In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of being a disciple of Jesus. He highlights that even though Jesus is no longer physically present on earth, he continues to call people to be his disciples through the work of the Holy Spirit. The preacher mentions the Great Commission, where Jesus instructed his disciples to go and preach the gospel to all nations. However, the preacher emphasizes that the purpose of this gathering is not just to listen to sermons, but to encourage and challenge each other to share Christ with one another and deepen their understanding of him.

Just try to fellowship with one another. Try to share Christ with one another. You have Christ in you, I have Christ in me, and let's share Him together. Because the more we share Him, the more we know Him, and the richer we find He is among us. Usually in a conference, you know, people are looking for some sermons, some messages. God willing, you will have a little, but that is the minor part. The major part is we want every one of you to share Christ with one another. So you are not here just to sit here and listen. You are here to work, and that kind of work is easy, because you just share what Christ is to you. So we hope that, well probably you will notice, I don't know if I'm correct. I think the brothers are trying to put you in different rooms. I notice that people come from one place, always sit together. And that's natural, because you find a kind of security there. But I hope that from now on, don't sit with the one that you are with. Sit with somebody else. Every time. So that you may know one another, and then share Christ with one another. And the same thing holds true not only when we come here and sit, when we go to the dining hall and eat, or when we are not having any meeting, but just a free time of sharing. Seek out someone you don't know. Naturally, probably some are a little bit timid. But let's try. Let's try to get over this barrier, and learn to share Christ with one another. And that is the real purpose of this gathering here together. Because we do believe that in the sharing together, you will discover how rich our Lord Jesus is. May we have a word of prayer? Our Heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee for gathering us together here. We do believe that we do not come by ourselves just because we want to. We do believe that Thou hast an appointment with us. We believe that we are here because Thou hast drawn us together. So Lord, we ask Thee to, from the very beginning, to open our eyes, that we may see why Thou want us to be here. We do desire to know Thyself. In a way, probably we have never known Thee before. O Lord, we do desire to give ourselves to Thee. Tell us how. We pray that Thy Holy Spirit will touch every heart. May Thy Word become living and challenging. We ask Thee that we may hear Thou calling us to Thyself. And gladly we will give ourselves to Thee. So we just commit this time into Thy hands. Thou knowest the weariness of the journey. We pray that Thou will quicken our mortal body. Thou will quicken our understanding. Thou will strengthen our inner man. That we are able to receive Thee. Far above that which we do desire to give Thee all the praise and the glory. In the name of our Lord Jesus. I will probably touch upon a number of scriptures. But to start with, I will just read one passage. In Matthew, Matthew chapter 4. Matthew chapter 4. We'll read from verse 18 through verse 22. Matthew chapter 4, verse 18. And walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw, that is, our Lord Jesus, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea. For they were fishers. And he says to them, Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they having left their trawl nets, immediately followed him. And going on, friends, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zabody, and John his brother, in the ship with Zabody their father, mending their trawl nets, and he called them. And they having left the ship, and their father, immediately followed him. Our Lord Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee. He took this walk, not without aim. He took this walk purposely. As he walked by the sea, he saw two brothers, Peter and Andrew. They were casting the net into the sea, because they were fishermen. The Lord said, Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men. And the Bible says, they immediately left their trawl nets. And he saw another two brothers, the two sons of Zabody, James and John. And they were in their father's ship, mending the net. The Lord called them, Come after me, I will make you fishers of men. They left the trawl nets, they left the ship, they left their father, and immediately, they followed the Lord. As you read on into Matthew, you'll find in Matthew chapter eight. We don't need to read it, but I will just mention it. In Matthew chapter eight, there was a great crowd, gathered around the Lord. But the Lord commanded to depart to the other side of the sea. Now think of that. A great crowd gathered together. And you will think that certainly, the Lord will stay with them, because it is not too easy to gather a crowd. How sometimes we try to gather a crowd, but when a great crowd gathered around the Lord, you know what the Lord did? He commanded to depart to the other side of the sea. As if he didn't want the crowd. And a scribe came up. You know what a scribe is. A scribe is a scholar. You know, among the Jewish people, there was a class called scribes. And their work was to copy the Bible. You know, at that time, there was no printing press. Therefore, everything had to be copied. They not only copied the Bible, but they studied the Bible. They were real scholars of the Bible. So when the Lord commanded to depart to the other side, a scribe came to the Lord and said, Teacher, I will follow you, whithersoever you may go, to have a scholar offer to follow the Lord Jesus. Now, you know, the Lord Jesus had never been to school. He had never been to a school of rabbis. In other words, he was never trained theologically. And here was a person, an expert, well trained. And he came to the Lord and said, Now I want to follow you. Wherever you go, I want to follow you. You are my teacher. What an honor! And yet the Lord Jesus answered him and said, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven roosting places. But a son of man has not where he may lay his head. You call me teacher. You want to follow me wherever I go. Do you know where I'm going? Do you know what kind of a life I live? The foxes have holes. The birds have a roosting nest. But I do not have a place even to lay my head. You want me to teach you. But can you live the way that I live? Are you ready to go wherever I go? Do you know where I'm going? That frightened the scribe away. But after that, the Lord turned to one of his disciples and said, Another of his disciples came to him and said, Lord, suffer me first to go away and bury my father. The scribe was frightened away. But the Lord turned to one of his disciples and said, Come after me. And he said, Lord, I'm coming, but I have some duty to fulfill yet. I have to go home to bury my father. Now it wasn't because his father was dead and was waiting to be buried at that moment. As a matter of fact, his father was not dead yet. But he said, I have a family duty to fulfill. My father is old, so I have to take care of him until he died and I bury him. Then I will come and follow you. Very reasonable. Of course the Lord wants us to honor our father and mother. That is one, that is the first commandment with a promise. Of the ten commandments, you remember only one commandment has promise. Honor your father and your mother and you shall live long on earth. So these disciples of the Lord Jesus said, Certainly you want me to fulfill my duty first. And yet the Lord said, Let the dead bury the dead. Come and follow me. Let the dead bury the dead. How can the dead bury the dead? The first dead is the spiritually dead. The second dead is the physically dead. Let the spiritually dead take care of the physically dead. You come and follow me. In other words, there is an urgency there. There is a priority there. There is a first priority. The first priority is to follow the Lord. And if you read Luke chapter 9, you will find something added to it. Another disciple of the Lord said, After he heard what the Lord said to this disciple, he said, Lord, I am coming, I am following you, but let me go home and say goodbye to my family folks first. Well, that's reasonable. He will not know when he will return home. Certainly he should say goodbye and come. And yet the Lord told him, No one whose hand is on the plow and look back is fit to be my disciple. The first disciple felt that there was a duty to be fulfilled before he could follow the Lord. And the Lord said, Where is the first priority? The second one did not even have a duty to fulfill. It was just a sentimental thing, an emotional attachment. And yet the Lord said, He whose hand is on the plow and look back cannot enter, cannot be my disciple. Then you go on, and you find in Matthew again, the Lord was passing by, and he saw a man, a tax collector. He was sitting there collecting taxes. His name was Matthew. And the Lord said, Come, follow me. He got up, left his customs, and followed the Lord. Then in Luke chapter 14, you find again a great crowd gathered around the Lord, you know. And when the Lord saw this great crowd gathered around him, you know what the Lord did? The Lord said something very hard to them. He turned around and said to them, If any man come to me, and shall not hate his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brother, and sister, yea, and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever does not carry his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. Thus then, every one of you who forsakes not all that is his own, cannot be my disciple. Isn't that very hard? When the Lord was on earth, he called people to be his disciples. But he did not in any way deceive them. He made it very clear to them, as he called them. What kind of a life? What is the meaning to be a disciple? He was not just trying to get a crowd. He was after disciples. What is the Lord doing today? The Lord is now in heaven. But by his spirit, he is still doing his work on earth. And what is the Lord calling today? Is he any different from what he was before, two thousand years ago? Two thousand years ago, when he walked on the earth, he called people to be his disciples. He is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. The Lord is calling people to be his disciples today. We often talk about the Great Commission. You know, when the Lord, before the Lord was ascending to heaven, his disciples gathered around him, in Matthew, chapter 28, the Lord said, All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go ye to all the nations, go ye to all the world, and preach the gospel, and make believers of them. No? If you read Matthew, chapter 28, you'll find the Lord said, All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go ye to the world, to the end of the world, to make disciples of the nation. It is, of course, to go to the world and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, that people may believe in him, people may receive him as their Savior. That's true. But the Great Commission goes further than that. The Great Commission says, Go ye to the end of the world, to make disciples of the nation. The Lord wants disciples, not just believers, but disciples, baptizing them into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them all that I have enjoined you, that they may observe all that I have enjoined you. And then he promised, I will be with you to the end of the ages. The Great Commission that the Lord has given to his church is that we who are his disciples are to make disciples of the nations. The Lord wants disciples, not just believers. What is the difference between a believer and a disciple? A believer is one who believes in the Lord Jesus, is one who has accepted the Lord Jesus as his Savior. A believer is one who is made a child of God. As many as receive him, that is, believe on his name, he has given them the right, the authority, the privilege to be the children of God. To believe in the Lord Jesus is a great privilege. In believing the Lord Jesus, we have our sins forgiven. We receive eternal life. We become children of God. We enjoy the Lord Jesus and all his blessings. It is great to be a believer. But what is to be a disciple? A disciple is one who is committed to the Master, to be trained for a specific purpose. As a believer, you receive the Lord Jesus as your Savior. You enjoy all his grace and his blessing. Tremendous! But how much does the Lord Jesus get from you? To be a disciple is to be committed to the Lord and let him have you completely and absolutely. That's different. As a matter of truth, I hope you listen carefully. As a matter of truth, to be a believer is equal to be a disciple. In other words, as a matter of truth, there shouldn't be any separation between a believer and a disciple. If you believe in the Lord Jesus, you are his disciple. How can you not be his disciple? If you are his disciple, you are a believer. Because if you are not a believer, you cannot be his disciple. So as a matter of truth, a believer and a disciple are one and the same thing. They should happen at the same time. When you receive the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus should receive you. But as a matter of fact, this may not be true. Many believers are not disciples. Many believers have never surrendered their life to the Lord, have never allowed the Lord Jesus to touch them, to make them, to mold them, to fashion them according to his pleasure. Disciple in the Bible is a relationship. But it is not the relationship of the modern teacher and student relationship. You know, in a modern teacher and student relationship is a very superficial relationship. You go to a school, you listen to the lecture of a teacher, and you try to learn what he knows, and after you have learned what he knows, you graduate. In other words, the relationship between a teacher and a student is more of a surface relationship. You are there just to learn his skill, just to learn his learning, and you do not really have an intimate relationship with your teacher. And you know, sometimes in a class you have a hundred students and the teacher does not even know who they are. But this is not the disciples in the Bible said. In the Bible, the disciple relationship with a master is the old-fashioned relationship between a master and his apprentice. In the old days, you know, a family usually will send their son, fortunately or unfortunately, at that time they said, don't send their daughters away. That's the old days. In the old days, you know, when the son grows up and the father will say, well, what should I do with my son? I want him to become a man. I want him to learn a trade. So, you know, the way people usually do will be, well, the father will look around and try to find a master. Well, the master may be a carpenter, the master may be a mechanic, may be something else, or a great scholar, philosopher, an artist, but not. The father will look around for a master. And after he has found a master, he only has perfect confidence, then he will negotiate with that master. Because that master may not be willing to take up an apprentice. So after he has negotiated with the master, and the master is willing to take another scholar, another apprentice, then they will set a date. And on that day, the father will lead his son into the master's house. He will not only give a sum of money or something to the master, but he will literally deliver his son to the master. And say, here is my son. I commit my son to your care. And he leaves. He will just leave the son in his master's house. So you'll find that apprentice is a person who is delivered. He is delivered to a master. He lives with his master. He is under the complete control of his master. Even when he becomes so homesick he wants to go home, he has to have the master's permission to go home. He is no longer a free person. Twenty-four hours a day, not just a few hours a day. Twenty-four hours a day he belongs to the master. And he is there to do everything that his master will ask him to do. And usually, you know, if you want to learn a trade, probably it will take you three years to learn the trade. But during the first year, suppose you want to be a carpenter, and you are apprentice to a carpenter. The first year he would not even let you touch the bench. You will stay in his home and just be a little errand boy. Oh, he will ask you to do all kinds of things. You will sweep the floor. You will open the door. And if the master has a baby, you carry the baby sometimes. You are almost like a slave. Ah, you say, no, I come to learn to be a carpenter. Well, the master says, that's the way to learn it. And maybe after a year, if you are still there, and the master says, well, you seem to be able to to learn. All right, I'll trade you a little bit. So, gradually he will get you into this trade. So, after three years, when you graduate, you know what happened? You have not only learned the skill of your master. Ah, when you walk, you walk like your master. When you talk, you talk like your master. Not only the phrases you have picked up, but even the poem is like your master. Isn't this strange? You become a copy of your master, a reproduction of your master. And the relationship between the master and the apprentice are so close, they become one, almost one. Humanly speaking, it's impossible, but divinely, yes. With the Lord, yes. Now, that's disciple. Brothers and sisters, may I ask you a question? I suppose all of you here, at least most of you here, you have already believed in the Lord Jesus. You have already accepted Him as your personal Savior. You know Him. Have you heard the call of discipleship? You have believed in Him maybe a month, maybe a year, maybe five years. Have you responded to His call of discipleship? The Lord is never satisfied with you just being His believers. He may be satisfying to you, but He never satisfies you. He wants to make a disciple out of you. He is calling you to be disciples. Come after Me. Come after Me. You have come. The Bible says, Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Literally, it means, I will rest you. You do not have rest, but I will rest you. Come unto Me, the Lord says, all ye that are labored and are heavy burdened, and I will rest you. You come. You come to Him, and He gives you rest. You have come, but you haven't come far enough. The Lord says, Come after Me. Not only come unto Me, the Lord says, Come after Me. Wherever I go, you go. Not just come to Me for the sake of this or that, but really come to Me and after Me. Have you come in that way? You have come unto Him to receive salvation, but have you come after Him to be a disciple of Him? Do you know what is meant by come after Him? Someone put it very, very clearly. He says, to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus is to call to die. When you come to the Lord Jesus at the first time, it is a coming to live. God does not want the wicked to die. The Bible says, Why should the wicked die? Turn from your wickedness and live. God wants people to live. So, when you first come to the Lord Jesus, you are called to live, that you may not die. But, brothers and sisters, the call of discipleship is a call to die. You have come to Him and you now live. Then, you shall learn to die. Have you been baptized? I suppose most of you do. Do you know what is the meaning of baptism? Baptism, why must one who believes in the Lord Jesus to be baptized? Why? People have asked me, say, I believe in the Lord Jesus, but must I be baptized? I say, yes. Why? The Lord says, go into the world, make disciples of the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Make disciples of the nations. That is the object. Make disciples of the nations. How? How do you make disciples of the nations? Baptizing them into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them all things that I have enjoined you. Have you ever seen baptism in that light? Oh, you say, do I need to be baptized to be saved? The water cannot save you. It is the blood, the blood of our Lord Jesus, for the remission of your sins. Then why baptize? Do you want to be a disciple of the Lord? Baptism, if I may say it, is the initiation into discipleship. Why? Because, what is baptism? If you read Romans chapter 6, what does it tell you? He says, we are baptized into Christ, we are baptized into His death. We are identified with Christ, His death, His burial, and His resurrection. Baptism is an identification. We are identified with the Lord. We are committed to the Lord. We have now entered into the Master's house. We are delivered. Delivered into the Master's head, and we become one with the Master. His death is our death. His burial is our burial, and His resurrection is our resurrection. Now, that is baptism. Before you are baptized, why? You are yourself. You can go anywhere you like to. You can do anything you like to do. You have your own plan. You have your own desire. You have your own wish. You have your own way. You have your own manner of life, habit. You can love the world, because you are you. You are yourself. You are your own. But, brothers and sisters, when you believe in the Lord Jesus, the love of Christ has constrained you. You know that you have no right to live for yourself. You have to deliver yourself to the Lord. You have to be one with the Lord. You have to be identified with Him, and the first thing to be identified with Him is to identify with His death. All that He died for, you die. His death is all-inclusive. He died to our sin. He died to the world as a system. He died to the flesh. He died to the all creation. He died to everything that is not God. That is His death. And by being baptized, you are baptized unto His death. His death is your death. You die to yourself. You die to the world. You die to your old days. You die to your old habits. You die to the world and everything, and buried. You are raised with Him in resurrection. Not you, but Christ who lives in you. Brothers and sisters, that is baptism. That is the reason why you find Matthew 28. Make disciples of the nations, baptizing them. The call of discipleship is the call to die. The Bible makes it very clear. Oh, this man described comes to the Lord as a teacher. I want to follow you. I want to be a disciple of you. I will go wherever you go. The Lord said, you don't know what you are asking. You think that you just come for some more knowledge? Just like you have graduated from the school of rabbis. The Lord said, our relationship is different. You are to be ... When they read this verse, they say, hallelujah. Now I can hate my father. You misread your Bible. Even when the Lord was on the cross crucified, when He was in great agony, great suffering and pain, He forgot Himself. He saw His mother, and He asked His disciple to take care of His mother. He didn't hate His mother. He loved her. But where is the contradiction? Oh, the Lord is simply saying this. If you do not die to everything in the past, things that are most dear to you, even your father, your mother, your brother, your sister, and your own life, what can be closer and dearer to you than your father and mother, brother and sister, and your own life? But if you do not die to these things, you hate these things, because these things hold you back from fully committing yourself to the Lord. You cannot abandon yourself to the Lord because these things hold you back. And there is a holy hate within you. I am willing to die to these things, that I may be set free. I may follow the Lord. The Lord says, then you can be magnified. And you will discover, you will love your father and mother, brother and sister even more. To be a disciple is to deny oneself. Like Peter denied the Lord, but he denied the wrong person. We all recall, brothers and sisters, the Lord is not after a crowd. When the crowd gather around Him, He push them out. He has no use for crowds. The Lord is calling for disciples, people who are fully committed, people who yield themselves to the Lord, surrender to the Lord. You may use any verb you like. You call it dedication, you call it consecration, you call it present your body, you call it abandonment, you call it what? Forsaking all, anything. But the fact remains here. The call for discipleship is a total call. The Lord will not allow you to retain anything if you answer that. You remember what the Lord Jesus said to that young rich man? Oh, that young rich man, ruler, he came to the Lord as a fool of longing. He ran to the Lord. He knelt before the Lord among the crowd. We'll do that. And he said, Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? You remember the Lord looked at this young man and loved him, and loved him. But what did the Lord say? Sell all that you have, give to the poor, come and follow me. And that young man sadly walked away. The call of discipleship is a total call. Are you ready for that? Are you ready to leave everything and follow the Lord? If you're not ready to leave everything and follow the Lord, you cannot be His disciple. That's the reason why you find in Luke chapter 14, the Lord says you sit down and count your costs. It's very costly. It doesn't cost you anything to be a believer. It costs Him everything, but it costs you nothing. But it costs you everything if you respond to His call of discipleship. Are you ready for that? Have you done that? Remember, this is what the Lord is calling today, to make disciples of the nature. Is it possible? Is it possible for us to forsake everything and follow the Lord? Humanly, it is impossible. The Lord is calling us to do something impossible. Do nothing that you can't do it. When you read the scripture, the Lord walking by as if He walked by casually, you know, and He saw Peter and Andrew, they're casting the net, and the Lord said, come after me. And they left everything and followed the Lord. So easy. And then He saw James and John, and He called them, and they left everything and followed the Lord. He saw Matthew, and Matthew left everything and followed the Lord. You think you can do that? Try it. No one can do that. Who is willing to die? Who is able to deny himself? Who is able to forsake everything and just follow the Lord? It is impossible. If you think it is possible, you won't make it. If you know it is impossible, you'll make it. Why? Because the Lord Jesus said, with man it is impossible, with God everything is possible. That rich yin ruler, such a nice man, such a nice yin man. He is not only moral, but he is rich. He is not only rich, but he is in high position as a ruler. The Lord loved that yin man. But when the call comes, follow me. But how? Forsake everything and come and follow me. Because these things are holding you on. Not that the Lord wants his wealth. The Lord wants to free him. Because he is not free to follow the Lord. He is not free to offer himself to the Lord. He is not free to put himself in the hands of the Lord. But that young man, he tried by himself. He didn't look up to the Lord and said, Lord, I cannot do it. If you really want me to do it, you do it. I'm willing. He didn't. He just figured out, can I do it? Oh, that's too much. I cannot do it. He walked away. He missed his opportunity. And you know the strange thing in the Bible, the wonderful thing in the Bible is, immediately after that, if you read the Gospel according to Luke, immediately after that you find another rich man. Probably richer than this young man. Why? Because that man was a chief tax collector. And he had a good custom office. Zacchaeus. An older man, more deeply involved with the world. A sinner. A great sinner. Not a moral person. But he knew. He climbed up a mulberry tree. Because he was sure. He wanted to see Jesus. Just to see Him. And when the Lord Jesus passed by that tree, you know, the Lord looked up and said, Zacchaeus, come down. I'm going to your home. I think Zacchaeus falls down. Tumbles down at least. And everybody knew Zacchaeus because he sat at the custom office. He had cheated, extorted everybody. Everybody began to murmur and said, does the master know this man? The Lord didn't say a word. Zacchaeus himself offered. He said, Lord, you are coming to my house? I have to clear my house then. If I have cheated people, I will give them back. I will give half of my property to the poor. And give people that I have extorted back. That finished him. Why? Because he wanted the Lord to come to his house. So the Lord said, salvation has come to the household of Abraham. What was impossible became possible. Brothers and sisters, the Lord is calling us all to be His disciples. He is calling us to die and to live. He is calling us to abandon ourselves completely to Him. No reservation to put ourselves in His hand, pierced hand, and let Him do anything He likes with us. Can you do that? Nobody can. But remember, He can. Therefore, discipleship cannot be separated from the grace of God. Do nothing that you can volunteer yourself to be His disciple, and you will make it. You won't. No man has ever made it. But if you look to His grace, Lord, who am I that you want me? I am yours. If you want me, take me. Make me willing to be willing. Thy grace must enable me to do it. I depend on you. I don't depend on myself. And if you look to the grace of God, nothing isn't. You remember, Paul said, I am what I am by the grace of God. Dear brothers and sisters, if we see the Lord Jesus, if we see Him in our spirit, He will give us grace and faith and love to enable us to commit ourselves, to hand ourselves over. He will do it. Have you seen the Lord? Oh, we need to ask the Lord to give us a revelation of Himself. What a mastery that His grace will so support us. His love will so constrain us. He will give us faith to abandon ourselves completely to Him and say, Lord, I want. There is nothing better than that. I don't want to make a mess of my life. I want you to take my life and make it as you do. Grace will do it. So this evening, I have only one burden in my heart. Since our time together is so short, we have to start right away. We cannot wait. I do desire to put this thing before you, dear brothers and sisters. The Lord is calling for disciples. He wants you to be His disciple, but know what He means. It is not just to play, to play with. It is very serious. He wants you to put yourself in His hand. He calls you to die, to everything that is not His. He wants to make you, mold you, according to His pleasure. Are you constrained by His love? Say, Lord, take it, if that's what you want. Even if I may not be willing, make me willing to do it. I want to be your disciple. There is nothing better than that. As a young man, that was many years ago, one day I was on my bicycle, and I was cycling on the street, you know, and in my heart I was praying. I was faced with a very difficult situation. I didn't know what to do. On the one hand, I want to follow the Lord. On the other hand, there are many things I cannot let go. I try to negotiate. I try to walk on a tight stream and balance myself, but I know I cannot. I will fall. I know that. I want Him. I want Him to take me. I want to be His disciple and follow Him. But on the other hand, I drew back. It's too difficult. I don't know if I can make it. If possible, I'd like to compromise. So I was cycling, you know, and I was just praying in my heart, Lord, what about it? I have no solution. I didn't get a solution that day. But as I was cycling, I cry out from my heart. I say, Lord, don't forsake me. I want to be your disciple. No matter what, I want to be your disciple. Don't let me go. That's the only prayer. I pray. And you know, He did it. Not many days later, I was listening to a message. And the message was fruitful to me. The Lord said, sit down and count your cost. See if you can make it. I was deeply touched that day. After the message was over, we had lunch together. After the lunch, I sat by myself. I was praying. I say, Lord, maybe I haven't counted my cost. I want You. But I haven't counted my cost. That's why it's so difficult. I'm going to count my cost. So I started to count. The more I counted, the more heavy it became. It became impossible. It was a mountain before me, a mountain just rising before me. I couldn't get over it. Lord, it's too much. I cannot. I cannot do it. I want it, but I cannot. I do not say that I see the Lord physically, but I did see the Lord very clearly. I saw the Lord coming to me, holding out His hand and just say to me, I shed my blood for you. I die for you. What will you do for me? And brothers and sisters, as I sat there, my eyes must be closed, but I saw Him. He touched my heart. I say, Lord, everything, my life, my blood, everything is yours. It's His. He took it. That's why I say it's grace. No one can do it. If you want to do it, you won't be able to. But if you know you can, and you want it, He can do it. I do not say when He took me, He took my word, that the whole problem was solved, the whole lifetime was solved. No. But I can tell you, after I had responded, constrained by His love, He started to work with me. I passed through, may I say, three days, the most, most hard days of my life. I didn't know what I was eating. I was literally walking as in a maze. The Lord was dealing with me, but He cleared it up. He did it. Brothers and sisters, what I want to share is simply this. Only grace can make disciples of us. Only grace can maintain us as disciples. All of grace, from the beginning to the very end. So, brothers and sisters, do not be afraid. Look to His grace. He will do it. To give you grace, to constrain you by His love, that you may be able to tell Him, Lord, I want to be a disciple of you. Make me your disciple. Just tell the Lord about it, He will do it. You don't need to figure out how. The afterwards is in His hand. And unless we respond to Him and be His disciples, He is not able to do what He wants with us in our lives. This is the initiation, as it were, into Him. So let's just be quiet for a little while. Lord, for Thine own sake, do apprehend everyone in His room here. Make disciples of all of us, that Thou mayst be glorified. Lord, we cannot, but Thou can. We are willing. Make us disciples, that the glory of the Lord may be manifested. To Thee we give praise.