DiscipleMaker
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Do you know our mission and vision?
Do you know our mission and vision?
Mission:
Make disciples who transforme the world
Bring IN - Build UP - Send OUT
Vision: Bring in - Build up - Send out
I see a ministry that welcomes and embraces all people making them part of the family of Christ.
A ministry that builds people up to be full of the Holy Spirit by helping them grow in the word of God and developing them into disciples of Christ.
A ministry that sends people out to reach others for Jesus, being present in the community and spreading the love of God.
A ministry that praises God for His signs and wonders and worships Him for who He is.
Disciples Make Disciples
Disciples Make Disciples
Who has had a great influence on your life for Christ?
What qualities did this person have that enabled him or her to have such an influence on you?
You can ask hundreds of people these questions. No one has ever said he was helped because the person was so intellectual or had such a dynamic personality or was so good-looking!
What they do say is that it was the person’s relationship with people and God that really mattered:
•“He really cared for me.”
• “She had such a genuine interest in me.”
• “He believed in me.”
• “He had a close walk with God.”
• “She took the time to listen to me. She was open and honest.”
To underline the truth that the qualities of a disciple maker are available to all of us, our Lord seemed deliberately to train those who “were unschooled, ordinary men”
(Acts 4:13) and leave His work in their hands.
13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
'The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. '
Yes, Jesus’ Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 applied to the original disciples, applied to disciples through the years, and reaches this generation—God desires you to be a disciple who makes disciples!
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
As you read the Great Commission, which phrase do you think best sums up the essence of disciple making?
A Walk of Faith
A Walk of Faith
When God appeared to Moses through the burning bush, He told him He had seen Israel’s misery and wanted Moses to go back and lead them out of Egypt. Moses’ immediate response was to question God’s judgment in selecting him
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
'But Moses protested to God, “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?” God answered, “I will be with you. And this is your sign that I am the one who has sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain.”'
Forty years earlier he had attempted to help the Israelites and failed miserably. He had run from Egypt with an Israelite’s question ringing in his mind, “Who made you ruler and judge over us?” (Exodus 2:14 NIV).
Most of us, like Moses, have attempted to help people along the way and failed. The second person I tried to disciple dropped me a note after several months of meeting regularly: “I want nothing more to do with you or God.” I wanted to do what Moses did—run to the desert and work with sheep.
Where do we find the courage to get involved in people’s lives after we have failed?
Or what about the courage to help that very first person?
The answer lies in God’s response to Moses. He gave the promise, “I will be with you”
12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
. God answered, “I will be with you. And this is your sign that I am the one who has sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain.”'
God did not encourage Moses to rely on his ability and training. He simply assured Moses of His presence.
Jesus made the same promise when He commissioned the apostles to go and make disciples. None of these men had a good track record for bravery. Yet each risked his life to disciple people all over the world. Jesus backed up their commission to make disciples with this:
20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
“Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age”.
If Jesus Christ were here in human form and went with us to help someone, we would go with great confidence that the person would receive what he needed. And that is what He has promised to do.
Faith is the ability to believe that what God says is more real than what our eyes see. We can rely on the promise of His presence.
People who trust God make excellent disciplemakers. Knowing that only God can change lives, they become people of prayer. They see God work way beyond their natural abilities. God receives the glory only when our ministries go beyond what we could do on our own.
Believing God also frees us to believe in people.
I remember a time when my spiritual growth accelerated. Why? The person helping me believed in God and believed in me. He believed God could do things with my life I had never dreamed possible. I grew in accordance with his faith.
It was only natural that I should then believe God for the people I was discipling. Some years later a man I had discipled said he knew his solid walk with Christ had grown because, “You believed in me.” He boiled down our hundreds of hours together to that one statement.
A discipler has faith that God will work through him or her to make disciples.
24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.
- 'God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful.'
What were the most important things that others taught you—or that you wish others had taught you—that helped you grow in your own Christian life?
A Heart for People
A Heart for People
A disciplemaker must love those he or she wants to help. And love sees people the way they are and then serves them.
A disciple maker's goal is to build people up in Christ.
The apostle Paul said, “Knowledge puffs up while love builds up” (1 Corinthians 8:1 NIV).
1 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up.
'Now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols. Yes, we know that “we all have knowledge” about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. '
It was Paul’s love, more than his knowledge and abilities, that established hundreds of Christians throughout Asia Minor and Europe. He was able to write to the Thessalonians,
6 We were not looking for praise from people, not from you or anyone else, even though as apostles of Christ we could have asserted our authority.
7 Instead, we were like young children among you. Just as a nursing mother cares for her children,
8 so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.
9 Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you.
Love, like faith, expresses itself in action. Therefore, Paul went on to say to the Thessalonians,
9 Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you.
Don’t you remember, dear brothers and sisters, how hard we worked among you? Night and day we toiled to earn a living so that we would not be a burden to any of you as we preached God’s Good News to you. '
Paul called himself a servant to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 4:1). Serving is love in action.
I read somewhere this: “You train a man and he can only become what you are, but if you serve a man, the sky's the limit.”
I hope this liberates you from thinking of discipling as getting people through programs and methods. But start thinking of how to serve each person to help him or her become more mature in Christ. The person, not the program, became the focus.
We have a beautiful picture of serving in Jesus’ life.
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
'Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. '
The invitation came at the end of a very difficult day. Jesus had just had to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles had been performed because they did not repent (v. 20). People who questioned His motives had called Him “a glutton and a drunkard” (v. 19). And John the Baptist had just sent some of his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” (v. 2).
Jesus had had enough disappointments that day to make most of us withdraw, be in a bad mood, and cry. But He invited others to bring their cares and burdens to Him.
Love gives us the capacity to serve others even when our burdens are heavy. It enables us to put our cares aside for the moment and give ourselves to someone else.
Without love we will never truly disciple others. They will have to fit into our schedule and needs—and they won’t, and shouldn’t have to.
Paul and his co-workers shared the gospel as well as their own lives with the new Christians at Thessalonica
8 so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.
What do you feel are the most important things you can share with younger Christians?
Conclusion
Conclusion
Three facts stand out for us as Christ’s people:
1. The Lord wants us to make disciples. He commissioned us to do it when He said, “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).
2. There are plenty of people who need to be discipled. “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few” (Matthew 9:37).
3. Any of us can disciple others if we believe God, love people, and follow Christ with the intent of becoming like Him.
Don’t wait until you feel capable. The heart of the disciplemaker is his character, not his skills.
Step out in faith, invest your life in someone else, and pick up the skills as you go along.
Do you know a young Christian who needs help in his or her spiritual life? What step(s) might you take to begin discipling that person?