Resolve To Be A Disciple
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Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
It’s at this time every year that people take a moment to examine themselves in order to become a better person in the new year.
These “new year resolutions” are a tradition that continues with new opportunities the new year brings.
But what many people simply do not realize is that their pursuit of becoming “a better person” is found in Christianity.
It is not in being skinny, muscular, more educated, or the like, it’s when one is makes the decision to be a disciple of Christ.
When they “Resolve To Be A Disciple” instead of just a window shopper disciple.
This morning I want us to consider how being a disciple of Christ will make us better people this year if we are resolved to be such.
Before we dive in let’s read Ephesians 4:25-32.
25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.
29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
With this in mind let us examine how following Christ, being his disciple can make us better people this year.
Discipleship Brings Integrity
Discipleship Brings Integrity
Speak The Truth.
Speak The Truth.
Let’s read Ephesians 4:25 again.
Ephesians 4:25 (ESV)
25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
Ephesians 4:29 (ESV)
29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
No one wants to be lied to, even those that lie.
Yet we live in a society that promotes lying more and more as a matter of respect and compassion.
It is demanded we identify someone according to the mental illness they accept such a man saying he is a female or vise-versa.
It is demanded we identify people and judge people’s lives by their skin not their actions.
Being a disciple of Christ means being honest with not just ourselves but everyone we come in contact with.
Being honest and having integrity are not always easy as Paul reminds us in the book of Galatians.
16 Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?
Being honest with love and compassion is the Christ like way.
1 Peter 3:15 (ESV)
15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect
Summary
Summary
Christianity will always bring honesty and integrity into our lives and those lives we come in contact with.
Most people will be grateful for your honesty with them and even when there are those that are not grateful they cannot help but respect your integrity.
Being resolved to be a better disciple also reminds us that…
Discipleship Checks Our Emotions
Discipleship Checks Our Emotions
Be Angry & Sin Not.
Be Angry & Sin Not.
Emotions are neither right or wrong in-and-of themselves.
Even emotions such as hatred jealousy, and anger are not intrinsically evil or sinful.
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
Abhor means to hate.
Exodus 34:14 (ESV)
14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God)
When we desire that God be glorified and that nothing competes with him we experience a godly jealousy that mirrors Gods.
Ephesians 4:26 (ESV)
26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger
Emotions left unchecked leave a wake of destruction wherever they are.
Following Christ’s example, being a disciple of Christ, means we know when to “be angry and sin not.”
We know when and how to use our emotions.
Summary
Summary
Discipleship, wherein emotions are concerned isn’t about perfection in our emotions.
2 For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.
Discipleship, Christianity, is about striving our best to control those emotions and use them as Christ would use them.
Being able to wisely use them instead of in the heat of the moment.
Being resolved to be a better disciple this year will reminds us that…
Discipleship Checks Our Behavior
Discipleship Checks Our Behavior
Let The Thief Still No More.
Let The Thief Still No More.
Simply put following Jesus will help us curb our appetite for sin.
Notice I said “following Jesus” not just claiming to follow Jesus as there is a great difference.
28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.
When actually love Jesus and not just love what Jesus can do for us it will impact our behavior.
If we stole things we will stop.
If we lied a lot we will stop.
If we lust we will stop.
If we cheat we will stop.
John 14:15 (ESV)
15 If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
1 John 5:2–3 (ESV)
2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
Summary
Summary
Again I’m not saying we will be perfect at stopping stealing, lying, lusting, etc., but we will do everything in our power to try and stop because we “love our Savior and not just love what he is offering us.”
A lot of people claiming to be Christians love their Savior but not their Lord.
Being resolved to be a better disciple this year will reminds us that…
Discipleship Will Make Us Kind
Discipleship Will Make Us Kind
Be Kind, Tenderhearted, Forgiving.
Be Kind, Tenderhearted, Forgiving.
Discipleship involves more than avoiding evil, it involves doing good.
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Just simply “not doing bad” will not leave one righteous.
In fact, it will eventually leave one worse than they were at first when they realized they needed to avoid evil.
Matthew 12:43–45 (ESV)
43 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.”
Being a disciple of Christ means actively seeking to do good in our neighbors lives.
Matthew 7:12 (ESV)
12 So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Summary
Summary
Discipleship, being a Christian, has much more to do with actively seeking to do good toward others than avoiding evil in our lives.
Yes we must, with all our heart, strive to avoid evil, but we must replace all that evil with good.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Christianity, being a disciple of Christ, is not just a religion of the “head,” i.e., a philosophical concept but a way of life in this life and the next.
It doesn’t just impact our lives either, it will have an impact on the lives of our neighbors as well, if we are disciples of Christ and not just ones that claim such.
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.