How should Christians engage in discipleship and mentorship of others?

Ishmael LaBiosa: Welcome to the You Ask Podcast, where the goal is to answer common questions about Christianity. Let's listen in as Pastor Rusty answers today's question. Today's question is how should Christians engage in discipleship and mentoring of others? Well, I can think of a few things more important than how to know what it is to become a disciple. And how to engage in discipleship and mentoring of others. Matthew 28, 18 through 20, the Great Commission. Jesus' command to us is to go and to make disciples of all the nations. So how do we do that practically? Is today's question. Well, here are some key ideas, I think, for discipleship. Which oftentimes discipleship occurs through mentoring, one-on-one, one-on-two, smaller groups where we are learners, but learners who then ultimately teach others to live out and to observe everything Christ has commanded us. The purpose of our own discipleship is that we are to become a disciple. So that we make disciples. Jesus says, go and make disciples of all the nations, and that we are to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and then to teach them to observe everything Christ has commanded us. So to make disciples, you must first become a disciple. What does the word disciple mean? It means learner. And we need to learn the ways of Jesus, but we're not merely learning the ways of Jesus. We're learning so that we can observe and the fullness of the scriptures. We need to learn and live, and then we need to teach others to learn and live the scriptures as well. So at some point in time, we have to learn long enough that we have something to say and live long enough. That we have something to model, but we do need to get around to the biblical mandate for multiplication. Go and make disciples. You ought to notice the word go. So we need to move. Sometimes churches can set and set and set and set, and Christians can set and set and set and never get the initial mandate of go and make disciples. Now you say, how is this? Done. I think it's done the way Jesus did it. I think it's done the way Paul did it. Jesus chose 12 people, 12 disciples. And then even in the 12, he chose three. And Paul focused on people like Timothy and Titus. Honestly, you can't deeply disciple, you know, a hundred people. Jesus had 12 disciples. Paul had A few that he was mentoring. And I think discipleship happens best in smaller groups. It's one of the reasons that churches for a long time have talked about Sunday school and in more recent days small groups, because this becomes the place for relationships. And oftentimes even a Sunday school class or a small group is still too large. But that could form the basis of relationships that natural mentoring relationships emerge because to get in a real discipleship relationship with someone, you have to do life with them. It's not go to class, it's let's do life. And so discipleship happens when you get with another person or another person gets with you, depending on where you are. In that process. And discipleship primarily happens through shared life, through time together, through meals, through everyday life. And as real life happens in real time, the wisdom of scripture, the wisdom of the Bible becomes lived out. And this forms a unique. relationship where you actually see someone living out a Christian life. I say that more is caught than taught. And this could not be any clearer than in a really good mentoring relationship. I've had a lot of great mentors in my life and I do remember a lot of what they said to me. But more than I remember what they said to me, I just remember how they were. I just saw them in different life situations and I saw how they responded. I saw how the scriptures influenced their reaction. I saw how a Christian mind thought through a problem. I saw them as they engaged in situations. And Modeling and being with is so much a part of what it means to be a disciple. Just to have someone to call and to say, I'm struggling with this, or to have someone call, I have the question about this. This is where real discipleship happens. And I know of no one who's been deeply discipled who did not have this. type of one on one, one on two, smaller context where they have learned from someone not in a formal way per se, but in an informal way. The other thing that's really necessary for real discipleship to happen in a smaller context is, you know, real honesty, real accountability. If you're going to be deeply changed from the inside out, you need a relationship with someone. And by the way, I think this should be men with men and women with women. I think that's the way it works best. And you you have to be able to share what's going on. You have to share your real struggles, your discouragements, your anxieties, your areas where you're struggling to have faith. And You need to have that place. And honestly, the bonds are so deep in some of these mentoring relationships that when the time comes, just d due to life, oftentimes, maybe someone dies who you're in a mentoring relationship with, or they get sick, or they move away. It's pretty grievous because these relationships are so formative. For such a long period of time. But that oftentimes means something. I remember when one of my mentor friends of mine actually said to me, When you look around one day, Rusty, and most of your teachers are dead, you're the teacher. Well, when he said that, he was very much alive. Now he's not. And so I guess, well, I guess I'm up. That's why I'm on this podcast today. So this is important. Notice we ought to take advantage of the mentors in our life because at some point they'll go away. And God gives us people for a season for a purpose to grow us up. But especially when that season happens and you have gleaned something to say, then maybe at that time you're no longer the learner, but the teacher. You know, I've learned that I think it's often best in life that you have someone that's mentoring you and someone that you're mentoring. I think having that all the time, I guess there's a season maybe as you get quite old that you may not have someone mentoring you anymore. Hopefully you do have some good friends at least at that particular moment. But hopefully for the bulk of your life you have someone that's challenging you and someone you're challenging. And I think living in that place That you're learning and teaching, that you're being influenced and you're influencing, that you're a disciple that is producing disciples, I think that's the best. Again, this is one of these areas where I do wish the church would grasp a bigger vision of this. This is not something that can be done by a Sunday morning message, and it's not something that can even be done. In a Sunday school class or just a small group per se, this one on one, one on two, one on three discipleship has to be something that Christians do intentionally. But I do think this is so important to the Christian life, precisely because Jesus is the one who said, Go and make disciples of all the nations. If you are not today being discipled and discipling someone, why don't you ask God the Holy Spirit to give you someone who can pour into you? And also for God to give you someone you can pour into so that you can be faithful to this discipleship mandate. Thank you for listening to the You Ask Podcast. This is a ministry of Liberty Baptist Church. And we pray this podcast enables you to more faithfully live out. your Christian life.