Live: Are you a Barrier or Carrier?

Manuscript Template

Title:  Live: Are you a Barrier or Carrier?

Elevator Summary:  

You are a child of the living God, and you were created for relationship with God and others. You’re here to make a difference. You’re here to show others Jesus - God saves. And you’re here to show people Immanuel - God with us.

THE INVITATIONAL WAY OF LIVING allows others the chance to see the real you in real time during real struggles. This is where your life and your struggles will provide you a stage, your pain a platform, your mess a message, your peril a podium, your misery a microphone. Why? To point people to God.

Focus Statement:  

Function Statement:  

Where are you at on the Discipleship Wheel?

What’s the next step God’s calling you to take this Lenten Season?

Tweetable Phrase:  

Are you a Barrier or Carrier of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

Scripture:  

Main Text:  Paul / Timothy: 1 Timothy 1:2, 2 Timothy 3:10-11, Romans 16:21

Supporting Text:  Discipleship: John 15:5, Galatians 2:20, Colossians 2:6-7, Ephesians 4:11-16, Matthew 28:19-20

Redemptive Closure (point to Jesus):  Ephesians 2:1-10

Benediction:  John 15:5

WELCOME

Good morning!!! My name is Ryan Hanson and I have the honor of serving here at The Light KC as the lead pastor. I’m so glad you’re here with us.

‌Welcome to those joining us online. We hope your doing well and hope to see you in person in the coming weeks.

And a special welcome to those joining us for the first time. We’re so glad you chose to be here.

ME/INTRO - Tension

So as we begin, I want to ask a question.

What one person has had the greatest impact on your faith?

As I have heard from many of you and from the feedback we recieved from the town hall, the topic of discipleship is on many people’s minds.

BUT...What is discipleship?

And, how do we become a disciple?

How do we disciple others?

To answer these questions for myself...I never really had a single person growing up (outside of my family) that I would put in the category of a spiritual mentor. I went to church, listened to the sermons, and have believed in Jesus as my LORD and SAVIOR as long as I can remember.

BUT...I never went to youth group. I never had an adult take me under their wing and guide me in my faith journey.

Growing up, I played hockey. Hockey is not a sport, it is a life style that easily takes 20 hours or more per week in middle and high school. Because we practiced during the week, hockey always conflicted with youth group. Because games were all over the state every weekend, we went to church, but would bounce around the Saturday night and two Sunday morning services depending on game times and locations. Because of the inconsistency in what service we went to, we never did any of the kids / youth stuff because we couldn’t be there consistently. As kids, we attending the adult service. I missed out on having youth leaders, adult mentors, non-related people who poured into me spiritually.

Even as an adult, I have not truly had a mentor. When I started volunteering in middle school ministry, we were given very loose guidelines for how to run our groups and the focus (as it should be) was 100% on the kids. The youth pastor, didn’t really pour into us as volunteers. Even when I was asked to join the teaching team at a middle / high school ministry the student pastor never watched a single teaching I gave, or provided any feedback. He said, “people aren’t complaining so you’re doing great.”

It wasn’t until I started coaching hockey that I really started to understand what mentorship and discipleship was all about. You see when I was in high school a youth hockey coach saw me practicing, approached me after the practice, and asked if I wanted to assist him coaching his team. I needed volunteer hours for high school, so I said yes, thinking playing hockey with little kids would be more exciting than the other service options I had.

I ended up coaching for 15 years as the head coach of various hockey teams from little kids to JV high school. From local leagues, to travel leagues that traveled all over the place. The interactions that I had with those kids shaped my understanding of what it meant to be discipled and what it means to disciple others, more than any other experience.

I’m not sure if you’re familiar with how the youth hockey system works. There are levels based on skill; HOUSE for beginners, and then multiple levels of TRAVEL depending on player skill and willingness to travel for games. Within each of those levels, there are age groups, typically spanning 2-3 years so kids are about the same size, which is important once you are able to check. You don’t want a huge kid checking a younger smaller kid and hurting them.

So as I coached, I typically stuck within the 12-14 year old age group. I liked middle schoolers. They were fun. They were old enough to be able to teach, and still young enough to respect the authority of adults. And they were very mold-able as that is a very formative time in a kids life.

What I learned very quickly was that coaching hockey was not just about coaching hockey. The kids would come to me with all kinds of issues, from school, siblings, parents, etc. Because I had the title of COACH, they felt empowered to come to me for help with any and all challenges they were facing. I didn’t sign up for it, but it was an amazing honor to be able to help these kids (as best I could) during those years.

There were a few kids during my 15 years of coaching, that didn’t want to age out. They didn’t want to move onto another team when they got too old for the team that I was coaching. And when it was the end of their last season with me, they asked if they could stay on as an assistant coach. Just like I started out as a high school assistant coach, they were asking for the same opportunity.

I always said, “YES”, and it was during these years specifically that my concept of mentorship and discipleship was formed.

WE - Tension

Today, as we continue our series “Living an Invitational Life” we’re going to talk about not only what it means to LIVE the life God created us to live. We’re going to see what God has to teach us about our discipleship journey, and what part He’s calling us to take in the discipleship journeys of the people that He places in our lives.

If you missed some of the previous messages, please feel free to catch up. They’re easy to find on our new and improved website!!!

TheLightKC.org

As as we begin, please turn with me to 1 Timothy 1.

We’ll have the scripture on the screen, but if you have a Bible with you, or Bible app on your phone, I’d encourage you to turn to the passage and follow along. There is nothing that replaces having God’s word in your hand.

AND...if you don’t have a Bible, we have Bibles under the seats. If you don’t have a bible and would like one, please come see me after the service and I’ll get you one you can keep.

Lets dive in.

GOD - Text

Now...my mentorship experience with these hockey kids, parallels pretty close with the discipleship relationship that we see in scripture between Paul and Timothy in the New Testament.

Parenthood - accompany, assist, serve as apprentice

The first stage in mentoring someone is PARENTHOOD.

Paul is not shy about defining his relationship with Timothy in this way.

1 Timothy 1:2 NIV

2 To Timothy my true son in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

I experienced the same thing with these hockey kids. When they first started helping me as an assistant coach, I had to be very directive, just like a parent needs to be with their children. They served more as an apprentice than an actual assistant coach. I had them help small jobs like picking up pucks and doing the drills with players when we didn’t have an even number and the drill required partners, but they really had no responsibility. Their main job was to observe, learn, and pitch in when asked.

This is the same when we get the opportunity to disciple someone new to the faith. They don’t have any knowledge of what it means to be a Christian. We have to show them with our lives. Their job is to observe how we live the Christian life, ask questions, learn, and do the small things we encourage them to do.

Pace-Setting - learn to emulate

Once someone has observed our lives for a while, and learned the basics of what it means to be a Christian, it is time to start living the Christian life for themselves.

The second stage in mentoring someone is PACE SETTING.

Paul describes this stage in 2 Timothy 3:10-11:

2 Timothy 3:10–11 NIV

10 You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11 persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.

This is exactly how the relationship with the hockey kids progressed. After a while, when the hockey kids were asking me better questions, doing well at the tasks I gave them, and showing me they were serious in helping, it was time for them to take that next step. It was time to let them learn to emulate me. It was time for me to give them opportunities to do exactly as I was doing. Typically this played out with me setting up drills where I’d split the kids into two groups that each did the same thing. The student would take one group and I’d have the other. I’d explain the drills, take questions from the players, but I’d let the student assistant coach lead one of the groups. He could look over at my group to see what I was doing. he could ask questions if something happened he couldn’t figure out, but his job was to do with his group exactly what I was doing with my group.

When discipling someone, this can play out in many ways as you start living the Christian with WITH them, instead of IN-FRONT of them.

Start serving with them, doing the same thing, right next to each other. With youth group kids, I did this all the time volunteering at 5Ks as road marshals, serving at food banks, co-leading an elementary age small group at church, etc.

Let them take a more active role in their Spiritual Disciplines. Don’t just Study the Bible together. Let them explore various other ways to deepen their relationship with God. Join them in the practices they want to explore. Show them how you’ve entered into them in the past, and answer questions, but let them find the ways that bring them closest to God.

The idea is that you’re working with them, doing the same thing, letting them start to live out their faith, but being right there serving as an example and always available to answer questions.

Partnership - colleague / co-laborer

After they’ve learned to emulate you for a while, and you seeing that they’re progressing, it’s time to release them to follow the path that God has set for their lives. It is here that they become Colleagues or co-laborers, PARTNERING with you.

Paul writes of this stage with Timothy in Romans 16:21.

Romans 16:21 NIV

21 Timothy, my co-worker, sends his greetings to you, as do Lucius, Jason and Sosipater, my fellow Jews.

With the hockey kids, this typically took the form of co-coaching. Typically by the 2nd season they helped me, they pretty much knew what was going one, how I lead teams, and what needed to be done. Instead of doing drills where both our groups did the same thing, we could setup circuits, where there were multiple stations around the rink, with each of the coaches leading their own drill; explaining it, fielding questions, making corrections when kids were doing it wrong, and making sure the kids were progressing in their skills. It was here that I treated them as an equal.

This was when my relationship with these played matured from COACH to MENTEE to PARTNER in the work of serving these kids.

AND...this is what we’re all called to with people new to the faith. Disciple others, SO THAT, they can be partners in the KINGDOM WORK Jesus calls us all to do. This is when they find someone to disciple themselves and continue the long tradition of disciples making disciples.

YOU - Takeaway

Have you had someone walk you thought the process of serving as your spiritual parent, setting an example for you of how to live the Christian life, and then helping you become a partner in faith co-laboring for Christ?

Have you walked anyone else through this process?

I know for me, these categories seem to make sense, but they leave me wanting more practical action steps I can take.

I’m not sure if you’ve seen this before...there are many versions floating around...but there is a path for discipleship represented by a wheel.

Discipleship Wheel

[Discipleship wheel]

The process for discipleship is broke down into four stages.

Connect

Once you accept Jesus as your LORD and SAVIOR, your a spiritual infant. In the first stage of discipleship your job is to CONNECT.

Galatians 2:20 NIV

20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

This is a time when you are a spiritual infant. You are

learning new truths

developing new habits

and you are sharing them with others.

You are moving away from the IGNORANCE you had before you knew CHRIST and moving toward a place where you can grow in your Christian walk.

Grow

The next phase of discipleship is GROWTH. This is where you are a spiritual child.

Colossians 2:6–7 NIV

6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

You’re still self-focused, concerned completely on yourself;

learning what you don’t know

developing relationship with other Christians

and starting to cement some habits that were shared with you during the connect phase.

This is the phase when you start the habit of entering into spiritual disciplines and join a small group.

Serve

The next phase of discipleship is to SERVE. This is where you become a spiritual young adult.

Ephesians 4:11–16 NIV

11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

This is a huge step, when you transition from being self-focused to other-focused. This is where you are provided with ministry opportunities and start doing the Kingdom work the Holy Spirit is calling you to.

Lead

The last phase of discipleship is to LEAD. This is where you become a spiritual parent.

Matthew 28:19–20 NIV

19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

It is here that you move from other-focused to being intentional with your faith.

It is here that you start to pay forward everything that others have poured into you. This is where you SHARE your experience with others who are new to the faith. This is where you help walk others through the discipleship process that you were just taken through.

This is where you go from being Timothy to Paul.

Where are you currently at?

God is not calling you to complete the wheel today, just take one step forward.

So I ask you, what tangible next step is God calling you to take in this process?

WE / JESUS - Redemptive Close - Call to Action

The Bible sums up this process quite in Ephesians 2.

Ephesians 2:1–10 NIV

1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

As I coached hockey for those 15 years God gave me a visual that has helped me.

Every year, when the season was over, I had a team party and made awards for the kids. I thought of one thing per player that made them stand out. Typically it had nothing to do with hockey, but something I hoped would validate the positive character traits that I saw being developed throughout the year.

One year, I felt compelled to take my awards up a notch. I decided to overlay them on pictures of them playing hockey. The problem is the lighting in ice arenas is terrible and normal cameras don’t take good pictures. Undeterred and willing to make an irresponsible purchase, I bought this [Pull out camera].

I bought the same camera that you see professionals use at sporting events. It is the same cameras you see at hockey games, tennis matches, etc. I thought it was awesome. I learned how to use it, which took a while. Before every game, I would set it up, I would select someone from the parents to take pictures for the day, and at the end of the season I would sort through them to find the perfect picture for each player. I’d then edit them in Photoshop, overlay the award text, print them, frame then, and wrap them.

But the lesson that God gave me through all this was when I learned how to use the camera.

You see to get a good photograph you need to set the ISO, the Aperture, and the Shutter Speed.

Photography

ISO

[Photography - ISO picture]

The ISO is a setting in the camera that sets how sensitive the camera is to light.

Just like a camera we become more or less sensitive to the light of this world (Jesus).

When learning about this, God challenged me to evaluate how sensitive I am to the teaching of Jesus.

God asked me how serious do I try to live out the Kingdom Life that Jesus teaches in the Gospels.

So I ask you, How sensitive are you to the light of the world (Jesus).

APERTURE

[Photography - Aperture picture]

The next setting you need to get right to get a good picture is the APERTURE.

This determines you depth of field, or how much of the picture is in focus.

By setting the aperture you can draw attention one part of the picture by blurring out the rest of it.

When learning about this, God challenged me to think about what I’m focusing on.

Am I focusing on everything, letting my faith get lost everything else going on in my life.

Or am I making my faith a priority, blurring - de-emphasizing, everything else in my life, focusing completely on Jesus.

So I ask you, Where is your focus?

SHUTTER SPEED

[Photography - Shutter Speed picture]

The last setting you need to get right to get a good picture is the SHUTTER SPEED.

This is the setting that determines how fast the camera takes the picture.

You can set it very long to take pictures of fireworks, or you can set it very short to freeze the motion of something moving fast.

When taking pictures of hockey players I had to set it very fast so the players wouldn’t be blurry as they’re skating.

You can even set it fast enough to freeze the puck mid shot.

When learning about this, God challenged me to think though how fast I was moving in my life.

Was I moving so fast that I didn’t stop and listen to the promptings that God was giving me.

Was I moving so fast that everything I heard from God was blurry, unclear, and confusing.

Or was I slowing the pace of my life down, so I could clearly see the next step God wanted me to take.

So I ask you, How fast is your life?

Are you unclear as to what God wants you to do, or do you slow down and listen to His still small voice?

I think discipleship is the process that God takes us though to learn how to live the life that He created us to live. We mature from infants (unable to do anything for ourselves), to children (focused only one ourselves), to young adults (where we start thinking about others), finally maturing into parents (intentionally pouring into others).

I’ll end with the same question I started with.

WHO has had the greatest impact in your spiritual life?

WHAT next step is God calling you to take this week?

AND...WHO is God calling you to pass it along to?

PRAYER 

Will you join me in prayer...

SONG 

As we enter into our final song, I want to open the steps up front as an altar to anyone who needs God this week. The steps are open for you to pray to the God who is with you, who loves you, you wants to give you His peace.

If you’ve heard the still small voice of the Holy Spirit calling you to take a NEXT STEP in your journey with God, the cross is setup and I’ve love to pray for you. Feel free to come up, write down your next step. I’ll be praying for you.

‌

You may feel a hand on your shoulder as I or one of the elders join you in prayer.

BENEDICTION 

John 15:5 NIV

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

This week...

Let’s take a real hard / honest look at our lives. Determine where you are at on the Discipleship Wheel, and pray throughout this week that God shows you the next step He wants you to take.

To add some accountability to our shared discipleship journey, I’m going to start changing the connect cards to include a few follow up questions about how your week with God went.

I want to pray for you, support you, and help you in your discipleship journey in any way I can.

I can’t wait to hear how your weeks with God went.

Quick reminder...

Please sign up for the mission / vision / values group in the app - we’re meeting 3 weeks right before service.

Don’t forget to help us support Hillcrest Transitional Housing. There is a signup sheet on the desk. Please mark off the stuff you’re planning on getting so we get 10 complete kits.

If you’re new, please stop by our info desk, or see me. We’d love to say “hi” and get you know you a bit better.

I hope you have a great week.

Go in peace.

You are dismissed.

DISCIPLESHIP QUESTIONS (download into APP)

start next week