The Heart of a Disciple Maker

The past 2 weeks, we’ve been looking at what a disciple is

And remember what we determined a disciple simply was, and that is a follower.

Jesus commanded them to Follow Him, and He expects the same of us. He expects us to imitate Him, to act how He acted, to do what He did

Then last week we looked at the command to make disciples. If we are truly going to follow Him, then we should start by taking His final command seriously.....Make disciples, baptize them, teach them

And this isn’t a one and done cycle, this should be a pattern in our lives

Well, we only will do this if our heart is right. And tonight we are going to be looking at just that, the Heart of a disciple maker. What a disciples heart should be, what their focus should be on, and why.

Remember, to be a disciple maker is to be someone who does life with someone else. You hang out with them, you talk about God, you ask the hard questions, you are real.

And to do that, it takes a right heart and right love for others, which stems from having a right heart!

The Heart of a Disciple Maker

So I’ve been asking you guys some hard questions the last few weeks:

Are you a follower of Jesus

Are you making disciples, ie....sharing the Gospel or looking for ways to share the Gospel with people

Some of you may listen and be like, great story, but I’m not going to do that

Others of you may be listening and say, but how do I do that?

Still some more of you may say, I’ll do it, but my heart won’t be in it

Like when you’re forced in school to give a speech in front of a class

Or when you have to go in front of class and do something on the board

You’ll do it, because you’re being told to, but it’s soooooooooo apparent that you don’t want to

Me & Speech class

So naturally, the question that comes when looking at the heart of a disciple maker is this, “Why do you want to make disciples?”

Maybe you don’t, zero desire....and guys, let me be honest, I’ve been there. Let me be real, I sat in a youth group and was told the same things you are being told, and I said to myself, Nope, not gonna do that.

This is exactly what I don’t want for you.

, “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”

Guys, out of what’s in here, determines what you do.

But in saying that, we have to serve Him with a pure heart, with pure motives, and not because I said enough or said something to convince you to do it.

It depends on......

Our Motive:

In , Jesus is quoting Isaiah saying, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me

Jesus was talking to Pharisees here, and we don’t like Pharisees do we? We look down on them, with how they made all these extra rules and appeared holier than people and just told people how to live without living it themselves, how they did these things to appear righteous and holy.......

That could never be said about us could it?

That could never be said about you could it?

See, we are in dangerous territory of being classified as Pharisees, or another more modern word.....hypocrites

Someone who says something but lives another way.

Social Media

And I will call you out if I see you living life in a way that isn’t in step with what you claim to believe. But don’t think I’m picking on you, or that I’m looking for some behavior modification. That’s not why I do it. I do it because I love you, and because I want you to become more like Christ as you are hopefully growing in your relationship with Him!

If we are going to make disciples our motives have to be pure, and backed up by living as disciples ourselves

Jesus said this about the Pharisees also, and it applies to us to if we are just like them, “ so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. 4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. 5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

The Dangers of Teaching:

So maybe you’re reluctant to make disciples

Or maybe you want to because you know Jesus commanded it

Or maybe you view yourself as a leader and you’re ready to teach anyone and everyone about Jesus

If you’re reluctant - you’ve got to work through that.

Is Jesus who He says He is to you?

If He is, then we are called to willingly serve Him as tells us

“shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly;”

But as you get over that reluctancy, being eager isn’t enough…we have to be truthful.

If you’re eager, remember that when we speak and teach about God, we are to be extremely careful to speak truth

tells us the tongue is powerful and capable of setting a forest ablaze

Know that you are responsible for not just what you tell them about the Gospel, but all aspects of your speech.

We are to speak the truth in love, but always truth.

This is where the whole let’s just love everybody rhetoric doesn’t work for us. Our love HAS to be accompanied by truth!

Our Heart

Turn with me to , and this is where we’ll be tonight

As you’re turning there, as believers, we’ve talked the last few weeks that we are to love God and love others.

Love is key, and love stems from a heart changed by God. True love is love from God.

So if we are going to make disciples, and be effectively used by God, it all hinges on where our heart is:

Look at this with me, “ If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

To minister without truly loving the person, to minister out of have to or obligation, Paul tells us we:

Are a noisy gong or clanging cymbal

Nothing

Gain Nothing

Example: 2 volunteers

Have one start sharing the Gospel with someone, by reading it off of a script

I proceed to continually hit the cymbal as they are talking

All they will focus on is the fact that you are saying God loves them, and you want them to know it, but they’re focusing on the fact that it’s quite obvious you don’t really love them.

They hear you, but won’t understand

That’s like me trying to convince my kids to eat squash. I hate squash. But if I sit there and tell them to do it, that it’s so good, that it changed my life, but they see that I obviously don’t believe it because it’s still sitting on my plate or I never took any to start with, they’re not going to be too convinced are they.

They’re going to be focused on the obvious!

So how do we fix this? How do we ensure we are loving someone purely and Biblically

1. Change our mentality

Our focus has to shift from:

What this person can offer me

View everyone as worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Change your perspective off of any self gain and put it purely on Christ Himself

What this person will think of me

This is where we get caught up quite often. Last week some of you responded fear, rejection, etc when asked why you don’t make disciples

See though, when our focus shifts from what someone can offer me, to what I can offer them, no longer do we care about what they think of us?

Me as a kid

Until we do this, until our focus shifts from ourselves to them, we’re nothing but this clanging cymbal. Even if we are “trying”, it’s fruitless, that’s what Paul is saying!

We do this even without realizing it, even more subtle than the example I just gave

This person makes me laugh

This person is kind to me

This person is popular

Anytime we view people through any lens other than the love of Jesus Christ, we’re getting it wrong!

But don’t miss this with me, if we haven’t been transformed by the love of Jesus Christ, and if we haven’t embraced the model He set before us of love, it is pointless.

Do you see what I’m saying?

It doesn’t matter what you know, or how many doctrines of theology you know, or this or that.....

It stems from love. When we truly love people and out of that love we talk to them, build relationships with them, hang out with them, and tell them the greatest news they could ever hear, it’s powerful

That’s why Jesus said the greatest commandments were to unselfishly love.

So these people you wrote down last week, how much do you love them?

If you say you love them, how do you demonstrate it in a physical real way?

If you say you love them, how did you start to share the Gospel with them since last week when you wrote their names down?

As you head to breakout groups, think about this question, “Why do I want to make disciples?” and “Do I truly love people?”