Episode 60 - What Is In Your Hands

We are continuing with a series of podcast episodes that discuss what it means to be a disciple of our Lord.  In this episode I look at what we can do with with God has graced us with, no matter what it is.  We seek to use those gifts to serve our Lord as together we walk with our Master.

I invite you to follow our podcast and share it with others as together we walk with our Master.

Please contact me if you have questions or you wish to share with me something about your walk with the Master. My email is walkingwithourmaster@gmail.com

The Prattville family meets at 344 East Main Street, Prattville, AL. Our web site is: https://prattvillechurch.org.

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Transcript

Hello friends, I'm your host Dave Laton and welcome to the podcast, Walking With Our Master, an outreach of the Prattville Church of Christ designed to inform, encourage, and teach as we daily walk with our Master. 

 We are continuing our series on Applied Discipleship ~ More Than You Know.  We’re looking at different elements of what it means to be a disciple of Christ.  

Perhaps you have a favorite Bible event.  For example, you might thrill at the awesome power of God demonstrated by creation.  You might like how David stood up to the giant Goliath with only his faith, courage, and a handful of pebbles.  Many enjoy the crossing of the Red Sea as Moses led the Israelites out of Egyptian captivity.  Some especially like the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  

One of my favorites is a well-known Old Testament event found in the book of Exodus.  It is a background story but a critical one none-the-less.  Beginning in Exodus 3 we read where God commissioned Moses to lead the Israelites from Egyptian slavery.    Moses presents several excuses because he felt he was not worthy to be chosen nor had the ability to do so.  If fact, Moses was fearful of going back to Egypt.  Finally, in Exodus 4, God asked Moses a very direct question.  He asked him what he had in his hand.  Perhaps we can envision this as Moses looks down and sees he is holding his shepherd’s staff.  Perhaps looking back at God he responds, “A staff.”  Moses was probably thinking it wasn’t much to speak about, what good was that for what God was telling him to do.  But as Moses saw, and we see today, God transformed that staff into a major tool in accomplishing His will.

There might have been another element in God’s statement to Moses that we might overlook.  It is likely that Moses would always look upon that staff in a different way.  It would remind him that indeed God can use simple things to do great things.  It isn’t the staff (or us); it is God’s power.

My point is this.  We might think we have very little knowledge, skills, or opportunities to serve our Lord.  Perhaps we think we need great things or must do great things.  But like Moses, we must remember that whatever we have, no matter how humble, simple, great, or glorious, when used in God’s service, it becomes great through His power and glory, not our own.  And therefore, as disciples, we continue to give Him glory.

In this episode we will look at how we increase our effectiveness as disciples.  It isn't about our power or the thrill we might receive by being a disciple that champions our Lord.  Rather, it is how we can humbly apply what God has blessed us with.  God has placed in our head, hands, and heart what we need to be champion disciples.  And we will have far greater influence than we know.

I don’t know who originally used the expression of head, hands, and heart to describe our total commitment.  I like it and think it very well describes what our Lord wants from us as we serve Him.  I like to refer to these three elements as H3.  

 Remember that our Lord teaches us that an effective disciple must count the cost and be willing to give everything in His service.  Let's look at these three elements of H3 independently but keep in mind that they work together to multiply our effectiveness as disciples.

As we stated, we must be willing to be completely committed to serving our Lord.  We must be willing to commit everything about ourselves to His service.  That’s where H3 comes into play. 

The first element of H3 is head.  When we use the word head, we are referring to the knowledge we gain as we grow and learn.  We stated that a disciple is a learner.  In our role as disciples, it means learning knowledge of who we are and what God wants us to be.  

Who we become as disciples is a servant.  And as we grow in our discipleship, we look at everything we learn with the view of how I can use this for serving the Master.  This includes explicit learning, meaning the knowledge we gain about something.  It also includes the tacit learning we gain, meaning the wisdom and application of what we’ve learned.  

Scripture is full of teachings for us to gain knowledge about who Jesus is, what He did and continues to do for us.  We also learn how to become His disciples, how to help others become His disciples, and expectations for living as citizens in His Kingdom.  But we must go beyond learning basic facts.  We discussed in an earlier chapter how we must move beyond the milk of God's word and into the meat of it.  We learn how to use that information to transform our lives with the objective in mind to be better servants for our Master.  This transformation is vital to our success as disciples. 

The next element of H3 is described as our hands.  Hands represent the application of the knowledge we have gained.  It's putting into practice what we have learned from God's word.  It does no good, and in fact is harmful, if we don’t put into practice what we learn from Jesus.

We not only apply God’s word to our lives, but we continue to help others learn and apply our Lord’s teachings to their lives.  This involves a lifetime of living and learning as a disciple.  We gain more insights and skills as we apply God's word.  We take the unknown and make it known.  

The third element of H3 is our heart.  Of course, heart does not refer to the physical organ that pumps blood through our body.  Rather, heart refers to our attitudes and how we see things as disciples of our Lord.  In addition to attitude, it involves our outlook, courage, and other intangible qualities that also grow as we mature in our discipleship.  

This stems from the renewing of our minds as described by Paul in Romans 12:1-2.  It is at the core of what our Lord wants the most.  He wants our renewed heart.

A disciple with a renewed heart is one that seeks to obey the Master and to seek our Master’s will above self.  It is a significant part of our spiritual growth process or transforming process as we become more like the Master in every part of our lives.

The transformation of our hearts is the Holy Spirit working directly to guide us to becoming Christ-like.  Developing a new heart and having our heart grow is an internal process that affects everything about us.   Note the beatitudes as Jesus began the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5.  The first 6 deal directly with our heart. The others indirectly.  Note what Paul described in Galatians 5:22-23 as the Fruit of the Spirit.  These are primarily heart issues. Also note Philippians 4:8 as Paul tells us what to think on.  Again, primarily heart issues.          

We can look at many examples from scripture to see changes in the life of the early Christians as they grew in their discipleship.  Here are two examples of allowing God's spirit to affect their head, hands, and heart.  As a result, we see maximum effectiveness.

The early Christians beginning in Acts 2.  They accepted Peter’s and the other apostles' teachings (head) and began their transformation.  They continued to learn and do the apostle’s teachings (hands) the apostles' teachings.  Then in Acts 8 we see they were driven from Jerusalem and took the gospel with them (hands and heart).  The heart element of this was their courage and faithfulness to what they had learned.  Their lives had been changed and they continued to grow.

Another example is Onesimus in the book of Philemon – As a disgruntled slave, Onesimus apparently stole from his master and ran away.  Then in Rome, he meets Paul and is converted to Jesus (head and heart).  He remains with Paul and the Christian community in Rome to serve (hands).  He then returns to Philemon, his master, as a messenger for Paul and to make things right with his now brother in the Lord, Philemon (heart).  Onesimus understood the need for repentance and a pure heart before God and acted on it, no matter the cost.  Again, courage and faithfulness.

All the elements of H3 have something that binds them together.  It is our willingness to turn our life over to the Master.  God does not force His will on us. He invites us to humbly submit to Him.  And the rewards are more than we know.

Willingness means to be ready and eager to prepare to do something.  Paradoxically, willingness is not "willing” something to happen, rather it is allowing something to control us.    In the context of H3, we chose to turn our will and our life over to our Master as seen by our continued spiritual growth.  As we turn more of our will and life over to the Master, the more we grow spiritually and the more effective we become as His disciples and servants.   And the more we come to know.

Willingness is perhaps the greatest exercise of choices we make.  We begin by choosing to become a disciple.  Then we study God's word looking for the commands and principles of living as a faithful disciple. We seek God’s will first in all elements of our life whether physically, intellectually, emotionally, socially, and certainly spiritually.   

H3 is about allowing God’s Spirit to control our lives as we grow in our discipleship.  All three of these elements—head, hands, and heart—make up the totality of who we are as we mature as disciples.  No single element is more important than another.    This is the championing part of being a faithful and effective disciple for the Master. 

The other part of championing, being the best we can be means we commit our life to the Master's service.  We take the knowledge and wisdom God has given us and put it into practice using whatever gifts or abilities God has graced us with as we do the Master’s will.  As we do so, our life changes, we impact others, and we are rewarded more than we know.

As I begin to wrap up this episode, I offer some questions to help us better understand how to apply ourselves as our Lord’s disciples.

What do you think about the individual elements of H3?

 Defend the statement that each element of H3 is as important as the other elements.

 Why is a changed heart important to our Lord?

 At what point do we begin to transform?  At what point is the transformation process completed?

 What are some internal and external activities that lead us to believe we are applying God's word?

 What role does willingness play in our discipleship?

 In our next episode we will look more closely at the transformation process as we learn to do our Lord’s will.

 I'm your host Dave Laton.  Thank you for joining me in this podcast.  I hope you will continue to do so. If you wish to share with me something from your walk with our Master or you would like to learn more, please email me at: walkingwithourmaster@gmail.com.

 I invite you to follow our podcast and share it with others as together we walk with our Master.  And until next time, remember, we give all glory to God the Father.