1. Follow Me Series

Follow Me (Luke 5:1-10. 9:23-26)

Good morning, and happy New Year! Please turn in your Bibles to Luke 5.

We are beginning a new series this morning called “Discipled.” There’s a lot going on with Glynwood right now around the idea of being discipled. Man Church begins tonight, and dozens of men are going to be studying the Word together on Sundays and Wednesday nights in small groups. There are D-groups, ladies’ Bible studies, people reading the Bible through together again this year. And all of it is connected to this idea of being a disciple.

And it makes sense. Last year was all about learning what the Bible says. Lots of you posted messages this week or told me personally how much of an impact reading the Bible all the way through had made in your life last year. And I hope that is a journey you will take over and over again.

But now that you’ve expanded your knowledge of what the Bible says, what are you going to do about it? That’s what it means to be discipled. This month, we are going to take a deep dive into what it means to be a disciple. So we will start with Jesus calling his first disciples. This is Luke 5, starting with verse 1. Please stand to honor the reading of God’s Word:

On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”[a]

This is God’s Word. Let’s thank God for it. Pray with me [Pray}

Let me ask you something: What is something you learned by watching someone else do it? Maybe it was a family recipe that was passed down to you. But chances are it wasn’t just handed to you. Before you ever saw it in writing, you were probably at your mother’s side, watching her, helping her, learning from her, and finally doing it yourself.

My grandma Dorothy made the best gumbo in the world. She was a Louisianian through and through. And as she got near the end of her life, my mom actually recorded her while she made a pot of gumbo. Then she wrote literally everything down that Grandma Dorothy said or did—even the swear words!

My mom watched Grandma Dorothy make gumbo

Then she helped.

Then she did.

Then she passed it on to her children.

My mom was a gumbo disciple.

What about fishing? Fishing is another one of those things you learn by watching, helping, and doing. Your dad didn’t say “Go down to the lake and catch some fish.” What would have happened if he had? No. You learned how to fish because your dad took you fishing. He taught you how to tie the hook on the line. How to bait the hook. How to cast. Later he might have taught you about different lures and bait for different fish. How to know the best places and seasons, and even what kind of clothes to wear.

For many of you, it became a lifelong joy. You’ve kept on learning. You dreamed of the day you would have kids of your own so you could teach them how to fish.

You watched, you helped, you did, you kept learning, and you passed what you knew on to someone else. You were (or are) a fishing disciple.

And that is the basic definition and process of disciple. It’s both a noun—"I am a disciple;” and a verb: “I am being discipled. Or, “She discipled me.”