### Quotes for Outreach

1. "A Savior is someone who saves someone. And we have been saved. And like in the Lutheran Church, we don't use that word as much as maybe the Baptists use it. But it's true. We've been saved by our Savior. And that's because way back in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve sinned, they brought sin into the world. Everything started to die. Trees died. Animals died. People died. It infected everything." [10:40] (25 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




2. "True commitment has a price to pay. True commitment says, I'll follow Jesus no matter what. Whatever comes against me, whoever opposes me, I'm committed to live as long as I live. I'm going to follow him, even if it means death. Jesus said, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." [16:35] (-52 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




3. "Give your successes to God's glory. You're going to get it right sometimes. And this is what the Bible says, let your lights shine before men, they'll see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. That's what we do. That's what I try to do. Give your good works to God. That means you don't strive for the glory of men. You strive for doing things for Jesus." [29:34] (23 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




4. "Live each day to the fullest in light of eternity. Don't let a day go by. Live each day to the fullest. Live your life to the fullest knowing that you're going to live forever. Your eternal life doesn't start when you die; it started when you believe, when you were baptized and believe in Jesus Christ. Your eternal life has begun." [28:53] (17 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




5. "The Marine Corps uses this slogan, the few, the proud, and the Marines, to emphasize the nature of what it means to be a Marine. A lot of people become Marines because they know a Marine. My uncle. My dad. Somebody in my life was a Marine. And that inspired me to be a Marine. You are a Christian soldier of God. And when other people see you, you let your light so shine before them." [32:45] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




### Quotes for Members

1. "The Christian disciple is someone who believes in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. That's powerful. So what does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus, who is the Lord and Savior? Well, the answer is found in Luke number nine, which is our scripture for the day. This is about from Luke 9.57, the first would-be disciple." [15:00] (24 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




2. "We arrange our schedules, we arrange our budgets, our money, and our relationships according to the priorities that we put in our life. And putting God first means that we have him top priority and that will bring us to disciple would-be disciple number three here on your note from Luke 9 yet another said I will follow you Lord what did he call him Lord and what is when you call someone Lord that means I will follow you." [22:30] (26 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




3. "Have you ever looked back? Have you ever looked back? Have you ever plowed or do you plow perfectly ever sinned and thought word indeed by what you've done and what you left undone in your in your thoughts and your words and your deeds you know I know that I don't plow straight sometimes sometimes I look back or I look away at about you know something that worries you can't sleep at night or you start doubting God are you have lust in your life or pride in your life on a hundred other things." [24:00] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




4. "So where do we find strength to be a disciple for Jesus? My mantra in my life has been this I live each day to the fullest in light of eternity don't let a day go by live each day to the fullest live your life to the fullest knowing that you're going to live forever your eternal life doesn't start when you die it started when you believe when you were baptized and believe in Jesus Christ your eternal life has begun." [28:53] (25 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




5. "Give your failures to his mercy. We're going to fail, aren't we? Well, don't carry it around like condemnation. Let Jesus forgive you, move on, start over. Which leads us to our memory verse. Jesus said to his disciples, would you read this with me? Jesus said to his disciples, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me." [29:34] (23 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

I talked to Pastor Jason this morning. He sent me a text and wanted me to greet you.

And in light of the things that are going on in the world, I'd like to start with a word of prayer. He said, "Please pray for our nation. Would you please pray for those affected by the attempted assassination of Trump yesterday? Would you please pray for those who had such a great loss yesterday?"

So we begin in prayer. Will you pray with me?

Lord God, Heavenly Father, we are kind of shocked at what happened yesterday, but not surprised. Evil happens every day somewhere in the world. It just so happened it happened here in America in a most tragic way.

And Lord, we pray for those who were so drastically affected, those who lost life, a loved one. We pray for them that you would be with them in their time of need, their sorrow, their pain, their hurt. And Father, that you would send hope and peace into their lives. And the witness and the good news of Jesus, they may have something to cling on to that's secure.

We pray for those who were badly injured and those who are clinging to life in critical condition in the hospital. We pray for their families as they pray for them. We pray for the doctors, the nurses, all who minister to them. May they be healing from your hand.

We also lift up to you, Lord, those who were affected in the crowd that are just sad and in tears. May you be with them. May you be with them emotionally, mentally, psychologically, and bring them healing.

For former President Trump, we pray for his healing, Lord Jesus, that you'll continue to strengthen him in his mind, body, and soul. And Lord, I know that he gives praise to you for intervening and sparing his life.

Lord, we even pray for the shooter's family that is in total disarray and shock at this time and sadness at the death of their son and the things that they've done. And I pray for those who suffer like we did yesterday.

And, Father, we just lift them up too, as you told us, to pray for our enemies, pray for those who persecute us, and we do that, Lord.

For this we pray, and Lord, I can't forget to include Jason and his wife as they vacation. May you bless them and keep Chris and Jason safe and sound and give them rest and peace.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

You may be seated, please.

I want to begin by asking, how many of you or any one of you have served in the armed forces? Anybody serve in the armed forces? Thank you for your service. Thank you for your service. Thank you for your service. That's the good news.

Yeah, thank you. The bad news is, I don't know if you heard this, in 2023, they had a recruitment problem. The Army, the Air Force, and the Navy had a recruitment problem, and they fell short of their goal of recruitment.

And in order to help fill the slots, they did all kinds of stuff. They offered, they lowered their standards for people that could get into those three branches of the military. They even offered courses, remedial courses. If you can't pass the entrance exam, we will tutor you, and then you take it again so that you can pass it.

And here's the big kicker. They offered a $75,000 signed bonus to come into one of those three branches. But still, they came up short, 25,000 recruits short in those three service branches. Shocking, all except the Marines.

Anybody serve in the Marines? The Marines met their quota. And they asked, how did the Marines make their quota? Did they give more money? What did they do to meet their quota while the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force didn't?

They asked the commander of the Marine Corps, and he says, "No, we didn't do it. We didn't do it. We didn't do it. We didn't do it. We didn't offer any bonuses." He says, and I quote, "Your bonus is that you get to call yourself a Marine. There's no dollar amount that goes with that. That's your bonus, the few, the proud, the Marines."

And you may not have served in the Marine Corps, but you are the few, the proud, you're a Christian. How many people call themselves Christian? Are you a Christian?

Well, I got some interesting news. I don't know if you know that that term Christian means "little Christ." I don't know if you know that that term Christian means "little Christ" or one who is belonging to Christ.

And the word Christian was assigned to those who followed Jesus, not by themselves. They didn't say, "We need a name for our group, our band, man. What should we call ourselves?" It was their enemies who called them Christians. "Those are the Christians."

It was sort of like, if you remember in history, when people followed Martin Luther, they called them Lutherans. Martin Luther didn't call his followers Lutherans. Martin Luther's enemies called them Lutherans. And the name stuck.

And so the name Christian stuck. But what did the followers of Christ call themselves before they were called Christians? Go to your notes. If you're a Christian, you're also a disciple.

The disciples in Acts 11:26 were first called Christians at Antioch. And Antioch, at that time in history, was in 42 AD. So, that was around nine years after Jesus ascended into heaven. When Jesus ascended into heaven, nine years later, they started calling the followers of Christ Christians. And it happened at Antioch.

We know exactly, and it's great how the history of the Bible is historic. They started calling them Christians. But interestingly enough, the word Christian is found, may surprise you, only three times in the Bible. The word Christian is only found three times in the Bible, while the word disciple is found over 261 times in the Bible.

The Greek term for disciple means a student, a learner, a follower. Someone who adheres to the teaching of another. And the disciples adhere to the teaching of Jesus.

And the most important thing about being a disciple is knowing who you're following. What do you know about him? What do you know about them? And that is where we begin this morning.

Who is Jesus? So, fill in the blank. Number one, Jesus is Savior. We have a word for Savior, and it's a big theological word called justification.

What do we mean that Jesus is our Savior? Well, a Savior is someone who saves someone. And we have been saved. And like in the Lutheran Church, we don't use that word as much as maybe the Baptists use it. But it's true. We've been saved by our Savior.

And that's because way back in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve sinned, they brought sin into the world. Everything started to die. Trees died. Animals died. People died. It infected everything. In fact, the whole universe was infected with sin.

And the Bible even says the world is in travail, like a woman in labor wanting to give birth when Jesus returns. You see, the world, earthquakes weren't created by God to kill people. Hurricanes weren't created by God. Lightning was created by God to kill people.

And the Bible even says the world is in travail, like a woman in labor wanting to give birth when Jesus returns. You see, the world, earthquakes weren't created by God to kill people. What happened was the world is in travail. The whole world was infected with sin.

And all these things happen. And sin leads to death. The Bible says the wages of sin is death. And we have a problem. And that's why Jesus came to be our Savior. He stepped into sin. He was perfect, never sinned. He lived a perfect, righteous life. And he didn't deserve to die, but he chose to die for you and me.

And that's why we call him our Savior. And he said, "I'm going to die for you." And he's coming back again. And those who believe in him, Jesus said, "He who believes in me, even though they die, yet shall they live." We're saved from sin and death.

So I want to share a few scriptures about this. Help me out by reading the bold words that you see in your bulletin.

And it's from 1 John 4:14. "And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world."

And in John 4:42, they said to the woman, this was the woman at the well who had met Jesus. She was witnessing to people. And they said to this woman, "It's no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves. And we know this is indeed the Savior of the world."

And that brings us to number two. Number two, Jesus is Lord. A big old word called sanctification, a big old theological word.

Jesus is Lord. What do we mean Jesus is Lord? You know, "Jesus is Lord" is the oldest creed. It's the oldest creed. It's the oldest creed. It's the oldest creed. It's the oldest creed.

In the Bible, "Jesus is Lord" is found in the book of Acts. It's the oldest creed. We have creeds like the Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed. "Jesus is Lord" is the oldest creed in Christianity.

And what does that mean? Well, during the first century of Christianity, there was a ruler named Caesar. Caesar wanted to be called Lord. And what he would do is he would arrest Christians and put them in prison and treat them very badly.

And when they were arrested, if they said, "Caesar's Lord," they'd let him go. But if they said, "Jesus is Lord," they would kill them. So being Lord means something very special, very special.

There are a lot of false gods. And when we claim Jesus as Lord, we're saying that Jesus is Lord of all. We just sang that. He's Lord of all, Lord of all things. He's the second person of the Trinity, God, the Father, God, the Son. He's divine.

That's why we call him Lord. Jesus said, "Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and don't do what I say?" So what that means is this. Jesus wants us not only to call him Lord and call him our Savior, but to do as he says.

In fact, Jesus said this, "Blessed are those who not only hear the word of God, but do it." Just don't hear God's word. Do God's word. That's what it means to have Jesus as Lord.

So help me out again. There are a bunch of scriptures, and I want you to read the bold words from Romans 5:1. It says, "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord."

And Philippians 2:10, "At the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father."

So you're catching on. Okay.

Fill in the blank. You got this. So the angel said to the shepherds in announcing Jesus's birth, "For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."

All right. So the apostle Paul wrote this concerning Jesus. "Number four, our citizenship is in heaven, and from it, we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ."

To put it all together in your notes, the Christian disciple is someone who believes in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. That's powerful.

So what does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus, who is the Lord and Savior? Well, the answer is found in Luke 9, which is our scripture for the day.

This is about Luke 9:57, the first would-be disciple. As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "Jesus, I'll follow you wherever you go."

And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."

That makes this man had a very profound and powerful statement. "I'll follow you wherever you go." Reminds us of the disciples. Remember the disciples were in the Garden of Gethsemane?

Yeah, when it came to following Jesus, they didn't follow him. The road got tough, and the tough didn't get going. So this man makes this profound, powerful statement.

I believe this man was sincere. I believe this man wanted to follow Jesus, but he didn't count the cost. He didn't count the cost. He saw Jesus doing miracles, and he said, "Man, I'm going to hang around this dude. He's popular. He's powerful."

And he turns water into wine, and he multiplies fish and bread. This is a pretty cool gig. True commitment has a price to pay. True commitment says, "I'll follow Jesus no matter what."

Whatever comes against me, whoever opposes me, I'm committed to live as long as I live. I'm going to follow him, even if it means death.

Jesus said, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." Jesus says, "Look, I'm going to lower the bar for you. Let's just talk about where we're going to sleep tonight. I have no place to sleep. You want to follow me? It's not going to be easy."

And you think this is hard, not finding a place to sleep? You wait till later on when they start persecuting Christians. If you think this is hard, not finding a place to sleep.

And this whole theology goes against this whole prosperity teaching that Jesus wants to make you rich. It's just the opposite. Jesus said, "Look, you need to sacrifice. You need to sacrifice if you're going to follow me."

And the definition of sacrifice is to offer up something that is precious and has value to you. And that's what Jesus is trying to teach this man and trying to teach us.

That brings us to would-be disciple number two. To another, he said, "Follow me, but..." You know what the word "but" does? It negates everything that came before it.

"Yeah, I'd like to help you. I really, really would like to help you out today, but..." No, I'm not going to help you.

So this guy goes, "I would like to follow you, but," he said, "Lord," what does he call him? "Lord. Let me first go..." And I'll tell you what he's saying. He's saying, "Go and bury my father."

And Jesus said to him, "Leave the dead to bury their own dead, but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God."

You know, the second man asked permission to go bury his father. And when we first read this, we think to ourselves, "Man, Jesus, you're being kind of tough on the dude, man. His father died, and you're not giving him an opportunity to grieve his father's death. What kind of man are you, Jesus?"

That's not what's happening here. Theologically, back then, when you went to "bury your father," that meant this. This is what this man is really saying.

"Jesus, I will follow you, but first, let me stay with my father until he dies," because his dad is still alive. His dad is still alive, and I'm not sure how long my dad's going to live. He may live another five, 10, 15 years. Who knows?

But when he dies, Jesus, I'll bury him and take care of all his stuff, and when that's done, I will come and follow you. How's that? Jesus goes, "Really?"

Guys, can you imagine? Girls, can you imagine if your husband proposed to you, said, "I want to marry you," and gives you a ring, and she goes, "Oh, let's set a date," and he goes, "Well, you know, we can get married, but first, let me stay with my father until he dies in maybe 10 or 15 years, and then I'll take care of all his stuff, and when that happens, I'll marry you."

You say, "Okay, I'm looking for someone else at this point." You know, and there's this other thing you need to consider in all of this, is that man has an inheritance coming.

If his father's dying, that means he gets an inheritance. Look, if I'm going to marry you, I'm going to marry you. If I leave my dad and he dies, I may miss out on my inheritance, and I really need financial security, Jesus, before I give up everything and follow you.

And so when my father dies, and I get the inheritance that he leaves me, once that happens, I'll be ready, and I will come and follow you. I can't trust you, Jesus, is what he's really saying.

I can't trust you to take care of me. It's a matter of priority. You know, countless people have put off following Jesus. I've witnessed lots of people, but when the rubber hits the road, and they said, "Is there any reason why you can't receive Christ as your Lord and Savior?" and they say, "Well, I'm too young," or "I'm too busy," or "Now's not a good time," and they miss out on so much.

They miss out on so much. I know Jesus knew this man just had an excuse for not following him.

My wife and I tell the story. Last month, we went in to buy a pool cleaner. It's called a Polaris, and it runs in the bottom of your pool and cleans it.

Anybody got one of those? Yeah, ours is worn out, so we were going to go buy a Polaris. And then we went into the pool store, and the guy, you know how salesmen are, "Oh, we got nine of them. Which one would you like?"

You know, and here's the Cadillac, here's the one lower than that, and they get this big steaming. We're all listening and stuff, and we're this close to buying one.

And I looked at my wife, she looks at me, and I said, "I tell you what, my wife and I are going to go home and talk it over, and then we'll come back and make a decision."

And then we'll come back and see you. And he heard these words, "Yeah, you're not coming back, are you?" And we didn't. We didn't. He was right.

You know, we have priorities. We arrange our schedules, we arrange our budgets, our money, and our relationships according to the priorities that we put in our life.

And putting God first means that we have him top priority. And that will bring us to disciple would-be disciple number three here on your note from Luke 9.

Yet another said, "I will follow you, Lord." What did he call him? "Lord." And what is when you call someone Lord? That means I will follow you. I'm going to follow you, Lord.

And here comes in the gate, "But..." There it is. "Let me first say farewell to those at my home." Jesus said, "No one who puts their hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."

You know, Jesus is giving this. I grew up on a farm in Texas, and I would, when I was doing plowing, particularly, and planting, particularly, sometimes we had fields with no fences.

So you didn't have a parameter around, so what you would do is you would choose a point on the horizon. It could be a tree on the horizon, and you would just drive the tractor toward that tree, keeping your eye on the tree.

If you were driving the tractor and decided to look back to see if the rows were straight, see what happens? Yeah, your tractor follows your hands, and the plow goes like this.

And back then, what Jesus is saying, if you got your hand on the plow and back then be pulled by a donkey or something like that, and you're looking back, you're going to plow crooked. You're going to plow a crooked row in your field.

So the question I have for you is, had this man not wanting to go back to see and say goodbye to his family? What Jesus said, he was fit for the kingdom of God.

Was Jesus putting forth some sort of litmus test? Now, if you can plow a plow, you're welcome to the kingdom of God. Well, the statement may be true that no one who puts his hand to the plow is fit for the kingdom of God. Jesus said that.

Well, what was he getting at here? Have you ever looked back? Have you ever looked back? Have you ever plowed, or do you plow perfectly?

Ever sinned in thought, word, and deed by what you've done and what you left undone in your thoughts and your words and your deeds? You know, I know that I don't plow straight sometimes.

Sometimes I look back, or I look away at about, you know, something that worries you, can't sleep at night, or you start doubting God, or you have lust in your life, or pride in your life, or a hundred other things.

You know, and I think about the 12 disciples. Did they plow straight? Jesus chose them. I mean, they were the cream of the crop. And Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane said, "Stay with me, pray with me for one hour, just pray with me," and they all fell asleep.

When Jesus was arrested, what did they do? They ran off. And Peter goes, "Well, I'm with you," and he denied him three times. And what about Thomas? Thomas heard that Jesus had risen from the dead, and just like he said he would.

Thomas said, "I don't believe him. I don't believe your word. I don't believe Jesus's promise." In other words, no one is fit for the kingdom of God, not even the disciples.

And when we read this encounter of these three people, we need to put ourselves in their shoes and find out, is the word of God talking about me?

And we quickly can come up with excuses, come up with excuses. We miss the whole point because you see, we all fall short of the glory of God, and we all need forgiveness.

We all are one of those three people sometimes in the scriptures, but not to miss the good news. Just 11 verses before this text, Jesus, it says that Jesus was headed toward Jerusalem. He set his sights on Jerusalem.

Why? Because there he would be arrested, beaten, tortured, nailed to a cross for the forgiveness of our sins. Going to Jerusalem because we're pitiful plowers, and we plow crooked roads.

But Jesus never sinned in thought, word, and deed. He was perfect in every way. And when we follow Jesus as our Lord, we also follow him because he is our Savior first.

He is our Savior because he saves us. We gladly follow him as our Lord. And Jesus says this, "Though your sins be as red as scarlet, I am as white as snow."

And he says this, "As far as the east is from the west, I will remember your sins no more. I even throw them into a sea of forgetfulness."

You know, there's two big words called condemnation and conviction. Remember the woman caught in adultery? And Jesus says, "Neither do I. Where are your condemners?"

Where Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you." See, what condemnation does is it pushes you away from God, and the devil loves to use that tool on you.

When you sin, you feel guilty, you feel condemned. "If I were to walk into a building, the roof would fall in." I've heard that from people.

Conviction and condemnation is a tool of the devil. Conviction is a tool of the Holy Spirit. Condemnation pushes you away from God, and conviction pulls you to God.

When we realize that we're sinners and we fall short, and we come to God, and he says, "I forgive you. Can we start over?" You go, "Yes, Lord, we can."

What a wonderful thing that is that we can start over with Jesus. So can we follow Jesus perfectly? No, we can't. That's why Jesus died on the cross.

So where do we find strength to be a disciple for Jesus? My mantra in my life has been this: I live each day to the fullest in light of eternity.

Don't let a day go by. Live each day to the fullest. Live your life to the fullest knowing that you're going to live forever.

Your eternal life doesn't start when you die; it started when you believed, when you were baptized and believed in Jesus Christ. Your eternal life has begun.

I'm going to live forever. Yeah, so every day I wake up going, "Hey, another day I could start all over again." So I live it in light of eternity.

I don't live my life going, "I'm going to be 71 years old this month. I better do something before I die." No, that doesn't even cross my mind because I know I'm living forever.

My body may die, but my spirit goes on to be with Jesus. Live each day to the fullest in light of eternity.

Number one, give your successes to God's glory. You're going to get it right sometimes. And this is what the Bible says, "Let your light shine before men, that they'll see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."

That's what we do. That's what I try to do. Give your good works to God. That means you don't strive for the glory of men. You strive for doing things for Jesus.

And the last thing is this: give your failures to his mercy. We're going to fail, aren't we? Well, don't carry it around like condemnation. Let Jesus forgive you, move on, start over.

Which leads us to our memory verse. Jesus said to his disciples, would you read this with me?

Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me."

You know, the middle letter of the word sin is "I." The middle letter of the word lie is "I." The middle letter of the word Lucifer is "I."

The middle letter of the word sin is "I." The middle letter of the word die is "I." So when Satan was in the Garden of Eden, or Lucifer was in the Garden of Eden, he told a lie to Adam and Eve.

And they believed the lie because they were full of, what's the middle letter of the word pride? "I." You can be like God. And they sinned against God.

And that's why Jesus promised a Savior way back in the Garden of Eden. That's why we deny ourselves. The only way we can do that is put Jesus on the throne and take ourselves off that throne.

That means, back to your outline, number four, Christian discipleship is a way of life. It's not just something you live on Sunday morning.

Number five, a Christian disciple spends time in A, in Bible study. I know you own a Bible. Study it. If you work the word, the word will work in your life.

Let me say that again. If you work the word, the word will work in your life. Number B, in prayer. Take your time to have a quiet time.

I set aside time with God. It's like sitting when your wife says, or your husband says, "I need to talk." "Okay, how about this tonight? Can we sit down and talk?"

And you go, "Yeah, we'll do that." And then you forget, or you don't take time. Take time to talk with God. Take time to set aside for a quiet time.

Number C, fellowship. That means spending time with other Christians. Why is fellowship so important? I think one of the most important boards in the church is the fellowship board because when people come together, they get to pray together, get to talk together, they get to share their burdens with one another.

They get to rejoice with one another. They get to be part of each other's lives. That's why fellowship is so important.

And in worship, D, worship. Making worship a priority. When I was a child, we went to worship. "How sick are you?" "Well, you're not throwing up. You're going to church."

Okay? There were no excuses when I was a kid. Because everybody else is going to church. No one's going to take care of you, so you better come along.

So I don't think I ever missed church in my life, ever, when I was a child growing up.

And E is make disciples. We're commanded to make disciples, but before you can make a disciple, you have to be a disciple.

You know, I want to end on this. The Marine Corps uses this slogan, "The few, the proud, the Marines," to emphasize the nature of what it means to be a Marine.

A lot of people become Marines because they know a Marine. My uncle. My dad. Somebody in my life was a Marine. And that inspired me to be a Marine.

You are a Christian soldier of God. And when other people see you, you let your light so shine before them. "I want to be like you. I want to be..." Look, you've got joy in your life. You've got happiness in your life because you live in the forgiveness of God.

You've got peace in your life because you know that if you were to die, you'd go to heaven. I saw you at your mother's funeral, or your daughter's funeral, or your friend's funeral.

They were Christians. And you were, the way you... We do not grieve as those who have no hope. The Bible doesn't tell us not to grieve. It didn't tell us not to cry because Jesus cried any grief.

But we grieve as those who have hope because we know there's something beyond the grave. So as a Christian disciple, other people see you.

And we're not going to make it perfectly. But we can be a light that shines in the darkness. That happens because we let God's grace light shine through us.

That leads us to our closing scripture from Matthew 28:19. Jesus said, "Go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I commanded you."

So the question is, are you ready to fulfill your duty as a Christian disciple?

There's a phrase that says this: there's nothing greater than to spend your life for something that will outlast it. Let me say that again. Nothing greater than to spend your life for something that will outlast it.

Invest in other people. Let them know about your faith in Jesus. Bring them to worship and to Jesus. Paul says, "I count everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus as my Lord."

Jesus is my Lord. Will you pray with me?

Lord God, Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have given us a Savior, a Lord that we follow as his disciples.

And Father, we don't always get it right. Sometimes we get it so wrong. Thank you for the forgiveness of our sins that Jesus won on the cross that we can start all over again, a brand new start.

And Lord, we also pray that you will continue to use us to be Christian witnesses to our families, to our friends, to our neighbors, to all those who see us.

That you may shine through us. We pray this in your mighty name, in the name of Jesus, who further taught us to pray.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

And give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory of the Lord.

And the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Sparring. Huh? Doesn't sound very inspiring.

My one defense, my righteousness, oh God, how I need you. I could do a blessing. I mean, but the Lord bless you and keep you.

I mean, the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. Do a great job.

May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

God bless you. Thank you for coming. Have a blessed week.