Well. Good morning. If you're brand new or you haven't met me yet, my name is Pastor Elijah. I'm really excited to be with you this morning. Pastor Matt and his wife, Hannah, are at a little marriage retreat. Yeah. And here's what's cool about that. And it's worth mentioning to you guys. Like they're making intentional investment in their marriage, which is something that all of us that are married should be doing. Having times of intentional investment. And they get to do that because of the volunteers at this church. And I'm talking to all of you that are volunteering that have volunteered. And if it wasn't for the way you guys are so solid, Matt would have to be here and would have to be here. They'd have to be having their hands and things and doing a bunch of things. But it really says something about the core volunteer of a church when their pastor can go get away. So give give the volunteers a hand for that. Plus, Matt's arms are really tired because I don't know if you tuned in last week, but we baptized 18 people. Hallelujah! So God is on the move. God is on the move and it's very exciting. If you did tune in with us last week, you were here for part one of our discipleship series, and today we jump into part two. Are you ready for it? Okay, let's get into it then. Matthew 28 is where we talk about discipleship, and it's called the what. Remember what this section of Scripture is called, the Great Commission. Yeah. Therefore go and make disciples. Jesus is saying to his disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I've commanded you. And surely I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. So let's do a real quick recap of what we talked about last week. Last week we talked about what a disciple is. A disciple of Jesus is someone who revolves everything around Jesus. That was our definition that we're all working with, of disciple here at Orbit Church. When I revolve everything around Jesus, we learned my circumstances, right? We did the the stand thing like this. My circumstances are not come on orbit, is it not on the screen? When I revolve everything around Jesus, my circumstances are not the center. They're not the center. All right. And then we had our memory verse, which I know some of you are ready to recite, but we're going to put it on the screen anyway, just in case you don't remember it. Before we do, I'm going to make you do the motions with me, because I know a lot of you're so excited for the motions. This one, this one first, right? This one first, and then this one next and then this one. Okay, now let's read it together. I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand. I shall not be moved. And we talked about disciples choose to give Jesus priority and authority. Very good. Some of you guys are getting the level of feedback that I want when I'm up here teaching. It helps me get going. Puts a little motor to my move in here, and we talked about how to become a disciple. Becoming a disciple of Jesus requires you to believe Jesus paid for my sin by dying on the cross and defeating death. When I choose to believe that I receive the free gift of salvation. We talked about surrender, and it makes sense that after receiving a free gift of salvation, we want to resolve to revolve everything around Jesus and say something like, Lord, you gave everything for me, so I surrender my life to you. So that's last week's recap. I really encourage you if you missed it and you're going to hear today's message, I really encourage you to go back online and check out part one of the Real Discipleship series. Today, we're going to pick up where we left off in the life of a disciple from becoming a disciple like we talked about to being a disciple. So what does a disciple do? Well, our Scripture says, therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and Son, the Holy Spirit. So a disciple makes disciples. That's like the multiplication factor. That's how disciples multiply. So if a disciple makes disciples, then on the daily I'm talking about what is the function of a disciple. Pastor Elijah, I gave my life to Jesus last week for the first time, and or I gave my life to Jesus a year ago, and that's kind of where I just left it. That's all I've really been doing. But now I want to be a disciple. And you talked about what it takes, but what do I do? Like day in, day out? I know I should make disciple, but what do I do day in and day out? How do I be an active disciple of Jesus? I'm so glad you asked. Have I got a sermon for you? It starts now. We're going to talk about the three essentials of a disciple, and I say three. Each one of these three has two parts to it. Okay, these are the main things that a disciple of Jesus should be doing day in and day out. It's essential that you do these things to be a disciple. Let's start with number one. The first thing a disciple should be about is getting truths and promises. Say truths and promises. Where do we get truths and promises from the Bible? From the Word of God. John 831 and 32 to the Jews who believed in him, Jesus said, if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples, then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. We're real disciples when we hold to his teaching the Word of God, and we receive truth from it. I remember my I had a youth pastor that said, you know what Bible stands for, don't you? Bible? It stands for basic instructions before leaving Earth. Yeah, I thought that was really cheesy too. My wife was like, don't put that in your sermon. It's super cheesy, super 90s. But it's stuck with me, I remember it. Truths and promises are in the Word of God. Second Peter one four says, he's given us his very great and precious promises. So what about promises in the Word of God? So there's a Canadian Bible teacher named Everett, our Storms, and he did this big research project where he was out to discover how many promises are in the Word of God, how many promises from God specifically to us to humanity are in the Word of God. He came up with 7487 promises. That has a lot of promises in the Word of God. The Bible is full of promises and truths, and we remind ourselves of those truths and promises when we read them. There's a refreshing that happens, isn't there? When you're reading scripture and you discover a truth or a promise, there's something uplifting that sort of happens. It's almost like God wants us doing that as disciples. Amen. So what is finding a truth or promise? When I open my Bible? What is what does that look like when I'm finding a truth or promise in the word? Here's some example. Finding a truth or promise in the Bible might sound like I will never leave you or forsake you. Hebrews 13 five. Finding a truth or a promise in the Bible might sound like if my people, who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will hear heal their land. That's a promise right out of Second Chronicles. That's a great promise there. In here, truths and promises are in there. Finding a truth there. A promise in the Bible might sound like Jeremiah 17 seven, but blessed is the one who trust in the Lord, whose confidence is in him they will be. Here comes the promise part. The truth is, blessed is the one whose hope is in the Lord. Now listen for the promise part. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends its roots by the stream. It does not fear. When he comes, its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought, and it never fails to bear fruit. This is a good promise. This is one of my favorite ones. That's why I've got. I've got Jeremiah tattooed on my arm, and I've got this huge tree tattooed going all the way up, because I'm reminded of that truth and that promise that if I put my hope in the Lord, it's not just that I can make it through any season, it's that I can get through any season, and I can still bear fruit, and I can still be green. Because, you see, my hope isn't in my circumstance. That's not in the center, is it? My hope is in the Lord. And like that tree planted by the stream, the water is always going through the stream. Even if it quits raining, I'm still getting water, which means I'm still bearing fruit. What an awesome truth. What an awesome promise. Amen. That's good. All right. We could talk about a lot more truths and promises, but you get the point, right? You open up the word of God. You find the truths and the promise. Let's go to number two. Discipleship. Essential adjustments and assignments. Say that one with me. Adjustments and assignments. A disciple of Jesus receives adjustments and assignments from the Lord. There are things in our life we need to adjust. There are assignments from the Lord that we need to carry out in obedience. So I was thinking about some scripture relating to adjustments and assignments, and I thought Galatians 516 says, so I say, walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. And Romans 12 two says, do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be instead transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is his good, pleasing, and perfect will. So John 832 we read earlier about the truth, like you'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free. And Romans 12 two. Here is the how it sets you free. And one of the things we need from freedom from is right here between our ears. There's a way we think, the way we allow ourselves to think. Where we entertain what the world wants us to think. But Roman says, do not conform to the pattern of this world. The world's got its own pattern set out for us. You see it all over the media. You see it in the news. You see it on the billboards. You see it when you scroll your phone. You see a whole pattern that the world has laid out. And I promise you, most of that pattern is a pattern of the enemy to try to get you to be distant from the Lord, to try to get you to fall in sin. The enemy of your soul hates that you want to be transformed by the renewing of your mind, and he's going to try to get you to conform instead to the world's pattern. It's not hard to find the world's pattern. It sounds a lot like you should statements. You should buy this. You should make more money. You should sleep around. You should look out for yourself. Save yourself before everybody else. You should, you should, you should. All these things look out for numero uno. You should get yours while you can. You heard that. You should be about that grind. You should please yourself. The way to happiness is serving yourself. All of these are patterns. That's all they are. They're worldly patterns. But we don't want to conform to the world anymore, as Romans says. Instead, we want to make an adjustment, don't we? We don't want to conform to the way we think about ourselves negatively, like we want to. We want to make an adjustment and be transformed by the renewing of your mind, because the world says you should, you should. The word says, I am. The Lord says, I am Jehovah Jireh, your provider. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am your rescuer and Redeemer, the one who saves you. I am your creator. Psalm 139 says, for you are created in my inmost being, you, me, together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. That's the truth. As adjustment I need to make is by listening to the patterns of the world. If you listen to the patterns of the world, they're going to tell you you're terrible. They're going to tell you you're not worth anything. They're going to tell you you have to do, do, do, do to achieve. And then maybe you will. Just kidding. You're not. And that will leave you feeling empty. When we go back to truths and promises, Lord, what's the truth and promise so I can make an adjustment. The truth is I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. That's what my creator thinks of me. So if I'm revolving everything around Jesus, it means I'm adjusting things that are not revolving around Jesus, including my thought patterns about myself. Because my thought patterns become habit and my habit becomes how I carry things out, and then how I'm living becomes my identity. How many y'all know that the enemy of your soul is after your identity? And Jesus says, you belong to me. We are whole, made whole in Christ. But we need to be renewing our minds with truths and promises, and we need to be making these adjustments in our life so that we can be revolving everything around Jesus. You see how that works? It's pretty simple, but we should break it down and talk about it. That's what church does, right? Adjustments and assignments. Now, adjustments can be more than just the way you think about yourself. Adjustments can also be like physical things that the Lord's like, hey, change this and they can be minor or they could be major adjustments. So here's some examples of like minor adjustments. Maybe the Lord says, the Lord says, hey, you know what I need you to do? I need you to sleep more. You're staying up too late. Go to bed, get rest. We might be out here going, Lord, give me, give me, give me some some truth and promise. Lord, give me an adjustment to make in my life. And I'm ready for a prophetic word from you about my future and about how I'm going to impact the world and all of these things in the Lord says, go to bed. Are you kidding me? Get some sleep. Rejuvenate your body. Take care of yourself. Your body's a temple. Take care of it. Maybe, maybe, maybe the adjustment is your eating habits. Maybe. He says, I need you to take care of the temple. I need you to be healthy. I need you to be wise in the way you're doing this. Maybe. Maybe it's time with him that you need to make an adjustment. Maybe it's not your fantasy football league that needs all that time and attention. Instead, somebody clap and get out of here. Only if that was. I'm sorry. Lord, my team is terrible anyway. It could be any kind of a hobby that the Lord says you're spending a lot of time in, that it's becoming your focus. You need to make an adjustment. It could be gossiping or unwholesome talk in general. The Bible says, don't let unwholesome talk come out of your mouth. If you spend time with the Lord, the stuff that isn't the Lord starts kind of being called out and burning away. If the Bible says, don't let unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, and I'm revolving everything around Jesus, and then I'm continuing to get closer to Jesus and closer to Jesus. Pretty soon it don't seem that cool to swear it don't fit me as much, because now I'm a disciple of Jesus. Is that tracking with anybody? Okay, okay. Do you guys know what dross is? Anybody heard the word dross? This is good. This is good. Gold, right? Gold. When you find gold, it's not just perfect like this. Gold. It's got all this other rock and dirt and all this other stuff all around it and whatever. Metals. And that's all in, like, around the gold. And the gold is inside of that, right. So what they do is they take gold and they put it to fire really, really, really hot fire. And you know what happens? All this stuff that isn't gold melts off. It starts, it can't handle the heat. So it starts melting off. And what's left is just gold. So if we're following Jesus, let's connect the dots here. We're following Jesus and we're disciples of Jesus. Then the more and more we're evolving our lives and everything around Jesus, the more and more the stuff that isn't Jesus. The spiritual ick, the sin, the bad habits, the stuff that Jesus says, I don't need that for you to follow me. That stuff burns off. That stuff hits the ground. That's the dross. That's what that's called. The gold hits a refiner's fire. They call it. It refines it. It's another word for purifying, and it makes the gold perfect. Some of y'all have just been giving your life to Jesus, or just been kind of keeping Jesus on a shelf over here, and Jesus is saying, no, I want you to be a disciple that follows me, and I've got some dross to burn away. That dross might look like sin habits. We need to make adjustments so that that dross can be burned off so that our lives can be made more like Jesus. It might look like choosing to forgive somebody who we have not offered forgiveness to yet. There's a lot of spiritual dross all around that unforgiveness ball. I want to warn you, and it feels like it. And I know you think that that unforgiveness puts that person in a cage and you don't want to give them that forgiveness. But I mean to tell you, you're the one in the cage spiritually. Let go of that. Forgive unforgiveness. Choose to forgive. Jesus says to you. He says, forgive so you can be forgiven. Choose to forgive. Choose to make that assignment and watch the spiritual dross go away. When you offer that true forgiveness, when you choose to make that adjustment. Goodness sakes, we're still on adjustments here. We got to keep moving, I said. They can be minor. They could also be major. Like choosing to forgive somebody might be a major deal. It might require a lot of prayer, a lot of help. You don't have to do that alone, that's for sure. Let me talk about big decisions, because sometimes the Lord wants us to make a big decision, and he wants us to have an adjustment in that big decision. But here's the cool thing about being a disciple of Jesus. Do you know that we have a luxury that most people don't have as followers of Jesus? When it comes to big decision making? We do. We've got a really great luxury. Here's the luxury. As a follower of Jesus, when it's time to make a big decision, it's not yours. Take the pressure off. It ain't yours. It's not your decision to make. We've already surrendered our lives to Jesus. Amen. Okay, so if our lives are surrendered to Jesus, then that big decision that's facing you. Lord, I've got this job, and I'm doing just fine in this job. And I have this other job offer over here, and I'm not so sure about it. Do I really want to make a change right now? I'm not so sure. I can't really figure out how to. Wait a minute. That's not my decision to make. That's God's decision to make. It's my job to be rooted in the word, to have my hope in the stream. And God's going to speak to me and tell me where he wants me to go. Which college am I going to attend? No, not your decision to make. I was sitting with a new friend of mine who found out I was a pastor, and that new friend said to me, hey, I got these decisions happening in my life and a pretty big and I'm not really sure what to do. I could do this or I could do this. Like, what would you as a pastor, you're a pastor, so, you know, what would you do? What advice would you give me? And I said, I don't know what to tell you. I don't have a lot of experience with making big decisions on my own. I follow Jesus, that's the biggest decision I've ever made. And because I follow Jesus, I just ask him about the big decisions. My job is to live his will for my life, not make all these big decisions over here that have to do with my life. My job is to be surrendered to him and find out what he wants me to do for those big decisions. Kind of a luxury kind of takes the pressure off, right? So when it's big, things allow the Lord to make decisions. So my wife and I are thinking about, should we buy this house? Well, it's not our decision to make this house or this house. Lord, you're going to make it clear. Should we buy buy a car or make this investment over here? Lord, we're going to pray about it and think about it, and we're going to let you direct it. If it's a big decision, then Lord's going to give us the right answer for it. Middle schoolers. High schoolers. Attention. Should I be dating this girl? Should I be dating this guy? If you're serious about following Jesus, you don't get to make that decision. It's the Lord's decision. If you're serious about putting Jesus first in your life and you are in a dating relationship, stop. Time out. Stop! Wait. It's not your decision to make. Your future belongs to Jesus. When you gave your heart to him and said, Lord, I want to live for you, but then you're over here day to day in and day out trying to play. Hold hands with somebody that God don't want you to hold the hand of. Young adults and adults. It's the same for you as the middle schoolers and high schoolers. Lord, should I be in this relationship with this person? I've been pursuing this relationship, Lord, and it's been going really good. I feel like you said it was okay, so I follow in that. But I'm having a check in now. Lord, I'm having a time to check in with you and say, Lord, are there any adjustments I need to make? Is it in this relationship, Lord? And that big decision doesn't belong to me now. Now I can go to that person I've been in that relationship with and said, hey, you know how my life is submitted to the Lord. I feel like he's telling me I don't have permission to continue to pursue this relationship, but maybe the Lord wants to put you on a timeout instead of you searching and searching for the person that fits all the criteria on the list that you made. The Lord wants to put you on a timeout and say, maybe you should think more about being the kind of person that that person on that list is attracted to. Lord wants to refine some stuff in your life before he puts you in relationship with someone else, but we have to be willing to let him make those adjustments in our life as disciples of Jesus. So finances go the same with that, you know, whether it's investing or whatever else. And and if you're looking for the pastor, that's, that's nervous to talk about money. He ain't here. I'm not I'm not one of them. We're going to talk about money. You know why we're going to talk about money. Orbit church because Jesus talked about money. We're not going to make it weird or do some weird churchy thing that made you uncomfortable years ago or whatever else. But we're going to talk about money. Because here's the thing about money is money is not bad. Money is just a bad god. Money's not bad. Money is just a really bad god. So when we say, Lord Jesus, you can have my life and all, and I will trust my dating relationships to you, and I'll trust my future to you. And I'll make the calls of my life that you want me to make. Just leave me and my money alone. Don't tell me what to do with my money. Watch out, watch out. Money is a really bad God. And if you tell God, he can touch every area of your life. But your finances are not surrendered to him, you're missing out on huge blessing. I'm just telling you. I'm telling you because what it says here, truths and promises. God says the truth about people who tithe regularly as an act of surrender. God says that the truth is, you could test me in this because I'm going to take care of my kids that tithe like that regularly, he says. And and I've got stories and by the by the amens I'm hearing here, some of y'all got stories about tithing when it was hard or difficult or required faith. And the Lord came through in ways that blew your mind and showed what a good God he is. Amen. But if we tell God he can't have that part of us, then it comes between us and God. So let's make sure all of the areas in our life, including our finances, are surrendered to the Lord, and he can tell us what adjustments we need to make with them. He can even use our finances for an assignment. Oh, let's talk about assignments a minute. So we're praying that prayer in our devotional time. We read some scripture, we search for truth and promises, and we say, Lord, are there any adjustments you need me to make or any assignments that you have for me? I know a young girl, years ago we were preaching this very thing about adjustments and assignment, and she said that her assignment that she got from God was on the way to school on her school bus. She said, Lord told her, put in your headphones and play worship music. And she said, it's been crazy how my attitude and how I feel differently when I show up to school because I've been worshiping. What a beautiful assignment, man. You're assignment is going to draw you closer to God because it takes faithfulness to get there. My small group one time got an assignment about a washer and dryer. It seems odd, but I was praying my small group had been praying like what are things that we could that could be an assignment for us? Lord, we want to serve you. And that week I was in the parking lot and I saw a van in the parking lot, and it was literally overflowing this van with clothes. It was just like busting out with clothes. And I got out. We were across the parking lot, we were going into this store, and I got out of the car and I felt like the Holy Spirit said, I'm assignment for you. Go over there where that van is, go talk to the owner of that van. And I said, I don't feel like it, Lord. Well, just go into the store and with my wife. And then if the van is still there and I really feel you. And I really feel like I should, which means I'm going to ignore you until I feel like I'm being disobedient, don't wait to feel like you're being disobedient. You get convicted. Just say yes to the Lord. Put your yes on the table. So I go up to the store with my wife in disobedience, because I know my assignments over here. And we get to the store and I grab the door. Oh, they're not open for another seven minutes. I guess I've got time to go across the parking lot. And I tell my wife, I feel like I got an assignment. I go across the parking lot and I go into the laundromat, and there's somebody standing there, and I'm looking around like, and this lady's got her back to me, and she's got bin after bin of laundry there. And I said, excuse me, is that your van out there? And she turns around. She goes, what are you doing faster, Elijah. And I was like, oh my goodness, I know her. I've known her for a long time. And I said, what's going on? Well, her washer and dryer had gone out and also her her brother had passed away really recently. So all her brothers kids were living in her home with her and her kids laundry and her brother's kids laundry and her mother. All of that laundry was there, and her washer and dryer went out. And so the Lord told me in my small group, take care of that. So we pulled some money together. One of the guys in my small group is a plumber anyway, so he helps pull out the old stuff, put the new stuff in and we're ready. And rocking assignments have usually, I'll say often assignments often have names and faces because we're called to be Jesus to people. So when we ask the Lord, what's an assignment you have for me, it's probably going to have a name or a face. Man, I want to talk about some more assignments. I don't know how much time I got for it, but I'll tell you just real short what assignments could be a one off thing, right? Assignments may be something very short. Like it could be. I had to say yes to an assignment when my son's Little League football coach, a week before practice said, I need more coaches. Are you willing to coach? And I was like, no, that's not me, dude. I don't like kids that much, I just don't. Sorry. They don't listen. I love football, but I probably can't coach it when the kids don't listen. When you're coaching football, you're not even allowed to throw the football at their head anymore. Used to be able to do that. You can't do that anymore. I was like, I'm good, man, I don't need to. But then the Lord was like, Elijah, Elijah, you did not bring that question to me. You just said, no, and it's an assignment for you. I said, Lord, I don't want to stand in August outside in Washington, outside every evening like four nights out of the week and stand out. It's hot, the grass is dry. It's I mean, it's like 81.5 degrees. I don't know if you guys have ever. It was hot for us, okay. I didn't want to do it, but it ended up being a huge blessing. And I got to impact these young kids lives. And they. And they still call me coach to this day when they see me in public. And this is, you know, five, seven years later or whatever, saying yes to God will require faith. And it may be uncomfortable. It's probably going to be uncomfortable because the Lord wants to stretch your faith. Talk to that person in the grocery store, pay that person's rent, give that kid money they need for church camp. Pray with that lady in the dog park. But I don't pray with people in dog parks. Lord you do. Now you're on assignment for Jesus. Ladies and gentlemen, time out. There's a move of God happening in the West Valley right now. There's a move of God. We baptize 18 people last week. Hello. It's happening. The move of God is not going to increase because I preach good or okay, or because Pastor Matt preaches good. It's not going to happen right here in this gymnasium. The move of God is going to happen when you are saying yes to Jesus, to the assignments that he has, and you are all being Jesus to people filled with the Holy Spirit going, I gotta pray with that lady before I leave this dog park. I gotta go talk to her. Then we say yes to those kind of assignments, and now we say yes to a move of God. But if we just want to sit around going, Lord, send revival anywhere but here, Lord send revival. Come on. You want revival, you want to see revival. You gotta ask for it here. When revival happens here, then it can happen here. We all love the idea of God doing amazing things. Are we willing to let him do amazing things in here? Are we willing to put our yes on the table? Let him do amazing things in here. It's hard when it makes you uncomfortable. I like to be comfortable. I was pretty comfortable just a bit ago, living in Washington. Let me tell you how comfortable I was. I was so comfortable because we had been doing this Essentials of Discipleship really well at our church. We had that material, we had studies, we had small groups going. Everything was popping off when it came to making disciples. So much so that we were seeing the church grow. So much so we outgrew our space. We had to move into another space. We began building in a mall, and the Lord was just opening doors left and right, left and right. And our church is growing and growing and blowing up, and we're like, we're seeing this, this real move of God happening. And it was fun. And then I thought comes in my head and it wasn't mine and thought was as it possible. Your assignment here is winding down. Don't tell me that, Lord. It's comfortable here. I'm in the groove. I know people, they know me. We're on mission. We're doing great things. We're just getting this thing off the runway. Lord. So my wife and I pray and pray about it. You'll ever feel like you're praying like this. Tell me, Lord, just talk to me. God, I'm right here. Whatever you want. It felt kind of like that. I don't want to. I don't I'm afraid of what the Lord's going to ask. And then he made it really clear. After months and months of prayer, your assignment here is done. It's time to move. It was uncomfortable and it took faith. See, I had not met Pastor Matt yet, and I knew nothing about Orbit Church. And the Lord told my wife and I sell your home. Pack it up, sell all those things, sell all the stuff, minimize everything and move to Arizona. Okay, Lord, I'm excited about moving to Arizona. I've always wanted to live in Arizona. If I'm being honest. My wife loves the sunshine, so we're like, we could get we could get down with that. That could be cool. So I jump in my inbox and I'm like, okay, what's the job you got for me, Lord? Where's the assignment? Where's the assignment? Give me the assignment. And you know what the Lord said? Nothing. So I press in. Lord, where's the assignment? What do you want me to do? And the Lord said nothing. Trust me. So we sold everything. We packed up and we moved. We bought a house in Arizona, and we began living in Arizona. I thought surely now, Lord, that the boxes are unpacked. You're ready to download the assignment. And I talked to some people and I my my job resumes out there and I get some conversations going. I'm like, oh, this could be this could be whammo! Door slammed in my face. Okay. Lord, obviously the way that shut is not your will. So what? I want an assignment. I'll be honest with you guys. Like I was ready. I got a job three days before I met Pastor Matt. I had a job lined up because I got to get a job. I got to do something. Lord, does it mean this season of ministry is you don't need me doing ministry anymore? Be patient. Have faith even when it's uncomfortable. And then, like dominoes, the assignment began to unravel, and I met Orbit Church and I met Pastor Matt and met the leadership. And it was very obvious the Lord was like that. I needed to take you from over here and put you over here on assignment, and to use the things that you've learned here. Over here. Praise God. Praise God for that. For me, I mean. Yeah, you guys are. You guys are blessed too. But I feel like I'm the one blessed to be here with you guys. I'm worshiping with you guys and be on assignment. All right, we got one more to do and I'm going to go quick through this one. This is the the third discipleship essential piece here. And that's support and encouragement. This one kind of seems like a no brainer. But but it's the one people kind of leave out quite often or forget to be intentional about. Romans 1215 says, rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. So that means you're not meant to be excited by yourself, and you're not meant to be sad by yourself. You're meant to do life with other believers. You're meant to give them support and encourage them. You're also meant to receive support and encouragement. How else the Bible say to do that? Hebrews 1024 says, let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together as summer in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another all the more. As you see the day approaching. A life of a disciple is not meant to be alone. It's not meant to be done alone. I was preaching about this three years ago. This very support and encouragement thing I was, I was on stage in the middle of preaching about it, and I have this memory come to mind, like I can I can see it and remember it, and it's so distracting. While I'm trying to stay on topic about support and encouragement that I'm like, kind of do one of these awkward pauses and I'm like, why are you showing me this? And he's like, it's an illustration. Like, sometimes I feel like when God talks to Pastor Elijah, it's like, come on, Pastor Alija, don't you see it? I'm making it really clear. I'm like, okay, it's an illustration, Lord. Well, what do you mean? Am I all just. I'll just tell everybody what I'm seeing and hopefully I'll figure the illustration out while I'm talking about it. I said it reminds me of when I was in high school and right after high school. We used to raft down a river. Now in Washington. This river was a little more than like our salt River over here, which is just chillin, cruising. And this river had a little bit more, more rapids. And it was a little, a little sketchy, but people rafted it all the time and it was a lot of fun. We would go in a big group and we would all, like, hook together the inner tubes and rafts and all that stuff. Sometimes we tie them off. You know what I'm talking about, right? Like you put your arm on or you put a leg on it and you all float down as one. And I remember one time this memory that kept popping in my head was, was Tim had pushed off from the whole group like this because he was like, I'm cruising by myself and he starts going to like, he's cruising and he's cruising. Cruising. And then all of a sudden, a little bit later, we're like, hey, where'd Tim go? No, that group moves in a different way than a single does. The group moves faster, the group moves in the middle. It doesn't go to the side, to the right or to the left. It kind of stayed on this river. Kind of the way the current moved you. And we look over there and Tim's in the corner that went like this. He's in the corner and he's stuck because he's in the very middle and he's got the branches. The middle of that corner has branches stuck down on me. He's going, are are guys guys? He's just getting raked across the face by branches coming from the side. And he got stuck and he had to push off and get out there. He got himself into some trouble because he wasn't hooked up with a group and I clicked. That's why the Lord shown me that is because we're not meant to do life alone as disciples of Jesus. We're meant to not forsake this. Don't forsake the getting together. Get in a small group. Be in Christian community so you can give and receive support and encouragement. It happens all the time. You can ask any pastor. It's a common syndrome. Somebody is doing really good in their walk with Jesus. They're following God. They're growing as a disciple. They're figuring out how to revolve everything around Jesus. And then they miss church a week and then two weeks, and then you call them up. What's going on, man? I haven't seen you for a while. Everything okay? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I just got this and all my work schedule is not letting me to. Oh, I was out of town then. I was doing this or whatever, and they've forsaken meeting together. It's clockwork that you'll run into them in the grocery store and they'll go, Pastor Elijah. Hey, man. Man, I really need to. I really need to get back to church. I just everything's been so tough in my life right now. And I've had this going on. I've had this going on with this, and I'm experiencing this, like, anxiety and I don't know. Yeah, you are, because you unhooked from the group, you quit meeting together and the Bible says, don't quit meeting together and you quit meeting together. And you lost the plug in of support and encouragement, and you're not feeling very supported or encouraged. Go figure. The consistency of the community of Christ. We need it. How many men of God are in the room? Say Amen. Amen. If you're a man of God in the room there is a young man of God in this room that needs some support. There's a young man of God that needs some encouragement. Are we willing to take the assignment? Are we willing? We better be if we want to be Jesus. If we want to be real disciples of Jesus, we better say yes or yes is on the table. Young men, are you willing to be discipled? Like this goes all throughout the whole church. Guys, this is just a small example. Support, encouragement are vital, vital for us. All right, here's the recap real fast the discipleship essentials, truths and promises. We get them from the Word of God. Adjustments and assignments. We get them from the Lord. Support and encouragement. We give support and receive support and encouragement from each other in the Body of Christ. These are the things that are essential for a disciple. These are the things that you can tell someone when they're like, how do you follow Jesus? You're like, oh, it's really easy. Truce and promises, adjustments and assignments, support and encouragement of being. I'm a Jesus follower. That's how we do it. It sounds like it's going to be a huge investment. And it is. It'll only cost you your life. But what did we read last week? If you want to save your life, you're going to lose it. And Jesus says, if you're willing for for the discipleship essentials, if you're willing to be a disciple, you're going to find your life, you're going to lose your life, and you're actually going to find it, because the life you're going to find is the one Jesus has for you. Amen.