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Amen. Well, um, again, we're in a summer series called Disciple, where we're looking at what it means to be a disciple of Christ. And a lot of what we're covering here on Sundays is going to be re-emphasized in the trellis class, which is really exciting. And uh for we are we're unpacking Matthew 28 because Matthew 28 is the Great Commission where Jesus tells his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations. And last week we looked at just verse 16, the beginning, we looked at four words which said, and the 11 disciples. And we talked about Judas, who was a previous disciple, and he had left because for 30 pieces of silver he ended up betraying Jesus. So we gave warning signs for false discipleship by looking at the life of Judas. And today I want to pick up where we left off by finishing out verse 16, because there's a whole nother sermon in verse 16. So look down with me, Matthew chapter 28, verse 16 says this. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. I love this that we learned that now there's 11 disciples, but the remaining 11, it says, notice they went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And in that short sentence, that they went to Galilee where Jesus directed them, we actually see here a very important aspect of what it means to be a true disciple of Christ, unlike Judas. But before I unpack that for you, I think to get this, to understand why they went to Galilee, we have to understand the context of this passage. And so I want to bring you back to the beginning of Matthew chapter 28. If you're not familiar with the beginning of Matthew chapter 28, it is the recording of the resurrection of Jesus. So Jesus was just crucified, Jesus was just buried, but Jesus told his disciples that on the third day that he would raise from the grave. And so Matthew 28 opens with the account of a few female disciples going to the tomb where Jesus had just been buried. And what's interesting is that at the tomb site there, none of the 11 disciples mentioned here actually showed up. Isn't that crazy? All four of the Gospels only record the female disciples going to the tomb. None of Jesus' 11 disciples who actually spent the most time with him. Now, John's gospel does record that Peter and John ran to the tomb, but that was only after the women came and told him that Jesus has risen from the dead. And so, apart from the faith and testimony of these women who by faith believed Jesus actually was going to raise from the dead, apart from their testimony and apart from their faith and their witness, the 11 remaining disciples may have never come to know that Jesus rose from the dead. Isn't that crazy? It's like, where were they? Jesus told his disciples repeatedly, over and over, over, I'm gonna raise on the third day, and the third day comes, and like, what are they doing? I don't know. But none of them decided to go and show up at the tomb, only the women. And so I wanted to take this moment to encourage the women who are here today, who are disciples of Jesus, to know that your testimony and your faith are not overlooked. A lot of times, like the disciples here, men are so slow to believe. Like that this is just the reality. And for for you women here today to know that if you're here today and if your husband is slow to believe what Christ has done, or maybe your kids are slow to believe what Christ has done, or maybe your friends or family members are slow to believe what Christ has done. It may actually be your faith and your testimony, just like the faith and the testimony of the women in Matthew chapter 28, that God uses to bring other people into a revelation of what Christ has done for them. And I just want to say, I'm just I'm so grateful and so thankful for the faith-filled women in this church. We have so many amazing women like the women at the beginning of Matthew chapter 28 who are showing up daily at the foot of the cross, who are who are by faith following Jesus and following his word. And so can we give it up for the women in our church? You guys are amazing. And and most of us men who are here today would not be where we are, apart from the faith-filled women in our life. And so I'm so grateful that the women believed Jesus at his word, even though when the men didn't. And so they show up at the tomb, and look what it says in verse 5 and 6 of Matthew chapter 28. The women show up at the tomb, and in verse 5 says, And the angel said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who is crucified. He is not here, for he has risen as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. So the women show up at the tomb, and there's an angel there. And the angel says, Hey, the one who you seek, Jesus, he's not here. He's risen just as he said he would. And I don't have time to preach a full sermon on the resurrection, but just so you know, the resurrection is the one thing upon which our faith hinges. Had Jesus not risen from the dead, our faith would be in vain. And that's the one sign Jesus said that he would give when the people came to him and said, Prove to us you are who you say you are. Prove to us you're the Son of God, prove to us you're God in the flesh. He said, I'll give you one sign. The one sign, the one proof I'll give you is the sign of Jonah. That just as Jonah was in the heart and the belly of a fish for three days, so too the Son of Man is going to be buried in the grave for three days. But just as that fish spit Jonah out so he could go and proclaim the good news in Nineveh, so too the grave will not be able to hold Jesus. Jesus conquered death. Jesus himself said, this is the one sign that would validate everything else. And so the women show up at the tomb and they they realize it happened. Jesus is not there, Jesus is no longer at the tomb. And look what the angel says to them in verse 7. The angel says, Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead. And behold, he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him. See, I have told you. So the women are there at the tomb, and the angel says, Hey, I'm not sure where all the dudes are, but go and tell them, go to Galilee, because Jesus is gonna meet them there. Now, as the women are leaving, this is what's amazing, Jesus himself shows up, and Jesus reaffirms and repeats exactly what the angel had just told them at the tomb. Because look at verse 8, it says this So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and they ran to tell the disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, Greetings. And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid, go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me. So the first encounter that Jesus has with anybody post-resurrection was with the women who showed up at the tomb. And Jesus says to them the same thing the angel did Hey, I want you to go tell all the other 11 disciples to go to Galilee, because that's where they are gonna see me. You just saw me, but I want them to see me. You just had an encounter, but I want them to have an encounter. So tell them to go to Galilee. And that sets the stage for the text before us this morning, which we already looked at, but I'll read again in verse 16, where it tells us this. Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And so before Jesus told his disciples to go and make disciples, here in verse 16, we see evidence that they were true disciples. And so the question is, what is the evidence that these 11 were disciples? What is the mark of a disciple? What does it mean to be a disciple? And I'll give you the big idea up front this morning, and then we'll kind of unpack that as we go. The big idea this morning is this a disciple is somebody who hears and trusts and obeys the word of Jesus. That is what it means to be a disciple. Somebody who hears the word of Jesus, trusts the word of Jesus, and obeys the word of Jesus. And this is the priority of discipleship. Because if you don't hear the word and trust the word and obey the word for yourself, you can never make disciples of somebody else. You can never teach somebody else what it means to be a disciple until you yourself are a disciple. And so it tells we we we learned this in verse 16 that the 11 disciples went to Galilee where they had been directed. And so the first qualification of the three for what it means and what it looks like to be a disciple is it is someone who hears the word of Jesus. They heard that Jesus said, I want you to go to Galilee. They they heard that word, even though it was the front from the women. They heard Jesus wants us to go to Galilee, and that was the first step for them was hearing the word. Now, when when Jesus is introduced in the Gospels, Jesus was introduced in Mark's gospel at least in Mark chapter one as one who astonished his hearers because he taught as one having authority. Jesus' words astonished people as they were listening, as they were hearing, because he spoke with great authority. He didn't speak like the other rabbis in his day who just quoted other previous rabbis. Jesus spoke with the authority from heaven. And so he astonished his hearers. People gathered from all over to hear the words of Jesus. And Jesus would often end his sermons saying, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. He would give a teaching, he would give a lesson, he would give a sermon, and he says, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. And that's because the first mark of a disciple is we must hear the words of Jesus. And this is really important, especially in our cultural moment, that we understand this is the first mark of discipleship is hearing the word of God. Because in our culture today, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to hear Jesus. And specifically, this is because we have so many competing voices that can easily drown out what Jesus is wanting to speak to you. Y'all know this to be true, right? Like, like it is so hard to hear from God because of all the competing voices. And some of those voices come from within. Some of the things we're hearing, they're just our own desires. They're just our own thoughts, they're just our own flesh. And so we're having to try to discern God, is this you? Is this what you want for my life, or is this just this just me? But it's not only the voices from within that we're competing with, but it's also the voices from without. We are constantly hearing outside voices, and that could be expectations of family members and what family members want you to be. It could be expectations from friends or other people and what they want. It could be demonic influences, it could be that the enemy is speaking and trying to get you to walk away from Jesus, or it simply could be the content and the entertainment that we are constantly filling our minds with. Consuming and consuming and consuming the news and social media and TV shows and podcasts and music. These are all voices that we are constantly listening to. These are all voices that we're constantly allowing to fill our hearts and minds. And the reality is this all the voices that you listen to are shaping you, whether you know it or not. You are being formed and shaped and discipled by what you listen to. It's not just a passive act, oh, I'm just listening to this podcast, oh, I'm just watching this show, I'm just scrolling to social media. No, what voices you're letting in are what is shaping you into the person that you are today? And so if being a disciple means we are a people who hears from God, I think the most important question we can ask in our culture is well, how do we do that? What does it mean to hear from God? And how is it even in our culture today, with all these competing voices, how is it that God speaks to us today? And if you're a note taker, you can write these down. There's four ways that God primarily speaks to us today. Number one would be this He speaks to us through the Word, He speaks to us in the Scriptures. So if you if you want to hear God speak to you, I would say start being a person in the scriptures. It says this in 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16. It says, All scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching and reproof and correction and training and righteousness, that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work. If you want to hear from God, start by opening up your Bible. Because the scripture is breathed out from God. It is literally inspired, it is the breath of God. God has spoken through his word and God still speaks through his word. So if you're in a place where you feel like you're in a spiritual drought and you're like, God, why am I not hearing you? I would ask first, well, are you are you trying to hear from God in the word? Are you trying to hear from God in what he has already revealed? The scripture is profitable for your life that you may be complete. God wants you to be complete. God wants you to be formed. God wants you to become the person he's created you to be. And we can't have that apart from the scripture. So if you want to hear from God, number one, we hear from God because he speaks through his word. But secondly, the second way God speaks in our culture today is that he speaks through the Holy Spirit. The moment you placed your faith in the finished work of Jesus, you received you received the same Holy Spirit that Jesus had. And the role of the Holy Spirit, as mentioned in John's gospel, is to guide us into the truth. All of these competing voices are trying to guide us into their truth. But if you want to know the truth and the truth that will set you free, we are led into the truth by the Holy Spirit. The way that Paul said this was in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 11 through 12. I love this. This is an amazing passage. Listen to what Paul says here. 1 Corinthians 2, 11 and 12. It says, For no one or for who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person which is in him. So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the spirit of God. Now look at this. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God that we might understand the things freely given to us by God. Y'all, that is amazing. It says, who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit that's in him? I could be thinking something right now and nobody can read my thoughts, but I know what I'm thinking. And he says, So too. Who can know the thoughts of God? How can we, how can we, mere mortals, know the thoughts of God? Only the spirit knows the thoughts of God. But Paul says, We have received God's Spirit that we might understand the things He's freely given to us. You know how amazing that is? You can now know God's thoughts. You can know God's heart. You can know God's intentions and purposes for your life by the Spirit whom he has given you. So if you want to learn to hear from God, it starts with cultivating a relationship with the Holy Spirit who dwells in you and creating space in your day and space in your life to say, you know what? Yes, I'm gonna get in the word to hear from God, but I'm gonna sit in the presence and I'm gonna be still and allow the Spirit of God to speak into my life. So God speaks through his word, God speaks through the Holy Spirit. Number three, God speaks through the community of faith-filled believers that he's brought into our life. Can God speak through his word? Absolutely. Can God speak through the Holy Spirit? Absolutely. But God can also speak through the people in your life who are filled with the Holy Spirit. You know what's interesting is I was studying verse 16 this week. I couldn't get this thought out of my mind. Look at verse 16 again, where it says, again, the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. It's interesting, the scripture is very clear. They went to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. But I was thinking about this. Did Jesus ever direct the 11 disciples personally to go to Galilee? He didn't. Jesus didn't show up to the 11 disciples and say, Hey, go to Galilee. He showed up and spoke to the women and told the women, I want you to tell the 11 disciples to go to Galilee. So he spoke to his disciples indirectly through another set of disciples. Isn't that amazing? So God can speak to you through other people in your life. The scripture says there's wisdom in the multitude of counselors. And so God shows up, Jesus shows up, he tells the women, go tell the men to go to Galilee. And here it says they that they did. They went to the place where Jesus had directed them, but Jesus directed them through other believers. Jesus directed them through other disciples. And so this is important for us to know that our faith is not lived out in isolation. If you're only saying, I'm only gonna listen to and only receive only what I get direct revelation from God, well, you might miss out on the people who God has brought in your life who are trying to be who God is trying to use to shape you into who he's called you to be as well. Like God, God is trying to shape you and speak to you, most likely through your spouse a little bit. God is trying to shape you and speak to you through your small group. God is trying to shape you and speak you through the people who he has put in your life. So don't discount that. Don't write off the people who God has brought into your life that he might be using to speak directly into your life. So he speaks through his word, he speaks through the Holy Spirit, he speaks through community, and fourth and finally, he has spoken definitively and finally through his son Jesus Christ, who was the word made flesh. The word made flesh, Jesus Christ Himself, God speaks to us through his son. The book of Hebrews puts it this way in Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1 and 2. It says, Long ago and many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. What a beautiful verse. In times past, God spoke in many ways. He raised up prophets, but now he has spoken to us directly and definitively through the Son. Jesus Christ, who we can know personally, who we can know intimately. He wants to speak to us. He wants to speak to you. And yes, he is seated on his throne in heaven, but we can come with boldness into the throne room of grace and into his presence because the veil has been torn, because Christ has already paid the penalty. We now have access to the presence of Jesus on the throne by the finished work on the cross. And so if you want to become a person who hears from God, if we want to be a people in a community who hears from God, we must become a people of the word. We must become a people who are filled with the Spirit. And we must be a people who walks with Jesus and learns to discern his voice. And if you're here today and you're like, man, I don't feel I don't feel like I know how to hear God. I don't feel like I have heard God. I would say start getting in the Word. I would say start creating time, not listening to all these other voices, but be still and let the Holy Spirit speak to you. Start building your life in community with other believers and allow them to speak into your life and know that you have access to the throne room of grace because of the finished work of Jesus. So my question for you with again, they they went to Galilee because they heard that that's what Jesus wanted them to do. My question for you is this What are the voices that you are listening to? Who are the voices that you are listening to? Who and what is discipling you and shaping you and forming you and informing you? And and and is there in your life, is there in your day, is there in your week, is there space to just be still and be alone with God and say, God, I know today I'm gonna hear from a lot of voices. I know I'm gonna listen to this music, I'm probably gonna watch this show later. I'm gonna have this people there, but God, is there space in my day to hear directly from you through your word, through your spirit, and in prayer to Jesus and in community, how much of our day, how much of our week are we actually making space to hear from God? And I just want to encourage and challenge you. If there's no space in your day to hear from Jesus, if there's no space in your day to be in the word, man, all the outside voices and the internal voices, those are just gonna continue to part pull you farther farther away from him. But the more we get close and leaning close to hear the heart of the Father, to hear the voice of Jesus through the Spirit and through his word, we will continue to be shaped in the disciples that he's called us to be. Amen. Amen. Now, just just as a side note, um on learning to discern God's voice, whether that be through the word or in community or by the spirit or directly through Jesus, I want to encourage you to know that it takes time. Like if you're here and you're like, man, I just feel like I don't hear from him, or when he is speaking, I don't know if it's him or I don't know if it's me. I want to encourage you to know that like no none of us is perfect at this, and it takes time. And the the way we know that most clearly is one of my favorite stories in the Old Testament in 1 Samuel chapter 3. There's this young man named Samuel, and Samuel's asleep, and it says that God comes and speaks to him in his sleep and is calling him. Samuel, Samuel. Well, Samuel wakes up and he runs over into Eli's room and he goes, Eli, wake up. I heard you calling me. And Eli's like, bro, I wasn't calling you. What are you talking about? Go back to sleep. And Samuel's like, Oh, weird, I thought you were. So Samuel goes back to bed. Again, Samuel hears a voice. Samuel, Samuel, he goes and wakes Eli up again. Eli's probably getting a little frustrated, like, bro, get out of my room. Like, I'm trying to sleep here. He's like, I heard you calling me. Eli's like, I didn't call you, bro. Well, the third time, when Samuel hears his name again and goes to Eli, Eli has the discernment to know, I think God's speaking to you. I think God's calling you. I think God is waking you up because he has something on his heart that he wants to share with you. And there's something so beautiful about this story that in in the fact that when God speaks to Samuel the first time, even though Samuel doesn't discern that it's God, God's not angry. God's not frustrated. He's not like, well, Samuel, if you're not gonna, if you don't know that was me, I guess I'll go speak to somebody else and call somebody else to be a prophet. No, it's so beautiful how God calls time and time again. Until Samuel finally responds, and Samuel says, Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. But it took three times. And for some of you here, it might take three times. And for some of you here, it might take three weeks, and it might take three months, and it might take a long time. But the response and the posture of Samuel's heart, may that be ours. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. And I love how God is so patient in personally and tenderly continuing to pursue Samuel and speak to Samuel, even though he doesn't know it's him. But as Samuel grows in his discernment of God's voice, the story ends at the end of the chapter in 1 Samuel 3 19. We see something beautiful. It says this and Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and let none of his words fall to the ground. Isn't that amazing? Samuel went from, I don't even know that this is God trying to speak to me, to by the end of the chapter, he let none of his words fall to the ground. He was able to discern and know this is God speaking, this is God calling. And so I want to just encourage you, for for you here who are maybe struggling in that, to know just be patient with yourself and be gracious with yourself. And God is going to be patient with you, and God is going to continue to speak. And if your response is that of Samuel, just speak, Lord, your servant is listening. You will you will hear from him and he will make himself known in your life. Amen. So hearing the word, hearing from Jesus, hearing the word of God, that is the first mark of what it means to be a disciple. However, hearing is not enough to make a person a true disciple. Just because you have heard from God, or just because you hear the word of God on a Sunday morning being taught, or just because you open up your Bible and you're hearing God speak, that does not mean that you necessarily are a disciple. We see all throughout Jesus' ministry, there was hundreds of thousands of people who heard the words of Jesus, who heard the words of God, but they did not follow. They were not true disciples. And so a disciple is not only someone, number one, who hears the word of God, but secondly, and probably more importantly, a disciple is somebody who trusts and obeys the word of God. Hearing, the goal of it, is that it always would produce trust, and that out of trust, that would move into obedience. Kind of like the story with Mikey up on the rock, right? Mikey heard the word. Hey, you're a ninja, come jump down from that rock. He heard the word, and because there was trust, because he had this relationship with Jill, he knows Jill's heart, he knows Jill's gonna, he walked in obedience and he jumped off the rock. That that's a beautiful example. Hear, trust, and obey. And so they heard the word, go to Galilee. But if if if they never actually went to Galilee, if it just stopped there, oh Jesus wants us to go to Galilee, but we're just gonna stay here. If they never actually trusted that that's what God wanted for them and walked in obedience, we would not have the Great Commission recorded in the story of the scriptures. That's pretty mind-blowing. The Great Commission, which we're gonna unpack next week to go and make disciples of all nations, we would not have that in the scriptures if they only heard but did not trust and obey. But because they trusted what Jesus had spoken to the women disciples, and because they walked in obedience, they now had an encounter with Jesus. And in verse 17, which we're gonna unpack next week too, it says they saw him, which by the way, that's the goal of discipleship. Trust and obedience, the goal of that is that we might see Jesus. But if you only hear him and you never trust and obey, you will never see him. God wants you to see him, he wants you to know him. But we have to move from just hearing to trusting God's heart, trusting he knows what's best, and walking in obedience. And so the disciples heard, Jesus wants you to go to Galilee. Jesus is gonna meet you. And so from that moment that they heard the command, they began heading to Galilee. They walked to Galilee, and that's what obedience is. Obedience moves us from where we are to where God wants us to be. It moves us from the place of distance, they were distant from Jesus to the place of intimacy. When they walked in obedience, that's when they had the encounter. And so again, this is so important for us. The the the the the the trust and the obedience that follows hearing, that's the hard part. Like it's easy to hear from God, especially if if like to hear the things that already confirm what you believe. But what about when God speaks, or what about when he speaks through his word, or when the Holy Spirit brings conviction into your life to something that challenges you? What about when when God's word confronts our preferences? What about when God's plans disrupt our plans? What about when God's word exposes our compromises? That is the place where by faith and by trust we say, God, I trust your character. I trust that this is for my good. I trust that your plans are better than my plans, and we respond in obedience. And this is exactly what Jesus said in John chapter 10, verse 27. John 10, 27 is discipleship in a nutshell. He says this my sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. So that's what it is to be a disciple, to be a part of the flock of God, whom of whom he is the good shepherd. His sheep hear his voice, we hear the word, he knows us, so we can have trust in his character, and then we respond by we follow him. We actually walk out in obedience what God is calling us to step into. And so true disciples not only hear God's voice, they follow God's voice. True sheep not only hear the voice of the shepherd, they actually follow the voice of the shepherd. And here's the thing if you just have half of the pie one without the other, you can go so far off track. Hearing without trust and obedience produces licentiousness, and it produces self-righteousness, and it produces self-deception. If all I do is hear, but I don't obey, we're not gonna become the people God has called us to become. But if all we do is obey, but we've never heard, what that does is it produces legalism. It's like, oh, look at me, look how good I am, look, I'm such a great person, but you don't actually know what God has spoken. You don't actually know the word. So hearing and trusting and obeying, that is the mark of a disciple. And what that does is that produces intimacy. That is what leads to the heart of the Father. That is what brings us closer to Jesus. And so if you're here today, and maybe if maybe you're here and if you're honest, you're like, man, I just I just feel kind of distant from God. I don't know where He is. I don't, I don't know why I feel so distant. Well, it could be number one, that you haven't made space to actually hear from him. It could be that you're just hearing all the other voices, but you're not actually hearing Jesus. But it also could be maybe you've heard from him, but the reason you feel distant is because you haven't trusted him. And you actually haven't begun to walk in the things that he's already called you to step out in by faith. And so I just simply want to ask you this morning, is there is there anything in your life today that you already have heard from him? Is there anything in your life that God has spoken, that God is inviting you by faith and trust to step out into that you haven't stepped out into? Is there anything that God is calling you to put aside or to lay down that you haven't yet laid aside or put down? Is there anything that God is calling you to take up? Maybe a new opportunity to step out in faith that you've just stayed complacent because you're comfortable where you're at, but God is wanting to call you out into deeper waters. Is there anything in your life God has already spoken that you have not walked in obedience to? And I believe that the invitation for you and the invitation for us today would be hey, take that step of faith. Walk in obedience. Let's not only be hearers of the word, but doers of the word, lest we deceive ourselves. Amen. Now, here's what's so important about this: that we move from hearing to trusting to obeying. For Jesus, this was the most important thing. When Jesus shared his most famous sermon of all time, which is called the Sermon on the Mount, you can read it in Matthew chapter 5, 6 and 7. Jesus thought that it was so important that this was the way he would close out that sermon. After telling us to love our enemies and the golden rule, love your neighbor as yourself, and don't judge lest you be judged, and all the amazing nuggets that we see in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus ends the Sermon on the Mount with this principle. Look what he says in Matthew chapter seven, starting in verse 24. Matthew 7, verse 24, it says this everyone then who hears these words of mine, these words of mine means everything he just said in the Sermon on the Mount. Anyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who builds his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. So after Jesus' most important and famous sermon of all time, he ends it with this for those of you who hear my words and do them, you're like the man who builds his house on a rock. You are laying a firm foundation upon which the faith that you have placed in Christ can continue to grow and be built up. And the storms are gonna come and the winds are gonna blow, and the tides and the waves are gonna beat on the house, but it will not fall because it is built on the foundation. But if all you do is hear these words of mine, you hear the words of Jesus, you hear the teachings of Jesus, you hear the Holy Spirit's prompting, but you don't obey, he says, this is like a person who builds their life on the sand, and the storms are gonna come and the winds are gonna blow and the waves are gonna crash on it, and great will be the fall. You want to know what's so amazing about that passage? Notice in both instances, with the wise man building on the rock and the foolish man building on the sand, notice the storms come to both. The waves come and crash on both houses, the winds blow on both houses, the tides come and the storms come in both scenarios, which this is really important because some people believe that when you become a disciple of Christ, some churches teach that now your life is gonna be so great. Like you gave your life to Christ, now it's just smooth sailing all the way up into eternity. But that's not what I see in my Bible. What I see is that the storms are gonna continue to come and the winds are gonna continue to blow. Being a disciple doesn't mean that you just get the cruise control now. No, the storms are gonna come, but you have a firm foundation because you've heard the word and you've trusted the word and you're walking it in obedience to the word, and that is the foundation. So the the storms come in in both of our lives. Just because you come to Jesus doesn't mean your life is gonna be so easy now, but it does mean you have a firm foundation upon which your faith can be built. And we know this to be true when you look at the life of Jesus Himself. Jesus Himself, God in the flesh, when he came down to this earth, Jesus faced the greatest storm that any human has ever faced in human history, and he stood against it when he went to the cross to suffer and die in our place. Jesus did not have smooth sailing, Jesus did not have the easy, chill, cruise control, comfortable life. No, when Jesus hung on the cross, he faced the full fury and the full storm of the full weight of the sin of humanity. When Jesus hung on the cross, he willingly, in obedience to the Father, gave his life because he trusted that on the other side of his obedience was our reconciliation to the Father. He trusted that on the other side of that storm, the cross, where he absorbed the wrath of God for the sins of the world, he trusted that that was the only way for the salvation of humanity. And so on the cross, Jesus shows us the greatest example of what trust and obedience looks like. Jesus himself heard the words of the Father. Jesus heard the word of God that this is what I have planned for you, my son, that you must go and suffer and die. And he trusted that God's heart in that was good, and he walked in obedience all the way to the point of crucifixion. And apart from that, apart from Jesus hearing from God and trusting in God and his obedience, we would all still be dead in our sin. Apart from Jesus hearing the word of God, trusting the word of God, obeying the word of God, we would have no way to even ourselves hear from God. But because he's done that, because he gave his life on our behalf, because he walked in obedience, we now can become his disciples. We now have the privilege of hearing from God. We now have the privilege of coming close and experiencing a personal relationship with the Savior who gave his life for us. And so a disciple, which we ultimately see in as modeled by Jesus Himself, a disciple is someone who is growing in their ability to hear God's voice. It is a person who is trusting God at his word, and it is a person who is learning to walk in obedience so that they might be conformed into the image of Christ. That is what it means to be a disciple, and that is what God wants for your life. He wants you to hear him, he wants you to trust him, and he wants you to walk in obedience so that you might bear the fruit of righteousness in your life. So here's my question for you in closing. First and foremost is this having heard this today, have heard the gospel today, that Jesus gave his life on your behalf so that you might be reconciled to the Father, will you trust and will you obey him? Will you give your life to Christ? Have you placed the faith of your heart? Have you placed it your full weight of your life and the full trust of your life in the finished work of a G of Jesus? Don't leave here today just hearing that Jesus gave his life because he loves you and he wants a relationship with you. Today, even right now in your heart, you can say, I trust you. I'm trusting Jesus and I'm gonna follow Jesus. And if you have done that, if you're here and you have trusted Jesus, if you have trusted his finished work on the cross, another way that we can respond is through baptism. We do baptisms the first Sunday of every month. This is Baptism Sunday. Jesus said in the Great Commission, which we're gonna unpack next week, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Maybe you're here and maybe you've heard Jesus and you've trusted Jesus for salvation, but maybe you've never been baptized yet. And maybe today the Holy Spirit is just gonna tug at your heart and invite you, hey, it's time to do that. It's time to go on record publicly that you are a follower of Jesus. Baptism is just identification with the finished work of Christ. When we dunk you under the water, you're saying, I trust that Jesus took all my sin to the grave. When we pull you up out of the water, you're saying, I trust that Jesus rose from the grave and I have new life in him. Maybe that is the next step of obedience for some of you here today. And for the rest of us, if you're here and you've heard the gospel and you've trusted the gospel and you've been baptized as a disciple of Christ, my question for you is simply this Are you continuing daily as a disciple? Are you continuing daily to make space to hear from God? Are you continuing to grow in your trust and confidence in what he has spoken? And are you walking in obedience so that you might be conformed into the image of Christ? That's my prayer for each one of us as disciples. We would continue, even as we go out, we continue to hear the word and trust his word and respond saying yes, Lord. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Jesus, thank you so much for your word. Thank you for the example we see here in Matthew chapter 28, where the disciples heard that you were gonna meet them in Galilee, and they trusted that that was a reality, and they responded and walked in obedience, and there they had an encounter with you. And God, I know that that's what you want for each person here today. You want them to have an encounter with the risen Christ, the same encounter that the women had at the tomb, the same encounter that these men had in Galilee. Jesus, you are wanting to meet us. You want us to know you. You are you are drawing near, but God, apart from, apart from hearing and trusting and obeying, we will always find ourselves, God, just short of your presence. But God, you've made a way for us to enter all the way in through your finished work, through laying down your life. You've made a way for us to have full access to you. And so today, God, for each person here, whatever it is you're speaking to their life, whatever it is you're speaking to their heart, I pray that they would hear that, that they would trust your heart, that they would trust your plans for their life, and that we would respond by walking in obedience so that we might know you at a deeper level. So, Jesus, we thank you for who you are. We thank you for what you've done. Continue this week, God, to teach us to follow you, to teach us to hear your voice and to respond saying, Yes, Lord. Here we are, your servants. Let us listen and let us respond in obedience in Jesus' name. Amen.