The Heart of Discipleship | Shawn Miller

We want to know more about you.

We want to know how to live our lives according to your word and I pray that your spirit could be present here, that your spirit could fill and anoint Brother Sean as he preaches out of your word.

I pray that your spirit could move in our own hearts and that, if there's need for conviction, I pray that your spirit will work If there's need for encouragement and building up.

Lord, we just ask that the Holy Spirit would move in our lives through this sermon time.

All this is praying in Jesus' name, amen, thank, you Good morning and a greeting to each one here this morning.

It is a pleasure to be gathered with you this morning and, as was mentioned before, we have a beautiful morning to worship, the sunshine, the bright sunshine.

We have Easter Good Friday and Easter coming up next week, so we're looking forward to that as well.

The subject of the sermon this morning is discipleship.

It is the last of our four core values we had over the last few months.

I talked about the subject of worship, the subject of holiness, and the last sermon was on the subject of evangelism, and this morning it is on the subject of discipleship, being a disciple of Christ, of Jesus.

Now, the subject this morning is gonna be themed more towards being a disciple than it is towards making disciples.

I firmly believe that we first have to be a disciple and then out of that comes making disciples.

So at the job that I have at Burlingardens, we have hired quite a few people over the last number of years, and the reason we hire people is because we have a vision and a mission that we want to carry out as a company of Burlingardens.

Our vision of Burlingardens is to globally inspire people to be renewed and encouraged by taking life outdoors and by leading the way in outdoor comfort.

Our mission is to renew people.

It's an acronym of renew and that acronym is to rejuvenate, to empower, to nurture and to elevate and to wholesomely develop our people and our products.

Now, when we bring new people in as employees, one of the first things we do after they start that first week of starting especially if you're gonna be working in the office, in sales or in customer service or anything to do with our product for the first probably two or three months they are out in the shop and they are working in every department, out in the shop to get familiar with the product, to get to know the people they're working with and for the people to get to know them.

We've never brought in an employee and said here's the benefits, here's the pay.

This is our vision, this is our mission, these are our core values.

But you're free to do your own thing.

You're free to do work however you wanna do work.

You're free to deviate from our mission whatever you feel you should be doing.

We've never done that in all the hiring that we've done over the last few years.

About 11 years ago I came on board at BG and I was hired to start in as general manager.

For the first nine months, I sat in the same office as the owner.

I sat in the owner's office.

His desk was here, my desk was there.

I was the shadow of Sam.

For the first nine months, I sat in his meetings.

I listened to him on the phone.

I heard the vision and the mission over and over and over again.

I heard the core values over and over and over again.

11 years later, I can pretty much make the decision without Sam being there, because I know what Sam's vision and mission is.

Now.

I've never looked at myself as a disciple of Brolin Gardens or as a disciple of Sam.

I've looked at myself as a leader in training.

I've looked at myself as an apprentice.

I've looked at myself as a trainee to learn the vision and the mission of the place that I spent a lot of time at.

Why am I saying this?

Being a disciple of Jesus has a lot of those same attributes and traits that I just talked about, and all the people that we bring into our jobs and that we rub shoulders with.

However, what I just talked about is far less important than getting to know Jesus in order to be a disciple of his.

I'd like to take our minds back to the Gospels and I'd like to take our minds to the Galilean seashore when Jesus first started calling his disciples.

What was the purpose for Jesus to call his disciples?

Turning your Bibles to Matthew 4.

And I like to read verses 12 through 22.

Matthew 4, verses 12 through 22.

Matthew 4:12–22

Matthew 4 verse 12.

Matthew 4:12

Now, when he had heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee and, leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naftali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naftali, the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, galilee of the Gentiles.

The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death on them, a light has dawned.

From that time, jesus began to preach, saying repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Even Jesus knew that he can't fulfill his ministry on his own.

So what did he do?

Verse 18,.

While walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

And he said to them follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

Immediately they left their nets and followed him and going on from there, he saw two other brothers, james, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in the boat with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets, and he called them immediately.

They left the boat and their father and followed him.

This was the beginning of Jesus' mission on earth.

From back then to now, what is the mission of God's people?

What is the mission for us as Christians?

I'm going to quote Ray Vanderland, because I think he puts it so well To live so that the world may know that our God is the true God.

To live our lives so that the world may know that the God that we serve is the only true God and is the only way to live and to bring people to him as the only true God.

Jesus selected his disciples from a very unique people in a very unique place.

It was a place of about four, an area of about four by six miles, in the northwestern shores of the Sea of Galilee.

And, as we had discussed in the Sunday School Hour, about what, did the Jews actually know, what they were expecting, and were there any Jews that knew what they were expecting?

I do believe that in this area, and it's very interesting to me that Jesus chose this area this area was an area of mostly unlearned people.

It was not an area in any big Roman city, but it was more, as we would say, out in the boondocks.

And this is where Jesus chose, started choosing, his disciples, the Jews living in this part of Israel.

They wanted to do what was right.

Most of them were obedient and faithful and followers of the God that they knew at that time.

They knew the Scriptures at least in part.

They did know how to apply the teachings and they were committed to obey God in their everyday walk of life.

And this is where Jesus initially chose his disciples.

How cool would it have been to be a disciple of Christ, to physically walk with Jesus for three and a half years.

The disciples had the opportunity to walk with Jesus for a little bit over three years.

They followed Him everywhere.

They did everything they could learn from Him.

They did as he did.

They prayed as he prayed.

They obeyed as he obeyed.

They proclaimed the good news as he did and they made disciples as he did.

Our mission as Christians today is the same mission that he gave His disciples thousands of years ago and it hinges off of the greatest commandment to love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

And after you've done the vertical and you're a disciple because of your only love is for God and for Jesus, then it branches out to the horizontal and love your neighbor as yourself, so that the world may know that our God is the only true God.

The New Testament story of disciples was written by disciples who wanted to make disciples, and those disciples dramatically changed the world.

Now the question for us this morning is why is the disciple making mission of Jesus and His followers not as clear and it doesn't seem to be as compelling and it doesn't seem to be as effective as it was 2,000 years ago?

Why is that?

Why don't we see the fervor and the passion that they had 2,000 years ago?

Obviously, we don't have the privilege of walking alongside a physical being of Jesus today.

We do have unlimited access to His teachings, but we don't have Him here as a physical being, as Logan, right here, that I can walk up and I can touch or I can talk to face to face.

Is that the only reason why it shouldn't be?

Do we at times tend to separate being saved from becoming a disciple?

For Jesus and His disciples, being saved was to be totally committed to a life of obedience, to walk with their rabbi, to become like Him.

Total obedience was not in order to be saved, it was because they were saved.

This primary mission was not to only make converts, but to make disciples, and I'm laying this groundwork, using the disciples as an illustration to come to.

How does that look for us today?

How does that look for us today?

How do we look at salvation?

Do we look at salvation as an entrance or do we fall into the trap of looking at salvation as the final destination?

I know for myself, I often look at salvation as I've now become a child of God.

So mission accomplished, want to keep my life in order, want to keep my life on track.

But that's about as far as I've gone at times, just like at work, bringing an employee in.

You're now a part of the BG family.

Now you can kind of do what you need to do as a disciple of Christ.

It does not work that way.

Becoming saved is only the first step and that is the entrance into becoming a disciple of Christ.

James 2, verse 17,.

James 2:17

So also faith by itself.

If it does not have works, it is dead.

Faith is the first step, becoming a Christian, and then is when the work begins.

So how do we become a disciple of Christ?

I have three building blocks that I like to talk about this morning, three points that I like to talk about in how can we truly be a disciple of Christ?

The first one is we need to know the words of Jesus.

The second point is we need to obey the words of Jesus.

And then the third point is we need community, and this is a little bit more in branching out than in making disciples.

We need community, we need to have a love and a care for each other, but that only follows after the first two knowing the words of Jesus and obeying the words of Jesus.

Seeing the words of Jesus, as I mentioned before, how fun would it have been to get to be a disciple, to walk alongside Jesus and to be with him in everything he did.

Now, I just said how fun would it have been.

That's not a good word to use.

Yes, there would have been some of that as well, and it would have been an enjoyable experience as well.

But I think most of us know how the lives of all the disciples, with the exception of John, ended.

It ended in suffering and in martyrdom for their master.

But why were they willing to do that?

What was it that brought them to a point where they were willing to do that?

How did they establish that love for Christ?

It started with spending time with Jesus, spending time with Jesus often and always.

Their devotion to Jesus' words and teachings was the foundation of the disciples' faith and message to others.

We don't have the opportunity to enjoy that physical presence.

We have unlimited access to his teachings.

A lot of us have mentors in our lives.

We read all the books we can find that those mentors wrote.

We listen to all the podcasts we can find to the mentors and the people we look up to.

What about Jesus?

What about this truth?

Most of you that have heard me preach have often heard me talking about reading God's Word.

As long as I'll be preaching, I'm not going to quit talking about reading God's Word.

Some of you might call it a hobby horse of mine.

I don't care if you do that.

But, folks this morning, in order to know our master and our Rabbi, jesus, we need to know his teachings.

We need to know what he has written in this book.

Before we can obey them, we need to know what they are.

I'm going to challenge all of us as a church this morning here at Grace Point.

How different would we live our lives if all of us would read the Gospels once a month?

How different would I live my life if I would read the Gospels once a month, if I would go through the Gospels 12 times in a year?

I'm going to challenge myself with that and I want to challenge all of you with that.

How well do you know the Scriptures?

How well do you know Jesus' teachings?

Are you equipped with expounding Jesus' teachings whenever you have opportunity or whenever you are asked to do that?

How well do I know the words of Jesus?

To be a disciple, we need to know the words of Jesus.

This morning, I've decided to mix in a few songs with the Scripture passages.

I think at times that the songwriters have a good way of expounding God's Word and I think sometimes, if we break it up a little bit, it helps us to grasp, maybe, what we're talking about.

I'd like for you to get your songbooks and turn to song number 790.

790.

Teach me, o Lord, by way of truth.

Let's sing all four verses.

No teach me O Lord by way of truth and come in our clear, lucky heart that our mission has been obeyed.

Give me a longer standing heart.

Give thy commandments, make me heart, for in thy armor George shall be.

Give me a heart that loves I give.

Come disconcert and let me free.

Turn thou out of amenity and cause me in thine grace to I serve them through thy word and thus to God.

They fear me.

Turn, but away reproach and fear by righteousness, by kindness.

Turn to song number 649.

This song is not as much about knowing God's Word as it is to living our lives and drawing nearer to God.

If your heart is truly to be a disciple of Christ, in order to help in the work of God's kingdom, in order to let the world know, in order to make disciples, our lives need to be consistently lived in the presence of God.

In that haven of rest, shelf from me say in that haven of rest, let's sing verses one, two and four.

No, we are still nearer close to thy heart.

From thee I say no.

So precious thou art For the old old me.

Close to thy breast, shelf from me, say in that haven of rest, lord, as an offering to Jesus, my King, grant me the cleansing by my God in heart.

Nearer, still nearer, come I shall last till safe in glory my anger is cast Through endless ages.

Ever to me Nearer I say no, so nearer to thee.

Nearer I say no, so nearer to thee.

We need to know the words of Jesus.

Number two we need to obey the words of Jesus.

We need to obey the words of Jesus.

I like to read a scripture in James, chapter one you don't have to turn to it but in James, chapter one, 22 through 25.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in the mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

Although there is pain, there is suffering, there is reproach, there could be mockery.

All of these things come with the life of being a disciple.

James tells us, if we persevere, the man who does will be blessed.

Those who obey his commandments will be blessed.

Turning your Bibles to Luke, chapter 14.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

Luke, chapter 14.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

If you're anything like me in the past when we read this scripture of what Jesus says it takes to be a disciple, most of the time when I read this it's like am I actually willing to do this?

Luke, chapter 14, starting in verse 25.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

I'll be reading verse 25 through 33.

Now great crowds accompanied him and he turned and said to them and here's Jesus' words Anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot bear my disciple.

For which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?

Otherwise, when he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it began to mock him, saying this man began to build and was not able to finish.

Or what king going out to encounter another king in war will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able to with 10,000, to meet him, who comes against him with 20,000.

And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.

So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

Wow, those are some tough words.

So what is he meaning when he's saying this, when Jesus gives us today these words of to be my disciple, you have to love me more than anyone else.

You have to take up your cross and be willing to suffer, be willing to face reproach, be willing to be exposed as whatever people might call you or whatever people might think about you, and then to renounce all that I have.

What is he meaning by these three things?

Hate is a strong word, and I'm not here and I'm not standing in front of you this morning, and I'm not saying that we have to have no love for our family, for our church people, for our friends.

What I am saying this morning and what Jesus is asking us to do, is that those things all come secondary.

Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

Jesus is not saying don't love your family, but Jesus is saying if you're my disciple, I come first.

Love me more than anything and anyone else.

Am I willing to do that?

Have I counted what that might mean?

What if Jesus calls me to away from home to work in ministry for him?

What if we need to leave our friends and our jobs behind?

What if Jesus calls us to go?

Am I willing to do that?

Am I willing to suffer for Christ?

Am I willing to be ridiculed?

Am I willing to speak up for Christ when I know I should, even though I know there's people around that might mock me?

Am I willing to take up my cross and be identified as a disciple of Christ?

What does it mean to renounce all that I have?

Again?

I don't think Jesus is telling all of us to call Kauffman realty next week and sell everything that we have, but I do think Jesus is telling us get your priorities in line.

If your possessions are holding you from following me and doing what I am calling you to do, then get rid of them.

If whatever is coming before me is holding you back from being my disciple, then straighten out your priorities and get it in line so that I can have preeminence in your life.

Am I willing to be ridiculed, no matter what it takes?

Love Jesus more than anything else.

Am I willing to be ridiculed by taking up my cross and denying my fleshly lust by dying to self?

Am I willing to renounce what I have in order to prioritize Jesus?

I will stand in front of you this morning by saying I have not reached all of these things I have not championed being a disciple.

This message, as I studied for this sermon, was very, was very, convicting.

As I look over my life and I think all of us together, if we want to make a difference in our communities, in our churches, to the unbeliever, or if Jesus calls us, or if Christ calls us away from this area to another land, we need to take this serious as far as being a disciple.

Are we willing to do this?

I would like for you to turn in your hymn books to number 904.

904, and that is the wrong song.

Hang on, I wrote down the wrong number.

The song I want is O Master, let Me Walk With you.

903, sorry, right above 903.

O Master, let Me Walk With you.

I like the same old word verses of this song 904.

O Master, Let Me Walk With you.

I'm calling out of sin's grave.

Help me, I'm singing, Help me, let the same before the prayer, Help me, let the song of God be due by sign of the ringing word of God.

Teach me the way, repeat to say and guide and lead the poor away.

Teach me the way to live with me In closer, in further love than me, In further love than me.

It's weak and strong.

It was better dry out before we're gone.

In all that's ever the shining day or the future's awning wave near peace and harmony.

How can't it be with the old master that we play.

So we need to know God's words, or the words of Jesus.

We need to obey the words of Jesus.

And the last is more on a horizontal basis and reaching out and caring and loving for others.

In making disciples, we need community love and to care for each other.

We as believers need each other for encouragement and to build each other up in the faith as disciples of Christ.

Out of that should flow our ministry and discipleship.

Out of what we do here on a Sunday morning should flow our discipleship as we go out into Monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday.

What we do here this morning is more than just a huddle.

I've used this example in one of my previous sermons and I'm going to use it again.

This was not original with me, but this was given by Collier Berkshire years ago at Marinatha Church and for some reason it has always stuck with me and some of you might know what I'm going to be sharing.

So he shared the example of what do we do on a Sunday morning here.

This is what I will call our huddle.

Most of us have probably watched some kind of sporting event a football game, a basketball game or whatever it might have been and I'm going to use a football game as an illustration.

Imagine sitting in the stands of a football game and a timeout is called and the team huddles up for what is normally like a 30-second huddle.

A team huddles up and they huddle for 30 seconds and a minute passes by.

And five minutes pass by and we in the stands all of a sudden get kind of restless and wonder what's going on.

And they're still huddling.

A half hour passes by and finally, after an hour, when a lot of the folks have left the stands because they have no idea what's going on, finally, after an hour, the team breaks the huddle and they high-five each other and they hoop and holler and they celebrate and they're saying wow, that was a good huddle, can't wait till we can have another huddle, and they get more excited about the huddle than executing the game plan.

Is that what we do on a Sunday morning?

Are we executing the game plan?

Are we executing the four core values of grace?

Point, and I'm not pointing any fingers, I'm talking to myself.

First, am I in constant worship?

Not only on a Sunday morning Do I have my personal worship.

Am I worshiping and connecting with God on a daily, regular basis?

Am I living a life of holiness?

Does my life exemplify holiness?

Am I evangelizing?

Am I a disciple of Christ and am I making disciples?

If I am not, I think I need to ask myself the question why not?

But our gathering is more than just a huddle.

Yes, we need to encourage each other as fellow believers.

We need to build each other up in the faith of Christ.

We also need to exhort each other in love.

If we see a need, we need to exhort each other in love and we also need to be ready to go when and wherever Christ calls us.

As we leave this building today, tomorrow's Monday, most of us will probably go to our jobs.

I encourage all of us tomorrow to be on the lookout for an opportunity to encourage someone.

It starts with a small thing, and I know I'm saying these things kind of in the I'm not trying to say these things in a scolding manner this morning, but I'm trying to say this as an encouragement for all of us to take serious the thing of being a disciple of Christ.

If we want our work as a church to prosper, then it starts here, and I know some of you are already doing that and I hope this sermon can be an encouragement to those of you that are.

In summary, do I know and love Jesus' teachings?

Am I obeying Jesus' teachings and do I love and care for fellow believers as well as those that are not yet believers?

Where am I this morning?

Where are you this morning?

I'd like to end the sermon this morning with singing one more song.

Turn in your songbooks to number 350, heart with Loving Heart United.

Box door says it after a long woman's hole in it.

350りますheart with loving heart, United no.

No Heart with loving heart united.

Let you know what?

For we will.

Let his love with us united More and more.

Our spirit still, in the health we are.

In his members we reflect on life.

He is In the master, with the brothers.

He is ours and we are his.

May we also love each other and also his place denied that the brother, for the brother Will not hesitate to die.

Even so, our Lord has loved us For our life.

He shed his love.

Still he brings and still he suffers when we are the brotherhood.

Since, o Lord, you have demanded that our life your love should show.

So we wait to become adamant, or into your womb to know, can only love us of compassion, so that everyone may speak In our fellowship of promise Of a new humanity.

And those of us that have struggled with this.

I pray that you might encourage us to get serious about being your disciple and then also, out of that, making disciples and bringing people to you.

So, lord, I pray that you might grant the increase to what was spoken this morning.

Thank you,