TOWARD GENUINE DISCIPLESHIP: Part 3

TOWARD GENUINE DISCIPLESHIP: Part 3 Colossians 1:28 October 15,  2000 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introductory In our Vision Statement one of the express values of our congregation reads like this: MECF WILL BE A CHURCH WHERE GENUINE DISCIPLESHIP IS PRACTICED AND ENCOURAGED. We believe it is our calling as Christians to win others to faith in Christ, doing our part by faithfully witnessing, teaching the Word, and demonstrating our faith before an unbelieving world. The discipling process continues for saved people as well-Christians do not stop growing. We seek to challenge every believer to press on in Christian maturity, posturing themselves to give and receive the ministry of discipleship. We are aggressive concerning our Colossians 1:28 calling: "We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone, with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ." When our children were very young, we read to them from The Chronicles of Narnia, these wonderful children's stories about the magical land of Narnia. In the second book, Prince Caspian, Lucy enters Narnia again, and she hasn't seen Aslan, this lion figure who represents Christ. She has not seen him in a long, long time, and so they have a wonderful reunion. Lucy says to Aslan, "Aslan, you're bigger now." Aslan says, "Lucy, that's because you are older. You see, Lucy, every year that you grow, you will find me bigger." It's that way with spiritual maturity, isn't it. The more you know (or think you know) the more you realize how much you don't know. The farther along the path of Christian growth you come (or think you've come) the more you realize how wretched you are. In the apostle Paul's earliest writings we find him referring to himself as "an apostle of Jesus Christ." A little later in his life and ministry he liked to use other terms when talking about himself: "I who am least among the apostles." Toward the end of his life and ministry Paul said of himself, "I am the chief of sinners." After two weeks of teaching on the biblical issues surrounding the topic of discipleship and making disciples, I would like to take a few moments this morning and get personal and practical. Let's address the greatest question that can be asked about any spiritual teaching-"SO WHAT?" What can we walk away from the theme of discipleship with? What can we actually DO with what we've learned? Let me suggest that each of us who is serious about becoming genuine disciples of the Lord Jesus (and thereby enabling ourselves to help others do the same), need to cultivate three things: A MINDSET, A MANDATE AND A METHOD. A Discipleship Mindset Most people are far more interested in feeling better than they are in maturing. A man opened a counseling session saying urgently to his counselor, "I want to feel better quick." The counselor paused for a moment, then replied, "I suggest that you get a case of your favorite alcoholic beverage, find some cooperative women, and go to the Bahamas for a month." It was now the man's turn to pause. He stared at the counselor, then finally asked, "Aren't you a Christian counselor?" "Yes, why do you ask?" replied the counselor. "Well, your advice doesn't sound very biblical." "Well, it's the best I can do, given your request. If you really want to feel good right away and get rid of any unpleasant emotion immediately, then I don't recommend following Christ. Drunkenness, immoral pleasures and vacations will work far better. Not for long, of course, but in the short run they'll give you what you want." Each of us needs to ask himself, "Do I really want to grow in Christ?" Or do I just want to be comfortable. You'll never be able to have both at the same time, you know. We need to begin to see Christian growth as NORMAL Christian behavior. It's sad to say, but so true, that in most churches you know it is abnormal to find people who are aggressive and excited about growth in Christ. If you are, then you stick out like a sore thumb. Don't you think it would honor the Lord if the people who were the oddballs in church were those who refused to grow? May we see the day when it will be considered NORMATIVE that Christians are eager to be more in the image of Jesus tomorrow than they are today! I would suggest that if you want to grow like that, you will need to make a friend of change. Now, we all by nature resist change. Change moves us from the comfortable to the uncomfortable, from the familiar to the unfamiliar. It's been said that the only one who truly welcomes change is a wet baby. But if you think about it, you're never going to become what Christ wants you to be until you change. One attitude about maturity we need to develop is seeing the whole growth thing as an exciting adventure. To wake up in the morning and say, "Lord, I don't know where you're taking me today, or what you'll have to bring me through to get there, but I welcome and embrace it as your plan for me, and I throw myself into it 100% for your sake." You see, it's more than just doing certain things or feeling certain ways. Maturity as a disciple of Jesus involves ongoing radical change of character and personhood. I encouraged the reading of Larry Crabb's book Inside Out in an earlier teaching. I want to quote a couple of sentences out of that book concerning growing as a disciple: The difference is enormous. Some people push me to DO better by trying harder. Others draw me to BE better by enticing me with an indefinable quality about their lives that seems to grow out of an unusual relationship with Christ, one that really means something, one that goes beyond correct doctrine and appropriate dedication to personally felt reality. The few who report occasional glimpses of Christ that touch their souls more deeply than any other experience of life are the ones who excite me with the possibility of change. I want to be a different KIND of person, not just someone whose behavior patterns and biblical knowledge are commendable. To change who I am requires a very different process than the process needed to change what I do or what I know. Cosmetic surgery is not adequate for the kind of change I have in mind. We need a discipleship MINDSET. We need to think in terms of always changing into more of what Jesus wants us to be. It is when we walk in that mindset we are free to listen fearlessly to what the Holy Spirit is saying to us, we are free to cooperate fearlessly with His will in our lives. With a discipleship mindset we start to view our lives in spiritually healthy ways. We begin to see that our real career here on earth has nothing to do with the job we have. But we see our real vocation as growing into the image of Christ. That other stuff we do is the necessary services we perform to keep bills paid and food on the table. A Discipleship Mandate At several points during the teaching of the past couple weeks I have touched on the relationships that are integral to discipleship. Let me suggest three key relationships you need to cultivate in order to be a well-rounded and healthy disciple: You need a PAUL, a TIMOTHY, and a BARNABAS. In order to grow as a disciple in a healthy way you need someone in your life who is like Paul was to Timothy-a mentor, a spiritual director, a "discipler." Who should it be? You should have someone in your life whom you respect for their maturity, wisdom and genuine relationship with the Lord. We recognize that everyone is a sinner, and no one is perfect. But look for someone who is well ahead of you in terms of spiritual maturity, and ask them if they will serve as a spiritual director in your life. That is, someone you can check in with periodically, someone who will ask you the hard questions, someone who will recommend areas of study and discipline for you, someone who will give you guidance and encouragement. Find somebody like that and go and ask them if they will serve you in this way. Don't tell them you want to meet with them four hours a week, and call them at all hours of the night. A spiritual director is not your significant other nor your teddy bear. Another person you need in your life is a TIMOTHY-someone into whose life you can speak and minister. That is, you need to be a Paul to someone else. And don't be falsely humble here insisting that you are not that mature that you could help someone else. Yes you are. It doesn't matter if you've only been a Christ-follower for a month-you're farther along than someone else. Ask God to send a young protege your way. Remember, too, that discipling includes working with the unsaved with a view to bringing them to Christ. And lastly, you need a BARNABAS. Very simply, a Barnabas is a fellow disciple who is roughly at the same point of maturity where you are, with whom you can pray and discuss spiritual matters. Someone you can befriend and develop a mutually satisfying spiritual relationship with. Barnabas was that for Paul in the scriptures. Remember when Paul was still named Saul-he had been a persecutor of the church and was suddenly and dramatically converted to Christ. Soon he was called to preach and teach, but the other believers were afraid of him and understandably did not trust him. In steps Barnabas who helps the others to begin to trust Paul. He helps Paul to develop a good relationship with the Christians who would later support him in his missionary work. It wasn't long before these two were good friends and traveling companions. They ministered side by side for years. Search around you, and ask the Lord for leading. Find a good Christian friend with a heart for God that is like yours. Cultivate a Barnabas relationship and watch God bless you both with huge new strides in maturity. The plain fact is, we need others in our lives from who we receive discipling and into whose lives we can invest. This is the stuff of discipleship. In another great book by Dr. Larry Crabb, Connecting, he writes these words: "The absolute center of what [God] does to help us change is to reveal himself to us, to give us a taste of what he's really like, and to pour his life into us. And a critical element in the revealing process is to place us in a community of people who are enough like him to give us that taste firsthand. If that is true, if a powerful experience of God comes through others, then connecting plays a vital, indispensable, powerful role in effectively addressing the core issues of our souls, the issues that lie beneath all our personal, emotional and psychological problems." The plain fact is, we were never intended to be lone rangers in the faith life. Get yourself into healthy, Christ-centered relationships with people who are committed to spiritual growth in their lives and committed to helping others grow as well. Cell groups are a perfect venue for people who are serious about discipleship. Get into one and get committed to giving and receiving genuine discipleship. That brings me to my last point. A Discipleship Method Each of us needs to chart a course for growth in discipleship. To fail to plan is to plan to fail. He who aims at nothing will hit it every time. Seek the Lord's wisdom in this matter. Build into your plans the cultivation of a discipleship mindset; get ready to make a friend of change and to treat growth as an adventure instead of an obligation; start training yourself and those around you to see deliberate, aggressive change into the image of Christ as normal Christian behavior. Get serious and set some goals for finding your personal Paul, your personal Timothy and your personal Barnabas. Remember the challenge last week? How fast and exponentially explosive the growth of the kingdom occurs when each of us takes on one Timothy per year? Set your objectives and determine that, for instance, by the end of October you will be in a significant Barnabas relationship with another believer. By December, you will have found a Timothy you can personally disciple; and that by January, 2001, you will have submitted yourself to the oversight of some spiritual director whom you trust in the Lord. Start making changes in your busy schedule to allow for the couple hours a week these life-giving relationships will require if they're going to work. You see, we can sit through teachings like this one and feel real good about the ideas, but we will never get around to putting them into practice without setting goals and seeking the Lord's help and direction in putting them into practice. Genuine discipleship is not about discussing good ideas and filling ourselves up with great biblical notions and spiritual idealism. Genuine discipleship is about going after what God wants in your life. Leonard Ravenhill said it well: "Spiritual maturity comes not by erudition, but by compliance with the known will of God." It's like I always remind us in these teaching settings-if there is truth in what you hear, then you and I are obliged to start obeying it right away. James says only a fool, a spiritual dolt, will understand a spiritual truth and do nothing about it. One more word about Cultivating a Method. It's hard for most believers to just dive into a spiritual growth plan all on their own. It's difficult to just jump into a discipling relationship with a Timothy. Most of us need a "lesson plan," if you will-some kind of printed agenda or material to get us started. I would like to share with you a very brief overview of what is being developed here at MECF as a guideline for growth. We are calling it "Design for Discipleship" Phase One - "Beginnings" - one-on-one "sponsorship" of a new believer or new member by another believer at MECF. 8 weeks of basic teaching and experience, including doctrine, practical Christian living, questions and answers, a little scripture memorization, homework and a weekly meeting of sponsor and sponsee to go over the material being covered. Most of this is complete and ready to go; should be fully written and published by year's end. Phase Two - "The Church" - group study of the biblical teaching on what the church is and does, with special emphasis on the Mission and Vision of MECF and how individual believers plug into real life ministry in and through this local body of believers. Six weeks. Phase Three - "Spirit-Filled Living" - another group study on knowing what the Christian life is all about, how to draw on the power, leading, gifts and fruit of the Holy Spirit to effect victorious Christian living. Participants will learn about their personal spiritual gifts and how to put them to work. Phase Four - "Maturity and Ministry" - a practical course on how to engage in ministry toward people in healthy and meaningful ways. Included: the proper use of spiritual gifts, how to evangelize, how to pray for people for healing, deliverance. Other courses that will be available along the way: The Spiritual Disciplines (based on Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline) Experiencing God (based on book of same name by Blackaby and King) Variety of Bible studies (Precepts, weekend book studies, etc.) Conclusion It strikes me that we each face our unique futures with only two options: to either live it for the Lord and His purposes, fully committed, or to live our futures for ourselves. In the parable of the talents (Matthew 25) Jesus taught that God had only two responses to those who stood before Him at the close of their test of stewardship: one was "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness." And the other one was "You wicked, lazy servant! Take that talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents.and throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." There wasn't any middle ground. He never said to anyone, "Hey nice try. I know you were busy with other things and you didn't really have much time for what I asked of you, but you did OK! Tell you what-I'm going to let you come in  anyway." The life we commit to Jesus is a life of total commitment to His purposes. There's just nothing said about the person who gives less than 100%. Chuck Swindoll wrote: "Excellence requires one hundred percent all of the time. If you doubt that, try maintaining excellence by setting your standards at 92%. Or even 95 %. People figure they're doing fine so long as they get somewhat near it. Excellence gets reduced to acceptable, and before long, acceptable doesn't seem worth the sweat if you can get by with adequate. After that mediocrity is just a breath away. 'Ever tracked the consequences of "almost but not quite"? Thanks to some fine research by Natalie Gabal, I awoke to a whole new awareness of what would happen if 99.9% were considered good enough. If that were true, then this year alone . . . 2,000,000 documents would be lost by the IRS; 12 babies would be given to the wrong parents each day; 291 pacemaker operations would be performed incorrectly; 20,000 incorrect prescriptions would be written; 114,500 mismatched pairs of shoes would be shipped (to cite a few examples)." Life is a leaf of paper white Whereon each one of us may write His word or two, and then comes night. Greatly begin! Though thou have time Bur for a line, be that sublime- Not failure, but low aim is crime.     [Back to Top]