Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Name

Honored that you’re here

Vision

Grace Empire exists to restore, revitalize, and refresh the Tampa Bay Area through an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.

Special thank you to all the people that helped this week.

Special thanks to Church on Wheels

Vision for the future - we dont want a bunch of leaves, we want fruit.

We want growth, but the right kind.

So we are going to be talking about multiplication, specifically how we can multiply as a church.

The kind of multiplcation we are looking for will require us to look into our own hearts and into our own lives and begin asking some hard questions that will require some honest answers.

So we are going to be doing some introspection as a church and I’m urging you to think deeply, be honest with yourself, and see where this goes.

You guys ready for this?

God is going to do something unique in your lives for the next five weeks IF you allow him too.

We are called to multiply and make disciples of all nations.

Its time to take up our place within the body of Christ.

Its time to Go Fish.

What is a Disciple

Can you image being one of the few people Jesus called to “Follow Me.”

Those two words changed the trajectory of 12 peoples lives.

So I have wondered, do you think you would have followed?

Would you have left your jobs, your families, your hobbies, your social lives if Jesus came calling?

Thats what happened to the men and women who began to follow Jesus.

I don’t think any of them could have known what they were getting into when they began following Jesus.

But I wonder…does any of us?

Peter and Paul

Both martyred in Rome about 66 AD, during the persecution under Emperor Nero.

Paul was beheaded.

Peter was crucified, upside down at his request, since he did not feel he was worthy to die in the same manner as his Lord.

Andrew

went to the "land of the man-eaters," in what is now the Soviet Union.

Christians there claim him as the first to bring the gospel to their land.

He also preached in Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey, and in Greece, where he is said to have been crucified.

Thomas

was probably most active in the area east of Syria.

Tradition has him preaching as far east as India, where the ancient Marthoma Christians revere him as their founder.

They claim that he died there when pierced through with the spears of four soldiers.

Philip

possibly had a powerful ministry in Carthage in North Africa and then in Asia Minor, where he converted the wife of a Roman proconsul.

In retaliation the proconsul had Philip arrested and cruelly put to death.

Matthew

the tax collector and writer of a Gospel, ministered in Persia and Ethiopia.

Some of the oldest reports say he was not martyred, while others say he was stabbed to death in Ethiopia.

Bartholomew

had widespread missionary travels attributed to him by tradition: to India with Thomas, back to Armenia, and also to Ethiopia and Southern Arabia.

There are various accounts of how he met his death as a martyr for the gospel.

James

the son of Alpheus, is one of at least three James referred to in the New Testament.

There is some confusion as to which is which, but this James is reckoned to have ministered in Syria.

The Jewish historian Josephus reported that he was stoned and then clubbed to death.

Simon the Zealot

so the story goes, ministered in Persia and was killed after refusing to sacrifice to the sun god.

Matthais

was the apostle chosen to replace Judas.

Tradition sends him to Syria with Andrew and to death by burning.

John

is the only one of the company generally thought to have died a natural death from old age.

He was the leader of the church in the Ephesus area and is said to have taken care of Mary the mother of Jesus in his home.

During Domitian's persecution in the middle 90's, he was exiled to the island of Patmos.

There he is credited with writing the last book of the New Testament--the Revelation.

An early Latin tradition has him escaping unhurt after being cast into boiling oil at Rome.

When I decided to follow Jesus, how could I have known it would lead me to Florida planting a church?

How could Pastor Ryan could have known that following Jesus would lead him down here as well?

For those that have come to know Jesus and decided to call him Lord, many cannot have anticipated where following him would lead them.

It is truly an adventure.

So what does it mean to be a disciple?

The answer is fairly simple, but it is going to challenge you and for some will change your life completely.

“The word disciple refers to a student or apprentice.

Disciples in Jesus’s day would follow their rabbi (which means teacher) wherever he went, learning from the rabbi’s teaching and being trained to do as the rabbi did.

Basically, a disciple is a follower, but only if we take the term follower literally.

Becoming a disciple of Jesus is as simple as obeying His call to follow.”

To become a disciple is to be a follower…and as you walk as they walk, talk as they talk, do as they do, it becomes clear that you begin to become like them.

To become follow Jesus is to become like him.

He begins to rub off on you.

You ever spend so much time with someone that you begin to act like them?

Matter of fact, there is a scientific study by University of Michigan psychologist Robert Zajonc conducted an experiment to test the phenomenon that couples that stayed together begin to look like each other as time goes on.

He analyzed photographs of couples taken when they were newlyweds and photographs of the same couples taken 25 years later.

The results showed that the couples had grown to look more like each other over time.

And, the happier that the couple said they were, the more likely they were to have increased in their physical similarity.

https://www.livescience.com/8384-couples-start.html

I believe the more time you spend following Jesus the more you will become like him.

https://www.livescience.com/8384-couples-start.htmltn the qualities…now following Jesus may not have you wearing open toed sandles, sporting a beard, and wearing a tunic, but I do believe, as you spend time following him you will be come ti become more like him.

Now following Jesus may not have you wearing open toed sandals, sporting a beard, and wearing a tunic, but I do believe, as you spend time following him you will be come ti become more like him.

Heres a hard truth: even though this definition is simple, there are many Christians that believe in action that they can take on the name of Christ and not actually live their lives following him.

No one really believes this is how to live as a Christian, but many of us can’t help but live this way.

So heres something to consider: up to this point in your life, would you consider yourself as a follower of Jesus?

What evidence is there of it as described in :40?

Whats the first step to becoming a disciple?

It’s true that Jesus first called his disciples by saying “follow me,” but I think the start of discipleship comes from something he said even before that.

I want you to think about this statement practically?

What would someone do if there were told that a king and his army were approaching…if they were smart they would prepare to fight this army, or you would do whatever you could do to make peace with him.

The bible tells us to repent.

To repent literally means to turn yourself around and go in the opposite direction.

“In this context, Jesus was telling people to prepare themselves—to change whatever needed to be changed—because God’s kingdom (the kingdom of heaven) was approaching.”

Excerpt From: Francis Chan & Mark Beuving.

“Multiply.”

iBooks.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/multiply/id567310376?mt=11

Why do we need to change direction?

Cause we all have sinned.