By Pastor Alex
Making disciples of this generation is our job. Serving our generation well is our call.
Challenges we will face while making disciples in this generation
1. Culture of Individualism: They want their space; control over their lives and they have a high sense of self-achievement
2. Culture of Immediate gratification: To them, the Christian life is what benefits they will get. So they are always looking for immediate material benefit or immediate answers to their prayers. That is their concept of relationship and walking with God. As a result of that anything that demands a price to pay, they will pull back. That is why this “Grace message” is so strong now because it is all about receiving. God is graceful. God will do this for you.
3. Culture of Self-fulfillment: Bible commands each and every believer to be a disciple-maker. But many people in Church look only for self-fulfillment. There is no active discipleship in the Kingdom of God. If within the Kingdom of God, there is no proactive discipleship means no need to say about the new people that are coming in and unbelievers. Definitely, if there is no discipleship here there is no discipleship there.
There is a lack of people willing to give their time, gifts, and sacrifice for the sake of building lives.
So as we disciple people we must help them understand the responsibilities of being a Christian.
What did God command us?
Mathew 28:19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Responsibilities of a Christian
1. Go and make disciples
2. Baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit
3. Teach them to obey everything
We have to bring believers back to God’s basic commandments. We are not saved for ourselves but we are saved so that we can disciple other people into walking in integrity and truth. Every believer must become a disciple and make disciples.
The definition of discipleship is one life impacting and influencing another. It is more than just teaching, more than just counseling. It is how we live impacting other people.
Philippians 3:17 Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine and learn from those who follow our example.
Paul’s instruction to them is to focus on those who have a pattern of lifestyle.
So the key component is more than the words we say, our lives must speak for God. People change by what they see in our lives than what they hear from us. More than what we teach or speak people are observing our lives. Impart patterns. There is nothing extra you need to do. You don’t need to project yourself as something. Just be who you are, and let people observe and learn the patterns. You can only impart what you live. That is active discipleship.
There must be an ongoing building of lives that God is bringing to you. Not necessarily just a gathering because you can gather but if you don’t disciple them then there is no point in coming together. The focus must be on making disciples of households. Ask what is happening in their lives and then you can start with prayer. Then they will know something is happening because the results are there.
Discipleship is important for the spiritual growth of the church.
It is a command, not an option.
Ephesians 2:20-22 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone. In Him, the whole building is fitted together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him, you too are being built together into a dwelling place for God in His Spirit.
We see this in Jesus’ life. The 3 ½ years He spent how he impacted the lives of the disciples. John the son of Thunder became an apostle of love. Peter the loudmouth became a humble man of God.
Heart of discipleship – it must produce a certain kind of lifestyle. Eg. Components of a Godly marriage, How to raise your children in a godly manner.
1 John 2:5,6 But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.
How did Jesus live?
Jesus was simple, humble, and obedient.
Jesus impacted everywhere He went.
What was the reason for His impact? Obedience was a key aspect. From conception to crucifixion it was the Holy Spirit who led Him all the way. What gave Him the great impact? He came as a model for us to live a life of obedience. The impact He caused was due to the access the Holy Spirit had in His life. Jesus, Himself said you will do greater works than Him. So the more access Holy Spirit has in our lives, the more it will impact the people in our lives.
When we disciple others there are 5 stages of surrender they go through.
Stage 1 I am going to do what I want I don’t care what God wants. My Life! My Choices!
Stage 2 If God gives me what I want I will do what He wants. Many times we face people who say –“If your Jesus can heal my daughter then I will follow Jesus.” But that’s a wrong reason for following Him
Stage 3 I will give God what he wants and believe in faith He will give me what I want. They are doing a barter trade with God
Stage 4 I will give God what He wants in full surrender because He knows best and desires best for me. Still, the “me” is there
Stage 5 Total surrender. I will give God what He wants because He knows best and does what is best for His glory. This is true biblical surrender because we surrender our body for His glory
Two terms in theology
1. Theocentric: To live in a way that puts God at the center of our lives. He is the main focus.
John 14:31 but I will do what the Father requires of me so that the world will know that I love the Father. Come, let’s be going.
Jesus says “I will do exactly what my Father has commanded me.” His whole life was Theocentric.
2. Anthropocentric: To live in a way that puts man at the center with the notion everything revolves around us. ‘Jesus is just there to meet my needs. Do I have anything I need? I go to Jesus. Do I want happiness? I go to Jesus. Do I want internal security? I go to Jesus.’ Jesus is like an insurance policy but we are Christians! The focus is on a different place. Whether He is a service provider or the preeminent one of our lives determines whether we have a Theocentric outlook on life or an Anthropocentric outlook on life.
The focus of discipleship is the inner life.
Three aspects of inner life
1. Convictions
Ephesians 3:16,17 I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
It talks about being rooted in love. Our foundations are only as strong as our convictions. Like how deeply we believe in the word. We know things but sometimes we struggle. It depends on how convinced we are about that scripture. Our convictions are our moral and spiritual compass. That’s why Jesus said if you love me you obey me. Conviction of what he says is our moral compass. Convictions will result in Christ-like thinking and Christ-like actions. How we Christians live is a direct result of what we believe with all our hearts. Convictions enable us to successfully resist the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Titus 2:12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age,
2. Capacity
Bible says to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your strength, and all your soul. It talks about capacity. So we measure the increase in our hunger, appetite, maturity level, tolerance level, and resilience. It can be measured as we grow.
Psalm 119:32 I will pursue your commands, for you expand my understanding.
As we grow in obedience He will increase our capacity.
In Philippians, Paul said he has learned to be content in plenty and little. His capacity has increased to deal with all kinds of situations.
3. Content
That means character, knowledge of God’s word, and wisdom.
Matthew 7:16 you can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way, they act. Can you pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?
You can recognize people by their fruits.
1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.
Our perspectives will be revealed by the way we talk and by the way we think. They reveal the content we carry.
3 Cs – Conviction. Capacity, Content, When we disciple others this is an easy way to measure whether they are growing
Some can memorize scriptures but their life is off; they find it difficult to obey. So from the strength of their conviction, we can see whether they are growing. We can measure their capacity to resist, tolerance level, etc. We can measure content based on knowledge and wisdom. One of the marks of walking with Jesus is our wisdom will grow. How they manage their lives will show their growth in this area. Cannot be that they are walking with Jesus and their lives are a mess. Then somewhere along the line one of these three is a problem with their conviction of God’s word, their capacity, and their content.
For example, one of the believers in our church is the village sweeper. He faithfully obeyed God and we can see the visible blessings of God being poured out on his life. Most of them are masons. We can see how God change their house from a small room to a bigger place. He gave them many material things. They found peace. In their life, you can see a total change.
Let the Word go in, work it out in your lives, then you will see the results.
Teach this to people and measure whether they are growing. We have to face these challenges of self-sufficiency, the culture of individualism, and immediate gratification. This culture is created by how we share the gospel. Come to Jesus and be blessed. So they want to be blessed they don’t want to pay the price.
*When you seek to disciple people remember that the innate need of every man is a Savior. In the process of counseling individuals and families find the route to their hearts and connect them to the highway of heaven.*
Just make sure they are walking in the right pathway. From time to time we take a hockey stick and ensure the ball is rolling in the right direction.
In the coming days, we don’t know what type of people we will get to meet. Some may never come to church but they want to walk with Jesus. We just find other ways to disciple them. Don’t measure your success by the number of people that gather in your church but measure it by the number of people you disciple.
Stretch out your hand in boldness and expect God to move and do something in their lives.
Set them free, and delivered. Now is the time to move. We got to snatch as many as possible out of hell. We are not responsible for everybody. We are only responsible for those in our “Oikos”. For those who don’t respond, we keep them in view, and keep praying but focus more on those who respond.
Rehoboth 