The Great OMISSION

Good Morning Church, it is so good to see everyone this morning! We have been going through a series of sermons entitled Disciple:Be One; Make One. What I have tried to do is to show you that more than anything else in this world we need to determine whether we are a follower/disciple of Christ or if we are only a believer someone who agrees with the facts about Jesus.

The answer to this question has eternal ramifications. So what I have tried to do is a as plain as I know how show you the difference between believers and followers. We looked and highlighted many aspects what makes a disciple a disciple and how they are different from someone who just does the church thing.

Someone who is Christian in name only, whose faith has never really changed anything in their life other than they now come to church when they can,and they try to be a good person.

Listen to me I want so much more for you than that, God wants so much more for you than that. If you have ever felt like there is something more, that you really feel as though you want to go deeper in your walk with the Lord but do not know how I can assure there is a way, the reason you feel this way is because quite possibly there has never been anyone come along side of you and say hey, I want to walk through life with you and show you how to live the Christian life.

I felt that way for years, I became a Christian and no one came along side of me, no one helped me understand how to read my Bible no one taught me things or was even there for me in those first few years. It was me and the Holy Spirit working on me, I thought about this quite a bit when I got to Bible college.

I sat there in a class called the spiritual disciplines. As I sat there learning I thought to myself why isn’t this being taught in church, they taught me the Bible, but more than that they taught me how to rightly apply the Bible. They taught me how to study my Bible not just read it. As I made my way through school i found my walk with the Lord which was already doing well to begin to get better. I felt stronger, I felt God’s presence closer than I had ever felt Him before.

I went up to a professor at BCF and I asked him why this was, I mean did it have to do with the fact that God had called me to ministry, why all of a sudden was I feeling more alive with more joy?

He smiled and he explained, you are growing as a disciple.

He spoke again and the words he said truly set a fire inside of me. Kyle We are simply discipling you, many churches have never learned how to mature people in their faith. I never forgot those words, I made a commitment in my heart that if God ever allowed me to pastor a church that I would try my best to walk with people and help them grow in the Lord.

There is only

Some of you may not like this series we have been going through, many of you have because you have told me as much, but let me simply tell you this is who I am this is what my heart beats for, I want to see each of you in this room become the person Jesus Christ created you to be.

This is not a knock on pastors that have come before me, not mine and not any pastors you may have had. I understand now the life of ministry is busy, and there are many tasks, and relationships and duties that can cause us to forget why we are here. So this morning, if you would allow me to speak freely from my heart and the word of God I want to try to help you understand where i am coming from, what my heart beats for, and what I think it will mean for your life.

I’d like to speak to you this morning on this subject: THE GREAT OMISSION

I went back and forth about what to call this and I settled on this, because we are missing something in our churches today. This is not my opinion but the opinion of the entire Southern Baptist Convention.

As you all know this year I attended the SBC convention for the USA and the main issue was the lack of evangelism/discipleship taking place within our churches.

Barna Research tells us that less than 10 percent of Christians have ever shared their faith. Only 20 % of active church members invite people to church within the SBC. When asked if they had been discipled out of the massive group they asked if someone had ever taught them the basics how to share their faith, how to study the Bible, how to live out what they believe, out of this 3 year long study they concluded that only 15% of church members have indicated they have been trained.

We are losing the Discipleship battle in our nation. This is something we are trying to remedy, have you ever wondered why so many people who claim Christianity today also think it is ok to have an abortion? Ever wonder why so many people are allowing and condoning sam sex marriage?

Have you ever wondered why so many of our faith are straying away from the truth of God’s word?

Have you ever sat back and wondered why people are less loving, less concerned about what God says about their behavior than ever before?

Have you ever wondered why so many have never shared their faith?

It is because by in large we have filled their head with information but we have never trained them, in what the Lord expects of them, or what the deep teachings of the word of God are.

Christians today have a ton of information, but were seeing less and less of the Lord’s power through the Holy Spirit.

Discipleship is the developmental process of the local church, that seeks to bring Christians from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity so that they can replicate the process with someone else.

God’s goal in creating the church was to be the location where disciples are crafted and made. The true test of a church is not in how many people we can get inside the doors, but in our ability and capacity to make disciples. When a church will not or does not make disciples it doesn’t matter how many buildings they build, or the budget, or programs they have going on, they have failed the purpose for why it was created.

Listen guys we have heard pastors say this, the church has failed in so many ways, when this is not the truth, the church has only failed in one way, WE HAVE NOT MADE DISCIPLES!

This should be the burden of our heart and must be the emphasis as we move forward into the future of UHBC. We have many who come to faith in Jesus however bc they are never fully developed in their faith they fall away.

Some might make the case that this happens because they were never truly saved to begin with, in some cases I might agree but there are many other cases where the reality is simply they have never developed a Christian worldview. This is something discipleship addresses.

Discipleship helps us think and respond to things in our lives the way Christ would and isn’t that our goal to look more like Jesus? If that is not our goal then we need to go home.

Think about it the disciples failed miserably when Jesus was arrested but the Bible records that Jesus’ teachings came back to their minds after He rose from death and they understood His teachings to be true.

A problem came a big one and they fell away...

I believe this is where we are at right now in our church, we have many many baby believers, we have some who have attended here for years and either have never accepted Jesus genuinely or because they were never discipled fell away.

Case in point (Joey Richardson)

Our church is changing, we have many people here that none of you know really well, but you see them every week. As of right now if you don’t see them during the week there is no way to get to know them. But we have to grow into deeper fellowship with them because we are the family of God!

The church has to be knit together to work properly!

Colossians 2:2 NIV

My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ,

Notice Paul who had a deep love for his people, had a deep desire for them to grow in Christ!

This is the same desire I have, I like Paul want you not to doubt, not to struggle, but to be encouraged to have the boldness that only comes from knowing Christ in a deeper way. I want you our church to be united so that we can do more for the Kingdom of God and do it more effectively, because I know one day we will give an account to Him, but more than that I want you to knowhow rich you are in Christ Jesus by having complete understanding.

Not only is this a reason, but there is one bigger than simply having a church grow together in unity, MAKING DISCIPLES is a command given to all believers.

This is why discipleship groups are so important!

Not only is this a reason, but there is one bigger than simply having a church grow together in unity, MAKING DISCIPLES is a command given to all believers.

It is a Biblical mandate/command

It is not optional!

WE MUST MAKE DISCIPLES!

THIS IS NOT OPTIONAL IT IS A SCRIPTURAL MANDATE

The Great Commission:

“Go ye Therefore into all nations, and MAKE DISCIPLES, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

TEACHING THEM TO OBSERVE ALL THINGS THAT I HAVE COMMANDED YOU….. and Lo I am with you always even to the end of the age. ()

Let’s talk about this for a second, Jesus at this point has risen from the grave and he will not long after this ascend into Heaven and leave His disciples with a mission, that mission is found right here.

I mean shouldn’t we be desperately be seeking to obey this to the letter?

This is the last thing Jesus commanded us to do before he left us here to get it done!

Jesus had just told them ALL AUTHORITY ON HEAVEN AND EARTH HAVE BEEN GIVEN TO ME!

Why say those words right before telling His disciples to make more disciples?

Because he wanted them to know this was not something they were able to just kind of let fall by the wayside this was THE COMMAND HE LEFT THEM WITH AND ANYONE WHO FOLLOWS THE LORD HAS BEEN LEFT WITH THIS COMMISSION AS WELL.

Sometimes our translations give the impression that GO is the emphasis of this command, but the main verb of the sentence is MAKE DISCIPLES; with 3 ways to accomplish that task hanging off of it. Every church I have ever been in has emphasized that we should be ready to GO to the nations and share our faith.

But go is not the priority of this command. The priority is to MAKE DISCIPLES!

So If Jesus the one who died for us commanded us to make disciples what does he mean?

What does it look like to make disciples?

How do we do it?

Well Jesus was the ultimate disciple maker so lets watch and learn from Him:

1.GOING (or as you go):

1.GOING (or as you go):

This means in your everyday life as you are going you should be prayerfully considering someone who you can share the gospel with.

Luke 5:1 HCSB

As the crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear God’s word, He was standing by Lake Gennesaret.

Luke 5:

Heres Jesus doing what Jesus did daily, teaching. He was teaching this was His daily occupation, trying to minister to the needs of people Look what happens as Jesus was simply going through doing what He normally did, He noticed some dueds on a fishing boat.

Luke 5:2 HCSB

He saw two boats at the edge of the lake; the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets.

Here is Jesus allowing His day to be interrupted because he saw these men and wanted them to get to know Him.

Luke 5:3 HCSB

He got into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from the land. Then He sat down and was teaching the crowds from the boat.

a. He met them where they were

b. He got them off in a group alone (He separated from the larger group)

c. He continued teaching.

Luke 5:4 HCSB

When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”

c. He continued teaching.

Luke 5:5 HCSB

“Master,” Simon replied, “we’ve worked hard all night long and caught nothing! But at Your word, I’ll let down the nets.”

Luke 5:6 HCSB

When they did this, they caught a great number of fish, and their nets began to tear.

Listen to me Jesus was with the crowd but he needed to get His disciples alone to teach them the lesson.

Jesus was going through His daily routine but He was ready to stop on a dime when He saw some men who needed to get to know Him. He created and environment while they were alive where these 12 would become his disciples, they were seperate from the larger group because people interact and learn better in smaller more intimate groups.

Jesus did this often even in the group of 12 the Bible says an even smaller groupf three Peter, James and John.

Now some of you say well thats why we have Sunday School yeah but that is different in what is being taught, it is a class, Jesus was intimately involved with these mens’ lives. They did not meet for class but they walked together learning from Jesus in everyday practical situations.

BAPTIZING

This is obviously referring to the act of obedience of baptism.

and TEACHING.

BAPTIZING and TEACHING.

Going, Baptizing and teaching are the means by which disciples are to be made.

TEACHING

This is where it gets fun for me, the word used here actually means to tutor, when I was a kid I hated math. Not because math was bad but because I was bad at math, Every week I would meet with this lady where she would spend one on one time with me teaching me the same things I had learned in school. Over a period of time I passed that math class all because of that tutor, but what was different?

She was teaching me the same thing the teacher was teaching me but i needed more one on one time with someone who already knew how to tell me how to do it.

THIS IS WHAT PEOPLE IN THE CHURCH NEED IS SOMONE WHO WILL COME ALONGSIDE AND SHOW US HOW TO LIVE THE CHRISTIAN LIFE!

THIS IS HOW GOD CREATED IT PEOPLE!

Being discipled is an apprenticeship. You spend time with someone who knows the job in the workplace and as you learn you are eventually set free to do it on your on.

Some of you know that we have been starting D-Groups we have a couple of womens groups that have started, we have two men’s groups that have started we are about to launch some more.

I have seen more development and the Lord has done more things in this small window of time with these groups than I ever thought possible. We have had several salvations within the groups, we have had people waking up spiritually.

I am telling you God hardwired us to do just this.

(Mammas)

The teaching that the disciples are to do, reproduces what Jesus Himself has done with them. He has been there teacher and as Jesus has taught them they have grown in knowledge and understanding.

The disciples are now, in turn, to make new disciples by teaching them to obey everything commanded by their Master.

his making disciples by teaching corresponds to preaching the gospel in the parallel mission mandate of Luke Where Jesus says REPENTANCE AND FORGIVENESS OF SINS SHOULD BE PROCLAIMED IN HIS NAME TO ALL NATIONS BEGINNING FROM JERUSALEM. ( “BEGINNING FROM JERUSALEM”

Start at home, in our case let’s start right here where we are!

People are so ready to GO and do missions, But what about your neighbors who will die and go to Hell?

But what about “going”?

Traditionally this has been read as a missionary mandate, a charter for sending out gospel workers into the world. However, this can lead local churches to think that they are obeying the great commission if they send money (and missionaries) overseas. While giving is definitely helping in missions it is not actively doing missions.

we have to have a missionary mindset.

The emphasis of the sentence is not on going. In fact the participle is probably better translated WHEN YOU GO or AS YOU ARE GOING. The commission is not about a mission somewhere out there somewhere else in another country.

IT IS A COMMISSION THAT MAKES DISCIPLE MAKING THE NORMAL AGENDA AND PRIORITY OF EVERY CHURCH AND EVERY CHRISTIAN.

We have a massive influx of new believers in our church and this is the process by which we are seeking to give them an avenue to walk into spiritual maturity.

Listen do you know what my job is?

To equip you

Ephesians 4:11-

Ephesians 4:11–16 HCSB

And He personally gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the training of the saints in the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness. Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into Him who is the head —Christ. From Him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building up itself in love by the proper working of each individual part.

Im telling you something is broken in discipleship it aint getting done

(rebuilding the wall)

More Christian marriages fail in the first three years, than non Christian marriages. (BARNA)

More people are walking away from sound Biblical churches today than ever before:

Gallup released a poll this year that included this bottom line:

“US church membership was 70 % higher from 1937-1976, falling to an average of 68% in the 1970’s through the 1990’s.

The past 20 years from 2000-2020 has dropped to 38%

We have also seen a rise in the NONES people age 35 and below who say they have no religious affiliation, sits at 46% of the population in America” AL MOHLER

Why does this matter to you?

SPIRITUAL MATURITY- You are a Christian and you will never know the depths of the riches of following the Lord on a deeper level if you are not willing to try something new. TO be poured into, to be be trained, to have questions you’ve always wanted to ask answered (Spiritual gifts, spiritual warfare, what we believe, how to respond to trials, how to discern between the truth of the word and your opinion, Christian marriage, parenting, finishing your life well)

UNITY -We will grow together in unity as we begin this journey together

Blessing of God form our obedience

YOUR CHILDREN/GRANDCHILDREN need a church that is solid, we need to be able to look outside of ourselves and see the issues that are coming, and be able to reach as many as we can with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

(Nehemiah)

He stood with a burden, so do I, because the city which he loved was lying in ruins. God put it in his heart to fix it.

God has put it in mine and Cory’s heart to fix it.

Just like Nehemiah had to have support to rebuild the wall I need you to join with us as we try to DO what the Lord has commanded us to do.

If you are have never been discipled and are interested in being discipled, in taking that next step would you please look up at me?

If you are interested in leading a discipleship group, would you have the courage to look at me?

If you are willing to help in anyway would you look up at me?

Now would you please stand, everybodys head bowed and eyes closed.

It’s time, I want you to sign up I want to meet with each of you.

(Gospel)