Women's Bible Study - September 25th, 2024 - Called to Follow: Worship and Discipleship
September 25, 2024 · Natalie
Scripture referenced 10 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Matthew 9:9 Jesus calls Matthew to follow him
9 As Jesus passed by from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax collection office. He said to him, “Follow me.” He got up and followed him.
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Keep this verse
Matthew 9:36-37
Jesus has compassion on the crowds like sheep without a shepherd, the harvest is plentiful but workers are few
36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and scattered, like sheep without a shepherd.
37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest indeed is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
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Romans 12:2
do not conform to the patterns of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind
2 Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.
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Luke 10:38-42
Mary and Martha, Mary has chosen what is better sitting at Jesus' feet
38 As they went on their way, he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
39 She had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.
40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she came up to him, and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister left me to serve alone? Ask her therefore to help me.”
41 Jesus answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things,
42 but one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her.”
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John 15:5
I am the vine and you are the branches, apart from me you can do nothing
5 I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
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Matthew 5:19
whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven
19 Whoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and teach others to do so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever shall do and teach them shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.
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Matthew 7:14
small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life, only a few find it
14 How narrow is the gate, and restricted is the way that leads to life! Few are those who find it.
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Matthew 10:5-8
Jesus sends out the twelve, go to the lost sheep of Israel, proclaim the kingdom, heal the sick
5 Jesus sent these twelve out, and commanded them, saying, “Don’t go among the Gentiles, and don’t enter into any city of the Samaritans.
6 Rather, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
7 As you go, preach, saying, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!’
8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons. Freely you received, so freely give.
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Matthew 28:19
go and make disciples of all nations, Jesus' closing words to his apprentices
19 Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
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Ephesians 2:10
God created good works in advance for us to walk in, referenced by Monique
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Natalie taught from Matthew 8 through 11 on what it actually means to be a disciple, using the ten-thousand-hour rule as a framework for understanding spiritual formation. She argued that following Jesus is not a passive agreement with his teachings but an active apprenticeship requiring the same kind of deliberate, sustained practice that produces mastery in any craft. The three goals of that apprenticeship are to be with Jesus, to become like Jesus, and to do as Jesus did.
What was said
Natalie opened with the ten-thousand-hour rule, the idea that exceptional expertise requires at least ten thousand hours of deliberate practice. She illustrated it through her own journey learning photography, from buying a camera she did not know how to use, to flying across the country for workshops, to eventually developing a repeatable process that produced consistent, meaningful results. The point was that knowing the right tools existed and actually mastering them are very different things.
She then moved to Matthew 9, where Jesus calls Matthew with two words: "Follow me." Natalie explained that in first-century Jewish culture, being invited to apprentice under a rabbi was a profound honor, and the apprentice had three clear goals: to be with the rabbi constantly, to become like him, and eventually to do exactly as he did. She noted that in the New Testament the word "disciple" or "apprentice" appears nearly 300 times, while the word "Christian" appears only three times, and that there was no middle category of people who agreed with Jesus but did not follow him.
On the first goal, being with Jesus, Natalie said the biggest obstacle is busyness. She used the story of Mary and Martha to make the point: Jesus did not tell Mary to go help her sister. He said Mary had chosen what was better. Natalie connected this to her own habit of sitting on the porch on Saturday mornings with coffee, letting the sun rise over the mountains, and simply being still. She referenced the verse "I am the vine and you are the branches" to show that fruitful action has to flow from that place of remaining, not from effort alone.
On the second goal, becoming like Jesus, Natalie drew on Paul's letter to the Romans and the contrast between conforming to the world and being transformed by the renewing of the mind. She said Christian formation is counter-formation because culture is not pulling anyone toward Christ-likeness. She described three things that need to be transformed: beliefs, tested against what scripture actually says about God; habits, built through consistent spiritual disciplines the way an athlete trains for a race; and relationships, since who you spend the most time with shapes who you are becoming.
On the third goal, doing as Jesus did, Natalie identified three rhythms in Jesus' ministry: making space for the gospel, preaching the gospel, and demonstrating the gospel. She pointed to the man with leprosy at the start of Matthew 8 as an example of Jesus stopping for the one in the middle of a crowd. She also cited a Barna statistic that nearly 100 percent of millennial Christians agree they are called to be witnesses, while more than half also say sharing faith with an unbeliever is inappropriate, and she named that as a real inconsistency.
Natalie closed by bringing up Monique, a woman from the congregation who had spent a year and a half serving in six countries in Asia, including prayer-walking in a red-light district in Singapore and throwing a birthday party for a woman there who had never had one. Monique encouraged the room to recognize their motivational gifts and not discount the things that come naturally to them. Natalie then reminded the group that not everyone is called to go overseas. The harvest, she said, is right here in Jackson, and it will take training harder, not just trying harder, to reach it.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Natalie described the ten thousand hour rule and how it applied to her learning photography. Where in your own life have you seen that kind of deep, repeated practice produce real mastery, and what would it look like to bring that same commitment to your faith?
- Natalie pointed out that the word 'disciple' appears nearly 300 times in the New Testament while the word 'Christian' appears only three times, and that there was no middle category of people who agreed with Jesus but did not follow him. What is the difference, in your day-to-day life, between agreeing with Jesus and actually apprenticing under him?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 9,252 words
Christine Schuler to the stage, please. Come on in and find your seats. Going to pray as we get started this morning. AKA turn your attention to the Lord. The Lord Jesus, this morning, we just tell you we're here to meet with you.
We ask that you would remove the distractions of our hearts and our minds this morning. And we just enter in freely this morning. Search our hearts, oh God. If there would be anything in us this morning that would keep us from experiencing your presence today. Let us be quick to repent this morning.
Your presence is here. Your arms are open this morning. We sing a love song to you today. You are worthy. In Jesus name.
We just come before you this morning. We just tell you how thankful we are, and that's what our worship is. We couldn't earn your love. We couldn't deserve it. We couldn't earn it.
We just tell you this morning that we're just so thankful. We're so grateful. You are so worthy. That all we have to give back to you is our worship, our surrender. We sing to you this morning in Jesus name.
And this song Revelation Song is we just stay in this place of worship this morning. You know, John has a revelation about the angels surrounding the throne and this is what they're singing. They're singing, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty who was and who is coming again y'all. He's coming back for his bride. Amen.
And so as we sing this, that word I think sometimes is lost in the English language, both the word holy, we don't fully understand it, set apart, but that when the angels are in his presence, it's literally all that they can do is just worship and sing. Holy, above all others, just separate, above all. We we just don't even, we can't even fathom what that will be like. But as we sing that and the other word that we, I feel like we lose in the English language is a door. You know, the the what I think when I sing that word is, you know, when you've held a baby in your arms and you literally could stare at that baby's face for hours.
I mean, they're not doing anything. They're sleeping, and you're just captivated. You could just gaze at them. And I think in a small, small way, that doesn't even begin to just explain what it means to adore the Lord. That when we're just wrapped up in his presence, just when we fix our eyes on him, there's no place that we'd rather be.
Amen? So let's just let's just make this a holy moment. Let's just imagine right now. Use your sanctified imagination from what God's word says that right now around the throne, our angels just singing and worshiping. Holy, holy, holy are you Lord God almighty.
And let's just join our voices right now and just let everything else fade away as you just fix your eyes on him and his holiness today. The one who knows every hair on your head, who knew you before you even took your first breath. That's the God that you put your faith and your hope in today. The one you surrender to, the trust worthy one. Let's just sing this together.
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty who was in dis and dares to come with all creation I sing praise to the king of kings you deserve the glory. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. Sing it again. Worthy One more time, just the voices.
Let's sing it. Deserve the glory.
We just declare that that is the cry of our heart, the worship of our heart today. May we just in intimacy with you every day. Lay it down. Lay it down. Lay it down.
So that we can look more like you. Because your word says that when we see you face to face, we will be like you. And you don't need to change. So we do. So, Lord, in your presence, we just ask as we study your word and in our small group time, Lord, that you would just speak to us, search our hearts, that we we yield to you whatever changes you need to make in us today.
That's our prayer today. To glorify you, make your name famous. In Jesus' name, and everybody said, amen. Go ahead and have a seat. I mean, I'm not, like, judging other Bible studies, but I'm just gonna say like y'all are the best worshipers yet.
I'm actually gonna have my friend Lanisha come up quickly to make a little announcement first. I know you all know Lanisha, but Lanisha is a dear friend of mine, and she recently took over as co lead co head of Jackson Hole Young Life. Yes. And she ever since she showed up in the valley, she has been all in, walking the walk, showing up where needed, being the hands and feet of Christ, and she has an announcement that I wanted her to share with you. Thanks, Lanisha.
Awesome. And I just love how God knows exactly the right people and the right places and the right timing of the message because that was a perfect way to tee up the message for this week. Before I forget, you do have handouts this week. I got a call from Deborah after I taught two weeks ago and she said, honey girl, that was amazing. But I was frantically trying to take notes, so please give us notes this time.
So I did. And if you missed last week's handouts, there are extras up on the check-in table. Sorry, Terry. Okay. Awesome.
And if you miss, if you ever miss, you can always follow along online. I could not be here with you guys last week. I had to travel for work, unfortunately. But I was able to listen online, and it was the coolest thing because I had before I left for my trip, read through the chapters that we're gonna be reading this week, Matthews eight through 11. And I was like, alright Lord, illuminate something.
What is it that you want me to teach? Some of you have I think there's confusion sometimes like, okay, I'm going through the workbook and then Deborah just teaches on the beatitudes. Well, that was only like one tiny piece of my workbook. How does that even connect? Do we talk about the beatitudes in our group or do we talk about the workbook?
It's up to you. But the way that the teaching works is y'all already read everything for the week. So we don't need to rehash line by line. But we asked the Lord to say, what do you want these women here this week? And so I did.
And he gave me this outline on discipleship. And then last week, I tuned in. I'm listening to Deborah's message as I'm in the airport waiting for my plane to come back to Jackson. And I stopped dead in my tracks because she gave the outline for discipleship from John Mark Comer. And I was like, Deborah, that was my outline.
You already did it. So, he just teed it up so perfectly. We started two weeks ago when we dove in, we really talked about trials and the testing of our faith and what the trials and the tensions are to produce which is a deeper faith and an epinosis, a true experiential knowledge of the word of God, not just memorizing the text. And last week we talked about the beatitudes. This week we're gonna talk about the training of our faith.
Have you ever heard of the ten thousand hour rule? So this this was a concept that was first proposed by a Swedish psychologist in the nineties, and then it was later made famous in a book from Malcolm Gladwell called Outliers. And it basically says that exceptional expertise requires at least ten thousand hours of practice. And I can attest to this. Ten years ago, I decided I wanted to be a photographer.
We were newly married and my husband said, if you could be anything, if we didn't have to live in Dallas and work in finance, like what would you do if you could do anything? I was like, well I would be a photographer. And he was like, well that's really puzzling because you don't own a camera. Like, the two things aren't mutually exclusive. You could learn how to shoot photos and also still have a career, like I don't understand.
So he's like, we travel a lot, why don't you just get a nice camera, learn how to shoot it, and then you could take pictures. I love landscape photography and then, you know, you could fill up all of our walls with these photos of all the places we go. So where to start? I called my wedding photographer. I had just gotten married six months before, Ashley Merritt here in town, and I said, Ashley, I am gonna become a photographer.
What do I need to do? And she's like, okay, well, you could start with here, this little like Nikon point and shoot for like $500 or like you could go all in and you could get the camera, but you really have to learn how to use it if you're gonna spend that money. And I was like, I'm going all in. Tell me which camera to buy. So I bought myself a used Canon five d Mark III.
It's the wedding photographer's camera. And I took a class in Dallas, this photography workshop, to learn how to shoot in manual mode, which means you take it off automatic and you adjust the three different things you can control. You adjust them all manually for every shot you take. And it really opens up this whole new world when you're photographing. If you just shoot in auto, it's very limited.
But basically it's what our iPhones can do automatically so perfectly every time. Remember twenty years ago with our little point and shoot cameras and our disposable cameras looked nothing like that. So I decided I'm gonna master the art of photography. So I learned how to shoot manual, but it was still really clunky and hard. I'm like every time it takes me like five minutes to figure out what settings I need on my camera depending on the light and how much how much depth of field I want.
And so I've I realized I needed a practice. But it got pretty boring. I realized I didn't really like shooting landscapes. It just wasn't that interesting to me. And I'm, you know, young married living in Dallas, like shooting objects around my house for practice.
I don't know. It was just really boring. So I'm like, why did I even go down this path? I've just spent several thousand dollars on this camera. What is the point?
What was the point? The reason why I wanted to learn how to use a real camera is because I knew one day I would have kids, and I would wanna take pictures of my kids. I wanna have beautiful images that I could treasure of my own little ones. And that changed everything. That perspective, knowing the end goal changed everything.
So one of my friends had her first baby and I offered to take her newborn photos thinking this will be good practice if I wanna learn how to take photos of my own children. It was not at all like Lissa described when you imagined adoration, you know, just rocking a sweet little baby that's just down to sleep. No. This baby was screaming the entire time for two hours. This brand new mama was so stressed out, there was not a single photo I took that was even worthy of printing.
It was a total disaster. I was so embarrassed by the whole thing that I was like, alright, I've gotta figure this out. I have the right camera, I know how to use it, but what's missing? There's a real art to photography. And if you've dabbled in photography, you know you have to understand light, and posing, and angles, color, composition.
So what did I do? I started finding images that I liked. I would go on Instagram or Pinterest and I would start trying to discern why do I like this photographer over that photographer? What is it about this image that really grabs me? And so I started studying photography.
I really became a student of the art. And then I followed my favorite newborn photographers, and I tried to recreate the shots that they did. And then they would show behind the scenes footage of, oh, and here's this little baby swaddled, and here's the window light, it's at a 45 degree angle, I would try to do the same thing. And I would practice doing exactly as they did. And then some of these photographers also, they were brilliant, made money by doing workshops.
So I flew to LA for a workshop, I flew to Atlanta for a workshop, I spent the weekend with other young mama photographers and other amazing photographers trying to learn and emulate exactly what they did. I immersed myself in the daily study practice of photography. You could say that I became a disciple of photography. You know where I'm going with this. Then eventually I developed this really specific set of rules and practices.
Mom's dress had to adhere to a certain color palette. I would send her options in advance. You may not wear bright red. You may wear neutral tones. Deborah knows I took her pictures once.
She said I don't own soft neutral tones. I'm like a jewel tone lady. But that really impacts the way that I shoot and the way that the leg goes. The baby had to be less than two weeks old. And newborn mommas are like, are you kidding?
I can't get myself looking right. Right? Like I'm six days postpartum. I'm like barely moving around. Well, the baby starts to wake up after two weeks, and the baby can get baby acne after two weeks.
So I'm like, trust me, it's gonna be brutal, but we're gonna do it one week to 10 old. Then I would arrive, and she had to have already fed the baby. Cause a full happy baby is usually very sleepy. And the nursery had to be 80 degrees, no air movement, no fan, postpartum mama is sweating because it is so hot in there, but baby is happy and not making a peep. And then I would turn on white noise.
The white noise was key. If you don't know what white noise is, the white noise machine is just like a big box fan sound. And then I had this special device called a shusher. And it was a little machine that you cranked and it turned on for thirty minutes and it made this sound. Over and over again.
If you have a friend or a daughter or someone that's having a baby, get them a baby shusher, it's the best gift. So when I did this, these practices yielded perfect results every single time. Every time. Over the years, I've had the opportunity to photograph several 100 families, and I have several 100 photos of my own kiddos that are treasures that I will hold on to forever now that they're getting a lot older. I'm I'm sure you've seen examples of this type of mastery in your own life or maybe in others around you.
For doctors, they go through a residency program. For trades, they go through like the journeyman's program. It's more than just the textbook. You really have to put it into practice to become proficient. Have you ever thought about applying this ten thousand hour rule to your faith?
See, having a camera in my hands didn't make me a photographer. Learning how to shoot in manual mode didn't even make me a real photographer. Having a Bible and going to church doesn't make me a disciple. What is a disciple? Webster would say it's a scholar, a follower, one adheres to the teachings of another.
But we're gonna open our books or our Bibles to Matthew nine. And in Matthew nine nine, this is when Jesus calls Matthew, the author of this book to be his disciple. I'm gonna read to you what it says. Jesus went on from there. He's with some disciples already going town to town teaching.
You read, he's performing miracles. We'll talk about that in a minute. He went on from there and he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. Follow me, he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. That's it.
He said, follow Come follow me can be translated into come apprentice under me. You see, in Jewish culture, it was an oral culture. Children went to school, but school was attached to the synagogue. And the sole purpose of school from the age of five to the age of 12 or 13 was to memorize the Old Testament. It's about this much of your Bible.
These little tiny nuggets memorized word for word because it was an oral culture. And that was the sole purpose of their education. So that they could learn the word of the Lord and they could pass it on. And then they would go return to their families and they would learn whatever the family trade was. Craftsmanship, tent making as we read, agriculture.
But then the best students would actually stay, so think middle school into high school now, and their job was to memorize the entire Old Testament, which is like this much of your Bible. And once they had that memorized, they'd go on to go back home and learn the family trade. But the very best and right of students would be invited by the rabbi to come apprentice. It was a distinct honor. It's like an Ivy League school.
So that's the context here. The apprentice had three goals. This is what Deborah shared last week. Goal number one is to be with your rabbi all the time. Goal number two is to be like your rabbi, become like him.
And goal number three is to do exactly as your rabbi did. And the whole goal was then for that student, that apprentice to become a rabbi himself. Essentially, this is a recipe for the ten thousand hour rule two thousand years before modern psychology published it. So here's Matthew, a well educated but hated Jewish tax collector. We knew from two weeks ago, he was hated because basically, his job is to collect money from his people and pay the Roman government, the oppressors.
He's probably scraping some off the top. And he gets invited to go to Harvard with the best rabbi who's walking around doing miracles, teaching, just compelling people, and he's like, wow. That's quite an offer. And he follows. It doesn't say he delayed.
It doesn't say he questioned. It says he just went. This is still the goal of following Jesus today. When he says to us, come follow me, it's an invitation for each one of us to become his apprentice with the same three goals and these are on your sheet so you don't have to write them down. To be with Jesus, to become like Jesus, and to do as Jesus did.
So, he calls Matthew. They're traveling village to village with the disciples. They're teaching in synagogues. They're proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and then, in Matthew nine, right at the end, where the header says, the workers are few. It says, when the Jesus, when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.
Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. That's one of my verses that has just stuck out with me since I moved to this town. I actually had a note in my Bible from 2019, heavy on my heart as we process the church for Jackson. The harvest is many but the workers are few. All throughout the New Testament, we actually see these stories where there's the crowds and there's the disciples.
There is no third category of Christians who agreed with Jesus' teachings but didn't follow him. It was the disciples and everyone else. In fact, the word Christian, it's only used three times in the New Testament but the word disciple or apprentice is used nearly 300 times. It It just didn't compute. You either followed him or you didn't.
Theologian Dallas Willard says, the greatest issue facing the world today with all its heartbreaking needs is whether those who identify as Christians will become disciples. Students, apprentices, practitioners of Jesus Christ. You see, the relationship of much of the modern church, the western church today to the gospel is actually pretty passive. We're often told, it's not about what you do, it's about what Jesus has done for you and this is true. Jesus paid the penalty for sin that we could never repay on our own.
But Jesus also never discounted self effort. His ministry is busy. For three years, he is laser focused. Laser focused. He calls for us to abide which requires action on our part.
And there's a saying that goes, grace is not opposed to effort, but it is opposed to earning. And this is a really important point. We cannot earn our way into heaven, but if we are to look at Jesus as the model for our life, Jesus is never idle. He does retreat to be restored and to be with his father, but he is busy and he is on a mission. In America, we have this two tier church.
The ones who structure their lives daily to become an apprentice and everyone else. Jesus is not looking to fill pews. He is calling us to become disciples, his apprentices. So how do we do it? Number one, go back to the outline is to be with Jesus.
This is our number one goal and it's the foundation. It's just to be with him. In our temporal minds, this is really hard to understand because he's not standing here next to us. We can't comprehend what it means to be with someone who's not standing physically next to us but you know what? He's not here because he couldn't be everywhere at once like God.
He said, I have to go so that the Holy Spirit will come. And the Holy Spirit can indwell in each and every one of you. So I can be present with each and every one of you, but I have to go to the father in order to give that gift to you. He tells us. Earthly Jesus couldn't be everywhere at once but the Holy Spirit can.
It requires an active decision to accept this free gift of salvation. And it sounds easy on paper, but when you think about it, this free gift is actually kind of offensive. It means that you have to acknowledge and I have to acknowledge that I'm never gonna be good enough. And in a very individualistic culture, that's a hard message to deliver to somebody. To say, Terry, you're just not enough.
I love you, but you're just not enough to spend your eternity with God on your own but neither am I and that's the good news. Jesus is. Jesus came to bridge that gap for us. It is a free gift. You cannot earn your salvation.
If you've never acknowledged that before, I want you to sit on that and pray on that this week. Ask your group leaders. Ask the women in your group to pray because that's the first step. Everything else is nothing if you don't actually accept Jesus into your heart that way. We're all at different stages of our faith here, so that's not meant to judge or condemn.
We're so grateful that you're here, and there's a reason that you are. I will tell you, for years, I was a believer in college. I was actually thinking about this this morning in the shower as I was getting ready. I was the president of my sorority at Alabama, and I had to do the initiation ceremony for our new pledges. And part of the script that I had to read was scripture.
And I was raised in church. I went to mass on Sundays, but I was standing there so uncomfortable. It was foreign and unfamiliar to me. And now I understand why. It's because I knew the words, I knew the text, but I didn't truly yet know God.
I didn't experience him. I had not experienced him yet. So those words felt a little empty to me, and it felt a little awkward for me to be saying them to these other teenage girls when I didn't even believe them myself or knew know the true meaning. So in order to be with Jesus, we first need to accept him. But once you've done that, the biggest impediment to apprenticeship is gonna be your own schedule.
Busyness is for sure the number one culprit that robs us of time with God. And I think what a gift to see that this week with the traffic and the construction. You can sit and be angry and stew, or you can say, what a gift. An hour in the car to be with Jesus and listen to a podcast and listen to worship music and call a friend and encourage them. I personally spent three and a half hours in the car yesterday, and I had to remind myself of that over and over again.
Hey, you know what? It's kind of a gift to be slow, to slow down. Busyness is our biggest impediment. In order to apprentice, these Jewish students would spend every moment with a rabbi for years. You don't have to stop living your life the way you're living it, but you need to invite God into every moment, and you need to acknowledge him constantly throughout your day.
There's a story I pulled from a different gospel. It doesn't talk about it in Matthew, but in the book of Luke. It's the story of Mary and Martha. You might be familiar with this one, but Jesus is going on his way with his disciples and they come to Martha's house, and they essentially stop for dinner. And Martha's sister, Mary, is over.
Mary just plops down with Jesus and the disciples and sits there. Martha's in the kitchen scurrying about, getting dinner ready, making sure everything placed is set, flowers are cut. That's me. I'm Martha. I'm like, if someone's coming over, I want them to feel welcome in my home.
I make myself crazy, getting every detail right, and I exhaust myself. And Martha's mad. She's like, look, Mary's just sitting there. I'm doing all the work. And she complains to Jesus.
She's like, Jesus, she's just sitting there. I'm doing all the work. And he's like, oh, Martha. He says his response surprised her. He's not like, Mary, go help your sister.
She's slaving in the kitchen for me. He says, Martha, you're all worked up about the wrong thing. Mary has it right. Mary has chosen what's better, and it won't be taken from her. This is a practice I'm just now learning.
Ten years in, I burned out doing like Martha, and I'm learning to sit still at his feet like Mary. That's why I thought an hour in the car is actually a gift. He says, be still and know that I am God. So every Saturday morning, I take my cup of coffee out on the porch, we face east and the sun is rising over Green Mountain. And I just sit there and I let the sun warm me, and I think this is what it feels like to be in the presence of the Lord, and it has such a calming effect.
He loves when we worship him this way. I just don't do it often enough. I don't know about you, but I just run into my day, run into my week without even acknowledging. He says, I am the vine and you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.
Apart from me, you can do nothing. Let me be clear that he assumes you will be doing something. We should be bearing fruit in our lives as evidence of our faith, but it will be useless effort if it's on our own strength with our own agenda. It starts with the daily spiritual disciplines, prayer, reading God's word, communing with other believers, you know the list. They say it takes twenty one days to form a habit.
What small habit or change could you make this week that would help you start being with God? Then number two is to become like him, the second goal of apprenticing. How do we become like Jesus? We've already become someone else. Let me say that again, you've already become someone.
I am Natalie, you are Michonne. We are a sum total of our experiences, our beliefs, the people we surround ourselves with. We have already been formed. We're not a blank slate, and we are constantly being formed. We're following something.
We're being discipled by something whether we realize it or not. In his letter to the Romans, Paul says, do not conform to the patterns of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Paul said there's two options, conform or be transformed. Now, in this time, he's talking to the Romans. Rome is the cultural epicenter.
Rome Rome stands for wealth and power and all of the things you can imagine, the arts and the foods. Rome is an epitome of culture. We have to push back against the cultural current if we're not going to conform because culture is not pulling us towards Christ likeness. It's pulling us towards worldliness. And with that framework, understand that Christian formation is counter formation.
It takes a lot of work to unbecome what we've already become and become something that he intends us to be. It's a long process. What then is going to counter our beliefs and habits and relationships? If we're to remain in him like branches to a vine, we need a framework to put this into practice. So for you gardeners, think of it like a trellis for the vine.
Without a structure to grow, a vine will take on a mind of its own. We actually we planted sweet peas in May, and they are full blossom right now, but they are taking over my entire yard. I just didn't know. I've never grown sweet peas before. But with a trellis, with the right framework and direction, that vine would thrive.
To transform our beliefs, we need the truth. Remember the story about Eve in the garden two weeks ago? All the enemy did was put an idea in her head. He planted questions, seeds of doubt. Did God really say that?
Don't you think God's withholding something from you? It changed the way that she thought about God. God is not inherently good. God is withholding. This book, what is it to you?
Is this a book of rules? Or is it a story about how he's pursuing every single one of us? It's a love story. How we view God, our beliefs is important to examine. You have to test that against scripture.
What do I think deep down about the Lord, and what does his word have to say about that? Men to transform our habits, we're gonna need practice just like we talked about, the twenty one days of a habit. One of the first things Jesus says before delivering the sermon on the mount that we read last week is, whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Practice. Theologian Richard Foster spent decades studying and teaching spiritual formation and you know what he concluded?
People think that they will grow to be more like Jesus by trying harder rather than training harder. But the opposite is true. Who's trained for a marathon before? Probably some of you mountain athletes could just run one tomorrow without even training, no doubt. But for me, I've run a few half marathons, not even a full.
And it took me four months and 300 miles on the pavement to condition my body to be able to complete a half marathon. Our spiritual formation is no different. One of the practices we see in Jesus' life as an example is the pattern of retreat. He'll slip away from the crowd to be alone with God and pray and seek his will, and then he'll return with clarity and intention to teach and love others. We need a routine where this this idea of a race, Paul mentions it again later in the Corinthians.
He says, run this race with aim and intention and discipline so that you won't be disqualified. He knows it's a long path. You're not gonna get there tomorrow. This is supposed to take our entire lives to be formed here on earth until into what God has for us before we go be with him forever. And then third is transforming our relationships.
To transform our relationships, we do need community. I've heard it said that you're kind of a sum total of the five people you spend the most time with. What are those people following? Who are those people following? Are they following Christ?
It's true. Jesus dined with the sinners and the tax collectors, but who is his inner circle? His 12 men who said yes to following him. You have to rearrange. It might take rearranging your playground and your playmates in order to align yourself more with God's transformation.
We need to be with Jesus in order to become like Jesus. These are both inner workings of transformation, but the whole purpose and the end goal, what he calls us toward is actually an outward action, to do as he did. And that's the third pillar. Go and make disciples of all nations. These were Jesus' closing words to his apprentices.
And y'all, this is what gave me chills this morning. I just saw Monique sitting in the lobby, and I haven't seen her in over a year because she's been underground in Asia ministering to women in some of the most dangerous places where it's not okay to be a Christian or have the word of God. And I thought, wow, I'm unworthy to teach this one. She's out there doing the work, being the hands and feet of Christ, and we're gonna hear from her at the very end. But I couldn't have written that ending to our teaching today.
It's gonna be amazing. He says, go and make disciples of all nations. Those were his closing words. That's what's his charge to his apprentices. He said, I've trained you up.
Now go. Go. This is it. This is the purpose that we're training for. When Jesus called Simon and Andrew, he said, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.
This was an honorary term for rabbis in the day because the best teachers could really captivate the minds of their audience and they would gain followers. He's saying, apprentice under me and I'll teach you to become a compelling teacher of the word. But how? Jesus' ministry can be categorized into three rhythms. If we're to become like him, these are the three patterns we see over and over again in scripture.
The first is making space for the gospel. We all have the opportunity to engage throughout the day, but sometimes we're just too busy to make space. I for one am guilty when I'm in a rush of putting my air pods in when I go into Whole Foods because my kids know if I see someone, if I see one of y'all in Whole Foods, I won't come out for an hour. And if I only have ten minutes and I have to get dinner, I'm like, AirPods in, I'm on a call, like just doing my thing. But what do we miss when we're heads down on our own agenda?
He read a story this week about a man with leprosy, that's how he started off Matthew eight. He's calling out to Jesus asking for healing and at the time Jesus has this large crowd, again the crowds. The crowds are following him down the mountain. He has celebrity status but he has the eyes and ears to stop and see the one. The one.
He makes space. We see examples of this all throughout the gospel. He pauses his pursuits and he makes space for people. He meets their needs. He breaks bread with them.
He forms relationships. And the second thing Jesus always does is he preaches the gospel. He preaches the gospel. Don't let that intimidate you. You don't have to come up here next But we are called to always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks for the reason for the hope that we have.
You need an elevator speech. If someone were to ask you on a flyby, what does it mean to be a Christian? You gotta know. If you've never practiced that before, that is a great challenge in your small groups. What is the gospel?
What does it mean? Deborah sent that around to small group leaders last week. Ask them if you don't know. Practice it. What's your one liner?
What's your testimony? Something quick. Always be prepared to give an answer. According to Barna Group, a 100%, nearly a 100% of millennial Christians agree that part of having a Christian faith is being a witness about Jesus. But more than half also say that it's inappropriate, even offensive to share your faith with someone who is an unbeliever or of a different religion.
That's inconsistent. I know I'm supposed to do it but it's inappropriate. No. Jesus says, this is why you are here. This is why you are here.
I also talked about having to read scripture initiating a bunch of pi pi pledges back in 2010 or 2007. We're called to share in order to share with confidence. I didn't have the confidence in what I was reading from Philippians. I was like, how many what does this even mean? I feel like I shouldn't even be saying this.
We have to actually know the word of God and believe the word of God in order to have confidence to share the word of God. So this might be a step that's really far off for you. And again, that's okay. This is all a learning process and we're in it together, but that's the end goal. Just like with photography, I wanted to learn so I could photograph my own kids.
You're learning so that you know how to preach the gospel. And then the third thing Jesus did is demonstrate the gospel. I mentioned you read story after story, just these like little one and two liners of all these miracles that Jesus was doing. Do you know why he was doing miracles? Why was he healing people?
He was demonstrating God's love for them. He was making sure that they knew God saw them. It was the one. There's different schools of thought regarding miracles but what you need to know is that Jesus in these moments was profoundly meeting the deepest needs of the ones that he encountered. If you had been blind your whole life, the most intimate gift that you could receive would be sight and this is what he did.
He stops for the one, He meets their needs. He reaches out and touches them, and he changes their lives. He isn't living hurried and distracted. He is busy, but he is focused, dialed into God's plan every single day because he retreats to the father, gets his orders, and returns to do the father's work. So after the disciples are trained up, in Matthew 10, he sends them out.
It says, Jesus sends out the 12, if you're following along with your headers. And he sent them out with the following instructions. Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. He's saying, don't go to the ends of the earth like Monique. You don't need to start there.
You don't need to go undercover in Asia tomorrow, Jackson ladies. No. He says, go to the lost sheep of Israel. The lost sheep of Israel. It was the crowds that he had compassion on because they were like the lost sheep.
It was their very own people, the Jews. And then he said, as you go proclaim this message, the kingdom of heaven has come near. Preach the gospel. And then he said, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, etcetera etcetera. Demonstrate the gospel to them.
Make space, preach, demonstrate. The first mission was to go and minister to their very own circles of influence, the crowds. Have you ever heard the term a practicing Jew? There's actually a difference. You can be Jewish by blood and then you can actually practice a Jewish faith.
In other words, you could be Jewish without actually having a Jewish faith just because of who your parents were and what your bloodline is. There's many sitting among us. I'm not necessarily saying this room, I'm saying among us in Jackson, the church, in The United States, they claim to be Christian, but I don't know if they're practicing Christians. And that's just not possible because unlike the Jews, we can't be Christian by bloodline. That's the whole point.
Jesus came and he said, I'm here for all. I'm not just here for the Jews. So often in the church, the emphasis is placed on what to believe and what's right or wrong. These are good spiritual foundations but little emphasis is placed on a lifestyle that's conducive to life with God. Jesus as the truth gets way more attention than Jesus as the way.
He says, small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life. Only a few find it. Only a few will become my apprentices. He goes on to say, freely you have received disciples, so freely give. We receive all this knowledge, truth, love, grace, we're not supposed to hold on to it.
God intends for us to be a pipe, not a bucket. We're supposed to be a conduit of his love to pass on to others, but it requires each of us to be activated in our own unique places, in our own unique circles of influence to accomplish this plan. And as Saint Teresa put it, this is what got me. This is Monique. Christ has no body on earth but yours.
Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassionately on this world and the woman in Asia. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands with which he blesses those women. It could be said for a lot of you too, this is just top of mind because we have a living walking example of somebody who is going to the ends of the earth to preach the gospel. Ladies, he says, the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.
He tells them, if any of them will not welcome you or listen to your words, just leave that home, leave that town. He says, don't be discouraged. There's so many that are ready to receive me. It's it's really easy to get discouraged when we're constantly rejected. The first year I was here, I would initiate conversation with moms at the playground and think, okay, I'm just gonna get to know them, then I'm gonna invite them to come with me to Bible study.
I was like, reel them in. The second fall that I took Deborah's Bible study, I think I had a list of 20 women. I was so excited. I'm texting him, hey, do you wanna come to Bible study? Guess how many came?
None. Not one that I invited. But Jesus said, don't worry about those 20. I took it really, really personally. It's not personal.
He said, don't worry about those 20. You planted the seed. They received the invitation. They're just not ready yet. Move on.
There's someone who's ready for your invitation. Don't focus on the 20 that said no because there's one that's gonna say yes. Keep moving. Find someone who is ready. I'm going to have Monique come up before we have Bea come up to close us, you want to come up here and Monique.
I asked her very quickly right before the service, I'm like this is going be the perfect tie in, so she had very little time to prepare, But I want her to close us. Yes. And I want to hear what she's doing in Asia and then I'll close us. Alright. We'll do that.
Wait. Let me find your mic. There you go.
Thank you. Thank for the opportunity to share Natalie and it's just great to be with all of you guys. I just look out and see so many familiar faces. I was just really surprised I didn't know how I'd feel being back in Jackson but I'm just like why did I leave? I think most people feel that way when they leave Jackson so I've just really enjoyed my time here.
I've loved catching up with people and of course the weather is amazing. Even with traffic yesterday, I only spent an hour in traffic but I was anyways. Yeah, think if I could sum up my time away, I've been gone a year and a half. I've been to six countries in Asia. I think the lost sheep which you mentioned, I think that really stood out to me and twofold.
My gifts are exhortation. So, encouragement, mercy and creativity is how the Lord's made me. And so, that verse that says that he's created good works in advance for us to walk in, I've experienced that overseas. When I was in Singapore, we had the opportunity to walk in the Red Light District and prayer walk and meet with different people. We had the opportunity to throw a birthday party for a 49 year old woman who had been working in the Red Light District for I think at least twenty years and this was her first birthday party in her life and three of her teenage kids were able to come to that birthday party and she was battling cancer at that time and so she just weeps that God would send people, I was with a Korean team, that God would send people to her nation to throw a birthday party for her.
So, was one of the things I got to help with a Korean camp after my counseling school. And, this was a missionary couple who had been serving the Lord for fourteen years in missions in Kona and going out to different countries and they had lost their son a year before. So, just got to like walk with them in that grief. Yeah, and then my aunt also passed while during this time and the Lord sent me to LA instead of going on mission right away. We have like school and then we have an outreach and the Lord just said go now and so I had to say no to going to Nigeria and yes to my aunt and so I got to be with her before she passed And then I got to go to Hong Kong and instead of Nigeria and just be with long term missionaries there and encourage them.
And so, I think my encouragement just to you ladies here in Jackson is that trust how God's made you. You know those things that we do every day we're like, oh that's easy. I decorate a beautiful place or I sit with someone and really listen to them. How you have been designed is on purpose. And I think those things that we do like me designing a beautiful space for someone's birthday party, listening to someone in grief, these are things that come easy to me and I just think, Oh, well, I mean I can do that.
Is it a big deal? But I would just say for you guys if you don't know your motivational gifts, I think as women we can get pulled in lots of directions right and think there's a need I have to fill it or I should do that no one's doing that But think about the things that maybe you did that you were young or things that are life giving and do those things with joy and you will be blessed and those receiving will be blessed and they'll be like a sweet spot of that light and easy yoke. So I know in my time in Jackson, I've been on the receiving side of lots of you guys' gifts. I look at joy and just so many of you where I've been on the receiving side. And so I just encourage you guys to remind yourself of those things that are easy and don't discount them.
Thank you.
Thank you, Lee. So amazing. Monique has been gifted and she's been called to leave Jackson, but for some of you, you might just be called to be here and I just want you to know and not compare like this is so amazing like she's given her life to being a missionary but we're all called to be missionaries. She is uniquely gifted maybe to go and minister in places but guess what, we are here for a time and a place and a purpose that you are called to minister in your circles. It could be your school, it could be your workplace, it could be the sports team, the bleachers on the football team.
You don't have to go to the ends of the earth. There are people right here in Jackson that are ready for the gospel. It's going to take training harder, not trying harder. I tried really hard to take pretty photos. It took me ten thousand hours to learn how to do it.
I had to take aim at an end goal, study the art, spend time with professionals who produced the fruit that I saw as worthy, then I had to practice over and over again, and it produced a deep joy and gratification in my work as a return. And by the time I logged those hours, you know what? I had the confidence to walk into someone's house and I knew I was giving a mother a timeless gift, and I had the opportunity to pass on some of that knowledge to other photographers along the way. And eventually, I also used it as a ministry and I would invite them, hey, come to Square 1. It was our new mom's ministry at our church.
Hey, can I pray for you? I know this is so hard. I have a newborn at home too. How's this going? How's breastfeeding?
How's sleeping? It's building relationships. There are few people who walk the narrow road, living busy for God but unhurried, making space to retreat to the father and return to the one. As Paul says to the Corinthians, follow me. Apprentice under me as I follow Christ, as I apprentice under Christ.
That is the model of discipleship. You live yielded to Jesus. You apprentice under Jesus and you go find the one and you say, come follow me and I'll show you too how to do this. How many hours have you invested being with Jesus? How many hours have you invested becoming like Jesus, studying, going to school to learn how to minister in the ends of the earth and learn how to counsel?
We can do that too in our own homes, in our own small groups, in our own circles. How much time have you invested doing as he did? Are you a Christian or are you his apprentice? Father, I pray today that if these words are hard to hear for anyone, that this is not condemnation, Lord. It's just revealing of your plan and your purpose, maybe in a way that they haven't heard before.
And I just pray that this would be an encouragement and a vision and a goal to strive for, not a heavy burden to bear because God you are a God of love and mercy and grace, and you tell us there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. We don't have to go to the ends of the earth, God, but we are called to make followers for you. Lord, I pray that you encourage these women in their gifts, in their spaces. You open their eyes and ears and hearts to opportunities in the grocery store or sitting in traffic to be with you, to become like you and to do as you do. I'm going to have Bea come back up here and close this out.
I'll just say, it's really easy to say those words, but truly desiring to build your life upon Jesus, not starting with your own foundation and letting him be the decoration for your foundation. And I just think when you this song is just like, God, take me deeper. Take me deeper. And so if that's your desire, he says, he will draw close to you if you ask him to. So so you're gonna get a heart cry.
Make me more like you, Jesus. And with that, you have to remove yourself out of the way. So let's sing this again. Jesus, I just thank you so much for this time. I pray that everything that you have for us today, we will just receive it.
This time is just so special. And I thank you for your sweet spirit that's in this room. I pray that you inspire us and that we remember that you delight in us. And that we delight in you, God, in spending this time with you, and that we realize how much of it is of an honor to be in your presence, that we don't take it lightly, God. In Jesus' name, amen.
Topics
Being With JesusDiscipleshipFaith In ActionMaking DisciplesSpiritual DisciplinesSpiritual Formation
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