The Warning Light

Intro

Today we are embarking on a journey on a subject that is near and dear to my heart. That is discipleship. So over the next few weeks we are going to be doing some church maintenance.

Here is the big idea.

Jesus didn’t call us to simply gather people. He told us to make disciples.

Before we dive into this, I first want to ask a couple of questions.

First to the kids.

How many of you know what this light means?

To the adults in the room, how many of you have seen this light come on and thought, “Maybe if I ignore it, it will go away?”

Here is one thing I have learned about the check engine light. I have learned that when it comes on, it doesn’t mean the car stops working.

I have driven a car with it on. It still got me from point A and B. The radio worked. The air worked. Turn signals were fine. I was still getting to where I needed to go.

But the light is on and it is on because it is telling me that something needs attention.

I wonder if there is a check engine light that is flashing on today’s church. Churches are still gathering people. Churches are still singing. Church are still having events. We are building children’s ministries and youth ministries. We are creating content and reaching people.

But the question is:

Are we making disciples?

And because it is family Sunday and our kids are here, I will ask an even bigger question:

Are we intentionally discipling our children?

Now this series isn’t to bring on any judgement or condemnation. It is to bring awareness to the church culture in America.

I believe that God’s desire is that we get back to the original mission of the church. I fear that Western Church has lost its mission.

We spend all kinds of resources on trying to come up with a mission statement for our churches, when the original mission has not changed.

Author Robby Gallatay said this:

“Discipleship wasn’t a ministry in the first century church. It was THE ministry.”

In our Western culture we have scaled down discipleship to a one hour class or simply a study that we do. When in the very essence of disciple making should be integrated into the life of every follower of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Gave Us One Mission: Make Disciples

We find some of the last words of Jesus in the book of Matthew. Before Jesus left this Earth to be seated at the right hand of the Father, Jesus gave His disciples one more command known as the Great Commission. Co meaning we work with God on the mission of God.

Matthew 28:18–20 NASB95

18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Notice what Jesus didn’t say:

Go and make church attenders

Go and get people to believe that I exist

No, He said to go and make DISCIPLES.

Disciple: follows, learns, obeys, and becomes like Jesus

Not only this, but eventually this disciple will help others to follow Jesus too.

Let me ask the kids a couple of questions:

Kids, can you follow Jesus?

Can you pray?

Can you read God’s Word?

Can you worship?

Can God use you to tell someone about Jesus?

The answer is YES to all of these questions. God can and does use our kids.

Kids, here is the best part. You don’t have to wait to be an adult to be part of the church.

This is why we believe here at New Life that:

Kids are not the church of tomorrow, but the church of TODAY!

They can worship today!

They can read scripture today!

They can pray today!

They can tell someone about Jesus today!

They can hear God’s voice today!

They can be disciples of Jesus today!

God has ALWAYS cared about discipling kids

The Children of Israel’s faith was never intended to be just for the adults. It wasn’t just for the adults to practice and then when the kids were old enough they too would practice.

Deuteronomy 6:6–7 NASB95

6 “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 7 “You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.

Biblical discipleship wasn’t confined to a once a week gathering. It was a part of every day life.

Children in ancient Jewish culture grew up hearing the Word of God and were immersed in the commands of God. God explicitly required parents to teach His words to their children. In public worship, children were a part of the service in hearing of covenant instructions.

Deuteronomy 31:10–13 NASB95

10 Then Moses commanded them, saying, “At the end of every seven years, at the time of the year of remission of debts, at the Feast of Booths, 11 when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place which He will choose, you shall read this law in front of all Israel in their hearing. 12 “Assemble the people, the men and the women and children and the alien who is in your town, so that they may hear and learn and fear the Lord your God, and be careful to observe all the words of this law. 13 “Their children, who have not known, will hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live on the land which you are about to cross the Jordan to possess.”

Teaching children Scripture isn’t some modern day invention. Children’s ministry has always been around.

The only thing the Western Church did was segregate it. Churches now push kids off to one are of the church for kidmin volunteers to teach and train them.

We don’t do that here at New Life. We know that our kids are just as much a part of the body of Christ as the adults are. So we invite the kids into worship. We do know that they need to be spoken to on their level of understanding as well, so we do have kids church, but once a month we keep them in here so they can worship and learn right along side the adults.

Church is to be generational. We are to incorporate generational discipleship as well.

Paul writes this to Timothy, a younger generation.

2 Timothy 3:14–15 NASB95

14 You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, 15 and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

In the first chapter of 2nd Timothy Paul already lists off who Timothy had learned from: Lois his grandmother and his mother Eunice.

Grandmother, mother, and son. This is generational discipleship. This is the model that God has designed for the church and it has not changed.

I know some guys may be thinking, “See it is the woman’s job to teach the kids. Timothy’s dad isn’t listed.”

Yeah, why isn’t his father listed here?

Well he was mentioned in Acts 16. He was a Greek. There is different speculations with the absence of the father from not being saved to not being alive, but not mentioning his father in this passage of scripture is not an excuse for fathers to get out of teaching the kids.

Throughout Scripture it was the man’s responsibility to lead his household spiritually.

What I want you to see here is that Timothy is an example of generational faithfulness. He did not have a perfect spiritual structure in the home, but he had one none the less. He was a young man discipled by different generations in and out of the home and became a great leader for the Kingdom of God.

This brings me to my next point.

We cannot outsource discipleship

Children’s ministry, youth ministry, pastors, teachers, are all important and vital in the church.

But none of these were designed to replace the spiritual influence of the home.

Parents I want to show you something.

168 Hours in a week

168 hrs in a week

35 hrs at school

6 hours a month at church (maybe less if the parents don’t come every week) According to Lifeway Research, once a month makes someone a regular church attender. This could mean the church only has about 90 minutes of influence on your child.

127+ parents have their children

According to these statistics, who has the most influence on the kids? Parents. Grandparents. The home.

**What I didn’t show up here is that the average church goer in our culture is once a month. So the church really has less time to of influence over our kids.**

For some reason in our culture, we have outsourced the discipling of our kids to the church. The church will do it. It’s the kids pastor job.

It’s like we are telling the church, “Church, you get an hour or two. Fix everything the world is teaching my child the rest of the week.”

True story. I had a mother try to blame me as the pastor (not here) for that her child of 18 years wasn’t saved. I was only pastoring the church for 6 months.

I told her she cannot blame me for her child’s salvation when I had him for 6 months and she had him for 18 years. Besides, I cannot make that decision for him or anyone. All I can do is sow seeds.

I as a parent cannot blame the church for the salvation of my kids when it is my responsibility to teach them and sow seeds of truth into their lives.

Parents, ultimately, it is still up to the child to believe or not. All we can do is teach, sow seeds of truth, water, and pray it sticks. I cannot save them. The choice is theirs to receive salvation or not.

Parents, this teaching of God’s Word wasn’t just once a week when they came to church and then only in Children’s Church. Discipling the kids was and still is the primary responsibility of the parents.

The secondary responsibility does fall on the church. Teaching our kids is not just for the parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. We as a community of Christ followers have the responsibility to help teach the next generation.

Psalm 78:1–4 NLT

1 O my people, listen to my instructions. Open your ears to what I am saying, 2 for I will speak to you in a parable. I will teach you hidden lessons from our past— 3 stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us. 4 We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders.

We will not hide these truths from the next generation. What I find interesting here is this Psalm was written by Asaph. He was king David’s worship leader. I share this because while it may be the primary responsibility of the parents to disciple their kids, the church also plays a part and has a role.

Children Don’t Need a Smaller Jesus

Could it be that many don’t get involved with discipling the younger generation because we believe they need someone to explain the Gospel and the things of God on a smaller scale?

Children don’t need a smaller Jesus

While they may need biblical truth spoken to them on their level, what they don’t need is a watered down Gospel.

Here is the truth church.

“If our culture recognizes that childhood is developmental enough for conversations about identity, the Church certainly shouldn’t conclude that children are too young for serious conversations about their God-given identity, salvation, holiness, the Holy Spirit, and calling.”

When I read through Scripture I see many examples of children being used by God in MIGHTY ways!

Samuel - As a boy learned to recognize the voice of God. It was Eli, the generation before him, who was teaching him how to hear from God.

1 Samuel 3:9–10 NASB95

9 And Eli said to Samuel, “Go lie down, and it shall be if He calls you, that you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. 10 Then the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for Your servant is listening.”

Josiah became king at just 8 years old! At 16 he began to “seek the God of his father David.” (2 Chronicles 34:1-3)

Jeremiah protested that he was only a youth, but God responded:

Jeremiah 1:6–7 NASB95

6 Then I said, “Alas, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, Because I am a youth.” 7 But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ Because everywhere I send you, you shall go, And all that I command you, you shall speak.

Even Jesus Himself didn’t treat the children as spiritual inconveniences.

Matthew 19:13–14 NASB95

13 Then some children were brought to Him so that He might lay His hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them. 14 But Jesus said, “Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Church, we shall not hide the truths of God from our children! Notice the Asaph didn’t say “wait until they are older”. No, he says we will NOT hide them!

Why?

Psalm 78:6–7 NLT

6 so the next generation might know them— even the children not yet born— and they in turn will teach their own children. 7 So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands.

How many want revival? Raise your hands.

What if revival starts with out kids. What if the church poured into them and discipled them with the truth’s of God and they began to walk in those truths at home, at school, while out and about.

I love hearing stories of our kids praying for other kids on the playground at our schools. If we want our schools to change, maybe it doesn’t start with the teachers, why not the kids?

Trust them with the things of God and watch what God will do!

Closing

I want to close out with this thought.

If we don’t disciple our kids, someone else will

The culture around us is not waiting until they are adults to tell them who they are. Why should the church wait until they are adults to tell them who God says they are?

If our kids are old enough to hear messages about their identity from the world, they are old enough to hear:

they were created by God

they are old enough to hear they are loved by Jesus

they are old enough to hear that Jesus saves

they are old enough to learn the Word of God

they are old enough to pray

they are old enough to worship

they are old enough to recognize the voice of God!

Church they are old enough to know that God has created them on purpose, for a purpose! They are not mistakes or inconveniences. They are the church of TODAY!

Joel 2:28 NLT

28 “Then, after doing all those things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions.

We don’t have to wait until they are old enough to introduce them to the God who created them who already knows their future!

We will not HIDE the TRUTHS of God from our children!

Parents…church…we need to

Pass the Baton

In a relay race, one runner can run an incredible leg. They can be fast, strong, and talented. They can even build a huge lead. But if they fail to pass the baton, the race falls apart.

Church, we have been handed something precious.

The Gospel.

The Word of God.

The presence of God.

The truth about Jesus.

The power of the Holy Spirit.

And we cannot keep it to ourselves.

We just read moments ago in Psalm 78 that we tell the coming generation so that they will “set their hope in God.”

Success isn’t simply that we ran our part of the race well.

Success is that another generation receives what was entrusted to us and runs with Jesus themselves.

**Physically hand the baton to one of the children. Pause. Let the congregation see it.**

This is why they’re not just the Church of tomorrow.

They’re standing in the Church right now.

They’re worshiping right now.

They’re learning the Word right now.

The Holy Spirit can fill them right now.

Jesus can use them right now.

So let’s disciple them right now.

Closing Prayer

Kids come on up. Teenagers come on up. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, I want you to stand behind them.

We are going to pray three things.

Lord, help us KNOW you

Lord, help us FOLLOW you

Lord, help us SHOW the next generation how to follow you

We don’t want kids and teens who just come to church. We want them to KNOW Jesus.

We don’t want the next generation to know how to speak the Christian language, we want DISCIPLES who know the Word of God, walk by the SPIRIT of God, Love people, and MAKE more DISCIPLES.

Church, the warning light is on. It’s time to check our focus. Let’s make disciples from generation to generation.

Let’s pray.