Discipleship Sends Near
Deep Discipleship • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 6 viewsNotes
Transcript
We’re coming to the end of our class on Deep Discipleship.
Review:
For the past 5 weeks or so, we’ve been talking about teaching toward growth. We recognized how growth might look different depending on where you are in your Christian walk, but at the end of the day everyone needs the gospel, everyone needs the church, and everyone grows into the image of Christ.
For the next two weeks I want to talk about sending as a part of discipleship. After we’ve been laboring together for our mutual growth in the faith, we should come to a call to action. God has given us all a calling as a part of being disciples in the church and as disciple makers we should be sending fellow believers into those callings.
Discipleship is for everyone, and every disciple is sent!
Discipleship is for everyone, and every disciple is sent!
When we do discipleship well, everyone is taught and matured in their faith, and everyone is equipped to go.
But going and being active on mission as a disciple doesn’t necessarily mean leaving.
There’s a common misconception: Doing great things for the kingdom means I need to do something extraordinary.
Maybe that is the case! Maybe the Lord has provided an extraordinary calling, but as we’ll see next week, extraordinary callings use the same ordinary means they’re just in a more difficult setting. Wherever we’re called and whatever we’re called to do for the kingdom.
We’re always going to be called to our family, our wife or husband and our children. That doesn’t change. It’s a prerequisite to the eldership.
We’re going to be called to be a part of the church.
We’re called to be salt and light in the world in our workplaces and in our neighborhoods.
At the end of the day we all have the same ordinary callings as disciples of Christ no matter where we are or what we’re called to do.
Very often those who’ve done great things for the kingdom are those who’ve done very ordinary things faithfully for a very long time!
If you were to look at 2 Timothy, Paul’s continued encouragement to Timothy isn’t to go do big, glorious things in ministry, it’s a call to suffer and endure.
For us, there are people to love, people to teach the Word, and people to reach with the gospel right where we are. When we attend to those simple items right where we are and are faithful to equip people for those tasks, we’re faithfully sending as the church.
I’d like to look at 4 areas into which we’re sent as disciples. 4 areas that all include opportunities to love and to teach. To meet ordinary needs and spiritual needs. Discipleship should equip us and send us into action in both regards.
The family
The church
The workplace
The neighborhood
In each area there are ways we can meet ordinary needs for the common good, that’s ordinary love of neighbor. We’ll also consider the spiritual need in each area.
Sending to the family.
Sending to the family.
What are the ordinary needs of the family that godly believers are called to meet?
Seek the common good of your family.
22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.
28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body.
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
Seek the spiritual good of your family.
What advice would you give to a young ambitious Christian man who’s thinking about getting married? If you had the opportunity to be in a discipleship relationship with a young engaged believer who has big dreams, what advice would you give them?
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.
—-
4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Sending back to the church.
Sending back to the church.
Side by Side by Ed Welch.
Seek the common good of your brother’s and sisters. There’s nothing less holy about mowing a fellow church members lawn.
44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; 45 and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. 46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,
28 He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need.
—-
Underlying this call to care for one another materially, is an understanding that we are one! Before we ever begin mowing the lawn of a fellow church member or giving toward a financial need, we need to be having conversations with fellow church members! We need to be sharing meals together, sharing joys and encouragement with each other.
Again, if I’m talking to the ambitious believer wanting to do big things for the kingdom, I might ask a question: “Do you know of anyone in your church who has a need? You might not have money, but how can you use your time and energy for the good of that church member?” There’s nothing wrong with being ambitious towards the things of God, but if we overlook the least of these among the bride of Christ, we’ve actually overlooked the ones who the heart of God is most burdened for.
Sending disciples is not counter to the unity of the church, it should prosper the unity of the church in meeting even the material needs of the body.
Seek the spiritual good of your brother’s and sisters.
11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. 14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ,
—-
Again, unity is the root and the fruit of this pursuit. We are one with the body and our gifts are for the benefit of the body.
Q: Would anyone be willing to share: how have others in the church helped you understand or use your gifts?
Sometimes gifts are apparent. Sometimes they’re not. Discipleship in the church should be oriented toward serving in the church with gifts. It may not be evangelism, pastoring, or teaching, but there are real gifts that the church needs beyond what’s found in the eldership.
What does that look like?
Would you be willing to serve in this way in the church for a season?
After a short season, maybe you’re clearly not gifted in that area. Ok, great. That’s not a failure. That’s part of discerning one’s giftings. Often it doesn’t happen that way. Often there’s recognition, ok maybe there is a gifting there, but that gift needs to be cultivated.
My point: Part of sending to serve in the church is asking people to serve in places they’re not comfortable with or may not be the best at because we know the church needs that gift! The church isn’t at its fullest capacity until every gift is being leveraged toward the benefit of the body.
One of the best ways to do that… Ask to serve yourself. Then when you’re comfortable in that place. Ask someone to do it with you! Talk to one of the elders. I’d like to do serve in this way. Ask the elders, what needs are there in the church? Then maybe follow up a couple months later. I’d like this person to do this with me.
Sending to the workplace.
Sending to the workplace.
A simple doctrine of vocation.
Seek the common good through your work to the glory of God.
Believe it or not, one of the best ways you can love your neighbor to the glory of God is to work in accord with the calling God has given us. That calling may not be special and in fact it may be very ordinary. That may be anything from a career position at the Air Force Base, Farming, Working at the gas station, or being a stay at home mom. All of these are legitimate God-given callings. We don’t necessarily establish the kingdom of Christ by these ordinary means, but that doesn’t mean God is not pleased in them or call us to faithfully work for His glory in these ordinary vocations.
6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, 8 nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you; 9 not because we do not have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you, so that you would follow our example. 10 For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either. 11 For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. 12 Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread.
—-
Hard work to provide for your family, to have something to give to others, to contribute to the common good by engaging in business and receiving the wage your due. There’s godliness in that! There’s an apostolic example in that.
Before we go looking for big things to do for the kingdom sometimes we just need to start by getting a job. Do the ordinary work of loving neighbor, providing for family and the tangible needs of the church. It’s a good and godly place to start, and it’s a good and godly place to finish! Some may be called to full-time ministry and full-time missions work, but it’s no less a calling to work in the home for the good of your family, or to work at the plant for the good of neighbor until the day we die.
Seek the spiritual good of your coworkers. Do evangelism right where you are.
16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
Stephen and Philip.
Sending to the neighborhood.
Sending to the neighborhood.
Seek the common good of those right next to you.
As ordinary and familiar as this is, it’s really the ordinary ministry that bridges directly to international ministry or church-planting.
How have you built relationships with your neighbors in your neighborhood? It’s something I’m working on right now, and I’m sure there’s wisdom here I could benefit from.
46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.
6 But Peter said, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!”
—-
The unity of the church should overflow into an ordinary love and care for our neighbors.
This is good and praiseworthy! Christ says they will know us by our love. Disciples are evident to the world by the way we love one another, but also by the way we love our neighbors....
Seek the spiritual good of your neighbor.
8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
—-
Some of us are gifted with the gift of evangelism. Some are not. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t to be witnesses of Christ in the world.
Again, I believe there are quite a few testimonies here in the room. What has evangelism looked like for you over the years?
How would you encourage a fellow believer to begin?
Create opportunities to interact with unbelievers.
Establish relationships if possible.
Inquire about their spiritual walk.
Relationship
Relationship
Ask again.
Invite them to church.
Invite them to dinner.
Share the gospel.
Share the gospel again!
