2026 - Year of Discipleship
Notes
Transcript
As we reflect on 2025, we must resist the "just do more and better" trap of guilt and shame. God doesn’t want our guilty gift Out of our glorious freedom in Christ we are invited to grow and flourish in righteousness. This is the road of discipleship in Jesus' footsteps.
Gift of a Chore
Gift of a Chore
We had a lovely Christmas this year. Time with family, presents all around, good food.
I got a bit of mockery from the family on a couple of gifts I got for KK. Y’all can weigh in, tell me what you think.
The first one she opened was this. Clippers. She cuts our hair, me and the boys, she needed a new set, and that’s what you do at Christmas. Everything you buy after Thanksgiving… oh, that’s going under the tree.
Arabelle says “Dad, that’s like giving her a vacuum.”
That’s a chore for her, not a joyous thing she gets to do. It is something she does for us… it’s really a gift to us.
And so KK opens her next gift… any guesses? A new vacuum!
Hilarious. True story. You can yell at me later.
Maybe there were some other gifts as well.
But does God give us “gifts” like that?
We are going to spend a lot of time this year on a gift that God gave us. “He gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” And it can feel like God gave us a chore. Another thing “to do” amongst all our “to dos.”
And this is the perfect time of year to motivate ourselves via the power of guilt and shame. And we call that:
New Years Resolutions.
Guilty New Years
Guilty New Years
Reflect over 2025, identify all the things you feel most guilty and shameful about.
And then, leveraging the guilt and shame you feel, resolve to do better in 2026. Muster up your will, try harder.
I want to lay some careful foundation for 2026. We are going to talk a LOT about discipleship this year. About the “ministry of reconciliation.” About evangelism, proclaiming the gospel… and I know as SOON as I said those words some feels came up.
We likely have a picture, an imagination of what those words… and maybe a lot of guilt and shame baggage around them.
I know I should do more....
I know I should do better...
I know I have failed at this in the past...
And a lot of “well that is just not me...” (Whatever that is).
But “I know I should” and “I’ll do better” and “I’ll do more” because I’ll feel guilt and shame if I don’t.
Guilt and shame are POWERFUL motivators, and as a preacher they are tools that dangle right here and are incredibly tempting to reach for. Some of what feel like “best sermons ever” grab these powerful tools and you can leverage guilt and shame to get emotional responses and even behavioral change… and that feels like a win… but it is death and darkness. It is the “old self.” It is anti-gospel.
So, as a forgiven people, we must nurture a new reflex when we encounter guilt and shame. We throw ourselves down before the cross. Every time.
We don’t let guilt and shame lead us, drive us to any other action, in any other direction, but to the cross. To Jesus. Every time.
For God removes our transgressions from us, we are forever free from guilt and shame… and this is the way God has always been from Old Testament to New...
From OT to NT
From OT to NT
As He revealed to David:
12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
As He spoke to Isaiah:
25 “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.
New Creation
New Creation
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
We don’t move on from the foot of the cross carrying the old with us. Guilt and shame? Forever part of the Old.
“But what if it is the Conviction of the Holy Spirit?”
That is different from guilt and shame, but it can feel the same. But here is the beautiful thing - That also is to bring you to the cross, to lay the old down, and rise up as a new creation.
So, guilt, shame, conviction, all of it leads us to the cross, to let the “old” die, and rise as a new creation.
And that’s the only place it leads us.
We just exchanged all sorts of gifts this Christmas. Some were silly, some were thoughtful and beautiful, some were vacuums and clippers… but I hope, I pray, that none were out of compulsion or guilt.
You ever get that gift, someone just felt obligated to get you something, so they got you a jelly of the month subscription?
I don’t want the reluctant gift because someone felt guilty they hadn’t gotten me anything. Take it back, return it, stop it!
What makes me think God wants any part of that???!
Serving out of Shame
Serving out of Shame
God doesn’t want your guilty gift...
There’s a lot of verses I could go to here, I think I am on solid theological ground.
God loves a cheerful giver, not under compulsion or reluctantly (2 Cor 9:7)
It’s the “joy of salvation”, a “willing spirit” (Ps 51:12)
Serve the LORD with gladness and singing (Ps 100:2)
In and out of our radical freedom in Christ, we live as new creations.
New Creation
New Creation
Then and only then do we consider: what is the new?
What is the purpose of that new creation? What is the new life, the new world, the new calling? What is the new?
It’s a gift. It’s a gift. The “ministry of reconciliation.”
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
Ministry - διακονία - humble service motivated by love, not wages or even duty, humble service motivated by love. It’s where we get “deacons” from. Waiting tables, not for a dollar, but because you love the folks at the table.
Reconciliation - καταλλαγή - reestablishment of an interrupted or broken relationship. With each other, sure, but above all with God himself. As Christ reconciled us to himself… and then called us to serve the table, to bring that reconciliation to others. To serve it… because we love the folks that need it.
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
The “Word” (the Logos) of reconciliation. The revelation of God himself which is Jesus, that reconciliation to God, Jesus himself… he trusts us to serve it, to bring it.
What a crazy trust that is. What a gift to us as new creations.
And so he calls us ambassadors:
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
How complicated is that message? Here is is, Paul delivers it. What do we say?
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Unpack that, that is the whole gospel.
And if that is terrifying to you, fear not… you aren’t called into this ministry alone:
1 Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.
2 For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
Together with him. That’s Jesus. Together with him!
Working - συνεργός - where we get our word “synergy.” Synergy with Jesus, how cool is that!
NOW is the day of salvation, working with Jesus, as his ambassador, hand in hand, bringing folks the day of salvation.
Does that sound beautiful? Does that sound wonderful? Does that sound like a worthy calling for a new creation?
And what does that look like in actual life?
3 We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry,
4 but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities,
5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger;
6 by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love;
7 by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left;
8 through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true;
9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed;
10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.
YEEEEEEEEEESSSSS!
My soul hungers for it, my heart wants it, I want to go to there, I want to be that!!!
New Creation
Minister of Reconciliation - Logos of Reconciliation
Ambassador for Christ - In Synergy with Jesus
Now is the Day of Salvation
Disciple of Jesus
Disciple of Jesus
Forever free from guilt and shame, I am invited to open the gift he gave me - a gift free and clear - the ministry of reconciliation.
That is, the Great Commission, and as we will see in the coming weeks it is not one commission really but the Great Commisions (plural), but one Mission. It is the gift of God.
Motivated by what?
By love for Jesus and love for my friend, for my brother, for the people at the table… I am eager to serve them reconciliation because I love them.
For joy, the joy of working beside Jesus, for synergy with Jesus.
For the honor and glory of Jesus - to make him famous - as he should be. I am an ambassador because I am a HUGE fan. I tell the story of what He has done for me because it’s AWESOME and people should know.
Behold: now is the day of salvation.
If I hear that and think “I know, I know, I really should....” that is guilt and shame and take it to the cross.
Behold: now is the day of salvation.
If I hear that and my heart goes “WOOOHOOOO!” then I am ready for service. Ready to go. To be these things: minister, ambassador, reconciler, disciple.
It is being before doing, but the doing is beautiful and joyful too, for it is “working alongside Jesus.”
This is our call, and our focus for 2026. To “be and make disciples” on purpose.
You will hear that a lot. To “be and make disciples” of Jesus (that’s straight out of church covenant, and of course straight out of Jesus’ Great Commission to his disciples, to the church, to us.
And to do it on purpose…
Event when it’s hard…
With thoughtfulness…
With boldness…
Be and make disciples of Jesus.
Church. As we approach 2026, a New Year… in many ways a New Start. Let guilt and shame take us ONLY and ALWAYS to the cross of Christ. And we leave it there… all sin, all death, all guilt, all shame.
And in joy, in freedom, in new creation, in Christ, we open the gift of life, and life abundant, he has given us.
As the worship team comes up, hear again a description of us:
3 We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry,
4 but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities,
5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger;
6 by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love;
7 by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left;
8 through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true;
9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed;
10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.
