Growing Together

Series we are going through is pivotal

The title of the sermon today is Growing Together

One of the most important parts of the church

2 Timothy 2:1–10 ESV

1 You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. 3 Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. 5 An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. 6 It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. 7 Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. 8 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! 10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

Pray

Growth is a defining attribute of Christians: to God and to each other

A church word that we use is discipleship

What is a disciple? - a committed follower of Christ

this word is both a noun and a verb

to be a disciple is to be a committed follower. to disciple is to teach

Group of friends from college bible study

the church has put such an emphasis on converting people that discipleship has been forgotten

conversion is the starting line not finish line

Matthew 28:19–20 ESV

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Our mandate is to make disciples, not converts. Now, being a convert is necessary to be a disciple. But Jesus puts an emphasis on making disciples.

Why? There is a stark difference in a disciple and a believer.

These men that Jesus was speaking to were not just believers, they were his disciples

When you read the NT, one thing is clear about the disciples, they endure

True Disciples Endure

Paul describes the Christian life as a race

olympic illustration

changed a disciple into being a shallow “believer”

The difference in being a disciple or being only a believer is the difference in someone participating in a sport and being a fan

Are you a disciple or are you only a believer?

Passage - Paul writing to Timothy(talk about relationship between the two)(1 Timothy 1:1–2 “1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, 2 To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” )

Timothy is his true child: spent years with Timothy teaching and training him; Introduced to Timothy in Acts 16.

This should not be a foreign concept(men discipling men, women discipling women)

In our text today, we will see the evidence of why discipleship leads to endurance

Discipleship Makes Disciple Makers

Catchy slogans in churches

disciples who make disciples; but do they really do it

Pizza Hut training (teach, assist, watch, have them teach you)

Corporate America has this down pat, we should too

2 Timothy 2:1–2 ESV

1 You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.

Verse 1 - Paul talks about Timothy being a convert(child, strengthened by Jesus, experienced his grace)

verse 2 - what you have heard from me, entrust to faithful men(men who are believers), who will teach it to others

everyone should be both a disciple and a disciple maker

Greg Ogden: Transforming Discipleship; has statistics

Evangelist: 1 convert a day, every day, for 16 years is 5,840

Discipler: 2 people, for an entire year, they go and find two people for a year, they go and find two people for a year, 16 years=43,046,721

doing discipleship like this is a game changer for the body of Christ

If you take the time to disciple someone, and they keep it to themselves, they are in direct disobedience of the Great Commission

Discipleship is Physical

not thought of as something physical

our lives are physical, our lives are centered around being disciples of Christ, therefore discipleship is physical

2 Timothy 2:3–6 ESV

3 Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. 5 An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. 6 It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.

Soldier, athlete, farmer

Soldier - puts life on the line for what he stands for

athlete - trains for the task

farmer - puts in time and must be patient for harvest

discipleship prepares us for a task; run the race

Philippians 3:12–16 ESV

12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. 16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

running the race requires you to put in work

meet together, communicate to one another, challenge one another, pray for each other, actually put into practice what scripture teaches

current discipleship group

Discipleship is not something you do from a distance; (ie.; worship online, work from home) It requires a physical presence

Discipleship is Focused on God’s word

hanging out is cool(men’s hangouts have been great), but that isn’t discipleship

our focus must be singular with discipleship (can’t know our savior if we don’t know his word)

2 Timothy 2:7–9 ESV

7 Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. 8 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound!

verse 7-8: focus on knowledge of God(can’t follow a savior you don’t know), resurrection of Jesus, and preaching of gospel

Verse 9: Paul is a prisoner because of his faith(awaiting execution); he is a criminal according to the powers that be

His focus here is on the word of God; It Cannot be Bound!!! (Paul is bound, God’s word is not)

descriptions of God’s word:

True: Psalm 119:160 “160 The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.”

Pure: Psalm 12:6 “6 The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.” `

Perfect: Psalm 19:7 “7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;”

Profitable: 2 Timothy 3:16–17 “16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

Powerful: Hebrews 4:12 “12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

Living, Active, Profitable, Inerrant, Infallible, Sufficient

Why would we base discipleship off of anything else?

Trendy churches and the “unique groups”

One thing that makes us baptist is that we want to focus on God’s word

Matthew 28:19–20 ESV

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Literal translation - As you are going, disciple them, baptize them, teach them

What do we teach them? God’s word

Discipleship Produces Endurance

Back to analogy on sports, runners don’t just go and run a race without training

Endurance - the fact or power of enduring an unpleasant or difficult process or situation without giving way.

life is not always pleasant; tragedy, death, sickness, poverty

to endure is to go through all the hardships of life without giving way

True disciples endure

2 Timothy 2:10 ESV

10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

Verse 10: everything that Paul has went through, was for God’s people; that they may obtain salvation

I want to explain this for us

go back to believer vs. disciple

You can be a believer and not go to heaven(shock)

James 2:19 “19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!”

Believing in God is not enough to get you to heaven

you hear me talk about the gospel each and every week here.(why? unbeliever-know what it means to be saved; believer-as a reminder)(gospel presentation)

belief in the gospel gets us into heaven (that seems too simple) (what about works?)

belief in the gospel brings on other things(2 Corinthians 5:17 “17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” )

See, true belief leads to a new person. Jesus didn’t die so that you could continue in the life of habitual sin. Jesus died to free you from sin, not free you to sin

Someone who is truly saved will change

That change will often come through what we would consider discipleship

How many people do we know have this life changing event, and then maybe days, maybe a few weeks, maybe even a couple of months later, they go right back to their old way of living? What happened to 2 Cor. 5:17?

I can’t take back anyones salvation. Can’t make a claim that they either have it or not. I know you can’t lose it. But we can clearly see if they are living like a true disciple.

But what if that profession was just a step towards true salvation and we lost them because we wouldn’t disciple them?

How many people has the universal church failed because we didn’t see a need to pursue them and teach them?

How many people have missed the urge to be missionaries or to be trained up to be disciple makers or the call to be pastors because we let them come and be pew warmers on Sunday mornings?

Church, let’s be better

Look at Paul and what he said. he said he endured everything for the sake of the elect(God’s children)

2 Corinthians 11:24–28 ESV

24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

You think we have it bad? Yet Paul still saw that he must disciple other men. He discipled Timothy and then told Timothy to take what I have taught you and teach other men, so that they will go and teach!

Paul would not have been able to endure all that he went through if it were not from him being taught the word of God and being tested.

Discipleship produces endurance

Conclusion

True disciples endure

Are you a disciple or just a believer?

we should all desire to be discipled; age doesn’t matter, maturity doesn’t matter; gender doesn’t matter

what is the best way to be discipled here at Immanuel? (build close relationships with same sex, read God’s word together(same passages), pray for one another, meet together weekly)(until our groups expand, a good place is Wed. Bible study)

Challenge for believers - find one person here that you can meet with or talk to this week about what God is doing in your life (coffee, invite over, go grab some food)

Unbelievers - discipleship begins with salvation (gospel presentation)

if you have done that, it is time to begin being discipled, and we are here for you

Prayer

Song - Behold Our God