Alas we come to the end of your favorite topic…for the last 8 weeks it’s been all about you. Specifically how you can discover your best possible life both here and in the hereafter.
Here’s what we’ve learned in brief…if that indeed is what you want here’s an equation you must know and apply:
Surrender to Jesus Christ + Follow Him the rest of your days = Your best possible life. (both now and into eternity)
In August we examined what it means to surrender your life to Jesus Christ:
· Realize where you stand in relation to him.
o most of you are either Cultural Christians or Congregational Christians and if that is the case you are separated from God.
o once you realize that you must then repent (turn) and place your trust in Jesus (esp embracing what happened in that 72 hr. period in AD33)
o this is surrender and it is Act 1 of you best possible life.
· when you do that:
o you are then forgiven and filled
· In August hundreds of people surrendered their lives to Jesus and so should YOU!
But…that is just the beginning…
Surrender to Jesus Christ + Follow Him the rest of your days = Your best possible life.
When a person enters into Act 2 takes the next step to follow there is a term that describes them: Disciple … and the process by which a person becomes a disciple is discipleship.
Discipleship is a wonderful thing because it builds on your initial surrender and two remarkable changes start to overtake your life:
· Your character begins to change (the inside part of you)…your integrity, the moral and ethical component of your life.
· Your calling begins to be shaped and identified (the outer part of you)…your destiny, purpose, the fruit and impact of your life on the world.
Surrender to Jesus Christ + Follow Him the rest of your days = Your best possible life.
Last week I told you about a seminal moment in the history of this church when we determined to figure out how discipleship should work right here:
The Way of Discipleship is an intentional, time-bound relationship focused on learning and embracing 11 practices essential to following Jesus Christ.
· For disciples to be created and developed it needed to happen through and intentional one on one relationship.
o one person inviting another person to follow them as they follow Jesus
o one person leading, alongside and pushing another.
· these two people together intentionally meeting to co-learn 11 practices essential to following Jesus.
Last week we took a look at those 11 practices…using the illustration of a tree.
( insert 4 Tree slides from last week)
Today on this last week of this crucial 8 week series I want to help you figure out who you are going to do this with.
· Some of you should become a disciple. And some of you should become disciplers.
· But where do you find that person?
That is how we are going to wrap up this whole 8 weeks but before I do I am going to try to talk you out of it. Or at least issue a buyer beware alert.
Here is my full disclosure statement:
Discipleship is hard
Jesus summarized this buyer beware warning succinctly this way:
If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:23
3 haunting words in this warning:
· deny (disciplined refusal of some of my strongest desires)
· cross (ultimate symbol of self-sacrifice) You must have a death wish.
· daily (unambiguous reference to frequency)
You read the story as it plays out in the gospels it’s clear that people got this – discipleship is not for wimps, procrastinators, or the over busy.
For instance
Story #1 - As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus replied, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head. Luke 9:58
· This is not a comfortable life. It’s not a job or a school from which you go home from every day – it is a lifestyle.
Story #2 17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"… "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." 22 At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth… Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Mark 10:23
· Discipleship may require setting aside those things you now cling to…frankly, discipleship will be its very nature demand a simpler life with less encumbrances.
Story #3 If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:26
· Discipleship might well cause relational strain. When you surrender to him and follow him your family takes 2nd place.
Story #4 Luke 9:57-62
59 He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." 60 Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." 61 Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family." 62 Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."
At first glance it appears he’s making another warning about family but look closer and you see he’s addressing the number one barrier to discipleship.
· after test marketing and observing people discipling one another one huge cultural commodity trumps Jesus every day…time.
· Burying the father was a probably reference to the year of waiting…
o first buried and allowed to decompose then unearthed a year later and bones put in a box.
o I have important things to do…I need some time.
· Similarly saying goodbye…not a perfunctory wave of the hand but likely a prolonged cultural disconnect.
Jesus says – you are either in or you’re out! Don’t say you want to follow me then dink around with your schedule.
If a disciple places themselves at the Master’s disposal, but at the same time retains the right to dictate their own terms, then discipleship is no longer discipleship, but a program of their own to be arranged to suit them self.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
Discipleship is not a self-help program. It is a self-denial lifestyle.
Have I talked you out of it? “Gosh…I dunno…sounds pretty hard.” It is but…
The cost of non-discipleship is much higher than the cost of discipleship. Discipleship is a bargain. Dallas Willard
Through it you WILL experience your best possible life…
And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive ahundredtimesas much and will inherit eternal life. Matthew 19:29
OK…now…Assuming you are ready for it…how do you go about being discipled?
Where do you begin?
Step 1 – Find the person to disciple or to disciple you.
· Some of you should be discipling another person. You should be the leader.
o that person should be your gender and either younger than you or not as far along in their journey as you.
o you need to look for them and then invite them to follow you as you follow Jesus!
§ this is a sacred conversation
· Some of you should be the follower…the disciple
o the person who disciples you should be your gender and either older or further along in their walk with Jesus
o you should look for them and then have an equally sacred conversation – will you disciple me?
· Where are they?
o they are already likely in your life.
God is always at work…and has that person in your life. It is time to pray and look.
Take out the insert from the bulletin. (Turn Fishers over to Kevin)