Key points

1. 1

   1Knowing, growing, and going are the basics of being a disciple, and going means living intentionally with the power God gives us.

   Pastor Bill frames the whole 'basics' series using his punting trip in Cambridge as an extended illustration: planting your feet is knowing Jesus personally through public worship and private practice, steering is growing in biblical community, and pushing off and leaning in is going and living intentionally. He says it's uncomfortable and hard at first but gets easier and more fun the more you lean in.

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   Hear it in the message · 7:35
2. 2

   2In Mark 5, Jesus crosses the storm for one demon-possessed man, and the town's response reveals they cared more about their pigs (their money) than about the man being healed.

   He walks through the story of Jesus calming the storm, casting the legion of demons into the pigs, and the herdsmen and townspeople begging Jesus to leave because their industry was destroyed. Pastor Bill points out they never even acknowledged the healed man — they were more upset about the financial cost than glad for what God had done.

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   Hear it in the message · 15:16Mark 5:14-17
3. 3

   3We often care more about our own 'pigs' — comfort, money, convenience — than about people coming to know Jesus.

   Pastor Bill applies the story directly to the church culture: we want people to meet Jesus but don't want it to cost us anything or disrupt our comfort. He confesses he does the same thing, framing this as one of the biggest problems keeping disciples from going.

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   Hear it in the message · 17:37

   2 quotes
4. 4

   4Jesus refused to let the healed man simply stay with Him and instead sent him home to tell his story immediately, with no waiting period.

   The man begged to go with Jesus in the boat, but Jesus said no and told him to go home and tell his family what the Lord had done. Pastor Bill notes the man had known Jesus for maybe an hour and still went and started a movement across ten towns, proving we don't need to wait until we feel ready or know enough.

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   Hear it in the message · 19:00Mark 5:18-20

   1 illustration
5. 5

   5A story only carries power when it's current — if we've 'punted' on living out our faith, our testimony becomes an old memory instead of an active mission.

   Using the image of a washed-up fitness influencer showing decades-old photos, Pastor Bill argues that many Christians' stories have gone stale because they stopped adding new chapters of God working through them. He ties this to Pastor Nolan's point from the prior week that stagnant faith shows up as old, unchanging stories.

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   Hear it in the message · 22:36

   1 quote · 1 story from life
6. 6

   6Pastor Bill shares his own conversion story to model how ordinary and simple sharing a story can be.

   He recounts growing up in a nominally religious home, his father's heart attack shaking him at 14, his own failed attempt to earn God's favor by reading the Bible and being good, and finally his best friend inviting him to a youth group Halloween event where an intern explained the gospel using John 3:16 and Romans 3:23 and 10:9. That simple invitation and explanation led him to confess and profess faith in Christ.

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   Hear it in the message · 31:13John 3:16
7. 7

   7The gospel is that God is both perfectly just and perfectly loving, and at the cross He satisfied both at once so we could be forgiven.

   Pastor Bill explains that sin means missing the mark of God's holiness, and that God's righteousness demands justice while His love offers mercy — something only God could hold together, which He did through Jesus taking the punishment on the cross. Confessing and professing faith in that is how a person's story with God begins.

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   Hear it in the message · 38:19Romans 3:23

   2 quotes

Application