Time With
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Starting a new series: DISCIPLined
You’ll notice the word highlighted is DISCIPLE
If you want to be a disciple, it is going to cost you something
Luke 14:27–28 (ESV)
27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?
I tried guitar, I tried sax - nothing
Why? Fingers hurt, didn’t want to practice, rather watch TV
Ultimately, it was taking too long!
Why work for years to get good at playing Johnny B. Goode...
When I can pop the tape in and hear it right now...
This was 1991 BTW...
Then I tried the drums
I went out in the 110 degree garage
Cramping calves, bloody fingers, blistered palms
I played my butt off because I counted the cost
And I considered it worth the work
AND my passion drove me to keep going
It would have been better in the moment to just pop in some blink-182
Listen to Travis Barker do all the work - instant gratification!
But I wanted something more
That’s what it looks like to be a disciple
This series is about the lifeblood of church growth
All about discipleship
But I want to focus on the discipline of being a disciple
We often want instant gratification
I’m saved - good enough for me
I’ll witness to you, and never see you again - good enough for me
I’ll listen to a preacher talk about Scripture - good enough for me
That’s not what being a disciple is about AT ALL!
And it’s DEFINITELY not what being a disciplemaker is about either
YouVersion: TW
Bouncing around a few texts
To begin, I know we ended our Moses series...
But I have one more Exodus passage I want to look at:
18 Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off 19 and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.”
We like having someone in charge
Having one person gives us
Clear direction - one voice
Efficiency - no red tape
Simplicity - One place to look to
In fact, I would argue that a monarchy is the BEST form of government!
Think about it, what is Jesus to us? Our king...
Not our:
President
Senator
Prime Minister
A king is the BEST! With one caveat....
The king has to be perfect...
I hate to break it to you, but that’s hard to come by!
That doesn’t stop us from desiring it though!
Israel wanted to have one guy in charge
We saw it with Moses, but later we see it with Samuel and Saul:
4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah 5 and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” 6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. 8 According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. 9 Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”
Israel was all excited to have one man in charge
Samuel warns them:
The king will make your sons fight in the military
He will take all the best property for himself
He will take your servants and equipment
They say, “No! Give us a king anyway!”
Even when God warns them it’s a bad idea, they still want one guy
You might think of King George III, Adolf Hitler, Kim Jeong Un...
But what about something more familiar to us today?
Maybe Raavi Zacharias, Bill Hybels or James McDonald?
Churches in general used to be focused on people in their communities
Denominational churches focused on unity in theology and reaching communities
If you’re a Methodist, you go Pekin Methodist, or Peoria Methodist, or Washington Methodist
You were wrapped up in being a Methodist, a theological community
But things started to shift in the last century
We saw the beginning of the “megachurch” - churches with at least 2,000 people
The idea of being denominational gained traction
That’s not bad, we’re non-denominational after all
But it became less about theological unity, and more about individual church identity
We pursue things like “vision” and “purpose”
Looking at models for successful growth - because it’s about attendance
As automobiles and highways became common, so did something called “the commute”
You didn’t live above the general store, you didn’t work at the corner grocer
You lived in the suburbs, driving to the big things you needed
Go to Wal-Mart and get gas, buy groceries, get a new mattress and stop at the McDonald’s on the way out while they give you an oil change!
Then, go to your megachurch and pass 50 local churches on the way, why?
Because that church has a great speaker...
Remember, what started as “we want to welcome everyone” became, anyone can be an attender
So we get to be a church of 2,000, or 5,000 or 15,000!
Then we lift the pastor on a pedestal!
If your church is that big, you must know what you’re doing!
God must have ordained your ministry in a special way!
I think megachurches have their place
They are powerful forces that God uses because they have more talent, money and space
But the problem is most churches want to keep up with the Joneses
And so we become all about what that guy can do
You have the guy at the front, the staff that makes him look good, and everyone else who’s there to watch
And what happens when that one guy fails?
He’s caught swindling money
He’s caught cheating on his wife
He’s accused of bullying people
His theology goes off the deep end and no one can hold him accountable...
They cover it up, they leave the church, or they leave the faith...
Because it’s no longer about Jesus
It’s about the power, the reputation, the empire, the man...
It’s not, I'm a part of McLean Bible Church, or I worship at Cornerstone, or I’m a member of Bethlehem Baptist...
It’s, I go to David Platt’s church, I go to Francis Chan’s church, or I go to John Piper’s church
I’m not saying the guys are necessarily bad, but we have an obsession with making celebrity pastors
We lift up certain men as being holy, and we think we are just peons
He does the preaching, I can’t preach
He shares the gospel, I can’t share
It’s funny, this isn’t the way Jesus did it AT ALL
When the disciples came under Him and tried to make Him the top dog, what did He do?
You go cast out demons, I’m going to pray alone
You go share the gospel, I’m going to wash some feet
You go change the world, I’m going to go die for it
1 Corinthians 3:1–9 (ESV)
1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
When people call themselves Christians...
And yet they hope in man
They aren’t growing
They want to be fed by another
They believe what men do is all about them
Paul calls them “merely human”
He calls them fleshly
He calls them babies
He says, “I can’t even address you as spiritual”
If you are a Christian, you have a job!
I want you to understand this:
If you are a Christian, you are a disciplemaker
If you are a Christian, you are a disciplemaker
You might think:
I’m not gifted in that way
That’s for the pastors to do
I’m an introvert
BALONEY!
You are called to make disciples
From the moment you know Christ, you can get right to work!
In John 4, there is a Samaritan woman at a well
Jesus says give me water
She says, Jews don’t ask Samaritans for water
Jesus says, If you knew who I was, you’d ask me for living water
She says how are you going to get water? Are you better than Jacob who gave this well?
Jesus says Whoever drinks my water will never thirst
She says, Give me some!
Jesus says get your husband
She says I don’t have one
He says, Yup! You’ve had 5 husbands and the one you’re with now you’re not even married to
She says, You must be a prophet, so do we have to worship in Jerusalem?
Jesus says:
John 4:21–26 (ESV)
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
That’s it! That’s all she knew!
She didn’t live 20 years in a monastery
She didn’t attend seminary for 15 years
I don’t think she even knew His name!
Watch what she does:
John 4:28–29 (ESV)
28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”
Then what?
John 4:39–42 (ESV)
39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
One 5 minute conversation with Jesus equipped her to do powerful ministry!
Yeah, but she only got the conversation started!
Then the people went and talked to Jesus and He’s the one that did all the hard work!
EXACTLY...
Discipleship is about people growing together
REGARDLESS of where they are
Discipleship is not a top down, hierarchical structure
“I’m going to mentor you”
It’s about mutually beneficial relationships
Proverbs 27:17 (ESV)
17 Iron sharpens iron,
and one man sharpens another.
It’s not diamonds sharpening plastic...
Iron sharpens iron!
The exact same substance, equal in value
A new believer could help disciple John MacArthur!
How? Because God works through relationships!
The hard part of discipleship is already done!
Do you know the gospel? You’re ahead of the game!
Do you know how to read and pray? You’ve got all the skills!
Do you have a bible? You have the resources!
That means you can start being a disciplemaker TODAY
PALC is taught by Bill Allison locally
Men may remember learning this from our men’s weekend
It was a primer for what we’re doing as a church
I wanted men to go first - but not only
We all need to move in this direction
Male, female, young, old, black, white, American, Jew...
Discipleship is a process
In PALC, we learn a formula - some of you might know it
It’s so simple, but so powerful
The hardest part is not making it complicated
(TW+K4)xD3
(TW+K4)xD3
Say it out loud!
This is literally how discipleship is done
And we should all be doing it...
For some it is natural - you’ve been doing it for years
For some, you need to hear it so you feel like you have direction
I literally want this formula to be the lifeblood of how we live at CrossPoint
Right now, you likely don’t know what any of those are
That makes it confusing - but it’s simple
There are 3 parts to the process
TW, K4 and D3 - each of those means something
Let’s start at the front - TW
This is the one we’re starting with today
We’ll break down the other parts in the coming weeks
If you forget, we will be including it over and over again until your head bleeds
TW is “Time With”
TW is “Time With”
If you want o make disciples of people, you have to spend time with them
Discipleship is no done with a book
It is not done from he stage
It is done WITH PEOPLE - period
Relationships are not a component of discipleship
Discipleship IS relationships
That doesn’t mean important things aren’t done from the stage
That doesn’t mean books aren’t helpful
But discipleship doesn’t end there
We’ll talk more about that in a minute
K4 represents the things we do in that time
Let’s break this down
“K” is for “Kavanah”
“K” is for “Kavanah”
Kavanah is a Hebrew word - means direction, intention or purpose
So TW is time with, and Kavanah means we are intentional about what we do in that time
But it’s K4, so how many things do you think we do intentionally? FOUR
It’s very simple
1. Study Scripture to know God
1. Study Scripture to know God
It’s not just studying Scripture to learn knowledge...
But rather studying so you recognize God’s character
You become familiar with Him
It’s helps you grow in relationship with Him
We’ll talk about that one after Mother’s Day
2. Prayerfulness
2. Prayerfulness
Not just prayer, but being prayer-full
It’s encouraging a lifestyle of constant prayer
We’ll talk about that in 3 weeks
3. Loving extravagantly
3. Loving extravagantly
Not just loving - Hey, nice shirt!
But in an extravagant way
We’ll talk about how Jesus modelled that at the end of May
4. All of life is worship (C323 Living)
4. All of life is worship (C323 Living)
Colossians 3:23 (ESV)
23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,
This idea that EVERYTHING you do is an act of worship
Worship is more than just singing (although that is a way)
But sacrificing all of your actions to God
Then we hit D3
D3 is “multiplication”
D3 is “multiplication”
Tim talked about this last year on youth Sunday
We like addition in church - I added 20 new Christians today
Next week we’ll add 20 more!
But it’s better to say “I’ll focus on one person”
Then they’ll go focus on someone, and I’ll focus on another...
Then they’ll go focus, and the other one will focus, and the one they focused on will focus...
So remember I said this was simple
Let me take our formula and say it again quickly
(TW+K4)xD3
Spend time with someone
Intentionally reading the word, praying, loving and worshipping, and everyone keeps repeating the process!
From there, forget about the other rules!
Don’t we need discussion questions? Nope...
How long do we meet for? I don’t know...
How often do we meet? Whenever...
How many? Maybe two or three… or four...
It can really be whatever you want!
Just make sure you’re actually doing it...
We believe ministry is all about attendance
We had 300 people show up!
We had 25 baptisms!
We are a church of 1,200!
That’s not all bad… but that’s not all
How often do we hear numbers in Jesus’ ministry?
Yeah He fed 5,000, and 4,000...
But most of His ministry stories don’t revolve around a big “event”
His ministry happens mostly in small doses
During His transfiguration - He’s got 3 guys
When He calms the storm - He’s with he 12
Even the resurrection - no one was there to see it!
But He appeared first to Mary Magdalene and then Peter and then the 12!
Most of Jesus’ work was done with Jesus’ close friends, not the crowds… why?
Impact.
John 14:12 (ESV)
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
Jesus feeding 5,000 people, fed 5,000 people
How many of them were by His side at the crucifixion?
But think about it, He poured Himself into those 12 men
And also the women… And what did they do?
They kept the work going!
Mark 16:19–20 (ESV)
19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.
Where’s everywhere?
They took the gospel to Jerusalem, and Demascus, Antioch, Turkey, Greece, and Rome!
Tradition also teaches that
James went to Spain
Thomas went to India
Matthew went to Ethiopia
And Bartholomew went to Armenia
If they didn’t, guess what?
Someone else who they poured into went and took the gospel!
That’s the point!
If the gospel is going to spread, it’s going to be by CHRISTIANS!
Not just pastors, not just elders, not just missionaries… ALL Christians.
That means you.
Bill Allison: “God has called you to a personal relationship with Him - not a private one.”
Where do you start? Spend time with someone.
But who? Better start praying about it!
Who is God telling you to pull close?
I’m asking because Jesus doesn’t want me to stand up here and do all the work!
He wants YOU to do the work!
Matthew 28:18–20 (ESV)
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 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, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Is it your spouse? Your kids? Your coworkers? Your best friend? The person behind you? Me?
For some of you it IS me!
I have 6 guys I’m doing this with right now!
Eventually, those guys will go and meet with others
Some already have...
And then they will go with others, and they will go...
As I take another one, and another one!
So if someone hasn’t approached you, you go find someone...
Who is that person?