seventeen lessons on discipleship. Now, we're not going to do all seventeen, and we're not going to try to do even five of them this morning. That'll relieve you, won't it? We just, we just want to do one. and I gave you a little handout because maybe that will help you to see where I'm going, because sometimes in a study that's not just, uh, one verse after another, you wonder, where is this guy going? What's, what's he trying to get across? So if you know my outline from both this lesson and the next one, well, maybe you'll know a little better the direction I'm heading. And, uh, and so relax. I- I've- I've got uh six or seven or eight folders all full of notes on discipleship, but- but we just won't do them all. Reminds me again of a story about a, um, a fellow that invited a visitor. And as the visitor came, and- and at the end of the service, well, he was excited to ask the visitor, he says, well, well, what do you think of the service? And his friend said, well, he said, to be honest with you, he said, uh, I didn't like it as well as where I normally attend. And the guy was kind of shocked. He says, well, well, what do you think of the preacher? He said, well, he said, I didn't think as much of this preacher as the, the one that I normally hear. Uh, the guy says, well, why, why, why do you say that? He says, well, it's because of the words they use. He says, my preacher, when he says in conclusion, he concludes. And he says, your preacher said lastly, and he lasts. Well, we want to begin just a little study on the idea of, of discipleship. What is it? And I want us to look at, at three scriptures this morning that will help us to decide the, the idea of discipleship. Turn, if you will, to Matthew chapter ten. The Gospel of Matthew chapter ten. and I think this morning we'll, we'll just take all of them from Matthew. There's other places we could look. But Matthew chapter ten, and we want to read verse twenty four and the first part of verse twenty five. And our subject this morning is, what is discipleship? You know, we use the term discipleship, but what is discipleship? And, and why should we be a disciple? And what are the qualifications for being a disciple? And how would you know a disciple if you saw one? Well, those are some of the questions that we want to answer this morning. Matthew chapter ten and verse twenty four, The disciple is not above his teacher, nor the servant above his lord. The reason I, I began this study really is because if you begin to look at the life of Christ, it really is convicting, isn't it? And then you begin to compare his life and his ambitions and, and what he spent his time doing as he was here on the earth, and look at how we spend our time and look at our ambitions. And my, it's convicting, isn't it? Because what was his purpose as he was here? And then we say that we're disciples of Christ. And here's what the Bible says, the disciple is not above his master or his teacher, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be like his teacher and the servant like his lord. In other words, this idea that the disciple aims to be like his master or like his teacher. And you know, sometimes we, we look around at, at where we are and we say, we really don't want what Christ had on the earth, we want more. It's a little embarrassing sometimes, isn't it? And so the Bible says the disciple is content to be like his teacher. And then turn, if you will, to Matthew chapter sixteen. Gospel of Matthew chapter sixteen. And for context, let's begin in verse sixteen. Matthew chapter sixteen and verse sixteen. And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Messiah, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, or Simon son of Jonah is what it means, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on the earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on the earth shall be loosed in heaven. He charged, then charged he the disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Messiah. Then Matthew's Gospel, chapter twenty eight. Matthew's Gospel, chapter twenty eight. We want to look at verses nineteen and twenty, the final two verses of the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew twenty eight verses nineteen and twenty. Go ye therefore and teach all nations. Now, let me just tell you that really the word that we have translated there, teach, would be the same word. It's ex- it's exactly the root word that we would translate disciple. Matter of fact, some of you may have that, that rendering in your Bible. So it really says this, go ye therefore and disciple all nations. Now, the reason I make that switch is because really the word teach and the word disciple are the same root word. So when we talk about teach, someone who is teachable, we're talking about someone who is a disciple. And that's going to be one of the characteristics of a disciple. If a person says, you know what, I want to learn, I, I want to be taught, I want to know something from God's word, then that's the first step in becoming a disciple. But when a person says, no, look, I'm saved, and and that's good enough, and they become unteachable, you know what? They are not a disciple. And so here's the command. Go ye therefore and disciple all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them or discipling them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the age. Amen. Discipleship. What is it? And that's really what we wanna, we wanna look at this morning. Well, I think there's several things that, that are important for us to, to look at it to begin with, and maybe one of those is this. What really is missing today? If you were to say, what's the greatest threat to Christianity? What's missing in, in Christianity today, what would you say? And I think some might say, well, you know, I think the greatest threat to Christianity is atheism. I mean, it's, it's people who say there's no God. And if you really want to know the truth, I, and I'm, I'm opposed to, to atheism. And, and Russia has proved that atheism is, is a lie. Because look how they're responding to, to, to the Lord now. And so that theory is, is of no value, but if I'm honest with you, I don't think that atheism is a threat to Christianity. I really don't know very many atheists who, who have a following, and people are saying, you know what, that, that guy makes good sense when he says there's no God. That guy makes good sense when he says there's not order in the universe. The more you look around, the more convinced you are there's got to be a God. Atheism is not a threat to Christianity. And some might say, well, it's communism. Oh, we, we're, we're not threatened by communism. We've seen it fail, and we've seen it not only fail, but, but fail grandly. So I don't think that's it. And some might even say, well, it's materialism. And I'd have to say, no, I, I think that, that materialism has an effect on us, but I don't think that's it. If I'm honest with you, I think what is missing today, and, and what the biggest threat to Christianity is this, it's the fact that people do not want to be disciples. That's what's missing today. It's so low key, and yet it's so biblical, that I believe that's really what's missing today. Someone said there's only two kinds of people in the local church. There's pillars. Pillars are those people you can count on. When that door is open, you say, I know they'll be there. You don't even think twice. I know they're going to be there. And, and everything hinges on those pillars. And then there's caterpillars. And they're the ones that they just sneak in and they sneak out and, and, and they don't do anything. They, they just come and go. And I think that's the threat to Christianity. They're not excited by the truth, they're embalmed by the truth. That you, you can show them something from God's word, and it doesn't affect how they live or how they think or, or their ambitions at all. That's the threat to Christianity. For us to t- pick up the word of God and say, this is the word of the living God. This book is, is not only from a living God, it is alive. And then to say, but I don't want it to affect me today. I, I don't want to change my thinking from something I learned. I don't want to, I don't want to have a change how I live from, from Monday through Saturday. That's the threat to Christianity. It's people that claim they're Christians and don't live that way. That's the threat to Christianity. Now, some have said, well, well, isn't every Christian a disciple? And the answer is theoretically, yes. Practically, no. There are some days I look at my life and, you know, I say, I'm not a disciple. Now, if you go and, and look at it in a dictionary, you would be so disappointed with what they say. You know what they say about a disciple? Under disciple, here's what it says, one of twelve followers of Jesus. Isn't that disappointing? I'd like to think there's more than twelve, but but they think it's just twelve. You see, the dictionary can't even appreciate, I think, what we find in the Word of God. And so, here's what's missing today. I believe it's it's the commitment to being a disciple. For example, look at this passage that we just read in Matthew twenty eight verses nineteen and twenty. First of all, notice this, it's a command. Here's what it says, go ye. It- it's, it's not an option, but it's a command. As Christians, as disciples, we are to go. And here's what it then says. Later, you're going to see this, going. It- it's really a participle. Not that you're interested in the kind of s- part of speech it is, but it's a participle, and it could be saying this, going. There wasn't a chance that they would not go. Matter of fact, as he said, go ye, they were already beginning the process. That's what's involved in- in that verse. And then it's this idea, go therefore, disciple all nations. It was a, it was a command to make disciples. And so we want to study, well, what is a disciple? Well, I think it's the missing thing today. If people were to ask me, why do you think that, that Christianity is not as popular? Why do you think that Christianity is not spreading as it should? I would have to say it's because we have so few disciples. In Russia, one of the things that is heartbreaking to me is that Christianity had a great chance to see Russia converted to Christianity, and we lost. Russia is going to the Muslims. Russia is going to the Mormons. Russia is going to the Jehovah Witnesses, and the Christians are a little sped. And if someone say, well, well, why? Is it because we didn't get a television program going? No. It's because we had so few disciples. That's convicting, isn't it? And so, the idea of discipleship, what's missing today, and I would say that it's, it's the idea of discipleships. Now, as we look at, at this whole idea of discipleship, to be a disciple, we're going to find, as you'll, as you'll see in your notes in the, in the next lesson, we're going to look at the fact that he's Christ-like, he's a learner, and he's a follower. In other words, he's one who's growing. He's one who is willing to say, you know what, what I want to do, I want to learn one thing from God's word today, and then I'm going to practice it. That's a disciple. But are we really willing to learn? There's some tremendous stories, and and I just want to jump down to that point just for a moment, because there's a story about a a well-known teacher, a great thinker, a guru. And as he, and as he was sitting there beside the, the river one day where he normally sat, a young would-be student came up to him and he says, I want to learn from you. I want to be one of your students. And without saying a word, this, this well-known teacher grabbed this student to be's head and stuck his head right in the river. And the student did nothing. I mean, for one minute, he just sat there with his whole head submerged in the water. And after a minute, the student began to wonder what's going on. And so he, he put his hand up and he, and he tried to tear the hand of, of his teacher away from his head to, to give him air. And, and I mean, this student began to struggle with all of his might, and he, and he began to fight with every muscle he had. And, and, and finally, what seemed like several minutes, finally that, that teacher pulled his head up out of the water. The student glared at him and says, what do you think you're doing? And he says, when you want to learn as bad as you wanted air, then you can be my student. And the would-be student got up and left. You see, that, that's a disciple. He's a learner. And I believe sometimes they say, well, you don't understand. You're, you're talking to someone who's been a Christian for, for ten years. I'll tell you what, if you're not learning something right now after being saved ten years, if you're not learning something today, you're not a disciple. Because we're going to find that in the scripture, a disciple is a learner. And discipleship is not something where you finally arrive and say, ha, look, I'm a disciple. But if you don't say, you know what, I'm, I'm today I'm going to learn something from God's word. This week I'm going to practice something from God's word. You're not a disciple. And that's the threat to Christianity. It, it's not all the, the Mormonisms, and it's not the Muslims and the Buddhists. Those are not the threats. The threat are people that are born again but refuse to be learners from God's word. They they they don't want to grow. There's a story told about a a lady, she had twins, and she got so tired of the question about, are they twins? I mean, you know, what do you expect when you got two kids the same size and they're in the same carriage? And so, so being frustrated with that question time and time again, are they, someone said, are they twins? And she said, no, one nine years older than the other, but we stunted his growth by having him smoke. Well, I look around at Christianity, and you know what's frightening? Sometimes there are people that have been saved five years, ten years, fifteen years, and they're still spiritual babies. You know what that says? It's not discipling. It's great to see people come to Christ, but it shouldn't stop there. One of the things that that Chris and I were talking about in in Russia is to, is to see some of the young Russians who are excited about God's word. And I, it didn't matter how late we got in. We we'd get in at eleven o'clock or at midnight, and then we'd try to call back home, and it would take another hour or two. And you know, we'd be ready to go to bed, and and these Russian young men, you know what they'd be doing? Out would come the study books, out would come the Bibles, and and and they were they were there learning. One of them, Valeri, reads fifty chapters a day, and now he won his brother to the Lord, and you ought to see his notebook. His notebook looks like an encyclopedia book. Every time he gets a verse and he understands it, he writes down the verse and writes that. You know what? He's a learner. And if someone tells him about a verse, you'll watch him go back, he'll get his backpack, he'll take out his notebook, and there he is, he's going to write it down. He, he, he plans to learn. When he wakes up in the morning, he's just waiting for someone to tell him something from the Bible so he can put it in his notebook and put it into practice. Don't, don't you wish that that described, don't you wish we were disciples? What would happen on this side of, can you imagine what would happen in America if there were, if there were even ten disciples that God would turn loose in America? Listen, here's something that really convicts me. Do you know that, that Christ himself never wanted a crowd, but he wanted disciples? And there were times when a great crowd would come, and the Lord would almost turn them off, but you know what he would do? He'd turn to twelve disciples. He wanted twelve disciples, but he didn't want a crowd. Now, how are we built? You know, we want, we, we want the building full. And I've had six or seven people say, boy, you know, you're going to be so disappointed because there's not a crowd. Listen, if, if I'm disappointed because there's not a crowd, I'm not at all like the Lord. You know what? I'm convinced of this. It would be better to have five people learn something than have a crowd of five thousand and learn nothing. And, and what we have going on, I know in America, we have this, this great show in Christianity today where we bring together a mass of people, and the orchestra plays, and, and, and the songs come, and, and, oh, just a minute, uh, an hour and a half is gone. Let's just read a verse. Well, we don't have time for one this morning, but next week we're going to read a verse. And they walk out the door. And then we wonder why we got spiritual pygmies running around. I'll tell you why, because we are not disciples. Disciples, they're learners, they're growing, they're Christ-like, they're following the Lord, they're looking at the Word of God, and that's what's missing today in Christianity. I don't think that we need a bunch of new programs, and I'm not against new ones. I don't, it doesn't hurt to try this or to try, but listen, I've seen programs that fail one place work great in another place, and I've seen them that they won't work here and they'll work over here. It's not the programs. You know what the difference is? It's whenever you've had disciples, it'll work. I don't care what the program is. It's not the program, it's do you have disciples? And so the question really is this: are we disciples? Let me read you a testimony in Acts chapter five. Th- this is what, this is the testimony of the disciples. Acts chapter five and verse twenty eight. Hey, what you have to remember is that these disciples were the ones that were persecuted. And these disciples were the ones that they were struggling just to make it physically. But verse twenty eight says, saying, did we not strictly command you that you should not teach in this name? And behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. Isn't that a great testimony? Now, they had filled Jerusalem with their doctrine. What was their doctrine? What- what you'll find in chapter five, they preached the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ. And how was it spreading? It was, the whole process was discipleship. That was all. That they never, it was never enough to say, well, that person's born again, but it was the process of discipleship. Matthew twenty eight, go and make disciples. And how they filled Jerusalem with the doctrine was they began making disciples, and that was the difference. That- that's the thing that, that turned the tide, and that's why there was such a grand testimony to the whole thing. You know, maybe, maybe it would be good if we, if we handed out a little test and said, all right, what is a disciple? Can't you see the answers that would come back? Because it, it is hard to define. And the reason it's hard to define is because it's not something where we say, well, when you can score ninety percent on the Bible knowledge, then you're a disciple. No, not at all. But a disciple, it's a process. And this process is an ongoing process where you will never arrive. Now, there are several things that, that we must say if, if we're to understand this whole idea. And I think it's, it has to do with the, the number of times it's mentioned. Do you know that in the first five books of the New Testament, I'm talking about Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts. We have a total of, of and forty mentions of disciples or discipleship in the Gospels, and thirty two more in Acts. In other words, in the first five books of the New Testament, two hundred and seventy two times disciple or discipleship is mentioned. You know what you'll find? There will be no other word, subject word, mentioned more than discipleship. That was the key. The key to to what Christ was doing was discipleship. And yet it's missing today. We we don't want to talk about it today. I think, I really think this. I think as we look at at what we found and what we read in in Matthew sixteen, let let's look at it again. Here's here's what the Lord said. He said to his disciples, he warned them, and he said this. He says, thou art Peter. Now, there's a play on words. He never once said to Peter that he was the pope, and Peter understood that. And he didn't even say to Peter in, in chapter sixteen of Matthew, verse eighteen, he didn't say, Peter, I'm going to build the church on you. Wouldn't that have been tragic to build the church on Peter? Because do you know that in just a few chapters, Peter was going to deny the Lord? Now, wouldn't that have been embarrassing to build it on Peter? And, and then Peter was going to curse. And, and Peter then was going to quit following the Lord. Boy, that's not a very good testimony for the first pope, is it? Now, that's not at all what he was saying. He said, thou art Peter, and, and that's the word stone. He said, you are a little pebble. And then he says this, and upon this rock, and I think he was pointing to himself. And the word that's used there is massive. It's like a, a mountain. He said, Peter, you're a pebble, but I'm going to build my church on this mountain. There's the contrast. Now here's, look what he says. He says, I will build my church. That's a great promise, isn't it? Now look at this. Here's the success of it. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Oh, they're going to try. And believe me, they'll try. When we were in Russia this, this last time, we actually had several people that we had discipled for a year or so, and, and they left us, and they were standing out there handing out their propaganda as everyone came into the crusade. Discouraging? You bet. Every time we've had a crusade there, we've, we've had protesters. As we're handing out literature, one Orthodox man came and, and shoved an interpreter up against the wall and was getting ready to hit her. And one of the guys on the team grabbed the Orthodox man's hand, tried to prevent that, and then the Orthodox man proceeded to try to strangle him. Uh, there, there'll be a battle. The Bible says there'll be a battle. The gates of hell. Uh, listen, it wasn't those men standing out there that, that we know they were pro- that that's not the enemy. It wasn't this man that was getting ready to, to slug one of the interpreters. Can you imagine being so mad he's getting ready to hit one of his own people because we're handing out tracts? That's all. He's not the enemy. The enemy, it's a spiritual battle, isn't it? And so every once in a while, when, when there's a battle going on, because of spiritual things, say, you know what, this is what we ought to expect. But here's the promise. Here's what the Lord says. I will build my church. Who's the architect? It's the Lord. Now, we cannot improve on what the New Testament gives as the pattern for the church. You know, every once in a while I say, you know what, let's- let's get a pastor. Let's, let's get an organization going. We think that'll improve? No, we can't. Here's why. Because the Lord built the church. He thought it up. He's the architect. We're not going to improve on it. So he's the architect. Now, look at this. It's future. He says, I will. Will means future, doesn't it? So at this point, the church had not started. He says, I will build my church. Who's the owner of it? He owns it, doesn't he? This is my church. All the time back home, you know, I'm talking to the men that are, that are pastors, and I'm not enemies with them. I'm good friends with some of them. I say, well, you know, at my church, I always like to check their hands, see if there's any nail, if there's not a nail hole in each hand, it's not his church. Because the Lord paid a price for the church, didn't he? So here's what he says. I will build my church. He's the architect. It would be future. It would, it would take place. He says, I'll build it. And he guarantees the success. He says, the gates of hell will not even prevail against it. And you know that that plan is so complete and so good that he can even use me to be involved in it. Now that's what a good plan it is. If he can use me, up and down me, Jonah me, Peter me, and he'll use you. But the plan's good. The plan is so good it can't fail. Now, isn't that great? I mean, if there was a chance it could fail, he'd have to use somebody else. One of the great stories in the Bible is John six. And remember, there's a whole multitude of people there, and the Bible says Jesus knew what he would do, but he kept them out there preaching all day long. I like that too. And, and I mean, he preached to them one whole day, and finally it was getting toward dark, and they said, there's not, there's no restaurant around here. We got to send them home for food. And the Bible says Jesus knew what he would do, but he asked the disciples. He said, all right, what, what do you, what should we do? You know what one of them said? He said, well, we don't have enough money to feed them all. They tried mathematics. They estimated the crowd. It says this, five thousand men. Now, I'll tell you this, if there were five thousand men to hear the Lord, women respond more than men, don't they? So there must have been ten thousand women. Now, don't, don't men ever get the idea that we're more spiritual than women. For every man that responds, it seems like there's two or three or four women that do. So if there was five thousand men, I think there were ten thousand women. And if you have five thousand men and ten thousand women, guess how many children you've got? I think there was a crowd of twenty thousand to thirty thousand people there, and the disciples tried to dig up a collection to feed them. They came back and said, there's not enough money. We, we don't have it, we can't send them away. Isn't that sad? So you know what? One said, well, we have one lunch now they try their resources. One lunch. But what is it, they said, amongst so many? Remember what the Lord did? He took the lunch, and he gave thanks for it, and he broke the lunch apart, and and the more he broke it apart, the bigger it grew. And then here's what it says in John six verse eleven. Then he took that, and he gave to each disciple some food to distribute to the multitude. Now, why did he do that? I'll tell you why. The plan was so good, it couldn't fail even with the disciples. I mean, the disciples couldn't figure out that they should have said, Lord, you're the bread of life. He'd just been lecturing on the bread of life. You're the bread of life. You feed them. But instead, they tried everything else, and yet he could have, the Lord could have distributed that, couldn't he? But no, he said, no, I'll use you. This, this plan is so good, this plan is so secure. All right, Peter, you take some out there. James, you go this, John, you, Andrew, come here. Okay. And he uses the disciples, and you know what? His plan is so secure that it use us. That's encouraging. I tell you, you have to forgive me for telling so many Russia stories because I'm just full of Russia right now, but, but, um, when I'm there, there are times when I say, you know, Lord, your, your plan is so great you can even use me. Literally, we, we were, we were, we were all set to distribute Gospels of John and tracts in a town and invitations for the crusade that I, and I mean it was raining, and the sky was as black as midnight, and it was raining hard. And so one of the guys says, you know, he says, we ought to pray, literally as Christ that this didn't happen. And I mean, it was raining so hard that the bus was, was shaking, and, and so this guy began to pray, and he said, Lord, if it would bring glory to your name, and he says, and only if it bring glory to your name, he says, stop the rain so we can get these tracks out. I mean, by the time he said amen, this black sky was still black, but the rain was starting to slack, and in a few minutes we left the bus. Didn't rain again until we had every track distributed, got back on, then the rain continued, and I thought, wow. You know what? The Lord wanted those tracks out so bad he could even use us. Uh, we do everything wrong you can do wrong, and and still you want this plan secure. And the plan that he had was this: make disciples. The- it wasn't just to win the lost, it's to make disciples. Go ye into all the world and make disciples, teaching them all things that I've commanded you. Boy, that's, that's a large order, isn't it? I wonder, are we doing that? And so what's missing today, I think it's discipleship. It's the idea that they were going to be learners and followers, and it's a process where we never arrive. So let me ask you today, what are you learning? You know, what what did you learn this this last month? If you say, well, you know, really, nothing. Then you know what I would say? Oh yeah, you might be a believer, but you're not a disciple. And God was in the business of calling out disciples. The mention of discipleship and then the process of, of making disciples. I want to comment just a little bit more on that idea of, of, of making disciples. You see, the idea of making disciples and, and the process of discipling is the critical one, because it, it involves this, that on a daily basis, we're, we're seeking to have God instruct us. And it's the idea that, that we're being shaped and, and we're being molded. And too often what we do is we say, well, you know, I, I learned that. Let's see, I, now I know that, um, and so, and so we pull something out of our memory. You know, it's not bad to have that memory, and it's not bad to be able to, to say, well, here's, here's what I've learned in the past, but the question is still this, what am I learning right now? And I believe, as we really follow the Lord, and as we're really Christ-like, and as we're learners, you know what? I think that's when God will, will begin to say, all right, I'll bless you. I'll bless you because he was happy with disciples and never sought for a crowd. You know, it's interesting, and in terms of the process, he, the, the Lord never said for us to start television ministries, did he? The Lord never said to begin radio programs, did he? The Lord never said print books. Now we're doing all of those things, and and I'm not saying all those things are wrong, but what he did tell us to do is to make disciples. And you see what we've done, for we substitute instead of making disciples, well, we put the emphasis on let's have a television, let's have a radio program, let's let's print books. And what the Lord says is, no, I want disciples. And in the process of making disciples, it's not wrong to use television or radio or books, but we, we can't lose sight of the fact he wanted disciples. And I think what we've done today is I think we've built so big the printing press and the television station and the ra- that we, we, we've created these organizations instead of saying, no, he wants disciples, and he wants me to be a disciple first, and then when I'm a disciple, I can disciple others. When I was in Russia, there's a little boy that we met a, a year ago. I'll, I'll tell you about him several times. His name is Zhenya, and I don't know why I like him. He's an aggravating little guy. He's fourteen years old. He just, just aggravates me to death. I mean, you know, he's a typical fourteen-year-old boy, and, but he can mock people so clever. Ask Chris. You know, you know how Chris laughs. Well, this kid learned his laugh in about a day or so, and every time he'd laugh, this guy would mock him. Well, when I met Zhenya for the first time, it was one year ago in the summer. We were in the city of Tataif, and and we were getting ready to to do a crusade, and we didn't have any way to get into the cultural center, and he could speak five words of English, that's it. And so he got us in with his five words of English and a lot of hand motions. And so we kind of adopted this little kid, and uh, and Pam talks to him every week on the phone. And so in this year, he's gotten so good at English, it's it's just unbelievable. Well, when he, when we were there last year, it was interesting because he began to wear a tie, a suit and a tie. We gave him a, a s- a little coat, you know, and, and uh, I gave him one of my ties, and, and Pam brought him a shirt. And every Sunday, as he says, I stand at four thirty. That means he gets up, you know, he just, he says, I stand at four thirty. He catches a bus, he goes from his city into Yaroslav, and in one year he's missed one meeting on Sunday, taking a bus at four thirty in the morning. And he's so excited about being a Christian, some Sundays he gives out five songs in worship meeting, and they finally told him, no, you know, just let someone else choose a song, and and uh, and he he wants to be my interpreter, and and and and uh, but so he wears a tie because Rob Lindstedt wears a tie. Oh, that's convicting. And, and whatever I do when I was there in January, he would do. And so he told me this last time, he says, he says, I don't want to be Rob Lindstedt anymore. I said, oh. I said, well, what's wrong? He says, no, he says, I want to be, he says, I used to want to be like you. But he said, I don't want to be like you. He says, I want to be like Valeri. I said, oh, why is that? He says, because he says when Valeri preaches, he says he tells him about sin harder than you do. And so I watch him begin to follow. Isn't it, isn't it fun to see someone say, I'm going to follow? That's what the Lord wants, isn't it? But he doesn't want us to follow some man. You know what he, he wants us to follow him. And that's the idea of discipleship. But our time is gone, and and we want to look at the qualifications of discipleship on another time. And I think there's another reason why there are so few disciples, and and here's what it is. You know what? The qualification for being a disciple is this, you got to be born again. And I think the reason why there's so few people following the Lord, I think there's a lot of them that they profess to be saved, and they're never really born again. And so they're trying, everything is exterior. You know, oh man, I got to learn a verse this week. Oh boy, where's a short one? Why is it? Why is it such a story? I'll tell you why. They've never been born again. Because when a person's born again and when a person's a disciple, they'll say, okay, I'll learn, I'll learn the verse. You know, a little guy with their name Vulva, another fourteen-year-old boy, the one keeping this notebook. Yeah, you don't say, now, Vulva, you better write that down. I mean, we're in there, we're discussing the judgment seat of Christ, and he understands some English, and and so, I mean, as we're talking about that, I mean, he he's looking at you just like this. He looks at the interpreter and looks back, and and you can see him just going like that, and and then he starts taking notes. I mean, he's he's like that, and, and when we end the discussion two hours later, he's not ready to end. You don't say, Volva, take notes about this. But instead, he's doing it, and he had an English Bible, and he couldn't understand clearly the words, so he ran, and he says, wait, wait, he says, wait. He runs in his room, he gets his Russian Bible. By the time we're am- done with a two-hour discussion, he had Bill McDonald's English commentary out, an English Bible out, and a Russian Bible out, and his notebook out. And he didn't want us to end the discussion two thirty in the morning. He's begging us to go on. We didn't say, Vova, take notes. Why? You know why? He's a learner. And if we would have talked till four a.m., he would have been there taking notes. And I look at that and say, Lord, is that me? Am I a disciple, or, or have I retired? Have I quit? I say, well, I, I, I know as much as I need to know. Ah, what's missing today? Disciples. Could we be disciples? Wouldn't it be refreshing if, if we launched out and said, Lord, make me a disciple. Refresh my desire to learn something from your word, that I might be used, because God will use disciples. I don't know if he'll use the crowd, but I know he'll use the disciples. And so maybe he could use us if we say, I'll be a disciple as well. Father, we thank you for the word of God. We thank you, Father, for the simple things in the word of God that are so profound. And what a charge. Go ye into all the world and make disciples. And Father, we pray that we might be among those that are learners, that are followers of Christ. Father, help us to be disciples today. We thank you for your word, and we pray, Lord, that, that as we would seek to please you, that we might be a light to others around us. We pray and ask this in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen.