WEBVTT 00:00:03.685 --> 00:00:07.972 A few weeks ago the elders had their annual prayer retreat. 00:00:07.972 --> 00:00:14.544 It's a time when the elders come together to seek the Lord, to pray and get the mind of God for the coming year. 00:00:14.544 --> 00:00:26.068 On this recent retreat, the elders felt that the Lord spoke three words to them encounter, freedom or jubilee, and prepare. 00:00:26.068 --> 00:00:29.489 Two weeks ago Tyler dealt with encounter. 00:00:29.489 --> 00:00:34.229 He spoke a message from John 14, 16 through 17. 00:00:34.229 --> 00:00:40.203 It dealt with the transformative role of the Holy Spirit in the believer's life in this world. 00:00:40.203 --> 00:00:49.271 He spoke about the fact that this encounter with the Holy Spirit is more than an inward experience, but it impacts our outward actions and interactions as well. 00:00:49.271 --> 00:00:53.070 And last week he spoke about the second word. 00:00:53.070 --> 00:00:56.645 The elders received jubilee or freedom, from Luke, chapter 4. 00:00:56.645 --> 00:01:07.370 In that message Tyler spoke about the significance of Jesus proclaiming the ultimate jubilee freedom, healing, deliverance and being filled with the Spirit. 00:01:07.370 --> 00:01:12.350 It was in that message that he spoke of the transformative power of the gospel. 00:01:12.350 --> 00:01:18.292 This morning I'm going to speak on the third word the elders received at the retreat. 00:01:18.292 --> 00:01:31.671 It's the word prepare, and there's many ways this applies to us, but perhaps the most significant way is for God's people to prepare for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:01:31.671 --> 00:01:34.629 It's really critical that we understand that. 00:01:34.629 --> 00:01:42.263 Remember what the angel Gabriel spoke to Zachariah, john the Baptist father, when he told him that John's birth. 00:01:42.263 --> 00:02:03.287 He said he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord, their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared. 00:02:03.287 --> 00:02:08.771 Notice those words John would make ready for the Lord a people prepared. 00:02:08.771 --> 00:02:28.032 And in the opening words of the gospel of Mark it is written as it is written in Isaiah the prophet behold, I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 00:02:28.032 --> 00:02:44.650 I believe that, just as John was sent to prepare for the way of the Lord's first coming, I believe thank you, I believe that God has ordained the body of Christ to serve as a sort of John the Baptist company to prepare for his second appearing as well. 00:02:44.650 --> 00:02:46.342 Think about that. 00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:53.532 Listen to what the apostle Peter said in his second epistle, chapter 3, verses 11 through 13. 00:02:53.532 --> 00:03:03.346 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in the lives of holiness and godliness? 00:03:03.346 --> 00:03:16.585 Listen waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolve and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. 00:03:16.585 --> 00:03:23.407 But, according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 00:03:23.407 --> 00:03:31.602 Listen to these words again at verse 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God. 00:03:31.602 --> 00:03:38.479 He's talking about the second coming and saying that the way we live, we can hasten that day. 00:03:38.479 --> 00:03:46.042 It's not necessarily a fixed day, but it is a day in which we have part and parcel in preparing. 00:03:46.042 --> 00:03:53.980 For there's another way the word prepare applies, and I want to focus on that for this message this morning. 00:03:53.980 --> 00:04:01.543 It's by understanding how God has called us to prepare the next generation of disciples. 00:04:01.543 --> 00:04:09.330 We do this by creating a discipleship culture in the local church. 00:04:09.330 --> 00:04:28.172 In other words, god wants us to look beyond ourselves to the next generations, and one of the ways we do that is by doing what Jesus did investing his life in a few and empowering them to start a rapidly multiplying movement of followers of Jesus. 00:04:28.172 --> 00:04:28.572 Amen. 00:04:28.572 --> 00:04:32.911 That's why I've entitled this message investing in a few. 00:04:32.911 --> 00:04:48.324 You know, in many ways I can say without exaggeration that this message is my life message, or at least one of my life messages, and I've been the beneficiary of this investment that the others have made in me. 00:04:49.040 --> 00:04:49.942 Now let me show you something. 00:04:49.942 --> 00:04:50.745 Look at the screen. 00:04:50.745 --> 00:04:51.947 You'll see a chart. 00:04:51.947 --> 00:04:53.721 You know what it is. 00:04:53.721 --> 00:04:58.466 It's a chart of my friend Gordon's spiritual offspring. 00:04:58.466 --> 00:05:08.706 Gordon was an older man who I got to know, who spent the majority of his time finding young men and pouring into them. 00:05:08.706 --> 00:05:13.206 You know he was in full-time ministry but I never heard him preach. 00:05:13.206 --> 00:05:25.732 But I heard the stories of those lives that were affected over the years by relationship with him, young men that were now in ministry because of his influence. 00:05:25.732 --> 00:05:28.723 And he told me a story I will never forget. 00:05:28.723 --> 00:05:30.228 I want to relate it to you this morning. 00:05:30.228 --> 00:05:39.312 The story is it's reflected in this chart he spent time pouring himself into two people that were not Christians. 00:05:39.312 --> 00:05:47.726 He developed a relationship with them and poured into them and brought them eventually to Jesus and disciple them. 00:05:47.726 --> 00:05:59.367 These two men eventually moved away and after they moved away, after a few years, gordon got a call from one of the men saying we want to fly you out here. 00:05:59.367 --> 00:06:00.850 We have something to show you. 00:06:00.850 --> 00:06:07.360 They flew him out I think it was this western city in Colorado and he walked into a house from the airport. 00:06:07.360 --> 00:06:12.822 They took him into a house where they were gathered, maybe 75 people approximately. 00:06:12.822 --> 00:06:34.490 You know what they told him we wanted you to meet your spiritual offspring, because the original two multiplied into two, who multiplied into two until there were approximately 75 souls whose lives had been changed by the gospel Amen. 00:06:36.747 --> 00:06:38.273 I want to ask you a question this morning. 00:06:38.273 --> 00:06:41.091 What does your chart look like? 00:06:41.091 --> 00:06:49.096 What are the names of the people you are presently pouring into and who are multiplying themselves? 00:06:49.096 --> 00:07:01.845 This is what Jesus meant when he said to the twelve men he handpicked during his earthly ministry, when he said go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations. 00:07:01.845 --> 00:07:12.692 It's called the Great Omission, but I think it more accurately needs to be called the Great Omission because, in our zeal to obey it, we haven't bothered to read it. 00:07:12.692 --> 00:07:24.416 You know, the Great Omission is actually a repeat of the original Dominion mandate God gave to Adam and Eve in the garden. 00:07:24.416 --> 00:07:33.235 Remember, that mandate had three parts to it God's people were to bear God's image. 00:07:33.235 --> 00:07:36.574 Number two, to be fruitful and multiply. 00:07:36.574 --> 00:07:44.632 And number three subdue the earth, and that mandate is now being reissued to the church. 00:07:48.209 --> 00:07:49.845 This is what this commission is about. 00:07:49.845 --> 00:07:53.197 It's about people who bear God's image. 00:07:53.197 --> 00:08:01.680 They're becoming like Jesus and are constantly multiplying disciples until the earth is filled with people that love Jesus and His change. 00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:02.622 How do we do this? 00:08:02.622 --> 00:08:03.845 Let's look at that commission briefly. 00:08:03.845 --> 00:08:08.584 Let's start by reading familiar words, but let's read them with virgin ears. 00:08:08.603 --> 00:08:18.785 This morning, the Great Commission in Matthew 28, 16 through 20, and Jesus came and said to them All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 00:08:18.785 --> 00:08:38.014 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, so teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. 00:08:38.014 --> 00:08:49.015 The opening statement All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me demonstrates that Jesus is now invested with sovereign authority over the universe. 00:08:49.015 --> 00:08:56.636 A disciple is a man or woman who lives under that authority and recognizes his sovereignty. 00:08:56.636 --> 00:09:00.273 Are you living under his sovereignty and rule this morning? 00:09:00.273 --> 00:09:03.453 That's what a disciple is, first and foremost. 00:09:03.453 --> 00:09:07.385 And if he's a sovereign ruler of my life, how many know? 00:09:07.385 --> 00:09:14.412 He has the right to commission me and tell me how I ought to live, and he did that in this Great Commission. 00:09:14.412 --> 00:09:22.514 What he's about to tell me in this commission is not a suggestion or an idea, but a commission from the sovereign Lord. 00:09:22.514 --> 00:09:25.845 Go, therefore, and make disciples. 00:09:26.245 --> 00:09:31.845 It's important to point out that go is not the imperative word in the sentence. 00:09:31.845 --> 00:09:38.048 We made it the imperative word and from these words the missionary movement began, and it's right. 00:09:38.048 --> 00:09:40.534 It's proper for us to send people throughout. 00:09:40.534 --> 00:09:44.133 One of our own is in Africa right now, as I speak. 00:09:44.133 --> 00:09:49.011 Mark Medley is in Africa because going to the nations is part of this commission. 00:09:49.011 --> 00:09:54.991 But the emphasis on the sentence is not on the word go. 00:09:54.991 --> 00:09:57.256 The imperative word is make. 00:09:57.256 --> 00:10:02.845 You could translate this while you are going, make disciples. 00:10:02.845 --> 00:10:06.053 It assumes that all of us are going. 00:10:06.053 --> 00:10:08.773 How many are going to work tomorrow? 00:10:08.773 --> 00:10:13.631 Well, with the snow you may not be able to, but how many are going to work tomorrow? 00:10:13.631 --> 00:10:15.118 How many are going to school? 00:10:15.118 --> 00:10:17.804 How many are going shopping? 00:10:17.804 --> 00:10:18.969 We go many places. 00:10:19.845 --> 00:10:24.052 In the process of going, he tells us to make disciples. 00:10:24.052 --> 00:10:31.855 It means we do so through the normal stations of life. 00:10:31.855 --> 00:10:52.572 You know, we homeschooled our boys and one day I took I don't know if it was all the boys or a couple of them to the post office to buy stamps and in line was a demon-possessed woman who was starting looking she didn't know me at all, hurling anti-semitic slurs in me, and you tell she was demonized. 00:10:52.572 --> 00:10:53.888 And my boys? 00:10:53.888 --> 00:10:55.352 Their eyes were like saucers. 00:10:55.352 --> 00:10:58.825 I said, dad, I thought we were just getting stamps. 00:10:58.825 --> 00:11:01.149 Well, we have a demon to deal with too. 00:11:08.004 --> 00:11:11.995 The simple word go tells us the nature of our mission. 00:11:11.995 --> 00:11:18.825 As God, the Father, sent Jesus Christ into the world, so we are being sent into the world. 00:11:18.825 --> 00:11:26.894 A friend of mine, jim McCracken, once preached a brilliant message on discipleship, and it was called if you're a disciple, you're out of here. 00:11:26.894 --> 00:11:40.628 It tells us that we ought to start thinking not only how we can have influence here in these four walls, but how can God use us outside the walls. 00:11:40.628 --> 00:11:58.071 Go means I am called by Jesus Christ to have influence outside these walls, and this is difficult for us because we've gotten comfortable in the church and are often reluctant to leave the comfort of the body of Christ. 00:11:58.071 --> 00:12:02.350 Jesus himself recognized that most of us are reluctant ones. 00:12:02.350 --> 00:12:05.629 Remember when Jesus told the disciples these words. 00:12:05.629 --> 00:12:10.250 He said the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. 00:12:10.250 --> 00:12:19.802 Therefore, ask the petition of the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest. 00:12:19.802 --> 00:12:22.744 You know that verse. 00:12:23.826 --> 00:12:29.945 For years I assumed that the word send there was the Greek word apostolos. 00:12:29.945 --> 00:12:45.268 It's the word from which apostle is derived and I never bothered to look it up in chapter 9 of Matthew because I always assumed that it would be the apostolic word apostolos, and I assumed there was no need to look at it. 00:12:45.268 --> 00:13:00.553 But one day, I can't remember why, I looked it up and to my surprise the word was not apostolos, it was the Greek word ekbalo, which is the word used in Greek for the English word cast out or kick out. 00:13:00.553 --> 00:13:08.341 It's actually the word used in the gospels for Jesus kicking out or compelling demons to leave. 00:13:08.341 --> 00:13:13.750 How many of you have ever found, when you're dealing with demons, they don't want to leave? 00:13:13.750 --> 00:13:19.763 I've never met a demon that says I'm glad you're here, I don't want to stay in this house anymore. 00:13:19.763 --> 00:13:25.272 No, you have to compel them to come out because they don't want to leave. 00:13:25.272 --> 00:13:27.407 You have to strongly compel them to leave. 00:13:27.879 --> 00:13:29.403 What does that tell us about workers? 00:13:29.403 --> 00:13:36.630 We have to be kicked out of our comfortness into the world because we're reluctant. 00:13:36.630 --> 00:13:39.886 Now we have to be clear on what the commission is. 00:13:39.886 --> 00:13:43.547 What is it that Jesus meant when he said make disciples? 00:13:43.547 --> 00:13:51.909 The church must be constantly multiplying itself and making disciples. 00:13:51.909 --> 00:13:53.974 Disciples must be made. 00:13:53.974 --> 00:14:00.345 Christians are born, disciples are made, and that's important to remember. 00:14:00.345 --> 00:14:11.614 We do this the same way Jesus did, by entering the life of a few in order to impact many. 00:14:11.614 --> 00:14:13.484 That was Jesus' model. 00:14:14.159 --> 00:14:22.707 I've always asked the question why, if Jesus was trying to reach multitudes, why did he not organize his followers into a mass movement? 00:14:22.707 --> 00:14:27.145 Why didn't he use his popularity to get what he wanted? 00:14:27.145 --> 00:14:36.472 And we actually see Jesus having a healthy and appropriate skepticism of the masses. 00:14:36.472 --> 00:14:38.277 Do you know why? 00:14:38.277 --> 00:14:48.552 Because I think it was because he knew that the same crowds who would be praising him today would one day be yelling crucify him, crucify him. 00:14:48.552 --> 00:14:56.126 Jesus did minister to the crowd, but he did so to call people out of the crowd. 00:14:56.126 --> 00:15:06.138 If you're not a disciple because you are in the crowd, just listening to Jesus in the crowd didn't make you a disciple, any more than sitting in a church. 00:15:06.138 --> 00:15:10.934 Listening does not guarantee you're a disciple, amen. 00:15:10.934 --> 00:15:30.768 But in spite of Jesus' clear strategy of calling people out of the crowds and focusing on a few, most leaders today continue to rely on preaching and teaching the masses to make disciples. 00:15:30.768 --> 00:15:35.825 It doesn't work, because discipleship is a relational process. 00:15:35.825 --> 00:15:47.548 Preaching is effective in appointing people to the need for discipleship, but those same people need to come out of the crowd and be personally engaged in discipling relationships. 00:15:47.955 --> 00:15:56.581 For Jesus, success in ministry meant that he must enter the lives of a handful of men in order to have maximum impact. 00:15:56.581 --> 00:16:13.344 For Jesus, discipleship wasn't a program, it was a relationship, and in the context of that relationship he shaped the lives of twelve men that were changed, and they became multiplied in many others. 00:16:13.344 --> 00:16:19.745 I can think of two reasons Jesus did it this way Internalization and multiplication. 00:16:19.745 --> 00:16:24.461 Internalization and multiplication what do I mean by internalization? 00:16:24.461 --> 00:16:38.404 If Jesus' purpose was to make sure that his kingdom and message outlived his generation, he had to have a core of people who knew in depth his person and mission. 00:16:38.404 --> 00:16:44.586 There had to be a group, in other words, who internalized his message. 00:16:44.586 --> 00:16:45.924 Remember how this worked. 00:16:45.924 --> 00:16:51.537 Remember when he spoke the parable of the sower, and the disciples didn't have a clue what he meant. 00:16:51.537 --> 00:16:54.524 And they asked him Lord, what did you mean by that? 00:16:54.524 --> 00:16:56.059 And he gave them instruction. 00:16:56.059 --> 00:16:58.101 He needed them to understand. 00:16:58.554 --> 00:17:11.363 And so many times his public teaching was followed by a private session with the twelve, instructing them on what his teaching meant, and the disciples argued over who was the greatest. 00:17:11.363 --> 00:17:16.784 He was able to expose their false value system and give them a new model of the kingdom. 00:17:16.784 --> 00:17:24.605 If you think about it, this is the only way Jesus preserved his legacy. 00:17:24.605 --> 00:17:33.241 He never penned a book or enlisted a scribe to record all his works and words, although the disciples did record many of them. 00:17:33.241 --> 00:17:45.176 Instead, jesus relied on two things to ensure that his legacy would last the Holy Spirit and the Twelve. 00:17:45.176 --> 00:17:47.844 The Holy Spirit and the Twelve. 00:17:47.844 --> 00:18:11.419 F F Bruce said it best this careful, painstaking education of the disciples secured that the teacher's influence should be permanent, that his kingdom should be founded on deep, indestructible convictions in the minds of a few, not on the shifting sands of superficial impressions in the minds of many. 00:18:11.419 --> 00:18:13.757 Powerful statement. 00:18:13.757 --> 00:18:19.705 The other reason he focused on entering the lives of twelve was for multiplication. 00:18:20.194 --> 00:18:25.567 Was the fact that Jesus focused largely on the twelve evidence that he wasn't concerned with the multitudes? 00:18:25.567 --> 00:18:26.759 No, not at all. 00:18:26.759 --> 00:18:28.819 Jesus didn't think like we do. 00:18:28.819 --> 00:18:33.555 We think that in order to reach the multitudes, we need to have public events. 00:18:33.555 --> 00:18:35.040 We need to have events and invite the crowds. 00:18:35.040 --> 00:18:36.278 There's a place for that. 00:18:36.278 --> 00:18:37.900 But Jesus had a different vision. 00:18:37.900 --> 00:18:41.423 He had a big enough vision to think small. 00:18:41.423 --> 00:18:48.880 It was because of his vision for the multitudes and his compassion for them that he gave himself to the twelve. 00:18:49.234 --> 00:18:52.884 Here's a brilliant statement by Eugene Peterson, the author of the Message Bible. 00:18:52.884 --> 00:19:02.319 He said it best Jesus, it must be remembered, restricted nine tenths of his ministry to twelve Jews because it was the only way to redeem all Americans. 00:19:02.319 --> 00:19:20.365 The irony is that by focusing on the multitudes, we have failed to train people who the masses could emulate, because we often perpetuate superficiality by casting a wider net. 00:19:20.365 --> 00:19:22.760 It's wide without being deep. 00:19:22.760 --> 00:19:39.241 Jesus' vision was to impact the lives of twelve, so they would multiply themselves and others, but he had to first make sure he had people that the crowds could imitate, which is why that's so important when it comes to discipleship. 00:19:40.914 --> 00:19:44.823 So let me, having laid a foundation, in a brief way. 00:19:44.823 --> 00:19:51.365 There's so much more we could say about it, but let me give you practical steps to becoming a disciple maker. 00:19:51.365 --> 00:19:55.022 How many, just by show of hands, want to disciple others? 00:19:55.022 --> 00:20:02.204 Good, the beginning with fulfill the great commission is the desire to do so. 00:20:02.204 --> 00:20:05.223 I want to answer the question what should I do. 00:20:05.223 --> 00:20:11.227 What steps can I take to become a person whom God can use to multiply disciples? 00:20:11.227 --> 00:20:14.082 Here's the practical steps I would recommend. 00:20:14.555 --> 00:20:17.443 Number one dare to be a disciple yourself. 00:20:17.443 --> 00:20:20.240 You can't give what you don't have. 00:20:20.240 --> 00:20:22.961 Let's be clear on what that means. 00:20:22.961 --> 00:20:24.500 It doesn't mean perfection. 00:20:24.500 --> 00:20:31.106 A disciple isn't a perfect man or woman, but an honest man or woman. 00:20:31.106 --> 00:20:41.964 A disciple is a learner, someone who is passionate about learning to love and follow Jesus, and he or she is learning to practice the things that Jesus practiced. 00:20:41.964 --> 00:20:52.238 Then a disciple is a person who has a deep desire that God uses them powerfully to affect other lives, so important Because of their love for Jesus. 00:20:52.238 --> 00:20:58.221 They want Jesus to use them to draw them to others, draw others to them and to Jesus. 00:20:58.221 --> 00:21:04.537 We call it evangelism, but it begins with a burden in the heart, not just a sense of obligation. 00:21:04.537 --> 00:21:09.402 So I would sum up a disciple this way. 00:21:09.914 --> 00:21:13.885 Number one a disciple is a person who desires to be like Jesus. 00:21:13.885 --> 00:21:25.467 Did you know when you got saved, you enrolled in a school of Christ whereby the subject is Jesus Christ and God is working overtime in your life and mine to change us. 00:21:25.467 --> 00:21:32.741 So we think, act, talk, speak and move like Jesus A person. 00:21:32.741 --> 00:21:38.471 Number two a disciple is a person willing to practice the things Jesus practiced. 00:21:38.471 --> 00:21:44.730 It's clear that Jesus lived a special life and we're called to follow Him. 00:21:44.730 --> 00:21:46.305 That's what follow Him means. 00:21:46.305 --> 00:21:51.771 And then, thirdly, a person who desires to be used by Jesus to draw others. 00:21:51.771 --> 00:22:00.346 You are willing to engage other people in personal relationships that lead to discipleship and so forth and so on. 00:22:00.346 --> 00:22:06.991 Number two take stock of your present relationships. 00:22:06.991 --> 00:22:09.740 Take stock of your present relationships. 00:22:10.141 --> 00:22:14.150 I want you to do an assessment of the people who are in your life right now. 00:22:14.150 --> 00:22:19.148 Remember you don't need to go anywhere else to be a disciple maker. 00:22:19.148 --> 00:22:32.942 You go through the stages of life and you can be a disciple maker because there are people in your immediate orbit, especially unbelievers, that need to hear the gospel and be a disciple. 00:22:32.942 --> 00:22:39.088 All you need to do is enter the lives of the people already in your sphere of influence. 00:22:39.088 --> 00:22:50.067 There are people right now that are potential disciples who do not yet know the Lord, people in your school, your workplace, your neighborhood. 00:22:50.067 --> 00:23:00.683 These are people who the Father has ordained for you to reach and that you alone can reach because you have access to them. 00:23:00.683 --> 00:23:10.163 And that can include not just seeing people saved, but new believers who need someone to walk beside them. 00:23:10.163 --> 00:23:28.942 My cousin, my Jewish cousin in upstate New York recently came to the Lord and she's on fire for God and she's urging her to get into a discipling relationship with someone in her church. 00:23:30.680 --> 00:23:38.703 Number three pray about who the Father might want you to disciple, or pray about who should disciple you if you need it. 00:23:38.703 --> 00:23:43.728 Don't just invite someone into your life lightly. 00:23:43.728 --> 00:23:46.566 Pray much about it, because it's a huge commitment of time. 00:23:46.566 --> 00:23:48.631 So you need to pray about it. 00:23:48.631 --> 00:24:01.422 Luke tells us it was so important to Jesus that he spent the whole night in prayer to God in Luke 6 before he chose the 12, a whole entire night seeking God about who the 12 should be. 00:24:01.422 --> 00:24:15.271 Obviously they were more important than anybody we would disciple, but still it took a major prayer time to get a sense of who God wanted Jesus to call into the company of 12. 00:24:15.271 --> 00:24:23.982 You might be drawn, naturally, to someone, but God might have someone else who God wants you to disciple. 00:24:23.982 --> 00:24:26.165 So it's not always clear. 00:24:26.165 --> 00:24:30.951 Let the Father make it clear to you by asking him who should I pour into? 00:24:30.951 --> 00:24:32.525 Who do you want me to spend time with? 00:24:32.525 --> 00:24:36.406 Number four invite someone into your life. 00:24:36.406 --> 00:24:39.041 It's not so much. 00:24:39.041 --> 00:24:43.832 You're inviting someone to a Bible study or to a church service. 00:24:43.832 --> 00:24:51.002 We do that, but discipleship is really asking someone to enter your life, inviting them to walk with you. 00:24:52.960 --> 00:24:54.987 You see this clearly in John's Gospel. 00:24:54.987 --> 00:25:00.891 John, by the way, is the only one that told us anything about the first year of Jesus' ministry. 00:25:00.891 --> 00:25:03.907 Matthew, mark and Luke don't, but John did. 00:25:03.907 --> 00:25:12.626 And John tells us that Jesus' relationship with the 12 started way before they were called from their fishing boats in Galilee. 00:25:12.626 --> 00:25:27.928 In fact, two of John's disciples, john the Baptist's disciples when they heard Jesus look at John, look at Jesus, and say there's the Lamb of God, they left John and started following Jesus. 00:25:27.928 --> 00:25:31.769 Jesus turned around and said what do you want essentially? 00:25:31.769 --> 00:25:35.028 And they said, master, we would like to hang out with you. 00:25:35.028 --> 00:25:39.066 This is my vernacular, where do you dwell? 00:25:39.066 --> 00:25:42.188 And Jesus said come and see. 00:25:42.188 --> 00:25:48.541 And their relationship with Jesus started by simply being invited to come and hang with Jesus. 00:25:48.541 --> 00:25:55.221 And that led to their eventual nine months to a year later being called away from their fishing business. 00:25:55.221 --> 00:26:01.115 You're inviting someone to come and see when you're discipling. 00:26:02.365 --> 00:26:16.011 So often the following scenario happens in the local church A church attempts to fill various ministry positions and it meets with continued frustration because no one steps up to the plate. 00:26:16.011 --> 00:26:22.457 So the church concludes that the problem is that there's a discipleship deficit in the church. 00:26:22.457 --> 00:26:28.196 The pastor and elders call a committee together to come up with a discipleship program. 00:26:28.196 --> 00:26:40.653 The committee is formed and they scour the land to find a discipleship program and that has proven success, which usually means, by the way, they're looking for curriculum and a system that can produce disciples. 00:26:40.653 --> 00:26:46.016 Yet it all comes, and it's implemented with great expectations. 00:26:46.016 --> 00:26:46.917 And what happens? 00:26:46.917 --> 00:26:48.307 It all comes crashing down. 00:26:48.307 --> 00:26:53.307 When only a few people sign up and those are usually already the over committed. 00:26:53.307 --> 00:27:04.992 The end of the result is that the size of the ministry base is substantially the same as it was before the program was implemented. 00:27:05.464 --> 00:27:05.665 Why? 00:27:05.665 --> 00:27:08.151 What is missing from this approach? 00:27:08.151 --> 00:27:10.691 The priority of relationship. 00:27:10.691 --> 00:27:23.832 There's a place for material and stuff to teach, but what is missing in this scenario is the priority of relationship. 00:27:23.832 --> 00:27:30.288 Curriculum is good, but for transformation to occur, it can only happen in the context of relationship. 00:27:30.288 --> 00:27:39.625 Jesus says to the 12, follow me, come into a relationship with me and I will empower you to fulfill what I've called you to do. 00:27:39.625 --> 00:27:47.057 And the same appeal has to lie at the heart of our disciple making strategy. 00:27:47.057 --> 00:27:50.973 How does discipleship differ from other church programs. 00:27:50.973 --> 00:28:00.794 We're not inviting again people into a program or a curriculum where they study material, take exams and turn it in, although curriculum is okay. 00:28:00.794 --> 00:28:08.674 Instead, we're inviting people into accountable relationships of love, transparency and trust. 00:28:08.674 --> 00:28:16.833 Number five teach them how to follow Jesus. 00:28:16.833 --> 00:28:25.737 It's in the context of a loving relationship of accountability that we make disciples. 00:28:26.285 --> 00:28:34.765 I wouldn't be standing here this morning if it wasn't for a relationship I had with a spiritual father back in the 1970s. 00:28:34.765 --> 00:28:36.230 I left ministry for a year. 00:28:36.230 --> 00:28:43.374 I was discouraged and I didn't think I'd ever get back into ministry because of the discouragement I found and some other things that were going on. 00:28:43.374 --> 00:28:46.512 And God gave me a spiritual dad named Bruce Todd. 00:28:46.512 --> 00:29:11.055 Bruce was a full-time elder in our church in Michigan, the church where I met Shelley and Mary, and Bruce would sit in an office he was the wisest counselor I ever know but he let me walk with him and I'd get off work and I'd go straight to his office many days of the week and I'd sit and talk with Bruce and listen to him and he just poured his wisdom into my life and it gave me hope. 00:29:11.055 --> 00:29:26.371 The Lord allowed me, through that relationship, to recognize that I was called to ministry and I've been doing it for almost 50 years over 50 years now but that relationship saved my life. 00:29:32.085 --> 00:29:38.838 When you disciple someone, you're not just teaching them, but both of you are learning through relationship. 00:29:38.838 --> 00:29:45.026 One of the reasons I give myself the discipling relationship is because I get so much out of it. 00:29:45.026 --> 00:29:53.692 It's not one person pouring into another and sort of passively, but people learn through relationship. 00:29:53.692 --> 00:29:57.474 It's been said, discipleship is caught, not taught. 00:29:57.474 --> 00:29:59.369 It's caught, not taught. 00:29:59.369 --> 00:30:05.817 When you disciple someone, you're not just teaching them but, again, you're building relationship. 00:30:05.817 --> 00:30:14.888 One of the things God uses in a discipleship relationship, if we're honest, is the transparency of the Disciple. 00:30:14.888 --> 00:30:23.710 One of the reasons and that's what I appreciate so much about Tyler his openness to be transparent has been a blessing to this church. 00:30:24.351 --> 00:30:30.413 Amen, and that's why discipleship is so powerful. 00:30:30.413 --> 00:30:39.513 You learn to walk with someone through the various stages of life and then, step six, teach them to multiply. 00:30:39.513 --> 00:30:49.642 It's no good if your chart stops with two people, but you should teach those two or one. 00:30:49.642 --> 00:30:54.672 It doesn't have to be two, it could be one or three, but teach them to multiply. 00:30:54.672 --> 00:30:58.272 Empower your disciples to go and make disciples. 00:30:58.272 --> 00:31:06.287 This is a multiplication experience whereby, through multiplication of disciples, the kingdom grows. 00:31:06.287 --> 00:31:09.174 And Jesus said go and make disciples. 00:31:09.174 --> 00:31:11.352 He meant multiply yourself. 00:31:11.352 --> 00:31:16.653 And it says in the book of Acts the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. 00:31:16.653 --> 00:31:25.473 So discipleship is God's way of growing the kingdom. 00:31:25.473 --> 00:31:27.405 Amen with me. 00:31:31.228 --> 00:31:38.336 Amen, let's pray. 00:31:38.336 --> 00:31:41.815 Father, thank you for this gathering this morning. 00:31:41.815 --> 00:31:44.792 Thank you for those who are able to come and those who are watching online. 00:31:44.792 --> 00:31:57.522 Father, I pray for you to activate a new generation of disciple makers All men and women in this room online listening and those who will listen in the future. 00:31:57.522 --> 00:32:01.575 Call them Father to a life of disciple making. 00:32:01.575 --> 00:32:06.276 Thank you, father, for granting us the grace to pour into others. 00:32:06.276 --> 00:32:11.797 Help us to take these steps we've outlined and to invest in others. 00:32:11.797 --> 00:32:13.790 Make the investment fruitful. 00:32:13.790 --> 00:32:20.907 Let us all have multiplying charts of people we've called and we've walked with, who are discipling others. 00:32:20.907 --> 00:32:23.928 We ask in Jesus' name Amen.