The Completeness Of Discipleship Series

A. Today, I want us to turn our attention back to our sermon series: “I Am A Disciple of Jesus!”

1. Let’s briefly review what we have learned so far.

2. First, we have learned that being a disciple of Jesus involves a lot more than church membership and church attendance.

3. Second, we have learned that a disciple is someone who is following Jesus, being changed by Jesus, and is committed to the mission of Jesus.

4. Third, we have learned that although the call of discipleship is open to everyone, not everyone answers that call because the cost of discipleship is high – it is everything we are and have.

5. Fourth, we have learned that the command for all disciples of Jesus is to make disciples who will make disciples – that is our great commission.

6. And, fifth, we have learned that it is God’s will for all people to progress through the stages of discipleship from being spiritually dead, to being a spiritual infant, child, young adult, and finally a spiritual parent.

B. Today, we want to focus on the completeness of discipleship and what I mean by that is that being a disciple of Jesus means that every part of our lives must come under the lordship of Jesus.

1. If we are not careful, we will compartmentalize our lives and treat our spiritual life as just one separate part of our lives and keep the different parts separate so they don’t affect each other.

2. Many people find it much easier to compartmentalize their lives in order to justify their inconsistencies and to ultimately do what they want to do.

C. Consider this story true story told by Charles Swindoll.

1. One afternoon, a man went to a fried chicken restaurant in Long Beach, California and bought a couple of chicken dinners for himself and his date.

2. The person working the drive thru accidently gave him the bag with the money for deposit at the bank rather than the bag with his chicken order.

3. After driving to their picnic site, the couple sat down to enjoy their lunch.

4. When they opened the bag from the restaurant, imagine their surprise when it was filled with $800 cash rather than their chicken dinners!

5. The couple quickly got back in the car and drove back to the chicken place.

6. The man and woman hurried into the restaurant with the bag of cash and they became instant heroes.

7. By then the manager had discovered that the cash was missing and was frantic, so he was so relieved and thrilled when the man and woman returned with the missing money.

8. The manager said, “Let me call the newspaper and get a picture with you two on the front page. You’re the most honest and good people I have ever met.”

9. The man tried to downplay their heroic act, “Oh, no, no need to do that!”

10. Then the man leaned closer to the manager and whispered, “I don’t want our picture in the newspaper because this woman I’m with is married to someone else.”

D. It’s so easy to be inconsistent and compartmentalize things and end up obeying Jesus and allowing Him to be Lord about some things, but not about others.

1. Kyle Idleman put it this way in his book Not A Fan: One way fans try to follow Jesus without denying themselves is by compartmentalizing the areas of their lives they don’t want him to have access to. They try to negotiate the terms of the deal. I’ll follow Jesus, but I’m not going to sell my possessions. Don’t ask me to forgive the people who hurt me; they don’t deserve that. Don’t ask me to save sex for marriage; I can’t help my desires. Don’t ask me to give a percentage of my money; I worked hard for that cash. And instead of following Jesus with their financial life, they follow Money magazine. In their relationships, instead of Jesus they follow Oprah. In their sex lives, instead of following Jesus, they follow Cosmo. They follow Jesus, just not with every area of their lives (p. 146).

2. So, if we are going to be true followers of Jesus, then He must be Lord over our entire lives.

3. No part of our lives can be compartmentalized as separate from His lordship.

E. Each of our lives can be easily summarized and organized into four spheres, and these four spheres should not be seen as separate, nor kept separate, from each other; rather, they must be seen as a unit and be allowed to intersect with and to affect each other.

1. These four main areas of our lives are: (1) our relationship with God, (2) our relationship with the church (God’s family), (3) our relationships at home, and (4) our relationship with the world.