Disciples Making Disciples Part 3 D-Groups

Welcome! It’s so good that you have come today. 😊 (If we have guests) If this is your first or second time with us, welcome! We are so glad you are here with us today. My name is Brian and I am the Senior Pastor here at CBC. If I did not already get the chance to meet you this morning, I hope you will have time to drop by our connection tables after the service this morning. I will be there with Gloria, my wife, and we’d love the chance to meet you. And maybe answer some questions you may have about us. Or if you won’t have time to stop and chat, you can use the connection card that is inside the trifold bulletin you should have received as you entered the building. Just take a few seconds during the service and jot down your contact information, and we will be happy to reach back out to you sometime this week. Let me just encourage everyone here today to use the connection card. You can list prayer request, or request information about our ministries. It’s simple to fill it out and drop it at the connection table on your way out. << show announcement slide>> VBS- Pictures (maybe)- Next Week Heritage Hills Food Drive this Saturday- 2 drivers and 6 to 8 runners Sermon   Introduction Gladys Aylward, left a comfortable job as a British Nanny in 1930’s London, to go to China as a single woman missionary. There’s a scene in the movie about her life, “The Inn of the Sixth Happiness”, when she tells, Mr. Yang, the man who is interpreting for her, that she is “Trying to learn Chinese from a book”, He stops her, and in broken English says, “Book Don’t Know, I Teach You!” , “I point and tell you what it is” Having learned quit a bit of Chinese as a missionary myself, I can attest to this. “Book does know”, but you still need a native speaker to teach you if you want to be effective in communicating the Gospel to native Chinese speakers. You need someone to point and show what things are. This principle of needing more than a book to learn effectively is true of most anything worth learning. Dad’s teaching their children how to fish don’t hand them a book. Joe, your grandfather didn’t teach your dad how to grow oranges with a book. Bill, you didn’t teach Josh how to bow hunt by giving him a book on bow hunting. Matt, you didn’t teach Clint how to operate a Front End Loader and Back Hoe by giving him a book. Books are helpful and often necessary for learning, but to get a full grasp of how to do something, you really need a person to train you. According to the Apostle Paul, this is no less true in the area of Discipleship . Look with me at 2 Timothy 2:1-2, 3:10 “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” (2 Timothy 2:1–2, KJV) “Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.” (Philippians 4:9, KJV 1900) Paul wanted Timothy to pass on to other believers, the things that could only be known by hearing and seeing. What kind of things are these? “But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,” (2 Timothy 3:10, KJV) • Paul’s “Doctrine” - What He believed • Paul’s “Manner of Life”: How he really lived- not just on Sunday morning in front of the church family • Paul’s “Purpose”: His Aim In Life- the core purpose of His life. How central was His relationship to Jesus, really? • Paul’s Faith: How he got through the hard times, and temptations of life. • Paul’s Longsuffering - How he was able to be meek in the face of those who challenged him or disrespected him. • Paul’s Love(Charity)- How he genuinely put the needs of others ahead of Himself, just like Christ did. • Paul’s Patience: His Steadfastness- How he stood faithful to the Lord, no matter how much trouble was thrown at Him. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”” (Matthew 28:19–20, ESV) So, we need to see Paul’s instructions to Timothy here, as instruction on discipleship. He’s telling Timothy how to “teach them to observe” all things that Jesus taught. “observe” means to “keep” and be faithful to. So, discipleship is more than just pointing people to the words of Jesus in the Bible. It’s pointing them to the words, and then showing them how to live it out. “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” (2 Timothy 2:1–2, KJV) What we see here, is that discipleship requires three basic things: I. Discipleship Requires Intentionality II. Discipleship Requires Relationships III. Discipleship Requires Time I. Discipleship Requires Intentionality Paul told Timothy to be Strong in the Grace that is in Christ Jesus. This means be intentional about making disciples. We have to be strong in Grace because we have to push back against complacency. Our default position is to omit the Great Commission from our daily life. Two or three weeks ago, I asked us to think about the person we were currently discipling. Who are you reaching with the Gospel? What convert have we baptized? Whom are you teaching to observe all the things that Jesus commanded? While I did not ask for a verbal response, I can only assume that the vast majority of us, if we are completely honest about it, couldn’t name anyone. Because, we haven’t baptized anyone in the church in a year and half. No one was able to bring an unchurched friend to church with them on Easter- not that you didn’t ask people. I know some of you told me, but the fact remains, there is no one in our life outside of this church, that we are having real influence over for the Gospel’s sake. Now, I don’t mean to beat up on us. But, sometimes the we have to face the truth, and sometimes the truth hurts. Now, I am not saying that you don’t know a lot about the Bible…. I am saying that we either don’t know how to make disciples, are we are uninterested in making disciples. “And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”” (Mark 1:17, ESV) A disciple follows Jesus, Is Changed by Jesus, and impacts others for Jesus. The whole truth may be, that, in spite of our long years in the church, and familiarity with the Bible, we may not be fully discipled believers. Because- a fully discipled believer, is a disciple who knows how and is actively involved in making disciples for Jesus. We cannot allow ourselves to be contented with a Christianity that doesn’t produce disciples. We must decide to be intentional in the area of Discipleship, or we will never get it done. We are going to have to create something new in our life: New Relationships and New Times for the calling of Making disciples.   II. Discipleship Requires Relationships The Lord showed us how to do this. We only need to look at the life of Christ to find a model for this that we can adapt to our cultural situation. The calling of the 12 among many- Jesus committed himself to a special relationship with these 12 man. “In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles:” (Luke 6:12–13, ESV) The Separation of the Three- Jesus separated 3 from among the 12 for a even closer knit relationship. “And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James.” (Mark 5:37, ESV) Raising of the Jaruis’ daughter from the dead “And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.” (Matthew 17:1, ESV) Mount of Transfiguration “And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled.” (Matthew 26:37, ESV) Prayer in Gethsemane before His Passion   So, Jesus made a special group among the group for the purpose of discipling them. We’re going to call this a Discipleship Group: 4 people: Jesus plus three others meeting so Jesus could teach them things that probably could only be taught in a small group setting like that. If we are going to be successful in making disciples, we too are going to have to follow the model of making disciples that Jesus shows us in the Scripture. This means we are going to have be intentional about making some new relationships in our life.   (from small groups to D-Groups) Here at CBC, we have small groups of 10-12 people who meet once a week for an hour and a half. This has been extremely effective in several ways. The church has had an opportunity to get to know each other on a deeper level. You've built those unique bonds that come from a working together on a common project- studying a book of the Bible together. It’s provided for better member care: You notice when someone is not here better. But, what these small groups are not able to do, is allow for the deeper level of discipleship, probably like what the Lord created with Peter, James, and John. Small groups take us knee deep in our relationships with each other, in the area of accountability, and in the area of praying for each other. But, these small groups do not create the opportunity for the transference of the things that Paul was able to transfer to Timothy that we saw in 2 Timothy 3:10 “You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness,” (2 Timothy 3:10, ESV) • Our “Doctrine” - What We believed • Our “Manner of Life”: How we really lived- not just on Sunday morning in front of the church family • Our “Purpose”: Our Aim In Life- the core purpose of our life. How central is our relationship to Jesus, really? • Our Faith: How we get through the hard times, and temptations of life. • Our Longsuffering - How we are able to be meek in the face of those who challenged us or disrespected us. • Our Love- How we genuinely put the needs of others ahead of ourself, just like Christ did. • Our Patience: - How we stand faithful to the Lord, no matter how much trouble is thrown at us. The passing on of these things, require a much deeper relationship than you could possibly create in a small group setting of 10-12 people.    Transition to Explaining what a D-Group is-  So, what I hope we can do as a church, is create some relationship in our life, to complete our discipleship.  I want us to create discipleship groups like what the Lord created with Peter, James, and John. So we can become disciples making disciples. So, hopefully you received a trifold like this when you walked in this morning. IT says, “D-Groups” on the front. Let me tell you a little about what a D-Group is, and how it can completely transform your life in terms of your success in the area of making disciples. If enough of us embrace it, it will completely transform our church. We will become that church that effectively “offers hope to the broken through Christ centered lives, marriages, and families.” We will be in the game. Fulfilling the Great commission of our Lord What is a Discipleship Group?   A D-Group is closed group. This is different from your Sunday morning small group where we expect new people to join and we just keep adding until the group is full and then we split and start another group. A D-Group ends with the same people that it started with, and this is by design. The function of a D-Group requires a small number of people- 3 minimum and 4 or maybe 5 at most.   A D-Group is gender exclusive- These groups build close bonds, and we want to focus on the Spiritual issues. So let's keep it men with men and women with women.   A D-Group is by invitation only- This type of discipleship requires an atmosphere of confidentiality, honesty, and transparency. So, you'll want to put some consideration and prayer into who you ask to join you in a group like this. (This is also demonstrated by the Lord for us- Before Jesus chose His 12 disciples, he spent the night in prayer, Luke 6:12)   A D-Group is about multiplication. Remember that the Great Commission is for Disciples to go and make disciples. But, before we can go out and make disciples, we have to be discipled. Part of that discipleship is learning how to impart the things that Jesus taught. But, there has to come a point, where we’ve learned how to do this. Not that we’ve learned everything there is to know. But, we’ve learned how to create space in our life to invest in others for the purpose of discipleship. So, the goal is multiplication not addition. Once, we’ve been equipped with the knowledge how to “observe” the things that Jesus commanded in our daily life. We have to teach this knowledge and the skill to others. A D-Group is created for the purpose of equipping each member of the group with the ability to go out and CREATE A NEW GROUP III. Discipleship Requires Time How much time does a D-Group require? A Discipleship Group should meet weekly for 45 minutes to an hour. This is a very structured meeting. Members covenant together to read the Bible, journal and share what they’ve learned, memorize Scripture together, and are to hold each other accountable for these things. When you join a D-Group you are entering a time of accelerated Spiritual transformation. Some groups will develop bonds quickly and will want to disband to disciple others. But a D-Group really should stay together for at minimum of one year. It is so effective that after one year or 18 months at the most, each member will be equipped and inspired to seek out 2 or 3 others who have not been through a D-Group, to pass this knowledge and skill on to them.   I am really excited about what this could mean for CBC. I know there must be tons of questions. So, you have the hand out with a lot of information on it, and you can get more information in your small group over the next two weeks. (Transition to the 8 week Pause in Small Groups.) Conclusion: Application Fulfilling the great commission takes intentionality, a willingness to be in relationships with other believers, and finally, it takes time. This will be the largest obstacle that all of us will face, when considering if and how we should be part of a D-Group. (I hope you’re already convinced that you should be. We all need to fill in some gaps, and D-Groups is the most Biblical way I’ve found to fill those gaps. But, we will have to find time for this. Something will have to move in your life. To make room for this. You don’t really have a choice if you want to be faithful to the Lord’s Great Commission. We simply are just not getting it done. We are busy but not busy about the business of making disciples. (I asked you a few weeks ago to think of the person you were currently discipling. I hope you didn’t think that was just a thought exercise and I was going to just leave you alone after that? What kind of pastor would I be to leave you in a state of spiritual barrenness?) But, I am sensitive to the time problem. I have it too! So, beginning in two weeks on June 24, I want us to put a pause on our Small Groups for the next 8 weeks, for the purpose of helping us get our minds and heart right about our failure to make disciples. I know that most of you, have already dedicated the 9:00 to 10:30 Sunday AM slot for being in a small group, or working in the nursery or Sunday School. So, I know that if we create an hour and half hole in your weekly schedule, you can fill that hole with discipleship business. Here’s what I had in mind. I’m not sure how you’ll respond, but this is what I hope happens to one degree or another. 1. Those of you with families with children at home. Are you spending any time discipling your children? Any time in the word and in prayer with them? Any time dedicated to talking about how to live out the things that Jesus commanded? (It’s very hard for my family, always has been). Why don’t you take the hour and half that you had dedicated to come to your small group and spend that time around a table with your kids, reading the Scripture and praying for each other. Then on August 19th when we kick off a new season of Small Groups, you can share with your new group how that went at your house. 2. Those of you who don’t have any children at home, why don’t you take this time to go out into the community and meet some people. Go to a coffee shop, or a restaurant, become a frequent visitor, pray that God will lead you to some people, who don’t know the Lord. See if you can make an acquaintance, and then at about 10:30, politely excuse yourself by saying, “I have to go, our church’s worship service starts in about 20 minutes. 3. Or, here’s slight variation on the one for those early adopters in the church. Maybe after hearing about D-Groups this morning, you’ll be so excited about it, that you’ll already have prayed and found your 2 or 3 other D-Group friends, and you can start your D-Group during this time. You can go out to a local coffee shop and let the community see your public devotion to Christ. Who knows what kind of doors that will open up for your evangelistically. a. Now, you’ll need to change your group meeting time on August 19th when Small Groups start back up. But hopefully by then, you’ll love what it does so much, that you wouldn’t think of quitting, and you’ll find another day and time to meet. [promote Now Concerning: The Purpose of the Sunday Worship Service] Now, I know that making big changes to long held programs and traditions can be hard for some of us to accept. So, tonight’s Topic in our “Now Concerning” Discussion will be on the “Purpose of the Church Worship Service.” You’ll be invited to consider why our purpose should define our programs, and not the other way around. Of course, there’s always a time at the end to make your own suggestions or comments. But- today, what I hope you will leave here with is a discontentment with our present success rate of making disciples. And that that discontentment will spur you on to seriously consider becoming part of a discipleship group. Here’s the first step to beginning a D-Group. Pray- ask God to lead you to people in the church with whom it would be good for you to be in a group with. Pray intelligently. Read over the handout and make sure you understand the type of person you’re looking for. Approach- Once you’re fairly certain you’ve gotten the Lord’s direction on who to ask, Approach them and ask them if they would like to consider being in a D-Group with you and whoever else you were thinking about. I know this can be complicated and it’s not an exact science. But, trust that God will respond to your sincere request and meet your need. If you can’t find anyone at first, don’t be discouraged. God didn’t steer you wrong, you just don’t know what He is doing in that person’s life through your invitation. Trust His leading. Eventually, it will work itself out- if you don’t give up, and you won’t give you if you are seriously discontented with your current commitment to discipleship. Covenant- once you have found the group. Then you 3 or 4 agree to the covenant on the back of this tri-fold. P- Pray A- Approach C- Covenant. What Could God do with a church full of people committed to making disciples? I don’t think any of us, have every been in a church like that. I hope we soon are. Let’s pray.