SERMON: REAL DISCIPLESHIP

Purpose and Passion Sermon Series #6

7 April 2018

I.  Introduction

            -- turn in Bibles to Deuteronomy 11:18-21

Deuteronomy 11:18-21 New International Version (NIV)

¹⁸ Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ¹⁹ Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ²⁰ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, ²¹ so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.

            -- Yogi Berra -- the former manager for the New York Yankees who has now passed away -- was renowned not only because of his baseball and managerial expertise, but also because of his convoluted philosophical meanderings

            -- Yogi is famous for such philosophical gems as “If you come to a fork in the road, take it” -- “it ain’t over till it’s over” -- and “It’s like deja vu all over again”

            -- but, even though Yogi might get somewhat mixed up in his sayings, he did make some good points along the way -- for instance, speaking on the issue of direction, Yogi once said, "You’ve got to be careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there."

            -- that one really hits home with me, because I’ve been there myself a time or two -- I remember the first time Bill asked me to fill in for him here at church when he was working on a Kairos -- it was a pretty fall morning, and I wanted to take a different route -- I didn’t want to just get on Highway 84 and come straight here -- I wanted to see something different -- so I took a shortcut through the woods -- but, if you remember, my shortcut actually took about 30 minutes longer than usual and I got to church really late that day -- y’all ended up calling me to make sure I remembered that I was supposed to be at church

            -- my experience shows the truth in Yogi’s statement -- Without a clear direction, there's no telling where you'll end up -- and whenever you go the wrong way, it invariably ends up taking you longer and ultimately costs you a lot more

            -- this morning, we are finishing up our Purpose and Passion sermon series we started back in February -- looking at the five purposes of the church from Rick Warren’s books: “A Purpose Driven Life” and “A Purpose Driven Church”

       -- as you remember, Rick Warren derived these five purposes from two scriptures in the Gospel of Matthew:

           

            -- the first passage is Matthew 22:37-39 -- “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” -- this is worship

            -- this passage goes on to say, “love your neighbor as yourself” -- that is ministry

            -- the second passage is Matthew 28:19-20 where Jesus gives us the Great Commission -- “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations” -- that’s evangelism

            -- “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” -- that’s fellowship -- bringing others into the church community

            -- “and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” -- that’s discipleship

            -- so, the five purposes are worship, ministry, evangelism, fellowship, and discipleship

            -- so far in this series, we have looked at worship, ministry, evangelism, and fellowship

            -- this morning, we’re going to end this series by looking at discipleship -- the one area in the church where I think we are clearly lacking direction -- and, as Yogi Berra pointed out, if we don’t know where we’re going, we’re certainly not going to get there

II.  A Lack of Direction in Discipleship

            -- the church has not done a very good job at discipling in the last several decades -- we’ve done a good job with the other purposes -- with worship and ministry -- evangelism and fellowship -- but, we’ve not done as well with discipleship -- we’ve not spent intentional time leading and growing and helping new Christians mature -- and that’s led to a deficit of mature leaders in our churches today

            -- you can really see that void in leadership and maturity if you look at recent events, such as the school shooting in Parkland, Florida -- when that tragic event happened, you saw people with a variety of interests and purposes coming out to speak about the issue from their perspective -- you could turn on the news and hear someone from anti-gun groups and from the NRA -- mental health advocates and law enforcement and from all other spectrums -- talking about the issue and what needed to be done

            -- but, did you notice who was absent in this national conversation about school shootings? -- the church

            -- where were the youth pastors? -- where were the local churches in that community? -- where were the religious leaders? -- they weren’t there -- we simply are not growing mature Christian leaders in our churches who can speak from a religious perspective on issues such as this

            -- the fault lies clearly in a lack of discipleship -- in a lack of intentionally growing and maturing new Christians and teaching them what it means to be a follower of Christ in this world today

           

            -- others have noticed this lack of discipleship in the churches -- and, thankfully, there has been a move within the last ten years to start intentional discipleship -- Francis Chan and Rick Warren and other national leaders have all released books on discipleship and are focusing their efforts more on growing new Christians -- on helping new Christians mature in their faith

            -- right here in our local community we have an active home-grown discipleship movement called The Fishermen -- who offer one-on-one discipleship for men and women to help them grow in their faith -- who take time out of their day to mentor and teach other believers what it means to live obediently to Christ in today’s society

            -- the point I’m trying to make is that the church needs to embrace the direction from Christ to make disciples and teach them to obey everything He has told us to do -- we need to put as much effort in making disciples as we do in sharing the gospel with others

            -- we do a great disservice to people when we evangelize them and bring them into the church and then don’t teach them how to live as Christians and how to grow in their faith and to develop and mature their spiritual gifts, graces, and talents

III.  How do we make disciples?

            -- so, how can we begin making disciples in this community of faith? -- to go back to Yogi Berra’s point, “now that we know where we want to go, what direction do we have to go to get there?”

            -- the one thing we need to remember is that real disciples are made over a long, long time of loving and being loved by God -- real disciples are made when they live life with God -- when they walk with Him through the valleys and the mountains -- when they spend time with Him in His word and in prayer and with His people -- real disciples are made when they are molded and formed in the image of Christ -- and once they are real, it is then that they are ready to work and serve and be Christ's hands and feet in this world

            -- that is our calling -- that is the fifth purpose of the church

            -- if you would, look back with me now at this passage from Deuteronomy 11 and let’s see how God instructed the Israelites concerning disciple-making to see how we can apply this in our situation today

            -- look back at Deuteronomy 11:18

¹⁸ Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 

            -- the first truth we need to understand when it comes to making disciples is that we can’t give what we do not possess -- in other words, you can’t give away what you don’t have

            -- here in verse 18, God instructs the Israelites to fix His words in their hearts and minds -- to tie them as symbols on their hands and to bind them on their foreheads

            -- this means that we are to have God’s word always before us and in us -- you are not going to know and understand God’s word -- and you are certainly not going to be able to share God’s word and instruct others in what it says -- unless you are actively reading it and studying it on your own

            -- God’s point in this verse is that we have to be in the word on a consistent basis -- we have to be reading and meditating on God’s word every single day -- and, if we do that, it becomes a part of us -- we learn it -- we absorb it -- we live it -- and we’re able to share it

            -- King David understood this principle well -- in Psalm 119:9-11 he wrote, “How can a young man keep his way pure? -- by living according to your word -- I seek you with all me heart; do not let me stray from your commands -- I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you”

            -- the more we are in God’s word -- the more we have it in our hearts -- the closer we will walk with God and the better we will be able to disciple and lead others in His ways

            -- God tells the Israelites here to tie His word on their hands as a symbol and to bind them on their foreheads -- the Jews had these little boxes called phylacteries, where they would put tiny scrolls and sayings from God’s word -- and they would tie these to either the back of their hands or their foreheads as a reminder of God’s word always being with them

            -- we are blessed to live in such as time as we do -- everyone of us has at least one Bible in our homes -- and most of us have smartphones and can carry the Bible with us everywhere we go -- LifeChurch has the Bible app that you can download for your phone with almost every translation imaginable -- they have daily reading plans -- they have seasonal and topical reading plans -- and, if you just hit “Play” on the Bible, it will even speak it out to you -- you can just ride along and listen to it as you go

            -- there is no reason that all of us can’t be reading or listening to God’s word every single day

            -- so, in order to make a disciple, you first have to be a disciple of God’s word -- you have to know God’s word -- to have it in your heart and in your head -- so you can live it out and share with others

            -- verse 19

¹⁹ Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 

            -- remember the old song by Crosby, Stills, and Nash that has the line, “Teach your children well?” -- that’s what God is telling us here in this passage

            -- remember that the early Israelites were a God-centered community -- their whole society and the structure of their lives was centered around God -- everyone was brought up in the faith and knowing the faith -- their children were discipled from an early age to know and understand what it meant to be part of the family of God and how to live this out in their lives

            -- that’s why God tells them here to pass on their faith -- to pass on their knowledge and wisdom to their children -- to talk about it when they’re at home -- to talk about it and demonstrate it to their kids when they’re on the road -- when they’re out in the world -- to constantly be sharing what it means to be a God-follower, no matter if they are lying down or getting up and moving around

            -- this is the heart of discipleship -- if you substitute “children” with “new believers” or “immature Christians” in this passage, you’ve got clear direction on what you should do to help grow and mature the faith of these other believers

            -- we need to find someone to disciple in this way -- someone we can take under our wing that we can teach -- not only directly through the word -- but through our actions -- show them how you live out your faith by carrying them with you to the store and to church and to other places -- this is what God means when He tells us to teach our children His word in this verse

            -- verse 20-21

²⁰ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, ²¹ so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.

            -- when God tells us to write His word and His commands on our doorframes and on our gates, He is meaning that we are to proclaim His word to a watching world -- to let them know what we believe and Who we follow

            -- discipleship is about more than just gaining knowledge about God in a church setting -- it’s about living it out in community -- it’s about being a voice in this world -- a city set on a hill -- a light shining in the darkness

            -- your neighbors and your friends and your coworkers and everyone whose path you cross in a given day should know Whose you are and what you believe -- they should be able to see it even if you never speak it

            -- let your actions speak your faith to others -- and disciple other believers to live out their faith in such a way that others see it, too

           

IV.  Closing

            -- when Jesus commanded us in the Great Commission to "Make Disciples," what He was meaning was, "Make people who know me -- who love me -- who understand what it means to love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength -- and I will make them into people who love their neighbor as themselves"

            -- making disciples is much more than just getting people to the cross -- it's much more than just having people sit in our pews -- it's much more than having people added to our church rolls

            -- making disciples means that we help people learn to love the Lord -- to spend time at His feet -- growing in grace -- so that they might serve Him better and more as they grow in His image

            -- we need to intentionally lead others to deeper relationships with Christ -- and we need to make sure that we are intentionally trying to grow in our own lives

            -- we cannot become who Christ called us to be coming to church only on Sundays

            -- we cannot become who Christ called us to be if this is our only experience with Him in a given week

            -- we need time in His word -- we need time with Him in prayer -- and we need to have our faith challenged and pushed and pulled by others as we grow and learn together

            -- so, where do we begin? -- we begin with ourselves -- we being by looking at ourselves with truly critical eyes -- with the eyes of faith -- to see if we are truly growing in faith and in maturity in Christ or if we are in a holding pattern

            -- we begin by seeing where we are -- ask and answer these questions in your heart:

            -- do you know more about Christ today than you did last year?

            -- do you know Christ more today than you did last year?

            -- when's the last time you truly experienced His transforming power in your life? -- can you honestly say that you have grown in your studies, in your Bible reading, in your prayers, in your church attendance over the past year?

            -- and then think about this church and the reason we are here:

            are we fulfilling the Great Commission and the Great Commandment?

            -- are we making disciples who are being shaped in the pattern of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself?

            -- are we becoming true disciples ourselves, who experience God's grace and power in our lives in response to our growing faithfulness and obedience?

            -- these are questions that we must ask and answer if we are to be who Christ called us to be -- if we are going to live out the five purposes in our lives

            -- if we become intentional about living out these purposes, people are going to notice -- they’re going to start paying attention -- and they’re going to be attracted to and start growing closer to the Jesus we proclaim

            -- that should be our ultimate goal -- not to grow the church -- not to get more members -- but to point people to Christ -- to magnify Him and see Him praised and worshiped throughout this community -- and to see mature Christians brought into the Kingdom

            -- this is our direction -- this is our path and our calling -- so, let’s step out in faith and begin intentionally living out worship, ministry, evangelism, fellowship, and discipleship in our lives and in our churches today

            -- let us pray