SIGNAL CHURCH CAPE TOWN
Terran Williams: Jesus: Jesus The Disciple Maker Pt.30
Good morning everybody, great to be with you guys. I'm so excited about preaching to you today and we're really going through, we're learning more and more about Jesus every Sunday almost, a lot of Sundays this year, like just looking at him from a different angle. And today I want to speak about Jesus the disciple maker, Jesus the disciple maker. And if you didn't know this about Jesus, you missed out on a big point about Jesus. Yes is the son of God, yes is the savior of the world, yes is the lord of the universe. But he's also the disciple maker. If you didn't know that about Jesus, today you're in for a delightful surprise and also helps make sense of what it's like to have a relationship with somebody who is a disciple maker. So let me read the text where you mock chapter three. Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake and a large crowd from Galilee followed. When they heard all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Judea, and the regions across Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. Because of the crowd, he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him to keep the people from crowding him, for he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. And whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, "You are the son of God," but he gave them strict orders not to tell others about him. Jesus went up on a mountainside and he called to him those he wanted and they came to him. He appointed twelve, designating them apostles, that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. These are the twelve of you appointed, Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter, James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John, to them he gave the name bowenerges, which means sons of thunder, Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, son of Elphius, Thaddeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot who tragically betrayed him. So let's think about Jesus as the disciple maker. And my new favorite mental picture has been created by the chosen, when I think about the disciples now, Jesus with his disciples on the boat. So the thing you learn about Jesus is that he ministered to so many, the crowds, but he discipled a few. He ministered to so many, the crowds, but he discipled a few. What does it mean to disciple someone? It means to pour your life into them so that they catch what you have, to pour your life into someone so that they catch what you have. When I think about Jesus' biggest miracle, I mean I think about his resurrection from the dead. I mean that's a fairly impressive miracle. Well I think about him multiplying bread and fish, but actually I think he's most overlooked miracle is that he multiplied himself. I mean, even if you don't believe in Christianity and Jesus, the Son of God, you have to acknowledge that the biggest movement in human history is this Jesus following movement, sociologically. It's no bigger group numerically in human history. And then how did this guy in three years between the ages 30 and 33 start the movement? What we're going to learn today is he invested himself in a few people. He didn't just do the work, he multiplied the workers. In Mark 3, we see the crowds coming to him. They want his touch, they want his ministry. Jesus actually seems a little overwhelmed. Please put me on a boat, take me away. It's just getting a bit too intense. But he knows that he alone cannot minister to all of these crowds. He does something brilliant. He chooses a team of leaders in training and last week we learned it was the most unlikely group of people. You were looking for world changes, which is so promising because it doesn't matter how talented and impressive you are, Jesus can take your life and turn you into a world changer. And he leaves and he leaves behind these disciples who have now caught what he has. I'm talking about his understanding of the kingdom and his passion to bring the kingdom to this world and touch and change people's lives. So I've got five points that I want to make in my message. I'll just tell you where we're going. Firstly, discipleship is central to signals mission. Secondly, our culture is discipling us. Thirdly, how Jesus discipled people. Fourthly, be discipled by Jesus. And fifthly, partner with Jesus by discipling others. So every day I say, I'm going to unpack those five ideas. Are you interested? I mean, you're leaning forward, okay, yeah. So firstly, discipleship is central to signals mission. Discipleship at its core is about being formed into the image of something or someone. At its core, it's about being formed into the image of something or someone. Luke, chapter 6, verse 40, Jesus says this. He says, "The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher." We kind of think of teacher as like information transfer. But Jesus thinks about teaching as transfer of what that person carries. Now, you carry it too. I'm thinking Yoda and Luke Skywalker here. Galatians, chapter 4, verse 19, the apostle Paul writing churches. He says, "My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. He so wants to see Jesus imprinted on these people. When he meets them, they are pagans worshiping idols, having demonic spiritual experiences. They had the gospel. They start out on their journey. Paul says, "Well, then you started the journey, but where we're going is Jesus imprinted upon your life." And Paul says, "Working with you guys, it's a little bit like giving birth. It's long. There's some setbacks, it's excruciating for Paul at times, but he's not giving up on that vision." So we have a mission statement in Signal Church. This is what it is. Stepping into the story of God and the ways of Jesus for the sake of Cape Town. And stepping into the story of God and the ways of Jesus for the sake of Cape Town. So maybe some of you brand you to church. I'm so delighted you here. If you think I'm only speaking to people who are really Christians, no, I'm speaking to you too. We are a church that's so passionate about helping people connect their story to the story of God. I had my story going, God's got his big story going. Coolest moment in my life was when my story connects with his story. I stepped into the big story. What's up? What's up? Oh, thank you. Am I worrying you here? So I think when we say stepping to the story of God, what we are saying is, in Signal we so want to help our friends connect their story to God's story. Yeah? So people are traditionally called evangelism. We want other people to find Jesus. But that's just the beginning. We also want people to step into the ways of Jesus. That's discipleship. I love this picture of stepping. There's little children. You know, they've got 100 children under the age of 18 in our church, that are part of Signal. You watch these little kids. You're not long ago. They were sitting and they're holding their mom's hands. And now they're walking. And they take little steps. And that's how you grow. One step at a time. I love this picture of stepping into the ways of Jesus because whether you be in a Christian for one week or 100 years, there's still another step. And we're all heading in the same direction. We want our lives to step into the ways of Jesus. We want to step into the ways of Jesus and for the sake of Cape Town. Our prayer, we're still getting there, is that the city will feel the benefit of lots of people living in the ways of Jesus. I'm talking about compassion to those who are hurting. We've made a decision as a leadership team to be giving to Stratvac, for example. And also, I'm taking your faith and applying it into the world of work so that you're in an industry where you can bring the light and the salt of Jesus to that industry. But we're stepping into the ways of Jesus. And I just want to say that because a few times in the last few weeks, I've had somebody say, "Taren, your heart is for evangelism." And then they say something which sounds like, "But you're not so passionate about discipleship." So in other words, I'm more interested in stepping to the story of God and now you feel we've just arrived. So I just want to be very clear, I'm as passionate about discipleship as I am as evangelism. It's not enough to step into the story of God. We want to step into the ways of Jesus. Yeah? Did I persuade you? Okay. The second thing I want to say is our culture is discipling us. Our culture is discipling us. See while follows of Jesus, I'll call to have the imprint of Jesus in their lives, the world, the culture seeks to conform you to its own patterns. Our culture is constantly calling you to step into its ways. Our culture is constantly discipling us, shaping our beliefs, shaping our values, shaping our behavior, even when you aren't aware of it. You've just got to go into the day, you've just got to open a screen. You are being discipled. The subtle power of culture lies in its ability to disciple us through repetitive normalization. You just see something or you hear something again and again, at first it might shock you but you're in enough times, okay it's normal. Or it works through emotional appeal. I mean advertising relentlessly pushes for consumerism, it's trying to turn us into consumers. Containment redefines sexual morality. Social media glorifies the self. Our culture is constantly teaching us what to love, how to think, what to pursue. This happens not through formal teaching but through the stories we hear, the habits we adopt, the influences we surround ourselves with. I'll give you an example. The cult of parenthood. Not so long ago, people seemed to be often sucky parents. Not anymore. It's not days. They are devoted. There's a lot of pressure on moms. Your great last work is the parenting of this child but there's something about influence of parenting where our parenting is turned into a performance where we want to give our kids the perfect life. I see this often follows of Jesus. They seem more devoted to their children than to Jesus, I could put it like that. And when you put your kids before Jesus, you teach your kids to put themselves before Jesus, you actually hurt the very kids. You're so devoted to. How did you get into that mindset? Well, I tell you, the cult of parenthood came upon you through the culture. They are therapists in this community. I go to therapy. Think therapy is wonderful but there's something called therapeutic culture. Again, so popular through social media that effectively valorizes the self. You see, therapy is one thing but therapeutic culture is another. But therapeutic culture says don't worry about loving others, worry about loving yourself. Don't pursue virtue, accept yourself. Don't worry about relationships, find your individual spark. So that through the messages we constantly hear, actually we're not getting imprinted in Christ's likeness which emphasizes love and community and virtue. Something else has come upon us which seems so much more meaningful. It's like you're a compass. You know, compass is there's true north and there's magnetic north, subtly pulling the needle of our lives away from true north. Without vigilance, we unknowingly drift off course. Christ, like a steady compass, aligns us with God's direction, helping us resist the pull and stay on the path towards Him. How Jesus discipled some people. Now, I'm going to say a lot of things and I really don't mind if you forget it. If you want, you can take a photo because I'm about to put 10 words on the screen. I don't want to terrify you, it's not a 10-point message. But these are some of the things I noticed when I studied, how did Jesus disciple the 12? I noticed 10 things. The first is that He spent time with them. Jesus spent time with His disciples, it's God on the lake, it's God on the mountain. Be with me. He had always, we read about Him having meals with the disciples. Secondly, He taught His disciples, whether spontaneously or taking them through teaching. Thirdly, He was vulnerable with the disciples. He revealed His heart to them. If you were His disciple, He shared more about His life than He did to the crowds. He told you His secrets. At times He told you His vulnerability, "Stay with me, pray with me." You felt that you had front row seats on the heart of Jesus. Fourthly, Jesus set an example, this one's almost obvious, it's weird to write it, but Jesus modeled a Christ-like life to us, to the disciples. He modeled obedience, even to the point of death. He showed His disciples how to love and serve others humbly. The first thing Jesus did is He encouraged them because they got discouraged and they got scared. He had comforted them, He encouraged them, He understood their fears, doubts and struggles. The sixth thing Jesus did is He corrected His disciples. When weaknesses arose in these disciples, He would talk about it, He would confront it. Jesus rebuked Peter when He tried to prevent Jesus from going to the cross. Jesus corrected the disciples when they were arguing about who was the greatest. He wasn't afraid to correct and address the weaknesses when they arose. The seventh thing Jesus did is He challenged these disciples. He called them to leave behind their former lives, to follow Him. He cast a huge vision that would take up their entire lives, give everything to this possibility of the Kingdom of God coming in the world. Go make disciples, not just of your hometown, of all the nations, it's going to take up everything you are. The only thing He did is He restored them, restoration. Because His disciples properly screwed up at times, they sinned, they failed. The difference between Peter and Judas is that Judas wasn't willing to repent. And the ninth thing Jesus did is, I don't know how to say it, but ministry release. The whole time He was training them for ministry. He was equipping them, He was getting them to do it with them and ultimately they would do it even once He went up to heaven. And the tenth thing is He prayed for His disciples, I love Luke 22, Peter is speaking to Peter and he says, "Peter, Satan has asked to sift you as weak, but I've prayed for you. I pray that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." I just find that quite useful, the way Jesus discipled people, and I'm going to come back to that twice more in my next point. So my fourth thing I want to say is be discipled by Jesus. Be discipled by Jesus. And again, I realize some of you have walked in here, you're on Jesus' disciples. You're never intended to be his disciple, but now you find yourself a church and I'm going to be God's message and say, what about it? Wouldn't you want to become Jesus' disciple? I actually get that line. Do you want to become his disciples too? In John chapter 9, there's this blind guy that everybody's picking on because Jesus has healed his eyes on the Sabbath, or is a red flag to people that, you know, I'm meant to do anything on the Sabbath. So they're interrogating this poor blind guy who can now see. Tell us about the guy. And this guy tells them everything he can about Jesus. They keep prodding him and then he asks them the question, do you want to become his disciples too? And unfortunately, they don't take the question well, but I love the question, do you want to become his disciples too? Dallas Willard, a famous philosopher and Christian author he died a few years ago. He would lecture his philosophy students and then they would come to know that he is a follower of Jesus and inevitably somebody would say to him, Dallas, why do you follow Jesus and he would always answer the same way, who else did you have in mind to follow? It's such a good question. Who else can you think of to follow there would do a better job of your life than Jesus? The New Testament uses the word disciple to refer to the twelve as well as all those who followed him. The book of Acts speaks about Christians and disciples, something like 200 times the Bible calls believers in Jesus' disciples, only twice are believers called Christians, fancy enough, interestingly enough. So a disciple was the favorite name for the early Christians. While Jesus was on earth, he discipled many, but now that he's in heaven, he still disciples people. If you Jesus is a disciple, it means he's discipling you. In ten ways that the exalted Jesus disciples you, well you already know what comes next. He does it by spending time with you. If anyone hears my voice says, "Jesus opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me," this morning we spent quite a lot of time singing. We're spending time with him. You took out the morning to come spend time with Jesus, but you can keep company with him every day of your life. Because disciples you, by teaching you, still teaches you through the Word, through the Bible, through the Holy Spirit, to the degree you value the Scriptures, to that degree Jesus is able to disciple you. He still disciples you through vulnerability, through the Spirit. He still shares his secrets, his feelings with you. He tells you things. He didn't tell everyone else, but he told you, because you've come close to him, Jesus still disciples you through his example, how lucky for us that four people had the good sense to write down his life, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, let's give it up to those guys, writing it down. We've forever got a blueprint of the kind of person Jesus is, and we can't live the life he lived, that life's already been lived. But if Jesus was in your life, in your home with these crazy people in your family, with this crazy industry you've landed up in, how would Jesus live his life? That's the big question, and we can look to the example of Jesus for answers to that question. Jesus still works by giving encouragement, encouragement to you, and Jesus still works by bringing correction. His grace and mercy are not meant to enable us to continue in our weakness, but rather to empower us to overcome them. This morning as Julia was leading the meeting, she felt the Holy Spirit guarding her to emphasize repentance. What is it in your life that's off? Time to bring it back on track. She did that so well, reminding us that Jesus is so kind, it's his kindness that allows us to want to open up. He still corrects things in our lives, because you've got weaknesses, I've got weaknesses, and Jesus loves us so much that he takes us as we are, but he loves us too much to leave us like we are, so he brings correction, and he doesn't discourage us with this correction. He does it in the most encouraging way, and then Jesus still gives the challenge. He calls us to take up our cross and follow him. I love C.S. Lewis on taking up our cross in mere Christianity, that book that came out last century says submit to death, submit to death, death of your ambitions, and your favorite wishes every day, and death of your whole body in the end, submit with every fiber of your being. Give up yourself and you will find your real self, lose your life and you will save it. He still challenges you. Because I don't know about you, I keep on thinking that I've got my life's plan, and then I go, "Jesus, please come bless my life," and then it doesn't work out, and then I realize that I've flipped the roles, and actually God's got his plan for your life, and he's going to bless that plan, not your plan for his life. So you come back to the same crisis of like, "Oh my goodness, I've got to surrender my life to him if I want this thing to take." He challenges you. He challenges me. We live in a comfort-orientated culture, well, Jesus defies that. He gets in our face. He makes a demand in your life to levels of generosity and sacrifice that exceed what you had hoped for. If you could've designed your life, you wouldn't have built in lavish sacrifice in convenience, but you follow Jesus, he's going to bring that into your life. And then he still works by restoration. When we blow it, he comes to us, and we repent, he receives forgiveness, he's able to restore us still to this day when we use disciples, and he still does ministry release. The spirit gives you gifts and abilities for ministry, he empowers us to be his witnesses, and believe it or not, I remember when I first heard this, I actually couldn't believe it. He prays for you still. We're told in Hebrews 7, verse 25, Jesus is able to save completely those who come to God through him because he always lives to intercede for them. I just love it when people are praying for me. One of the great pokes of being in a nightclub, which is our name for small groups in signal, a playful name, is you know which people you may not ask for for prayer, guys, please pray for me. They're the guys. You've got to pray. Loses, would you be if you're in a nightclub with me, you don't pray for me. So we're going to pray for each other in this nightclub. But if everybody forgets to pray for you, not a problem, Jesus is praying for you. Jesus has you covered. So remember what I said, discipleship is constant counter formation, the culture is going for you, magnetic north is pulling you out, and yet Jesus is recalibrating that the compass needle in your life and my life. Don't you feel that on a Sunday morning when we get it to worship, it's like we're getting proper true north, like my heart during the week, it's shocking how easily that compass needle goes, comfort, ease, wealth, popularity, revenge, whatever it is, you have bad stuff. Well, you get taken out and you come back to Jesus and the true north recalibrates you. You know, I often think like what happens on a Sunday morning so corrects my heart. You imagine, I think I almost need two Sunday mornings a week to get this thing like that because it just goes so quick because our culture is going at your heart the whole time. I mean, I think we've got a situation on our hands. How much time on a day do you spend reading the Bible or reflecting on the Bible? Yeah? Okay, if the answer is five minutes, much better than the person who answers north minutes. But can you see the problem you're in if you're giving five minutes to scripture and five hours to social media or surfing into that? I mean, it's just a no brainer what's happening to your heart every day of your life. So be Jesus's disciples. And then my last point is partner with Jesus in discipling others. Partner with Jesus by discipling others. Hey, if you already are a disciple of Jesus, who has discipled you? I remember when I was getting trained for Christian ministry, like in the beginning, they got hold of me and they trained me, trained me, trained me. And I remember they did this exercise and they said write a list of three programs that change your life. I was like, programs like what? They said like a course or maybe a sermon and I, like something had happened, you know, and I couldn't, I couldn't really think of the three things. I've done a lot of programs and I've been in a lot of sermons. Now, please, I'm not undermining the sermon. Big believer in the discipling power of a sermon. And then they said in our list, three relationships that God has used to change your life. And I said, but I got five. And I said, just choose three. Dang, three. And then they said, what's more powerful to change your life, a program or a relationship? And then we've got that simple exercise. Who's discipling you? Who are the people who have invested in your life as a disciple of Jesus? For a lot of us, it'll be our parents, but it might be other people. I've got hundreds of people. I mean, every sermon I've heard, a little bit of discipleship, I've read, I'm guessing thousands of books, maybe I'm exaggerating, but it feels like that. And I've created every one of those people for shaping my life. But there's definitely a few people who did like all ten things Jesus did for His disciples for me. And at the time, I thought they would be in my life forever, but it turned out just be a full season of my life. I'm going to tell you about one of those people at the end of my message, but it's just lovely to think, who are the people that have come into shape your life, that have just took an interest in your life and have encouraged you and prodded you in the right direction, spend more time with you. I love Littando two Thursday nights ago, he shared how Roger, who's sitting over there has been discipling him. I think those were the words he used, he didn't use those words, hey. And then I remember chatting to Roger, and Roger just felt like a real desire to disciple Littando, and he's been getting him in his house Friday nights, a lot of them. Hey, am I got the story, Roger, sort of. But who's discipling you, and how lucky you are if people are discipling you. So remember, don't get depressed, Jesus is discipling you, if no one has had come in on your life, you still Jesus' disciples, but let's honour every discipling influence in our life, those people, with the most important people in your life. And then my next question, if you are a disciple, is who are you discipling? Who are you discipling? Oh, no, no, I can't disciple anyone, I need to like get to like black belt level disciple. No, no, no, you just need to know a little bit more than the next person, you can catch them up. If you've got anything, you've caught something that another person hasn't, you can get to discipling them. See, Jesus ministered to many and I hope that you would be ready to minister to so many people, but Jesus also invested in a few and I hope that you're investing in your few. When a person comes to our church and they're brand new to the faith, I hope you don't just tell them, "Hey, come on Sundays and read this book." I hope that you get them on their lives, that you invite them to a meal, get them into your nightclub, you give them specialised attention. Little children, biological children, they need so much more care, not forever just to get them up and going and when a person starts out in their journey, let's single church just be a church that spots the new person and gets in around that person and encourages them. Jason and Mandy, you guys are real investors in people. I keep on talking to people, Mandy and Jason were spending time with me and let's just make space in our lives, new people, they are witsoments, you can do the first layer of paint on their life, they'll forever remember the things you tell them, you show them and then the other thing, it's an investment, not a guarantee, Jesus had one of his disciples go, "Hey, well, Judas," so you know, pouring your life into someone can be agonising where your investment doesn't, the person bails, it happens. So don't be overly discouraged when it happens, it happened to Jesus, but we also disciple each other in a nightclub, we can, and our Christian friends, you know, don't just keep a friendship going, your Christian friends especially can, that friendship can be a conduit for discipling each other, encouraging each other, challenging each other, correcting each other, spending time with each other, praying for each other, we can disciple each other. And then I think what we learn from Jesus is, signal needs more and more leaders, right? Every group of people growing needs more and more leaders. Where do these leaders come from? Leaders make leaders. So if you're a leader in signal, always be taking other people under your wings, saying, "Hey, have you thought about leading a nightclub, or have you thought about getting involved in kids' ministry?" or have you thought about how your faith can integrate with your industry? So leaders raise leaders. And then another thing here, if you are called to leadership, I hope you also understand that the best way to grow as a leader is through followership. Jesus never said to you disciples, "Come be leaders." He said, "Come, follow me." And in following, they learned the humility and the patience where their time came and they became leaders. I have been a follower my entire life. Only the last three years, I'm leading a congregation where I don't have an immediate person I'm reporting to. And I kind of miss that and I'd love to find a way for something like that to come into my life again. But if you're called to leadership, your best way to prepare is followership. Get behind other leaders. None of them are perfect. All of them will disappoint you if you knew them very well. But get behind their lives. Catch what they've got. And you'll see doors open. That's how it was in the scripture. Joshua became a great leader through following Moses. David became a great leader through following Samuel. Nehemiah became a great leader by following the king, Jesus. Paul became a great leader by first following Barnabas. So ten ways that we can be very quick, that we disciple each other, you already know the list, spend time with each other, have people over to a house for meals, teach each other, be vulnerable with each other. Paul says we have spoken freely to you, Corinthians. We've opened wide our hearts to you. We're not withholding our affection from you. Bring people into your life, unveil yourself. Get an example for people, Paul encouraged Timothy to set an example for the church in the way he spoke, the way he acted, the way he loved his faith, his purity. Encourage each other, that's the way to disciple each other, encourage one another and build each other up, says one Thessalonians five. He has one that we just shy away from, correct each other, address weaknesses in each other, do this with humility, love and grace. When we grow up broken, we are terrified of anybody correcting us, we're terrified. But how on earth are you going to go to the next level if you can't bring yourself, just somebody correct you in love, and correct? I don't know, I've tried to find other words, yeah, coach, the word correct sounds too harsh. But who's going to coach you and coach each other? I think that we suck as friends, if we tell people that these are my best friends, but you never challenge the compromises in each other's lives. What kind of friend is that, the wound of a friend, the wound of a friend is deep, says one's scripture, surely our friends have got the right to speak into our lives. Do it so gently, find the right time, just find the way you're going to say it. But when you burden for a friend who's a follower of Jesus, you can see there's something in their life. If you could just have a conversation with them, maybe you could nudge them in the right direction. Challenge each other, restore each other, brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently, but watch yourselves or you may be tempted, carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. You're not naive about the fact that we wipe out from time to time, and if you blow it, you don't stop, you don't go, I can't go back to church, I can't follow Jesus again. No, no, you can be restored, and we want to be a restoring community. Ministry release and carry each other, what's your gifting, what's your calling? Step into that and pray for each other. So I'm right at the end of my message, and I wanted to tell you my story of one guy who discipled me, I became a Christian around 16, and I came to church 200 meters down the road, which is now a jubilee building, but it was Cape Town Baptist Church. And these guys will be stepping to the story of God, but beautifully they immediately took me under their wings. Craig DuVell taught me to love scripture and to memorize scripture. Charlene Swats taught me to love ministry and find shop in my skill set in youth ministry. But Michael the Nice seemed to go to another level of real in-depth investment into our development as people. We would go to the spur of the church on Sunday night, and we would joke, it's your turn with Mike, and we'd all sit opposite Mike and say, "How are you?" And we would have our conversation with Mike. And he was a really caring, invested person, and I actually teamed up with that guy for three years because I volunteered the first three years out of school doing, working for this church. I paid for it, my mom paid for it, thanks mom. We paid, I paid to work for that church. That's what I did. But I just learned so much. But Michael the Nice, when there was something weak in our lives, he would address it. He would encourage us. He would give us training opportunities. He'd help us to find our callings. He'd give you feedback. He was so invested. You could feel this guy loved us. Everything was in love. But he was fully committed to helping us go to the next level. I actually thought Mike would be in my life forever. I realized there came a time where Mike went to Joe Berg and it was just for a season. But that season, I'll tell you one of my fondest memories of Mike was when he challenged me. One Saturday morning, he invited me and three other guys, old, what we were, 19 or 20, to go the cable car road and to have a breakfast together. We carried a portable scottal, bacon and eggs. We drove to the end of the cable car road and then we walked around and then we set up this little scottal. And you could look onto the city bowl and you're left, you could look onto the southern suburbs and you're right. You could look up the west coast in front of you and we're having a lack of time. And then he suddenly got all serious with us and he opened up the scriptures and he said, Jesus had compassion on the crowds and he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few and he called his disciples to him, to equip them to send them out. And then he says, I brought you up here because I want to show you the people that Jesus cares about. He's referring to the tens or hundreds of thousands of people living in the city bowl, living there in Rosebank in front of us and we're just panellons, you know, Newlands, Ronda Bosch, Claremont, Constantia, it's just a whole deal up to Musinburg, up the west coast. We're 19-year-olds, the coolest thing that I want to do for my life is be a better surfer. This guy's saying, get the surfer, look at these people that Jesus cares about. And he says, Jesus is calling you to lay down your life to reach those people. I was in a little church of, I had, what, 200 people? I honestly believed that I was going to be part of reaching all those people. It was 30 years ago and I actually just remembered the story and the reason I'm careful because dawns me, that's what I've done every day in my life since then, the very people I could see, the people I've spent my life, and it took somebody to just challenge me, to call me to something so much bigger than myself, what a rocking way to spend a life, helping people step into the story of God, step into the ways of Jesus, and I just want to take you up the mountain with me right now, I've got some food for you on the scottal, can you see it? You've been up there before, can you see the city on your left, can you see the harbor in front of you, can you see all those people, they're too small, but you know they're there in the little cars and I know that you've got a lot on in your life and life is hard and at times when you can hardly cope with children if you're a parent, so this is a terrifying thought, what more do you have in your life to give? What if Jesus has put you in this church because he's bringing you into a city-wide vision? We step into the story of God and the ways of Jesus for the sake of Cape Town. We really believe that signal is early days here in the city bowl, we believe God's put us in the city bowl because from the city you can plant art, people will drive into the city and I do imagine we're going to be planting many churches to that part of the world and who knows beyond and I, you give your whole life to Jesus, I would encourage you to do that and connect it to a city-changing vision. Changes don't come right away, there's lots of disappointments on the way, don't give up when you disappoint, Jesus lost Judas, it nearly broke him, but you stick at it and your life will touch and change so many people's lives. As you do the work but he has the key, don't just do the work, multiply the workers, be a disciple who is making disciples.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/108tjQZUzmarvHm3RVkogIknlNplOIe4g/view?usp=sharing