Disciplemaking 101
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Remember- last week we talked about the importance of confronting sin and instead living in a PURE AND GOD-HONORING WAY!
We’re doing something a little different the next two weeks- we are splitting this passage into two parts. We are doing this so that we can go deeper in it.
We are going to focus this week on what it means to be a disciple, which we will see in verses 1-3 and then next week we are going to focus on verses 4-10 which is the most explicit passage in scripture about MAKING DISCIPLES!
Remember, to be a disciple is to be someone who ACTIVELY FOLLOWS GOD! A disciplemaker is someone who comes alongside other people and helps them WALK WITH GOD!
Before we go any further, I actually want us to read the Titus 2:1-10 so that we know what we will see over the next two weeks. Titus 2:1-10
1 But you are to proclaim things consistent with sound teaching. 2 Older men are to be self-controlled, worthy of respect, sensible, and sound in faith, love, and endurance. 3 In the same way, older women are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not slaves to excessive drinking. They are to teach what is good, 4 so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands and to love their children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, workers at home, kind, and in submission to their husbands, so that God’s word will not be slandered.
6 In the same way, encourage the young men to be self-controlled 7 in everything. Make yourself an example of good works with integrity and dignity in your teaching. 8 Your message is to be sound beyond reproach, so that any opponent will be ashamed, because he doesn’t have anything bad to say about us.
9 Slaves are to submit to their masters in everything, and to be well-pleasing, not talking back 10 or stealing, but demonstrating utter faithfulness, so that they may adorn the teaching of God our Savior in everything.
Today, our main point is:
Main Point: To Be a Disciplemaker we must first BE disciples!
Main Point: To Be a Disciplemaker we must first BE disciples!
Body
Body
Titus 2 starts out with an encouragement from Paul to Titus. Titus 2:1
1 But you are to proclaim things consistent with sound teaching.
Remember what I said last week- Titus flows from one point to the next as Paul gives Titus guidance on how to lead in Church Revitalization.
So far we’ve seen a call to appointing elders and we’ve seen Paul stress the importance of calling out false teachers and their false teachings!
But now Paul gives encouragement.
Paul tells Titus to proclaim “THINGS CONSISTENT WITH SOUND TEACHING!”
Titus is to preach the gospel. That’s what he needs to do! He needs to avoid getting entangled and weighed down debating the false teachers.
Instead, he is to SILENCE THEM and then PROCLAIM THE GOSPEL!
Titus can’t just leave a “teaching vacuum,” where the false teachers are just silenced, instead, he needs to replace their false teaching with TRUTH!
So what are these things consistent with SOUND TEACHING?
Let me propose something to us that Paul himself models- Paul in his epistles has three major things that he does- he proclaims salvation, he calls out sin and false teaching, and he provides wisdom and guidance for how we should live!
That’s what Titus needs to do! He needs to proclaim the GOSPEL, he needs to call out sin- we saw that last week- and he needs to provide teaching on HOW TO LIVE!
This is actually the model that Paul gives Titus even in his letter! He starts by talking about Jesus and salvation, he gives guidance, he calls out sin, now he teaches about how people should live, and then he ends with a LONG reminder of the GOSPEL!
Titus needs to teach soundly. This is the same word as we saw in Titus 1:9- literally, Titus needs to teach HEALTHY THINGS!
His teaching needs to help believers GROW AND BECOME HEALTHY!
Understand- the church on Crete and the believers on Crete are UNHEALTHY!
They need to be RESTORED TO HEALTH!
And I think this idea of HEALTH can help us understand what’s going on a little more.
See, to be healthy, we need to eat a balanced diet. We need our fruit and vegetables and carbs and we need proteins.
If we totally skip fruits and vegetables it isn’t good! There’s all sorts of health issues that you can develop!
But spiritually, it can be really easy for us to skip our fruits and vegetables. It can be easy for us to only think about eternity, or to ONLY think about how to live and never the gospel, or to totally ignore addressing sin!
See, we need to have a balance of all of this! We need a BALANCE! And that’s what Titus is charged with doing.
He needs to Proclaim the Gospel, he needs to Proclaim what it looks like to FOLLOW CHRIST DAILY, and he needs to REBUKE AND CONFRONT SIN!
That’s HEALTHY TEACHING! It isn’t about his style, or about whether he’s the most charismatic- he’s charged by Paul to ensure that his TEACHING IS HEALTHY!
In Titus 2:2-10, we really see what some of the practical things that he needs to teach are.
Like I said, today, we are going to focus on verses 2-3.
See, before we can talk about making disciples, we have to understand what it is to BE A DISCIPLE!
If we aer going to make disciples, we have to first BE A DISCIPLE and we have to LIVE OUT WHAT WE ARE TEACHING!
I don’t know if you know this about me, but I’m quite the artist. My 4th grade art teacher gave us a project for Mother’s Day. She later would call my piece of art, “An embarassment.” If you wanted to learn to draw better, or to be the next Van Gogh, you don’t want ME teaching you, you want someone who knows what they are doing! The same is true in discipleship! How can we tell someone to be self-controlled if we are not FIRST self-controlled OURSELVES! And that’s really the purpose of Titus 2:2-3- to show what it looks like to BE A DISCIPLE!
Titus 2:2
Titus 2:2
2 Older men are to be self-controlled, worthy of respect, sensible, and sound in faith, love, and endurance.
First, Paul addresses men. People can get caught up on age when they see statements like this, but many Roman Citizens like the Cretans did live long lives.
There were genuinely older men and women. This goes deeper than just physical age though.
Paul is also talking about SPIRITUALLY MATURE MEN AND WOMEN IN THIS PASSAGE!
There is a HUGE role for young men and women who are spiritually mature- think of 1 Timothy 4:12
12 Don’t let anyone despise your youth, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity.
REGARDLESS OF AGE, YOU CAN MAKE DISCIPLES! THESE CHARACTERISTICS APPLY TO YOU!
There are 6 things that Paul says should be evident in older men.
First- They are to be self-Controlled.
This is a major theme in Titus. Cornerstone Family- we are to be self-controlled. I’m just going to be honest; it’s impossible to read this passage and NOT come away with that! We are to be SELF-CONTROLLED!
Paul actually mentions self-control three times from verses 2-6! Self-Control matters!
It is a fruit of the Spirit, but I think we should also recognize that it is foundational to living a life focused on FOLLOWING GOD RATHER THAN OURSELVES!
This form of self-control has more to do with MAKING WISE DECISIONS! The older men need to make WISE DECISIONS!
Second, they are to be worthy of respect.
This is really talking about how men should live. Men should live in a way that is ABOVE REPROACH and that is WORTHY OF RESPECT!
This is a challenge for all Christian men- Paul is challenging men to live in a way that clearly points people to Jesus, rather than to questioning our integrity.
Our lives should clearly show our faith and our integrity, rather than a passionate desire to run after sin!
Third, Paul says that older men are to be sensible.
This word is used four times in the New Testament- three times in Titus and once in 1 Timothy 3 talking about eldership.
This word is translated in two ways- sensible and SELF-CONTROLLED!
These men need to be alert! They need to be sensible and show restraint.
Consider the reputation of Cretan men as lazy gluttons!
That is a fleshly desire that comes really from a lack of self-control.
See- self-control is what we need to avoid chasing every desire of our flesh!
These older men need to MODEL self-control and restraint! See, part of the Christian life is having older men and older women that you can look at and learn from!
These older men need to have SELF-CONTROL!
Then Paul says that they need to be sound in faith, love and endurance.
Let’s be clear on this- the only way that you are sound in faith, love and endurance is if you know the LORD well!
This doesn’t happen any other way! So Paul is calling for spiritual maturity.
He’s saying that they need to KNOW THE LORD personally, they need to FOLLOW GOD, they need to be men of FAITH who TRUST GOD, not themselves!
Secondly, he is saying that they need to LOVE WELL! This is agape love, this is total love, sacrificial love- the love that God has for us!
The men of the church need to be men who LOVE PEOPLE WELL!
I don’t think we talk about that enough- but men, we need to be men who LOVE PEOPLE! MEN WHO CARE FOR PEOPLE!
Finally, the older men are to have endurance- they need to be men who can stand the test of time and will stay faithful!
They need to be men of perseverance, men who are PATIENT in waiting for the Lord!
In easy times and hard, the older men need to endure!
There’s a consistency in this characteristic and in so many in this list- men need to live consistent lives.
If you are a man, this is what we are aiming for! We are aiming to be self-controlled, to be worthy of respect, to be sensible and to be sound in faith, love and endurance!
But Paul doesn’t only speak about men- let’s look at Titus 2:3.
Titus 2:3
Titus 2:3
3 In the same way, older women are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not slaves to excessive drinking. They are to teach what is good, 4 so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands and to love their children,
Paul gives older women 5 specific things- 3 characteristics and two tasks. Remember, this is not just about older women in age, but also in maturity.
First, the older women are to be reverent in behavior.
This is a call to holiness!
We need to RUN AFTER CHRIST IN ALL OF OUR BEHAVIORS AND IN EVERYTHING THAT WE DO!
We want our lives to be focused on CHRIST!
Second, they are NOT TO BE SLANDERERS!
This is a straight forward instruction- AVOID GOSSIPING!
The temptation to gossip has always existed- it was no different on Crete. But there shouldn’t be and in fact, there can’t be gossip!
It is imperative for Christians to HAVE CONTROL OF OUR TONGUES!
Listen to what James says about our tongues! James 3:8-10
8 but no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in God’s likeness. 10 Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way.
Our words can get us into so much trouble and Paul’s instruction to Titus is to make sure that the older women are not slandering. Clearly this must have been an issue on Crete.
We have to be on guard against this issue also!
Third, they are to avoid excessive drinking
An older woman needs to be an example. An example of maturity and as we’ll see, an example of what it looks like to be a wife and a mother.
There’s no room for her to be a slave to drinking; a slave to ALCOHOL OR ANY OTHER ADDICTION!
Paul talks about alcohol here because in culture alcohol was the major issue.
Greek and Roman culture was a HEAVY drinking culture! But there are so many other addictions that we deal with!
There’s still alcohol, but there are many other addictions like gossip, social media, etc… (PREACH IT!)
WE HAVE TO STAND STRONG IN THE FACE OF THOSE!
Teach what is Good
Listen to this- older women are to ACTIVELY ENGAGE WITH YOUNGER WOMEN! And the same applies to older men!
so often I have heard older men and women say something like, “This Bible study or this thing, or that thing is just for the younger generation.”
But here’s the thing! Scripturally OLDER MEN AND OLDER WOMEN NEED TO GET INVOLVED IN THAT!
Where there are young families, we need to have older men and women! Why? SO THAT THESE OLDER WOMEN CAN TEACH WHAT IS GOOD!
Think about it like this- when you have a child you raise them. You don’t let a 4 year old raise other 3 year olds! So why do we try that in discipleship?
This is one of the coolest things about what we are able to do with Cornerstone Collegiate! When I was a student at Wyoming, I was discipling “younger guys” as a sophomore. Guess what- I hadn’t learned anything!
But I was “older.”
As a CHURCH though, we have men and women who have EXPERIENCE AND CAN PASS THAT ON!
We can bring our unique experiences with us into discipleship!
And we can build REAL RELATIONSHIPS WITH VULNERABILITY WITH THESE STUDENTS!
Stan story- his real vulnerability and humility taught me SO MUCH about what it means to be a man, a husband, etc. Stan wasn’t by earthly standards anything crazy, but he was willing to BE THERE! WE CAN BE THERE FOR STUDENTS TOO!
But it doesn’t just stop with students! We can build these REAL RELATIONSHIPS with our friends, our neighbors, our coworkers, etc.
Encourage the young women (part of teaching and also part of discipleship)
Older women aren’t just to teach, they are to ENCOURAGE younger women to love their husbands and their children.
And listen- to encourage the younger women and to instruct them in this, they have to FIRST BE DOING IT!
There’s a lot of correction in Titus, but there’s also a lot of ENCOURAGEMENT!
Every place we see CORRECTION, we see ENCOURAGEMENT!
So hear me today- when you are discipling someone, DO NOT FORGET TO ENCOURAGE THEM!
See the good they are doing- encourage them in it!
Build a REAL RELATIONSHIP with younger people that lets you pour into them and ENCOURAGE THEM AS YOU MEET TOGETHER!
Just like with confronting sin, we don’t want to disciple from personal pride, or from our personal opinions, we do it out of LOVE AND OUT OF OBEDIENCE TO THE ALMIGHTY WORD OF GOD!
We do it with a heart of ENCOURAGEMENT! WE TEACH AND WE TRAIN WITH THE END GOAL OF ENCOURAGING PEOPLE!
Hear me on this- whether you are a man or a woman, DISCIPLESHIP IS DEEPLY RELATIONAL!
I can’t overstress this- discipleship is a deeply vulnerable and RELATIONAL THING!
We have to open ourselves up in order to DISCIPLE PEOPLE!
And like we see here, part of discipleship is encouraging people to do things- which requires a relationship and A HEART TO ENCOURAGE!
If you want to know why we have a discipleship problem in America, it’s because we have a vulnerability problem and an encouragement problem.
We like our walls and we like our distance.
We like being able to stay in our lane and only do what we want! But the consequence of that is heartbreaking! The consequence of it is people who never mature in their faith!
So let me challenge- we can address this and it starts with us. It starts with us being VULNERABLE AND STRETCHING OURSELVES TO BE MORE RELATIONAL! (This isn’t just asking how someone is doing- this is inviting people into our lives!
What is life to life discipleship (It’s taking someone to the store, it’s bringing someone along for whatever, it’s NOT EATING LUNCH ALONE- it’s not about lunch, it’s about how we can all make time to be intentional- we can all do that!)
Application
Application
Be a Disciple
Be Vulnerable
Be on Mission
Be a Disciple
Be a Disciple
First, we need to be a disciple.
Nothing matters if we are not a disciple. If we are not ACTIVELY TRYING TO FOLLOW CHRIST then everything we’ve talked about today is pointless!
So what are the proofs of being a disciple that we saw today?
For men it was self-control, being worthy of respect, being sensible and being sound in faith, love and endurance!
For women it was being reverent in behavior, not being slanderers, not being slaves to excessive drinking, and teaching what is good!
One thing that I really appreciate about Titus 2 is that there are things for each of us to grow in! No one has it perfectly figured out; no one is perfectly living this out.
But, these characteristics give us a good place to start as we try to FOLLOW CHRIST!
And remember, that’s what it means to be a disciple! Being a disciple is simply BEING SOMEONE WHO ACTIVELY FOLLOWS CHRIST!
These characteristics, these instructions on what men and women should be like should DIRECT OUR DISCIPLESHIP!
This is what we want to grow into!
There’s a pair of simple applications from this.
First, to be a disciple requires that you know Jesus! (GOSPEL!)
Second, being a disciple means that we are growing. How are you growing in these characteristics? And let me follow that up- who do you have who can hold you accountable to growing in these areas?
The Navigators are one of the most successful para-church ministries around the world. They work with college students, young adults, but their real focus was the military when they were founded!
And there’s something they emphasize about discipleship that is so important. See, it can be intimidating to try and grow in our faith in a big group.
So what they do is simple- they remove the big group! They make their big push LIFE-TO-LIFE like I mentioned just a minute ago, one to one discipleship that isn’t just in a bible study, but is literally just living life together!
And Cornerstone Family, that’s what we need! We need to walk WITH one another supporting one another and being WITH each other as we seek to grow in our faith! And that requires something from us- VULNERABILITY!
So what does it look like for us to be a community that does this? VISION CAST- real conversations, deep love for each other, forgiveness, tight knit community that CALLS TO THE WORLD AND OUR NEIGHBORS! It looks like Acts 2:42-47!
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.
43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. 44 Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. 45 They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Be Vulnerable
Be Vulnerable
Vulnerability is one of the most important things that we can have in discipleship.
I’m just going to be honest- I think it is impossible to disciple someone if you are not vulnerable.
And our culture has a vulnerability issue. Our culture does. America has a vulnerability issue. So is it any real surprise then that American Churches have a discipleship and community issue?
Listen- having Titus 2 relationships takes vulnerability. It requires a willingness to say, “I’m not perfect and here’s my struggles.”
Like how can I sit there and walk with a college student going through a breakup? BECAUSE I’VE BEEN THERE AND I’VE MADE MISTAKES!
But we have to be willing to be VULNERABLE AND BE REAL TO SHARE THOSE!
So let me challenge you- as we think this week about what it means to BE A DISCIPLE, a big part of that is a wilingness to be real.
We need to be real with each other at church, we need to be real with each other at Community Group and we need to be real with each other as we RUN after CHRIST TOGETHER!
Let me give an example of how it’s easy for us to avoid vulnerability…
- how easy is it to put on a face and just NOT be real, NOT be honest! It’s super simple. Putting on a face is comfortable. It’s what our culture does! But it’s not what WE DO as Christians!
Instead, we need to be REAL!
Be on Mission
Be on Mission
The final thing I want to leave us with today is a call to be on mission.
If we want to be disciples; if we want to be people who OBEY JESUS, then we HAVE TO BE ON MISSION!
It’s really that simple! We HAVE TO BE ON MISSION! Jesus has given us a mission and as disciples we WANT TO OBEY JESUS IN IT!
And to obey Jesus, we have to BE ON MISSION- see being a disciple is accepting a call to FOLLOW CHRIST AND TO HELP OTHERS DO THE SAME! In other words, being a disciple is accepting the role of BEING A DISCIPLEMAKER! We are ALL CALLED TO BE ON MISSION regardless of age, position, anything else! BE ON MISSION! (Next week we are going to talk about some of the MOST IMPORTANT THINGS TO PASS ON IN DISCIPLESHIP- but let me challenge you- start today! Start pouring into someone today!) I’ve challenged some of our students with this- but what would it look like if you took this fall to pour into someone and disciple them, then you both did that with someone else in the spring? Consider this a challenge- find someone that you can disciple ASAP!
And I’ll tell you what- if you are still unsure of what this looks like practically, talk to me, text me, email me. Let’s get together, we can look at how to do this together, or you can come with me when I meet up with someone!