Will you also go away?

Well, I want to say good morning to everyone this morning, and I'm very glad to be here. I'm glad for the presence of everyone, those of you who are visiting. A warm welcome, hearty welcome. We're glad you're here today as well.

As I was trying to decide what to preach about, of course I went to Isaiah, and for some reason it just didn't work. And I guess after listening to our discussion this morning, I realized that God had something else in mind. So the title of the message this morning is, "Will you also go away?"

And that is taken from John chapter six, where it says that after Jesus said some hard things, it said many of his disciples walked with him no more at that time. And so Jesus asked his disciples, "Are you also going to go away?"

As a subheading this morning, I'd like to call us to a call to true discipleship. I'd like to think about four different aspects of what it means, what's involved in being a disciple. The first one is the call to be a disciple.

Is it important? The second point is the cost of being a disciple. The third thing I'd like to think about is the disciple's confidence. And then fourthly, the disciple's commission. We're talking this morning about being a disciple, and we're talking about being a disciple of Jesus. It's possible to be a disciple of many different people. There's people out, there's men out there who have a following, and there's disciples that follow after him. A disciple simply means that you're a learner, that you're a follower, that you're a person who looks at this other person as someone who has something to teach you, you're willing to be taught, and you're willing to follow. And so in a sense, we follow to learn, and we learn to follow.

So there's this circular thing that happens. It's sort of a... as a disciple, we have a particular mindset, and it's a mindset that I want to learn. I'm going to follow this person, and in doing that, we learn what it means to follow. So it goes around that way. And in some ways, when we think about the call, what does it mean? What is the call of discipleship? What is it? And it's very simple. Jesus simply said, "Follow Me."

Twenty times in the Gospels He says, "Follow Me." And I don't know about you, but I find that somewhat comforting. I don't know if you've ever been in the situation where you were kind of... maybe you were trying to find something, and you were kind of lost, and you didn't really know where to go, and people try to give you directions, and it's unclear, "Don't go down to the third tree on the right and turn right." And finally someone says, "You know what? Jump in the car and follow Me."

The relief that that brings, the freedom that brings when we have someone that we can trust, that knows the way, and He says, "Follow Me." And we can do that, and we have confidence in that. This raises some questions. Is to be a disciple of Jesus, is He worthy to be followed? Is He to be trusted? A lot of people ask that question.

What makes Jesus, I mean, any better than any of these other teachers out there?

Do you have to really be a disciple? Is that necessary? Can I be a Christian and not really be a so-called disciple of Jesus? Does Jesus have a claim on my life? These are some questions that we have to ask ourselves. Jesus Himself answered these questions. In Matthew 10:38, He says, "He who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me." So there He pretty well... He plainly states that if we want to be a follower of Him, and we want to be worthy of Him, we have to follow Him.

John 12:26 says, "If any man serves Me, let him follow Me." The opposite of that, the rejection of discipleship is really a rejection of Jesus Himself. It's to say, "Jesus, I'm not really going to follow You." I mean, think about that. Think about the seriousness of rejecting discipleship.

The seriousness of saying, "I don't really think it's important that I follow after You."

I'd like you to turn to Luke chapter 5.

So how do we become a disciple? What's involved in becoming a disciple of Jesus? And I'd like to look at what that involved in Peter's life.

Luke chapter 5, verses 1 to 11: "So it was..." And just previous to this, Jesus had healed many people. Jesus began His ministry. He cast out the unclean spirit. Peter's mother-in-law was healed. He healed many people, and there were crowds of people following after Jesus. They were impressed by what they saw. "So it was, as the multitude pressed about Him to hear the word of God, that He stood by the lake of Gennesaret and saw two boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. Then He got into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little from the land, and He sat down and taught the multitude from the boat.

When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, 'Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.' But Simon answered and said to Him, 'Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing. Nevertheless, at Your word, I will let down the net.' And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both of the boats so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, 'Depart from Me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.' For He and all who were with Him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken.

And so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, 'Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.' So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him.'" One of the first things, one of the prerequisites to becoming a disciple is that you have to hear. You have to listen.

You have to have a heart that's open and willing to listen. And many people had heard Him that day. It says that the multitudes were great. So we picture the scene here. He can't speak to everyone. He needs some way they can see Him. So He gets into a boat. He goes out into the lake a little ways and uses the boat as a pulpit.

And so the first step is that we have to have our ears open to hear. You know, some people stop their ears up. But you know, there's many people that take this first step. There's many people that are willing to hear.

But let's remember, it is a first step. It's an important first step.

But a lot of people choose to hear, but they don't really let it affect their life. You know, we live in a culture of social media, and one of the things that's popular on a lot of social media platforms is the like button.

If you like this, click. And so people put a lot of attention on how many likes they got and whatever. And I'm afraid that a lot of people, they take this first step, but to them it's like pushing the like button. I like what I hear.

Click. But they go out, it makes no difference. So you think about all these people that push all these likes and so on, it really makes absolutely no difference, really, to the person who's whatever he's posting or to the people that are doing it, except that it somehow in our minds, in our egos or whatever, it does something. But practically speaking, it doesn't change anyone's life. It doesn't make any difference.

And so we have a lot of people who are willing to hear, and that's important. The Bible also speaks of people who stop their ears up. They don't even want to hear the truth. But many people are open to hear, but there's no commitment there. And so Jesus, after He speaks to this crowd, asks Peter to do a very interesting thing when you think about it.

He says, "Peter, time to go fishing. Launch out into the deep and put your nets down for a catch."

In the wrong place, the wrong time. One of the things, I grew up in Middle Spring, right next to a trout stream. And when I was a boy, we learned to know that stream like the back of our hands. We knew all... we had certain holes. We knew this pew's hole and whatever. And we knew where the fish were. And it was always amusing to us, especially on the first day of trout season, to watch what we called town boys come in there. And you know, they might have had all the equipment, but they fished at all the wrong places. And you felt... you kind of walked by with maybe just a little bit of a smirk on your face, and you're like, "You can fish there all day, and you're not going to catch a thing.

I mean, that is absolutely the wrong place. There's no fish in there." And I have a feeling Peter felt a little bit that way. I mean, think about it. Jesus was from Nazareth, which was almost directly between the Mediterranean Sea and the Sea of Galilee. So He was not from a seaside city.

He was raised in a carpenter situation. His father was a carpenter. It sounds like He spent His time there. And so Peter couldn't help but question just a little bit, "Lord, we've been out all night, and we didn't catch anything."

And probably the unspoken thing wasn't, "This is the wrong time of the day, and it's the wrong place. I mean, we're just simply... it's not going to..." But He says, "Nevertheless, at Your word, I'm going to let down the net."

And I wondered at, "At Your word?" And you know, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, it says, "Jesus taught as one that had authority." And even in spite of the fact that Jesus was not a... He was not a fisherman, there was something about His word that Peter couldn't ignore. And so he says, "Okay, Lord, at Your word, I'm going to let down the net."

Wow. The catch was supernatural. I mean, they let down the nets, and there were so many fish, the nets started breaking, and they were waving to their partners, saying, "Get the other boats out here quick!" I mean, and all the boats were filled. They were almost sinking.

What was Peter's response? That's what I want to think about a little bit. Peter's response could have been, "We better go in business. Boy, this is great. This is wonderful." No. Peter's response was, "He fell down on His knees, at Jesus' knees, it says, and He said, 'Depart from Me because I'm a wicked man.'" It wasn't about the fish. It was about Jesus.

And I think this was a turning point in Peter's life. He recognized that this Jesus is someone who I need to pay attention to. And He's the... And at this point, we see Peter turning from His sin. He repents and says, "Lord, I'm a sinful man."

Because they realized that this person that he was having this interaction with was more than just... I mean, he recognized that Jesus was someone that he needed to pay attention to. And so we see Peter turning from sin, and that is another step. If you want to be a disciple of Jesus, you first have to hear, but you have to take what you hear, and you have to make it practical. And Peter did that when he recognized who Jesus was. And he said, "I'm a sinful." So repentance, turning from sin. If we want to be a disciple of Jesus, we have to turn. We have to make that turn in repentance. Willingness to accept in obedience whatever Jesus asks us to do.

And you know, from here on out, the rest of this story, Jesus says, "You're going to catch men now, and you need to leave all and follow Me."

It's that last part that we struggle with, I think, so often.

We want to follow Jesus, but we don't really want to leave our nets.

The security.

So the question is this morning, what is it that you're dragging around with you this morning? Think about how ridiculous it would have been for Peter and and and James and John to say, "Yes, Jesus, we want to follow You, but we want to bring our nets along because we might need them, and it's our security. It's our whatever." I mean, we think that's ridiculous.

Yet a lot of people... And this is the question I was asking myself: What am I dragging around? What am I dragging around when Jesus says, "You need to leave it all behind?" You can turn to Matthew chapter 8. This brings us to the second part that I want to think about and probably spend a good bit of time on this morning, and that is the cost involved in being a disciple.

The cost. Matthew chapter 8, verses 18 to 22.

Again, this is in the context of... I mean, Jesus had just done many, many amazing things. He had healed people. In fact, it almost seems like it could have been some of the same situations. Peter's mother-in-law, he healed the centurion servant. He cleansed the leper.

And they came to Him, and it says He healed people that had demons. He cast out the spirits and healed all who were sick. And again, we see this great multitude.

And Jesus, at this time, said... He gave a command. He said, "Let's... We need to get out of here and depart for the other side." And you know, there's other times where we see Jesus looked on a crowd, and it says He was moved with compassion. He had great compassion on them.

In this case, you know, Jesus knew the hearts of men. And I think He was maybe wondering, you know, why? Why the crowd? I don't know that He had to wonder that. And it says in verse 18, "Then, and when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side. Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, 'Teacher, I will 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.' Then another of His disciples said to Him, 'Lord, let me first go and bury my father.' But Jesus said to him, 'Follow Me, and let the dead bury their dead.'"

So we see the miracles. We see the wonderful things. And immediately we have some people who say... Come to... The scribe came to Jesus, and he said, "I'm going to follow You wherever You go. Wherever You want, Lord, I'm going to follow You."

And Jesus said, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." I think Jesus was calling this man to reality and saying, there's no guarantee of physical comfort. There's no guarantee that you're even going to have as much as the foxes and the birds have when it comes to some of these things.

This first person here would probably be an example. There's a couple different responses that people have when they say, "Yes, I want to be a disciple." This is a person who maybe jumps without thinking. In other words, "I want to be your disciple." And Jesus is saying, "Wait a minute. Do you know what that's going to cost?"

When He says, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head," it was a reality check for this man. Are you sure? Are you aware of the cost that is involved?

The second person here, he said, "Let me first go and bury my father." This is maybe a person who thinks without jumping. In other words, this person wants to be a disciple of God, but I want it to be on my terms. Let me give you the terms that I have.

My father's getting old, and you know, sooner or later, it's the responsibility of me to take care of this whole situation. So I want to be your disciple. Yes, I'm going to follow You, but I have to take care of this first.

In Luke, it says about another person who says, "I want to follow You, but I have to... Let me go back and bid farewell." So it's the same attitude. It's, "I want to follow You, but I want to set the terms. It's on my understanding."

Matthew 13, verse 45, Jesus tells us about a pearl, a pearl of great price.

And He offers that in this parable that says, "You go out and you sell everything that you have." So we count the cost. What's the cost of being a disciple? It's everything. Everything.

Juan Carlos Ortiz in his book Disciple sort of gives a little slant on this parable. I think it illustrates a really good point. And it makes us think. Jesus said in Matthew 13 that the kingdom of God was like a merchant looking for fine pearls. And when He found a pearl of great price, He sold everything He had to buy it. Of course, some Christians think this story means that we are the pearl of great price and that Christ has had to give up everything to redeem us. But now we understand that He is the pearl of great price. We are the merchants seeking for happiness, for security, for fame, for eternity. And then we find Jesus.

And when we find Jesus, it costs us everything. He has happiness, joy, peace, healing, security, eternity, everything. So we say, "I want this pearl. How much is it?" Well, the seller says, "It's really expensive." "But how much?" "Well, a really large amount.

Do you think I could buy it?" "Of course. Everyone can buy it. But didn't you say it was expensive?" "Yes." "Well, how much is it?" "Everything you have," said the seller. We make up our minds. "All right. I'll buy it," we say. "Well, what do you have?" He wants to know. "Let's write it down." "Well, I have $10,000 in the bank." "Good. $10,000. What else?" "That's all. That's all I have." "Nothing more?" "Well, I have a few dollars here in my pocket.

How much?" Start to dig. Let's see. 30, 40, 60, 80, 100, $120. "That's good. What else do you have?" "Nothing. That's it." "Where do you live?" "In my house."

He's still probing. "Yes, I have a house." "The house too then." He writes that down. "You mean I have to live in my camper?" "You have a camper?" "That too. What else?" "I'll have to sleep in my car." "You have a car?" "Two of them. Both become mine. Both cars. What else?"

"Well, you already have my money, my house, my camper, my cars. What more do you want?" "Are you alone in this world?" "No. I have a wife and two children." "Oh yes. Your wife and children too. What else?" "I have nothing left. I'm all left... I'm left all alone now."

Suddenly the seller exclaims, "Oh, I almost forgot. You yourself too." "Everything becomes mine. Wife, children, house, money, cars, and you too."

Then he goes on, "Listen. I will allow you to use all these things for the time being, but don't forget that they are mine, just as you are mine. And whenever I need any of them, you must give them up because I am now the owner."

And that's really what it means to become under the Lordship of Christ. That's really what it means. And we do that sometimes. "Lord, I'm willing... Yes, I'm willing to give everything." And then he starts to dig, and he starts to probe and says, "Yes, but what about this? And what about that?"

Luke 14,

verses 25 to 33.

"Now great multitudes went with Him, and He turned and said to them, 'If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it? Lest after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able, with 10,000, to meet him who comes against him with 20,000?

Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever of you who does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple." And that's pretty simple this morning. He demands from us all that we have. If we want to be His disciple, He demands all of us. It means He's Lord of all. And as was already mentioned this morning, that term gets thrown around. We use it, I think sometimes rather lightly.

It's a way of thinking. It's a mindset. Jesus is Lord of all. You know, there was this debate back that began maybe back in the '50s, and it's the debate about Lordship, salvation, versus free grace. And you know, we live in a society, in evangelicals... A lot of evangelical circles where the idea of Lordship is foreign. In fact, there's a pushback against that because they view it as somehow legalistic and somehow... And that Jesus... It's all about grace.

And I wonder sometimes how much of that has permeated our own thinking.

We talk about accepting Christ. We talk about making a commitment. And I'd like to contrast that a little bit with being surrendered to Christ. You know, there's a difference between... When I make a commitment, I'm still in control. When I surrender, I'm out of... I give that... I cede that control to somebody else. And that's what it means to be... To be... To have Christ Lord of your life. It means I have surrendered. And I have turned everything over to Him and said, "Lord, it's Yours.

Everything." "Well, do you have this yet?" "Yes, I have." "Okay. That belongs to Me too."

I sometimes... I really... It bothers me when I hear people using phrases like, "Well, that's not a salvation issue." Is that the mindset that we need to cultivate? Or should the mindset be, "I'm surrendered to Christ, and everything I do takes on importance." It's not about, "Is this a salvation issue or not?" It's about, "Is this something that Christ wants me to do? Is this something that builds the kingdom of God? Is this something that fits in with what it means to be surrendered to Jesus?" And so in a sense, there's no non-issues.

It's all about being surrendered to Christ. Romans 14... This is some verses about Christ as Lord. Romans 14,

verses 7 to 12, says this: "For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lords.

For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living." That's the whole purpose. Jesus came. He wants to be Lord of our lives.

"That He might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. But why do you judge your brother, or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, 'As I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.' So then each of us shall give an account of himself to God." And that's the sobering part of this. We are going to give an account someday. We're going to stand before... And we are going to call Him Lord.

And we can choose to do that today. "Every knee shall bow; every tongue confesses."

Being a disciple means being surrendered to the Lordship of Christ. And it's costly. It costs us everything. It costs us everything.

But you know, I think it was Jim Elliott that said, "He is no fool to give what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose." And I, you know, in all this, I don't want us to lose sight. And that's why I want to talk about the disciple's confidence.

I'd like to read Matthew chapter 8, 23 to 27.

This is right after the passage I read where He says about foxes have holes and the birds of the air had nests. And it's very interesting to me that Jesus puts out the call. He says, "Come, follow Me." And it says they...

They went... Peter went and followed Him. But right after He... He explains to them the cost of discipleship, listen to what it says in verse 23. "Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves, but He was asleep. Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, 'Lord, save us! We are perishing!' But He said to them, 'Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith?' And He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marveled, saying, 'Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?'" You know, God's going to put us to the test.

And if we say, "I'm going to be a disciple," guess where Jesus said? He said, "They followed Him. They got into a boat. And guess where He led them? Right into the middle of a terrific storm."

And I'd like to think... Us to think about this again. These men were hardened fishermen. These men knew boats. They knew all about them. They owned boats. They grew up with boats. Their father was a fisherman.

And they get into this storm, and they are terrified. They are simply terrified. And the word "covered" there, when it says the water covered, that means that the boat was basically hidden. So it either means one... It could mean probably one or maybe both things, is the waves were so high... Have you ever seen a boat where it comes up out of the trough and you can see it, and then it disappears? I mean, way down in it, the boat totally disappears. That would be one thing. The other thing was, it's so covered with water that this thing... This boat is in danger of sinking because it's... The waves are coming over the top. And Jesus is there in the boat, and He's asleep.

And just think, He's probably soaking wet. And He's asleep in the boat.

And Jesus... Someone tells me that the Greek there, when it says, "We are perishing, Lord, save us," it's sort of like, "Help! Drowning! Drowning!" I mean, it's very... It's very short. It's like, "This is all we have time to say. We're dying. We're drowning. Remember, these are hardened fishermen." And this is where Jesus led them. This is where Jesus placed them. But I'm so blessed by the confidence that we can have in Jesus. Jesus... They awake from sleep. And the first thing He does is He doesn't address the storm right away at first. He says, "Why are you afraid?

O ye of little faith." He doesn't say, "You guys don't have any faith." He just says, "Your faith is weak. Why are you afraid?" And then He stands up, and He rebukes the storm, and the waves cease.

You know, there's quite... A quite a payoff. "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose." "The Creator of the waves and the winds was there with them in the boat." And that's the blessing. That's the confidence we can have as disciples. Yes, the cost is high.

But boy, the benefits that we can experience.

Some of you may have heard this story, but there was a story of a little girl... Well, a businessman that flew off and was in an airplane. And he got... They got into some really serious, serious turbulence. And he noticed a little 12-year-old... 10 or 12-year-old girl sitting off sort of in a seat by herself. And everyone else was really worried. They were white-knuckled in the seats, and the plane would give lurches. And we kind of had experienced the last time we flew... When we flew to Josh's, where we got into some really bad turbulence. And there was a dear lady on there who, every time the plane would lurch, she would scream, literally give out a scream.

She was petrified. She was calling out to God. And she was just... She was... It was evident that she was extremely afraid. But here in this situation, there's this little 10-year-old girl, and she has her coloring book out, and she's coloring. Seems to be unconcerned.

Every now and then, she would put her coloring book down, look out the window. And so they finally made it to their destination. The plane landed safely. And he just couldn't help himself. He asked the little girl on the way out. He said, "What... I noticed you weren't afraid." And then she said, "My dad's the pilot."

And you know, it's the same way. I mean, Jesus was in the boat with them. And we can fully trust... When we surrender all to Him, we can fully trust that He is going to bring us through whatever He... Whatever He places in our way.

Jesus said, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take My yoke upon Me... And upon you, and learn of Me. For I'm meek and lowly in heart; My yoke is easy; My burden is light." And that's the promises that He gives us. So can we trust... When He says, "Follow Me," we can trust Him.

We talked about the light this morning.

John 8:12 says, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." He who follows Me. He who is My disciple. 1 John 2:28, "And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming."

He can calm our fears. Last week, Brother Elam asked us to sing the song "My Jesus, As Thou Wilt." And I've been thinking about that a lot. You know, there's a term... It's a German word. It's called "Gelassenheit."

And they tell me there's no exact English translation to the word. But it was something that our Anabaptist forefathers talked about a lot. You need a lot of words to... To explain it. But basically, it's a spirit of yieldedness to God's will, self-abandonment, willingness to suffer, calmness, peace of mind. Someone has said, "Only as a man relinquishes his self-will, may he become an instrument of God."

And you know, that spirit only comes as we're fully surrendered to Christ, as He is Lord of our life. And that's not an Anabaptist concept. That's a concept that Jesus Himself modeled in the garden. He said, "Lord, not what You... Not what I will, but what You want."

It's something that's caught, not taught. And I listened just recently to Brother Chester Weaver... He was giving some... A series of talks on fundamentalism in the Mennonite church and among Anabaptists. And he gave a little talk on the whole idea of "Gelassenheit."

And he said it's largely lost by the 1930s among Anabaptist people. If you want an example of what we're talking about, just go read "The Martyr's Mirror." The ability that those brothers had to face horrible situations and death with a calmness and a serenity and a peace.

And you know, it was one of the greatest, greatest attractions. Because deep down in, that is... That peace and that calmness and that serenity and that willingness... That ability to just put our trust is what the longing of people's hearts.

And I think probably our best modern-day example of that is the shooting at nickel mines and how that has had its effect. We get tired maybe of hearing that as an example. But I just read recently in a totally unrelated...

Someone from over in Europe, I believe, was writing something. And they mentioned that that has made such an impact. How could it be that in the midst of something horrible like that, that you would have the ability to forgive?

How could it be? "Gelassenheit." It just simply means, "I'm yielded." And you know, that affects... Again, it's a mindset. And it's a mindset that we need to model so that the next generation can can find that. And I'm calling us back to that today.

Can we be so surrendered to Christ, so... So much a disciple of His... So... He's such a... So much Lord of our life that I can just have that confidence and trust that whatever He brings me, He's going to bring me through.

And that affects... You know, we have all the problems in our churches, all the... Maybe the strife, the worldliness. You know, that mindset takes care of a lot of that, that problem. And so I'm just calling us today: Are we true disciples? Have we given it all? Have we surrendered all? Someone explained the "Gelassenheit" this way: It's like a grandmother holding for the first time a new grandchild. And some of you just experienced that here. But for the grandmother, it's "Gelassenheit." And for the child, it's "Gelassenheit." The child, there it is. It's just calm and serene in the grandmother's arms. And the grandmother is just overjoyed.

Just a practical way of looking at it. And it's, you know, it's a powerful testimony. If we can model that in our lives, in the lives of our church, it's a powerful testimony. And that brings us to the commission that a disciple has. And that is: Go out and make more disciples. That's what we're called to do.

Matthew 28:18, very familiar.

Jesus came... It says the last words that Jesus spoke on this earth before He went back to glory. It says, "And Jesus came and spake to them, saying, 'All authority has been given Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.'" So it's disciples making disciples making disciples.

So the question we need to ask ourselves is: How many disciples would be made if everyone took the approach that I take? In other words, if everyone did what I'm involved in, would this thing multiply? Or would it kind of stagnate? I especially want to encourage parents here this morning.

This responsibility to make disciples includes your children. And I understand that our children all make a choice, that they have to make that choice. But we have a tremendous influence on them. And what they see modeled is what they're going to follow after. And so mothers here this morning, you play a terrific role in making disciples, fathers in the home as a leader.

You have a terrific influence on your children. And I just... I'm burdened. And I'm sad. And when I see so many children not following after the... In the ways of their parents, and they fall away. And I think about... You know, this has been said before, but what if children would follow in the footsteps of their parents and how that would multiply and fill the earth? So let's not... In our zeal to make disciples, let's start at home and be concerned about that. There's nothing any more disheartening than to see that baton not being not being passed on.

It was a... In Seoul Olympic Games in 1988, it was time for the relay, the 4x100 relay. And there was a lot of expectation because the U.S. team was just hands down way far ahead of everyone else. But the only question was: Were they going to break the world record? That was the question. It wasn't a question if they were going to win.

So all eyes were on the clock when the gun sounded. The first American runner burst out of the starting block like a shot, smoothly passed the baton to the second runner. And the crowd seemed to rise in volume with each pass as they saw that the American team was ahead of the world record pace. As the second runner passed the baton to the third, the buzz continued to build. By now, the outcome of the race was not in doubt as the gap was visible. The third runner was bringing it to the anchor when it appeared they were having a difficult time making the handoff. In an instant, the air was sucked out of the crowd as the baton landed on the track.

They were disqualified. And the race was over. And we have a tremendous responsibility in passing that baton on to the next generation. And I want to just... Let us with this question today. Jesus asked His people, He said, "Are you going to go away also?

Are you willing to pay the price? What reservations do we have in our heart? What are we dragging around with us when we say we want to follow Him? We claim to have left it all behind, but we're dragging all this stuff with us. What is that?

Are we willing to surrender all? Have I responded to the call when Jesus says, "Follow Me"? Have I counted the cost? Do I have confidence in Him that if I put my whole life over into His hands and surrender to Him, that it's going to... That I can trust Him? And am I fulfilling the commission, the job that He gave us to do? Will you also go away?" When Jesus said that, Peter's response was, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." And that's where I want to come out this morning. Who else are we going to go to? Where else are we going to turn? You have the words of eternal life.

So may God bless us. Does anyone have any comments before we close? You mentioned that word "gelassenheit."