Wes Peppers

Lansing SDA Church

The Cost of Discipleship- Part 1

This morning our message is called the cost of discipleship.

How many of you think this morning that there is a cost in discipleship?

If you did not hear the message last Sabbath, which I know many of you did not because you were with the school ministering.

I want to encourage you to get a copy of it.

There is some, there are some available beside the men's restroom in the little rack and there is a form there you can fill out if they are gone.

I want to encourage you to grab a copy of that message.

And I also want to encourage you to give you a pastoral invitation to attend this prayer meeting starting Wednesday night.

We're going to work our way through self-examination and seeking the Lord's face in revival.

And talking about many different aspects of that.

I want to ask you to pray for my family and my son has been sick for the last few days and then my daughter got a cough and then my wife woke up this morning so we'll probably be taking them to the urgent care this afternoon.

And the Lord always gives us some trials in the midst of joy, amen?

And it makes us appreciate Him more and lean on Him more.

That's what we're going to talk about this morning.

I'm going to invite you to bow your heads as I kneel.

Father in heaven, Lord, this morning as we open the sacred pages of scripture, I pray, Father, that your word would speak to us again, that it would not be Pastor Wes's voice, it would be the voice of Jesus, that our eyes would be open, our hearts would be in tune with yours, and we would be convicted, comforted, and encouraged to take our stand with Jesus and to take action for Him, to surrender our lives to Him, to give our hearts wholly to Him.

And Lord, today we cannot do that on our own.

So we ask you to give us the gift of the Holy Spirit to call us to repentance, to call us to faith, to call us to trust wholly and only in you.

So this morning we pray and ask for all these things and that your name will be glorified in Jesus' name.

If I were to ask you this morning, what is discipleship?

What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus?

Many people might answer different things, and probably would be correct about many of them.

But we're going to begin this morning our study in the Gospel of John.

I believe that John chapter 1 really highlights for us what it means to be a disciple.

John chapter 1 and we're going to begin in verse 35.

If you have your Bibles, please turn there.

If you don't have a Bible, There should be 1 in the pew there with you.

I want to encourage you to turn with us to John 1.35.

The scripture says, if you're there, are you there?

Again, the next day, John stood, John the Baptist, stood with 2 of his disciples, and looking at Jesus as he walked, he said, Behold the Lamb of God.

John the Baptist points to Jesus and he says, Their, brothers and sisters, is the Lamb of God.

And the 2 disciples, now whose disciples were these?

They were John's, they weren't Jesus' disciples at that point.

And when John's disciples heard John say, behold the Lamb of God, the scripture says that they did what?

And then Jesus turned and seeing them following him said to them, What do you seek?

Imagine, friends, following Jesus, you know He's the Lamb of God because your mentor just said, There's the Lamb of God.

You start to walk behind Him, and he turns around and looks at you instead of saying, Oh, I love you.

Instead of saying any of those kinds of things, Jesus responds by saying, what are you looking for?

How would you have answered that question?

I know how Judas would have answered that question.

I'm seeking riches and all kinds of other stuff.

These 2 disciples responded to Jesus and they said to him, Rabbi, what?

Jesus, Master, Rabbi, where are you staying?

Because as your disciple, wherever you are, that's where I want to be.

How many of you think that that was the correct answer?

How many of you would want to give that answer to Jesus?

True discipleship is to seek out Jesus and remain where He is regardless of where He is or what we have to do to get there.

What if Jesus would have been on top of a mountain?

Do you suppose that they would have climbed that mountain to find Jesus?

Let's just suppose that Jesus was out in the middle of the ocean, would they have been willing to swim out into the middle of the ocean to find Jesus?

If Jesus were to look you in the eye, more importantly, if He were to examine your heart this morning, and if he would have looked, if Jesus can look into the depths of your soul, into your heart, and he were to ask the question, what are you seeking, What answer this morning would your heart give to Him?

Or would you say, Rabbi, wherever you're not?

You know, my son, last night, to my wife, and then to me this morning, my family woke up sick, My wife said, there's no way we're going to make it.

My wife is coughing, my son's coughing, my daughter's coughing.

I just started coughing, so don't get too close to me.

But My son came to me today as I was sitting in my chair early this morning, putting the final touches on my message this morning, and he says to me, we can't go to church.

And I could see his face begin to just shake.

And I said, Buddy, I want you to be at church too.

I wish you could come, but you need to be here because you're sick.

And he just kept standing there looking at me with this solid look on his face.

He started to cry and he said, but I want to be at church.

Now Jesus is everywhere, but Jesus is especially at church, isn't he?

You know why Jesus is especially at church?

Chris Buttery

Sacramento Central SDA Church

Not So Fast

You know, you've got to find yourself just a little bit encouraged when you realize that not every successful person in history on this planet arrived at success easily, nor overnight.

For example, the billion-dollar business that is Honda began with a series of failures and some fortunate turns.

Saikyro Honda is his name, was turned down by Toyota Motor Corporation after interviewing for a job as an engineer, leaving him jobless for quite some time.

He started making scooters at his own home and spurred on by his neighbors, finally started his own business.

Harland David Sanders, maybe familiar with that name, better known as Colonel Sanders of KFC fame, had a hard time selling his chicken at first.

In fact, his famous chicken recipe was rejected 1, 009 times before restaurants accepted it.

Now Orville and Wilbur Wright, the Wright brothers, battled depression and family illness before starting a bicycle shop that would lead them to experimenting with flight.

Not sure how you jump from a bike to flight, but that's what happened.

After numerous attempts at attempting to fly machines, several years of hard work and tons of failed prototypes, the brothers finally created a plane that could get airborne and stay there.

Now you probably have heard of Babe Ruth because of his home run record 714 during his career but along with those home runs came a pretty hefty amount of strikeouts as well.

In fact, for decades, Babe Ruth held the record for strikeouts.

When asked about this, he simply said, every strike brings me closer to the next home run.

We may even have a picture of him up there.

He was nicknamed the gentleman of boxing.

He was the youngest man to ever win the American heavyweight boxing championship.

In a TV interview with a boxing historian, Bert Sugar, Patterson was reminded that he had been knocked down more than any other boxer in history.

This great boxer humbly replied, yes, but I got up more times than anyone.

You get knocked down more, you get up more, you see.

Honda didn't become a billionaire by not failing.

Sanders, Fowles, became the best chicken around, not because of the setbacks.

Sanders became, chicken became finger licking good because he overcame the obstacles.

This is not a commercial for KFC by the way.

The Wright brothers didn't start flying high by not crashing to the ground several times.

The Wright brothers reached the levels they did because they never gave up.

Babe Ruth didn't become a success because he didn't strike out.

Babe Ruth became a success because he hit home runs.

And Patterson didn't win the championship by not falling down, He won the championship by getting up.

The ingredient to succeeding in the Christian walk is to keep pressing on, to keep overcoming obstacles, to never give up, keep hitting home runs, and to keep getting up.

I want you to turn with me in your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 24 and verse 16.

I want you to notice what the wisest man that ever lived next to Jesus said.

The Bible says, for a just man falleth, do you know how many times?

Notice that both the righteous, the just, and the wicked fall, but there's a significant difference between the 2.

The difference between the righteous and the wicked is not that the righteous doesn't fall or didn't fall, but that he gets up or she gets up after he or she falls.

If we took it a step further, according to this verse, who falls...

According to this verse, who falls more, the just or the wicked man?

The just, exactly, it's the righteous man.

The righteous man falls more because he keeps getting up.

Clearly, you can't fall down unless you are standing up.

According to this verse the wicked falls just once because when he falls he or she stays down.

Unlike the righteous man, doesn't get back up you see.

If we were to trace the lives of, for example, Peter and Judas, from the time of the betrayal of Jesus in Gethsemane to the end of their lives, who, over the course of their life, from Gethsemane on, fell more.

Now, Judas betrayed Jesus for the price of a slave, and then he went out and he hung himself.

He denied Jesus 3 times, repented, but then he lived many more years during which he had the opportunity to fall again.

If you go over to Galatians chapter 2, you'll understand that Peter reverted back to his bigoted ways in regard to his relationship to the Gentiles.

He overcame that, but he fell, you understand.

Peter had a lifetime to make mistakes, to sin, to fall, and to keep getting back up.

Judas fell once and he didn't come back, you see.

It was the wise man that said a righteous man falls 7 times and rises up again but the wicked shall fall into mischief.

That the righteous falls more, that's because he keeps getting up, then the wicked in no way condones or excuses falling, or sinning, you understand.

To not fall, to not fail, is better, far better.

I mean, if you think about the last time you tripped over and fell down and you broke something or you grazed something, you know that standing upright, walking upright, running upright is far better than falling down, you understand.

And what's more, in the power of God and His power alone, not falling is a very real possibility.

The Holy Bible encourages us in Jude 24 and 25, it says, "...now unto him that is able to keep you from what?

Falling, that's right, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty dominion and power both now and forever amen.

According to Jude not falling is a very real proposition, but the earlier point still stands.

If, not when, but if we were to fall, we are to do what?

While sinning is not inevitable for the Christian, committed Christian, if we do sin, getting back up must be inevitable, amen?

We can agree on that here this morning, right?

Now, we know that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus alone.

We are saved by grace, through faith, through Jesus.

We have a wonderful and mighty and powerful Savior, whose name is Jesus.

Paul said, For by grace you have been saved through faith, not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any 1 of us should boast.

This is wonderfully clear for you and for me.

Justification, forgiveness, is of sin is instantaneous.

The sinner accepts the life, the death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as his only hope.

When he does, he is accounted, as the Bible says, he is accounted righteous.

Three Truths to Live By

Life support systems often fill people with a sense of dread and fear.

While they keep people alive, no 1 anticipates or wants to be hooked up to 1.

It was the same for a lady by the name of Sylvia I read about.

Everything about the life support machine, the dials, the tubes, everything filled her with horror.

And because of that, she dreaded visiting hospitals.

But she realized on this occasion she had to, so stealing herself, she went in to visit a friend.

But walking down those sterilized corridors in the hospital, it just got to her and she just had to get out.

She walked quickly to where there was an elevator, stabbed the button, waited for the doors to open and as the doors opened, Sylvia was confronted with her greatest fear.

Next to an attendant standing there on the elevator was a large metal machine with dials and tubes.

Politely decline getting on and wait for the next elevator or just confront her fears and get on.

Slowly she decided to get on, so she slowly with trepidation you'd understand, shuffled onto the elevator.

The door shut behind her in what seemed to be an eternity.

Sylvia was there facing her fears, perspiring, sweating.

Finally, the elevator came to a stop and the doors cracked open and with a sigh of relief, Sylvia blurted out to the attendant, sure would hate to be hooked up to 1 of those.

The attendant looked quizzically down at the machine and then up at Sylvia and said, so would I.

You know, life can often play tricks on us, can't they, can't it?

We run from pretty much nothing into the arms of the unknown.

Even the language we use, English language we use, can be tricky at times.

Ladies go to the hairdresser and they get permanence, but then they have to go back 3 months later.

I mean, there's nothing permanent about that, is it?

No, I'm hearing some men out there, oh yes, yeah, that's right.

Doctors study for a certain period of time and then they open their practice, but I'm not sure I want a doctor practicing on me.

And then, of course, during rush hour, no one's really in a rush, are they?

I mean, just really, it's bumper to bumper.

And then of course we have noses that run and feet that smell, and so we're all discombobulated.

We do have to ask the truth here, we do have to ask the question rather this morning, what is truth?

Perhaps life is really about our own personal perceptions, all perception is reality, right?

If this was so, then we'd have to live by the motto, well whatever works.

But can truth be determined by that standard?

Perhaps we could leave truth or reality to a majority of vote.

Sometimes we actually inherit our thoughts from seeing the obvious and consider that to be reality.

I remember when Aaron, and I got Aaron's permission, but Aaron was about 2 years old and we'd given him some cars to play with and Jen and I would notice that he would actually We would come into his bedroom or wherever the cars were and the cars would be lined up perfectly behind 1 another and we just got to thinking how that how we how we learned to do that or where he got that from and because when I was a kid I'd take the cars into the dirt and all through the...

But Aaron had his cars lined up perfectly and it dawned on us 1 particular day, this was when we were living in Toronto, there's a major freeway called the 401 and many times we found ourselves on the 401.

Many times the cars weren't going anywhere and the vehicles were bumper to bumper, literally lined up 1 behind the other and we realized Aaron thinks that's what cars do.

They line up 1 behind the other, you see.

Sometimes we gain our thoughts from seeing the obvious and then consider that to be reality.

I was introduced several years ago to a word and the word is quiddity.

It simply means what something actually is and it butts head with the popular worldview that says life is a buffet of choose your own realities.

You put your hand on a hot stove, you're going to get burned.

You run a red light, you're going to get into trouble in a variety of different ways.

You jump from a roof and the only way you're going is where?

The metaphysical or New Age view that perception is the only reality doesn't cut it, especially when we care about the end result.

Someone once asked, do we really want to know the truth that provides freedom and true happiness or have we gotten so used to our lies, our pains, our prisons that any light is blinding and all we want is the comfort of cold familiar shadows?

What is the standard by which we weigh thoughts and actions and experience?

Well, the standard for flatness, just bear with me for a moment, but the standard for flatness is measured mathematically.

The mathematical value of flatness is 1.000.

Do you want to know how flat a pancake is when compared to that standard?

A pancake is, well you know a flat pancake, is 0.957 flat when compared to that standard, that measurement of flatness.

Interestingly, Kansas, the state of Kansas is .9997 flat.

Had friends that lived in Manitoba, Canada for a little while and he said...

He said Manitoba was so flat that We could let our dog run for 6 days and we could still see it running, it was that flat.

The value of truth is stated plainly in the Bible so that none need be confused.

Turn with me to John chapter 8 if you would.

John chapter 8 and verse 32 to a familiar text.

Notice what it says here, to know the truth is the pursuit of life.

John chapter 8 and verse 32 Jesus is speaking and He says and you shall know the truth and the truth shall do what friends make you or set you free that's right knowing truth will make a person free free from worry free from guilt free from fear free from misconceptions about God free to follow the dictates of one's own conscience as it is guided by the truth you understand.

There are 3 things that are stated in the Bible that define what truth is.

You can read that in Psalm 119, 142, where it says, 142.

Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is truth.

Also in verse 151, Thou art near, O Lord, and all Thy commandments are truth.

Second, Jesus said in John 17 verse 17, Sanctify them through Thy truth.

And so we have the Bible that that is that is the standard of truth And then Jesus talking to his bewildered disciples He's about to be betrayed about to go to the cross and he states these very famous words in John 14 in verse 6 I am the way the truth and the life you understand.

Jesus you see so Here we have the value of truth.

The standard is God's law as expounded by his word and personified in the life of Jesus Christ.

The standard of truth is God's law is expounded in His word and personified in the life of Jesus.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

The Cost of Discipleship- Part 1

44m

Not So Fast

42m

Three Truths to Live By

38m

The #1 Problem in the World

29m

Troubling News of Hope

29m

Howling

45m

The Good Fight

46m

2. Live

45m

1. Die

55m

The 144,000 and the New Jerusalem

42m

Incarnation: The Regeneration

41m

Incarnation: The Reunion

21m

Sound Doctrine