To watch the sermon Jesus Hu Adonai | Mission Series

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All right, well, I do not have any QR codes this week, so I know all, man. You know, I ran out of things to make PDFs with, so. That's okay. Brent's gonna be back and preaching in a couple of weeks and I can promise I'll make PDFs on everything at that point. So keep Pastor Brent in your prayers, please.

He was actually feeling better this week. His back was better, he was able to get together with a couple of people. And then this morning he woke up and he was puking, hurling, vomiting. You know, I wanted to use non descriptive terms for you, but he was not feeling well. And so please keep him in your prayers today.

I can imagine how discouraging it is to start to feel better when you've had ailments and then turn right around and be down with some other sickness or some other illness or whatever. And so keep him in your prayers. Also keep him in your prayers because I've been preaching on Saturdays and Sundays, and I was really looking forward to not preaching tomorrow. So I am hoping for a miraculous healing by 3pm this afternoon so that not only is he healed, but he can recoup himself in time for tomorrow. If not, if you're on the north side of town, go see Brent or me tomorrow morning.

Either one of us will be there. So beautiful church up there, beautiful family up there as well. And so part of us as a church and part of the mission series we're doing is to be on mission with Christ. And so being on mission with Christ means that other people are also on that mission with you. You're not a lone ranger.

You're not the only person. Last time I checked in the Bible, there's only one person who gets to be on the mission Impossible as the leader, and that's Jesus. It's not Tom Cruise. This is why Tom Cruise has to run every place we're gonna learn today. Jesus didn't do a lot of running.

So, you know, guys, can I get some amens in here? Riley, no, you run. So can I get some amens that we don't do a lot of running? All right, awesome. Praise God.

Praise God. Yes, Praise God. All right. Nobody falls into being an apprentice or a disciple of Jesus. You don't just fall into it.

It's kind of like you don't just fall into being a baseball player or a basketball player. You don't fall into being a good husband. You don' into being a good wife. These aren't things that just one day you wake up and it's kind of like a movie where it's like, pop. All of a sudden, I am this.

It takes hard work. It takes a dedication to the craft or to the trade. Whatever it is you're doing, you have to be intentional about what it is you're trying to accomplish. So, Sharon, if you say, I want to be the best teacher, you didn't wake up this morning and become the best teacher. You put time, energy, and effort into living a life that.

That caused you to grow into being a good teacher. And along the way, what happens? Sometimes you make good decisions, sometimes you make bad decisions. And you learn from the good decisions, and you learn from the bad decisions. This is what helps us use wisdom in life to implement a different theology, a different way of walking.

So that way we can stay on mission with our core beliefs. Right? It's something that has to be done on a regular basis. You don't just follow into being awesome at something. I don't care what your T shirt says.

I don't care. We're getting ready. Mother's Day. Father's Day is coming up right around the corner. I don't care what mug your kids get you.

You don't just fall into being awesome. You earned it through what you did. Oh, that was cute. Misty just looked at Jeremy. That was really cute.

I can see you this week. Last week, I couldn't see you not only from the haze, but from the lights, but I can see you this week. So that was really cute. I'm glad I got to see that. Nobody else got to see that except for you two.

So we'll talk about that on YouTube so that you guys can go back and say, see, there are times where we get along with each other. You don't fall into becoming an apprentice of Jesus. This is why the thousands of people that Jesus ministers to, whether it's on the Sermon of the Mount or whether it's in the various different towns he went to, it's why you don't see thousands of different books in the Gospel. They heard with their ears and saw with their eyes the very same thing that the 12 did. But you don't have testimonies of them, do you?

I don't. Do you? No. Why? Because just because you hear or just because you see with your eyes doesn't mean you fell into being a disciple of Jesus or a follower of Jesus.

It doesn't mean that you made Jesus your king just because you heard and you saw. It's an intentional act. For the next two weeks, as we close out The Mission series. And we get ourselves to the Sermon on the Mount. We're not going to call it the Sermon on the Mount series because again, there's been like 50,000 of those over the time.

Remember, there's nothing new under the sun. We're going to call it the Torah of the Kingdom.

After all, Torah means more than just law. For my Hebrew passionate Christians, Torah means more than just law. In fact, one of the definitions of Torah is teachings. They're teachings. So the Torah would be the teachings of Moses, the teachings of David, the teachings of Solomon.

The teachings. Well, what do we learn in teachings? We already said it today. Sometimes you learn that they did something right, and sometimes you learn that they did something wrong.

Then Jesus goes to a mountain and he gives his teachings.

The Sermon on the mountain. Before we get there, we need to conclude the next two weeks with looking at who Jesus is. People will say, okay, he's the anointed one. Jesus. Who?

Adonai. Jesus the Lord. Yeshua. Who? Adonai Yeshua.

The Lord.

But what did Jesus do? I mean, obviously he died on a cross. He. He gave the Last Supper at a Pesach dinner. There's a lot of things he did, but how did he go about doing those things?

The character of God is sometimes in the small things that we read over in the scripture. The character of God is sometimes in the places of, why was God doing something? Or how was God doing something? Versus just what did God do? Sometimes we approach the scripture and we want to then apply that to our life, as in a list of checks and balances.

Tanya says you should only teach 45 minutes. If I teach under 45 minutes, I am compliant. I won. Yes. Some people would give me a gold star.

Some people would give me an attaboy. That's not how God wants a relationship with you ever. He wants the intimacy of a father and a mother to sons and daughters. God doesn't want to sit in some hierarchy chair and sit at you and say, matthew, good job today. You were 10% better than yesterday.

He wants to meet with you just like he did in the garden. And he wants to sup with you and commune with you. And I know for all my introverted people, he wants to give you hugs and love. He wants you to feel very uncomfortable because in your uncomfortableness with him, you. You can feel at peace, in comfort with him.

So today we're gonna look at a couple of pillars that I believe are important for us to understand how Jesus led. And when we understand how Jesus led, we can Then look at our lives and ask ourselves a couple of questions. We've asked ourselves these questions every week. If Jesus did this, am I currently doing this? If Jesus acted this way, am I currently acting this way?

If Jesus saw this fruit, am I bearing this fruit? And in the end, if the answer is no, we're not modeling the same thing Jesus is. We still have time. There's still an invitation for us to make an adjustment in our life to look more like Jesus. And in the end, we should probably accept the invitation before it becomes an obligation, because sooner or later, it will be an obligation and we will all bow.

So as we look at the pillars of Jesus's model of apprenticeship, it was all day, every day. This wasn't a classroom. This wasn't, I got you on my Google Calendar for 35 minutes. Or you know what? This week we've got some time.

On Wednesday we can get together for coffee. Jesus leadership model of apprenticeship was all day, every day. Okay, let you in on a little secret. Some mornings, few and far between, but some mornings I wake up grumpy. Some mornings, there's not a fruitful conversation that will take place before coffee.

Not one. We're not talking about 1% good conversations. We're talking about 0% good conversations before I have coffee. Jesus led from a place of intimacy all day, every day, which means the Middle east has some really good coffee. Some really good coffee before their coffee.

Jesus was leading with them. They were together. Those moments I don't see a lot about in the scripture, but I'm sure there was some testing moments when they were going to bed and they were tired. We were talking last night with some of our friends about the difference between the climate in the summer in Oklahoma versus in the Austin, Texas area. This is Israel.

It's hot. When you go out into the desert lands, it's even hotter. How do I know? Because one time I was in Arizona. It's similar.

One time.

If it would be the Lord's will, I would like to play shuffleboard there in my 70s. But I've been there one time. And so when the day is long and the days are hot and at the end of the day, you still fellowship with each other, there's nobody in this room who would be bold enough to tell you that they're never testy. They do. You're a liar and the truth is not in you.

We get testy. Sometimes we get hangry. Jesus did life through those entire times with his apprentices, the good and the bad. Not only did he do Life with them ongoing. He did it with 12 men on a regular basis.

And there was a lot of women that were there too. But there was 12 men who were there who were participating. Not all 12 of those men were the same men. Andrew was not Peter. Peter was not John, John was not James.

And they weren't trying to be. They were trying to be themselves every once in a while. The scripture tells us that they had some brotherly fights. They would, lord, you know I'm the best brother, Lord, you know I'm the best disciple. Lord, you know none of us have ever done that.

And they would argue and they would squabble. Jesus did life with them in that time too. Jesus did life in the good and the bad. Some of us are still struggling day in and day out to figure out how to get along in our own little family dynamic, our own little space, let alone trying to get along with people who are not blood.

Jesus got along and led with all of them through the good and the bad. So when we look at discipleship, when we look at making disciples, and I got this one wrong too, shocker. I've done a lot of things wrong in my life. I've learned a lot of lessons by not doing the right thing the first time.

It's almost never one on one. Jesus is doing life with groups of people and those groups of people are doing life with each other. And there's a lot of differences between those people. This is why when we made the transition in this church, we talked about wanting to have diversity of individuals in the church because we see it in the model of how Jesus helped revolution, revolutionize the world. You wouldn't be sitting here today if Jesus didn't choose those men and those men didn't obey.

This is how the gospel was preached to all nations. And part of that includes us. So Jesus was all day, every day. So for my introverted friends in the room, might need to, might need to have a talk with the Lord, might need to. Because if we're going to model after how Jesus led and we're going to do community with each other according to what the scripture says and what Jesus showed us, hiding at home is probably not going to be.

It's not going to be in line with Jesus doing all day, every day. So look, I'm an equal opportunity, long suffering person. So we're just getting out in front of this because it's a lot easier to rip a band aid off very slowly for some. I know I'm the one who rips it off. I Rip it off quick.

Some. Rip it off slowly. We're ripping it off slowly. To do life like Jesus, you have to do life with people, and you have to do life with people on a regular basis.

This also wasn't a gospel New Testament concept. We see this throughout the Torah. They were to come together. They were to commune with each other. They were all to.

They were all to stone the people when they did stupid stuff. That's not. Nobody's gonna laugh about that anymore. I mean, come on. We're at a stage in this church where we can laugh about the stoning parts.

Like, we can just. No. Even my wife's like, that's a bad joke. Thank you. You know what?

I love you. May the Lord bless you and keep you. It was the worst joke I've had in many, many weeks. And yet you still made me feel good today. And, you know, you bore my burden and thus fulfilled the law of Christ.

Eli, I love you. Brother number two. Jesus led from a place of reflection and prayer. How countercultural is this for most of you in this room? Your alarm goes off on your Android or your iPhone, you wake up and you do what?

Scroll social media? Scroll news feeds, immediately hop out of bed because you hit the snooze button too many times. You and I have been programmed in the United States of America to lead from a place of obligation. We have an obligation to our work. We have an obligation to our family.

Moms in this room, you don't want your house to burn down. And if your young kids are up trying to make breakfast, something's going awry.

And so you have an obligation to get up and try to be out in front of your kids doing something that could cause more issues. Jesus didn't lead from a place of obligation. He led from a place of rest and prayer.

Rest in prayer. Number three. Jesus model of apprenticeship was always small groups. We'll see later on in the text that Jesus had the 12 who he interacted with on a regular basis. But there's also multiple times as his ministry continues to go on that he pulls three specific people from that 12.

Nowadays, people get frustrated if they feel like there's a clique in the church. And they'll say, and don't get me wrong, some cliques are bad, but they'll say, well, I'm not on the inner circle. Jesus ministered to thousands of people on a regular basis. Like, his fame blew up the moment he started healing people, the moment he started casting out demons, the moment he started showing unbridled power his fame started to rise very quickly. And so out of all of these thousands of people he was Talking to, only 12 were a part of the inner circle.

And in that 12, only three were part of an inner inner circle.

Why? Because he was intentional in wanting to grow and empower people. Can you grow and empower people? If it's you and 10,000 people and you can't do life and you can't have a conversation and you can't hug each other and you can't pray with each other and you can't be intimately involved in the life of those people? I haven't seen it work.

I'm not going to say it's impossible, but I haven't seen it work. So Jesus utilized small groups to build and then send out. And number four, Jesus didn't force a single person into being an apprentice of his. This is something the church has to understand. The church wants to make apprentices of Jesus.

You can't force anybody to do that.

You can't manipulate somebody to do that. Tim, I can talk to you till I'm blue in the face and give you the 12 steps of why this is important. But if you have no desire in your heart to go on this path with us, then we're both wasting our time. Because sooner or later, at some point, you're not going to end up where I think you should or where I believe the Bible says you should. And you're going to walk away and I'm going to walk away, and our friendship and our relationship is going to be damaged.

Jesus didn't violate the free will of the individuals he called. He gave them an invitation.

This is one of the reasons in this church we don't really have a membership class because it's an invitation for you to come and join our community. But I don't need you to sign your name on some sort of covenant oath document. You come in when you want, you leave when you want. You're not mine, you're God's. I just get to be a shepherd for a season, maybe multiple.

In the end, you cannot be coerced into following Jesus or becoming an apprentice of Jesus. If you are, it will never last. It's not truly a heart posture change. It's not truly a relationship with the Lord. Sooner or later, it was fine.

I'm going to spin out of this and we're going to move on. In the Gospels of John, Mark, chapter 14 and 6 John chapter 3, we see that Jesus traveled, ate, slept, and taught while ministering with his apprentices. He created a culture that wasn't just a working relationship, it was a familial relationship. You went to work, you went to eat, you hung out. Maybe they played card games, maybe it was Hungry Hungry Hippos, but they did it together.

They did it together in Matthew 14, Mark 6, John 6, and Luke. Luke's one of my favorite apostles. And Luke, while there's countless amounts of engagements of Jesus interacting with large crowds, it consistently said that he would remove himself from those crowds to lead from solitude and prayer. There's multiple times where there's crowds of people who had gathered to see Jesus. And the apostles go out and find Jesus in the early morning and he is prostrated in a garden, or he's sitting in a field, or he's sitting in a place.

You know, we, as Hebrew, passionate Christians, we say, hey, like, we love the rest of the Sabbath. Jesus led every day from silence, prayer and rest. So we might have like 10%. Like, we're down that track a little bit, but we need to start leading every day if we want to be like Jesus from silence, prayer and rest. Not from Facebook or Instagram or TikTok or Fox News or CNN.

Does anybody watch CNN anymore? Like, from whether the Dodgers completely are like, they're the new Microsoft. They literally have signed every person a free agent. And I don't even know how they do it. You know, maybe they're the new Egypt Babylon.

Who knows? Sorry, Riley, but it's a possibility. In the end, Jesus led from a place of rest and prayer. Can we adjust our life to do that? I know this, this one alone is going to be a real struggle for me.

I wake up in the morning, I've got text messages, people need a call, something's happening, My kids need something. And you immediately get up and you start surviving.

Jesus doesn't want you to just survive. He wants you to thrive. And on your own, you might be able to survive, but with Christ, you have the ability to thrive.

What good is it to know about God if you cannot experience God? Knowing about God isn't the same as having a relationship and being intimate in a relationship with God. In John 14:9, Jesus tells Philip. Now Philip is one of the apostles. So Jesus was on the inner circle, or Philip was on the inner circle of Jesus.

And he says, have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you don't know who I am?

Okay, guys, it's the 21st century. Philip was walking with Jesus in the flesh. Philip was living in an atmosphere where he had testimony of Testimony, grandfathers, grandmothers, whatever. This was the culture they lived in. Philip knew more about first century Judaism than we do.

Let's just. Let's just be real honest right now. He knew more about that than we do. Yet in the end, he didn't know who Jesus was. John records.

Have I been with you this entire time, Philip, and yet you still do not know who I am? Okay, let's put this into another perspective, Ryan. Megan, how long have you been married? It's your fault. You sat on the front row.

19 years. This would be like on their 20th anniversary. They go out and they're sitting down there and talking with each other. And Ryan looks at Megan, or Megan looks at Ryan, and he says, we've been married for 19 years. Do you really not know who I am?

Do you really not know that I like this? Do you really not know that this is my personality?

Guys, if that's you, you better run. You're gonna die. You're gonna die. Don't even go to bed at this point in time, one eye open. Philip has this conversation with Jesus, and Jesus has this conversation with Philip that even though you've been with me and I've been with you, you don't understand who I am.

He continues to say in John 14, anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. So why are you asking me to show you him? So Philip didn't. Not only did he not know who Jesus was, but he also didn't understand the connection of Jesus and the Father. And he didn't understand that what he was seeing in front of him and all the things he was hearing.

And again, these are big things at this point in time. Jesus is healing people from the dead. People with 40, 50 years of issues on their hands and their skin or whatever, who've been outside the temple forever. Jesus is healing them. They're witnessing this happen.

And he's saying, you don't know who I am. And not only that, because you don't know who I am, you don't understand who I and the Father are. So if it's possible that some of the closest people to Jesus who sat at his feet watch these things happen, we should be less arrogant and prideful inside ourselves in the 21st century. We should realize that we look for who Jesus might be, but we're in a very different culture in a very different time. And so we come with some biases that we don't fully always understand.

We have Peter, James, and John, the three musketeers.

These guys were different. And Jesus Saw different things in them. While it's true that Jesus had his 12, these three men got to have some intimacy with the Lord that the rest of them didn't. On the Mount of Transfiguration, you guys remember that story Sometimes we're talking about that. On Ascension Day, before Pentecost, before Shavuot, on the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus took Peter, James, and John.

They got to witness Moses and Elijah testify and watch Jesus completely transform. The other 12 weren't there. These three men got invited to this place and had the testimony that the rest of the disciples that they were a part of didn't share. When Jesus healed Peter's mother in law, he only took James, John, and Peter to the house. I like to think of that one as kind of a character healing because it wasn't public.

Jesus left Saturday church, and he went to Peter's mother in law's house, and she had a fever. For us, a fever is not a big deal. We're texting the Castellanos, we're texting the Drews, we're texting whatever. And they're like, pop a Tylenol, pop an ibuprofen, have a, you know, have an ice bath, do something, and you'll be good in the morning.

In that time, fevers were a big deal. They could be deadly. And Jesus goes and heals Peter's mother in law in kind of a secret atmosphere. But he takes those three men with him and says, hey, she's important to me. And I want you to see this.

When Jesus healed the daughter of the synagogue ruler, he took Peter, James, and John. Is there a little bit of a pattern here? I think Jesus. You know, my kids ask me all the time, I haven't fallen for this.

Who's your favorite?

Your mom. Who do you love the most? Your mom. I mean, out of the kids. Your mom.

Who's your favorite daughter? Your mom. Who's your favorite son? Your mom.

Anything you say can and will be used against you.

Jesus took Peter, James, and John. So there's not a scripture where he says, hey, these are my favorite. These are my boys, Peter, James, and John. But there is multiple times in very important situations where Peter, James, and John are the ones who are taken and the rest are not taken. Peter is also the one that says, upon you, I will build my church in the garden of Gethsemane.

Jesus took Peter, James, and John to a different spot than the other. I mean, we're a Passover 11 people. How many of you have focused in the fact in the garden of Gethsemane. And I know there's a lot of things that are going on at that point in time. How many of you are focused in on the fact that Peter, James and John were taken to a different place in the garden than the rest?

Even at the very end, Peter, James and John, Jesus knew that they going to one day become the Beatles of the apostles. He knew that they had a different calling in their life. And so he trained them and he allowed them into intimate spaces. Not the rest of them were. Does that diminish who the rest of the disciples were?

Absolutely not. Luke wasn't in there. I just told you. Luke's one of my favorite apostles. When I look at the writings of the Book of Acts or the Gospel of Luke, Luke's one of my favorite literary style writers.

But Luke wasn't on the inner circle of those three.

Paul. Paul wasn't even a thing at that point in time. A lot of people like Paul's writings. A lot of the New Testament is Paul's writings. There's a reason why Jesus went with those three.

And when we look at modeling and replicating the laws of Christ and the love of Christ in other people, a lot of times we want to do it one on one. Riley, it's just going to be you and me, man. We're just going to like, we're going to go to war with this and you know, in two years you're going to be doing this in the church and you're doing that in the church. The problem is Jesus never did that.

Jesus didn't go one on one in a training class. He had a group of individuals that were there with him. So why do we then think that the greatest man who ever walked on this earth, God in the flesh, Emmanuel, that somehow we're smarter or we're wiser, we as sons, as daughters of the most high, like somehow we've got it figured out by doing something completely different.

Probably should learn from the wisdom of our dad. Not just spiritually, but physically in the end. Luke's writings in the Book of Acts, he was very high on Peter's preaching. During the Feast of Pentecost in 2022 in February, I did a teaching called God Wants a Megachurch. And it was actually probably the start of this kind of move of the church over the last two years.

Why? Because Luke knew that Peter was special. He knew that Peter had a calling. And Peter's teachings were very contrary to what the synagogue leaders were experiencing at that time after the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus leading up into the Feast of Pentecost. When we approach Pentecost through the Ruach Hakodesh or through the Holy Spirit, we're invited into a different time, in a different place and a different power to be able to fulfill the teachings of Christ.

Peter knew that, and Peter went toe to toe after Jesus had left and Luke records it, James was killed by Herod.

John and Peter were sent to the Samaritans, and they helped them receive the Holy Spirit.

Your calling in this room might be different from somebody else's calling in this room. I say might because I'm not God. But I believe the scripture says it is different to walk in a leadership model like Jesus. You have to identify that and you have to encourage people in that place.

Jeremy, I can't make you. I can't make you somebody you're not. And that's not my job for following Jesus. Leadership style, worship team. You can come back then.

My job is to make you the best version of Jeremy that God created you to be and to walk alongside you, with you while you do that. Too often we think of discipleship as a complete change. I'm gonna take Iago and I'm gonna turn him into Riley or I'm gonna take Riley and I'm gonna turn him into Matthew. That's not what Jesus did. Jesus allowed Matthew to be Matthew.

Jesus allowed Andrew to be Andrew. Jesus allowed Peter to be Peter. Jesus allowed John and James to be John and James. And in the end, he helped them become the best version of themself, which is who Christ originally intended them to be. He didn't try to make Peter Andrew, and he didn't make Andrew feel bad because he wasn't Peter.

You have to find and identify the individual nature, gifts and talents the Lord has created you to be. And when you walk with each other in a community, our goal and our job is to help elevate those. It's not to change those. Paul tells us in Ephesians, before you were born, Christ gave you a gift. Nowhere in this scripture does he say, before you were born, Christ gave you a gift so that in 2025, Chris could change it or Brent could change it or Tim could change it.

We are to not attempt to change the gift that God gave each and every one of you. We're to help you walk in it. An apprentice, more like Jesus. There was no persuasion or gimmicks or ultimatums. Jesus didn't lead.

And if you sign up now, not only will you get a bonus, but you'll get two of these miracle cloths for today only. There was no gimmicks. There was no ultimatums. He wasn't abusive. He invited you into an eternal life, one that the Jews knew started now, not some far off thing.

Jesus's model of leadership and building apprentices was very countercultural to what we see.

And too often inside the church, we have allowed the systems of the world to creep in through the doors and say, well, if they work in corporate America, they might work here. It's true, it probably will. If a system works with people out there, it's possible a system will work with people in here. This church isn't interested in having systems. This church isn't interested in having a program, lots of good programs.

We're interested in submitting ourselves to the lifestyle, character and narrative of who Jesus is as the leader and walking in a relationship and intimacy with him so that he can be the potter and we can be the clay. This is countercultural. It'd be so much easier if I just wrote a whole bunch of blogs and books and videos and sat down and said, hey guys, you want to be a disciple in this church? You want to grow in this church? Watch my 10 part DVD and read these blogs.

This is not the model of Jesus. This is the model of the world. And in this church, I have no obligation to make you like the world. I have a command to make you set apart from it. How do you walk in a way that is set apart from the world?

You keep your eyes on the real deal. You want to walk in a kingdom, there's a choice. There's kings and queens that are raised up. Every day we have a new one in America. The best ever, self professed.

In the end though, there's only one king who is the king of kings. There's only one kingdom that's perfect forever.

So in our attempts and in our culture to make America great again, we should probably look inside of ourselves and let's make Jesus holy again. Because when Jesus is put on the throne of our lives, when Jesus is put on the throne of this is how we should model. This is how we should act. This is how I should adjust my walk. I should adjust my thinking.

I should adjust my daily planner. How many of us look at our Google Calendar and say, jesus, why don't you lead my Google Calendar? We're like, jesus, can you fit into my Google Calendar this week when you put Jesus back up on the throne in the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and you let Jesus teachings be the law of that kingdom. You realize that your role is not to try to run the kingdom. Your goal is to try to do your best every day to look more like the king.

So today as we respond I want ask you a couple of questions for self reflection this week. Next week we'll finish off on what is the mission that Jesus called us to. And we'll end at the mountain for Brent to come in in two weeks and start with the Sermon on the Mount. And what did Jesus teach us? For a lot of us who've come from the Hebrew passionate side of religion, we spend a lot of time talking about what happened at a mountain.

We spent a lot of time talking about God cleansing, testing, developing a nation to be like him. But not many of us have spent a lot of time looking at the new Moses who went up the mountain, looking at the new Moses who gave a kingdom decree. And this was a man who is not like Moses in one way. He actually could put a new heart in you. He could put a new spirit in you.

He could change you if you were willing to come to him. Moses couldn't do that. David couldn't do that. Deborah couldn't do that. Phoebe couldn't do that.

Chris can't do that.

So I'm going to ask you some self reflective questions this week before we conclude next week.

Does your daily schedule actually allow you to apprentice with Jesus?

Does your daily schedule allow you to be with Jesus?

If not, I'd like to make a recommendation to you. I think you need to make an adjustment to your schedule. Whatever that looks like different for every person. How's your prayer life? I know a lot of guys say like hey I really struggle with praying.

How's your communication with God? If you struggle with praying, do you talk to God?

Maybe it's just yelling at God right now, but do you talk in any capacity? If not should probably be an emphasis. Jesus talked to his father a lot.

What drives you when you wake up in the morning? Is it your 401k? Is it an obligation to an employer? Is it a burden that you feel like you need to, you need to lead from or do you lead from a place of reflection and solitude with Christ?

Because if it's an obligation to somebody other than Jesus, then it's a high probability that that person is struggling for higher emphasis in your life then Jesus. And if Jesus isn't on the throne in your life and he's not number one, I can tell you everything else is always going to have some sort of chaotic mess. In it. And number four, number three, are you hiding behind terminology? Whether it's I'm an introvert or I'm socially awkward or, you know, whatever those terms might be?

Are you hiding behind terminology to make excuses why you don't have to have fellowship with one another? Because if you're not even having fellowship, you're not going to apprentice with each other towards Jesus. If you're not breaking bread, then you're not fulfilling some of the basic elements of the early church in the Book of Acts. And four, what have you done with God's invitation to follow him?

We talked last week and we've talked a couple other times. The differences between somebody who believes in Jesus and somebody who is actively trying to follow Jesus in their life. The world's full of people who believe in Jesus. And again, I'm not saying that as a negative thing, but when we believe Jesus is our Lord, our Savior, our Master, what are we doing with that? Did we put that on a shelf along with our doctorate or our degree from Oral Roberts or wherever it is, Oklahoma Baptist University?

And every once in a while we point to it and it's like, hey, remember that dude? Yeah, I got a ticket to the chocolate factory in the kingdom? Or is he ever present and active in your daily life? Do you talk about him as much as you talk about how much we dislike Patrick Mahomes? Do you talk about him as much as you talk about what the stock market is doing?

Do you talk about him as much as whatever else it is you do? What are you doing with the invitation that God has given to you? Foreign we're preparing ourselves for the spring feast for Pesach, March 15, right around the corner. We're just a little bit over 30 days past that when it comes to Purim.

It's time now in the space between the feast, for you to get your heart and your mind right with the Lord. It's not waiting until you come to the table. It's not acting like, hey, Lord, it's, you know, I got some time. Got some time.

What you do today will help shape the habits and how you think tomorrow. And if those habits and those things and those thought processes are not in line with who Jesus is in your life, then why are you waiting to make an adjustment? Why aren't you self reflecting and saying, I think I want to let go, Jesus, be the Lord of my life? I maybe need to clean my calendar a little bit.

I know what the Lord has done for me and I will never stop testifying of it.

And in that every day I have gratitude for who he is, for what he's done.

But I also understand that a couple of years ago my calendar was full of things that weren't Jesus and I was trying to fit Jesus into my calendar. I led from places of obligation, not from places of prayer or Holy Spirit inspiration. And I know the fruit I produced in that time.

And I've got an abundant amount of gratitude for the Lord, for what he was gracious and allowed me to experience over the last two two and a half years. But I had to make a self reflective change in my life and put Jesus back where Jesus always was. Once again I can say Jesus isn't on the throne, but Jesus isn't asking my opinion. He's still on the throne whether I like it or not. So this week ask yourself and look at your life.

Is Jesus on the throne of my life? Is Jesus how I lead in my life? Do I model my lifestyle, my home, my family, my relationship? If you're a business owner, my business business? Do I model it after Jesus or do I model it after Bill Gates?

Do I model it after Jesus or do I model it after Steve Jobs? Do I model it after Jesus or do I model it after Elon Musk?

All those are some really intelligent individuals, but I promise you they don't hold a candle to Jesus. If you will stand, let's respond