What's up, church man? I am. Uh, yeah. I'm so glad you guys are here and welcome at all of our campuses. I want you to do something with me. This is the brand new, this is the very first sermon in a new series. And here's how we're gonna start this. I need you to imagine with me, I need you to imagine that your name is now Andrew. You're like, if I was gonna change my name, I wouldn't change it to Andrew. But today for this moment, your name is Andrew and you are a fisherman. That's what you do. You fish and you fish and you're a fisherman because your brother's also a fisherman. His name's Simon and your dad. He was a fisherman. Your granddad was a fisherman. You guys all lived in the same village. You've been there forever. It's called gile. It's where it's home. And every day you kinda wake up and do the same things. You go and fish and you pay your taxes to the Roman government and you're a pretty dadgum good citizen. You just kinda lay undercover and you begin to hear about this teacher that's kind of come to town that's making his way through the different villages.

And one day you're doing what you do and you're out in the water about waist deep and you're fishing and you've got Simon there with you and everything's pretty normal for that day and that life. And until you look out and in the distance, you can kinda see, you see this teacher that's starting to make his way towards you and you, you kind of think this could be, maybe this is who I think it is. I've heard a lot about this new teacher that's, that's making his way through the different villages. But, but could he be in Galilee and could he really be coming toward towards me? And he keeps kinda walking closer to you while you're fishing. And finally, you, you have this almost awkward moment where you make eye contact with this teacher that you've heard about. And the more you look at him, you realize he's looking back at you. And the fact that he would be looking at you is shocking because you're just a fisherman and there's something about looking at this teacher that's different. There's a sense of awe and wonder in his eyes that you can just see. And then he speaks to you and he tells you just a really, really simple, simple phrase. He says, come and follow me.

Now, believe it or not, I believe that invitation is still happening today. I believe that Jesus is still saying the same thing to you and to me, that he's still calling out to us, that he still sees us, and that he is still giving invitations to come follow him. And here's the tension. I'm gonna begin to call you out in this series from this kind of Christian ish, I dunno if you know that term, this Christian ish way of life compared to this following Jesus way of life. And the question really that we've gotta answer is, are you willing? Are you ready? Well, let's go. Let's go. Let's go back and see the invitation that Jesus gave. I want you to see it right from here because again, it's the same invitation back to us today.

So open up your Bible's gonna join me in John, the book of John. We've been reading the book of John in the Bible Reading Plan. We'd love you to be a part of that with us. We've got big goals. We're gonna try to make it through the New Testament this year because this is God's word. There's nothing more powerful than his word and we want to get it in us. And in John one is where we see this interaction. Now, a couple of a little bit of context for you sometimes context helps is John the Baptist has been doing what John the Baptist does, right? He's got disciples. Do you realize that? That like all of these teachers had disciples, it wasn't just Jesus. And so John the Baptist had disciples and all of a sudden John the Baptist, he just baptized Jesus like pretty big day in the life of John the Baptist. He baptized his Jesus and then, then his disciples. See Jesus walking through the village and John does what John does so well because John came to prepare the way for someone else. He says, man, catch you guys later. You guys need to begin to follow that rabbi. That's the teacher that you need to be with.

And here's what this kinda looks like. Now, the two guys, one that we're gonna read about is John that wrote the book. Okay? The other is a guy named Andrew. Now, I love Andrew because you don't see a single sermon by Andrew. Anybody tired of sermons, right? I mean, come on. I don't need to be preached to anymore. Andrew did no preaching, but Andrew was passionate about inviting. Now there's something to that because that's one of our strategies. That's something we talk a lot about at Venture. And you may even get to a point where you're almost tired of hearing about the invite. The invite started in the gospels. Jesus invited people. That's why we're passionate about it. But Andrew did that. And maybe you're here today and someone invited you today. Maybe you are like Andrew and invitations just are a part of what you do. You invite people to come to movement. You invite people to come to one night, you invite people to come to your house, church, you invite people to come to Sunday mornings. Maybe you invite people over to see the Super Bowl and you just share life with people. That's Andrew. Alright?

Now, here's the moment that we just imagined. Let's read it together. John one, starting of verse 35. It says, the next day, John was there again with two of his disciples. That's John the Baptist. Now, when he saw Jesus passing by, he said, look, it's the lamb of God. When the two disciples heard him say this, they began to follow Jesus, turn it around. Jesus saw them following and he asked, what do you want? Pretty powerful question right there, right? Maybe a good question for us today. Like, you come here every Sunday, what do you want on? Okay? They said, well, rabbi, which just means teacher, where are you staying? I always thought that was the funniest question. Like you looking for a good Airbnb? Like why? What? What? Where are you staying? Well, they wanted to know more. They wanted to follow him. Where are we going? Okay, well, he succumb. He replied, and you will see. So they went and saw where he was staying. They spent the day with him. It was about the 10th hour. Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. Now, the first thing Andrew did remember invitations. Well, he turned to his brother Simon, to tell him, we have found the Messiah and he brought him to Jesus.

Now, real quick, I wanna do kinda like a Bible drill just for a second because it's really cool to I, I think when you get to see these different stories through the lens of each of the gospels. So I'm gonna show you what it looks like in Mark one. It's the same story that we just read, but this is Mark's, uh, this is how he told the story, okay, mark one 16, it says, as Jesus walked beside the sea of Galilee, remember they were fishing, he was walking by the sea. He saw Simon, alright, and his brother Andrew, remember they were fishing, casting a net into the lake for they were fishermen. Here's what he said to him. Real simple phrase, same one. He is saying to us, come follow me. Jesus said, and I will send you out to fish for people at once. They left their nets and they followed him.

Now, here's the 2, 2, 2 kind of terms I wanna talk about real quick to kind of set this up. First, we've got fishermen. They were fishermen, and Jesus challenged them. He said, Hey, look, I know you're fishermen, but here's what I want you to do. I want you to follow me. Let's talk about the difference in being a fisherman, whatever you and I do, and following Jesus. Because that's what's He's inviting us to begin to do a little research on that. Begin to study that a little bit. Like what did it look like for Andrew? And for Simon to take on this challenge to say, alright, I'm gonna start following Jesus. There was kind of three stages to that.

Here's the first stage. If you're gonna follow Jesus in that day, the first part about following Jesus meant you were gonna be with Jesus, your rabbi. This is interesting, that term, rabbi, it's used all through scripture. In fact, it's used 60 different times. Like as you read the gospels, you're gonna see that term a lot. Rabbi, rabbi, rabbi, it just means a master teacher. There were lots of rabbis. I mean, all through scripture, you hear about this Rabbi, you hear about that rabbi, these guys were teaching and all of them had disciples, they all had followers. But there was something different about Jesus. Here's the goal that this is what they would say. I love this little term. I kind of came across this in, in a book that I've been reading that, that supports all this. They would begin to say this to each other. We wanna be covered in the dust of the Rabbi. Every time I read that, I think about riding a four wheeler in the middle of the summer and the dust that is just hammering you in the face because the four wheeler that's in front of you. And so what do you do? You, you slow down because you're getting really weird boogers and you can't see and you're like, this has got to stop, get, go, go please. And so you slow down so that the one that you're following can get out ahead of you. That's the opposite of what we wanna do. These guys wanted to be covered in the dust of Jesus, their rabbi, the one that they were following, they wanted to be that close to him. They wanted to be with him.

Now, here's the second little stage about following Jesus. It means not only are you gonna be with him, but you're gonna become like your rabbi. You get this, like, I see this all the time in our students. I love to watch our students and I see 'em in, in sixth grade. I, in fact, I saw a, a, a, a father son combo walk in in the atrium just today. And the dad was a big ole miss football player. And now all of a sudden I'm watching his son and every week he's got on an Ole Miss football shirt and he loves to show me that he's becoming like his dad. He's doing like his dad. He's been modeled this by his dad. I watch him and that they talk like each other. They even make the same motions like each other. They use the same words as each other. You've seen this with students. The more they grow up, you go, oh my gosh, I remember your, you look just like your dad. You act just like your dad. You're even now talking like your dad. It's kind of painful sometimes. You remember the commercial, you remember this commercial, you seen this, the, the progressive commercial. You remember this, that this is, I think this is Dr. Rick. His whole mission in life is to keep the new young couple from being like their parents. But it's so hard because you've been following them, and so you naturally become like them. You begin to dress like them. It's just what happens. Okay?

So first you're, you're with Jesus, and then you become like Jesus. Now, here's the third part of following Jesus. You begin to do like Jesus, watch this. Over time, we become like Jesus, but then we begin to begin to do what the rabbi did. Now, think about this in terms of the disciples, because this is mind blowing. Can you imagine what this meant for them? The more they were with Jesus, the more they followed Jesus and acted like Jesus. Now all of a sudden, these disciples, these normal everyday men that were literally fishing with their brothers, are about to do what Jesus did. Jesus healed people. Jesus did miracles. Jesus talked to and teach thousands of people, and now these everyday fishermen are about to do what Jesus did. That's the power of this invitation. That's how strong this moment is. When Jesus says what he is still saying to you unto me, come follow me.

Now, here's the big idea of this message today, and I told it to you earlier, I believe that there's a difference in the life that we're living today as Christian ish southern culture Christians and as followers of Jesus. And so let's deal with that tension because I wanna give you three things that I think it means to follow Jesus today. Three truths about following Jesus.

Here's the first one, the invitation to follow Jesus that we're talking about. It means becoming a disciple. Now, the language right there is really important because the, the term that we see is a disciple watch. Here it is in the verse. This is in Matthew. This is what Jesus said. Then Jesus said to his, you see this word right here, this is important. Then Jesus said to the Christians, it's not in the text then it must have meant to be. Then Jesus said to the Baptist, right? Yeah, surely that's what he meant. Now then Jesus said to his disciples, whoever wants to be my disciple, that must be the goal is to be a disciple. Not a Baptist, not a Christian, but a disciple. Well, they must deny themselves. Take up their cross and follow me.

Now, this is really interesting, this term, this idea, this tension that you and I kind of feel between these two camps. Like I think we started out right, and, and and early on we, we understood this invitation of Jesus to, to follow him, but over time we kind of turned that little invitation into just admit, believe, confess, move on. And Jesus didn't move on like that. Jesus gave these invitations, but then he connected it with a challenge and I'm, I'm gonna kind of deal with that tension a little bit because I think there's something to following that's more than just becoming a Christian. Let's talk about that word Christian, like what comes to your mind? What kind of triggers go off? When you hear me say, Hey, so and so became a Christian, here's what comes to my mind. Alright, lemme lemme show you what, what kinda, these are good things. I mean, these aren't bad things, but this is, this is what I think it means to, to, to become or to be a Christian. I think it means you're a spiritual person, right? It means you're making a decision to kind of include God in your life. You care what God thinks, okay? You believe in God. It's a great place to start. I mean, come on, you, you, you're choosing to believe that there's something bigger. I, I believe lots of times you, you're saying, I got baptized and I love that. I mean, there's nothing more baptizing than somebody 11 o'clock. That's, um, I believe they're from, from literally like from Africa. They've been here and been a part of our fa faith family. Couldn't be more excited about baptism, but I don't, I don't know. There's, there may be something more than just being baptized. Then he says, I, I think a lot of times when we say something as a Christian, they, they, we use this term, this is such a, this is really an interesting term. We invite Jesus into our lives. So in other words, like, I'm right here. I really need help. I don't like the way that I feel. I don't like the way my marriage is going. So Jesus, you just come into my life. See the tension. Jesus said, come and follow me. We say, Jesus, come into my life. Okay? I I think we go to church when we're a Christian. I mean, at least at Christmas and Easter, right? We would go 1.7 times is the average a month. But, but we go, I mean, that's where we kinda start. It's like, I love this. This is so true because I have felt this tension before. It's like we get enough Jesus in our life to begin to feel better. We just don't get enough to make a difference. So it feels good. These things all feel good. It feels good to be in here. I mean, come on. If if that worship didn't feel good to you, then, then like, wake up, something's wrong. It feels good, but is it enough to begin to literally change your life? It's kind of like a hobby. We've made Christian ish culture like a hobby. You pick it up, you kinda into it for a moment. Go to a retreat, come to one night. It's all good. Then you let it drop it and you move on to the next hobby. Things don't go so well. Kinda getting some tension at home. Let's go back to church. Let's pick it back up.

Now. This is, this is wild. This blew my mind. Did you know that in scripture you only see the word Christian three times and every time they used the word Christian. This was, this was, this was really interesting to me. It was a new term and it was used to describe a group of people that was so incredibly diverse. They didn't have a term for it. It was Jews and gentiles that were all disciples that were following Jesus and they didn't know what to label this group of people. So they just started talk, calling them Christians. We see it three different times in scripture. However, you ready for this? The term that we've been talking about so far, a disciple, you know how many times it's used? 268 times all through the New Testament. So I'm, I'm helping you today to kind of, don't let the goal be that you wanna become a Christian. Let the goal be that we wanna be disciples.

Here's what we think a disciple is, okay? Here's what we're saying. A disciple is someone, remember, we just talked about this. These were the three stages. This is someone who has been with Jesus. I love watching people who've been with Jesus. There's something different about 'em. You're like, how, what, what, what happened to you? You've been with Jesus. They, they become like Jesus. Start acting like him. It's the fruit of the spirit. We're gonna talk about it more. They begin to do exactly what Jesus did. This is the goal. This is why we say our mission statement at venture. You need to know this. If you give or if you invite people, talk to somebody today that was at the front door. They were looking, uh, for me to help 'em a little bit. 'cause they invited somebody. This's gonna be their first time to come. You need to know what you're inviting people to. Here is our mission. It's really clear we exist to lead people to know, love and follow Jesus. Not to join a club of cultural Christians. Not to be better, not to be Christian ish, not to get a venture shirt, but to become more like Jesus. That's our goal. That is our mission.

Here's a great quote from you. This, this Dallas Willard guy said this. He says, the greatest issue facing the world today. There's a lot of issues facing the world today. He says, the greatest issue with all of his heartbreaking needs is whether those who identify as Christians. Now, this is a little research for you. So 63% of Americans say they're Christians, Christian ish. If they would become a disciple, look how many percentage of Americans say they're a disciple? 4%. If we would see our church shift from kind of a cultural Christian club to a disciples, people that are knowing, loving and following Jesus, can you imagine what it would begin to look like? There's a trap. I'm scared. We've fallen in the trap. We got stuck in the trap of just getting comfortable and walking through a routine and showing up at a building versus becoming something different, something new.

Here's the second point, the invitation to follow Jesus. This is so powerful. The invitation to follow Jesus is open to all. Look at the scripture that we've been kind of studying that this was, this is the one. Then Jesus said to his disciples, we talked about that word, that that's the goal. But watch, watch this. This was crazy. Whoever, whoever wants to be my disciple, there's the disciple thing again, must deny themselves. Sounds real different than ask, ask me into your life, but take up their cross and follow me. Whoever. I gotta, I gotta help you understand these rabbis, they, they were like these little elite clubs and, and they, they kind of took pride in rejecting people. You know, like when you apply to an Ivy League school and you're, you know, you've got your a CT and your SET and you've got all your grades and you've lied about all these clubs that you've been in, and yeah, you know, everybody does it. You you talk about all their achievements and everything, and you wait to get the letter. You're on edge as a senior. All my seniors, yeah, right? February, am I gonna get accepted or not? That's the culture of the rabbis. And the rabbis love to be the one to send out the rejection letter. They want to be the one that says, no, no, sorry, bro. You didn't make it rejected. But then Jesus gives this invitation, this was so wild. He had a crowd like this, and instead of asking you to apply, to be accepted, to be my disciple, he says, whoever do you see the difference? That's a whole different perspective. That made all the who's, who's so mad because he just invited you ready for this women. He just invited Jews and gentiles. Rabbis didn't roll like that. He said, I'll take the unschooled and the ordinary. He said, I'll take the rich and the poor. I'll take the private school kids and I'll take the public school kids. I'll take those that struggle with faith that are still doubting, and I'll take the ones that are full of faith. I'll take the black and the white, whoever you're invited. This is so good. I, I don't want you to miss this because you know what our vision is? Our vision is that we're a church for the unchurched. Do you see where we got that? We didn't just get it from a big church in Atlanta and think this was a cool thing. This was Jesus' vision. He just said it. Whoever wants to come, he believes in you. Before you even believe in him. He opens up a door, watch this, he gives an invitation. He opens up a door that no one can ever close. Your past doesn't close off that invitation to become a disciple. Whoever, whoever wants to be my disciple. Come on, come on, come on. This is a powerful invitation.

Now, here's the third thing, okay? Here's the third little piece. This is the last one about this invitation to, to follow Jesus, the invitation to follow Jesus. This is an important piece. This is the piece that I think we've kinda stopped on. We talk a lot about the invitation. We love the invitation, but with the invitation, it leads to a new way of life. And I want you to see it in scripture because you always wanna ask that, right? Well, it really is that in scripture, well watch, okay? Ask Jesus, walk beside the sea of gey. This was the mark passage that we started with. He saw Simon and his brother Andrew. Remember we imagined being Andrew, they were casting a net into the lake for they were fishermen. Here's his invitation. We talked about it a lot. Come follow me. Jesus said, here's the challenge. Instead of being fishermen, I'm gonna send you so we better not just stay here all day. We better go ahead and go to work better, keep going to school better, keep hosting Super Bowl parties. I'm gonna send you out, but now you have a different purpose and you're gonna be fishers of men. Now watch this, it gets even harder. This is the challenge at once. They, oh boy, this is about to get weird. They left their nets. Everything they'd known from their dad, from their granddad, everything that their brother did, they left it behind. I think maybe there's some things in your life that as you're choosing now to follow Jesus, that you're gonna have to leave behind. It's your way because you're now choosing his way.

Watch the other two guys. The other two characters. Watch this. This is the next passage. It's right after it, but when we had gone a little bit farther, all right, so here we go. They're in. They're going. They've gone a little farther. Then Jesus sees two more guys. This is James son of old Zebedee, right? Lisa, I didn't make you be Zebedee. It's a lot better. You can be Andrew, son of Zebedee and his brother John. So we've got another duo this time. It's James and John. Well, what's he gonna tell them? Well, of course they were preparing their nets 'cause they're fishermen too. Without delay. He being, Jesus called them and they left. Oh boy, poor Zebedee, bad name. And he's getting left. They left old Zebedee in the boat with the hired men. So they're going to be with Jesus. He stuck with the hired men and they followed him. So you mean maybe there's some people that we've gotta leave behind for a season because we're not following their influence anymore. Instead, we're following Jesus.

Now, when I read that, I can't help it but my family, this is just who we are. We're kind of movie people. We love to watch movies and we have these, we have a great couch where we all pile in and watch movies. And the more I read this passage and thought about what it looks like to become like an apprentice, to follow, to study somebody. I thought about Creed and Rocky, let me think about it. Creed, he had to, he had to learn a new way to fight. He wanted to begin to fight like Rocky. So what did he do? He trained with him. He left his old ring behind and he joined in this ring with Rocky to learn, to watch, to become like this role model, like this teacher, master teacher. Like this rabbi. You call him Rocky, a rabbi. No, I'm just saying you can see the connection. What about this one karate kid? You remember Danielson? What did he have to do? He had to fight a group of guys. He couldn't fight the way he had always fought. He had to learn a new way to fight. So he began to study a new teacher. You remember him? Mr. Mgi, wax on, wax off. He said, he's like, Danielson, you, you can't do life the way you've always done it. You can't repeat the sins and the generational struggle that's been before you. There's a new way for you to live, but you're gonna have to leave some things behind. You're gonna have to begin to study me. I love this. Is what you're doing requiring faith or is it just comfortable? Is it just the same for both these guys? For creed, for Danielson, for you and for me to follow. Jesus means leaving some things behind, leaving some old ways behind you. This is the word I want you to hear. And beginning to practice a new way of life.

Well, what's the new way of life? It's the way of Jesus. It's the whole series. But watch what Jesus said about practice, because this is gonna make you feel better. Therefore, everyone who hears these words, that's all of us. Every campus, we, we all hear these, these words. We're hearing them and he puts them into practice to perfection, no, to, to to practice. You mean you just stay the same way and say, Jesus, come into my life. And then you just sit on a couch. You sit in a chair and take up a seat. No, no, you're, you're now practicing this, this new way of life. He said, this is what you're gonna be like. You're gonna be like a wise man. That's exactly what I wanna be. Who built his house on the rock? The rains came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew. They beat against that house. Yet it did not fall because it had found its foundation on the rock. Watch the next part. You know this, maybe this is where it gets kind of interesting. The next verse is about those who do not put their life into practice. And he says, you're like building your, your house on sand. So in other words, if you're not putting this new way of life into, into practice, he says this, it's not gonna work. I need you to begin to practice. I need you to begin to become, I need you to accept not just the invitation, but also accept the challenge.

Now, we're gonna start studying this way of Jesus. And here's, here's the wheel. Here's what it looks like. Okay, here's what it looks like. This, these are the seven different things that we see as the way that Jesus lived. So each week we're gonna take him one by one. We're gonna talk about corporate worship. Like Jesus did this. He went to the temple and he worshiped. So, so that's something we should do. We're gonna talk about intentional community. We talk about that a lot. We're gonna talk about daily essentials. That's coming up next week. Don't miss that. I'm gonna teach on daily essentials, talk about life rhythms and serving others and being generous and developing others. These things just describe the way that Jesus lived his life. And we're gonna ask you this question. It's a really simple question. We're gonna say, are you, are you more Christian ish or are you more of a disciple?

Now watch this quote. I I read this one and this one scared me for our church a little bit. This is the last quote. This is the last thing I'm gonna give you. This is it. Ultimately each church that includes venture will be evaluated by only one thing. It's disciples. Your church is only as good as her disciples. It doesn't matter. Oh gosh, this hurts. It doesn't matter. 'cause ours is really good. It, it doesn't matter how good your praise is. Now we got five different teachers. Surely one of them is good. It doesn't matter how good your preaching is. It doesn't matter how good your programs are, your properties are. If your disciples are passive, needy, consumeristic, and not moving in the direction of radical obedience, oh boy, your church is no good. I don't wanna be the pastor of a church. That's no good. You don't want to go to a church. That's no good.

So then here's the question and this is it. Then we're gonna sing. Are you, you ready? Are you Christian ish or are you a disciple? That's the question for this week. That's where the whole series kind of begins. It begins with giving you a minute to just evaluate. It begins to give you a second to ask, have you just kind of become comfortable in this Christian ish southern culture, Christian life? Or are you following the way? Are you becoming a disciple? Are you practicing the way of Jesus? Are you apprenticing to a master teacher, a master rabbi whose name is Jesus? And so here's what I'm gonna give you a chance this week. We, we, we do this. But, but this is your unique call because your your heart's right? Listen, I grew up in church. I I get up here, talk about becoming a Christian all the time. I'm not beating you up. I'm, but I'm giving you an invitation today to say, would you kinda leave this way behind and would you start a new way?

So here's why I want you, I want you to bow your heads right where you are. And I wanna lead you in a second to, to give you a minute to kinda reflect. And then I wanna give you a chance, and I love to play on this words because we're about to sing it. I want you to become more like Jesus. And so maybe you wanna pray this with me. God, thank you for your grace. Thank you for never giving up on me. God, I come into my life and move me from here to there. Move me to be closer to you. Help me become more like Jesus. God, I thank you for your grace. God, I thank you for your word that gives us this clear invitation to come to follow you. God, help us be a church that's known for our disciples. Help us choose today To leave a person, a thing, to leave anything else behind and to choose to follow you. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Amen.

Hey, listen, uh, let's go ahead and stand up. Stand up with me in just a second, man. We're gonna lead you in worship and you've got a chance to worship right where you are. Or you can come down and let us pray with you. Maybe you're going, guys, I'm just convicted. I I have been comfortable over here and man, I need to transition. I need to step into being more like Jesus. Would you pray with me? Maybe you wanna come to the crosses and you just sense exactly what those disciples had to do. They had to leave Zeb behind. They had to leave their nets behind. And you wanna leave something behind. Maybe you want to come and take communion. That's a way of saying, God, here I go. I'm ready to become more like you, more like Jesus. You guys worship with us.