I’m the Problem, It’s Me
Jeremy MacDonald · Tidal Church Moncton · September 14, 2025 · The Way of Jesus series
Jeremy MacDonald launches the series from Matthew 28:16-20, explaining that Jesus calls us to be apprentices who make disciples, not just believers. He introduces the Four Chair Model and invites skeptics to "come and see" Jesus.
More from Jeremy MacDonald · The The Way of Jesus series
Topics: Faith, Mission & Outreach, Discipleship
Transcript
[0:04] I remember hearing that song for the first time, and I said to my wife, Chantel, I'm like, oh, that song introduces the need for our response, the need for the gospel in such the most powerful and profound kind of ways. The song, although not obviously speaking to a Christian audience, but it reveals so much about your life and my life. I'm Jeremy, I'm our teaching pastor here, and I want to kind of get us into the start of this new series by reminding you what you just heard. So these lyrics, I mean, I find them so fascinating. I should not be left to my own devices. How many times would you be able to acknowledge that? Oh yeah. The things that have been going wrong in my life, so much of my great regrets, so much of the difficulties in my journey, so much of the mistakes that I've made, I mean, the common denominator is usually me, you know?
[0:57] And if you're nervous about that being your own journey, all you have to do is think about the people around you that you struggle with that have so many issues, and you would say to them, why don't you, instead of, you know, ending up in crisis, instead of staring directly at the sun, you, why don't you just look in the mirror? You know what I mean? Like, you think about your boss that you struggle with. You're like, why doesn't he just understand? If he could just realize what he looks like and what he sounds like to the people around him, if you just look in the mirror, it would change everything. You know? Or the relationship with the person. You're like, man, they just don't have enough self-awareness that they would just look in the mirror. Things could surely be better. Or this one might be too close to home. But you know how your parents, and then they didn't want to become like their parents, but then they did.
[1:44] And then you're looking at them thinking you're just like grandma was, you know what I mean? And then you realize as you get older, you're becoming just like your parents and all of those things. Now, that might be too close to home, but the point is that self-awareness, when we look in the mirror and we start to realize so often, and maybe, hopefully, for any one of us, that it's me. I'm the problem. In my own journey, in my own story, so often I am the problem. You know, this isn't a new idea. In fact, about a hundred years ago, there was a Catholic theologian writer, GK Chesterton, and he's famously misquoted as saying something much crappier than what he actually said.
[2:32] He's famously misquoted as saying somebody had asked him to respond and say, what's the problem? What's the issue with the world? And he wrote into the newspaper with two words: I am. What he actually said is close. What he actually said is this. He said, one sense, and that the eternal sense, the thing is plain. The answer to the question, what is wrong, is, or it should be, I am wrong. And when things go wrong in the world, when we look around and we get frustrated and we think to point fingers and think it's that person, or it's that side, or it's this issue, and those folks over there, if only they would be different, everything would get better. The truth is, and actually the Christian's story is, that the problem starts here in my heart.
[3:22] The problem starts in your heart. And if we'd be willing and honest to show up and realize, I am the problem, maybe we could discover what the solution is. Maybe we could discover a different way of being. And the reason I say that is that everybody, yourself included, no matter what's your belief structure, no matter how long you've been in church, no matter how much you've done this kind of faith thing, or you've listened online or you've got something here, to be honest, if we all just kind of took a step back, every one of us and everybody in the world follows something. Everyone follows something, and it can change over time. And you can kind of declare one thing to be what you're following, and then actually follow something else if you're honest. But everybody's tracking along and kind of setting the course of their life aligned with something in particular.
[4:13] And this isn't an exhaustive list, but it's to remind you that when you look around the room or when you think about your home or your family or the people that you interact with and yourself, sometimes the thing that we all follow is, that is, your heart. And in some sense, culturally, it's like, isn't that a good thing? Until you spend any time with a middle school student and you realize the worst piece of advice you could give to a middle school student is follow your heart. Like, ain't nobody telling a 12-year-old boy, Yeah, just follow your heart wherever it leads. No. And that's kind of your story, my story too. Like, we think, like, we are so much more mature and, like, our hearts are so much better. No, your heart, man, it can be so deceptive. It can lead you astray. How about this one?
[4:59] So many people follow, and it's all about your happiness, right? How many times, even as a parent, I've got three kids, it's like, what do you want for your kids when they grow up? And for lots of people, the response and kind of the knee-jerk response is, like, I want them to be happy. And, like, happiness is a nice byproduct, but it's a terrible thing to chase after. And in chasing after it, so often we struggle and we miss the mark of that and end up in a place we don't want to be. You know, for some people it's about kind of this four Thomas Aquinas wrote about, money or power, pleasure, honor, these four kind of idols that you would pick one, and one of them ends up being your most often thing that you're drawn to. And Arthur Brooks recently has been kind of using this exercise to help people identify what is your motivating factor? What do you think about at night?
[5:45] What do you get up in the morning for? What's the thing that you wouldn't wanna do without? And for some people, and for maybe you and for your story, you think about what are you following? You might say, nothing. Nobody's in charge of this life. I'm fully autonomous and I run the show around here. And to you, I would probably say, actually, instead of nothing, you're following whatever they decide. And they, as whoever's tracking your algorithm, whichever apps you've got on your phone, they've got a beautiful way of convincing you of all the opinions and thoughts and beliefs that you have based on your search history and your algorithm. And so what happens is, I think for you and for me, and, kind of, as we kick off the, you know, these next few weeks as we talk about, maybe, a different kind of way and articulating hopefully the way that maybe actually gives you a more thoughtful and fulfilled life, the question that I want us to wrestle with is a question that I got posed, and kind of through a connection, I got this chance to be a part of a beautiful group kind of re-imagining how to talk about the spiritual journey and the spiritual faith for the next generation.
[6:51] And this author, John Mark Comer, has written specifically about these kinds of questions and the question he poses. And the question you wrestle with is, is the life I'm living, the life I most deeply desire, is this it? And if you have faith, it's still worth contending and wrestling with that question. And if you're here and you don't have any faith and you're not sure what you believe, we're glad that you're here. In fact, you can always be here. You can bring your questions, your doubts, you can disbelieve everything that we talk about. That's totally fine when we gather. We're gonna open the Scriptures and give instruction based on our basis of authority as Jesus followers. But if you're not a Jesus follower, you gotta know you're always welcome here. And we don't have any claim or expectation that you do these things.
[7:39] And yet we think that you can ask this question and it might actually lead you to the same kind of places that I think for any of us we end up at, which is, even if we've decided to follow Jesus, sometimes we've misconstrued and misaligned where our focus is. And it leaves us wondering, man, is there actually more to what this life is about, my life, like the specifics of what happens tomorrow and this week and next week? And so what happens is that if you put your life and you align it alongside of the mission and the calling of Jesus, then you end up going to the Scriptures and you find the invitation that He has for all of His people.
[8:25] And this is kind of our starting point, our launching pad to this maybe framework or this idea of what Jesus is inviting us into. And so I wanna bring you to Jesus's final words. What happens is that Jesus predicts His death, burial, His resurrection. He actually is crucified. He's buried, He rises again. And then as His resurrection begins to clarify, not clarify, but He begins to give instruction, recognizing that He's not gonna be physically present in the same way with His closest followers. And so one of the most famous or known Scripture passages around the resurrection of Jesus. And what He invites us to is what's commonly called the Great Commission. And in the Great Commission is this, I think interesting word or this interesting invitation that Jesus gives that might reshape our understanding of what we're meant to do and to be as Jesus followers.
[9:20] So the verse goes like this in Matthew 28:16-20. Then, and this is of course after the resurrection, the 11 disciples, there's 11. They started with 12. Judas didn't make it, if you remember that. If not, you can do a little bit of pre-homework. The 11 disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. And when they saw Him, Jesus, they worshiped Him. This is so fascinating. Some of them doubted, and even popular, like atheists. So like Alex O'Connor, if you see him on YouTube or he catches reels, he's a pure atheist. But when he comes to a verse like this, he kind of acknowledges, this is what they call like the, I think it's the criterion of embarrassment. The idea that if you are wondering about the truth of the Scriptures, if you're gonna put something in that's embarrassing for yourself, it kind of adds a little vote of confidence to maybe what you're saying would be true.
[10:16] Because if you're the disciples and you're writing down the story and you're like, okay, we gotta tell the story, we gotta like, Jesus, this is important things. Okay? Do you remember the re... Yeah. Okay. You remember the resurrection? Okay. And then you remember He came and He told us those things. Yeah. Okay. What was the vibe there? Well, we worshiped Him. Yeah, but remember, you weren't quite too sure, like you weren't into it. You didn't raise your hands as much. You kind of like, he snuck off to the bathroom partway through, you know what I mean? Like we were all standing, you were sitting like you weren't crying. Like there's this sense of like, some people still doubted, why did they doubt? This is another sermon, another conversation. But the fact that it's there is just this vote of like, this happened and it was true. They're like, we should tell people, somebody doubted. But in the midst of that, Jesus came and He told His disciples, I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.
[11:11] And this is important because what He's about to invite us into hinges on the fact that faith and trust in Jesus is the center point. And we have faith and trust in Jesus because all authority and all power resides in Him. It's this really critical distinction because sometimes, and maybe this has kind of been your journey, sometimes people ask like, oh, do you believe in God? And you've heard me, if you've been around, you've heard me talk about this before, that belief in God, although it's beautiful and wonderful, you should believe in God. Most people in our culture, Western culture, would say, yes, I believe in some kind of higher power. But in the Scriptures, even the demons believed in God 'cause they knew His power.
[11:57] And so one of the essential parts of the Christian faith and journey is not just this belief in God, but this trust in Jesus specifically. And so if you're here, if you're listening and you're like, yeah, like I'm doing the right thing, like I'm showing up to the church and like I have this belief in God, and it's like, that's beautiful and wonderful, but you gotta remember, and you gotta know what we talk about. What we hope you experience is that Jesus is the center point. Jesus is the one that all power and authority rest in. Jesus is the one that we put our faith, trust, and hope in. And Jesus is the one that says all authority in heaven and on earth. And then He says, therefore, because of that, we now tune into whatever He asks of us.
[12:50] We open the Scriptures and we look for the words of Jesus. And we look for His invitation. We trust the things that He says and believe the things that He did are the things that we should embody as people because of His authority and power, because of His resurrection, Jesus. Therefore, we hinge and we're ready to listen. Jesus, what do You have for us? And Jesus says, therefore, go. Now in this particular text, there's something happening as a part of it. In my wife is an English teacher, so should've gotten more instruction on like how verb tenses work and how this kind of stuff goes. So this is more like layman's terms here. The go is like a, that can sound like He's inviting you to go somewhere and to do something.
[13:37] What's actually kind of happening, And it's hard to capture in the English, is more of the sense as you go, He's about to give you instruction. Jesus is, it's more about as you live your life, as you walk through your, into your weeks, as you go into the places that you're meant to go, there's now gonna be an instruction. And in this particular invitation, it's kind of like the central one. It's this imperative. It is like you gotta do something as you go. So the going isn't necessarily the commandment here, this next thing is, but as you're going about your world and your life, going to the places that you go to, what are you meant to do? You're meant to, you make disciples of all the nations.
[14:24] And all the nations is interesting 'cause I think for some, sometimes when we read this and, not like it's inappropriate, but we think like, is Jesus telling people to go all around the world with His message? And probably, I mean, that's a good thing. It's not a wrong or bad thing. But I think the question that we also ask is in that instance, as He's surrounded by His disciples, the people are all kind of one nation. And that nation and that people group, the nation of Israel, is about to be tasked with bringing this message to all the people, which yes, includes meaning going to different places for sure. But also when the nations come to Moncton and when people groups from all around are here, the invitation is the same.
[15:14] That what Jesus, and I'm gonna explain a little bit about more of this, make disciples, but like Jesus's invitation is commandment here is like, yeah, you've got your group, you've got your people group, and it's a great group. But that other group across the aisle, they're also the group that you're called to, that Jesus matters to your group, but to also the other group, you know, who should be Christians or conservatives, you know, who should be Christians or liberals, you know, who should be Christians are the people you agree with, you know who should be Christians, the people you disagree with. The idea being that the message of Jesus is for everyone. And in those instances at that time, the idea of bringing this message to the nations would've been a high calling.
[16:06] But friends, I would be guessing that for you and for me, it's still a high calling to step outside of our own circles of influence to bring the message and the hope the people around us. So Jesus says, I heard that clap. As you go back, go back, go back, go back, go back, sorry, sorry, sorry. Make disciples, make disciples. Okay, so now make disciples is really interesting. This is the core commitment, and discipleship is something that, you know, in church language and, you know, we talk about, so maybe you've heard about this kind of thing before, but it can be sometimes confusing or we can get it confused. I grew up in church. I grew up in this church. There are lots of beautiful things about growing up as a part of the church.
[16:52] I have, like, just so many good things to say about it. One of the challenges though is that sometimes we can think about discipleship as the ideas that we're meant to think or learning about more information. When Jesus says make disciples, a disciple is something pretty specific in His context. A disciple, maybe more literally or more connected to even our culture, is this idea of apprenticing under another leader, that you would try to become like the person that you want to become like, and you apprentice under them. Discipleship isn't necessarily like just a class that you go to. It's a life that you live. You become a disciple, discipling, verb, disciple, kind of noun.
[17:42] Discipleship doesn't really connect. It doesn't really articulate things. And so John Mark Comer, in his book Practicing the Way and trying to understand this, the meaning of this discipleship that we kind of wrestle with, is perfectly clear according to the texts: to follow Jesus is to become His apprentice. It's to organize your entire life around three driving goals: be with Jesus, become like Him, and do as He did. He goes on, he says, you see, Jesus is not looking for converts to Christianity. He's looking for apprentices in the kingdom of God. And so the question to you and to me is, am I a convert or am I an apprentice?
[18:33] When you look at my life, do I live my life to be with Jesus, to become like Him, and to spend time with Him? Or have I checked a box of belief? It can be a hard question, and it's the heart check. It's that if I'm honest about my own journey, I wonder sometimes if the life that I'm living is matching my master's call. I wonder if my life apprenticed to Jesus. Can I say that this year my life more clearly looks like the life of Jesus?
[19:21] And at least for me, that's where I'm like, ooh, I'm the problem. Like, I can't point fingers like, yeah, sometimes my kids wake me up early, or yeah, sometimes like life is tough and you gotta do the things and, like, something breaks and you gotta shovel snow in the winter. If you're new to Canada, you have to shovel snow in the winter. And so like the idea is like, yeah, there's lots going on in your life, but you still have to have this heart check of like, where, where am I actually at? And the way of Jesus is a beautiful invitation, but it does require that you and I ask ourselves that question and in that reflection, perhaps have an idea of what God might be calling us to next. And this is what I hope for the next few weeks that happens for you and it happens for me.
[20:07] And the angle and the framework that I want to introduce to you is one that's been used for a few decades. It was first created by a gentleman by the name of Dan Spader. He's still alive somewhere. I don't know where, but he wrote this concept or this book, turned it into kind of like this ministry, this tool. And we trained youth workers across Canada and the organization that I worked with this last year on what's called the Four Chair Model of discipleship, of following after Jesus, of the way of Jesus. And what it does is it just kind of helps you and it helps me try to identify where am I actually at? Like, yeah, I've been here lots, but like, what does my life really and truly look like? And so the idea is that there's four chairs, and the four chairs represent kind of four different types of people.
[20:54] I wanna describe these four different types of people. And then each week we're gonna kind of go through one of the chairs and see if maybe that's your chair. The first chair is the idea of the skeptic. The first chair is maybe more than just a skeptic. For some people it's like, I'm not skeptical, like I just don't believe. And that's you. That's good. That's fine. Trying to find one word sometimes can be hard. 'Cause most people in this chair, they're like, I don't know, you know, could be interesting. Maybe I've got unbelief, maybe I've got disbelief. Maybe I've got no belief. Maybe I'm skeptical. Maybe I'm here, and I'm wondering, I'm hoping, but like there's a sense that there's something, and I'm just intrigued or I'm not intrigued. But there's not like a commitment at this point. That's that first chair. And again, this is not like a perfect segment of all the population.
[21:40] The point is, for some of you, you would have to recognize and authentically say, like, yeah, I'm not kind of in, but I'm here. At least, doesn't that count for something? And yeah, it does. You're in chair one, congratulations. Chair two is where lots of people get to, lots of people get to the belief stage. Yeah, I think there's something about this Jesus, like, I'm intrigued, I'm interested, I have a belief. And that's beautiful, and that does represent a chair. But, and this is the beautiful thing, there's so much more, because when Jesus says to go and to make disciples, what He's inviting you and me into is not just for our lives to be built as a disciple of Jesus, but He's actually inviting you and me into His kingdom work in our world today.
[22:28] And if we're not careful, what happens is that we get really accustomed to being like the belief chair. Like, that's awesome, but there's the worker and the disciple maker, the workers, the person that realizes, oh, we're actually called to do something. This faith means something. We're meant to change the world around us. We're meant to bring this kingdom of God. We're meant to actually live faith out loud. It's meant to be good news to the world around us. And so we find ways to bring the message of Jesus to the world around us. And then there's the disciple maker and, you know, end stage. Sure. But the point is, like, at some point, it's not just about bringing the good news, but it's about raising up more and more leaders to be more and more disciples to carry this mission forward.
[23:15] It changes. It's not just like it's my own faith, but now it's this faith that I think other people should live. And so my encouragement to you is to imagine these four chairs and to think, okay, for me, like, what chair are you sitting in? Because you are sitting in a chair. Like, you legitimately have to know and recognize, like, for some of you it's like, I don't know for sure, but I'm here. And Jesus has a word for you. And I want to give you that here today in just a moment. If you're skeptical or not sure, or you've got questions or you've got doubts, He has a word specifically for you. And that is what I want you to hear today. But some of you, and you can recognize this, that's okay, some of you have seen Jesus and you believe in Him for sure, and you're grateful for that, and you live in this beautiful spot of belief.
[24:04] But if you're honest and you ask about what your life is like and where your life is going, you kinda wonder, like, well, is there a little bit more? Like, maybe you hear the stories of people praying for people and, like, experiencing healing that happens here. Like, it's actually really wild. Like, people come with like difficult things in their journey, in their life, and, like, God actually transforms and changes, and, like, the power of the Holy Spirit, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, is, like, present and changing hearts and lives and circumstances, and miracles are happening. And you're like, oh, I didn't know that was possible. Like, can I be a part of that? And the answer is yes, because we have people that are living in the chair of actually helping bring the kingdom of God, living out the commands of Christ in such a way that our world is different and changing because of what God has invited us into, that we get to be agents of Him in this world right now.
[25:03] And then there are so few people, but there are some, that live in the fourth chair of recognizing that we have to raise up a generation, that we have to find leaders that commit to this work and make sure that it's not just me that's a disciple of Jesus, but other people get a chance to experience Him in this kind of way. And this is the journey. And this is the invitation to determine what seat are you in and what might Jesus say to you. 'Cause if you're in the first chair, the invitation is to come and to see. If you're in the second chair, Jesus is gonna ask you to follow Him. If you're in the third, He's gonna ask you to fish for people. And if you're in the fourth, He's gonna ask you to bear fruit.
[25:49] So if you're in this first chair, Jesus says to come and to see. This comes straight from the Scriptures. This is kind of how Jesus did His ministry with people that were kind of on the fringe and had questions. There's some good examples of this in John 1:35, "The following day, John, John the Baptist in particular, John the Baptist was again standing with two of his own disciples." You see, this idea of disciple was an ancient way, the way rabbis and leaders would have people that followed after their teachings. And so the idea, he had people apprentice under him, he had disciples. And as Jesus walked by, John looked at Him, looked at Jesus, and declared, "Look, there is the Lamb of God." And when John's two disciples heard this, they followed after Jesus.
[26:38] And Jesus asked them this brilliant question. And this is the question that I think it's worth wrestling with if you're sitting in the first chair. And it's worth asking if you've got people that you know are also in the first chair. Jesus looked around and saw them following, and He asked them, "What do you want?" And I don't think it was like an antagonistic, "What do you want?" I think it was an invitation. What do you want? What do you really, really want? Don Carson, commenting on this particular passage, he says, "Jesus confronts those who make any show of beginning to follow Him and demands that they articulate what they really want in life."
[27:24] Because some people showed up to Jesus just looking to check a box. Some people show up to Jesus hoping for the miracle, and that's all they're looking for. Some people showed up to Jesus because He was the cool one in town, because they watched a fun YouTube video, because somebody seemed to be pretty excited about their faith. And so that's the spark. And it's okay to have a spark, but Jesus is gonna ask a heart question, which is, what are you really looking for? And their response is this, they replied, "Rabbi, which means teacher, where are You staying?" And Jesus said, this beautiful invitation that we see in a few other spots, "Come and see." Come and see. Hey, if you are on the fringe of faith, if you've got questions, why don't you just come and see?
[28:12] Why don't you take a step towards Jesus? Why don't you try it out? Why don't you come around and see what He might do in your life? A couple verses later, different instance. But still in John 1, there is another example here. This a verse before that, or this is the one Nazareth. Oh, no, no, sorry. Yeah. So Nathanael, so this is what's happening. Nathanael and then his brother, they're there gathering and they're explaining about this Jesus. So they say, "Oh yeah, He comes from Nazareth." And so Nathanael says, in response to Philip, he says, "Nazareth, can anything good come from Nazareth?" And this is just one of those, again, examples of like, it's a little bit of an embarrassing thing.
[28:58] Like he's taking shots at Jesus' hometown. He's taking shots like, can anything good like this Jesus character? Is He worth following if He comes from Nazareth? I don't know where Nazareth, I can point to it on a map. I mean, you could probably Google where it is at that point. You know, it had a bad rap. I don't want to use examples of places that have a bad rap these days 'cause you might be from there. But the point is that Nazareth was like, can anything good come from there? And Philip replies, he says, "Come and see for yourself." Which, hey, if you've got concerns, like can anything actually good come from this Christian faith? Maybe you've got bad experiences. Maybe somebody has said something to you that, you know, carried the name of Jesus and actually hurt or harmed you. Or you just look and you see and you're like, I don't know if I want to be caught up in that stuff. And the response is the same thing to Nathanael.
[29:45] It's like, "Hey, why don't you come and see? Why don't you come to the actual source? Why don't you see Jesus and see for yourself?" And as they approached, so they actually went, this is the fun part. As they approached, Jesus said to Nathanael, this is brilliant. "Now, here is a genuine son of Israel, a man of complete integrity." Which for Nathanael, knowing what he just did and dissing Jesus' hometown, he's probably like, "Ooh, this is embarrassing." And so he legitimately asks, he is like, "Jesus, how do You know about me? Like, what have You heard?" And Jesus replies, He says, "I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you." Which in that instance is like, Jesus has this supernatural knowledge and insight 'cause He's the Son of God and proves it to Nathanael.
[30:40] And the subtext is he's like, I heard that whole conversation. To which I'm sure every time after that, whenever they would share this, and you know, Matthew's writing this story down, Nathanael's like, "Don't include that part. It's embarrassing now." He's like, "No, no, no, we're including it because every other disciple is making this meme face." If you've seen this meme, it's like, "Oh, you got caught." That is great. And it's true because for Nathanael, like there's this beautiful like truthfulness of like, I'm not sure, and that's okay. This is part of the story. And so Nathanael claims, "Rabbi, this truth that You've said, you know, this supernatural knowledge, it kind of proves to me that You are the Son of God, the King of Israel." Come and see. And Jesus gives him what he needed and he realizes, "Oh, You are the one, You are the one worth following."
[31:34] Lastly, for somebody on the fence, somebody wondering, there's this woman at the well, this beautiful story in John 4, this story that gives us a picture into what happens when you're recognizing your life maybe could use a new anchor and direction. And the woman at the well, we won't go into the full story, but Jesus calls her out. He knows about her life. And even as He does so with love and care, but conviction, the woman left her water jar beside the well, the actual thing she was there for. And she runs back to the village and tells everyone, "Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could He possibly be the Messiah?"
[32:21] And then everybody streamed from the village to see Him because "come and see" is the invitation. "Come and see" is the challenge. "Come and see" is all that we're really inviting the world to do? Hey, Jesus is who He said He is. I believe it. But if you don't, just come and see, come and experience, come and see this Jesus that I believe will change and transform your life. And so if you're there, if you're at the first chair, you're sitting here and you've got the questions, you've got the concerns, you've got the doubts, and you're wondering like, I don't know what it's all about. I don't know if I'm all in. I don't know if what you say is true. The invitation Jesus says is, come and see, and invite and pray to ask God to reveal Himself to you.
[33:17] Put your faith in Him without surely knowing if it's gonna be properly placed. That's okay. The point that we want to invite you to, and the point that when we gather in this kind of way, and then if you've got people in your life that they're like, I don't know if they really, if they really believe what I believe or I don't know if they're really in, I don't know if they're Christians. And the invitation that we just invite to you and to them and to everybody is to come and see. And the hope of course in coming and seeing is that in doing so, that they would see Jesus. And I just would caution you briefly that if you invite somebody to come and see Jesus, that if you're a Christian, to be on guard a little bit, that we would embody and try our best to look like Him, lest people come and just see us for our messy selves.
[34:10] And the hope is that instead that they would be able to see Jesus, see Jesus in us, see Jesus speak to them and see Jesus in their own lives. So if you're in the first chair, the other chairs will come in the next few weeks. But if you're in the first chair, I just wanna invite you that even in this place and even in this moment, that you could pray a kind of prayer that would acknowledge that you wanna come and to see Jesus. And I want to pray that He would reveal Himself to you. And that if you would put your faith and trust in Him, even today, even in these moments, that He would be real to you and He would rescue and save you from all the things that you need saving from, that He's the kind of rescuer, He's the kind of Savior that knows that yes, you are a problem, but He is the solution for you.
[35:05] And so if you would, for just a moment, if you bow your heads and close your eyes, I just wanna pray for those that might want to take a step towards Jesus today, who invites you to come and to see Him. And if you wanna pray along with me, you certainly can. And then I wanna pray for all of us to close this open. Heavenly Father, in this moment, for some people in this room, they have shown up to kind of come in to see. They recognize that there's a need in their life. They need You. And yeah, there's lots more to figure out and to sort out, and there's lots more questions and concerns. But Lord, like You did for the woman at the well, like You did for Nathanael, would You honor the fact that we've come to see You?
[35:52] And would You show us Yourself? And Lord, for some people in this space, if they pray along here with me, that Lord, You are who You say You are. And I wanna learn what it means and become a disciple of You. I wanna follow You where You may lead. I don't know where that is yet, but I wanna follow You, Lord. We know for anyone that prays that prayer this morning, they have become a child of God. And I pray that even in these moments that You administer to their hearts. And then, Lord, for all of us, would we contend with the fact that our lives are the ones that we live surely.
[36:39] And we pray and hope that they be marked by the following after You and what You have for us, that we would truly become full disciples of You. And Lord, we pray that You would challenge us and call us and move us, that we would be the kinds of people that You would have. And so speak to our hearts, convict us of the things You need to convict us of and allow us to be the kinds of people that look to You. Lord, we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Here in this place, when you pray those kinds of prayers, and if you ever wanna make strong faith commitments, we always invite you. We have our prayer team that stick around after the service. They'd love to pray more fully with you. And if you're making decisions to follow after Jesus, this is the perfect time and place to do it, to mark these kinds of moments.
[37:28] If the Spirit of God is on your heart, at the end of the service or during the song, you can always come forward, you can always pray those kinds of prayers. We wanna make space for that. And then for those of us that have made the decision to apprentice under Jesus, we sing songs as a response to what is true. And so this next song gives you hope not just for today, but hope for this week, that this God that we talk about is the God that pursues us recklessly because He loves us so deeply. So would you stand with us as we get a chance to respond with this song?