Discipleship Week 2

How do I make disciples?

Mark 16:15–16 “15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

What is your favorite drink?

Doesn’t matter if it’s good for you or not, just what is your favorite thing to drink?

Starbucks? Soft drink? etc…

Imagine there was a guy who invented a drink that was delicious.

It was one of the best tasting drinks that had ever been invented.

Not only was it delicious and good to the taste, but it was good for you!

Now, let’s say this is a local drink to Spartanburg.

After some time and social media publicity, The man is asked by a large company, “Hey, don’t you want more people to be helped by this drink? We can help you take it to more people.”

The man agrees! and within weeks the drink is available worldwide.

However, As the world begins drinking this drink, it fails to live up to the hype.

It’s not as helpful to one’s health as advertised and it doesn’t taste as good either.

The inventor of the drink sees the negativity and decides to go to his local store and buy his drink.

As he opens it and drinks it, he realizes the terrible truth.

His drink has been watered down to make it more mass produced.

In the beginning the problem was nobody knew about his drink.

However, now he has a different problem that’s worse. Everyone knows about it!

But what they didn’t know is that they were drinking a cheap imitation of the original.

_________________

When we talk about discipleship, this is an unfortunate problem that exists.

There are many people claiming Christ and the God of the Bible, but some of them are offering a cheap imitation of the gospel.

In an effort to take the gospel around the world, people have watered it down to make it bigger and faster…

But this is not what it’s about.

Being a disciple is knowing Jesus and being Known by Him!

What an incredible thing to be known by Jesus and to have the opportunity to know Him.

Quickly let me read some verses that we ended with last week.

Luke 12:7 “7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

Luke 12:24 “24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!”

John 10:27–28 “27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.”

Genesis 3:9 “9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?””

God’s relationship with us from these few verses is this:

He knows us better than we know ourselves (hairs on our head…)

He will always meet our needs (more valuable than birds)

He is the voice of truth.

He always looks for us first.

Jesus is constantly calling us to Himself…

He’s not pushing your or forcing you, but He is drawing you towards Himself.

Are you responding?

Are you a disciple of Jesus?

2. We are to make Disciples.

SO what is a disciple?

One of my heroes is a guy named Deitrich Bonhoeffer.

He died right at the end of WW2.

So close in fact, that the war was pretty much over, but Hitler himself put out a direct kill order to have Bonhoeffer found, and hung.

It was one of Hitler’s final acts in his life.

Bonhoeffer was a pillar for the church in Germany.

He had established an underground seminary for young men where he discipled them.

He went against the German government at the time to spent time with a small group of men in hopes they would use their lives to preach the gospel and establish churches.

He even found safety in the USA during WW2, but actively chose to go back to pastor in Germany risking his life and ultimately giving His life for the gospel.

In his book “The Cost of Discipleship” Bonhoeffer writes that what Discipleship costs us is “self-denial and a complete bond with Jesus.”

What is self-denial?

Luke 9:23 “23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”

Most things in our lives are calling us to make our lives better, to do this to improve yourself…

watch this, read this, take this vitamin (this supplement), listen to this…

And while often times those are good things they can also be things that distract us from what is most important.

They can be things that build up our self-esteem, but ultimately makes us believe we can be self-sustaining.

These can all be watered down versions of the gospel.

Like the inventor of the drink we talked about at the start.

Yet… what’s beautiful about the gospel is this.

And the whole time Jesus is there, like in the garden, asking “where are you?”

I’m here… but where are you?

Don’t miss this though.

Jesus knows where you are. He knows exactly where you are.

The point of the question isn’t because Jesus doesn’t know where you are…

He knew where Adam and Eve were.

But He asked the question so they would know He’s there.

He is looking for them.

Even when we aren’t looking for God, God is there, He’s waiting for you to realize He is there.

IF we are so focused on ourselves, we may miss this truth tonight

Jesus is there with us, He’s here with you… loving us, caring for us, meeting our needs, holding us together.

Maybe the truth is, we just need to get out of our own way so we can live in the freedom and grace He offers.

When we come to know that truth too, we are to then share that with others.

You see it’s not up to you to save people, it’s just up to us to use the life God has given us to spread His name.

We are to, like Jesus, involve ourselves in one another’s lives.

Even when it’s messy, it’s ok.

I’m not here on earth to offer a way for others to have more money, more time, better health, or better politicians…

I’m here to make disciples. To show people Jesus. and walk with them through this messy thing called life.

That’s what it means to make disciples.

Over the last two weeks here’s what we’ve talked about.

Jesus calls us to be discples.

He calls us to make disciples.

How do we do that?

That’s what we are going to talk about for the next few weeks.

So don’t miss it.

But for tonight hold on to this.

My boys want my time.

Daddy look at this… daddy let me read you this… Daddy daddy daddy…

And it’s real easy to get annoyed guys.

But I can see it make their day when I spend unhurried, undistracted time in their world listening, and talking to them.

That’s something Jesus wants us to know too.

Jesus is never annoyed, never distracted, never hurried.

He is an ever present God who is always in control.

And He always wants you.

Are you giving Him all of yourself?

We can define it many different ways but that’s what Discipleship ultimately is.

I’m giving myself to Jesus.

And when I disciple others, I’m also allowing their mess into my life.

When you were at your absolute worst, it’s there, that Jesus says, I’ll take your place. Jesus didn’t die for the best of us, he died for the worst parts of us.

And even still! He calls us to follow Him, to be with Him.

Why would we settle for less.

We will discuss this more in the coming weeks, but for now let’s pray.

I want you to get a partner.

With your partner Do this.

You have 60 seconds.

Share the gospel with your partner.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 is a great place to start.

John 3:16-17.

Each of you will share.

So one person gets the first 60, then we will restart the clock and the next person gets the last 60.

If you felt completely lost doing that. that’s ok!

No one is EVER going to perfectly share the gospel, so don’t think about it that way.

our job is to share and involve our lives with others, our job is not to convert them.

Jesus didn’t say make converts, he called us to discipleship.

Successful discipleship starts with your walk with Christ.

If we aren’t walking with Jesus personally, it’s going to be difficult to talk about Him.

We can’t share what we don’t know.

We can’t help but share what’s changed our lives forever.