Our Lord and Savior commanded us to go into all the world and make disciples. But in our haste and microwave society, we want to rush to the good part and focus on conversions. Everyone likes a baby! They are so innocent and refreshing.

But discipleship doesn't begin with the born-again experience. There must be conception first. A seed must be sown before there can be fruit.

At what point were the disciples born again or saved? A theologian may say at Pentecost. Others may say the disciples were saved when Jesus breathed on them and said receive the Holy Spirit, a renewed picture of the garden when God breathed into the nostrils of the first man, and he became a living soul.

Still, others may say when Jesus asked the disciples who do you say that I am? Peter then hears from the Spirit of God and no longer second-hand revelation from flesh and blood. And we can't forget Nathan, who knew at his first meeting with Jesus. But conversion is the work of the Holy Spirit. Our work is discipleship like Jesus did until the disciples start hearing from the Holy Spirit.

Allow me to preach from God's creation of the heavens and the Earth. God created the Sun for the greater light of the day and the stars and the moon for the lesser night light. The Sun is a star but much brighter and is the star that gives Earth life. The stars are angels that have been given their light to serve God and His kingdom, which are the inheritors of salvation, us. The moon has no light but only reflects the light of the Sun and has a dark side that receives no sunlight. Again, the Sun is Jesus. The stars are the angels, and the moon is the fallen man.

Many people have come into the presence of Jesus in His earthly ministry, and our day of churches walked out shining with the glory of God because of what they heard. And you would think, indeed, they have been born-again and love God. But as the moon circles around the Earth and the Earth circles the Sun, we see an awful dark side of man. And here, we begin to make up our doctrines by observing man's behavior rather than the timeless Word of God.

We forget Moses, who, just like us, fallen and in need of a born-again experience, saw the things of God on that mountain and came down shinning with the glory of God, a light so bright that a veil was required among the people.

You were auto-enrolled in discipleship school when you became born-again in Christ Jesus. There is no waiting period where Jesus is Savior; then, one day, He becomes Lord, and then you become His disciple. Salvation without Lordship is a manmade doctrine or religious construct based on the intention of the will with no regard to internal change or the eternal Word of God. The outside remains dirty because the inside didn’t change. But the person seems sincere in their words and declarations but are not concerned with a dirty diaper. And there are who are changed in a moment and are concerned about their outside but are left in their burial clothes as Lazarus was until Jesus commanded them to change him. Many believers are neglected because that have not been told the need for discipleship.

Paul, an apostle, tells us several times not to argue over words as they do not lead to righteous living. So, rather than be a word police when I hear someone say Jesus is my Savior but not yet my Lord, I let them define what they say before redirecting appropriately.