drives for money, status, and power and the new order. Secularism had infiltrated the church on a grand scale, at first, as a sincere way to attract worldly people, but gradually secularism became dominant and transformed the church. The church began to look like the world.”

If the world can tell no difference when they look at our lives with Christ in them then when they look at lives without Christ in them, then we have undercut the mission of the gospel from the start. That’s why holiness is a priority. That’s why we live for holiness in each other. The two extremes are total separation and total saturation. The example that Jesus is giving us here is...

We need to accept the responsibility

Total sacrifice for the world

What Jesus is saying here is that these guys are going to be in the middle of a world of evil and suffering, and “I’m praying Father that you would keep their character in you strong that they would sacrifice the comforts of this world and the sinful desires of this world to show your character.”

I think it really comes down to two main facets when it comes to the world. You’ve got sin and suffering. Think about it in two ways. When it comes to sin, we want to live holy lives, we want to be pure, we want to reflect the character of God so that we will show this world that there is a God that is superior over sin that there is a Savior who has conquered sin. The tragedy is that if we live lives where we are doing the same things when it comes to our language and the way we do business and pornography and our marriages, if we are living just like the rest of the world is, then the world looks at us and the glory of Christ is compromised because they don’t see a people that are showing that Jesus is superior over sin that He has conquered sin. The people are living the same lives that are enslaved to sin just like everybody else.

We live our lives, husbands and wives, we sacrifice. Husbands, men, we sacrifice our lives for our wives, we out-serve them, why? So that, the world sees a picture of Christ and His church. So the world sees the love that Christ has for His bride. That’s why we do that, our struggles with sin take on a whole new shape when we realize we are a part of making disciples and we are living for the sake of others. Not just in sin but in suffering.

John 15, you go back and you read the last half of it, to the beginning of John 16. Jesus tells His disciples, “You guys are going to go through difficult times. The world hates me, and they’re going to hate you. They persecuted me, and they’re going to persecute you also.” He comes to John 16:2 and 3, somewhere in there, He says, “There is going to be a day where religious people think they are honoring God by taking your life.”

He knew that they were to go through difficulty, and it’s true. Of those 11 guys, 10 of them died martyrs deaths. What He prayed for was that in the middle of that, they would hold fast to the character of God and that they would trust in Him. Because when they did, they would show the Word most clearly to the world. It makes sense. How did Jesus show the character of the Father most clearly to us? On a cross, in the middle of suffering. This is a sobering thought, and I will be honest with you, as your pastor, I don’t realize all the ramifications of it, but I believe it’s what Scripture teaches.

If we are going to give ourselves to making disciples of all nations as a church, if we’re going to show the character of Christ, then it’s going to involve suffering. How can we ever show this picture of Christ to the world if everything always goes right for us? That’s tough for us to realize in a culture of affluence, where we get what we want. But if we’re going to show Christ to the world, it’s going to involve showing His character in the middle of suffering, and don’t miss it, Jesus has prayed for us. He prays for us, He intercedes for us. “Father protect them with the same protection you gave your people when you split the Red Sea in half, with the same protection you gave your people when I walked to the cross.” The same protection He wants to give to us. But what that means is that we, in this process of disciple-making, sacrifice ourselves for the world.

So What Now?

That leads us to a few questions that I want to ask you. The first question that I want to ask each of you, who has God given you to show the Word to? I want you to think about the fact that the people in your life, in your sphere of influence, are not accidentally there, that maybe, just maybe, God does have this thing rigged, and He has put you in the place you are for a reason.

Who can I show the Word to?

In your home—not just in your home—but in your neighborhood and your community and your workplace. Who can you show the Word to?

The second question is this:

How can I show them the Word?

Not accidentally, “Hopefully they’ll see Christ in me.” How can you intentionally show them the character of God and to plan intentionally how that looks?

The third question,

What do I need to sacrifice in order to show them the Word?

You say, “What do you mean, what do I need to sacrifice?” Well, if there are some sins that you have been captive to for a while now, some things that you are holding onto, the desires of this world, then I want to urge you this morning to sacrifice them so that the glory of Christ and His character and His holiness might be made known through you.

For others of us, what does it mean to sacrifice? For a lot of us it’s our pride. It’s our pride of saying, “I’ve got the plan for my life.” We need to lay it down and start to give ourselves to the plan that Jesus has. For many of us, it’s our possessions. What do you need to give in order to show the character of God in this community and in the world? For a lot of us, it’s our comfort. We cling so tightly to our comforts, and our comfort zone. What do we need to sacrifice in order to display the character of God?

I’m guessing for almost all of us, one thing that we need to sacrifice is our fear. There is a lot of fear that comes with standing up and saying to the people around you, “If you look at me you will see Christ, if you follow me you will follow Christ.” I want to remind you that God has not given us a spirit of fear. He has given us a spirit of power, and of love and of self-discipline. He has put His Spirit inside of us. So let’s give ourselves to what He’s called us to do.

I was praying about how we could best respond to this word today. What I want to do is give you some time. We’ve hit on some things that are somewhat heavy. Sometimes we have the tendency to pack up and head out of here and we don’t have time to digest some of the things the Lord is teaching us. What I want to give you the opportunity to do is to spend some time between you and the Father, between you and Christ, and these three questions. Whether or not you want to write down, “Who can I share the Word with? How can I show the Word? What do I need to sacrifice?” You to begin to reflect on that. Maybe that’s just you praying, but I want to give you an opportunity to really think about what it would mean for you to intentionally show the Word in others lives, the people that God has given to you.

Dear God, we praise you for your grace and your mercy. We praise you, Lord Jesus, for showing us God, up close and personal. God I pray for this faith family, for those who are visiting with us today, God as you’ve given us this plan to make disciples of all nations. God, we pray that you would grant us grace today to show your Word to the people that you have entrusted to us. God show us what that means. God calm our anxiety about that, and God remind us of the resources you have entrusted to us. We pray that in the next few minutes as we reflect, as we pray, as we come before you, Lord Jesus, that you would simply come out as the original disciple-maker in us, and you would help us to get a handle on how this looks in our lives. We give this time to you, in Jesus name, Amen.