Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to our Madison Church Online audience. I'm Stephen Feith, lead pastor here. We want to invite you to join us sometime soon in person, because Madison Church really is a community. It's not just about the content creation that we do, but really is about connecting people with God and each other, which is quite difficult when you're watching on YouTube or listening on podcasts. And we're all here in the room Today we're continuing what's going to be a very, very long series taking us all the way to Easter, and it's called A Life that Matters.

Speaker 1: 0:29

And if you're joining us for the first time or you're joining us for the first time in a long time, we have been going through Luke's gospel on and off for over a year now and I was thinking about this when I was driving in. I was like I should explain to people why we do this, because maybe if you've been looking around at churches or you've gone to other churches, you know that sometimes they do series by topics and it'll be like how can a good God allow pain and suffering? And we do that here from time to time. Other times you do one on a topic like how can I hear from God, and we actually did one of those last fall, but for the majority of the time at Madison Church we're going to go kind of verse by verse through entire books of the Bible. I personally kind of feel like that's a lost art in our society. I liken it to, if you can remember a long time ago, dvds and you'd put the DVD on and you could skip to the chapter you wanted. But if you were watching a Batman movie or a Superman movie and you skipped to chapter seven and then you stopped, and the next day you watched chapter eight and you stopped, and then you never went back to it again, you wouldn't really know the story of what happened. And so I found it hugely impactful in my own spiritual journey to go word by word and verse by verse and chapter by chapter to see what is the author, whoever wrote this originally, what were they trying to communicate in the entirety of their story. And because I know that it is difficult from where you're sitting and where I'm standing and when I write, it'd be difficult to do a straight shot because we'd be in Luke every Sunday for two years, and so we do break it up. That is how we've been in this series for over a year and a half.

Speaker 1: 2:04

But in this particular portion of Luke we're talking about discipleship, because that's what Luke is writing about. If we're going on an arc here of Luke's story, we have Jesus being born, the Christmas narrative, the prediction that Jesus was going to be here, and we see Jesus prepped for ministry, baptized by the Holy Spirit, sent out and tested, and then we see Jesus going all around the Sea of Galilee doing these miracles. And what Luke has been intentionally trying to show you is that he was prophesied, he was empowered and he's doing all of those things. And now Luke is transitioning as we're heading into Jerusalem with Jesus and we know Jesus is going to die. And where Luke is beginning to transition is discipleship. Luke feels like he's already made the case for Jesus's Messiahship. Jesus is who we claimed he was. So what? What does that mean for you and me today?

Speaker 1: 2:59

And what Luke is arguing is discipleship is not about head knowledge or adherence to religious rules. I think oftentimes that's what we think discipleship is. When we think of discipleship, we think who has gone to seminary, who has the master's degree in theology, who is the pastor, who are they certified with and ordained? And those are good things. Those are not bad things, but we're not different classes. You and I were both disciples of Jesus at the end of the day. You and me, we're both following him, a lot of us doing it to the best of our ability and myself, just like you, coming up short a lot.

Speaker 1: 3:38

What Luke wants us to see is that discipleship is about a transformed life, one shaped by love, relationship and prayer, and this is why, for some of you who are kind of older or more mature Christians, that sometimes it feels like there's a little bit of a disconnect with God because transformation starts to slow down, because the things being transformed are deep in here. So when you first find and follow Jesus, it's easy to say this changed or that changed and this improved and that improved because there's a lot of low-hanging fruit and as we follow Jesus, he's revealing things to us that we didn't know were in here. He's bringing that out of us, and so that is what discipleship is, and today we're gonna cover a whole out of us, and so that is what discipleship is, and today we're going to cover a whole bunch of stories. We're going to cover four big ones that can be entire messages on their own. They really can be, as a matter of fact, one of the verses I'm going to read today. We did like a nine-part series on it two years ago and I'll mention that a little bit later. But today I'm tying all of these stories together because I want you to see, discipleship isn't just me and Jesus, it's not just my vertical relationship with God.

Speaker 1: 4:50

What Luke is going to show you is that discipleship has a very horizontal angle to it as well, and it's your relationship with your neighbors, and who is your neighbor? It's your relationship with Jesus, certainly, and it's also our relationship with God through prayer. All of these things are vital aspects to discipleship. They're interconnected realities at the heart of what it means to follow Christ. And so, as we go through today, a couple questions maybe to just throw out there for you to think about. How are you living out your love for others? How do you living out your love for others? How do you live out your love for others? That's a discipleship question. Are you prioritizing Jesus in the midst of life's busyness? Who here is busy? Right, all of us. Okay, are we prioritizing? Do we say in the midst of my busyness? Do I still prioritize my relationship, my discipleship journey? Do we approach God in prayer with confidence and the persistence that Jesus encourages us to, and so we're going to Luke, chapter 10. That's where we left off last week. If you want to follow along, we have house Bibles. The words will be on the screen and as we dive into the text, we're going to find Jesus at the center.

Speaker 1: 6:04

This first story is at the center of a challenging conversation, as a religious law expert has come up to him and asked him a question. It's not really a question to learn. He's actually asking this question to stump Jesus. So, like I said, jesus is already going around the Sea of Galilee, he already has this reputation, and so one of the religious leaders says I'm going to stump Jesus. It's a question that I think is at the core of discipleship for all of us, and he asked what does it mean to like, truly mean to inherit eternal life, teacher? What should I do to inherit eternal life? That's kind of maybe some of the questions that we have today, like what do I need to do to go to heaven? Or some of us ask it like I don't want to go to hell, and so what do I got to do to avoid that? You know, and that's the question.

Speaker 1: 6:51

Jesus asks a very kind of like pastoral professor type way, he responds he says what does the law of Moses say and how do you read it? So two questions. He says what's written in the Old Testament, because you're the expert, and how do you interpret it? So Jesus is acknowledging there's going to be two things working here. There's going to be what you read and how you understand it, and the man would not have been surprised by that. This is how rabbis would have answered those questions. And the man asked he says well, you must love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength and all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. So this is what it's written and what the man is implying is that if I do this this is how I understand it I will get eternal life. And Jesus says right, do this and you will live.

Speaker 1: 7:41

Now, here's the thing about this. I didn't realize this until this week as I was studying for this passage. There is a Jewish book that's not in our Old Testament, it's in the Apocrypha, if you have a Catholic background. But basically there's a command in there that says to the Israelites, the people of God, you should help one another out other Israelites and only the ones who follow God, because if you help a sinner you're bringing shame on yourself. So the expert in religious law again, this isn't in our Bible, but this is in the kind of the Apocrypha, these extra texts that don't make it in, but they're saying hey, love other Levite priests, love other Jewish people who are serving God. Well, what about my enemy? No, don't do that.

Speaker 1: 8:30

And so then Jesus goes into the story which we're all familiar with the Good Samaritan. And again, I could teach an entire message on this, but we're just going to fly over it. But he says you know, there's a man, he's on the road, he's left for dead. And he's left for dead, jewish leader goes by, priest goes by, no one helps him. And then all of a sudden this no good Samaritan walks by.

Speaker 1: 8:49

And you got to think like the most blatant forms of racism here, the most blatant, they thought Samaritans, the Jewish people did, were half breeds, that was the language they used half breed, not fully human. You think back on American history, right, and think of some of that language. Three fifths of a person, this is the language they're using. Of some of that language, three-fifths of a person. This is the language they're using. And Jesus uses this language and he says the Samaritan comes by and helps him. It doesn't just like pat him on the back, doesn't offer thoughts and prayers, but takes him to the inn, pays for everything. And not only that, he opens a tab and says hey, do whatever you need to do to make sure this guy's taken care of, not just going to come in at the intervent like right away, oh, there's a crisis, we'll send the team out real quick and then leave. The Samaritan says I'm going to make sure that, you know, everything is taken care of from beginning to end.

Speaker 1: 9:37

Says that the Samaritan came along and he felt compassion for him. And Jesus says who was the neighbor to this man? And Jesus says who is the neighbor to this man? Well, this Jewish guy, this expert of religious law, hates the Samaritan so much. You have to read this in your own Bible, I don't have it up on the screen. He can't even call him a Samaritan. That's how much he hates this guy. He can't even say the Samaritan. He says well, there's you know, obviously, that last person who kind of came in and helped. That's how big the hatred was. And Jesus is trying to show. This is what the law requires of you. And if you think about it, in the story he's saying who is the neighbor? He's highlighting the goodness of the Samaritan. The Samaritan is the neighbor, and so what you need to catch is what Jesus is saying to this expert of religious law be like the Samaritan in my story, which would have been just utterly offensive. They would have written Jesus off altogether.

Speaker 1: 10:36

But that's what Jesus says we are to do. And today, no doubt in our world, we still live in a very diverse society plagued with discrimination. We still do to this day whether that's racial discrimination. In a very diverse society plagued with discrimination. We still do to this day Whether that's racial discrimination. But we also have economic issues, we have political differences, there are different cultural barriers and these things kind of define for us who our neighbor is.

Speaker 1: 11:03

And probably the most difficult thing that I'm going to tell you this entire year if it doesn't seem difficult, you're not thinking about it hard enough the most difficult thing I'm going to ask you is that you know, discipleship demands love that transcends those boundaries Political. So you've got to love the. Make America great again people. Make America great again, people. You got to love the other people who voted for Kamala or Bernie. You even got to love the people who are so, like, devastated about the political climate in the United States. They don't vote for anybody. You're like that's hard, I can't do that. They're so hateful Like they right or they're so stupid or whatever your brand of narration is for your enemy. And Jesus says in the story that's the neighbor If they do. You know these things. And so he calls us to do that. To those who hate us, jesus calls us to love them. That's exceptionally difficult.

Speaker 1: 12:03

We could leave right now today, not talk about anything else for the rest of the year, just keep coming back to this moment every week for the next year, and I bet by the end of it we're still going to say we're really struggling with this. But the thing is, is Christ like love is not passive? Christ like love is active. It's active and it's modeled by the Samaritan's compassion and it's active toward those we consider outsiders. Jesus is going to say a little bit later on that like, okay, you love your enemies or you love your friends, those who do good, but who cares Like everyone does, that Everyone has this little basic inclination. You're going to help those who help you. But what sets us apart as followers of Jesus? Not just if we love, but how well we love those who aren't in this space. Here we're going to go down to verse 41.

Speaker 1: 12:56

We're coming up to the scene of the two sisters, mary and Martha. It is a scene many of us can relate to. You're going to relate to one character most likely in this story, but Jesus uses an ordinary situation to teach an extraordinary truth about discipleship. So Martha is in the kitchen, she's working this is what she would have been expected to do as a woman at this time and her sister, mary, is just chilling with Jesus in the other room. For those of you who have had to prepare Christmas dinners and Thanksgiving feasts and you know what it's like to be in the kitchen and you're doing a million things. And in the other room you hear people like laughing and they're not helping, they're just waiting for you to work. You can imagine Martha is just anger Like I'm doing all of this work and you slackers in there. I mean she wouldn't have called Jesus that. But you can imagine she's pissed off at her sister and Jesus says to her my dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details.

Speaker 1: 13:49

There's only one thing worth being concerned about, and Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her. So, yes, women in the first century there were expected to manage the household responsibilities, and they, furthermore, they definitely should not have been sitting at the feet of a rabbi as a disciple. That was a spot reserved for other men. But Mary breaks cultural norms. She finds herself at the feet of Jesus and it shows us that discipleship is for everyone, not just men, not just women, not just Jew Gentile, it's for all of us. And Jesus doesn't just allow Mary to sit and listen. He doesn't just say it's okay, he affirms her decision. He affirms it by elevating presence with him above the busyness of service. He says Mary's here and she's just enjoying my presence. Leave her be Now. That's not a rebuke that Martha's hospitality and she's working, I mean Now, that's not a rebuke that Martha's hospitality and she's working. I mean.

Speaker 1: 14:47

Service is a vital aspect to our faith. This is a spiritual discipline. We are to serve one another. But Martha's distraction and frustration revealed the danger of letting our activity, our good deeds, overshadow our connection with Christ. Yes, what she was doing was well-meaning. It was well-meaning work, but it became a barrier to deeper understanding what was right in front of her, which was Jesus himself.

Speaker 1: 15:17

And I think that this reveals a struggle that you and I in the United States Western context 2025, feel a lot, and it's the difference between doing and being, and I think that all of us fall into one or two camps and we feel pressure by the other one. Okay, if we're doers, we feel pressure to do a little less, and if we're beers, we feel pressure, we got to do something. And that's okay, because discipleship requires an intentional rhythm, a holy ebb and flow. There's rest and there's work, and there's rest and there's work, there's presence and then there's productivity. And just as your body needs activity like exercise or intellectually to read a book, it also needs rest to recover and to thrive. It also needs rest to recover and to thrive. So is for our spiritual lives to flourish, we have to have that ebb and flow of rest and work, and without this rhythm, you will experience, without a doubt, burnout, distraction or even missing the presence of God in your life.

Speaker 1: 16:26

What makes it so counter-cultural is that you are praised, not just praised. You are rewarded for productivity, you get the raise and the promotion, you get more money. You can buy the new boat, the newer house, you can buy the newer car If you are more productive than the other person, and if you're not productive, you lose your job. It's punishment, and so everything in our society says go, go, go, go, go, sacrifice everything. But here Jesus reminds us that's not his ask of you as a disciple. He's not asking you to go, go, go, go go. He's not going to punish you if you take a break. He wants you to be with him and to sit at his feet. Our work must flow out of a heart grounded in Christ. Otherwise you'll just feel overwhelmed with all of the things you need to do for Christ, and that's not what he's asking of you.

Speaker 1: 17:19

We continue reading and we get down to one of the most intimate and instructive moments of Jesus's ministry, when he teaches his disciples how to pray. And, as I mentioned, as we were getting going, we did an entire like seven, eight, nine. I can't remember how many parts we did, but it was a seven, eight, nine part series on this passage. It was called how to Pray, and so you can find that on our YouTube channel Buzzsprout Podcast is the word I'm looking for. But in the passage where Jesus teaches them how to pray, he says this is how you should pray. Father, may your name be kept holy. May your kingdom come soon. Give us each day the food we need and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us, and don't let us yield to temptation. And the reason I'm talking about this just very briefly today is that his disciples come to him and they say hey, we've been taught all of these other ways to pray, there's all of these different ways to pray.

Speaker 1: 18:08

If you grew up again going back to this kind of idea, if you grew up with a Catholic background like there are certain prayers you're supposed to say at certain times and you say these things back and you recite them and it's liturgy and so what, that's been happening for 2000 years. It was happening to the Jewish followers of. I say we've seen all of these different ways to pray. We're wondering Jesus, what is the right way to pray? Because what they noticed was like you know, when Jesus prays, like people come back from the dead, they're like healed of leprosy, people like walk on water. You know, it's like completely a different experience when Jesus prays. And so they're asking, like what is the secret? And what Jesus tells them is you can pray like this, but he's not providing a model to be memorized later. I think that's the worst use of the Lord's Prayer, like his whole thing in doing this was to show them there is no model that you come to the Father intimately, call him Dad, hey Dad, and come and say your needs.

Speaker 1: 19:00

I've been reading this book by Richard Foster, celebration of Discipline, and there's this image that pops out and it's so good because I've got three kids and they're nine, seven and three, and they ask for everything shamelessly Shamelessly Money, food, drinks, more screen time. They just shamelessly every time they ask, and it's like they don't consider that, like somebody goes out and buys the bread and the peanut butter for those peanut butter sandwiches. They have no concept that like we could run out, they just always assume we're stocked. And Foster says do we approach God with that same audacity? Do you approach God like there's an unlimited source of sandwiches in the pantry? Unashamed, not guilty, boldly? The nice thing is is I won't respond to you like I respond to my kids, because God is a lot better at that than I am. But I'll be like, oh my gosh. Yes, in a minute I'll get you the sandwich. How can you be hungry? You've been eating goldfish over there all day, you know.

Speaker 1: 20:08

But, god, it says that this is how I want you to approach me. Approach me with a childlike faith. What do you need? Have you thought about that and do you keep asking God? God, this is what I need, not a memorized prayer, not liturgy. Do you come to him like a kid? Honestly, authentically.

Speaker 1: 20:32

Prayer not only connects us to God, but it binds us together as his people. What we see in that passage is a lot of our language and us language. Jesus is showing that prayer isn't just an individual activity. I know a lot of us see it like that. We pray at night, or we pray in the morning, or we journal. When Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray, he prays, tells them to pray together. And so my ask then for you is like where does that show up in your life? Perhaps a small group, perhaps with a spouse or your family, but we pray together.

Speaker 1: 21:05

And if you think that there's something wrong with this whole idea, like what if I kept asking for the sandwich, I kept asking for this thing from God? Don't I come across as like nagging, and doesn't God get tired of that? Jesus puts that to rest Luke 11, verse nine. So I tell you, keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking and you will find. Keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives and everyone who seeks finds. And to everyone who knocks the door will be opened.

Speaker 1: 21:42

And these words would have resonated very deeply with that original audience that Jesus is speaking to. They understood persistence in prayer and this was a virtue. And yet Jesus adds the bold assurance, just in case you were wondering it's okay, keep asking. It's okay, it's all right, that thing you've been asking for, that your heart desires. It's okay to keep asking, even if the answer is no. Keep asking, because what happens in prayer? We become more Christ-like. What happens in prayer, regardless of what we're praying for, we're in communion with God. He wants us to pray and we're in communion.

Speaker 1: 22:22

Maybe we're asking for the wrong things, but how will we know unless we ask? How will my kids ever know there's more than just peanut butter and jelly in the fridge or in the cabinets if they don't ask for something else? So you ask and you seek and you knock and maybe it's not the thing that you originally were seeking, the door you were originally knocking on and perhaps through that the Spirit of God leads you to this place where the door does open. And you look back and it's low-hanging fruit to say this, but I got to say it, like once a year. But you know, it's like how many of you, like in junior high or in kindergarten like prayed for that, like girlfriend or boyfriend, you're like, oh God, I want to marry them. They're so perfect. No-transcript, I mean not that that happens in kindergarten, but you know what I'm like? Ah, devastating. And now we have devastating problems as adults. And God says keep asking, don't give up, I'm going to take you where I want you to go.

Speaker 1: 23:25

What about those seasons where persistence feels impossible? You've been asking and asking and asking for years. There's something. There's years I've got stuff like that, things I've been asking for years. God, should I keep asking or should I just give up? Should I move on? Why am I not getting the lesson I'm supposed to get? This is when doubts creep in, when God feels distance, when prayers seem to go unanswered. This teaching from Jesus does not deny those moments. He's not trying to gaslight you or toxic positivity you or anything like that. It doesn't deny those moments, but instead what Jesus is doing is inviting you to lean into him harder. You got doubts, great, bring them to me. I feel distance Fall, fall forward, fall toward me. Your prayers seem to go unanswered. Keep asking Persistence.

Speaker 1: 24:22

Prayer is not just about faith in the moment, but it's about faith over time. It's about faith when you feel like it and it's about faith when you don't feel like it. And in these seasons of spiritual dryness or uncertainty, we learn to trust God's character rather than our feelings. When God feels distance and I know that's a deep pain I'm not trying to make light of that, but it does ask the question. It begs us to ask the question do I trust more in the God I believe in or do I trust in how I feel right now, in this moment? Prayer in these times is not about forcing an answer, but really it's about showing up and it's about believing that God is present, even if you don't feel him. The knocking Jesus describes is the rhythm of faith that keeps going even when the door doesn't open up right away. It's the kind of persistence that builds a deeper reliance on God and shapes us to trust his goodness and his timing, both of which are perfect.

Speaker 1: 25:24

This teaching invites us to examine our own approach to prayer. Do you give up too easily when the answer doesn't happen right away how you wanted it to happen, exactly how you wanted it to happen when you wanted it to happen? Or do you trust the God who encourages, asking, seeking and knocking with confidence? How does that play out in your own life? So the challenge today is that discipleship isn't just believing. It's about living a life shaped by both all compassion, presence and prayer. This call to follow Jesus, as we've read today in these passages in Luke, calls to transform not only how we think, but how we live, and so I want to leave you with three specific challenges this week, things to consider in your own life. The first one is do you practice compassion beyond comfort? A little bit of a tension here if you think about it. Am I going to be compassionate, even when it makes me uncomfortable? That's the first question.

Speaker 1: 26:21

Jesus shows us that love does require action. You don't just get to say I love you, thoughts and prayers. It does require you backing it up with what you do and how you live, even when it's convenient. The Samaritan didn't just pass the guy on the road and say, man, that looks like it sucks. He stepped in to help even when everyone else ignored the man on the road.

Speaker 1: 26:44

So this week, for some of you, perhaps the challenge is to identify a person that you have overlooked, a person perhaps you're avoiding. How can you extend love in a tangible way? And maybe it's reaching out to a neighbor who you know is in need, volunteering your time or simply offering someone a listening ear who is struggling, and just letting them vent to you. Compassion calls us out of our comfort zones, but it's there that God's love shines the brightest. And a note, as I always do when I talk about reaching out to people if you or someone you love is in an abusive or toxic relationship, I am not at all suggesting you reach out to that person this week. Okay, I just want to clear that up. Some things need to be severed, but other things there might be a person in our life who I'm avoiding just because I find them obnoxious. Perhaps I'm the only one in the room who finds other people annoying, but I doubt it. Maybe that's the person.

Speaker 1: 27:40

So the second thing to consider is are we creating space for Christ's presence in our lives? In our busy lives, it's easy to prioritize that productivity over presence. But true discipleship requires time, intentional time with Jesus. So for some of you, maybe this week, what you need to do is carve out intentional time to be with Jesus, maybe like 10 or 15 uninterrupted minutes to sit there and to just knock and to seek minutes. To sit there and to just knock and to seek Jesus. Where are you leading me, jesus? What do you want, jesus? I want this so bad. I want the peanut butter sandwich.

Speaker 1: 28:19

It's a great time to ask yourself is my schedule aligned with what I say matters most? I'm a firm believer that the two most important documents in most of our lives are our budgets and our schedules. When we reevaluate that dude, is my budget serving me? We look at that dude, the way that I spend money is this how I want to spend money, but you know what. Another resource you have is your time, and that's what I want to talk about is your time. And when you look at your schedule, print it out, throw it on the fridge and look at it, analyze it. Where are you spending all of your time? Is it, netflix and napping and are you okay with that? That's the question. I'm not judging you or looking down on you or anything, but are you okay with that? And as you look at your calendar and you're like I have all my important meetings set up there, do you have like time with God set up in there? And you might say that's ridiculous, but it's not. You see, I have important dates in my calendar because they're important, because I don't want to forget. I don't even want the chance to forget. Do I need to be reminded? My anniversary is coming up? No, most times, but in that one year that maybe I do, it is in there. And so when you look at your calendar, say, is there time, have I plugged in time to read the Bible, to pray, to meditate, to do something like this? And finally, the third thing for some of us, we need to deepen our commitment to prayer. We need to deepen it to prayer.

Speaker 1: 29:43

Prayer isn't just a ritual. Prayer is about a relationship. That's what Jesus is getting at. It's not just a ritual. Prayer is about a relationship. That's what Jesus is getting at. It's not just a ritual, it's a relationship. So pray daily.

Speaker 1: 29:52

You can use the Lord's Prayer as a guide. Just don't become legalistic about it, okay. I don't want to hear you in like three years being like the only time I pray is when I pray the Lord's Prayer, because you missed the point. Then I want you to develop a relationship with God, and if you've got to use the Lord's prayer as a launching pad, that's way okay. That's what the disciples would have done, but I want you to focus praising God. Confess your needs to him, trust in his provision, write your prayers down. I have a five-year journal and it's just a little blurb every day. So it'd be like the 17th and there'll be five years worth and I just write down a few things every day. But what's amazing is I've been doing this now for like seven years, because I don't do it every day, so there's still a lot of spaces left.

Speaker 1: 30:28

But what's amazing is I can look back and say, wow, in 2017, look what I was praying for and it happened, but not at all like I thought it was going to happen, and it's so encouraging. And so for some of you who are like you've been a Christian a long time and you're wondering how does God answer prayers I have found this to be so selfishly like a blessing because it's the reminder. I look at my own words that I wrote in my own journal from years ago and say, wow, god really did answer that and I forgot about it, like I didn't even realize he answered it. Or I look at something and I'm like thank you, jesus, for not answering that, because that would have been awful. I look back at some things that I prayed for that did happen and I'm upset about it. So you get the full spectrum of feelings and emotions. But, as I wrap up, if you want to close your eyes for a moment, that's okay, because I want you to envision something.

Speaker 1: 31:20

Envision a church, community, madison Church, where acts of love and kindness are so frequent and genuine that they point unmistakably to God's presence among us. Picture families, neighbors and strangers being drawn into the love of Christ because of the way you choose to live. The beauty of discipleship is that it's not just about what we give, but it is about what we receive. When we step out to love others, we experience the joy of partnering with Christ and his work. When we prioritize time in his presence, we find peace, clarity and strength to navigate life's demands. And when we commit to persistent prayer we develop a deep trust in the God who doesn't just listen but responds.

Speaker 1: 32:09

And now imagine the ripple effect if every single person in this room took just one step this week. Small actions like helping a neighbor, offering a kind word, taking the time to pray, will inspire others to do the same. These simple acts of love and faith have a way of spreading outward, creating a chain reaction that brings hope and healing to our families, to our communities and really to the rest of the world. And together you by yourself know, but together these steps will transform our world into a reflection of God's kingdom. And so this week, what is your step? Discipleship is about movement. It's about activity. Is it a compassionate act, an intentional moment with Jesus or a renewed commitment to prayer? Whatever it is for you and maybe it's not any of those, but maybe there's something else that you really feel like God has been putting on your heart this past hour let's do it Together. We can embody discipleship, not just believing in Christ, but living a life shaped by Christ, shaped by compassion, presence and prayer.