Rick Warren - What It Really Means to Be a Disciple of Jesus

When Jesus was thirty years old, he began his public ministry,

and the first thing he did was go gather a

group of guys who he could train. They are called

his disciples, and many times in scriptures it tells us

that he invited people to become his disciple. In Matthew nine,

verse nine, it says this, as Jesus was going down

the road, he saw Matthew sitting at his tax collection booth.

Come be my disciple, Jesus said, So Matthew got up

and followed him. Now today Jesus Christ makes this exact

same offer to you, Come be my disciple. He's asking

you this in twenty ten. Come be my disciple. Now

what is the disciple. The word disciple comes from the

Latin word discipline are discipless. In the Greek it is

the word mathetes, which is in the Bible, and it

means a student. It means a learner, it means a pupil.

A disciple is an apprentice. When a mentor takes on

somebody to train them, they are called their disciple. And

the word in the Bible has actually used four different ways. First,

it's referred to as anybody who's just being trained by

anybody else. If you're in training, you have a supervisor

who's training you, you are being discipled by that supervisor.

Moses' disciple was Joshua. Elijah's disciple was Elisha. David's disciple

was his son Solomon. Elisha had disciples of his own.

John the Baptist had disciples. Paul had a disciple named Timothy.

And later he talks about six guys who traveled with

him on the road. One was Gayis, Aristarchus, a Coundus,

a Paphroditis. He tells us who the guys that he

was mentoring was. And a disciple is just somebody who's

being mentored by somebody else. So that's the first way

it's use in the Bible. The second way it's used

in the Bible is to refer to the twelve disciples,

specifically the twelve guys that Jesus chose, which we also

call apostles. The third way it's used is in the

Book of Acts. The word disciple is just a synonym

for Christian. You know, in the Bible days, they weren't

called Christians, they were called disciples. In fact, it wasn't

until the Church had spread completely out of Israel into Antioch,

where at that little church they were first called Christians.

So in the Bible Times, nobody was called a Christian,

they were called disciples. But what I want us to

look at this morning is jesus use of the term.

Jesus frequently took a very common word like student, pupil, disciple, apprentice,

and he adds new meaning to it, He infuses it,

he injects new meaning into it. And so I want

us to look at jesus definition of what it means

to be a disciple, because about ten times in scripture,

Jesus says, if you do this, then you're my disciple.

If you do this, then you can follow me. And

so we want to look at radical discipleship as we

start off this series on what it means to follow Jesus,

let's get right into it. Number one. To be a disciple,

Number one, I must spend time with Jesus. I must

spend time with Jesus, a lot of time with him, because,

like any relationship, the more time you invest, the more

you're going to get out of it. You can't be

a part time disciple. You don't have to. You don't

fit it into your schedule. If I'm being trained by somebody,

I'm being mentored by somebody, I fit myself to their schedule.

They don't fit themselves to mine. And you can't be

a disciple in just a few minutes a day. You've

got to spend time. You've got to be in constant conversation.

It's a full time responsibility. You're with your discipler, You're

with your mentor, you're with your teacher, your trainer all

the time. Now here's what Jesus said in John chapter twelve.

If you want to be my disciple, you must come

and follow me, because my servants must be where I am,

and if they follow me, the Father will honor them.

Now this verse is packed with meaning. In fact, it

teaches us three things about spiritual growth. And as your pastor,

one of my goals is to help you grow spiritually,

not just this year, but for the rest of your life.

So I want you to write these three things down

that we notice from this verse Number one, we learn

that spiritual growth is a choice. Spiritual growth is a choice. Now,

God's not going to force you to grow. He leaves

it up to you, and so I want you to

circle He says, if you want to be my disciple,

circle the word want. If you want to be my disciple,

then you must make the choice to grow now. At

the end of this year, you're not going to be

more mature unless you choose to be more mature. Spiritual

growth is not automatic. Spiritual growth is intentional. It's not

just something that just happens. It's not involuntary, it's not inevitable.

You have to choose to grow spiritually. Jesus says, I'm

giving you the choice. Now. You know that you can

grow old without growing up. Everybody know what I'm talking about.

I mean, we all know people who are old but

they're still spiritually immature, are emotionally immature, or they're very

self centered, they haven't ever matured in their life. But

he says, you must choose. You must choose. You are

as close to God as you choose to be. Don't

blame your boyfriend, don't blame your girlfriend, don't blame your parents,

don't blame your husband or your wife, don't blame your boss.

You're as close to God as you choose to be.

And if you're not close to Us because you're choosing

not to be. And if you move from far from God.

You feel that way, Well, guess who moved? God didn't move.

You made the choice spiritual growth a choice number two.

This verse teaches that growth is a commitment growth. Spiritual

growth is a commitment. You must commit to growth in

order to grow. And you say, this is gonna be

the year I really get it in gear. This is

gonna be the year I take action. This is the

year I stop being a spiritual baby. I'm gonna grow up. Notice,

Jesus says you must come and follow. You might circle

that first, He says, you gotta. You want to want it,

then you gotta. You gotta come and follow. If you

want to grow, you just can't sit there. You've got

to move it, move it. You gotta get it in gear.

You don't just sit around on your ear. You gotta

get it in gear. You gotta take action to grow now.

This is true in every area of life. We grow

by making commitments. Marriage causes you to grow up a lot.

Have you noticed that having kids causes you to grow up.

Anytime you make any kind of commitment, it causes you

to take a step of growth. Taking on a new

job is a commitment which helps you grow. Choosing to

go to college is a commitment that helps you grow.

Any time you make a commitment, you grow. In fact,

if you don't make commitments in life, you remain perpetual immaturity.

If you have a fear of commitment, you will never

fully grow up. Because we only grow through our commitments.

No commitment means no maturity. Your commitments define your life.

You are the sum total of the things that you're

committed to. Here's the problem. You can be committed to everything,

and you shouldn't be committed to everything, because not everything's

worth being committed to. And part of my job as

your pastor is to help you sort through all of

the commitments you've got and give you some guidelines which

you go that's a good one, that's a bad one,

that's a good one, that's a bad one. Because you

cannot be committed everything. If you're committed everything, you're committed

to nothing. Selection is the name of the game. So

I have to help you sort through and make wise commitments. Now,

the reason why Saddleback Church is a very spiritually mature church.

This church is full of spiritually mature people and for

thirty years we have had an intentional intentional process to

help people grow to spiritual maturity by gradually making deeper

and deeper commitments. You don't make them all at once.

You don't expect a baby to the next day run

out and run a marathon, and you don't expect a

brand new believer to act like a person who's followed

the Lord for thirty or forty years. But we have

an intentional plan to help people grow through stages of commitment,

and that development process we call purpose driven, and it's

based on what I call the invitations of Jesus. A

long time ago, I did a study of every time

Jesus says come, when he says, come to me, And

over the three and a half years as he worked

with his disciples trainees that he had, he moved them

from no commitment to super commitment, and he kept turning

up the heat a little bit at a time. For instance,

the very first words of Jesus public words of Jesus

when he starts as ministry John chapter one, verse thirty nine,

are these come and see. That's the first invitation. So

guys say, where are you going? Lord? He said, come

and see? Now what is he doing here? That's about

as low a commitment as you can give. Okay, just

come and check it out. That's what we say to

our community about Saddleback Church. Come and see. Come on

the weekend, check us out. You don't say anything, sign anything,

sacrifice anything, stand up. Just come and check us out.

And that's where Jesus starts with people, just check it out,

and then he begins to move them on the next commitment.

He says, come and follow. He says first, come and see.

Then he says come and follow me in Matthew fov

and then many of the invitations that he gives in

the early stages of the relationships are invitations that were

promising to meet needs. In Matthew eleven, he says, if

you're tired, come to me and I'll give you rest.

And John seven he says, if you're thirsty, come to

me and drink. John five he says, come to me

and have life. And John eighty says, if you follow me,

you won't stumble in darkness. In John ten, he says,

those who come to me will be saved. And so

he's inviting them to come and he's going to meet

needs in their lives. My favorite one, of course, is

John twenty one twelve after the resurrection, he says, come

and have breakfast. I love that one, you know, I

thought that was really cool. That's literally in the Bible,

come and have breakfast. But as time passed, Jesus began

to require more of his disciples. He's helping them grow

in commitment, and so in Mark chapter eight he says,

come and deny yourself. In Matthew eight twenty two he says,

come follow me and let the dead bury the dead.

And Luke nine he says, come and take up your cross,

and look fourteen he says, you can't meet to that

disciple unless you give up everything. Matthew nineteen, give away

what you got and come follow me. See he's turning

up the heat. He's requiring more and more commitment. And

the Bible says that when we get to heaven, there

are going to be invitations in heaven. Matthew twenty five,

he says, he's going to say to us in heaven,

come and share your master's happiness. And Matthew twenty five

thirty four, come and receive your inheritance.

Do you want to be happier, healthier, and more resistant

to stress, then you need to develop an attitude of gratitude.

In fact, the Bible says we're to rejoice, always, pray continually,

and give thanks in all circumstances. But it can be

difficult to feel grateful. So to help you, Pastor Rick

hand selected fifty two verses to bolster your sense of

gratitude and increase your happiness. This set of beautifully designed

cards will help you memorize scripture so you can recall

God's word when you need it most. You can also

use them to minister to others. Give one to a

friend and write a personalized note of encouragement on the back.

If a scripture really speaks to you, frame it, put

them in places where you can read them during the

day for encouragement. And today, when you give a gift

to help daily hope, take the hope of Jesus to

a world in need, we'll send you the gratitude scripture

card set to say thanks.

Now. I took those invitations of Jesus and we turned

them into a process. You can see it here on

the screen. If you've been through class one oh one,

you know this. We call it the circles of Commitment,

and we move people from the community, people around our

church into the crowd that's on Sunday morning. In the community,

there's no commitment, just hi, how are you in the

crowd to just show up, come and see. And in

the congregation it's come and be a member. And then

in the committed it's come and developed the habits for

spiritual growth. And in the core it's come and serve.

And even there's another circle called the commission, come and go,

and we've been taking people through these circles for thirty years,

moving people to deeper and deeper levels of commitment. Another

tool we have are the covenants in our church. We

have a membership covenant you sign when you join the church.

We have a maturity covenman to grow in spiritual habits.

We have a ministry covenant to grow and serve, and

we have a mission covenant to go and serve your

mission in the world. Now this is not new to

saddle back. For two thousand years churches have used covenants

all along, covenants and commitments and things like that. Now

the Bible says we must spend time with Jesus because

it's a choice, it's a commitment. There's a third thing

this verse teaches us is that spiritual growth, you might

write this down, is a relationship. Spiritual growth is a relationship.

It's not about rules, it's not about rituals. It's not

about a formula, it's not about a bunch of expectations.

It's about being with Jesus. There on your outline, I

want you to circle the phrase in that first verse.

My servants must be where I am. Circle that be

where I am. Spiritual growth is about being with Jesus.

Be where I am. This is his plan all along,

and his plan in Mark chapter three says the plan

was that they would be with him there's the word again,

spend time with Jesus, and then he would send them

out to proclaim the word. So what does it mean

to be a disciple today? Obviously Jesus isn't here physically.

How do you be with Jesus today? You talk to

him all the time. You have a running conversation with

Jesus Christ. I talked to him all the time. In fact,

I can talk to you and talk to him at

the same time. Many times I'll be out on a

patio and somebody's talking to me and ask me a question.

I'm saying, Lord, tell me what to say, because I'm

the slightest idea how to answer this, or if it's

an interview or something like that. I talk to God

when I'm watching TV. I talked to him when I'm

cleaning the garage, when I'm driving, when I'm sitting in

the backyard, just like I'm talking to you. And when

I first started conversations with God forty years ago, it

felt like it was pretty much just one way. I

could never hear God speak to me. And if I

ever got a thought in my mind, I thought, not

really from God? Or did I just make that up?

But after you've been walking with the Lord for about

forty years, it gets better, and all of a sudden,

I know that's me talking to myself. That's the Lord

putting that idea in my mind, and it gets clearer

and clearer. That's what spiritual growth is. The more you

grow spiritually, the more you're able to hear God speak

back to you in your mind. I doesn't know do

it audibly. I've never heard a voice. In fact, if

you hear voices, you need to see a psychiatrist. Okay,

because God doesn't speak that way. He'll put an idea

in your mind when the devil puts an idea in

your mind, we call it temptation. When God puts an

idea in your mind, we call it inspiration. When you

put an idea in your own mind, we call that dumb.

And you got to distinguish whether it's the devil's idea,

God's idea, if it's you talking to you. But the

truth is, you got to be with him. And the

more time you spend with God, the more you talk

to the Lord, the more you're gonna grow. If you

only have a little quiet time every day, you're gonna

grow a little bit. If you only have talked to

the Lord on the weekends at church, you're not gonna

grow much at all. But if you learn to talk

to the Lord all the time, just have a conversation

about whatever's on your mind, you're gonna really start growing

because it's a relationship. Jesus said, I got to spend

time with him if I want to be disciple. Number two,

if I want to be a disciple. To be a disciple,

I must love Jesus supremely. I must love Jesus supremely.

And this is the second definition Jesus gives in Luke

chapter fourteen, he says this, If you want to be

my follower, you must love me. You must love me

more than your own father and mother, your wife and children,

your brothers and sisters, Yes, more than your own life.

Otherwise you cannot be my disciple. What's he saying here.

He's saying that your love for God is to be

so intense everything else pales in comparison. Now, it doesn't

mean you don't love the other people. Actually, the more

you love God, the more you're going to love other people.

But he's saying, exclusivity, supremacy belongs to God because you

wouldn't have your family, you wouldn't have your kids, you

wouldn't have the people you love your friends without God.

So he says, you are to love God more than

anything else, and that's called worship. By the way, guys,

let me talk to the men for this minute. If

you're a dad or you are a husband, the greatest

gift you can give your wife and the greatest gift

you can give your children is to love God supremely.

Why Because when a dad or a husband loves God supremely,

it creates enormous security in the minds of your children

and in your wife because they're thinking he's not doing

this on his own. He's depending on God. He's not

going to steer us in the wrong direction. He's going

to put our needs first because that's what God says

to do. The Bible says Christ gave just as Jesus

gave his life for the church. Husbands are to lay

down their lives for their wives. The more you love God,

the more you're going to serve your wife and your kids.

The greatest security you can give your family is to

let them know that you love God more than anything else. Now,

I want you to write this down. Jesus said, you

must love me more thanything else. Spiritual growth is measured

by love. Would you write that down? Spiritual growth is

measured by how much you love. It's not measured by

how much you know. It's not measured by your Bible knowledge.

It's not measured by your skills. It's not measured by

the words you say. It's not measured by how much

you attend church. We never measure anybody's spiritual maturity at

Saddleback by how much they attend. Because you can go

to everything the church offers every time the doors are

open and still be spiritually immature. Maybe just means you

don't have anything to do in your life, so it

has nothing to do that. Your spiritual maturity is measured

by how much you love, how much you love God, God,

and how much you love others. In fact, look at

this next verse. The Bible says in Mark chapter twelve,

Jesus said, the most important command out of all of

them in the Bible, the most important command is this.

You must love the Lord your God. He said, that's

the top thing before anything else. Love God with all

your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind,

and with all your strength. Now, friends, this is called

radical devotion. When you love God with all your heart

and all your soul, and all your mind and all

your strength, you're loving God radically. It means I love

God more than anything or anyone else. And there's a

word for that in the Bible. Do you know what

it's called When you love something more than anything else,

It's called worship. Whatever you love the most, you worship.

If you love your boat the most, you worship your boat.

If you love your job the most, you worship your job.

If you love your own body the most, you worship yourself.

Worship is whatever you give your best love to. Do

you know the word worship in the Bible PROSCINEO. You

know what that word literally means. It means to kiss.

That's what it means to kiss. It means to show affection,

to shower with affection. When you worship something, you don't

care what other people think. You're just you're You're totally

involved in showing affection and love, and you don't care

how it looks to other people. You know, when you

worship God, some of you are worried about how do

I look. I don't want to raise my hand too much,

might look like a fanatic. I don't want to get emotional.

I want to keep my little countenance here in you know, dignity.

Then you're not worshiping. If you're worried about what other

people think, you're not worshiping. Worshiping is when you are

so much in love with God you don't care what

other people think. You're just going to express your love

to how many you have a dog, because see your hands,

you have a dog. Okay, when your dog comes and

licks your hand, is your dog expressing fear, anger, resentment,

or love. Love. Now that dog is not going I

wonder what other people think at that moment. Your dog

is worshiping you, When your dog is licking your hand,

your dog he or she is saying, I couldn't care

less with anybody other my master's here, and I love

my master. Did you know that the word for when

a dog licks his master's hand in Greek is the

word proscinneo, it's the word worship. It's the exact same word.

It is the word worship, which means I love God

so much, I don't care what other people think. The

third key, if I want to be a disciple, if

I want to grow spiritually, I must love every other disciple.

Uh oh, now we're getting a little bit harder. You see,

it's easy to love God because he's perfect, but you're

not and I'm not. And sometimes we're irritating, and sometimes

we're obnoxious, and sometimes we show our imperfections and our insecurities.

And yet Jesus says, if you're going to be my disciple,

you can't just love me. You have to love everybody

in my family. And what is the family of God.

It's the Church, it is the people of God. You

have to love every other believer, every other Christian, every

other follower of Jesus, every other disciple. Here's what Jesus says,

John chapter thirteen. If, by the way, did you notice

every one of these sentences start with an if. When

he defines discipleship, it's conditional. He says, if you have

love for one another, then everybody will know that you

are diciples. Not just love for me, but you love

each other. He says. The hallmark of being a follower

of Jesus is not a bumper sticker. It is not

a little Christian pen It is not gospel witness wear

some shirt or clothes that you wear. He says. The

proof that you are my disciple is you love every

other disciple. You love every other believer, You love the

Church of God. Have you ever heard anybody say this?

You know, I love Jesus, I just don't like the Church.

I love Jesus, I just can't stand the Church. Then

let me tell you something. You're not a disciple because

with all of its imperfections, all of its faults, all

of its faux paus and failures, because it's made up

of normal, ordinary, imperfect people. Jesus says, the church matters.

Christ died for the Church. In fact, it's the only

thing that's going to last on this planet. Microsoft isn't

going to last. The Democratic and Republican parties aren't going

to last. The United States of America isn't going to last.

No empire lasts forever. There's only one thing that's going

to last for eternity. That is God's family. The Church.

You're in it. It's the only thing that's going to last.

It's more important than everything else put together. Because God

created the universe because he wanted a family.

Do you want to be happier, healthier, and more resistant

to stress, then you need to develop an attitude of gratitude.

In fact, the Bible says we're to rejoice, always, pray continually,

and give thanks in all circumstances. But it can be

difficult to feel grateful. So to help you, Pastor Rick

hand selected fifty two verses to bolster your sense of

gratitude and increase your happiness. This set of beautifully designed

cards will help you memorize scripture so you can recall

God's word when you need it most. You can also

use them to minister to others. Give one to a

friend and write a personalized note of encouragement on the back.

If a scripture really speaks to you, frame it, put

them in places where you can read them during the

day for encouragement. And today, when you give a gift

to help daily hope, take the hope of Jesus to

a world in need, we'll send you the Gratitude scripture

card set to say thanks.