7 Rhythms of Apprenticeship with Jesus

intro

We continue in our series Living Like Jesus

Worship Jesus to become like Jesus

Live in Fellowship like Jesus

Net week Serve others like Jesus

The last week we will have a guest speaker from way down South speak to us about Going to the lost and broken.

Today, we are focusing on growing in the way of Jesus.

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Teaching, Loving, and expressing the Will of God. - Grow

We value discipleship, reaching everyone within our church body in a way that inspires and encourages continual growth in our faith and faithfulness to Jesus, living lives that are holy and pleasing to God. (2 Tim 3:16)

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James read to us from Luke 5:1-11

I love the story of Jesus calling four grown business dudes into following Him in a Kingdom of God apprenticeship.

Simon, Andrew, James, and John had gone through an apprenticeship with their fathers or other family members.

Graduated and became business partners in the family trade.

Each day they would have had a rhythm to their life as fishermen

Now Jesus calls them to follow him

A new apprenticeship in the Kingdom of God and a new set of daily rhythms.

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Today I want to share with you

THE SEVEN RHYTHMS OF APPRENTICESHIP WITH JESUS.

Many approach growing in Christ using the modern educational system.

Information gathering / memorizing / Testing.

None of these are bad but this model leaves out a very important element; application in Life.

If all we have is mental knowledge of the Word of God but do not know how to apply it in life, we are missing it.

James 2:14–19 NASB95

What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.

It is not enough to be able to quote Scripture if we cannot live it.

Scripture is not a set of magic incantations, memorize and repeat to get what we want.

Scriptures teach us who God is and who we are as image bearers of God and therefore how we must live in respect to our creator and our createdness.

What we need is an Apprenticeship Model. The very model Jesus used in training up His apprentices.

We need the knowledge of the Word and we need to know how to apply it to daily life.

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THE SEVEN RHYTHMS -

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Rhythm 1 Follow Jesus

Peter, Andrew, John, and James did not ask for a written account of the belief system of Jesus.

Instead they followed him.

Some things you cannot learn by reading you have to do.

(Remodel the bathroom - reading would not plumb, build a wall, sheetrock, or rewire the switches and outlets. I had to get up and try to follow the advice of what I read and watched.)

Church attendance / Bible knowledge / Morality / All good things but empty if we are not following Jesus.

What does it mean to follow Jesus?

Let thy house be a meeting-house for the wise; and powder thyself in the dust of their feet; and drink their words with thirstiness. – Mishnah; Avot 1:4

An Apprentice wold follow their master so close that they counted it a blessing to be caked by the dust of his feet.

Following Jesus is like playing Simon says - We watch him and mimic him until His way of life becomes our way of Life.

Our first rhythm has to be to start each day devoted to following Jesus in every moment.

"Discipleship is a daily discipline; we follow Jesus a step at a time, a day at a time" ~ Warren W. Wiersbe

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Rhythm 2 Fasting and Prayer

Matthew 6:5–15 ESV

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Matthew 6:16–18 NASB95

“Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. “But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

Notice Jesus makes the assumption that his disciples will pray and fast.

Jesus is correcting the motivation and giving instructions on how to pray and fast.

Prayer and fasting is between you and God and not to be a tool to impress others.

Prayer will lead to a change in our hearts and actions

As we pray for God to forgive us, we will be motivated to forgive those who sinned against us. This will lead to actions of reconciliation.

A disciple of Jesus does not just fast and pray but they follow the lead of Jesus and check their motivation.

They allow the rhythms to form their actions and motivations.

Fasting is a part of prayer and has a reward.

Fasting is sacrificing and tuning out our bodies desires for the desire to hear from or to be empowered by God.

It is our human way of saying - “I want nothing more than you God.”

The reward -

Acts 13:2 NASB95

While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

They heard God concerning an urgent request.

Barnabas and Saul (Paul) were anointed and empowered for the new mission.

Prayer should be a daily rhythm of ours, it does not have to be churchy but rather a daily conversation, that turns into a minute by minute conversation with our creator.

Fasting should become a regular rhythm in our lives - tuning out our cravings so we can tune into the voice of God.

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Rhythm 3 Doing Theology in a Faithful Community

Acts 2:42 NASB95

They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

devoting themselves to the Apostles teaching

Context is in fellowship with other believers.

Jesus and the disciples would go to the synagogs and the temple courts to talk with scholars and one another about the word.

Synagog practice - 1 man is picked to read from the daily scrolls and then interpret it in front of the other men. What followed would be a lively discussion between all the men on the meaning and purpose of the reading.

Scriptures says where 2 or more - there I am.

Jesus taught His disciples in community and they discussed these teaching in community.

Rabies would often teach and then ask the students to argue the points with one another.

In a faithful community we are able to work out God’s word in the presence of the Spirit of God

With help in understanding from one another

From the differing perspectives of the others

There is safety in community -

Cult leaders are the sole intperreter of Scripture.

Odd beliefs and theology come when we refuse to work out scripture in a faithful community.

My community

This church - Each of you are encouraged to speak with me if I say something you disagree with. Iron sharpens Iron.

I may be wrong, you may be wrong, we both may be wrong, or we may just see things from a different perspective.

Matt Bell, Chad Hayes, Kurt Juszak, Philip Thompson, Paul Mason, Dwight and Nadine Sandoze.

Create a rhythm of meeting with fellow believers and discussing large portions of Scripture together.

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Rhythm 4 Resting

Mark 2:23–28 NASB95

And it happened that He was passing through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to make their way along while picking the heads of grain. The Pharisees were saying to Him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” And He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry; how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him?” Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. “So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

Sabbath is not about following rules

Sabbath is about rest so we can continue to follow the way of Jesus in our daily lives.

Sabbath was created for us not the other way around.

We all need rest from the crowds Even Jesus needed time away.

Mark 4:35–40 NASB95

On that day, when evening came, He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? How is it that you have no faith?”

Our Culture Pushes to work more and to work harder.

The rhythm of Jesus calls us to rest.

Even in the midst of a storm we need to be able to rest.

Ministry Burn Out is caused by a lack of rest.

I see it all the time - people refuse to take a break and eventually leave ministry because of exhaustion.

Self Importance and Pride Keep us From Resting

When we think we are the answer we will not allow ourselves to rest.

Self importance is Pride and a sin.

Craig Groeschel siad

“Work like your an Arminian and Sleep like a Calvinist.”

In other words, work like it depends on you but, rest knowing it all depends on God.

If you want to last in following Jesus and ministering to the lost and needy, you need to create a Rhythm of rest.

Build teams so you can have time off

Rely on others and not just yourself

Plan a weekly day of rest and relaxation and let no one break it except for emergencies.

Mine is always on Mondays and I take three weeks away from the church each year.

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Rhythm 5 Go and make new Apprentices of Jesus.

Matthew 28:18–20 NASB95

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

We Are Not Fully Following Jesus Until We Go to Those Who Need The Gospel and Make Apprentices of Them As Well.

Just as Jesus reproduced himself in the original disciples they were called to reproduce.

In like manner we too are called to reproduce others after the likeness of Jesus.

As Paul said,

1 Corinthians 11:1 NASB95

Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.

As we imitate the life of Jesus we are to go and call others beside us to imitate us.

We are called to reproduce after our own kind

From creation God made all things to reproduce after their own kind

Animals, plants, insects, and humans.

Likewise when we become Apprentices of Jesus we are to reproduce apprentices of Jesus.

Create spiritual children - invest Jesus in the life of others - Go make Apprentices of Jesus.

How do you make these apprentices - Teach them to follow you in these apprenticeship rhythms.

And then eventually send them out to make apprentices.

Inviting and Sending - Loving and Releasing Are Trademarks in the Life of apprentices of Jesus.

Each life is a Kingdom seed

If it is kept rather than planted in fresh ground it will never become what it is meant to be.

This is why we are a training and sending church.

We train people to minister

And we desire to send people.

This is how the Kingdom of God spreads over the globe.

We train and send.

Who is training you, who are you training, and to whom are you being sent.

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Follow Jesus

Fasting and Prayer

Do Theology in Community

Resting

Going, Inviting and Sending

These are the five rhythms of an apprentice of Jesus.

This is how we grow in the way of Jesus.

Apprenticeship is about our entire lives not just our minds.

Let me end with one more quote from - John Ortberg

"The decision to grow always involves a choice between risk and comfort. This means that to be a follower of Jesus, you must renounce comfort as the ultimate value of your life." ~ John Ortberg