Okay, let’s recap this past Sunday’s service(s). Our attendance was down a little, but the energy was not as we rocked the final installment of Organic Discipleship!
Here’s the song lineup:
9AM & 11AM
- Your Grace Is Enough (Chris Tomlin)
- Loving, Forgiving, Saving (Lp, RC original)
- Forever (Lp, RC original)
- Rain Down (David Crowder) (11AM only)
- Oh Lord, You’re Beautiful (Keith Green)
- Now & Forevermore (Lp, RC original)
4PM
- As Long As I Have Breath (Lp, RC original)
- Rain Down (David Crowder)
- Hosanna (Hillsong)
Organic Discipleship (Part 3) Summary & Takeaways:
After beginning with a nice joke about Super Bowl tickets, we showed the following tweet from Mark Driscoll:
Our main text was Luke 14:25-35.
Darrell Bock (commentary on Luke) explains verse 26 it this way:
“The call to hate simply means to love less.”
Spent a lot of time encouraging everyone to follow Jesus to the end. In other words, “Don’t quit!”
Proverbs 24:10 says, If you fail under pressure, your strength is too small.
Shared the story about Sayed Musa:
- An Afghan physiotherapist will be executed within days for converting to Christianity.
- Sayed Musa, 45, has been held for eight months in a Kabul prison were he claims he has been tortured and sexually abused by inmates and guards.
- He claims he was visited by a judge who told him he would be hanged within days unless he converted back to Islam.
- But he remains defiant and said he would be willing to die for his faith.
Asked the question, “Is there anyone you would choose over Jesus?” [Insert ‘OUCH!’ here.]
“Jesus isn’t like a salesman who gets you to commit to all the benefits and conveniently overlooks all the fine print of obligations. He shows up, he says, ‘I’m God. If you want to follow me, people are gonna hate you and you might die.’ That’s the cost of discipleship.” ~Mark Driscoll
I read the following letter from Mark Driscoll’s sermon entitled The Cost of Discipleship. It was written by a young missionary girl to her pastor before she embarked on a mission’s trip:
“Dear Pastor, you should only be opening this letter in the event of my death. When God calls, there are no regrets. I’ve tried to share my heart with you as much as possible, my heart for the nations. I wasn’t called to a place. I was called to him. To obey was my objective. To suffer was expected. His glory, my reward. His glory, my reward. The missionary heart cares more than some think is wise, risks more than some think is safe, dreams more than some think is practical, expects more than some think is possible. I was not called to comfort or to success, but to obedience. There is no joy outside of knowing Jesus and serving him. I love you and my church family. In his care, Karen.”
If that letter doesn’t inspire you then your “inspirer” is broken.
Getting married is easy. Staying married is hard.
Making babies is fun. Raising kids is work.
Disciples don’t quit!
Wrapped up the series with the following from the book GROW by Winfield Bevins:
Discipleship focuses on making disciples with four essentials.
Discipleship is:
- Gospel‐centered (we accept Christ and begin to follow Him)
- Missional (we begin intentional personal evangelism)
- Community (this happens through small groups, worship, studying, serving)
- Reproductive (build people like yourself, leadership development, church planting, making disciples)
1. Discipleship is Gospel-centered (Went over this last week)
2. Discipleship is Missional
“The church exists by mission just as fire exists by burning.” ~Emil Brunner
Missio Dei (Latin theological term) = “Mission of God.”
The word missio literally means sent.
The Church (Ecclesia) has been sent out by God to fulfill His purpose.
In Breaking the Missional Code, Ed Stetzer explains how the church has shifted to missional thinking in the following way:
- From programs to processes
- From demographics to discernment
- From models to missions
- From attractional to incarnational
- From uniformity to diversity
- From professional to passionate
- From seating to sending
- From decisions to disciples
- From additional to exponential
- From monuments to movements
3. Discipleship is Community
“Disciples are made in community not isolation.” ~Winfeld Bevins
And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. ~Hebrews 10:25 (NLT)
CEV = Some people have gotten out of the habit of meeting for worship, but we must not do that.
“Does it matter how many people are coming through the front door if the back door is wide open? We’ve often become so focused on reaching people that we’ve forgotten the importance of keeping people.”
~Larry Osbourne (Sticky Church)
Shared the importance of our upcoming Focus Groups.
All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. ~Acts 2:42 (NLT)
“God has created man for fellowship, and not for solitariness.” ~Martin Luther
4. Discipleship is Reproductive
Reproduction is how the Christian movement was born. What started with 12 disciples led to 120 in an upper room and has now become a 2.1 billion‐member movement.
Jesus selected twelve.
Who have you selected?
Who are you pouring into?
John 15:1-16 (Jesus is the vine, we are the branches. Remain in Him.)
Matthew 7:17-20 (Good trees produce good fruit.)
Galatians 5:22-23 (This is the kind of fruit we should produce.)
Will you remain a disciple?
*You can LISTEN to this entire message by downloading the podcast.
We closed out the service by partaking communion together.
You’re stronger than you think. Don’t quit!
Focused on Finishing,
~PC