Howard's going to be sharing this morning on the Cycle Shift. Howard, you're on. Thank you. Navigators say the mission is to fulfill the Great Commission, right? So just to review, the Great Commission, have you memorized that? Do you know what that says? Yes. Do you remember that? Go therefore and teach them to obey all things whatsoever I command thee. One of the things I learned real early is when I see in the scriptures, technique of Bible study, the word therefore, I should figure out what it means therefore. So kind of like we were talking about earlier, With the songs and looking at the verses and the hymns, we go back. It's funny. You said you do economic development in university. And so when we talk economic development and real estate and such, there are three rules of real estate, they say. Location, location, location. Where is this house built? Next to the slums or in a really nice, ritzy neighborhood. The same thing applies. to Bible study. I'm looking at a verse. Key trait of Bible study, Bible interpretation, location, location, location, or if you will, context, what's around it. So let's go back one verse. Matthew 28, 18, Jesus says, All authority has been given to me on heaven and earth. go therefore, based not in my strength, but in God's strength. So I don't make disciples because I want to, or because I'm so good at it, or because I know all there is to know about it. I know it. I make disciples based on Christ living in me. We looked at those verses earlier. Christ is sufficient. He's given us everything pertaining to life, and God lives in us through the true knowledge of Him who has called us, and so on and so forth. That's what we do as navigators, whether we're full-time NASA staff, like Reverend Mann and Dr. Stanley, or if, you know, the only... The navigators reach out to the whole world, right? And there's a small core of full-time staff, but most of the people in navigator ministries are not full-time navigators. I'm an instructor pilot. I joined the Air Force in 1970. I retired in 1994, turned right around and became a contract instructor pilot. So I've been in the flying business for over 40 years. My job is to teach people to fly airplanes. But you know what? You don't live to fly. You fly to live. That's my secular job. It puts food on the table. Life is more than that. Jesus is first. So that's where the mission in your life is. So, we're supposed to make disciples, right? If we're going to make disciples, we need to figure out what we're talking about. So let's define our terms. What's a disciple? Now, you can go to a dictionary and do that. You work economic development, right? Would you go to a farmer to figure out what economic development is? No, you go to somebody who's an expert in economic development, right? Who better to find out what Jesus meant by the term disciple than go to Jesus, right? So, if you go through primarily the Gospels, since that's where we have Jesus' words, And we can look and see, to attempt to do a comprehensive Bible study on what Jesus meant, what Jesus said it meant, to be a disciple. And there's about six or eight of those, and I've kind of combined them into a group of three. When I went to Air Command and Staff College, they of course had all these different schools on how to be a good communicator. And they said, you're supposed to have three main points. Well, these fall very nicely into three main points. And so the first one, we go to John 8.31. Jesus said, if you continue in my word, then you are truly my disciples. John 8.31. So how do we continue in God's word? And I suspect you've seen this before, but just to review. That gives us a handy illustration to help us to get a really good handhold on the Word of God. And wouldn't you know it, they call it the hand illustration. You've seen that before, right? The little finger is, we hear the Word of God. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Well, you can hear, you get the Bible on MP3 or iPod, you can go through it in a couple days to a week, hear the whole thing. Very, very broad, but very shallow. Thus, my little finger is the weakest. Then, I want to read it. Revelation 1-3 says, how blessed are those who read the words of this prophecy. It takes a little longer to read the word than it does to hear it. I don't really want to be reading my bible as I'm driving down the road. But I can listen to it then. So it takes a little longer and of course the navigators have all sorts of good bible reading plans. Excellent technique to get into the word. One of the things I've found helpful is every time I go through it I use a different translation. NID, King James, New King James, American Standard, ESV, CEV, etc. etc. It gives you a little bit different flavor or perspective on it. Now, my standard, I like this New American Standard for my in-depth Bible study. So if I go through and I'm reading it in one translation, not the one I just finished, but the one before that, was one called the Complete Jewish Bible by a Messianic Jew, a believer in Christ. But he looked at it from a Jewish perspective. So I'm doing that reading. I've got my numerical standard next week. I see something. I say, gee, I don't remember that. I pull this out. I can compare it. It gives me more understanding, illumination into what that is to say. You hear something. 25 hours later, how much do you remember? Not very. Experts, the academicians, if you will, say maybe 5%. When you read it, it's a little more, 10 or 15%. So we're getting deeper, but we're not as broad. If we want to go yet deeper, we want to study. We are commanded, study and show yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth, 2 Timothy 2.15. It takes a lot longer to study that. You can spend your entire life studying the Bible, as compared to reading it through very easily in a year, and if you work a little harder, maybe a month or two. Or getting much deeper, but it takes a lot more time, it's not nearly as broad. And if I'm studying it, how much do I remember a day or two later? Maybe 40-50%, right? So I'm retaining it then. Now if I really want to retain it all, what do I have to do? Memorize it. Okay. Psalm 119, 9 and 11. How shall a young man, I'm obviously rather old, you're quite young. How will a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word, that word of thy hate in my heart that I might not sin against thee? If we really want to retain it, if we really want to get into it, we need to memorize it. I don't know anyone who has memorized the whole Bible. So it takes a while to do that. So again, the little finger is the weakest, the broadest. As we get deeper, we don't know why our index finger is the strongest. So we have all these different ways and they complement each other. I can't hold on to this Bible with one finger. Two is better, three is better, four is better. Now I've got all four fingers. Good grip on it, right? Can you pull that out of my hand? Very easily. Why is that? I've got all four fingers. What do I not have? The thumb. Notice the thumb goes with every one of these, doesn't it? What's the thumb? Joshua 1.8, one of our TMS verses. I should mention TMS. I'm sure you've seen that topical memory system. It's the Navigator's Technique, Methodology to Memorize the Word of God. One of our verses is Joshua 1.8. This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night. So we're supposed to meditate. Why do we meditate? Is that the end all be all? Our goal is meditation? Like the Hindus? Why do we meditate? Exactly. That verse goes on. Meditate in order that you might obey. Put into practice everything in there. For then you'll make a way prosperous and then you'll have great success. We meditate in order to apply it. Matter of fact, In the U.S. we have a synonym for meditation called ruminate. Have you heard that word? Yes, they go together. Exactly. Very good. Ruminate is to think about things or to chew on it. What's a ruminate? What is it? Exactly. A cow has four sons. The cow crops the grass and goes and lays down in the heat of the sun under the shade of the tree. Up comes from the one stomach, chews on it a while, back down. Up comes from the second stomach, chewing the cud. And so you're chewing on the Word of God and thinking about, how does this apply to me? Not just what does it say, but what does it say, what does it mean, and how does it apply? I need to get into the Word of God and the Word of God into me so that I can obey it. James 1.22 says, Prove yourselves to be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. Luke 6.46, Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do the things that I say? If Jesus isn't Lord of all, he's not Lord at all. He can't be Lord of part of my life. He's got to be Lord of all of them. He has a very interesting illustration he gives in Matthew 7. He talks about the people who built their homes. Two people built gorgeous, beautiful mansions. One built on the sand and the other on the solid rock. Both of them, the storms, the wind, the rain, the hail, You know, becoming a Christian doesn't keep us out of the storms of life. They still come. The one built on the sand did what? It crumbled, it fell, it collapsed. The other one stood strong. And who did Jesus say was each one? Do you remember? The one who built his house on the rock was the one who did what? Jesus says, the one who hears my words and does them is the one who builds his house on the rock. So, God did not give us his word to increase our knowledge, but to change our lives, to apply it. We're not supposed to be theoretical theoreticians, theologians up in ivory towers, who know everything there is to know about the Word of God. No, our lives need to be changed and transformed. It needs to apply. So, that's point number one. Jesus says, if you're going to be my disciple, you need to abide in my Word, continue in my Word. His Word needs to be in our lives. Changing and transforming our lives. So that's point number one. Point number two. And there are actually several verses in this passage, so let's Let's go to Luke 14. He has a big section here about discipleship. It starts about verse 25 and goes through the end of the chapter. We can't go through all of it, but let's look at just a couple verses, okay? If you read for me, verse 26. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, say, Yes, I am a strong life person. He cannot be my disciple. OK. We've got to hate our father and mother, brother, sister, husband, wives, even our own self. Now, wait a minute. Exodus 20, back in the Ten Commandments. I thought we were supposed to love and honor our father and mother, right? Paul quotes that in Ephesians 6.1. Children, obey your parents, honor your father and mother. The first commandment was the promise, right? In fact, if we're talking Ephesians, Ephesians 5. Husbands, love your wives, right? Matthew 22, the scribe comes to Jesus and says, what's the greatest commandment of all these in the law? And Jesus says, there isn't one. There's two, right? Love, The Lord is your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and the neighbor is yourself, right? You know, it's a funny thing. One of those quotes is from Deuteronomy, the other from Leviticus. When's the last time you heard somebody quoting Leviticus? Jesus quotes Leviticus. All of the scriptures given for edification, things written before times, are for edification, for our growth. So, is there a discrepancy? Where's the second verse? That's an excellent verse. Matthew 22, 39 through 42? All the scripture given for rectification. Oh, Romans 14, 12. Okay, that's fine. I just want to write it down. Thank you. Actually, it's a couple places. I think it's also in 1 Corinthians. That's fine. I just want to write it down. That's a good verse. So, question. When I go through Bible study, I don't like to dodge the tough questions. God is sufficient. He, you know, our questions, it's not like He's never seen them. This part, if you do not hate, I'm not sure the word hates. Yes, exactly. So why doesn't it say hate on the one side and love on the other? Does the Bible contradict itself? No, it doesn't. And we don't need to avoid those tough questions. Because God is able to handle all of our tough questions. Okay? If we go to John 21, it might give us some insight here. Jesus is already... John, chapter 21. Jesus has already risen from the dead, and He's appearing on the Sea of Galilee. And... Many people are familiar with the last part of that, where Jesus asked Peter three times, do you love me? You know, because he divided three times, he asked him three times. But just prior to that, read for me verse 15. Chapter 21, verse 15. So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than this? OK. Do you love me more than this? It's not that we don't love our father, mother, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, husband, wife. But what's the priority? Matthew 6.33 says what? You can learn that. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. Seek first the kingdom of God. And all these things will be added on to you. God knows we need food and clothing and shelter. It's not bad to have food and clothing and shelter, but what's our focus? What is first in our lives? Are we going to love the world? Or are we going to love God? First John 2.15.6 he says, If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not end. God's got to be first. That hate is not so much absolute, but it's a relative. We've got to love God more than our father and mother and all those other things, or our own selves also. Okay? Then again, the Ten Commandments, the first one, Exodus 20, Thou shalt have no other than God before thee. Okay? God's got to be first. We go on, again, Luke 14, 21. Verse 27, what's the next one say? And whoever does not bear his cross and come unto me cannot be my disciple. Okay. So, once again, the first one says, hate his own life also. Take up your cross. Luke 9, 23. You know, if anyone will come after me, then take up his cross daily and follow me. Again, down to verse 33 in that passage. Again, are we going to love the world or are we going to love God? What's first? That section in between, he's talking about counting the cost, kind of expounding on that. Take up your cross. He says, if you're going to start building, build it. You've got this gorgeous building growing behind you, right? If it got half way done and we ran out of money and sat there empty, it would be pretty stupid, wouldn't it? Everybody would go by and laugh at you. You've got to count the cost. Coming to Christ is very simple. Even little kids can understand how to become a Christian, can't they? Simple does not equate to easy. And sometimes the older we get, the harder it is because our pride and our ego gets in the way. Again, if Jesus is first, If he's Lord, he's got to be Lord of all. I need to be willing to surrender every last bit of my life to him. Is that easy? Is it hard? Actually, it's not. When the rich man came to Jesus and said, She said, you have to give everything up, and he went away sorrowful. And Peter says, who then can be saved? She says, it's easier if a camel goes through an eye of a needle. Who can be saved? And he says, with man it's impossible, but with God all things are possible. And again, Galatians 2.20, it's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God. So it's not me, because I can't do it. You know, if it depends on me, It's done. It's finished. Kaput. I'm never going to be a disciple. Fortunately, it doesn't have to depend on me. It's God. Again, John 1.12 is a verse we use all the time to lead people to Christ, right? But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them who believe on his name, who were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God." When we are mourning over God, God is doing the work. If God does the work, we need both the will and the work for His good pleasure, it says in Philippians. So again, point number two, God has to be first. Count the cost, make a conscious decision, God has to be first. We'll come back and touch on that later. Okay? So, again, What does it mean to be a disciple? If we're going to make disciples, we need to have some idea of what we're talking about, don't we? We don't want a dictionary definition. Let's see what Jesus said. So our first point is, if I'm going to be Jesus' disciples, I need to be in the Word, and the Word needs to be in me, and I need to be obeying it. Number two, God must be first. Everything else needs to be second. Lordship decisions. Count the cost. OK? What does it cost a man, Mark 8.36, to gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Right? God's got to be first in the world, second, or third, or fourth. It's his existence. Whatever, that's not too bad. It's the cost. Yes. Count the cost. It's going to cost you something. It cost Jesus his life. He took the cross. He was crucified. There is a cost. OK? Let me give you an example. My brother, at the moment, is a very strong Christian, but he wasn't all that way. He was an accountant, a very good one, a CPA. And in his younger days, he took great pride in the fact that he's the accountant for this big company, several hundred people. And the official books that went to the income tax people, The company barely broke even, so they hardly paid any tax. But he was able to give all 200 plus people in that company a $6,000 bonus at Christmas every year. Hmm. Right? Yes. Not exactly the way it's done. God took him through, we talked about the storms of life in Matthew 7, God took him through some very difficult times and he started realizing that this was not the way life was supposed to be. And he surrendered to Christ and he started growing in discipleship and he went to his boss and said, you know boss, I can't do it anymore. And the boss said, you're gone, fired. So he had several other job opportunities and job offers as an accountant. And he says, I'd love to come work for you. Here's my standards. I'm going to be honest. And they said, on second thought, never mind. So he's now a truck driver. Okay? In the United States, that is not the most, the highest status type job in the world, or the highest paying one. He's making a third or whatever what he did as an accountant. But, he counted the cost. God is first, I'm going to be obedient to God in my life, and if that's what it means, that's what it means. Okay? So, he sacrificed to a devil by chance? You bet. You bet, absolutely. I'm in the Air Force. There's a saying in the Air Force, where it goes TDY, it stays TDY. In other words, your crew deploys somewhere all around the world, guess what? Outside of all these Air Force bases all around the world is a red light district. You know what that means, right? You know, the little ladies out there, $20 GI. Yeah, $20 GI, $20, you know? I was I was a pilot. I was an instructor pilot. I was an aircraft commander. I became a flight commander over a bunch of different crews. I got called in one time with my crew, because we were taking some people overseas, to the colonel in charge of all the base. And he just reminded us, what goes to DUI stays DUI. In other words, George, if you see your buddy Bill here, who's married, out with the young ladies, you forget all about it when you come back. And so he told us all that, and we came out, and I said, hold on, guys. We need to have some integrity. I don't buy it. We're the same people here, it's the same people there. Well, they didn't like me telling them that, and I got in trouble. I said, I don't care. Yes. It's my coup that the colonel had just briefed us. I said, I don't care. Uh-uh. have some integrity, and they weren't happy, and I got in trouble. You know, just like Peter and James and John and Acts, when they called before the Sanhedrin, you know, they said, you know, we're going to whip you, don't face Jesus, and they said, you decide whether we obey God or you. Romans 13 says we are to be obedient to the governing authorities until they contradict God. Then God's going to be first, the other second. There is a cost to following Jesus. And if we're not willing to pay the cost, we're never going to be a disciple. Now, the cost is different from one person to another. God decides that. There's a group called the Voice of the Martyrs that document people who are killed for Christ. And they say that in this last century there have been more people in the 20th century, 1900 to 2000, killed for Christ than all 19 centuries before them put together. Yes, martyrs, all around the world. Okay? There is a cost. Neither you nor I know what the cost will be in our lives. That's not the point. We need to decide that Jesus comes first, and that God will worry about that. 1 Corinthians 10.13 says, there's no temptation taken you, but such is common demand. Isaiah, I'm not the only one who has to count the cost. We all count the cost. But God is faithful who will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able. He knows our frame, He remembers who we are, but He knows how much we can tempt. He won't let us be tempted beyond that, but with the temptation, we'll provide a way out so that we can escape it. Now we need to go to Him and ask and seek, but if we ask and seek and find, not ask and seek, we'll find, won't we? Okay? Nobody said it's easy, but God gives us strength to do it. In the Word first, point number two, God first, everything else second. Third point, let's go to Matthew 10. Flip to that for me if you would. A disciple is not above his teacher, not a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher and a servant like his master. If they have caught the master of the house, the receiver, how much more will they call God or his house? Exactly. So, the disciple is to be what? PRABHUPĀDA Well, what's it say? You just read it. The disciple is to be… DEVOTEE It's not about his teacher, not about his master. PRABHUPĀDA It's enough that he become what? What's it say? DEVOTEE For disciple to be ready. PRABHUPĀDA To be what? What's that word? DEVOTEE To be like. PRABHUPĀDA Like. Like. We are to be Christlike. People like to quote Romans 8.28 all the time. God causes everything to work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Is that true? Sure it is. What does it mean? Context, right? Location, right? The next verse says, those whom He foreknew He predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. We define good, often times, as what's fun and lots of leisure and sit back and relax and enjoy your life, eat, drink and be merry. No, that verse says, as I read it, God defines good as anything that conforms me to the image of Christ. So Hebrews 12 talks about not despising the discipline of the Lord because it trains us and helps us to become Christ-like. So God says, lots of times, hard times are good, but I don't enjoy them. Well, now wait a minute, nobody said my enjoyment is the best measure to measure things. Good is not necessarily what I enjoy or don't enjoy. God says what's good is makes me holy, Christ-like, helps me grow in Christ. To be a better disciple, right? That's what we're talking about. This is good. So in this case, teacher means? Jesus. Jesus. Yes. He's the teacher. He's the master. We're the disciple. We're the slave. We're the servant. In every one of Paul's epistles, he starts out, Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus, right? We are the servants, slaves, whatever, of Christ. Okay? We need to be His servant, His slave, serving Him. He wants us to become Christ-like. Now, let's define our terms. What does it mean to become Christ-like? Well, let's do all sorts of historical research and figure out what kind of sandals He wore, what kind of robes He wore, how He combed His hair. Is that what you're talking about? No. No. When God sent the prophet Samuel to anoint a king, He starts going to the house of Jesse and looks at Eliab and all the different sons. Oh, they're so big and strong and handsome. And God says, nope. Man looks on the outward appearance. God looks on the heart. That's what we're talking about. What's going on inside. We're the like Jesus. OK? And a couple things we can look on that. You know, we already talked about some already. Did Jesus know the word of God? Absolutely. We've already looked at several places where he quoted it, didn't we? If you don't quote something, you don't know. You've got to memorize it before you can quote it. Again, we said he quoted Deuteronomy. As a matter of fact, he quoted Deuteronomy more than any other book in the Old Testament. But we saw he quoted Leviticus and all sorts of things. He knew the Word, our first point. Secondly, in the Garden, he says, let this cup pass from me, but what? Not my will, but thine be done. On earth. As a matter of fact, Philippians is really interesting. Philippians 2, 3 and 4 is one of our scripture memory verses. It goes on, it says, Do not be from selfishness or empty conceit. But let each of you regard one another as more important than itself. Don't merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. And then he goes on to expound that. He says, have this attitude, have this mind in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus. Here's Jesus. Jesus existed, Philippians tells us in Philippians 2, in the form of God, very equal with God. But he did not regard that equality with God that seemed to be grasped or hung onto, but emptied himself, being made in appearance as a man and being formed in appearance as a man. He humbled himself by becoming obedient, even obedient to death on a cross. Therefore, God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Right? Flippings 2, 9-11. Flippings 2, 3-11, everybody. Yes. Yes. 1 Peter 5, 5 and 6. Likewise, ye young, submit yourselves to the elderly. And all of you, be clothed with humility. For God resists, actively fights against the proud, to give grace to the humble. We are to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. Again, we're to be like Jesus. John 13, Feast of the Passover. This is Holy Week. Jesus is looking at the cross, and he's already told his disciples. As a matter of fact, he's been telling them for six months he's going to go to Jerusalem and be killed. And this is, you know, the whole reason he came. And so what's he do? It says, knowing that his hour... I'm in John 13, verse 1. Knowing his hour had come, when he would depart from the world to the Father, what does he do? He gets up from supper, lays aside his garment, takes the towel, and starts washing their feet. Now, in those days, free men didn't wash each other's feet. That was for the slaves. But even among the slaves, there's a hierarchy. And the slaves that have been there for a while didn't do it. Only the newest, greenest, lowest of the slaves. You know, the roads get kind of dusty and dirty, don't they? It's fairly dry here. You get down lower and it's much more humid. So everybody's hot, sweaty, stinky, smelly feet. You know, and you're going to wash them off after they've been walking all day long in the dust and the dirt and the cake with mud. Nobody wanted to do that. Jesus took it upon himself to do that. And what did he say? Why did he say that? Verse 14. What's it say? Actually 13. I'm in John 13 still. Verses 13 and 14. Enter it. You call me teacher and Lord and you say wherefore so I am. Okay. So again, our basic point here in Matthew 10 would be like the teacher, like the Lord. And he says, that's right. I'm teacher, I'm Lord, I'm master. Go ahead. If then your Lord and Teacher have watched your feet, you also ought to watch one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. OK? So, we are to follow Jesus' example. We are to be Christ-like. Not outward appearances, but inward things of the heart. OK? John 15-8 says, If this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my... what? Disciples. That's what we're talking about. What does it mean to be a disciple? So, we need to have some fruit. Well, there's two kinds of fruit. John 4.35 says, the fields are white unto harvest. Pray therefore that the Lord of the harvest send forth laborers into his harvest. We are to share the word, preach the gospel, help people to come to Christ, and then help them to grow. That's where we started the Great Commission. Make disciples. So we're trying to figure out what a disciple is. The other part of fruit is Galatians 5.22. The fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Humility, servanthood, is part and parcel of all that. That we're looking at right here. Are we allowing God to build the fruit of the Spirit into our lives? We see fruit trees all the time, right? So the banana tree is sitting out there going, trying to push out fruit, right? Does it? It's groaning and grunting and trying so hard, right? No, it's not. It's a natural result of what? Nutrients and growth. Trees start out real little. Here's an orange tree that's six inches tall. Is it going to produce an orange that's six inches about? No. It's got to grow up to be five or ten feet tall and several years old before it starts producing fruit. Then it has just a few small ones, but as it gets older and more mature, it produces more fruit, doesn't it? And as you just said, what's it take to grow? Nutrients. Food. What's our spiritual food? The Word, 1 Peter 2.2, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby. If we're not in the Word, which was our first point, we don't have God's food, then we're not going to grow, are we? We need to be growing, and we need to be maturing. Then the fruit comes as a natural consequence. Now some people talk about gifts, and gifts are fine, you know. It's interesting, one of the big places we talk about gifts is 1 Corinthians 12. We've got, Sir Paul goes through this big time on the list of all the gifts, you know. And Ephesians 4 is another place. And he says he gets some of the apostles, some of the prophets, some of the teachers, and so on and so forth, for the building up of the body. So we all attain to the maturity of manhood in Christ. So again, those are all there for the same thing, building up maturity in Christ. But at the end of chapter 12 in 1 Corinthians, Paul says, but forget all that, I will show you an even more excellent way. The Bible is going to start out with chapters. So chapter 12 goes right into chapter 13. And what's 1 Corinthians 13? Love. Love. Bingo. Exactly. Love, the fruit of the Spirit, is better than all of those gifts. Not that they're bad. They're not. They're wonderful. But, the best versus the good. And that love in particular, you know, in 1 Corinthians 13, it's faith, hope, and love, the greatest of these in love. We looked earlier at Matthew 22. 39 through 42, where they asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was and he quotes the Old Testament. Love God, love your neighbor. John 13, he turns around and says, do you know that verse? Interesting. Let's look at John 13. What? John 13, 34 and 35. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, not that love me, but you also love one another. By this, all will know that you are my disciples if you have loved for one another. Now wait a minute. He just sat there and quoted an Old Testament written 1,500 years before about all these commandments about loving. So how come this is a new commandment if he had just quoted the ones that were 1,500 years prior? How is this new? Why is this a new commandment? Wasn't loving God and loving your neighbor been around for 1,500 years? Why is this new? Why is loving such a new thing if it's been around for 1,500 years? How does he say we're supposed to love? He doesn't love God. Ah. No longer do we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and our neighbor as ourselves. We have a new commandment that transcends that. We have to love even more than all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Wait a minute, that's all I got. That's right. Again, Galatians 2.20, it's not me anymore. Ephesians 2.8 and 9, we quote all the time. This is how we come to Christ. By grace have you saved through faith, and that how do you tell us that it's a gift of God and not of works, lest any man should boast. Good verse. Don't stop. Keep going. We are His workmanship, recreated in Christ Jesus on two good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Salvation is not an end in itself. It's a beginning. It's the start of a new life. 2 Corinthians 5.17. If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creature. All things are passed away. All things have become new. Right? I'm a new creature. I'm a new creation. I'm not saved by works. I'm saved for works. I'm saved in order to follow Christ, in order to become a disciple, right? To have a transformed life, so that when people look at me, they don't see me anymore. They see Jesus, okay? Galatians chapter 1, Paul gives his autobiography, and at the end he says, I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea which were in Christ, but only, they kept hearing, he who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy, and they were glorifying God because of me. Over the decades, because I've been floating around in the NASA for about 40 years, over the decades as I go through reading, every now and then a verse jumps out at me and says, Lord, I want to be like that. And that's one of those. I don't need glory. I've got a big enough ego as I is. But, that's my prayer. People would glorify God because of me. I'm going to Kenya for a week. I leave tonight. Next week, As far as I'm concerned, you can forget I'm here, and forget everything that I've shared, my thoughts, my opinions, my attitudes. Forget me, okay? I'm not important. But, if God has spoken through me and used me to share anything from His Word to His Spirit, that's what you ought to remember. Don't remember, well, Howard felt like this about this, or Howard thought this. Howard's irrelevant. Remember God and His Word. Build your life on God. Paul says, imitate me and I imitate Christ. Jesus died for you, not your mentors and your disciple makers. Looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, Hebrews 12 says. So, we are to love a new way, a humanly impossible way. We are to love as Jesus loved us. That's why that's a new commandment. And again, here in His love, 1 John 4.10. Not that we love God, but that He loved us. God is love, right? So, all of these characters, character qualities, Christ-likeness is what we're looking at. So, disciple, three points. We are to be in the Word, and the Word in us. God must be first, all else second. We need to become Christ-like, emulating Him. Now, as we put this all together and wrap it up, you'll notice the word disciple goes right along with the word discipline, doesn't it? Okay? The Navigators are very, very good at helping us grow and apply, again we've talked about that all along, we need to apply the word, to obey it, right? That's not always super easy, okay? So, we have the disciplines, you know, scripture memory, word, reading, hearing, memorizing, all these things, the disciplines of the Christian life. 1 Timothy 4, 7 and 8 says, Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness, Christ-likeness. Bodily discipline is of some profit. Let's be honest, it really is. You hit the gym every day, pump weights, get big biceps, all these things. It is of some profit. But godliness is profitable for all things. It holds promise not only for the present life, but also for the life to come. OK? So again, become Christ-like. Discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness. And that's what we've looked at here several times, haven't we? Count the cost. Discipline. Godliness. Put it all together. If we want to be a disciple, those are our three points. We need to discipline ourselves to be in the Word, to put God first and everything else second, counting the cost, and to have it our goal to become like Christ. Is that better?