The Chosen | Sunday, October 5, 2025

Good morning, everybody. You can have a seat this morning. I am so glad to see you. It is a little bit interesting when Pastor Nick and Pastor Mark take a quarter of the church to go camping; it looks a little bare here. They're up at Herky Creek this morning. I texted Nick and asked how things went. They said, "Man, we are cold."

This is kind of interesting because last night, we always keep our sliding glass door open, and I woke up this morning feeling cold as well. So, we must finally be getting into some new weather. It's very nice, so praise the Lord. You can thank God for that.

Recently, I had a very sweet conversation with a young couple who are just starting out in life. They are trying to figure things out, including whether they might get married and someday begin a family. I'm sure you remember that stage of life when you were trying to navigate everything and move forward into adulthood.

I think this couple is about 19 years old, which feels really weird for me, especially since my oldest son will turn 17 at the end of this month. They are only a couple of years older than my son, and I suddenly feel old. Maybe you can recall that point in your life. I know when I was in my late teens and early twenties, I looked ahead at people who were 10, 15, or even 20 years ahead of me, thinking, "I hope I get to that point one day."

That made my conversation with this couple kind of sweet. Now, all of a sudden, I am at the stage of life where I am that person for them, along with my wife. During our conversation, they made the comment that they look at my wife and me and really hope they can get to where we are someday. Again, I felt kind of old when they said that. It was the first time I had experienced that statement explicitly from someone.

I remember starting out when I was 20. I began teaching the Scriptures when I was 19, teaching the junior high ministry here at the church. Early on, I came across a passage of...

Maybe it's a passage you've seen in First Corinthians. In fact, I know exactly where I was and how old I was when I taught this passage of scripture because I still have the notes from it. I was able to look back in my computer and found that in December of 2000, I taught from this text in First Corinthians at a youth camp we were doing. We used to hold our junior high and high school camp over New Year's, and so we were up in the San Bernardino Mountains. I was given a text to teach from, 1 Corinthians chapter 4.

I remember that stage of life well. I had just turned 21 and had recently broken up with a girl whom I thought I was going to marry. We did not get married, and I am thankful for that. I was at a turning point in my life, teaching through this passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 4. Paul says, "I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children, I warn you. For though you might have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I have begotten you through the gospel."

Then, this is the key that was amazing to me. Paul continues, "Therefore I urge you, imitate me. For this reason, I've sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ as I teach everywhere and in every church." Therefore, I urge you, imitate me.

I remember saying to the group there, "I hope someday I'll be able to say, 'Imitate me.'" But at 21 years old, I did not feel like I had the ability or the credibility to say to them, "I urge you, imitate me. Follow me." Those were the words that Jesus said to a number of different people in the scriptures.

Now, for the first time in my life, this young couple was saying, "We're looking at you and your wife, and we want to follow your pattern." I looked at that and thought, "How does that happen? How do you move from that place of just starting out and wondering how to make it through this life to finally getting to a point where you might be able to say to someone, 'Imitate me'?"

It's not just about living more life, because there are more than a few people who have lived many years who would probably not be able to say, "Imitate me."

In fact, they might actually say, "Don't make me your role model. Don't follow my pattern." I remember when I was in high school, there was a basketball player, though I don't remember who it was, who explicitly said, "I'm not your role model. I don't want to be your role model." There are plenty of people who have lived life and say, "Don't do what I've done. Find somebody else to follow."

But Paul says, "I urge you, imitate me." In another place in Philippians, which is my favorite book in the Scriptures, he writes in chapter 3, verses 17, "Join in following my example and note those who so walk, as you have us as a pattern. Follow my pattern of life." I think that not everybody can say, "Imitate me," but many people wish they could. They wish that their life was imitatable.

Now, the fascinating thing is that we live here in 2025 in an influencer culture. Did you know that six out of ten Gen Zers say their aspiration in life is to be a social media influencer? Six out of ten. That's what they want to be. We have lots of these people all over TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube—the influencers. And basically, what are they saying? "Imitate me. Follow my pattern."

The reality is that a lot of those people might be able to influence others in a very narrow band of some aspect of life. Maybe they have had some financial success or independence, or some business success, or they've achieved success in health and well-being. They might even be able to serve as examples in marriage or parenting, so they have this narrow area where they say, "Imitate me in this."

However, if you peel back the layers and look at the non-edited parts of their lives—because you know their lives are edited—you might realize that the rest of their life is not all that imitatable. The grand picture of their life is that they are a bit of a mess. They might be able to say, "Follow my five-point plan to financial independence" or "Follow my keto plan to health," but the rest of their life is not imitatable.

And when I was in my early 20s, I wasn't only looking for people who had some sort of business success or financial success. I was looking for people who had a well-rounded life, where they had remained faithful to their church, their spouse, their family, and their work. They were succeeding by a number of different measures in life, but mostly their success was related to the values and virtues we find in the Scriptures.

For me, at 20 or 21, there was one person who really stood out. He still stands out to me. He ended up being the best man in my wedding. He is at least 20 years older than me. Mark Surl is one of our elders. He and his wife serve in the children's ministry next door. He was an elder here at the church, and he is still an elder here at the church now. He was one of the people in my life that I looked at and thought, "That's where I want to be when I get to that point." I don't think he ever knew that I looked at him like that. Now he'll hear this message; he's over in the children's ministry now. He'll listen to it later and turn red.

Mark was someone who could have said, "Imitate me as I imitate Christ." He never said that to me, but I could see it in his life, and I sought to follow his pattern of life. So, how do you become the kind of person whose life is worth imitating? In saying that, I am far from perfect. I still struggle with the perceived arrogance of even saying, "Imitate me." That feels very arrogant to me. It's hard for me to say those sorts of things, and I wrestle with that even at this point.

Part of that struggle has to do with the measures of worldly success that we see in our culture today, which are even put forward as measures of ministry success. Every area of society has its benchmarks for success, and the church world is no different. As a pastor, I have not succeeded in amassing a great megachurch. I have not built a mega investment portfolio. I have not published a book, produced a viral video, or created a hit song. I can guarantee you that producing a hit song will be the very last thing I do. I don't have a massive following on social media. These are the benchmarks of our culture.

But I will say this: I live a wonderful life. I have a wife who loves me.

I have four kids who still like me. Now, you can pray for me; they're in their teenage years. My oldest will be 17 at the end of this month, and my youngest is 12. We are right in that stage. However, I have a house that absolutely blows me away, and my wife and I frequently say this when I drive into our neighborhood: "I can't believe I live here."

I remember when Andre and I first got married in 2006. We lived for a time in an 800-square-foot granny flat. My wife had a 125-pound St. Bernard that lived in that little place with us—a big, slobbering mess. I can say that because she's in Tennessee this weekend; she would get upset at me otherwise. When we were just starting out, we had nothing. In fact, she tells the story that when she first met me, we were talking about marriage, life, and work. I think I made about $30,000 a year, and she thought that was rich. I was thrilled that she thought I was rich; it was amazing.

So, I asked her to marry me a month after we met, and she said yes. We got married six months later, which was pretty quick. At that point, we thought we would never be able to afford a house. We were looking around in 2006, during the time of condo conversions, where they were turning all the apartments into condos and charging hundreds of thousands of dollars for them. We even considered mobile homes, thinking, "Man, this is never going to happen."

We saved and saved, and a couple of years later, we were able to purchase our first house. I will never forget that we signed the loan documents on her birthday, October 1, 2008. Do you remember what happened on October 1, 2008? The market collapsed.

We received a call that Friday morning from the lender, saying, "If you don't drive up to LA and sign your loan documents by 5:00, you will not get the loan or the house." So, we drove up to LA to Countrywide Mortgage and signed our loan documents, thinking, "How can we afford this?" We certainly didn't feel like we could.

Now, I look at my life and think, man, it blows my mind—the church family that I'm a part of, the work that God has given me to do, not just here with the church but with the other organizations I'm involved with, and the doors that God opens for me.

Places that God has given me the opportunity to go to amaze me. The fact that my wife and I have our bills paid and continue to invest in our future is incredible. It blows my mind to see all the things we are able to do. I am completely convinced that I have what I have because of Christ and the principles of faith and faithfulness that He has taught me from the Scriptures, from His Word.

My parents would not be upset at me saying this, but they didn't handle money very well when I was growing up. I remember when I was in high school, my parents filed for bankruptcy. At that time, I thought, how on earth am I supposed to do this? I didn't have a good example in this sort of thing. So, how did I learn to manage money? I applied the principles of Scripture. I developed a class I have taught here a number of times called Faith and Finances, and we will teach it again in the future. These principles came to be a part of my life.

My wife and I started out with nothing, but we made sure to pay our bills. She spent most of our marriage in school. She became a nurse practitioner the hard way. First, she became a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA), then she went to LVN school, followed by RN step-up school, and finally, she earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) before becoming a Nurse Practitioner (NP). Pretty much our entire marriage, she has been in school, and we have been paying off debt the entire time.

It is amazing how faithfully applying what the Scriptures teach has shaped our lives. I am where I am today because of Christ and His Word, following the principles of Scripture. I know people with significant wealth, including some with a ten-figure net worth—billion dollars or more. In reality, they have experienced all kinds of worldly accomplishments, but they have a fraction of the fulfillment, joy, love, peace, and hope that I have in Christ Jesus.

In other words, I wouldn't want what they have. I wouldn't give up what I have to have what they have because, guess what? They are not taking it with them. Just last week, Elon Musk reached a net worth of $500 billion, but it won't go with him. I hope he comes to know Christ; I don't think he has yet. But all that wealth will be left behind when he dies.

I have a future and a hope in Christ Jesus. Now, Christ died with nothing, naked, gasping for air on a cross. As he did, he said to one of the thieves on the cross next to him, "Today you'll be with me in paradise." Either he was delusional, or he knew something that our culture doesn't recognize or know.

The Apostle Paul died as a martyr, beheaded for his faith, penniless, with no money. Yet, in his last writing, his last letter before he was beheaded for his faith, he wrote these words to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 4: "I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day. And not to me only, but also to all who love his appearing." Paul had that same hope. This is not all there is. Even if he lost everything of worldly wealth, as he did, he said, "I still have this future and a hope for me." That's why he lived in such a way that he could say, "Join in following my example and note those who so walk."

So, how do you get to that point? I want to suggest that all of the striving in our culture, the striving for whatever it is that our culture is seeking to obtain or attain—the corner office, the golden play button—reflects this pursuit. For many of you, you might wonder, "What in the world is a golden play button?" Well, on YouTube, if you're a YouTuber and you get a million subscribers, YouTube will send you a golden play button for that milestone. There are a lot of people striving for that.

It's fascinating, too. I was feeding the dogs yesterday, and after I fed them, I walked into the house. One of my kids was watching YouTube on the TV in the living room, and they were watching Mr. Beast. Most of you probably don't even know who Mr. Beast is, but he released a video yesterday that he recorded on October 4, 2015. Yesterday was October 4, 2025, so it was ten years ago. In the video, this 17 or 18-year-old kid was recording a message to his future self, saying, "I have 8,000 subscribers on YouTube."

Talking to my future self in ten years feels surreal. Ten years is such a long time, and I can't help but wonder if I'll even be alive then. Maybe I'm dead; I don't know. But I'm going to post this and schedule it to drop in ten years. Hopefully, by that time, I'll have a million subscribers.

You know how many subscribers he has on his YouTube channel today? Four hundred fifty-three million. He has given everything he has to achieve that. Ten years ago, he had just graduated from a Christian school and, from every outside appearance, was a Christian kid who talked about Jesus on his YouTube channel. However, he is no longer a follower of Jesus, yet he has amassed four hundred fifty-three million subscribers.

He has been striving to gain the golden play button, a fully funded 401(k), maybe a vacation house, or the ability to fly first class. Today, the big status symbol is a private plane. It used to be a Mercedes-Benz, but now, in our influencer culture, a private plane represents success.

However, all of that striving is for nothing if, at the end, you die without Christ. It all gets left behind. You could acquire all those things and still find yourself at the end humming, "I can't get no satisfaction," or "I still haven't found what I'm looking for." Many people find themselves singing those tunes along the way.

There have been countless individuals who have tried to attain these worldly possessions, only to discover, at the end, that they are met with pain, sorrow, disappointment, and disillusionment. Many reach that point and realize that their pursuits have not satisfied them. They often resort to self-medicating with various substances because, along the way, they lost their spouse, their kids, or their kids hate them.

So, how do you find fulfillment in this life and a future to look forward to in the next? No one starts out at the end saying, "Imitate me." There is a process to get there. So where does it begin? I believe the text we have this morning gives us some clues.

To it in Luke chapter 6, if you open your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, turn to the last third of your Bible. The Gospels are Matthew, Mark, and then Luke. We will pick it up this morning in verse 12.

There it says, "Now it came to pass, in those days that he, Jesus, went out to the mountain to pray, and he continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called his disciples to himself. From them, he chose twelve whom he also named apostles: Simon, who he also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus; Simon the Zealot; Judas the son of James; and Judas Iscariot, who also became his betrayer."

So, here we have it: the calling and the appointing of the twelve from the disciples. I couldn't think of a better title for this than "The Chosen," which, of course, is the name of a video series out now about the life of Jesus. A lot of people have many opinions about "The Chosen," but there are also many who have come to faith through it. So, praise the Lord for that.

The story here presents the moment when Jesus's team was chosen. You guys remember when you were in grade school and the choosing of the team? Some of us fretted over that one. But here, He chooses the team. Among the many things that we could draw out, this moment in the Gospel of Luke at least teaches us this: Point number one, Jesus intends to call, choose, name, and appoint individuals unto His mission. Each of those words is drawn straight from the text of this passage: call, choose, name, appoint. Here in this passage, He called His disciples, He chose twelve, and He named them apostles. Mark's account of the same passage says He appointed twelve.

How did Jesus do this? Well, first, He went into a mountain alone to pray, and He continued in prayer all night. Man, that's challenging! Have you ever engaged in persistent prayer for a very long period of time? Jesus did. What an example! I don't know that I can remember ever praying all night long. If I did, I was probably more like Peter, James, and John, who kept falling asleep.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed all night long as He prepared to call individuals to be His appointed ones, those He would set apart. What He was doing was not haphazard; it was intentional. He had a purposeful intention to call out and choose a specific group of people.

From whom did He choose this group? It says from the disciples. Often, we think of Peter, James, Bartholomew, Thomas, and others as the disciples. While it is true that they were among the disciples, He called them apart to appoint them as apostles. He was gathering them from His disciples, which was a much larger group. If you study the Gospels, at one point, the number of disciples is recorded as 70. This means there were at least 70 individuals who were among Jesus's disciples.

The word "disciple" means student or pupil, referring to those who were listening to what He had to say. So, how did these individuals become disciples and then the called-out ones appointed to be apostles? There is a progression that starts first with being a seeker. They began as seekers, looking for something different, something better, and searching for answers to their questions and solutions to their problems.

Somewhere along the process of their seeking, they moved from being seekers to hearers. I believe this transition often began with hearing about Jesus from a friend or family member. For example, there is a conversation in the Gospel of John between Philip and Nathaniel, two of Jesus's would-be disciples. Nathaniel asks Philip, "Where is He from?" Philip replies, "He’s from Nazareth." Nathaniel responds, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" This is similar to asking, "Can anything good come from Escondido?" Philip then invites him, saying, "Come and see."

The seeker first hears from a friend who says, "Come and see." These words might be really helpful and important to you because they may be the very words you need to share with a friend for whom you have been praying. Just say, "Come and see." It has been said that eight out of ten...

People, if they're invited to church, would often say yes. Sometimes we just need to say, "Come and see." They came to see Jesus and to hear from Him after they heard from a friend. Then, as He was passing through their region, village, or town, they began to hear from Jesus Himself. Somewhere along the line, they moved from being hearers to being followers.

How did they become followers? They became followers when they heard Jesus say, "Come follow me." We see this in Luke chapter 5, where Jesus said this to Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Matthew. However, He didn't only call those five; He called many others as well, and most of them followed Him. The seventy who are called His disciples probably heard Him say, "Come follow me," and they left everything to follow Him.

There were others who heard those words and did not follow. One specific individual in Mark's Gospel, chapter 10, was a young man who had the corner office, a fully funded 401(k), and the suite. He had it all. Jesus had a conversation with him, and he was doing all the right things. He could have been an influencer in his day, probably with a great TikTok following, and was well-known in Jerusalem. Jesus said to him, "Go your way, sell everything that you have, and give to the poor, and you'll have treasure in heaven. You have treasure on earth, but go sell everything. Come follow me."

However, it says he was sad and went away sorrowful because he had great possessions. He couldn't leave it behind to follow Jesus. So, not everyone followed when Jesus said, "Come follow me," but many did become followers. As they followed, they became learners, disciples, pupils, and engaged listeners who sought to obey and put into practice the teachings of Jesus. They formed a group of people who followed Jesus wherever He went and listened to what He said.

They would come to Him when He shared things, and Jesus frequently spoke in stories. We will get to Jesus's parables shortly in the Gospel of Luke. They would hear Jesus tell a story and be the head-scratchers. Maybe you're one of those; I certainly have been. They would ask, "What does that mean?" and come to Jesus for clarification. He would then teach them. They transitioned from seekers to hearers, from followers to learners.

After Jesus prayed all night, He gathered together those learners and called out from them apostles—those who would be sent out to spread His message.

The word "apostle" means messenger, an individual sent with a message as a witness. For many years, almost 20 years, I had the privilege of teaching at a Bible college not too far up the road in Myrietta. A couple of the classes that I taught there were on church planting and pastoral ministry. Here at the Bible college, I had a whole bunch of students, and most of them were guys seeking to go into the ministry. They wanted to be pastors and plant churches.

In each one of those classes, I would have at least one session where I would put forward this important truth: the mission of Jesus is accomplished by those who show up. Two simple words: show up. I am thoroughly convinced that ministry isn't about extraordinary ability as much as it is about consistent availability. It's about being available, reliable, dependable, and sometimes adaptable. That's how I ended up in the ministry. I just showed up.

In fact, I showed up here when I was about 15 years old. Pastor Tony, right back there, was my youth pastor. He invited me to come down here and be discipled by him. We were doing a one-on-one discipleship book, a nine-week course, and we never finished it because we would just sit around and talk. He would share with me things about the Bible, and then he would say, "Hey, I need to go shopping for this event at Costco. Do you want to come with me?" And then they couldn't get rid of me. They still can't get rid of me. They've tried, but here I am.

In 26 years of full-time vocational ministry now, I've had dozens of guys, probably over the years, who have come to me and said, "I want to do what you do." I'm happy to hear that because Paul says in one of his letters to Timothy that he who desires the office or the role of a leader, a bishop, requires a good thing. So, I'm excited when I meet anybody who says, "I want to serve God." Whether it's in children's ministry or pastoral ministry, I don't care where they fall on the spectrum. When they say, "I want to serve God," I say, "That's awesome."

You know what I tell them? Show up. In 26 years, I've had dozens of people come and ask me that question. You know how many people have shown up consistently? Not too many.

But there's one story that really stands out because it was probably about ten years ago. Pastor Mark said to me, "Hey, there's this kid I know. He wants to go into ministry. He goes to a different church. Are you interested in getting lunch with him? He's not finding any opportunities at his church." I replied, "Yeah, let's go to lunch."

So, we went to lunch, and I met this kid. He had just graduated from Cal State San Marcos and was about 22 or 23 years old. He really wanted to go into the ministry and was asking me questions. I said, "All right. Hey, do you want to serve?" He responded, "Yeah." I told him to show up on Sunday morning at 6:00 a.m. I came to church that following Sunday, and there he was. He asked, "What do you want me to do?" I said, "Follow that guy. Follow Pastor Mark." And he did. He did it every week for weeks and weeks.

Then, you know what happened? He married that pastor's daughter, became a pastor, and she became a pastor's wife. Now they have pastor's kids. His name is Garrett.

He showed up. We don't show up with extraordinary ability; we show up with just a willingness to work. I'm not saying this to imply that everybody's called to pastoral ministry. I absolutely don't think that at all. But I do believe in this point: Jesus has a task and a purpose for everyone who shows up, including you. That task and purpose probably have a lot to do with your giftings, talents, abilities, training, experience, and even your space and sphere of life—your neighborhood, your family, your work. God has a purpose and a task for you where you are, and He wants you to fulfill that purpose.

After naming the twelve apostles in Mark's account of this same event, the Gospel of Mark, chapter 3, states that Jesus appointed twelve. Why? What for? That they may be with Him and that He might send them out to preach. He appointed them to be apostles. An apostle means one sent with a message, but they weren't ready to be sent with a message yet. So, what does He call them to do? To be with Him, to spend time there with Christ.

And so, what happens immediately after He appoints them to be with Him? What does He do? Well, look at the very next verse.

In Luke 6:17, Jesus came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, as well as from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon. They came to hear Jesus and to be healed of their diseases, as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits, and they were healed. The whole multitude sought to touch Jesus, for power went out from Him, and He healed them all.

He is going to send Peter, James, Bartholomew, Thomas, and the others to preach, heal the sick, and cast out demons—the same things He is doing. However, that will not come for a number of chapters; we will see it later as we go through the Gospel of Luke. For now, He says, "I'm appointing you as apostles. That's what your future work is going to be. But for now, you're going to be with Me."

What did they do while they were with Him? They watched Him. They watched Him preach and perform miracles. As they observed Him, we see point number four: Jesus prepares, equips, and empowers those He appoints. That is what He does as we begin to spend time with Him in His presence, within His body, the church. As we commit to follow Him into service, even if it's something very simple, like handing out bulletins, we are being prepared.

The first things I did here at this church were folding bulletins. Then they would ask me to sit down in the office in front of the front desk. Sometimes the phone would ring, and I was just 16 years old answering the phone. At that time, the church was named Calvary Chapel, Calvary Chapel Neto. I would smile and say, "How can I help you?" People would sometimes call and ask, "Can somebody pray for me?" I would respond, "I could pray for you." I was 16, and they had no idea. I would just pray, "God bless you. See you at church on Sunday." Click.

But Jesus prepares, equips, and empowers those He appoints. Now, does that mean that every one of these individuals who begins to follow Him finishes well? No. Remember, one of them was called Judas Iscariot, who would also become His betrayer. This does not mean that every single person who followed ended up finishing well, nor does it mean that every single person who followed experienced any sort of great earthly benefit.

Blessing. In fact, a lot of these individuals experienced difficulty, trouble, and persecution. There was a high likelihood that they were going to experience those sorts of things during that time. But it is undoubtedly the case that those who hear, heed, and follow Christ's call will find what He came to give.

I have come that you may have life and that more abundantly. This promise is not just for here and now, but also for eternal life, life, and a future and a hope in Christ Jesus. That's what we find in Christ. Later, Jesus would say, "If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains 453 million YouTube subscribers and destroys himself or is lost?"

There came a point when Jesus was promising blessing to people who followed Him. Some of His core disciples, the apostles, said, "Well, we've left everything to follow you. Are we going to get anything?" Jesus replied, "For assuredly I say to you, truly, truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents, brothers, wife, or children for the sake of the kingdom of God who shall not receive many times more than that in the present time and in the age to come, eternal life." They had a future and a hope in Christ Jesus.

In light of all this, the question comes to us today: where are you at in the journey? Maybe you're just beginning at that seeker stage. You're looking for something different, something better than what you've known. You're searching for answers to your questions and solutions to the problems you face. Someone said, "Come and see," and so you show up here. Now you begin to hear.

I would encourage you to become an active, engaged hearer, not just of what I say, but of what the Scriptures say. Get into the Scriptures. Become a hearer of Jesus. As you do, you're going to hear Him say, "Follow me." Then you're given the choice—the choice that Peter, Andrew, James, John, Levi, and the rich young ruler were all given. One of them chose not to follow. Jesus said, "Follow me." The Apostle Paul says, "Imitate me." In 1 Corinthians 11:1, "Just as I also..."

Imitate Christ. When you begin to follow, you discover the same thing that the Apostle Paul discovered when he was Saul of Tarsus. When he first began to follow, Saul of Tarsus was living his own life before Jesus said, "Follow me." He was pursuing all kinds of worldly endeavors in his own strength, in what he called his flesh. Then he met Christ. What did he say? "I count all those things that I was seeking as loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and I count them as rubbish that I might gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ Jesus, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering, that I might be conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain from the resurrection of the dead." His hope was not in this world.

Those who follow Christ after heeding his call, "Follow me," will inevitably become messengers. As you spend time with Jesus, he appointed them to be with him and that they might go and preach. As you spend time with Jesus, you inevitably will become a messenger. Sometimes the message is just simple: "Come and see." But you'll become a messenger. Then he empowers you by his Spirit to become a witness. "And you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts," as stated in Acts 1:8.

The word "witness" in Acts 1:8 is interesting. It is the Greek word "martus," from which we get the English word "martyr." Now, that's not to say that if you become a witness of Christ, you're going to be martyred. Not many do in our time and place, but there have been many throughout history who have. Stephen, the first martyr of the church in Acts chapter 7, preached the gospel, and they came upon him and stoned him to death. As he was dying, what did he see? He said, "I see heaven opened and I see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."

I think he heard, when he breathed his last in this life and took his first breath in that life, Jesus say, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of the Lord." The vast majority of us will not be called to die for Jesus as Stephen did.

But we are all called to deny ourselves, die to ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. So, where are you today? Seeker, hearer, follower, learner. Where are you in this process? God has a purpose for your life. He desires to make you a messenger, and He desires to make your life a life where you could say to people, "Imitate me as I imitate Christ." He wants you to become imitatable.

Most people, the vast majority of people, will never attain the million subscribers, the first-class seats, the private jet, the ten-figure net worth, or the suite job. Most people will never get those things. But in Christ Jesus, every single one of us can find fulfillment in the life more abundantly that Jesus offers and eternal life in Him. Hopefully, someday when we see heaven opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God, we will hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Amen.

Let's stand together. God, thank You for the Scriptures. Thank You for the fact that You do intend to call, choose, name, and appoint us to Your mission. In fact, You have a mission for us right outside these doors that we are going to. Every single person here this morning has a field, a mission field that You've appointed them to be witnesses of You.

I pray, God, that You would enable and empower us by Your Holy Spirit. Give us boldness. Lord, help us to live after the pattern of faith and faithfulness that we see in Paul, or we saw in Timothy, or we've seen through many other men and women throughout the last 2,000 years of church history. Let us follow their example by Your enabling power, that You would be lifted high and glorified.

God, do a work in us by Your Word and by Your Spirit. We ask this in Jesus' name. And all those that agreed said, "Amen."