Discipleship - Kingdom Living Puts an End to You

Thank you music team. Well done this morning.

Well, good morning Church!

Ken and Shelly Beymer

Recognize Tadmor Folks

Introduction

Before we get into this, let me take a minute and share my heart with you and give us a little recap of our journey together so far. In doing so, I want to try and convey to you how seriously I take where we are right now as a church and especially the subject matter we have been teaching from this pulpit.

I truly believe that we are at one of the most important times we have ever been in as a church. I know that may seem like a strange thing for ME to say because Donna and I have only been here for a couple of years. I have only been serving this pulpit for 10 months. We are the new kids. We were not here during some of the most difficult times this church has gone through. Many of you were. In fact, this church has been in existence for over a hundred years and here I come telling you that this is the most important season that we have ever been in. I bet I am not the first to make that proclamation over the years. That might cause some of you to tune me out, but I prayed this morning that you would not do that.

When I started this series 10 or 11 weeks ago, I said I didn’t know how long it would go. I think I might know now. It will probably go on until I’m outta here or Jesus comes back, whichever comes first!

I am kind of kidding but not. Because the further I get into this, the more immense it becomes. And it isn’t any wonder. What God is looking for from you and me is that we become disciples of Jesus. That is not unique to our church, it is in fact, as we have pointed out, the last command Jesus gave to His original disciples. Go and make more. But here is what is important. He did not say that to just anyone. He said it to His apprentices. The eleven apostles He had spent the most time with for the last three years of His life on earth. He didn’t give that command to everyone. He gave it to His apprentices. So…if you are not His apprentice, then that command was not for you.

Now you might think that is an overly obvious statement because of course it would be impossible to “make” a disciple if in fact you yourself were not one. Auto mechanics do not go out and teach others how to be heart surgeons.

I also realize the danger of telling church folk that making disciples, or getting involved in the disciple-making process is not your responsibility if you yourself are not a disciple because there will be some who will use that as an excuse to do nothing. To feel a senses of release from the command to make disciples. If I am not a disciple then I am not required to make disciples. Makes sense.

So one could easily argue that the great commission command from Jesus in Matthew 28 does not necessarily compel one to become a disciple. Quite frankly, it would be easier not to.

But beloved, here is the thing. And this is why I am committed to this series of messages, however many that turns into. And this is where I really want you to hear my heart.

I have been doing this for a while. Being a Christian AND serving the church as a pastor/elder. And over the years I have had seasons where I felt very close and connected to God but then the cares of this world somehow end up crowding Him out. I know that is not something you want to hear any of your pastors say. But I am just being honest with you. Looking back, It seems pretty clear to me that God led me here not just to serve you, but to learn some things about me, and to wake my spirit up to something very important. I have had a number of spiritual breakthroughs since God led Donna and I to this church family. But a few months ago, God began to do a work in my heart that quite frankly I am not sure He has ever done before. Not for lack of trying but most likely because I would not pay attention long enough for it to get hold of me. But I am in a season right now where God has awakened my heart to the importance of BEING a disciple of Jesus Christ. Disciple-making is one thing. But it is not the first thing. Becoming a disciple yourself is the first thing.

I was reflecting back over the past 9 or ten months and how I have prayed hard and consulted with the other Elders about where they sensed the Lord would have us go in terms of the Sunday morning messages.

I know I have mentioned that I prefer to teach through a book of the Bible. That way I cannot skip anything and it doesn’t allow me to cherry pick my favorite topics. Well the Lord allowed me to stick to that plan but He laid 1 Corinthians on my heart and you all may remember I was very reluctant to do that.

“Lord, this is my first preaching series in this church and you want me to go through 1 Corinthians!? This church has just gone through a very difficult season and you want me to start talking about a church that had just about every kind of problem a church can possibly have and were doing everything just about as wrong as you can possibly do things? That does not seem wise.”

But I was obedient to that leading and I don’t know about you all, but I learned SO much during that series. And one of the primary things that was evident in that misguided church was the fact that behind every problem in that church was self-will. Everyone wanted to do church and practice their Christian faith the way THEY saw fit and it resulted in a ton of conflict and problems. So Paul spent the entire letter pointing out that things had to be God’s way and not their own.

Looking back, it was indeed an appropriate message for this church because it seems that self-will was at the center of the problems that occurred. Big surprise. Isn’t it always? That was certainly the lesson of 1 Corinthians.

As that series was coming to an end, I once again began to seek the Lord about where to go next. What came to me almost immediately, was the topic of Discipleship. and during that time I got further confirmation from a number of you who told me that you keep hearing the call to engage in the disciple-making process but you were not clear about what that even meant.

So, I reluctantly departed from my preferred method of preaching through books of the Bible and began to pray and think and write about discipleship.

Well, here we are today and 10 weeks into this subject matter and I have to tell you that the Lord has my attention, maybe more than He ever has in my life.

And here is what I am coming to realize more than anything else. Apprenticeship to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the place from which EVERYTHING else flows. Without it, not much happens. And I have already said, but I think it bears repeating. There is not a single problem in the church today that could not be solved with true discipleship to Jesus. I believe that this morning beloved more than I ever have.

I have always marvelled and the variety of church mission statements I have seen over the years. Some focus on evangelism and winning people to Christ as they say. Some are focused on starting new churches. Some are more world mission oriented. All good things for churches to be engaged with. But what makes we shake my head in confusion is, when we read the Words of our Lord and Savior, it is clear that every church established in His name should have the exact same mission. We clearly see it in the great commission at the end of Matthew where Jesus tells His apprentices to go and make more disciples. we are going to look a little closer at that in a minute. But before He said THAT he had this to say in Matthew 16.... Turn to Matthew 16:24.

Mat 16:24-26 NLT - 24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. 25 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. 26 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?

This is a clear word about what it takes to actually become a disciple. And if you noticed it, the very first instruction was...turn from your selfish ways.

Keep your finger there because we are coming back to this at the end.

So, I say ALL of that to say this. I know, because I have been told by a few of you, that I have stepped on some toes in my preaching. My brother Larry has told me on more than one occasion that I have, as he puts it, “Gone to Meddling”! I know that I have to some come across as a bit pushy and maybe even judgmental. Believe me when I tell you that I love you all. You all have reminded Donna and I what church family really looks like. You have blessed us and continue to make us feel like we are important to you. You all are important to us. And the last thing I would ever want is to make anyone feel bad about themselves.

But because I love you, I am gong to push you. Because I love you, I am not going to offer you easy solutions or shortcuts or feed you a bunch of sugary, ear tickling stuff. I am praying that the Lord will help me to push you in a way that is clearly from a position of love. Sometimes the tone of my voice can be hurtful or irritating, and I promise you that is not my heart.

The bottom line is this. After a long season of spiritual draught, and largely through this investigation into discipleship, the Lord has led me to a cool drink of water. And it is so good, that I want you all to find it for yourselves. I don’t want you to do anything because I said so. But I also don’t want you to waste any time thinking there is a way to follow Jesus as a spare time thing. It is not. Being an apprentice of Christ is a full time deal. Doesn’t mean you drop everything in your life and join a monostary. It DOES me allowing Jesus to permeate everything you do and every area of your life. And I recognize that some will be reluctant to that level of commitment. But I am going to push a little, but mostly I want to provide you with some very compelling reasons for kingdom living. And I am asking you to offer me some grace if I seem too pushy. I just really believe now is the time, and this is the place where the Lord is issuing a call to LFB, come, follow Me. Come, taste and see that I am good.

So, lets get into the message.

Father, thank you for this time together this morning. God, may we allow your Spirit this morning to compel us. To compel us to take our walk with you as serious as we ever have before. Would you compel us to seek the beauty and fulfillment that only being a sold out and surrendered disciple of jesus can bring. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen.

In Acts chapter 1 we read that Jesus was taken up into heaven AFTER, giving His chosen apostles further instructions through the Holy Spirit. So what we read in Matthew chapter 28, that great commission as we know it, were those further instructions that Luke writes about in Acts chapter 1. Would you turn there? Acts chapter 1 starting in v 3. Yes, I went rogue again and have added some passages not on the slide.

Act 1:3-11 NLT - 3 During the forty days after his crucifixion, he (JESUS) appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about (of all things..) the Kingdom of God. 4 Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, "Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. 5 John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." 6 So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, "Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?" 7 He replied, "The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere--in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." 9 After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him. 10 As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. 11 "Men of Galilee," they said, "why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!"

Some 2000 years later we are still waiting for that Day.

And we read in Ephesians that the same Holy Spirit that was given to those original disciples on the day of Pentecost, is also given to anyone who is willing to place their faith and trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior today.

Eph 1:13-14 NLT - 13 And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. 14 The Spirit is God's guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.

So, we are in the midst of a series we are simply calling DISCIPLE where we are taking a journey in the Word of God to see if we can discover what it truly means to be an apprentice of Jesus Christ, One who is no longer here in the flesh, and operate and function within the Kingdom that He inaugurated when he came, but also a kingdom that is not yet fully here. Piece of cake right?

Spend time with and learn to be like someone we cannot actually see in the flesh, and live in a Kingdom that is only partially here and for all intents and purposes, is hidden from the view of our naked eye. Shouldn’t be a problem.

Well, it IS a tall order and that is precisely why God did all that he has already done to help us with this. In a nutshell…Short version...He came as one just like us, taught us what He is like, gave His earthly life to get sin out of our way and then gave us this Helper, this Holy Spirit to guide us and empower us to become disciples ourselves, so that,we could then lead others to do the same.

But even with all of that freely given to us, there is one thing that continues to get in the way. Self. And when self is present, it hinders us in so many ways, one of which is it makes it nearly impossible for any of us to make following Jesus as His true disciples, very compelling to others.

When we are trying to follow Jesus from a self-willed position, it does not look very attractive to the lost world around us. We get labelled hypocrites, judgmental and downright mean. I submit to you this morning that So-called Christ followers who still operate with too much self are the root cause of every problem the church faces today, both within the church and with regard to the bad reputation we have with the world around us.

So what is the solution?

Pastor Sean and I were talking a few days ago and we were observing that there has to be something compelling about following Jesus before anyone will do it. And do you want to know what isn’t very compelling but we use the phrase all the time as the starting place for following Jesus? We say, “Well first of all, you must die to yourself”

That’s pretty compelling isn’t it? Hey I want to follow Jesus and become His apprentice. What should I do? Die! oh wait. Not what I had in mind. No thank you.

Funny thing is. It is true that we must get ourselves out of the way. But I want to tell you where I think we have made a mistake.

You may recall last week I made that odd statement that many people think God wants us to grow in our character to where He can empower us to do what HE wants us to do. And that's right. But what DOES He want us to do? And here is that weird statement I made. God wants us to become the kind of people that He could trust with his power to do what WE want to do.

In other words, He wants our “want” to match His want. He wants us to “want” the same things that he wants and it isn’t until that happens, that He will be able to trust us with His power.

So if you are feeling powerless ibn your Christina life, maybe have a look at what you are chasing. What id at the top of your WANT list.

And again, what is it that gets in the way of our wants matching His wants? It’s Us Isn’t it?! Our self-will. This is why we say that we must die to self. But you may find it interesting that instruction is nowhere to be found in the Bible. It is a term we have coined to point out that we must not allow our own self interests to dictate our life patterns. But how exactly do we do that? I am going to answer that this morning and it isn’t as hard as you might think.

And this has a lot to do with this Kingdom that is close at hand but not yet fully here. Jesus said the Kingdom of God is at hand. That means it is close by. Not far off somewhere in the sky. And not only does He tell us it is at hand, but He invites us to live, and work and play and love within that Kingdom, right now. Right here in the midst of this messed up broken, sin infested world we live in.

Jesus is telling us that, no matter what the circumstances are in that place where we are, we CAN indeed live within the range of God's effective will. That's what it means to live in the Kingdom of God. But I can assure you that you and i cannot do this until we completely step into the New Life we have in Christ and leave the old behind.

But how can we possibly do that?

Well, scripture is pregnant with answers to that question. But it is important to realize that trying to willfully put ourselves to death as step number one is a recipe for failure.

Remember, Being an apprentice of Jesus is about spending time with him, becoming like Him, and then doing what He did. Make no mistake. Our self will definitely interfere with that.

But the way we do away with our own selfish desires is not to try and kill them through sheer will power or even to pray and ask God to take it away. He won’t. If that had been His plan he would have gotten rid of it from the beginning.

That doesn’t mean He does not have a way for it to happen. He does. But it involves understanding something that has already happened. It happened when you first accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior. A death occurred. Not a physical death but a spiritual death.

And it requires something of us. What?

Well, the passage I have been asking you to read daily gives us some very clear insight.

Col 3:1-3 NLT - 1 Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand. 2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. now watch this…verse 3 - 3 For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.

Did you notice the tense of what we just read? Verse 1...You HAVE BEEN raised to new life. V 3. You died. Past tense. Not something that must still happen. The only way THAT is true is if you are not born again. But if you ARE born again, then this says you died. It says you HAVE BEEN raised to a NEW Life. Kingdom living is simply living as though that were actually true.

Of course we are not talking about physical death. We are talking about a transaction that took place when you decided to follow Jesus. Your old life was exchanged for a new life.

1 Since you have been raised to new life with Christ

Here is another piece of Good news....

Rom 6:4-7 NLT - 4 For we died (past tense)and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. 5 Since we have been (past tense) united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. 6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified (Past Tense) with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are (Present Tense) no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.

So really, again, according to this passage,

our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ

Again. something that HAS ALREADY happened.

So the very idea that it us up to us to die to self, to put self to death seems to be in conflict with what scripture actually says.

Nowhere does scripture call us to die to our old self. We are simply being told to just…walk away.

But what about the very next verse in our Colossians passage?

Col 3:5 NLT - 5 So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you.

Well what about that? Well that phrase “put to death” is actually better translated “reckon yourself dead to” or “consider the members of your earthly body as dead to”

So verse 5 in Colossians 3:5 would more accurately read ...

Col 3:5 NASB20 - 5 Therefore, treat the parts of your earthly body as dead [to] sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.

So rather than instructing us to put self to death, we are actually being counselled to recognize that which has already taken place and just walk away.

Paul said, I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer i who live but Christ who lives in me”

Again, the past tense, “have been”.

Now here is what I really want you to see this morning and this is where Kingdom living comes back into play.

Rather that spending your time attempting to “put self to death” what if you just walked away from all that and began spending that time and effort, as we are instructed in Colossians, setting your mind on things above, why? because you have died and you life is hidden with Christ.

When you begin to focus on Kingdom things, self things gradually begin to fade away. Kingdom living puts an end to you!

(tell story of my sister telling my brother how miserable I was as a Christian)

Let’s go back to Matthew 16 again and I will close.

Mat 16:24-26 NLT - 24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. 25 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. 26 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?

If you try to hang on to your life you will lose it? Why would Jesus say such a thing. Because if you are His, and you attempt to hang onto your life, you are clinging to a dead body. You are hanging on to something that was crucified with him on the cross.

Instead if you choose to spend time with Jesus, learn to become like Him, and strive to do the things he did, the next thing you know, your old life will have disappeared and you will be walking in the new Kingdom life that God intends for you.

Spending time in contemplative prayer. Spending time reading Colossians 3 and 1 Corinthians 13 for example, (wink) just might take your mind off your old selfish way of living. If only for a moment. But is you stack enough of those moments together, guess what? Self fades away like a distant memory and NOW beloved....NOW you begin to experience what Kingdom living is all about.

Folks I am convinced that the most frustrated and miserable people on earth are not the lost, not those who don’t know Jesus, but those who are born again and spend their days attempting something that has already occurred.

Stop trying to “stop doing things” that are part of your old dead life and instead, add something that lines up with your new life in Christ. Isn’t that what Paul is telling the Colossians?

Remember how it works. For every yes there has to be some “No”s

Yes I will spend time in prayer this morning. That equals no, I won’t pick up my phone or turn on the radio or the TV first thing.

Yes I will read scripture means no I won’t read the paper or the latest romance novel.

Yes I will find a way to serve the local church means No I won’t sit here for an hour very Sunday counting the minutes until I can get out of here and do what I want.!

My friends, the New Life you have in Christ is simply waiting for you to walk away from the old, reckon it dead because in Christ it IS dead. Stop trying to put an end to something He has already put an end to and start LIVING the new life that is already yours to live. Taste and see that the Lord is Good.

AMEN?

Lets pray. Father once again I ask that you will bless these words and use the ones that are good to bless where need is present. Give us a compelling sense of the reality of your life in us.

And Father, if there are any in the room today who have not yest decided to follow Jesus, then may this be the day as the power of your spirit leads. And we ask this in the very strong name of jesus Christ, Amen.