Well, good morning.
That speech Ward gave to the sisters about packing too much is a familiar one. That’s the one Linda usually gives to me when we travel, but nevertheless.
What is on my heart today, and in the times that follow as the Lord leads, is this matter of making disciples. I think it is a very important issue in the Word of God.
Now, let’s turn and read some verses, most of them, I think, you are familiar with. Matthew 28:16-20, we refer to as the Great Commission.
Now, I’ll make another disclaimer. I’ll try not to slur too much. I had oral surgery Thursday, so I have a little bit going on up here—up top—more than usual, as a matter of fact. With all the stitches in the roof and the side, and the packing that is still there, if I slur, you will forgive me more than usual, I say.
We will trust the Lord that what He has will come through. Turn to Matthew 28:16-20.
But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, unto the mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
And when they saw Him, they worshipped Him; but some doubted.
And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth.
Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit:
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.
Particularly verse 19: “Go.” “Go therefore,” it says—but “therefore” is doubtful. “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have enjoined you; and, behold, I am with you all the days until the completion of the age.”
Then Matthew 13, another verse you may not be so familiar with. This is when the Lord concluded speaking the parables and ended with the parables of the kingdom. I will read from the American Standard Version, 1901—Matthew 13:51-53.
Have ye understood all these things? They say unto Him, Yea.
And He said unto them, Therefore every scribe who hath been made a disciple to the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, who bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.
And it came to pass that when Jesus had finished these parables, He departed thence.
Then John 4:1-2, John’s Gospel. Just a few verses.
When therefore the Lord knew how that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John
(although Jesus Himself baptized not, but His disciples).
And then, finally, the call to Peter in Matthew 4:18-19. I believe we are all familiar with this.
And walking by the sea of Galilee, He saw two brethren, Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishers.
And He saith unto them, Come ye after Me, and I will make you fishers of men.
Let’s have a word of prayer.
Lord, we thank You for Your Word. Once again, we know that Your words are spirit and life. And we come to the One—the only One—who can make those words living and real.
We say to You again, like Peter said:
Thou hast the words of eternal life.
To whom shall we go?
Unless You speak, Lord, it is nothing of value, nothing that will last, nothing that will change us, nothing that will ultimately make us in Your image.
So, Lord, we ask You to speak to our hearts. Speak to us by the Holy Spirit. Make Your Word clear to us, and cause us to hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Amen.
Now, it has been on my heart, particularly since the family conference, this phrase: making disciples. As a matter of fact, it has been on my heart longer than that. When I was concluding and going through the series on being conformed to His image, this phrase, “making disciples,” came to me again and again.
I believe that is the business the Lord has us in, and I hope today we will have a clearer picture of that.
A couple of initial impressions seem to hit me. First of all, the call to discipleship is a call beyond the call to initially believe. We heard that last week as our brother Jim spoke. It is a call beyond conversion.
Now, they may happen at the same time. God willing, they happen at the same time. But nevertheless, believing, being converted, and being called to Him to be born again is different from being a disciple. That is the initial impression I had.
The second impression is that being a disciple is an option. You do not have to be a disciple. Remember well the Lord’s words: “If you will be My disciple.” Remember those words.
Not everyone responds to the call to be a disciple. He wants everyone to, but not everyone does.
First of all, there is a call to believe in the Lord Jesus. In the life of Peter, which we will consider, you see that in John’s Gospel in his first call, when his brother brought him and said, “I have found the Messiah.” He was so excited to find the Messiah. There, for the first time, he believed, he met the Messiah, and he was converted. That was his first call.
But the second call, which we read in Matthew 4, was further. He was called to be a disciple.
Now, he did not have to answer that call. None of us do. Eternal life does not depend on that. You can believe in the Lord Jesus, and it is the free gift of God and grace that you have eternal life. You have the life of the Lord Jesus. It will never be taken away. You cannot lose that. It is the free gift of God.
But this call of discipleship is a further call: “If you will be My disciple.” Remember those words.
Oswald Chambers said, “The Lord never said, ‘You must be a disciple.’ He never said that.” He said, “Pay attention to the ifs of God.”
No one is commanded to be a disciple. Not all respond to the call. I believe it is for those who somehow are constrained by the love of God, as we read in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15. Maybe we ought to read that.
For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that One died for all, therefore all died;
and He died for all, that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him Who for their sakes died and rose again.
Somehow, the love of God goes out to people, and they are constrained by the love of God. They answer this impossible call, and they give themselves to the Lord. In that way, they respond to the call to be a disciple.
This call is beyond conversion. This call is even beyond consecration.
We are so thankful lately for what we have heard from the young people, and we just heard the announcement about the young people going to Willow Run. So many of the young people recently, in a fresh and living way, have heard this call to consecration.
They have on their heart an honest and heartfelt question. I think the question is simply, “Now what?” Now that I have given myself to the Lord, now what?
In this coming weekend, as we heard in the announcement, they will go and consider that singular question. I believe at least part of the answer to that question is in this call to be a disciple.
The Lord is looking for those who can be constrained by the love of God and are willing to do the impossible.
You know, the call to discipleship is impossible. Read the words: “Unless you hate father and mother, sister and brother, and even your own life, you cannot be My disciple.” Impossible.
It does not mean you are literally to hate. So many people have taken those hard sayings of Jesus and stumbled and been offended by them, and never answered the call. They misunderstood.
“Unless you are willing to sell all”—isn’t that impossible? That was the impression I had: “Lord, this call to be a disciple—it is impossible. Who of us would sell all?”
But the Lord is able to constrain the heart of man to such a degree that they would answer that call.
Let me tell you this: I believe, in just the little bit of understanding I have, that anyone who answers that call will find the cost to be as nothing.
Before the call, the cost seems too great. The call seems impossible. But on the opposite side of the call, when we respond to the grace of God and the love of God constrains us, we see there was no cost. We will say, “What cost?” It is enough.
The third impression I had on my heart was that disciples are made. You notice that word in all the texts. You are not suddenly born a disciple. You are born again as a believer, but a disciple, the Word makes very clear, is a process. A disciple is made; they are not born.
Some of you know, and regret, the fact that I am a football fan. The famous coach Vince Lombardi, the Hall of Fame coach of the Green Bay Packers—and lastly, the Washington Redskins; you knew I would work it in—said this striking thing in one of his most famous quotes:
Leaders are not born. They are made.
Leaders are not born; they are made. It was the history of all his success. He took men and made them into this awesome team—not the Washington Redskins, by the way.
I was reading a quote the other day about Marines. They said, “Marines are made; they are not born.” They go through twelve weeks of the toughest training known to man, and at the end of that training, those who are made become the United States’ greatest brotherhood.
Now, I take some contention with that. I believe those who are made disciples are heaven’s greatest brotherhood.
This is the initial impression: this call goes beyond initial salvation and conversion; it is an option—no one will ever hold a gun to your head and say, “Be a disciple”—and, in the end, disciples are made.
Our brother Stephen shared in his little book, Disciple to Christ, “The call of discipleship comes to all believers in Christ. The Word of the Lord to His own is, ‘Come ye after Me.’”
Then he said this: “He intends to remake us according to His image, and to use us according to His purpose. Only in response to this call can we fulfill the destiny foreordained for us by God.”
So this is the burden on my heart: making disciples. In one way, it is very simple. In another way, it is a whole-life journey. It gives explanation to why we are here. It gives meaning to all of the Lord’s dealings.
All that He does with us begins to take shape in our understanding through this process: what He is doing is molding us and making us, those who respond to the call, into His very image. He is transforming us, and in the end we shall be like Him.
I do not think there is a better example in the Word of God than Peter the apostle. I do not know what you think about Peter the— I almost said, “Peter the Impossible.” It is true in many ways. That is the slur, by the way. Peter the Impossible. I will use that from now on.
Peter is the living illustration in the Word of God of the making of a disciple. I cannot understand his life in any other way.
Peter is first in every list of the apostles. In addition to that, Peter is often the first one to speak. Besides that, Peter is the most impetuous, the most self-willed, and the most outspoken. He seems to put his foot in his mouth at every turn. He seems to say things that he should not say, and he seems to do things that he should not do.
When you think about it, it is remarkable: he is the only one of the apostles—or disciples, for that matter—who is called Satan. Can you imagine? “Get thee behind Me, Satan.”
I believe it is all for a purpose. The Lord takes that life, and through that life, in every circumstance, He shows how He can take this man, the apostle Peter, mold him, and make him. In the end, he becomes a useful vessel to the Master.
That is the story of the apostle Peter’s life.
When we read that call to discipleship in Matthew 4:19, the call comes with a promise. He says to Peter and Andrew, “Come after Me, and I will make you.”
Now, so often in our mentality, we have always thought about the last part—“fishers of men.” We immediately turn, when we think of being a Christian, to works.
But the Lord Jesus is much more interested in the character of a man—in changing a man, getting hold of a man, and doing a work in the man—so that He can make him useful in His work. Work is never to be the first thing.
That phrase comes first: “I will make you.” This promise comes along with the call.
Now, brothers and sisters, this to me is a great encouragement. Praise the Lord that He said to Peter the Impossible, “I will make you.” This gives me great encouragement.
There are three things we will look at today in an introductory way:
First of all, back to Matthew 28 and what we refer to as the Great Commission.
There are some important points about this Great Commission that we need to take into account as we consider what the mission is and what we are really called to.
First of all, it is the final command of the Lord Jesus in His earthly ministry. Think of that. It is the last command of the Lord Jesus in His earthly ministry. Therefore, I do not know about you, but I think we ought to pay attention to it.
This final command that He gave His own before He was raised up that day to the throne is a single mission. Sometimes we say, “Well, there are at least three missions in this word.” I do not think so. You can call it speaker’s privilege if you want, but I do not think it is.
He says emphatically, “Go, make disciples.”
I believe He is saying: As you make disciples, baptize them. As you make disciples, teach them. As you make disciples, remind them of what I have said. And in the end, there is this great comfort: “I am with you always, even to the completion of the age.”
All these things are part of it, but the single mission that the Lord Jesus left with His church was to go and make disciples.
I think that is very important for us to see. I think we have perhaps dumbed it down—please forgive me for using that word concerning the things of the Lord—but we have sort of dumbed it down to just evangelism.
How many times have you heard that the Great Commission has altogether to do with evangelizing the world? Brothers and sisters, at the heart of it, it includes evangelism, but it is not about evangelism.
At the heart of it, there is a single mission: that we would go and make disciples. What the Lord is looking for are those who will respond to that call, those to whom He can join Himself—Head and Body joined with those who fully respond to Him.
In the joining together of those in His eternal purpose, He can do His work.
He does not just want us to believe and then wait here, living our lives as best we see, ultimately to go to heaven one day and enjoy all the privileges of a believer. Somehow, that is the gospel we have preached in evangelical Christianity.
It is not that at all. What He is saying to the church is, “Go. Find those. Make those. Enjoin those that will be My disciples. This is what I am after: some that will respond in a full way, some that will give themselves to Me and say, ‘Lord, You are the Potter; I am the clay. You make me into what You want. You do the work in me.’”
All we can do is respond, but these are the ones He is looking for. This seems to be the mission we are called to. It is not just evangelism.
This command is given only once. Is that not remarkable? But I believe in that we see the seriousness of it. The Lord Jesus saved it to the end, just before He went to be with the Father. He said, “Go, make disciples. This is our mission.”
What does it mean to be a disciple? The Greek word is learner. You may think that is a little vanilla. It simply means learner.
But we do not have merely a subject or a doctrine that we learn. When Peter was called, the Lord Jesus used this simple call: “Come, follow Me.”
Brothers and sisters, as disciples, we have but one subject we learn. We have but One we follow: the Lord Jesus Himself. There is no one else. There is nothing else.
We do not follow a teaching. We do not follow a man. We do not follow an organization. We do not follow a group. We follow simply the Lord Jesus. That is all.
Turn to Matthew 11. As a matter of fact, I think in Matthew 11 we get an idea of the two calls. Matthew 11:28-30:
Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.
“Come to Me.” Everybody knows this. I believe that is the call to conversion. We are under such a load of sin, such a labor of sin, such a burden of sin, that if we simply come to the Lord Jesus and receive Him as Savior, He will give us rest. That load of sin will be lifted.
I remember when I was in college, at the end of my last semester, and the Lord saved me wonderfully. That lightening of the load was so tremendous. I remember going home from that gospel revival meeting, being saved and singing songs I had just heard for the first time.
I remember singing “Amazing Grace” in the car, going down the road, and that burden of sin was lifted.
“Come unto Me, and I will give you rest.”
But listen to verse 29: “Take My yoke upon you.” That is a different call. “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me.” This is a disciple. He is a learner; she is a learner.
“Learn of Me,” and notice what it says: “For I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”
That is the second call of discipleship. “Come to Me. You will find rest to your souls. Come to Me. Learn of Me.” Brothers and sisters, I wonder if we have answered those calls.
I think we have perhaps lost the sense of what it means to be a disciple because we no longer have apprenticeships. Our brother Stephen shared this illustration in a living way in his little book.
We crank out professionals. We send people away to school and to training programs. They are their own person, taught a trade, a skill, or a profession, and then turned loose on the world. That is what college does.
But in the old days, there was an apprenticeship. You actually went and lived with that one. You learned from him. You might want to say, as most guys are, “Turn me loose. Give me the tools.” But he would not do that.
You would eat with the family, sit with the family, and watch the master. You might sweep the floor. You might clean up. You never got to do what you thought you were called to do, but all the time that one was making you into something special for himself.
In the end, when that apprentice program was completed, you did not just have a skill; you were like your master. Do you see the difference?
Whenever your work went on display, people said, “That is the master’s work. Look at the work—it looks just like the master. Look at this guy: he talks like the master; he walks like the master. He is a little imitation of the master.”
That is what it means to be made a disciple. It is more than just learning.
There is a beautiful verse about discipleship, Matthew 10:24-25. I will read this from the Authorized Version:
The disciple is not above his teacher, nor the servant above his lord.
It is enough for the disciple that he be as his teacher, and the servant as his lord.
Notice that phrase: “It is enough.” That is what a disciple is, brothers and sisters. It is enough that we become as our Teacher, become as our Master, and become as our Lord.
The word become has the thought of being made. The end of discipleship is not that somehow we would be our own little thing with spiritual experience and spiritual knowledge. The end of discipleship is that we would be like the Master.
In this wonderful phrase, “It is enough,” is it enough for you?
John the apostle had his own title for himself. He never calls himself by name. For a while, he simply says, “that other disciple.” It was enough. It was enough to be like his Lord.
Then he says, “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” That is what he was known as. It is enough.
We are called, as we read in Romans 8, to this great calling and eternal purpose: that we would be conformed to the image of God’s Son. In the end, all things are working for that single purpose.
Luke 6:40 says:
A disciple is not above his teacher: but every one when he is perfected shall be as his teacher.
Everyone who is perfected—that is what it means to be made. He is doing a perfecting work, a transforming work, and a refining work. That explains everything we go through in life.
That is the reason the apostle Paul could say in Romans 8 that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.
Think of the disciples in Antioch. We sometimes refer to them as the believers in Antioch, but the Word does not say that. It says the disciples in Antioch were first called Christians.
The Lord was able to do something in that little group in Antioch. He found some who would respond to the call to discipleship and whom He could make into His image. The end result was that people looked at them and said, “They are Christians. They are like Christ.”
The second thing is the Maker. I am so comforted that the Lord Jesus did not merely say to Peter and Andrew, “Come after Me.” If the sentence had ended there, how bleak it would be.
We know ourselves, after we have been with the Lord a little while, too well to realize that we have no capacity to make ourselves into what He wants us to be.
So the Lord Jesus, in His mercy, said, “Come after Me. Come, follow Me, and I will make you.”
To me, this explains the whole of Peter’s life. At the beginning, when he responds to the call of discipleship, it is, “Come after Me. Follow Me.” In the end, when we read John 21, it is the same call: “Follow Me.”
But notice that “I will make you” is no longer there. I believe the story was evident. Peter, the broken man, realized that day along the shore, at the fire, that the Lord had been doing the work all along.
That broken man, who had failed so much, realized the Lord had never let him go. All those dealings had one purpose in mind: to fashion him, conform him, and mold him into what he would be.
The Lord Jesus said to him, “Come. Follow Me.” Peter, now you understand. It is impossible. But do you understand that I will make you? Do you know it?
This is his story.
When we deal with this matter of the Maker, we need to be absolutely clear. When I was saved, I was saved in the charismatic movement—the Jesus movement.
It was a movement that probably started on the West Coast, in California, and worked its way throughout the country. Many came into a living relationship with the Lord Jesus. I do not regret for a moment being saved in that move of God.
It seems to me that many denominational barriers were broken down. There was a clear and honest response to the Lord’s call in lives that came out of that movement.
But that movement, like any other movement, had its excesses and faults. One of the things that came out of the early charismatic movement was what we called the discipleship movement.
This was the extreme of human accountability. They said everyone would have someone over them to whom they had to answer. Well, accountability does not sound too bad. We are accountable to one another in the Body of Christ. We depend on one another. You can see how this could creep in.
But then it went to the extreme that everything in your life had to be answered to this one who was over you.
Young men and young women went to the one discipling them and asked, “Who should I marry? Where should I work? Where should I move?”
People were listening to that and saying, “The Lord put this one over me, and he is the maker. He is the one discipling me. I need to listen to him and do what he says.”
Brothers and sisters, that is putting man in the place of God. That is elevating man to a place he was never meant to be. That was taking man and literally making him the head—not the Lord Jesus.
That is a huge mistake. It may seem spiritual. It may seem right. It may seem consistent with body life and accountability. But it was an error of enormous proportions.
Do not ever forget that the Maker is the Lord Jesus Christ. Unto Him alone you answer. I will not always give you the right counsel. You will not always tell me the right thing. But the Lord Jesus never fails. He is the Maker.
Brother Stephen gave a word that helped us understand the limits and bounds. He said, “We can confirm, and we can correct, but we are never to direct.”
Do you understand the difference? Only the Maker can direct you.
I often have people come to me and say, “The Lord has told me to do this.” A little bit, as I grin when they do that, I think, “Well, why are they coming to me? If the Lord has told them to do it, then do it.”
That does not mean you can be independent and do what you want. You had better be sure it was the Lord.
We can confirm, and we can correct. Some people do not like correction. “Do not correct me, brother. Who do you think you are, the Lord Jesus? Only He can correct me.”
That is not true. You read the Word of God: rebuke, correct. The Word of God makes it very plain that we can do that. You may not like it. Many times I have been rebuked and corrected, and I did not like it. But in the long run, I saw it was the Lord’s making process.
He alone is the Maker.
That thought runs throughout the Word of God. In the very beginning, we see the Maker of the universe. The whole first chapter of Genesis concludes with Him seeing all things that He had made, and it was very good. Everything He makes is good.
The psalmist said:
Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
We read in Isaiah 45:9, “Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker.” And Isaiah 54:5 says:
For thy Maker is thy husband; the Lord of hosts is His name:
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel;
the God of the whole earth shall He be called.
“For thy Maker is thy husband.” Brothers and sisters, we need to see who the Maker is.
I have often been encouraged by the story in Jeremiah 18:1-4, the potter’s house and the potter’s wheel. It is a picture of what God was doing in Israel.
It says that he wrought a work upon the wheel. That is the potter. He wrought a work upon the wheel. That is the making process. He is doing a work upon the wheel.
He is applying the outward pressure of circumstances and the inward pressure of love, and He is forming us into that vessel that can be meet for the Master’s use.
We read on in that story that the clay marred in his hand. If you think like me—and some of you may be potters or artists—you might think you would throw that clay away, that unyielding clay.
But in that most beautiful story, it says, “He made it again.” He does not throw it away.
We may be stubborn. We may be willful. We may be outspoken. We may do the wrong things. We may say the wrong things. But He does not take that clay and toss it away and start again with someone else.
He even said to Peter, “I have prayed for thee. Satan hath desired to have thee, that he may sift thee as wheat: but I have prayed for thee; and when once thou hast turned again, establish thy brethren.”
We will all mar in His hands. He never gives up.
I may give up on you. You may not think that is a big loss, but it may be true. More importantly, I have seen some of you who gave up on me.
I gave up on Jerry years ago. I told that story. I will not tell it again. He shook the dust off his shoes, walked away from me, and called me impossible. “Who could save one like that guy?”
It was his shock and surprise six months later when he came into our office at City Hall, and I was preaching the gospel on the phone at lunch.
He never gives up. Do you understand? This Maker never gives up. This Maker never casts us aside. As long as we are willing to respond, He will continue to work and continue to mold us into that vessel He wants us to be.
This is the Maker. How we need to see Him.
Finally, let us say some things about the man. Peter specifically illustrates this principle of being made a disciple.
I do not know of one thing that stands out more about Peter than the fact that Peter is not perfect. Aren’t you glad the Lord chose Peter? I am so glad.
I am so glad He did not choose Nicodemus, the best of Israel’s sons—the one who was righteous and seeking, and who came to Him with a sincere heart—to make him the illustration of what discipleship is.
I am so thankful He chose Peter. It gives me hope, and it should give you hope as well.
Often we say, “Boy, we do not have the right stuff.” It is true. The Lord would agree with you: you do not have the right stuff.
Tom Wolfe wrote a book in 1979, The Right Stuff, about the early American space program and the seven Mercury astronauts. They did not choose the best one of the group.
Chuck Yeager, the great test pilot who broke the sound barrier, was said to be the best, and he was not selected. Seven others were selected.
Praise the Lord for that. You are not the best. You agree, I am certainly not the best. But the Lord has called you and called me to be a disciple.
The Lord never looks at us and says, “Boy, this one has the right stuff.” No. We need 1 Corinthians 1. He chose the weak things of the world, the base things of the world, and the things that are not, that He might bring to nought the things that are.
He did not choose the wise of the world. He chose you and me to be His disciples.
To me, that is the greatest encouragement. May the Lord help us to see the man. He does not choose the best. In many ways, He may choose the worst. But He always has in mind to make them into the image of the Lord Jesus.
The simple lesson is this: If I can make Peter, I can make anyone.
The Lord specializes in changing the ordinary into the extraordinary. You remember His first sign at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. He took ordinary water and transformed it into extraordinary wine.
That is what He is about.
People make such a big deal about the miracle as a sign. I do not think it is such a big deal. I think what is extraordinary is that He takes ordinary water—plain, everyday, common stuff—and transforms it into the very best wine.
That is the making process.
I hope this gives you the burden. The Lord is making us. All who are willing to answer the call to discipleship, He will make. That is the promise that goes along with the call.
There will need to be many dealings, as we see in Peter’s life—many dealings. All of them are with one mission in mind.
Do not ever forget: there is but one Maker. He is the One who makes us.
And do not ever forget that He has not chosen you because you are special. The children of Israel were told, “You have not chosen us because we are better than all the peoples of the world. You have not chosen us because of ourselves.” It cannot be explained except by the love of God.
If that call has gone out to you to be a disciple, it is only because He loves you so. If you are willing to answer that call—the impossible call, the thing you cannot do in yourself—you will never regret it.
May the Lord help us as we consider this in days ahead. May the Lord lead us to Himself, that He could find in us disciples who, in the end, will say, “It is enough to be like their Master.”
Lord, we just come to You. We bow the knee before You.
We thank You that You so love us. We can hardly imagine the depths to which You love us. It is beyond comprehension.
But we want to commit ourselves to You, Lord. We want to answer that call. Lord, we know there is no hope in us carrying it through unless You make us.
But we offer ourselves to the Maker of the universe. We offer ourselves to the One who promised to make us.
We read in John that You made more disciples than John. Make us some of those disciples.
We want to be people like the Christians in Antioch, that when people look upon us, this gathering of saints here, they would say, “They are Christians indeed. Look at them. It is Christ.”
Lord, we know and are humbled that You choose us. We acknowledge that we are not the best material. We know You looked at man; You knew what was in his heart. We know You know us, but nevertheless, You have called us.
Into that, we offer ourselves. We want to say, “Yes, Lord.”
Take us. Mold us. Make us. Shape us into the image of our beloved Lord Jesus.
For we ask this in Your precious name. Amen.