We started a brand new series last week, and, uh, it's really simple. It's just called The Way of Jesus. And I don't know if you've ever thought about that, but Jesus had a certain way about him. Now, maybe for you, uh, maybe you had a Valentine's date and you got back and you looked at your roommate, or you looked at your kids and you said, man, your daddy's got a way about him. Or your mama's got a way about her. Maybe for you, you can kinda think of it in this term. Maybe you remember, or you had a teacher, a professor, maybe you had a coach and you just loved being in their classroom. I mean, you would come home talking about just the way that they taught literature. It just brought, it, made it just come alive for you. We've got one of our teachers, uh, typically we see at nine 30 here, that taught my kids and they were so good. Like she just, she, she, she drew them in. Maybe it was a coach, right? You had a coach that you loved to play for, and you'd say things like, man, that coach just has a way to motivate me. He has a way of encouraging me, right? He moves me. There's something different about him. You have said this and I've said this, right? You know, that's just the way that I am. That's just the way that it is. I can't help it. I was just raised that way. But have you ever really stopped and maybe kinda read in God's word and begin to come around the reality that Jesus, he really did. He had, he had a way about him, a way about him that was different than the other rabbis, a way about him that was different than the other teachers.

Now, last week, we kind of dove into this series, and I want to give you just enough in case you miss last week. Now, you can always go back online and, and watch, but last week we talked about the reality that one of the things that's happened over time since Jesus' life now to today, it's like we've taken this way of Jesus and we've made it less about his way, and we've kind of made it more about our way. And the term we used for that was Christian ish. And then we asked you a question. We ended the message with this question, okay? We said, are you Christian ish or are you a disciple? Now, I don't wanna preach that whole message to you again, okay? But that's where we started. And we said there's, those are kind of two different things. And that Jesus really calls us to, to be a disciple, to be a, a follower.

Now, here's the passage that we looked at last week, and we're gonna use this passage to kind of dive into this week as well. But here's the, here's what we talked about. We said, as Jesus walked beside the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and he saw his brother Andrew, casting a net into the lake for they were fishermen. And then Jesus does this all the time. He's still doing this today. We talked about this. He gives invitations to you and me. Come follow me. Jesus said. Now, here's the cool part, right? He gives invitations, but he also gives a challenge with it. And I will send you out, there's the challenge to fish for people at once. They left their nets and they begin to follow him.

Now, when, when I read that passage, I, I just, I wanna be real with you. And I hear about Simon, and I hear about Andrew, and I hear about this invitation. I'm jealous. Like I, I can't, I I can't go to the same little, uh, diner that Jesus goes to. I can't go fish in the same holes that Jesus likes to fish in. I can't sta stay at the same hotel restaurant. You know, we're, we're just not doing life with Jesus. Like what? We can't walk beside him the way Simon and Andrew we're literally on the beach looking eye to eye with Jesus. So this week, here's what we're talking about. Here's the tension. Every sermon typically has kind of a tension. What now? Like they got to literally do life beside Jesus. They got to walk with him. They got to talk with him. What do we do now? How do we follow Jesus if Jesus isn't here for us to follow?

Well, I think there's a solution, and I want you to join me. We're gonna be in the book of John because that's the book that we're reading through together, alright? And so we're gonna be in John 14, and I want you to see what Jesus, 'cause Jesus was ahead of us. I know that's a big surprise to you. Listen to the solution that we have, that opportunity we have now. So here we go, John 14, we're gonna start in verse 16. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another counselor to be with you. The spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and he will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you before long. The world will not see me anymore, but you will see me because I live. You also will live. Now skip down, we me to verse 25. I mean, isn't it crazy how Jesus kind of predicted that maybe this was gonna be an issue? Watch what he says in verse 25. All this I've spoken while I was still with you, but the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything that I've said to you. Golly, I need that so often. Like reminders. Come on. You ever need that? You ever need a text? Hey, don't forget this. I get a lot of those at my house. I need it. That's the Holy Spirit. He's gonna remind us of everything Jesus said Now.

Now here's a pretty powerful verse 27, peace I leave with you. My peace I give you, I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. Now, here's what I want you to do. I need you to stand up every campus. Stand up with me just for a second. Stand up with me. I know this is different. I'm kind of making sure you're with me because this last verse that I just read is a game changer. And if, if you miss this, then you're gonna miss the whole message. So just, just let me read it to you one more time while you're standing because it's a powerful verse. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I gotta imagine somebody listening today needs this. I do not give to you as the world gives. Are you ready? Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. You can be seated.

Listen, today I wanna talk about three practices that we can do today to live with Jesus here. Here's the very first one. It's really simple. We can practice being versus doing. Now, let's, let's, let's work on these little words right here, because I wanna be honest with you, I'm a doer. Any other doers, anybody like to do, like, come on, you're gonna go do give me a list to go. Do you love to do? Doing gives you energy, right? Lemme a little secret for you, if you don't know this, you and me drive people crazy because our, our motors just don't ever stop. And it's, it, it's really almost like we can't help it. We were just kinda wired that way. But, uh, we feel like there's value in our doing. Uh, we don't ever stop and rest. We get the job done. Doers are ones that accomplish the task. Well, it's just kind of funny. God's just the way that God is. He, he put me a doer with someone, with, with my wife. And if, if you, if you know her, you know, she's this way. She, she's a, she's, she's a beer. She's, she's calm and she's present in moments. Uh, she's the one that you want to talk to and, and cry with. She hears you and listens to you. And I do. And I do. And I go and I go and I, and I do this and I accomplish this. And sometimes you need doers, but, but doers drive the beers crazy.

And she sent me a little Instagram video the other day, and maybe you've seen it before, but this is a great description. This is a good picture of of her. But it's a, it's a bigger picture of what it looks like to learn to just be, watch this. I want you to see this. I'm just, I'm not like a zoom around or like you, I'm kind of like a calm or kind like, like lay around, like a lay around whole day. I don't know if I should take that personal, you know, like I'm not a zoom arounder like you here, here's the point of the video. I, I think sometimes we feel like we have to zoom around for Jesus. And I think Jesus is looking at us the same way. My life, my wife looks at me and says, would you just be with me? Would you just learn what it's like to be with Jesus? And I think that scares us because we kind of think Jesus may be mad at us. And I'm gonna tell you the people that are the worst at this, and I, I really, I really mean this. This isn't like a, just to kind of hook you in and relate to you. I, I, I, I sense this, I'm new at this. So I, I saw Jeff in here earlier, maybe he's good at this. I think preachers are the worst at this. I think preachers are the ones sometimes that sacrifice being with Jesus, because we work for Jesus. So we get this idea in our mind that we've gotta go do, we've gotta go do. If we don't get it done, who's gonna get it done? And we sacrifice what it looks like just to sit and be with Jesus. And I'm telling you, this is a muscle that we're, we're all learning together that we want to grow in. Because in the same way that my wife just wants to sit with me, Jesus wants to be with you. And I know that kind of blows your mind because you think maybe he's mad at me, maybe he's upset with me. Maybe I should have done this. Maybe I should have done that. No, no. He just wants to hold you.

Watch this. It's, it's even in scripture. Look at the Mary and Martha passage. Okay, watch this, women, this is a great place to see it as Jesus and his disciples were on their way. Okay, there they are. They're doing, they're on their way. He came to a village where a woman named Martha, here's the doer, opened up her home to him. She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said, okay, just keep going. Oh boy, this is, this is tough on our doers. But Martha was distracted by all of the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me. And the doers in the room are like, amen. Come on man. Jesus, you got to get on her. She's just gonna sit here. Like, really? This is your chance. Jesus. Watch what Jesus says. Martha. Martha, the Lord answered. You are worried and upset about so many things, but few things are needed. Or indeed only one, oh, that didn't see it going this way. Mary has chosen what is better Ali? And it will not be taken away from her. The doers in the room. This blows our mind. It's like, you mean, you mean I can just see like no multitasking? Like she wasn't washing Jesus's feet. Surely she was preparing, she was lesson planning for the next miracle that Jesus was gonna do. I mean, she had to be doing something. No, no, no. The thing that she did was she learned what it was like to just be with Jesus. And maybe you have a friend like that, that man, you can go on a road trip with them and it can be totally silent and it's okay. You don't even have to go do anything, just being in their presence. It encourages you. It even brings you comfort. I I'm telling you, that's where we're trying to, that's where we're trying. That's a new muscle for us that we're, we're learning to work we're, and maybe not be about just seeing if you can get through the whole chapter in the Bible reading plan. It may be that you just come across one verse and you just be right there. It, it may be about a, a new way for you to exercise this muscle of learning how to just be comfortable in the presence of God.

Here's what David says about it. Really simple verse, be still now. So before you can even know that I'm God, uh, we talked about this at our leader rally over here just a minute ago. So before you go do, before you welcome people at the door, before you serve them coffee, before you go welcome their kids. Start with this. Just be still the doers in the room. This is so hard. But you know what I'm learning? And and my wife would say this, even if you're someone that's better at being, sometimes you have to stop your thoughts because boy, they can run your fears, the things you're worried about, and you just learn this new muscle of being still. That's the very first thing that we're talking about today, to practice being in the presence of God. It starts with learning to be still.

Number two, another way to practice being with Jesus today is to live this. I love this with God, life like a with God life. Here's the verse for you, because this, this says it really, really clear. This is what we're trying to learn to do. And I will ask the Father, this is one we read just a minute ago. And I ask the father, and he will give you another. This is such a cool word, advocate. He'll give you another advocate to, to help you and to, to be with you forever. The spirit of truth. I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you. Now, this word advocate, I don't know if you use that word much, I don't use it just a whole lot, but the times I use the word advocate, I use it in, in referring to my kids, especially when they were younger. I, you know, we would say things like, Hey, this may be a moment where they need an advocate. This may be a time in their life where they need a helper. This may be a moment in their life where they need us to intercede for them. Now, here's my question to you. Is Jesus an advocate in your life? Is he someone that you're letting in your life? When the difficult moments come to help you? Is he one that you lean on when you need help? Or are we kind of Christian ish? And it's just a feeling and emotion that starts at nine 30 and it ends at 10 30? That's the difference in, in, in Christian ish. And a disciple. A disciple is someone who learns to live this with God. Life like you. You just consuming your thoughts. You, you, you lean on him, you depend on him. You allow him to help you in a difficult medical case. You allow him to help you in a conversation with your kids that's above you. You allow him to give you grace in moments where you don't have it anymore. This was a struggle. Can I just tell you this? This is a struggle for me. This is a battle where it's like either I just live by my flesh or I live this with God life. It's a choice that we're making constantly. Every conversation, every moment, every handshake, every greeting, every business decision, every interaction with your wife, every moment with your kids, you, you're choosing, is it gonna be my flesh that kinda wins, or am I gonna live this kinda like with God, life where he, he's an advocate.

Watch David struggled with this. This is what David said about it. This one, this very first one. I keep my eyes always on the Lord with him at my right hand. I will not be shaken. Now, this was David. This is in the book of Psalms. How many of you know David maybe struggled with his eyes? Remember the story about Bathsheba? So what I'm saying is for David to keep his eyes always on the Lord didn't come natural. It was a grind for him. It was something that he failed at sometimes in his life. And, and right sometimes we, we get it wrong, but he's acknowledging, Hey, I'm in a battle for my eyes. I've got to constantly realign my eyes. Now. It, it keeps going. And, and next one is the mind. And this is Paul. He talks about, for him it was his thoughts. Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. That verse is really convicting to me. Like, just, just join me just for fun and think about your thoughts. How, what percentage of your thoughts are on earthly things or on heavenly things? I think I run about 90% earthly things, 10% heavenly things, something I gotta work on. I, I think a lot more about fears and worries and doubts and insecurities and money future. I think a lot less about God's majesty. And he's worthy of my praise and his miracles and his control and his love for me and heaven eternity. And Paul says, Hey, it may be that you've gotta set your minds, like, in other words, every train that goes by, every thought that you have, you may not have to take it for a ride. You, you may need to set your eyes and your minds on things above. It's a, it's a different muscle. It's something that we're having to learn how to do.

Here's a, here's a pretty powerful quote came across. And um, Dallas Willard says, the first and most basic thing we have to do is to keep God in the presence of our minds. It's kinda where it all starts. You get busy, man, you got the next appointment, the next patient, you gotta go to the next class. And, and it's almost like you're just too busy for God to even get in your thoughts. He says, it starts with him being on your thoughts.

We got a new puppy at our house, and uh, I'm gonna be honest with you, if you've ever lost a dog, I, I have empathy for you because we lost the best dog in the world. We had ranger, ranger was a golden retriever and she was seven and she died of cancer. But we got her one Christmas. And my kids loved her. My my wife loved her more than my kids loved her. And we miss Ranger, I'm telling you she's the best. But we got a new puppy and her name, I've told you about her, her name is Luna. Luna is not the best puppy in the world. She's just not. And, uh, we're learning to love Luna because she's no ranger. But we've had to do something for Luna to help her to train her. And we got her a, a really special collar. And I'm gonna tell you that collar has been a game changer for Luna because when Luna's eyes, and, and Katie says it this way, I, I always see the white of her eyes. I don't understand when her eyes begin to drift, I can hit a little button and it beeps. And I'll see Luna kind of come back in line. And then when she starts to jump, when she starts to dig, when she starts to bite, I, the next one is a little b it's a little vibrate. And it's amazing what that does because what's happening, I, I'm training her. You see the difference in training verse trying. I started with just trying Luna down, didn't do any good, but now that I'm training her on a new thing and I'm being consistent with it, and I'm watching my eyes and I'm watching my thoughts, and I'm training myself to begin to not learn by the, to not live by the flesh, but to live this with God life.

Now, there's only one other one here, and this one's a big part of training. Paul says, listen, I think the the key here is you're gonna have to pray continually. Now that's real different because typically if, if we were to think about our week, it probably lots of us, man, it started with a prayer. Maybe, maybe there's a moment that you, you know, you kind of bowed your head and you, and you did your hands like this and food was on the table and you blessed it, which is a great habit. Maybe you, you even prayed that I, at night, when you're putting your kids down, I lay myself to sleep, watch my soul, to keep. However that one goes. And you, and you prayed before you went to sleep. Do you see the difference in those prayers? And, and this commandment, it's kind of Christian ish, it's kind of starts and stops, and then it's a disciple that is living this with God, life that they're praying. We're learning to pray continually.

Here's, here's, here's how Jesus put it. This is what he says in John about remaining in him. He says it this way, check this one out. Remain in me as I also remain in you. Uh, no branch. This is a really cool little analogy. You've probably heard it. No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine. Uh, neither can you bear fruit. This is like you, I mean, this is me. Neither can you, neither can John, neither can Aaron, neither can Craig. Neither can you bear fruit. You can't do it unless you remain, pray continually. Set your eyes, train your mind in me. I'm the vine, you're the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you'll bear much fruit, which is a pretty powerful promise. It's the life we all wanna live. I mean, does anybody come on? Do you wanna bear fruit? Yeah, of course you do. Well, the key is stay close to me. Live this with God life. It's real. It's real simple. It's, it's, there's, there's, there's two pictures here. There's a branch, which is me, and he says, it can do nothing unless the branch is connected to the vine. And the vine is Jesus. It's who he left for us. It's the advocate, it's the Holy Spirit. And he says, when you are connected to that vine, he uses this word 11 times. It's pretty powerful. Just a few verses 11 times. He says, the one thing I need you to do is to remain in me. The one thing I need you to do is try harder. Didn't see it. The one thing I need you to do is to learn, to train yourself, to remain in me, to remain in my love.

Now, here's the third one. This is the last one. We've almost made it learning to be with Jesus. Learning to follow Jesus today means we practice arranging our lives to his life. Now, you don't wanna miss this one because this is, this is, you know, every sermon kinda starts with attention. And then in the end, we all love this part. I, I do, it gets to the application. Here's the application. Like if, if you look at this promise, here's the promise. Lemme show you the verse because this is a pretty powerful verse about peace. Alright? Here's the verse. We stood up for it. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you, I do not give us. The world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. This is what Jesus leaves with us. This is what he gives us. Now, how many of you who say I have it? See, if you read this and you go, I, I'm just not experiencing this, then it, it, it may be because your lifestyle isn't matching up to his. And I know that's overly simple and we want to kind of sometimes make it a little bit more complicated. But like, if I wanna be a great runner and run a marathon, then I need a lifestyle that helps me run a marathon. If I wanna be like my man on the third road down here and be a doctor, then I need to train to be a doctor. I can't just go try to be a doctor. Anybody want me to do surgery on him? Trying? No, I'm gonna need to train. And and so if we want his lifestyle, if we want the peace that he leaves with us, then we've gotta learn to pick up on his life the way that he did life.

So we're gonna study this the next few weeks, but I wanna start with kind of a zoom out. And this is such a cool picture. I love this. These are the practices of Jesus. These are the things that Jesus did. This is what his lifestyle looked like. Now let's start with the very first one. 'cause I'm gonna get you right out of the gate. Jesus was unhurried. You're like, I'm out. Got me. But he was, you're like, no, you don't understand. Like I'm, I'm a big deal. Like I, I, I got, I got people. What I mean, he, Jesus was a big deal, but he found a way to be present, to be unhurried. Jesus was in community. Uh, Jesus was with sinners. You're like, I got that one down. Doing good on that one, right? Yeah, me too. Uh, Jesus was with unpopular friends. Isn't it interesting? Uh, Jesus was kind, he was loving and he was merciful. Uh, you love this one, right? Jesus took long naps on boats. He did. I mean, all the time through scripture, you see me just laid down, uh, Jesus took a day to rest and to be with God. Now look, let's talk about this one. Jesus was in church. Can we celebr, would you celebrate? You're in church. Way to go. I mean that you, you didn't just land here. Your car didn't just take you here. You made a choice today at each campus. You made a decision today that you would come and be in church. And, and I hope that God's blessed and that you have this renewed feeling and you have this clear mission because you've, you've come today. Now here's the, here's the last one that I see really, really repeated in, in scripture all the way through, uh, Jesus started his day in prayer.

Now, that's kind of where we're gonna start our weekend. In the message, this last little challenge, we're gonna call this little line right here, A daily essential. I love what Baxter Rose said at the welcome over here at Lincoln Road. She said part of her daily essential was coffee. Okay? But with coffee, if we're gonna do what Jesus did, then we're gonna start our day with a prayer. Here's how his day started. Look at this verse. This is, and this is the last one, I promise, but this is the way that he started his day. Now, don't let this little line throw you off all my, all my morning people. You love it. My night people, you're like, can I do this at night? Yeah, of course you can. Okay? Uh, don't, don't, don't get weird here. Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, he left the house and he went off to a solitary place. Just he and God for just a moment where he prayed. Daily essential, I mean, essential. Like if you're gonna leave the Christian ish camp, and you're gonna come into this follow me invitation, and you're gonna accept this challenge to allow your lifestyle to match up with his lifestyle, then the very first daily essential that we're talking about today is prayer. It's saying we're gonna start our day differently.

Now, here's a real clear graph. Here's a real clear picture of what we're asking you to do, okay? This is the challenge for this week. I, I want you to begin your day now. Look, look how little of a, a sliver this is. And, and before you say, I don't know where I'm gonna find that, 15 minutes, you and I spend on average two hours and 30 minutes on our phone. I just got my report for the week. It was two hours and nine minutes. I'm beating the average. I want you to start your day in just a real simple five minutes of worship. Find any song and just put it on your iPhone and just play it over you. And for just a minute, be Still five Minutes of prayer. You see, that's a little bit intimidating. I don't, I don't even know where to start. Remember, he just wants to be with you. He just wants to hold you. It's the same way with, with my kids. I just wanna be with them to just be present for a moment and talk to him. Five minutes of scripture, well, where do I start? It's intimidating. I don't know what to do. The Bible reading plan, we're in the book of John together right now. Here. Here's the, here's the, here's the, here's the, here's the whole thing in one little simple sentence, retreat and return. That's the flow. That's the daily essential retreat. 15 minutes in the morning, retreat before it gets started, before the emails, before the voices, before making the lunches, before the tension retreat, before your fears take you down the different paths before your thoughts start running a million miles an hour retreat. Then you ready, return, go. I'm gonna make you fishers of men. We're not saying we're getting out of the game. I've come to steal, kill, and destroy as the enemy, but he has sent us out. We're ambassadors. We're his feet. We're, we're gonna go back in the game. But before we go, we're gonna retreat and then return. And when we return, we return differently. We return practicing the way Of Jesus. We return with a clear mission. We return with our hearts being full. We return knowing that he loves Us, Knowing that he has grace For us.

You, you see the difference. I just don't want you to do your day like you've always done your day. I, i want you to practice the way of Jesus Understanding that when you return, you have an Advocate, You have a helper. So that's the challenge. We're Learning to live like Jesus. We're accepting the invitation, come and follow me. But we're also acknowledging the challenge. And instead of inviting him into our life, we're gonna begin to do our life like his. We're Practicing his Way.

And listen, I'm gonna pray for us, but you've got a chance in just a minute. You can come down and, and you can practice the way of Jesus and, and take communion and for just a minute, just align your life with His. When you take the elements, you can come down to the crosses as a way of saying, Hey, this is my way and I'm leaving it up here. And instead this week I'm gonna practice your way. You can come down and, and we don't do this enough. I'm just telling you, you can come down and say, would you just pray with me? Because I'm having trouble getting over my way. I've got a roadblock and I, I'd love someone to pray for me. That's why the prayer team's here. So here we go. Let me pray for us. Lemme pray. God, I thank you that you give us a different way that God, you have led us to this point. You have invited us in saying no longer does it have to be about you. I've given you a whole new way to live. And the way that I wanna live is I wanna be your helper. I wanna be your advocate. I wanna be the one that just wraps my arms around you. I'm a wonderful counselor. I have so much grace and empathy and love for you. I want you to learn how to just sit with me. God, help me as a doer, begin to practice just being with you. Help me stop all the different thoughts and the fears and let them push on through and instead choose to trust you. Help me to try less and train more. God, I wanna practice this life following you. Father, we love you and we thank you. It's in your name we pray. Amen.