What Does It Really Take?
Scripture: Acts 14: 19–28 Date: 17 January 2010
Purpose: To stimulate each one of us to take the claims of discipleship seriously and grow.
Illustration: I love animals. In fact, growing up I had many animals. I had lizards, rodents, dogs, ferrets, hermit crabs, I even had a bird. I remember one year I begged for a hamster. I just had to have this hamster and I promised my Father that I would take good care of it and love it every day. Did you know that if you do not clean out a hamster’s cage they will eventually die from Ammonia Poisoning? After allowing me to get it, about a month or so later, it died!
I guess I really wasn’t that serious about taking care of it and I suppose I really didn’t love it that much either. I wanted that hamster but I did not learn what was necessary to keep it alive, strong and growing.
- You know when someone comes to Jesus and gives their life to Him we are much like that. We want Him so badly, we promise to love Him and spend time with him each and every day. But the sad truth is that many start off right but become lazy and dis-connected along the way. Eventually their relationship with Jesus just dies off and drifts away as if it never even existed to us.
Illustration: What if mankind had to leave Earth, because we just became too lazy and expected someone else to clean up our messes? The Movie Wall-E is about just that. Wall-E is a robot that was left on earth to clean it up while humans have taken off and sluffed their responsibilities because they were just too lazy.
VIDEO: “Wall-E Part 1”
Sounds pretty good right? Not having to worry about cleaning up what we have messed up. Having robots take care of our every need. It would be like being on a cruise for an extended amount of time. Just taking a break from everything.
- Wall-E, later in the film finds himself aboard one of our cruise ships. He is there looking for Eve. Eve is another robot that Wall-E has fallen for. Let’s see how our wonderful cruise is doing and how our human race is getting along.
VIDEO: “Wall-E Part 2”
- We cannot allow ourselves to become lazy and apathetic to our spiritual life. We need to avoid Spiritual Self Destruction. Has our attention become more on us and less on Him? Have we too become sluggish? Have we become sluggish because of our fleshly desires? Friends, we need a wake-up, we need to become unplugged from many of the comforts of this world that takes our attention off of Jesus Christ. We need to grow, to discipline our life, to learn what is required to remain strong in the faith.
Giving our lives to Jesus is only the beginning. It is not the end of the journey! There is so much more God has in store for you and for me.
It is more than important that we keep growing as a Christian, it is essential! In fact, some of you right now are struggling big time in your Christian life. Your passion for God has cooled and your desire to live for Him has diminished, not because you do not love Him, not because you don’t care, but because like my hamster you are not aware of what you need to do to stay alive in Jesus.
To grow as a Christian requires more than a decision to become one. In our text for today Paul and Barnabas are on their first missionary journey and as they travel to make new converts and to strengthen existing ones they give us some insight in what is required for us to grow in our Christian life.
Acts 14: 19–28 19Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. 20But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe.
21They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, 22strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God," they said. 23Paul and Barnabas appointed elders[a] for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust. 24After going through Pisidia, they came into Pamphylia, 25and when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.
26From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. 27On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. 28And they stayed there a long time with the disciples.
I. First, to grow as a Christian requires honesty.
A. I think we have to ask ourselves, “do I really want to be a disciple for Jesus and if so, am I willing to accept whatever that may bring?” Discipleship is the reality of God in all that we do.
1. A husband who is 85% faithful to his wife is not faithful at all. There is no such thing as part-time loyalty to Jesus.
2. Our scripture reading opened in verse 19 with Paul having been stoned by the very people he came to help and being dragged out of the city believed to be dead.
3. We need to ask ourselves, “Are we willing to go the distance?” Are we willing to do whatever it takes to become strong in the Lord and to stand for Him? That requires honesty. And only you and I can answer that for ourselves.
4. The goose bumps and good feeling we received when we gave our life to Jesus sure felt good, but they are gone. Faith is not sustained by being a goose bump junkie. You have to be intentional about growing. It doesn’t just happen.
Illustration: A severe rash prompted a man from a rural area to come to town to be examined by one of the town doctors. After the usual history taking - followed by a series of tests, the doctor advised the patient that he would have to get rid of his dog that was evidently causing the allergic reaction. As the man was preparing to leave the office, the doctor asked him out of curiosity if he planned to sell the dog or give it away. “Neither one,” the patient said. “I am going to get me one of them there second opinions I’ve been hearing about. It is a lot easier to find a doctor than a good bird dog.”
5. You and I know this morning what we need to do to grow strong in Jesus. It is called commitment. Commitment is personal and unless our choices put Jesus first we are not His disciples. We have to decide whether we are going to give our all to Jesus and or ask for a second opinion.
6. Being a disciple or follower of Jesus has an element of risk in it. But if we are willing to do what is required I can promise you, God will be with us. We must step out or we will never do anything! We must go beyond what we think we can do. I am out to change the world, God and me! No reserve, no retreat, no regrets!
7. Do you honestly accept the demands and the difficulties of the Christian life? There are many verses in Scripture, which invite us to consider this question.
- “Many are called, but few are chosen.”
- “Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the Kingdome of Heaven but he who does the will of my Father.
- “Do not be hearers of the Word only but a doers of the Word.”
Illustration: Stacy and I went to Hawaii a few years ago. The water was so beautiful, the weather was sunny, warm; you could smell flowers in the air, boy how I wish we were there right now….
Any ways, on the screen is a sign that we took a picture of at Monoa Falls. Let me read it to you:
8. Notice that the sign reads, “Heavy Rains Caused this landslide”. The rain may have been the cause but this landslide could have been prevented. By taking proper measures such as placing re-enforcements, this landslide could have weathered all the rain that Hawaii offers.
9. Heavy rain happens snow happens; we cannot stop or change the weather that is thrown our way.(I’ve learned that lesson living here in Iowa) Hard times happen, obstacles happen; and we cannot for the most part stop or change the tough times in life either. But we can stay safe from the elements if we too take proper precautions in life. It is in danger of crumbling and falling apart if you do not take the action necessary to grow as a Christian.
II. Because Christian growth requires not only honesty it requires help!
A. First we need help from others. Did you notice that Paul was not alone on this missionary journey? Barnabas came with him to help him. And did you note too that after Paul was dragged out of the city believed to be dead we find in verse 20 that the disciples were standing around him, and in verse 28 that he stayed a long time with the disciples.
1. If we are going to grow as a Christian we must have help from each other. I have not heard of a baby yet who learned to walk without the steady and loving hand of a parent nearby to help guide and hold on to. I heard the other day that Jess Hagen took three steps at the Ouverson’s home. I am sure he hasn’t got to that point without Mom and Dad’s help.
2. The word disciple means one who learns. To learn implies there is a teacher. In our Christian life we are sometimes the teacher and sometimes the student, but always we are learning from someone.
3. A disciple is one who wants to know, one who is receptive, one who seeks and searches.
B. Help from others is essential if we are to grow as a believer in Jesus, but I think we sometimes forget the most important person required to help us grow, us.
1. We must be willing to place ourselves in a position to grow! You could define discipleship as “our receptivity to Jesus Christ” because how deep we grow in Him is determined more by how much of me I am willing to give him than by any other factor.
2. I know some of you are struggling in your walk with Jesus. I want to help you – I want to help you so much, but you need to help yourself first. You need to determine if you are willing to do all that is required to grow.
3. I could be a member of Charles Stanley’s church, or of Chuck Swindol’s, or how about Billy Graham’s, but the impact of their ministry on my life is more determined by how much of me I am yielding to grow as a Christian than by who they are.
4. Many people search their whole life trying to discern, trying to discover God’s will for their life. I think you and I can find God’s will for our lives and I say that with complete confidence.
5. But we have to be willing to give ourselves to the task. Just sitting in the house and thinking about how the snow needs to be shoveled isn’t going to get it shoveled. It is not going to get the job done. You have to get up and give yourself to the task. You have to give yourself completely to the job of discipleship as well.
III. We have said that growing, as a Christian requires honesty. It requires help. But it also requires habits! Good habits!
A. In verses 22 and 23 of our text we read that the disciples of Jesus were being strengthened and encouraged by Paul and Barnabas, that they were appointing elders in the church to help the disciples grow.
1. Most of the time when we think of habits, we think of bad habits that we need to get rid of but the bible teaches there are actually good habits that we need to form and keep as well.
2. Spiritual maturity is not automatic. It is a process and it takes discipline. By developing good habits, the habits of a disciple we can grow as deep as our roots will take us in Jesus. In Col. 3:9-10 Paul says “You have put off the old self with its habits, and have put on the new self …” The old self had destructive habits but the new self brings good habits.
Illustration: An elderly teacher, with a pupil by his side, took a walk through the forest. Suddenly he stopped and pointed to four plants close at hand. The first was just beginning to peep about the ground, the second had rooted itself pretty well into the earth, the third was a small shrub, while the fourth was full-sized tree. The tutor said to his young student, “Pull up the first plant.” The boy did so eagerly, using only his fingers. “Now pull up the second. The youth obeyed but found the task more difficult. “Do the same with the third,” he urged. The boy had to use all his strength to uproot it. “Now, said the instructor, “try your hand with the fourth.” The student put his arms around the trunk of the tall tree and could not even shake its leaves. “This, my son is what good habits will do. When a habit is young, it can be removed quite easily by the lack of commitment to it. We can allow circumstances and others to pull it out and destroy it. But when it is old and well established, there is nothing that can take it away from you.
3. There are many habits that will help us grow as a Christian, but I think there are four primary habits of a Disciple.
#1. There is the habit of time with God’s Word. Do you know that daily bible reading and study are essential to building a strong faith in Jesus?
- Daily bible reading is to the Christian what a bottle of milk is to a newborn.
#2. Another habit of a Disciple is Prayer. Prayer keeps us focused on what is important, God and not us. In prayer we petition God to meet our needs and we praise Him for being God.
#3. The habit of tithing also is part of a Disciple’s life. It is easy to give a little of our time to Jesus and we don’t mind sharing our talents here and there, but treasure sharing is a little more difficult for most folks. Yet God wants our time, our talent and our treasure.
#4. The last habit needed to be a growing Disciple of Jesus is the habit of fellowship. This is the one we like the best and are usually most responsive to. It allows us to be in relationship with others and those others in turn help us grow.
Conclusion:
I am convinced that it is not decisions for Jesus that matter so much as it is those decisions becoming disciples for Jesus. The greatest need in every life that is present this morning is to keep growing in our walk with God.
Every one of us is at a different stage in our spiritual maturity. And no one has arrived at that place where growth is not necessary and needed. But every single one of us needs to keep on, keeping on.
I know you have plans in your life. Some of you are planning and saving for that new house you want to build or the new car you want to buy. Some of you have been dreaming and working for years on that dream vacation overseas.
These and many others are examples are examples of how we are willing to stretch our lives to grow.
- What then may I ask are you doing to grow as a Christian?
