EQUIPPING IN DISCIPLESHIP
Benjamin Franklin learned that crushed plaster sown in the fields would help make things grow. He told his neighbors this, but they did not believe him and they argued with him trying to prove that plaster could be of no use at all. After a little while he allowed the matter to drop and said no more about it. But he went into his field early the next spring to plant some grass. Close by the path, where people would walk, he traced some letters into the ground put plaster into them and then sowed his seed in the field. After a week or two the seed sprang up. His neighbors, as they passed that way, were very much surprised to see, in brighter green than all the rest of the field, the writing in large letters, "This has been plastered." Benjamin Franklin did not need to argue with his neighbors any more about the benefit of plaster for the fields. For as the season went on and the grass grew, these bright green letters just rose up above all the rest until they were a kind of relief-plate in the field -- "This has been plastered."
Before I am misquoted today that, “Pastor Steve says I am supposed to go get plastered”, it is true that Christians should be people that stick out in the world. We are called to be different - to show the character of Christ in our lives.
We are continuing in our series getting back to the basics. For the last 2 weeks we have looked at the great commandment – loving God and loving others. This is worship and fellowship. Today we move to the other ‘great’ statement of Jesus, the great commission:
Mat 28:18-20 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."
We see in this statement that making disciples is a process. As we go into the world people come to Christ, they are baptized and they are taught and grow in their relationship with Christ. This process of growing in Christ is called DISCIPLESHIP.
Eph 4:11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.
God calls us to spiritual maturity. He wants us to grow. The problem is that often we do not understand what spiritual growth is. Let me break some of the myths about spiritual growth:
a. Growth is not automatic – it is a choice
You can grow older without growing up. A lot of people grow old and yet are still immature physically, emotionally, spiritually. Age does not equate with maturity.
b. Growth is not instant – it is a gradual process
The reality is there is no magic pill that will instantly turn you into maturity. It’s a process that starts at your conversion and lasts until you go to heaven. There are no shortcuts.
c. Growth doesn’t happen by just attending church – you must developing habits
Some people think that the Christian life is just a series of meetings. That if you go to a church every once in a while and you are a good Christian that means you are growing. Jesus did not say, “I have come that you might have meetings.” He said, “I have come that you might have life.” Life is at home and work AND at church. A lot of people don’t have time for ministry and mission because they are in meetings all the time.
d. Growth doesn’t happen just by yourself – you need to grow with others
You need other people in your life. Other religions teach that the way you become spiritual is to isolate yourself from everybody else. The holy people are those who live off in monasteries or up on a mountain in a cave. That’s not what Jesus taught. Jesus was the holiest person who ever lived and He went to parties. He was with people. Loving God means loving your neighbor as yourself. That’s what it’s all about. You’ve got to be with people.
e. Growth is not measured by beliefs – both beliefs and behavior must change
Just knowing a lot of Bible does not mean you are spiritually mature. Not just beliefs but behavior. In other words, you only believe the parts of the Bible that you do. You believe the part of scripture that you actually practice. Both belief and behavior are essential. At one point the Pharisees came to Jesus to try to trap him into a theological dispute. Jesus responded to their question by saying:
Matt 22:29 Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.”
That really was an insult because the truth was that in order to be a Pharisee you had to memorize the first five books in the Bible. The truth is that you can memorize it and still not know it because you only know the parts that you actually do. Knowing means more than head knowledge. You can know the words but miss the power of God which must be experienced. How do you know when you have reached spiritual maturity? The same way you know when a plant or a tree is mature. It bears fruit. An apple tree is not a mature apple tree until you start seeing apples.
Today, I want to talk about the secrets of bearing fruit. These are the things that we do to help you grow. You need to understand them if you’re going to become all that God wants you to be.
1. Spiritual growth is PLANNED – intentional
A single middle aged man went on a Caribbean cruise. On the first day out he noticed an attractive woman about his age who smiled at him in a friendly way as he passed her on the deck. That night he managed to get seated at the same table with her for dinner. As the conversation developed, he commented that he had seen her on the deck that day and he had appreciated her friendly smile. When she heard this she smiled and commented, "Well, the reason I smiled was that when I saw you I was immediately struck by your strong resemblance to my third husband." At this he perked up his ears and said, "Oh, how many times have you been married?" She looked down at her plate, smiled demurely, and answered, "Twice." That is a woman who has a plan!
Spiritual growth is intentional. You must make a choice to grow. I don’t know how to say it any clearer than this. You are as close to Jesus Christ as you choose to be. If you are not growing spiritually don’t blame your wife or husband or kids or parents or pastor. You are as close to God as you choose to be. If you don’t feel close to God right now, guess who moved? God didn’t move.
If you want to be a spiritual baby your entire life, that is your choice. We grow by making commitments. There are 4 different ways in which people commit themselves to this church.
The first commitment is called the crowd. This means you attend one of the worship services. It is called the crowd because there are a LOT of people at this level. As people come and commit themselves to the services we then ask for the next level of commitment.
This second level of commitment is called the committed. I love to see people make this jump. This means you get involved in an intentional discipleship program. These are courses designed to help people to grow in their faith. As people grow they move on to the next level.
The third level of commitment is the core. These are people who have moved from just feeding themselves to start feeding others. This means getting involved in some area of service which could mean ushering, joining the worship team or leading a small group. We rely on core people to run this church from week to week. If they did not do their jobs we could not be here. As people are faithful in service and ministering to others they move into the next level.
The fourth level of commitment is the commissioned. These are people who have really gotten a hold of God’s plan for their life and they have found an area to serve. They understand God’s calling on their life and we commission them as a church to go out into the world and make a difference.
Perhaps you are wondering where this model comes from. It is not just something I made up – it was modeled by the life of Jesus. When Jesus started His ministry at thirty years of age, He had three and a half years to raise up people who would change the world after He died. When he began his ministry, people just started following Him. Andrew asked where he was going and Jesus said “come and see”. So Andrew and some others began spending time with Jesus.
This is the first level. They were just checking Jesus out. Maybe you are here today at church and you are just checking us out. That’s great – you are very welcome. We’re not going to ask you to stand up and tell us your name or to do anything. You are welcome to just attend and check things out. That’s the first step. But Jesus didn’t leave people there.
Over a period of time Jesus people grew committed to Jesus teaching and were following him. At this point he began to turn up the heat and redefine what it meant to be His follower. The commitment level rose. At several times the bible says that the people following Jesus left him because they could no longer accept His teaching. In John there is the passage where Jesus said that following Him meant drinking his blood and taking up your cross and following.
John 6:53 Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood , you have no life in you.
It says that many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" and that from that time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
Jesus was taking his followers through stages of commitment. He kept turning up the heat and requirements until a core was established. He sent these people out (the 12 first and then the 72). Some of these He eventually commissioned and they went out and changed the world.
If you are going to grow spiritually you need to have a plan. I encourage you to consider where you are at today and consider making a move to the next level of commitment. For some that means taking a class. For some it may mean taking the leap getting involved in joining a ministry team.
2. Spiritual growth is a PROCESS – incremental
We grow by having a plan, a process, a systematic track to run on. If you say, “I’m going to go on a diet,” it helps to have some sort of a plan to follow. This is true of spiritual growth also.
The late A. W. Tozer once wrote “Think about people who find themselves in religious ruts. They discover a number of things about themselves. They will find that they are getting older but not getting any holier. Time is their enemy, not their friend. The time they trusted and looked to is betraying them, for they often said to themselves, "The passing of time will help me. I know some good old saints, so as I get older I’ll get holier and better. Time will help me, purify me and revive me." They said that the year before last, but they were not helped any last year. Time betrayed them. They were not any better last year than they had been the year before.”
There are a lot of different plans out there because not every plan works for everybody. But it works a whole lot better when you say I want to grow when you’ve got a plan for growth. Maybe you have heard it said that if you fail to plan then you plan to fail. Growth is a systematic sequential process.
We know that children grow through developmental stages. We know that they learn to breathe first. Then they learn to eat. Then they learn to walk. Then they learn to talk. No child has ever taken those out of order. They are developmental steps. The same is true in your spiritual life. You’ve got to learn to breathe then eat then walk and then talk. They always come in a certain order.
These steps can be summarize like this: Knowing Christ, then Loving Christ, then Growing in Christ, then Serving Christ, then Sharing Christ. That’s the order of learning.
3. Spiritual growth is PERSONAL – individual
What I mean is that your plan for spiritual growth must be customized directly for you. There is not one size that fits all. You cannot mass-produce disciples because everybody’s different. For instance, your personality shows what kind of worship you like. Do we all like the same kind of music? No. Because of this we have a lot of different worship styles at this church. Some of you because of your personality you like a quiet, meditative, organized, systematic liturgy. Others you like loud, emotional, hang by the chandelier freedom. It’s all ok. That’s dependent on your how God created you.
The same thing is true about how you grow. We don’t grow spiritually the same way. Some people grow best by listening. Others grow by reading. Others need to talk through things while still others learn by doing. That’s ok. We know that there are lots of different learning styles. We recognize that church classes are good but they are only a supplement to your own daily devotions and quiet times. Pick something and follow it.
The Christian walk is much like riding a bicycle; we are either moving forward or falling off. -- Robert Tuttle
4. Spiritual growth is PRACTICAL – involved
What I mean by that is we grow by developing good habits. One of the goals of this church is to help you develop good spiritual habits. They’re called spiritual disciples, they’re called devotional practices, but they’re really just habits.
For instance, the habit of spending some time with God everyday. We call that a quiet time. You get alone with God, you sit at home by yourself, for maybe five, ten, fifteen minutes. Whatever. You just sit down and be quiet. You read a little bit of the Bible and you talk to God and say, “God, is there anything You want to say to me,” and you just see if He wants to put any thoughts in your mind. That’s a spiritual discipline.
5. Spiritual growth is PEOPLE – investment
We grow best in community with others. We talked about this last week. Community is essential because growth is all about love. Loving God with all your heart and loving your neighbor as yourself. You can’t learn to love unless you’re with other people. That is why we encourage small groups. Community helps us to grow spiritually.
Another thing you can do that will really accelerate your spiritual growth is to get a spiritual coach. Every pro has a coach. You don’t have to call them coach. They can be a friend. They can be a partner or mentor. But they’re somebody who checks up on you. You will grow by light years if you’ll go to a friend and says, “Would you be my spiritual coach?”
The third thing you can do is to be a coach. Maybe you are thinking “Me a coach”? You know how much you have to know to be a coach? One step ahead. That’s it. If you’ve been a Christian for two days you can help somebody who’s been a Christian one day. You don’t have to be light years ahead. Just start. You’ve got to be one step ahead.
Let me ask you an honest question – does anyone here feel a little stagnant in their Christian life. Maybe you have stalled - you’re in a holding pattern. Do you know what you really need? You probably do not need to go to another Bible study. What you need is to give some output not input. Stagnation is caused by taking in and not giving out.
In Israel there are two great bodies of water. There is the Sea of Galilee in the North and the Dead Sea in the South. The Jordan River connects the two. The Sea of Galilee is a beautiful lake. It is full of fish. It is teaming with life. It’s a quite beautiful lake. The Dead Sea on the other hand is lifeless. I have been swimming in it. It is filled with salt and brine and minerals and no life.
What is the difference between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea? The Sea of Galilee takes in waters from the mountains and it gives out in the Jordan River. The Dead Sea takes in but does not give out.
You will be a Dead Sea if you don’t learn to give out. Maturity is not an end in itself. Maturity is for ministry and mission. Maturity is to give out. If you feel stagnant find a place to get involved in ministering to others. Balance your input with output.
