Metter Methodist Messages

Ten men were healed of leprosy, and only one came back to say thank you. In Luke 17:11-19, Jesus shows us why gratitude has to be learned and how to grow a grateful heart this Thanksgiving.

Gratitude is not something we are born with. Pastor Allen Cason walks through the story of the ten lepers and asks a question worth sitting with: when God answers our prayers, do we remember to come back and give thanks? You will see what it meant to be shut out by the law, why Jesus walks toward the people everyone else avoids, and what set the one thankful Samaritan apart from the other nine.

CHAPTERS (approximate)

00:00 The Bull and the Prayer

02:30 Why Gratitude Has to Be Learned

05:00 Ten Men Standing at a Distance

10:30 Ten Prayers and One Act of Obedience

13:30 The One Who Turned Back

17:30 Nine Went Home, One Went Back

22:30 Don't Forget Where Your Blessings Come From

📖 Scripture: Luke 17:11-19 (NIV)

🎯 Series: Thanksgiving Series, Part 1 of 3

⛪ Metter Methodist Church | Metter, Georgia

Pastor Allen Cason serves Metter Methodist Church, a Global Methodist congregation in Metter, Georgia. Subscribe for weekly messages on following Jesus and building the kingdom of God one disciple at a time.

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What does it mean to take up your cross daily and follow Jesus? In Luke 9:23, Jesus invites “whoever” to come, asks for everything, and adds one word that changes how we live it: daily.

In the seventh and final message of “Jesus Defines Disciple,” Pastor Allen Cason walks through Luke 9:21-26 and shows why “whoever” means everyone, and why everyone means no excuses. He looks at the excuses in the banquet parable of Luke 14, and at how Jesus calls every one of us to deny ourselves and take up our cross, not just once but each day.

Along the way: why Luke 9:23 is the only place Jesus says “daily,” what Jesus’ own habit of rising early to pray shows us, how the manna in the wilderness and “give us each day our daily bread” teach us to depend on God one day at a time, and what a daily rhythm of personal worship can look like: silence, confession, song, Scripture, and prayer.

Then comes the promise of verse 24: whoever loses their life for Jesus will save it. When we open our hands and give up everything, we gain everything that matters, because a closed fist can’t receive anything. The message closes with an invitation to the Lord’s Table with open hands.

What does Jesus mean when He says that anyone who does not give up everything they have cannot be His disciple? In Luke 14:33, Jesus asks for all of it, and this message shows why that is an invitation and not a threat.

In the sixth message of “Jesus Defines Disciple,” Pastor Allen Cason walks through Luke 14:28-35 and the tower builder and the king who both count the cost before they act. He breaks down the three meanings packed into “give up”: open hands, forsaking old loyalties, and publicly renouncing them, as we do in baptism. He shows that Jesus never asks us to do what He has not already done in Philippians 2:5-8.

Along the way: why “everything” is not about how much you have but about who has control, what Peter, Levi, the rich young ruler, and Zacchaeus show us about the cost, and why Jesus is either Lord of All or not Lord at All. Then comes the surprise of the verse: we do not actually own anything to begin with. As Psalm 24:1 and 1 Chronicles 29:14 remind us, everything we have already belongs to God, and surrender is not the same as loss.

The message closes with an invitation for anyone who is tired of holding it all together, and for anyone with one hand open and one fist clenched around the one thing they cannot give up.

What does it actually mean to carry your cross? Jesus turns to a large, happy crowd in Luke 14 and says that whoever does not carry their cross and follow Him cannot be His disciple.

In the fifth message of “Jesus Defines Disciple,” Pastor Allen Cason walks through Luke 14:25-27 and shows why Jesus turns around instead of recruiting the crowd. He explains what a cross meant to a first-century audience that had watched Rome crucify thousands, why “that’s just my cross to bear” misses what Jesus is saying, and what John Wesley meant when he said we take up the cross by choosing what we could have avoided for the sake of obeying Jesus.

Jesus would rather have disciples than a crowd, and the road He asks you to walk is a road He walked first. The message asks a question every follower has to answer: how close are you walking? It looks at Peter, who followed at a distance, and at the risen Jesus who still said to him, “Follow me!” It closes with an invitation for anyone who has been in the crowd, following from a distance, or carrying something heavy right now.

Is Jesus your top priority, or is He your Lord? Jesus says anyone who does not put Him above family and even their own life cannot be His disciple, and that He is asking for far more than first place.

In the fourth message of “Jesus Defines Disciple,” Pastor Allen Cason walks through Luke 14:25-35 and the hard words of Jesus about counting the cost. He explains what Jesus means when He says to “hate” father and mother, wife and children (and why the Bible sometimes uses that word as a comparison), then uses a simple jar of rocks, gravel, and sand to show why making God an “A” priority still leaves Him as one rock among many.

Jesus does not want to be the biggest rock in your life. He wants to be the jar everything else lives inside of. The message shows what that looks like on a Monday morning: how your time, your family, and even your own life change when you stop trying to fit Jesus into your life and start fitting your life into Jesus. It closes with the difference between Savior and Lord, John Wesley’s Covenant Prayer, and the question every disciple has to answer: who gets the final say?

Jesus said a real disciple bears much fruit, fruit that lasts. But what is that fruit, and how do you actually produce it? In John 15, Jesus gives the answer in one picture: stay connected to the vine.In the third message of “Jesus Defines Disciple,” Pastor Allen Cason walks through John 15:1-17 and the third statement Jesus makes about what a disciple is (John 15:8, 16). He shows the two kinds of fruit Jesus wants from His followers: the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22, which is the character of Christ, and the fruit of disciple making, which is the conduct of Christ. Along the way he asks what Jesus meant by “greater things,” why the fruit of the Spirit is not a menu you pick from, and why an hour on Sunday cannot replace daily time with Jesus.The message closes with a hard look at the false vines we attach ourselves to, like achievement, approval, comfort, self-sufficiency, and religion without power, and an invitation to come back to the True Vine. This message was shared on a Communion Sunday.Pastor Allen Cason leads Metter Methodist Church, a Global Methodist congregation in Metter, Georgia, built around helping people encounter Jesus, follow Jesus, be transformed by Jesus, and live on mission for Jesus.LinksVisit us online at https://www.mettermethodist.comFollow along on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mettermethodistFollow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mettermethodistGive online through the link on our website.Subscribe for a new message from Metter Methodist every week.

Jesus called it a new command: love one another the same way He has loved you. Not romantic love, not family love, but Agape love — the unconditional love of God with no strings attached. In this message from John 13:31–35, Pastor Allen Cason unpacks what that love actually looks like and why Jesus says it’s the clearest mark of being His disciple.This is week two of “Jesus Defines Disciple,” a series looking at the moments Jesus described exactly what a disciple is and isn’t. Right after Judas leaves the Last Supper to betray Him, Jesus gives His remaining disciples this new command and unpacks six specific ways His love showed up: He served, He touched the people everyone else avoided, He ate with the wrong crowd, He told the truth even when it cost Him a friend, He forgave the people hurting Him, and He laid down His life. Agape love isn’t a feeling. It’s a direction you choose to move toward people, even the ones who haven’t earned it.AboutMetter Methodist Church is a Global Methodist congregation in Metter, Georgia, led by Pastor Allen Cason, building the kingdom of God one disciple at a time. We’d love to have you join us in person or online.LinksVisit us online at https://www.mettermethodist.comFollow along on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mettermethodistFind us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/mettermethodistSubscribe so you don’t miss next week as we continue through Jesus Defines Disciple.

Believing in Jesus and following Jesus are not the same thing. In John 8, Jesus turns to a crowd of brand-new believers and tells them what it actually takes to be one of His real disciples.

Pastor Allen Cason opens a new series, “Jesus Defines Disciple,” with the first of seven statements Jesus makes about what a disciple actually is. Reading John 8:31-47, he shows why belief alone was never enough, even for the crowd that day, and why James calls us to be doers of the word and not hearers only. He walks through what it means to hold to Jesus’ teaching, to abide in Him the way a branch abides in the vine, and offers scripture memory as one practical, doable way to start.

The message closes with Jesus’ promise that the truth will set us free, and an honest look at what still holds so many of us as slaves: our own sense of being good enough, a faith we inherited but never made our own, or a sin we know is destroying us. It ends with an invitation to become a real disciple of Jesus, not just a believer in Him.

Pastor Allen Cason leads Metter Methodist Church, a Global Methodist congregation in Metter, Georgia, built around helping people encounter Jesus, follow Jesus, be transformed by Jesus, and live on mission for Jesus.

Visit us online at https://www.mettermethodist.com

Follow along on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mettermethodist

Follow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mettermethodist

Give online through the link on our website.

Subscribe for a new message from Metter Methodist every week.

A pastor’s firsthand account of the Global Methodist Church’s 2026 General Conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, where delegates from six continents prayed, voted, and broke into the doxology together.

Pastor Allen Cason served as a delegate to this year’s General Conference and came home with more of a testimony than a sermon. He shares what it looked like when nearly 400 delegates and 600 volunteers from countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, India, and Bulgaria found themselves unified around a new Articles of Faith, the first update to the church’s historic statement of belief in 455 years. Reading from John 17:20-23, he connects that unity to Jesus’ own prayer for His church: that they may be one.

This message covers the global reach of the Global Methodist Church, what it means to hold onto Methodist and Wesleyan doctrine after disaffiliating from the United Methodist Church, and why the local church, not a denomination or an annual conference, is where disciples are actually made.

Peter denied Jesus three times beside a charcoal fire. The next time John mentions a charcoal fire, the risen Jesus is standing beside one, cooking him breakfast.

In this message from John 21:1–19, the final week of the A Place at the Table series, Pastor Allen Cason walks through the morning Jesus meets Peter and the disciples back on the Sea of Galilee, fishing again after the resurrection because they don't know what else to do. Jesus doesn't wait for them to get their lives back together. He builds a fire, feeds them breakfast, and then asks Peter the same question three times: “Do you love me?”, undoing each of Peter's three denials and recommissioning him with the words, “Feed my sheep.”

This message traces the phrase “charcoal fire,” which John uses only twice in his Gospel: once in the courtyard where Peter denied Christ, and once on this beach where Christ restores him. Whatever failure you're carrying, this is a picture of what Jesus does with it. He doesn't erase it, he redeems it, because restored people become sent people.

Metter Methodist Church is a Global Methodist congregation in Metter, Georgia, led by Pastor Allen Cason. We exist to build the kingdom of God one disciple at a time.

Visit us online at mettermethodist.com

Follow along on Facebook at facebook.com/mettermethodist

Subscribe for a new message every week.